The Ancestry Project is a live music and visual performance for jazz quintet and turntables based on the personal and musical history of my family as told to me by my Zaida, Hyman Herman.
The music for The Ancestry Project was created based on a series of recorded interviews I conducted with my Zaida, who was born in Poland 90 years ago to a Jewish musical family in a town known then as Borshov. As a young child, his family fled the climate of rising antisemitism to settle in the new world of North America where they ultimately ended up in Montreal, Canada. Both he and his brother Benny followed in their father’s footsteps to pursue careers in music. My Zaida raised his family by holding down a day job and leading commercial bands in the evenings and weekends. His love for music led him to seek out the best musicians he could find, including young up and coming players who would go on to become some of Canada’s greatest jazz figures like Oscar Peterson, Paul Bley, and Maynard Ferguson.
The show takes us through my Zaida's life by integrating his recorded narratives directly into the compositions which are also accompanied by visual projections directly related to the subject matter.
The current members of The Ancestry Project are:
Zack Lober: Basses/Turntables/Compositions
David Binney: Alto Saxophone
Chet Doxas: Tenor Saxophone
John Escreet / Jacob Sacks: Piano
Dan Weiss / Damion Reid / Nate Wood: Drums
Want to get to know my Zaida better? Click here