Jamey Haddad - Under One Sun (2017)

While celebrating Middle-Eastern percussion, South Indian forms and Venezuelan folkloric styles, Under One Sun's heart remains in the jazz world. Life-long music performance partners, Billy Drewes and Jamey Haddad, have been sharing the stage for over 40 years and have now assembled a group of their favorite players.

Joining them for an evening of internationally-inflected jazz are an eclectic group of musicians who have performed and toured with everyone from Yo Yo Ma’s “Silk Road” to Chick Corea, The Vanguard Orchestra, John Abercrombie, Sting and Paul Simon.

Jamey Haddad met saxophone player Billy Drewes when both were music students in Boston. Nearly 45 years later, the longtime friends have made their first recording together: a collection of nine tunes written by Drewes and performed by Under One Sun, eight musicians who represent five countries and whose ages span five decades. “As my musical journey led me from one continent to another, and as I experienced a planet crying out for understanding, this team of players cosmically came forward,” says Haddad, a longtime professor of advanced improvisation and percussion at Oberlin Conservatory. “The sheer joy of every member experiencing their bandmates’ artistry truly exemplifies the human capacity to celebrate what makes us unique.” Joining Haddad and Drewes are Michael Ward-Bergeman, Luisito Quintero, Roberto Occhipinti, Leo Blanco, Ali Paris, and Salar Nader. Also included are performances by fellow Oberlin faculty trombonists Jay Ashby and Lee Allen, Oberlin Conservatory brass students, and Hadra des Femmes de Taroudant, an all-female vocal ensemble from Morocco.

Billy Drewes, saxophone
Michael Ward-Bergeman, accordion
Roberto Occhipinti, double bass
Jamey Haddad, percussion, drums
Patrick Graney, percussion