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Emile Turner

NY based trumpeter with Louisiana roots, began playing music at a later age. Inspired to play trumpet by listening to the classic recordings in jazz and reading the Miles Davis Autobiography. Through years of private instruction, he enrolled and eventually graduated with a BFA in jazz performance from City College of New York under the direction of Steve Wilson and Scott Reeves. He has since performed with a host of musicians in some of New York's top venues.

Santi Debriano & Arkestra Bembe: Ashanti

by Jack Bowers
January 18, 2023

Panama-born bassist Santi Debriano's Arkestra Bembe is a nonet whose centerpiece is the bembe music of west Africa. During the Coronavirus pandemic, Debriano began hosting weekly bembes (musical celebrations) in the basement of his Staten Island, New York home, gradually assembling a group of musicians who would comprise the Arkestra and perform Debriano's compositions and arrangements. The result is Ashanti, an impressive studio recording whose framework is jazz but whose heart and soul are clearly in bembe. ...