Jesse Stewart and Hamid Drake are world-renowned percussionists and no strangers to the Guelph Jazz Festival, which celebrates its 20th anniversary from Sept. 4-8. Stewart is a Juno Award winner who once called Guelph home and now works as a professor in the School for Studies in Art and Culture at Carleton University in Ottawa. Drake is a Chicago-based jazz and world music virtuoso who is truly a wonder to witness play live–a legendary figure in avant improvised music who incorporates all manner of cultures and genres in his spirited approach to percussion. On Sept. 3, the pair joined Dong-Won Kim, well-known for his work with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and master of the Jang-go and other Korean percussion instruments, and Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, the man known as “the living legend of the tabla,’ for the Guelph Jazz Festival’s World Percussion Summit at the River Run Centre. Afterwards, they spent as much time as possible discussing the show, their history, and their mutual admiration. Their duo record, Timelines, is due out Friday Sept. 6 on Stewart’s new imprint, Art Stew Records, and you can hear the piece “D.U.O. (Do Unto Others)” after our chat.
Related links: jessestewart.ca guelphjazzfestival.com vishkhanna.com
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