A S E F A M U S I C - E-promo Portfolio

Here you will find press info, band bio, audio clips and hi-res photos all in one place. To explore the different aspects of Asefa, please visit the pages on this website by following the menu to the left.

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Asefa Bio:
Asefa was founded in 2001 by bandleader and composer Samuel R Thomas. From the Hebrew word for an assembly or collective, Asefa brings together diverse worlds in the spirit of gathering and community. The music is a blend of North African grooves and song traditions with passionate and innovative composition and improvisation. This is Mitteleuropean proto-blues. This is music that honors both ritual and experimentation, reminding us of the vitality and variety within the Jewish tradition -- a tradition that is, given the Diaspora, everyone's to a degree. Listen and trace your own roots, whatever they are.

The core collective includes Samuel R Thomas: winds, percussion, voice and composition; Noah Jarrett: bass and guimbri (sentir); Yoshie Fruchter: oud and guitar; Richard Stein: Middle Eastern and African percussion; Eric Platz: drums and percussion.

Asefa creates a fresh sound that moves your mind, body and spirit. One might call this a musical journey, but that's too mushy. Anthropological? Too dry. Asefa celebrates a living and indomitable music that pops up everywhere, on various continents, in rural and cosmopolitan forms. This is alt-country like you've never heard it. This is jazz from unexpected contexts.

Samuel R Thomas
Samuel R. Thomas, performer and academic, holds two Bachelor of Music degrees from Berklee College of Music in Jazz Composition and Performance, a Masters of Music from City University of New York--Brooklyn College, Masters of Philosophy from City University of New York-Graduate Center, and is currently a Ph.D candidate in Ethnomusicology at the City University of New York. Thomas is a woodwind specialist (saxophone, nay, clarinet, flute), percussionist, composer and vocalist.İThomas is founder and bandleader ofİAsefa,İan ensemble devoted to contemporary approaches to composition, improvisation, and fusion drawn from Sephardic, north African and jazz traditions. Hisİethnomusicological research centers on north African musical traditions, Arab music, Jewish music research, İpopular music studies (non-western, American and jazz). Thomas is also executive director of JATM (Jewish Awareness Through Music), an applied ethnomusicology organization focused on cultural exchange through music.

İ Thomas currently performs worldwide and presents programming/workshops on different music topics, including world music, jazz, composition, improvisation and instrumental performance. Thomas is currently an adjunct faculty at CUNY-John Jay College in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program and holds a select cadre of private students.İ

Reviews:
WNYC | Jerusalem Post | Klezmershack | NYC Jewish Music

Hi-Res Photos:
Click the thumbnails to download high resolution photos for printing.

Audio:

Featured on WNYC (NPR) radio segment Listen... | Web Article
Largo Habibi Yah Habibi Djemaa El Fnaa (Extended) Halleluyah

Archive of Venues:

The Blue Note www.bluenote.net | Listen...
BAM Cafe www.bam.org

Brooklyn Arab Music Festival 2008 www.brooklynartscouncil.org
Brooklyn Historical Society - Roundtable: Arab Music Traditions and Their History in Brooklyn Listen...
Sha'abi Shake Down @ Sultana, Williamsburg

Sephardic Music Festival Sephardic Scholarship Series www.sephardicmusicfestival.com

Indiana University, Bloomington Opening concert for the Sephardic Initiative and class visit to Jewish Studies

Laila Lounge Bridging the Divide Benefit Concert

Center for Jewish History Moroccan Dream-weavers

Temple Beth Torah (Board of Jewish Education)

Makor

Congregation Beth Shalom JATM workshop

Jewish Music Cafe www.jewishmusiccafe.com

Southpaw www.spsounds.com