Recipient Information
Location
Brooklyn, New York
Medium
Jazz Band
Year of Award
2020
Grant or Fellowship
Jazz Road Tours Grant
Grant Amount
$10,050
Performances
- Velvet Note November 1 & 2, 2019. Alpharetta, GA
- Hancock Performing Arts Center November 3, 2019. Kiln, MS
- Mystic Order of the Jazz Obsessed November 4, 2019. Mobile, AL
- Arts In McNairy November 5, 2019. Selmer, TN
- Maison Française November 6, 2019. Washington, DC
- An Die Musik November 7, 2019. Baltimore, MD
About the Artist
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. Stomping towards you in the eye of the dancer, arms open, horns, bell and bass 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), Yacine Boularès has played sax, composed and arranged music for Cameroonian musicians such as former Fela Kuti drummer Jojo Kuo, for the late Martino Atangana, for the Haitian Kompa legends Tabou Combo, and for 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.
