AJOYO is the vision of multi-reed player Yacine Boularès, a mystic brew blending African tradition, jazz, and soul. More than music, it's a joyful ceremony, a fuller experience bringing musicians and audience close together.

AJOYO chants in the name of Tony Allen, Oum Khalsoum, Charlie Parker, and Donnie Hathaway, interwoven like the fabric of a ceremonial dress, AJOYO speaks the language of the talking drum with a New York accent.

Originally from Tunisia in North Africa (by way of Paris), band leader Yacine Boularès has played sax, composed and arranged music for Cameroonian musicians such as former Fela Kuti drummer Jojo Kuo, the late Martino Atangana, the Haitian Kompa legends Tabou Combo, and Placido Domingo’s latest album, Encanto Del Mar. The project originated in these encounters and influences, as Yacine assembled a band that reconciles his North African and Western heritages.

AJOYO celebrates life, love and justice through music: music for the heart, the mind and the body, the kind that is soulful, sophisticated and that makes people want to dance.

MUSICIANS:

Sarah Elizabeth Charles on vocals

Yacine Boularès on saxophones

Jesse Fischer on keyboard & piano

Michael Valeanu on guitar

Yonathan Levy on bass

Guilhem Flouzat on drums

This engagement of Ajoyo is made possible through the Jazz Touring Network program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

SAT MAY 12 | 8PM | $18, $15 MEMBERS (+$3 at the door)