MBIZO!: A Gathering for Johnny Dyani
A performance of the revolutionary music of Johnny “Mbizo” Dyani

South African musician Johnny “Mbizo” Dyani relentlessly sought freedom for over two decades. From the day he jumped on a stage in South Africa to jam on a borrowed bass with Chris McGregor’s Blue Notes, then exiled in Europe, and next through dozens of boundary-breaking collaborations, Dyani’s mission was to set the music free. Refusing to bow to apartheid and colonialism, Dyani was "jumping a bass-line like humping a landmine" (Lesego Rampolokeng). Join us as the South African-based band Chimurenga presents a performance of Dyani’s music, the sound of "Panafrica,” co-conducted by two of Chicago's favorite musical sons, Adam Zanolini and Ben Lamar Gay.

Dee Alexander - voice
Nicole Mitchell - flute, electronics
Adam Zanolini - woodwinds, bass, etc.
Fred Jackson - woodwinds
Ernest Dawkins - woodwinds
Ben LaMar Gay - cornet, electronics
Sharon Udoh - piano
Ivan Taylor - bass
JoVia Armstrong - percussion
Naydja Bruton - drums

Chimurenga

Founded by Ntone Edjabe in Cape Town in 2002, Chimurenga is a project-based mutable object, workspace, and pan-African platform for editorial activities.

Ben LeMar Gay
Musician

Ben LaMar Gay is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, poet, and patently eclectic polymath who Afropunk has called “strikingly original,” Pitchfork has called “uncategorizable,” and Jeff Parker has called "hands down, one of my favorite musicians on the planet today.” He channels a radical array of sound, color, and space through the universal language of folklore; but despite the widely attributed genius of his work, his artistic approach and general demeanor are characterized by an endearing humbleness and warm humanity.

One of the most prolific collaborators in our Chicago’s creative music community, he makes active contributions to Theaster Gates’s Black Monks of Mississippi, Nicole Mitchell’s EarthSeed, Mike Reed’s Flesh & Bone, Matthew Lux’s Communication Arts Quartet, Joshua Abrams’s Natural Information Society, ******* Bajas & many more. He’s a default descendent and a long-time participant in the AACM (i.e. the legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). And he’s well represented in the International Anthem catalogue as well.

Beyond being the brains behind Bottle Tree - the future funk suite released in April of 2017 that was named “#1 Best Album of the Year” by London’s EZH Magazine (c/o founder Tina Edwards) and on NPR’s Sound Opinions (c/o producer Ayana Contreras) – he was a core component of Makaya McCraven’s Highly Rare and a cornet cameo on Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die (both of which were included in the New York Times’s “Best Albums of 2017”). Suffices to say, Ben LaMar Gay is nearly omnipresent in the current zeitgeist of progressive jazz sounds sprouting from Chicago.

Adam Zanolini
Musician

Dr. Adam Zanolini is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, ethnomusicologist, writer, and arts organizer based in Chicago. He is the Executive Director of Elastic Arts Foundation in Chicago and former Associate Director of Arts for Art, presenter of the annual Vision Festival of avant-jazz in New York City. He is also co-founder of the Participatory Music Coalition and the Autophysiopsychic Millennium collective. He is an active member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and he serves on the Board of the Live the Spirit Residency, producer of the annual Englewood Jazz Festival. Adam plays flute, double bass, saxophone, and other instruments. His Heliacal Rising of Sothis project is a collection of original compositions dedicated to his teacher, Kelan Phil Cohran. Adam also performs regularly with the AACM’s Great Black Music Ensemble, Sura Dupart's Sidepocket Experience, and with Angel Bat Dawid and the Brothahood. He received his PhD in music with a certificate in Africana Studies from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2016. Adam’s highest ambition is to be a community musician: to cultivate and share knowledge through music in order to help heal, strengthen, and empower the Black community.

Click Here to Buy Tickets