Mwenso and the Shakes
7pm doors • 8pm show
About
The music of Artists-in-Residence Mwenso and the Shakes, blending jazz, funk, blues, and African music, offers “an explosion of ideas and sounds” radiating an “infectious joy” (NPR). Join Michael Mwenso and his eclectic troupe of musicians and dancers for an in-progress showing of a new music theater piece exploring forms of African spirituality and celebrating strength and resilience. Follow them on their journey to create this new collage-like work, inspired by their travels around the United States, with messages of protecting a natural world hurtling towards existential crisis.
Among Mwenso’s bandmates are acclaimed South African jazz vocalist Vuyo Sotashe, rising star French pianist Mathis Picard, and tap dancer Michaela Marino Lerman, praised by the Huffington Post as a “hurricane of rhythm.”
Tickets
The Artists
Mwenso and the Shakes are a unique troupe of global artists who channel jazz, funk, blues, and African music into “intense, prowling, ebullient” live performances (New York Times). Led by vocalist Michael Mwenso, they hail from Sierra Leone, South Africa, Madagascar, London, France, Jamaica, and Hawaii, and are now based in Harlem.
