Jazz guitar plus tap equals ‘astonishing’ performance
Jazz artist Charlie Hunter plays a seven-string guitar.
Two decades after they first busked together in Europe, experience Charlie Hunter, one of today’s great jazz guitarists, and Tamango, a leading cross-cultural tap dancer, in a dazzling collaboration at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4, at the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.
Tickets cost $15 for general admission and $10 for senior citizens and students at batestickets.com, and $20/$15 at the door. The event is presented by the Jazz at the Olin Arts Center series and the Bates Dance Festival. For more information, please contact 207-786-6135.
Playing seven- and eight-string guitars, Hunter is a groove-driven one-man band who has released 17 albums in 16 years. As Rolling Stone writes, the guitarist “rips through the air with super rock fuzz and fusion mettle,” mesmerizing audiences with his distinctive stylings. He has worked with many prominent artists including Norah Jones, Mos Def, John Mayer and D’Angelo.
Tap dancer and musician Tamango.
Also known as Herbin Van Cayseele, Tamango is acclaimed for his ability to blend diverse dance, music and other cultural influences into his work. The New York Times called him a dancer of “astonishing elegance and virtuosity.”
Tamango’s biography is as fascinating as his performances. Born in French Guiana, he moved to Paris at the age of 8, where he was adopted by a baron who introduced him to tap. In 1988, he flipped a coin between New York and Rio de Janeiro and found himself in dancing for change on the Staten Island ferry. Since then he has toured with Riverdance and Cool Heat, and produced and performed the award-winning show Urban Tap.
Tamango performed and taught at the Bates Dance Festival from 1997-00, and his work “Caravane,” was produced here in 2001. This will be Hunter’s first time at Bates.
