PAST EVENTS

NATIVE VIBE and VINX VISIT GHANA (March 2006)

U.S. jazz ensemble NATIVE VIBE completed a concert tour of Ghana during March 2-5, 2006. Accompanying Native Vibe was ace R&B and jazz vocalist VINX. The group gave two the following two performances

• Friday March 3, 2006 Du Bois Centre
• Sunday March 5, 2006 Dinner Performance at Headlines Hospitality with Winneba Youth Choir.

NATIVE VIBE can best be described as a high energy, eclectic instrumental music group that blends Latin, African, Caribbean, Funk, Rock and Jazz styles. The concept for this band originated in 1987 in San Diego, California by band leader Bill Macpherson, who had been raised in the Congo where he was exposed to many African music styles. As he began to form and compose for this band with his long standing music partner and bass player Nee Sackey from Ghana, it was a natural extension to incorporate many world music influences. Personnel-wise Native Vibe has drawn from top musicians from the USA, France, Brazil, Venezuela, England, Mexico, Ghana, Benin, South Africa, Denmark and Cameroon.

VINX, a percussionist, composer, and vocalist performs jazz and world music. Vinx has worked with such artists as Sheryl Crow, Sting, Herbie Hancock, Taj Mahal, Branford Marsalis and other great musicians.





THE WINNEBA YOUTH CHOIR, founded in May 1989, is certainly the most outstanding youth choir in Ghana. The children who constitute the Choir are between the ages of 10 and 20 years, and are made up of Primary, Junior and Senior High School (JSS, and SSS) students. The Choir represented Ghana at the International EXPO 2000 in Hanover Germany, and followed up in 2001 with a joint concert with the Bavaria Police Band in Munich and Bamberg in commemoration of the centenary celebration of Guiseppe Verdi and the 50th. In 2002 it participated in an international Gospel and Roots Festival held by the Republic of Benin.

JSG hosts UMES Jazz Ensemble (May 2005)

The Jazz Society of Ghana hosted the University of Maryland Easter Shore Jazz Ensemble during May 2005. The band gave two performances in Ghana at the William E. Du Bois Centre and the Jazz Optimist Club. In its present configuration, the UMES Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Dr. John R. Lamkin II, has been in existence since the spring of 1984. The band has had many distinguished legendary jazz musicians play with it over the years, including New Orleans trumpeter Nicholas Payton, Saturday Night Live trombonist Steve Turre, the legendary Bassist Extraordinaire Larry Ridley, and the late soulful tenor saxophonist, Stanley Turrentine, to whom the University awarded an Honorary Doctorate. The UMES Jazz Ensemble that performed in Ghana comprised 16 musicians: 4 saxophonists, 3 trombonists, 3 trumpeters, one flutist, one piano player, 2 bass players, and 2 percussionists. The majority of the students in the band are music education majors, and have gone on to become highly successful music educators and sought after professional musicians.