This Rambax performance under the direction of Lamine Touré is part of MIT World Music Day, a showcase of MIT's World Music ensembles and celebration of their non-western cultures. Senegalese and Indonesian food will be available for purchase at 6pm in Lobdell, Stratton Student Center preceding the Rambax performance. Reserve your dinner here.
About Lamine Touré
Lamine Touré, director of Rambax, comes from a long line of griots, a caste of musicians and oral historians among the Wolof people of Senegal. Born into a family of sabar drummers, Lamine has been drumming and dancing since the age of four. He is one of Senegal’s leading percussionists. Touré launched his career with Mapenda Seck in 1995, followed by a fruitful career from 1997-2001 with Nder et le Setsima Group. As Nder’s percussionist, Touré toured extensively within Senegal and throughout Europe and North America, with performances at Bercy (Paris), the Barbican Center (London), the Festival International de Jazz (Montréal) and Central Park Summerstage (New York). In May 2005, he co-wrote a pioneering composition with Evan Ziporyn entitled Sabar Gong for sabar drums and Balinese gamelan, premiered at the Inauguration of Pres. Hockfield. In 2010, Touré’s excellence in teaching earned him a SHASS Levitan Teaching Prize. Touré is also the founder and leader of Group Saloum, a Boston-based Afropop band that fuses Senegalese mbalax with elements of jazz, funk, reggae and Afrobeat. He teaches sabar drumming and dance classes in the Boston area.
Earlier on 12/3 also as part of World Music Day, MIT's Gamelan Galak Tika will present a concert at 4:30pm in Kresge featuring koto/shamisen master Sumie Kaneko in a solo set including new works by Evan Ziporyn and Christine Southworth as well as a first-ever collaboration with Gamelan Galak Tika and solo works from her acclaimed new album, Dead of the Night. The concert will also include traditional dance, works by Sam Schmetterer and sets by the Cambridge Youth Gamelan. This concert is part of MIT Sounding, presented by CAST, The MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and MIT Music and Theater Arts.
About Sumie Kaneko
Japanese Koto & Shamisen player and Jazz singer/songwriter Sumie (Sumi-é) Kaneko creates music that spans a millennium. A master in the traditional repertoire of these ancient instruments, she has also pioneered their use in jazz and experimental music, through solo and group performances worldwide.
