Kahil El'Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (USA)

The stars of Respect Festival 2025 are returning to Prague!  

Although the 72-year-old drummer and bandleader is a jazz veteran, he has never been part of the mainstream. He has been a distinct individualist and innovator throughout his career. As a teenager, he played with members of the avant-garde Art Ensemble of Chicago and studied African music in Ghana. He was a bandmate of free jazz greats Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders, and critics have called him a "Renaissance artist." He has played with a number of top ensembles with artists such as Don Cherry, Dizzy Gillespie, and Stevie Wonder, but his crowning project is the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, with whom he has recorded 15 albums and which he will present in Prague. The repertoire of original compositions is complemented by standards and a masterfully rearranged version of Miles Davis's "All Blues." El'Zabar is a masterful composer, drummer, and percussionist, and belongs to that rare breed of musicians whose goal is to harmonize with others, listen to their bandmates, and not assert their ego.

El'Zabar was born Clifton Blackburn in Chicago in 1953; his father was a drummer. In the late 1960s, he attended courses at the AACM music association, where lecturers included trumpeter Phil Cohran from Sun Ra Arkestra. In this environment, he also absorbed the influence of figures such as Lester Bowie, Anthony Braxton, and Henry Threadgill. In the early 1970s, he found himself in Paris, where he was supposed to study with the famous mime Marcel Marceau, but instead decided to go to Ghana to study music. In 1974, he founded the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, a four-piece band that connected American jazz with its African roots. He was inspired to change his name by saxophonist Fred Walker, who chose the stage name Derf Reklaw (Fred Walker spelled backwards), which caught the attention of the young Clifton Blackburn. “Notfilc Nrubkcalb — that’s not going to work,” he decided. “My mother’s maiden name is El’Zabar, and my great-uncle is Kahil. That was a better choice.”

Since 2001, he has worked with the JUBA Collective, an informal association that combines avant-garde jazz with house and hip-hop. In 2022, he was nominated for a Grammy for the album A Time For Healing, which he recorded with his quartet. His latest recording, Open Me To A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit, is one of his most successful to date. The respected magazine Downbeat included it in its Top Ten for 2024. El'Zabar also holds the title of Sir, having been knighted by the French General Council for his global contributions to the arts.

Admission - presale: seating CZK 900, standing CZK 500, from 1.1.2026: seating CZK 1000, standing CZK 550.  Club discounts do not apply. Thank you for your understanding.

Band website: www.kahilelzabaris.com