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Expanding Traditions 2017

April 7, 2017 @9pm

Apr

7

2017

9 pm - 11 pm

Rhythm Tolee, Aziz Peerzada & Saboor Aziz

Brooklyn Arts Council’s Folk Arts programs is pleased to present tonight’s artists in partnership with BAM Café Live. Our Folk Arts programs recognizes the use of traditional music as a basis for contemporary, hybrid styles, which are very popular among young Brooklyn musicians today.  Tonight’s music will explore the use of folk expression and highlight the dynamic traditional art forms alive and well in Brooklyn. Please sign up to our mailing list and get involved in our efforts to preserve folk and traditional arts in Brooklyn. 

ARTIST BIOS: 

Rhythm Tolee is an award-winning New York-based Punjabi band with members from Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Jersey City. “Tolee” means “a free spirited group of people” in Punjabi, and it’s the perfect descriptor for this joyful rhythm collective, which mixes Punjabi folk and Sufi music with hip beats and contemporary tunes.  The band members are as follows: Gurpreet Singh (vocals, music); Chetan Dadra (music, keyboards); Sidhartha Chauhan (guitar); Avish Arora (percussions, dhal); Sujoy Mukherjee (tabla); Rohit Batra (percussion); Nav Deep Matta (vocals, lyrics/music).  

Aziz Peerzada, originally from Rawalpindi, came to the United States in 1987 for better life and to be closer to his family. Naturally talented and self taught, Aziz had already been performing on national television for almost eight years. In the US, he has been performing on various platforms ranging from family weddings to performances in embassies, and has performed in almost 25 states to date. His son, Saboor Aziz, now 11 years old, is a naturally talented tabla player and has been performing alongside his father for couple of years now. Along with singing, Aziz plays tabla and harmonium. His repertoire is versatile; although most of Aziz’s work is classical-oriented and based on older renditions of ghazals, he also plays Punjabi folk songs with equal ease and talent. Aziz Peerzada has also been involved in promoting Pakistani culture and heritage in New York. Besides being personally involved in managing Brooklyn Mela for years, his organization Pakistan Music and Culture Association had been active in organizing cultural events in schools to promote Pakistani music in the 90s. 

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Funder Credits: 

Major support for Expanding Traditions is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council.  Additional support is provided by TD Bank.