Ya-Sou featuring Tomasz Stanko & Osjan "Tribute To Don Cherry"

Ya-sou: -
Milo Kurtis - percussion, vocal
Horatio Altan - percussion
Peter Apfelbaum - saxophones, flutes, percussion, vocal
Jai Uttal - dotar, guitar, charango, percussion, vocal
*
Tomasz Stanko - trumpet (2,3)
*
Osjan: - (3)
Jacek Ostaszewski - recorders, kaya-kum, vocal, percussion
Wojtek Waglewski - guitar, vocal, percussion
Radosław Nowakowski - percussion
Milo Kurtis - percussion
*
Recorded: February 2nd, 1996 at Theatre "Maly", Warsaw, Poland.
Gowi Records

01. Ya-Sou Suite - Tribute To Don Cherry (Ya-Sou) [26:42]
02. Rumba Multi-Kulti (Don Cherry) [09:16]
03. Malinye (Don Cherry) [09:00]

**

Music belongs to all of us. Music has no borders, and the Earth should have no borders, because were made by people and not by nature.
The band Ya-sou was founded and created with these ideas in mind.
In 1973, Dimitrios Milo Kurtis formed Ya-sou to play and make music based on different cultures from all over the world. Its music is a mixture of jazz, contemporary, classical, folk and ethnic music as well as being influences by music from continents of Asia, Africa, North and South America. Indeed, a performance by Ya-sou is like a trip around the world. Many times we visit a region for a while, sometimes we pass quickly through. We meditate somewhere, dance in the mountains, get thirsty in the desert, float like a leaf on the ocean wave and arrive happily back home.
Furthermore, Ya-sou's sound is natural. The band uses only acoustic instruments including dotar, acoustic guitar, charango, mandolin, saxophones, flutes digirdu, congas, Arabic percussion, gongs, kalimbas, talking drum and many others. Some people call Ya-sou's music "ethnic jazz", some call it "avant-garde". And some simply refuse to categorize the unique sounds of this remarkable band.
Ya-sou stopped performing when Mr. Kurtis became a member of the legendary Polish band OSJAN. This band, like, Ya-sou, created the music influenced by different ethnic cultures and had already established a position within the Europe market, as well as collaborating with the famous trumpet player Don Cherry, sadly recently deceased.
Milo traveled with OSJAN allover the Europe performing with other bands and musicians and resided in Switzerland from 1985-87, than moved to the Francisco Bay Area. Deciding to come back to his musical roots, he re-established Ya-sou in 1994. Milo, on various percussion instruments and vocal is joined by fellow percussionist Horatio Altan from Guatemala, a student and researcher of Pre-Columbian and Native American people's musical forms. Horatio also performs with jazz groups and collaborates with dance and theatre companies. The other members of Ya-sou are: on saxophones, flutes, percussion and vocals, the Grammy Award nominee, Peter Apfelbaum; on dotar, guitar, charango, percussion and vocals, Jai Uyttal. Both musicians play in Jai's Pagan Love Orchestra and Peter's Hieroglyphics Ensemble, as well as having performed with Don Cherry's Multi-Kulti and one or another of Don's musical configurations. The members of Ya-sou are hoping you will be joining then soon on a musical journey. (Original line notes of this album)