Zoh Amba Bhakti w/ Farida Amadou & Chris Corsano

She is considered a shooting star of the New York improv scene: the composer, saxophonist and flutist Zoh Amba, who comes from Tennessee and has been living in New York since 2021. The 24-year-old plays with a deep sense of spirituality and emotional power, collaborates with the most renowned sound painters in the creative music world and has already left remarkable musical footprints of her own. Her music is a blend of avant-garde, noise and devotional hymns, full of folksy melodies, hypnotic choruses and repetitive incantations.

Amba released two records in 2022, her debut album O, Sun, produced by John Zorn and released on the renowned Tzadik label. Bhakti is the name for Amba's ongoing live and recording ensemble project with constantly changing members. Micah Thomas, Tyshawn Sorey and Matt Hollenberg were involved in the second edition. She has collaborated with a number of high caliber musicians such as Jim White (Dirty Three), legendary bassist William Parker, Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Frank Rosaly, Thomas Morgan, etc. Amba has also performed at prestigious festivals and venues such as Roulette (NY), Ars Nova Workshop (PA), Vision Festival (NY), ReWire Festival (NL), BRDCST Festival (BE), and Angel City Jazz Festival (LA), Big Ears Festival, etc.

For her concert in the Stadtgarten, the young saxophonist is bringing two outstanding, internationally recognized musicians with her: Farida Amadou from Belgium is a highly acclaimed sound artist on the European improvisation scene. The bassist has already impressed as a signature artist at the Monheim Triennale 2022 in a duo with the word artist and front woman of Irreversible Entanglements Moor Mother as well as at various appearances in the "NICA live" concert series with her intimate, raw and unconventional bass playing.

The New York drummer Chris Corsano has also been active at the interface of improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock and experimental music since the 1990s. Dedicated to collective improvisation, the list of Corsano's recordings and collaborations is long - Corsano has worked with Paul Flaherty, Joe McPhee, Mette Rasmussen, Markus Schmickler, Thomas Lehn, among others, and contributed to Björk's album Volta.