- Performance
$30 General Admission
21 & Over
The Griots Speak
- Daniel Carter – saxophones, trumpet
- Alexis Marcelo – piano
- Charlie Apicella – Himalayan percussion, guitar
- Juma Sultan – congas, percussion
Ars Nova Workshop presents the intriguing quartet The Griots Speak, a fusion of ancestral and modern sensibilities featuring Juma Sultan, Daniel Carter, Charlie Apicella, and Alexis Marcelo at Solar Myth on Thursday, March 7.
Charlie Apicella is best known as a gifted hard-bop guitarist in the vein of Wes Montgomery and Grant Green, and as leader of the funk-fueled organ trio Iron City. But Apicella takes a wide view of jazz history, having studied with both Yusef Lateef and Pat Martino and trained as a music historian by Archie Shepp and Dr. Billy Taylor. In 2022 he formed The Griots Speak featuring two legends of the 1960s NYC loft jazz scene: saxophonist Daniel Carter and percussionist Juma Sultan, best known for his work with Jimi Hendrix. Together the band bridges straightahead and avant-garde approaches, resulting in an unexpected collaboration that All About Jazz hails as, “not only a delightful melding of styles, [but] also vibrant and alive with brilliant spontaneity… Apicella has succeeded in creating a work which is simultaneously provocative and has wide appeal.”