10.12. 11-13 Uhr Bandworkshop with Imma Express

We present the unique composition process of Imma Express’ songs encompassing the congolese sebene composition technique and various other African derived melodies and rhythms.
During the workshop we teach and invite the audience to participate in playing sebene, tigrinya and arabic grooves which all inspire and drive Imma Express’ music.

Imma Express‘ music is born out of the blend of guitar driven West African Sebene music with the improvisational sensibilities of jazz musicians of different backgrounds to create compositions that push the envelope of several African music styles and American jazz yet a performance which is energized and approachable by anyone.

We collaborated in a multi-cultural band consisting some renowned jazz and fusion players in order to bring an ambiguous and modern sound, yet retaining its deep roots in African traditional and popular music.

The interleaving lines played by multiple guitarists in Congolese Rumba and Sungura music naturally create a strong rhythmic motion.
Imma Express’ compositions are mainly based off this unique guitar playing and composition technique, commonly referred to as ‘shona’ guitar or ‘sebene’. These lines, when joined by the rhythm section, create a solid beat which is contrasted by the violin’s vocally inspired melodies and improvisations.

Band leader and award-winning jazz violinist Omer Ashano, has always been fascinated by other genres of folkloric music. Growing up, he loved entertaining himself musically by attempting to play new styles of non-classical music on the violin. Early on, it was African traditional music that particularly intrigued him while later in his musical explorations he discovered additional contemporary-urban African genres like sebene, Tuareg blues, sungura, chimurenga and tigrinya music, being exposed to some of these various musical genres played in bars and parties of African diaspora communities.

As Omer says: “To me the sebene guitar lines are the African equivalent of the classical European counterpoint, and I am always fascinated to see how modern African musicians take this rather complex composition technique and make it sound so high-energy yet concise. Furthering the borders of this guitar style while facilitating the violin in the genre feels to me like a great opportunity for discovering new sounds that had not yet been explored while keeping the music very approachable to people of all backgrounds”.