african music

Advance tickets for this show are sold out. It's possible a few tickets tickets may be available at the door if you arrive early enough. The box office opens at 6 PM.

We had hoped to add a second show, but unfortunately this will not be possible.  We will try to bring Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits back to the Capital Region soon.

In the meantime, please remember that you can watch this show live online right here beginning at 7 PM.  It will be a four camera production with stereo sound... the next best thing to being in the house!

Thank you for your interest in Oliver Mtukudzi and your support of The Sanctuary for Independent Media.  We appreciate you!

Zimbabwean Oliver Mtukudzi is a truly great guitarist, vocalist, performer and composer. He must be one of the few people to have a beat named after him: ’tuku’! 

Co-sponsored by the Arts Department at Rensselaer, part of iEAR presents!

Join us in welcoming the Either/Orchestra back to Troy. They were one of the first bands to play at The Sanctuary for Independent Media, a sold-out show that was one of our all-time highlights! 

Buy tickets for Either/Orchestra

This concert is part of a four date mini-tour to premiere The Collected Unconscious, a new suite composed by band founder Gershon and based in the pentatonic modes of and triple rhythms of Ethiopian music.  The language of the suite goes far beyond those parameters, recalling Ellington, Mingus, Tito Puente and others in its broad scope.  Based on a sneak preview in Cambridge MA, audiences will find it moving and nostalgic as well as hot, exciting and challenging.  

Our Fall 2011 season opens with music from Mali, featuring Sidi Touré (on guitar, vocals), Jambala Maiga (on kuntigui) and Domu Maiga (on kurbu)!

Tickets are available at the door.

Sidi Touré made his first guitar as a child, constructing it from his wooden writing slate in the ancient town of Gao, Mali. Once the heart of the Songhaï empire and burial place of its Askia kings, the town rests between the Niger and the encroaching ocean of sand known as the Sahara Desert. The Songhai empire was the last of the great empires of the Sahel, reaching its zenith under Soni Alibert (Sunni Ali) in the mid 400’s. Sidi Touré was born here in 1959, but to be born a Touré, a noble family who trace their lineage directly from the Askia kings, carried a significance and onus of a past that reaches directly into the present. Like another Malian noble turned singer, Salif Keita, Sidi Touré faced a conflict between the inexorable pull of music and the expectations of family and society. Touré’s family had been sung about, and sung to, by traditional griots for centuries, but until a small boy challenged the rules, the Touré’s did not sing!

Sidi Touré made his first guitar as a child, constructing it from his wooden writing slate in the ancient town of Gao, Mali. Once the heart of the Songhaï empire and burial place of its Askia kings, the town rests between the Niger and the encroaching ocean of sand known as the Sahara Desert. The Songhai empire was the last of the great empires of the Sahel, reaching its zenith under Soni Alibert (Sunni Ali) in the mid 400’s. Sidi Touré was born here in 1959, but to be born a Touré, a noble family who trace their lineage directly from the Askia kings, carried a significance and onus of a past that reaches directly into the present. Like another Malian noble turned singer, Salif Keita, Sidi Touré faced a conflict between the inexorable pull of music and the expectations of family and society. Touré's family had been sung about, and sung to, by traditional griots for centuries, but until a small boy challenged the rules, the Touré's did not sing!

Experience desert defiance and womanly power as Malian diva Khaira Arby and her band invoke the mystery, history, and heart of Timbuktu in concert!  This is the opening event of the Sanctuary's fall 2010 season, celebrating five years of adventurous programming!  Admission to the all-ages show is $10.

For women, singing can be the road to personal power. When their voice is as strong as Malian vocalist Khaira Arby’s, that power can move mountains, change minds, and win battles.

The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble was formed 35 years ago. Kahil El'Zabar is the founder of the band and led its first performance at Child City Arts Center, in Chicago, in 1973. This was a year after he had returned from the University of Ghana. His goal was to combine concepts of African American music making with the earlier roots of traditional African music and make it something new. After 35 years, this legendary band is still serving the people worldwide with their special brand of 21st century Griot music. The current band consists of the young trumpet titan, Corey Wilkes, along with Chicago saxophone legend, Ernest Khabeer Dawkins and the award winning multi percussionist, vocalist, and composer, Kahil El'Zabar.