Headfirst Editor's Pick
"Sell out warning! Take a life-affirming jazz trip round the solar system with one of the last legit afro-futurist spiritual jazz units still in orbit. The Pyramids rewired the 70s in a sprawling, Sun Ra / Roscoe Mitchell fusion of pan-African sci-fi vision and mass free improvisation. Their revival is a divine blessing, once-in-a-liftime thing FFO: Don Cherry, Sons of Kemet, Angel Bat Dawid, Irreversible Entanglements."
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A gig held at Strange Brew on Monday 8th April. The event starts at 19:00.
Strange Brew Presents
Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids (Full 7 piece band!)
+ Special Guests
14+ (under 18s must be accompanied by an adult, 1:1 ratio)
We are honoured to be hosting the legendary US cosmic 7-piece Afro-jazz-fusion band in Bristol.
Saxophonist and composer Idris Ackamoor is best-known as the founder and leader of the Pyramids in the early 1970s at Antioch College in Ohio, as part of Cecil Taylor's Black Music Ensemble. Ackamoor’s route to Afro-Futurist jazz began in the US in the 1960s, but was fast tracked in 1972, when he and the band, then a trio, began a year traveling and performing in Africa. From Morocco, the group set off through Senegal for Ghana, before crossing the continent and traveling in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Along the way they experienced at first-hand the ritual power of music and its ability to bind communities together—the twin tenets of first-wave Afro-Futurist jazz, which combined science fiction-inspired magical realism with black consciousness-inspired sociopolitical activism explored by the likes of Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, but with different emphasis.
They released a trio of recordings during the 1970s - Lalibela, King of Kings, Birth/Speed/Merging - that proved highly influential to several generations of artists. After a long period of inactivity, they were reconvened by Ackamoor in 2015 as a celebrated touring and recording outfit. They signed to the U.K.'s Strut label and released We Be All Africans in 2016, and followed with An Angel Fell in 2018, Shaman! in 2021, and Afro Futuristic Dreams in 2023.
Ackamoor has been honored with two Lifetime Achievement Awards for his musical and theatrical contributions, including being presented in January 2012 by Gilles Peterson at the Worldwide Awards Show in London. In 2003 San Francisco's historic magazine, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, presented Idris with his first.
IDRIS ACKAMOOR – Sax & Keytar
SANDY POINDEXTER – ELECTRIC VIOLIN
MARGAUX SIMMONS - FLUTE
BOBBY COBB – GUITAR
RICCARDO DI VINCI – ELECTRIC BASS
GIOELE PAGLIACCIA - DRUMS – NORMAL DRUM/CYMBAL SET UP
LORENZO GASPERONI – Congas & Percussion
Plus support TBA
Entry requirements: 14+ (under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)
Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids (Full 7 piece band!)
+ Special Guests
14+ (under 18s must be accompanied by an adult, 1:1 ratio)
We are honoured to be hosting the legendary US cosmic 7-piece Afro-jazz-fusion band in Bristol.
Saxophonist and composer Idris Ackamoor is best-known as the founder and leader of the Pyramids in the early 1970s at Antioch College in Ohio, as part of Cecil Taylor's Black Music Ensemble. Ackamoor’s route to Afro-Futurist jazz began in the US in the 1960s, but was fast tracked in 1972, when he and the band, then a trio, began a year traveling and performing in Africa. From Morocco, the group set off through Senegal for Ghana, before crossing the continent and traveling in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Along the way they experienced at first-hand the ritual power of music and its ability to bind communities together—the twin tenets of first-wave Afro-Futurist jazz, which combined science fiction-inspired magical realism with black consciousness-inspired sociopolitical activism explored by the likes of Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, but with different emphasis.
They released a trio of recordings during the 1970s - Lalibela, King of Kings, Birth/Speed/Merging - that proved highly influential to several generations of artists. After a long period of inactivity, they were reconvened by Ackamoor in 2015 as a celebrated touring and recording outfit. They signed to the U.K.'s Strut label and released We Be All Africans in 2016, and followed with An Angel Fell in 2018, Shaman! in 2021, and Afro Futuristic Dreams in 2023.
Ackamoor has been honored with two Lifetime Achievement Awards for his musical and theatrical contributions, including being presented in January 2012 by Gilles Peterson at the Worldwide Awards Show in London. In 2003 San Francisco's historic magazine, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, presented Idris with his first.
IDRIS ACKAMOOR – Sax & Keytar
SANDY POINDEXTER – ELECTRIC VIOLIN
MARGAUX SIMMONS - FLUTE
BOBBY COBB – GUITAR
RICCARDO DI VINCI – ELECTRIC BASS
GIOELE PAGLIACCIA - DRUMS – NORMAL DRUM/CYMBAL SET UP
LORENZO GASPERONI – Congas & Percussion
Plus support TBA
Entry requirements: 14+ (under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)
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