Sunday 3 January 2016, 8pm
Great Ghanaian sculptor, instrument inventor, and avant-garde instrumentalist, Nii Noi Nortey, performs solo and in a special trio set with Mark Sanders (drums/percussion) and David Panton (saxophones/piano).
Nii Noi Nortey is a multi-instrumentalist performing on both African instruments (e.g., alghaita, gyil, gonje, ngoni, seprewa) and Western ones (saxophones and flutes), as well as unique instruments of his own invention (afrifons, alboita). He is also a sound sculptor, author, educator, and arts library administrator whose base these last twenty-five years is Anyaa Arts Library, outside Accra, Ghana. In the UK Nii Noi is known for his performances and recordings with, among others, Dade Krama, African Dawn, David Panton, and Misty N Roots. In Ghana he has worked with well-known local artists like Ghanaba (Guy Warren), Pan African Orchestra, and Nii Otoo Annan, as well as visiting artists from Europe and the US. Some of his work of the last ten years is documented on the Accra Trane Station DVDs and CDs on the Voxlox label and in the book Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra by Steven Feld. Among written publications, he has recently produced Afrifonix: The Windpipes of Nii Noi Nortey, which chronicles the evolution of his afrifon inventions.
Mark has worked with many greats of the British, European and American free jazz improvised music scene including Roscoe Mitchell, Roswell Rudd, Evan Parker, John Butcher, Henry Grimes, Elaine Mitchener, Wadada Leo Smith, Myra Melford, Charles Gayle , Sirone and William Parker
He has also played with Jah Wobble, Harold Budd, Bill Laswell, Christian Marclay, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ilan Volkov and The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
He is a member of many working groups including duos with Nicole Mitchell and Rhodri Davies, Neil Charles' 'Dark Days' with Cleveland Watkiss & Pat Thomas, 'Last Dream of the Morning' with John Butcher & John Edwards, 'Shifa' with Rachel Musson and Pat Thomas and 'Sarost' with Larry Stabbins & Paul Rogers.
As an educator he has taught improvisation at many universities around the country as a lecturer and guest tutor.
Mark has played concerts and festivals around the world and appears on over 220 CD and Vinyl releases.
Mark was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists 2024
"Drop the needle on the first track — or any track for that matter — and the first thing one is bound to notice is the amazing percussion skills of Mark Sanders" – Peter Thelen... Exposé
"Mark is just incredible and immensely diverse, he is at the center of "Kwingyaw" and it is difficult to tell what he is doing to get some of these sounds." – Bruce L Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery, NY
