Chris Berry with Yeshe and Spankinhide

A night of music to feed the spirit!


Chris Berry....

Chris Berry is a brilliant anomaly… a Californian native that left his home at 18 and travelled throughout Africa. Spurred on by his passion he spent 23 years learning and mastering music in its purest form. Berry has undergone countless initiations one of which is the highly challenging and intense initiation of the Sangoma (Traditional Healers of South Africa). He has been recognised by Zimbabwean elders as a ‘Gwenyambira’ – One whose music calls the spirits, even having the honour of dreaming pieces of music that the elders later thanked him for ‘remembering’ their long forgotten traditional piece. He is the bringer of ‘new ancient music’ and serves as a bridge between popular Western and African music.

For many in Australia Chris offers a spiritual connection to African drum and dance. But have no doubt, his down-right funky moves and killer grooves definitely hold their own without the focus on a spiritual side. His rhythms sing to the soul and his movements lift the spirit, he is a true musical genius!

Yeshe...

Hailing from Germany but a true world citizen, Yeshe has explored all corners of the globe in developing a rich tapestry of sound and vivid collage of musical culture. Yeshe embodies the musical nomad drawing heavily from his African teachings but expressing his music with a sophisticated style and distinctly cosmopolitan flavour. Now based in Australia, Yeshe was born and raised near Dusseldorf, Germany - where the Ruhr River joins the Rhine. At this juncture Yeshe at a young age was exposed to a unique collision of cultures, customs and music and a chance meeting as a teenager with African drummer Mustapha Tettey Addy became the foundation for his musical evolution and the African sound, which would feature so prominently in his music. Addy was a master Ghanaian drummer and ethnomusicologist and enthralled by his creative drumming compositions Yeshe began performing locally with Addy's percussion ensembles and by the age of sixteen had left school to tour the world. Yeshe kept returning to West Africa each winter to advance his musical and cultural mentorship and would perform during the European summers with acts traversing genres of Latin, Funk, Soul, Reggae and South African Jive. It was during one of these summers that he would meet another one of his musical mentors Reggae singer/multi-instrumentalist Tefo Hlaele, who was a founding member of the world famous South African musical, Ipi N’tombi. Tefo would later reconnect with Yeshe to perform on his award winning album Roots and Wings.Yeshe also spent five years in Japan working as a session musician with several Japanese and international artists. During this time, Yeshe travelled throughout Asia to absorb the various percussion styles of its many cultures. He was invited to study with the Peliatan Gamelan Orchestra in Bali, the Kodo Drummers of Sado Island in Japan, and Samul Nori of South Korea. Yeshe’s musical apprenticeship would continue to evolve through the 80’s & 90’s after meeting Canada’s most awarded blues artist Harry Manx who is world renown for his exquisite combination of Blues, Folk, and Hindustan Classical music. Yeshe and Manx became good friends and worked and toured together with many different acts around the globe. Manx would have a tremendous and powerful influence on Yeshe's future musical development, eventually inspiring his solo career.While in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1996, Yeshe met American singer/songwriter Chris Berry of the band Panjea.