September 18, 2009
Contact: Sara R. Leonard
Concert and Production Manager
413/542-2195

AMHERST, Mass. – Faultlines: Mapping Jazz in the 21st Century, the yearlong Amherst College music festival, continues with a performance workshop by renowned percussionist Adam Rudolph from 2 to 3:20 p.m. in Room 7 of the Arms Music Center on the college’s campus Thursday, Oct. 15. The workshop is free of charge and open to the public.

Named a “percussion wizard” by Down Beat magazine and “a pioneer in world music” by the New York Times, Rudolph has appeared at festivals and concerts throughout the world. Since the 1970’s, the celebrated performer, composer and bandleader has developed a unique approach to hand drums in creative collaboration with such masters of cross-cultural and improvised music as Sam Rivers, Pharaoh Sanders, L. Shankar and Fred Anderson. He is known especially for his innovative small group and duo collaborations with Don Cherry, Jon Hassell and Wadada Leo Smith. In 1977, he co-founded The Mandingo Griot Society with Foday Musa Suso, and, in 1988, recorded the first fusion of American and Gnawa (Moroccan) music with sintir player and singer Hassan Hakmoun. Active as a performer and concert producer in the Los Angeles creative music scene since 1979, Rudolph recently moved to New York, where he runs the Meta Records label. He will follow his workshop with an evening performance with the legendary Yusef Lateef as part of the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center’s Solos and Duos Concert Series at 8 p.m.

Faultlines events will include featured concerts, performance workshops, and talks, all free and open to the public, and all guaranteed to generate passionate debate about the nature of jazz and its relationship to American cultural identity.  The festival is made possible through the generous support of the Amherst College Arts Series Fund, Amherst College Department of Music, Amherst College Mead Art Museum, and UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center’s Solos and Duos Concert Series.

For more information about Rudolph’s performance workshop or any other events associated with Faultlines: Mapping Jazz in the 21st Century, visit the festival website at www.amherst.edu/faultlines.

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