Music
Press
"A vibrant construct of sight and sound. SYNERGY is the right word to describe this "happening". While powerful on their own, the aural and visual elements seem to play off each other, creating a sum sensation that is greater than the individual parts." - Rob Blumenthal
If you dig the jazz theatrics of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago and Sun Ra, then Amir's "Synergy" is your show. Great musicians in outrageous attire, musical notes that move around the stage as the music propels them, some kind of art utopia setting and jazz that will have your conciousness spinning...
"Synergy" is a world apart, where music is language and the stage is a playground for the imagination. - Bob Holman
Avant - Jazz altoist Saco Yasuma has a theatrical bent - her group Synergy often appears wearing festive robes and masks courtesy of Amir Bey. But she's not hiding anything; she's got a killer sound and soulful compositions. Synergy, made up of vets like Jackson Krall and Sabir Mateen, has fun with the music. - Hank Shteamer
Discography
A ten minute DVD single, "April Moon Dance" is on sale.
To purchase, contact Saco Yasuma at sacoyasuma@msn.com.
Photos
Bio
SYNERGY began through the mutual appreciation between Saco Yasuma and Amir Bey for each other's work. Bey enjoyed watching and hearing Yasuma's playing with Sabir Mateen and Ras Moshe one night at Brecht Forum. The contrast between the dimunative Yasuma and the two full bodied-tenor players was almost as striking as the intensity of their music for Bey. In turn, Yasuma thought Bey's silkscreen on fabric prints would look good on stage, particularly one design that he had originally created for the late trumpeter Lester Bowie. They both began to throw ideas back and forth about visual combinatoins and musical concepts. What began as playful appreciation for each others' work gradually grew into a ever growing process leading to the development of compositions, costumes, new instruments like the mobile-like percussion pieces, and many kinds of masks that were both provocative and functional for the musicians to play in. Each performance has a new element introduced, whether it is musically through Yasuma's unique compositions, or Bey's experimentations with costumes, masks and instruments. For more information on Saco and Amir, please visit our websites; sacoyasuma.com ; http://home.mindspring.com/~amirbey and http://www.myspace.com/synergysightandsound
SYNERGY Sight and Sound received the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's 2007 Manhattan Community Arts Fund to produce and perform a new body of music, costumes, and set designs that is devoted to the sky.
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