Artist description flutes/voice/chorus/percussion/cellos/keyboards & bass in beautiful colors and rich jazz harmonies, all together for a powerful roots rhythmic connection of Afro-Brazilian, Cuban and Haitian original sounds.

Music Style Afro-Brazilian Jazz

Musical Influences Jazz/Afro-Brazilian/Cuban/Haitian/Celtic/Arabic

Similar Artists Salif Keita instrumentally

Artist History The band actively performs in NYC area. Anne Pollack, leader and founder of the group Magica has travelled and picked up sounds from the African musical elements to be found in Paris, Guadeloupe and Brazil. The group features Arturo O'Farrill on keyboards!

Group Members Anne Pollack-flute,cello. Arturo O'Farrill-keyboard. Boris Kozlov-bass. Carlos Valdez-percussion. Rita Silva-percussion. Beverly Au-cello. Tsiza Coehlo-percussion. Cabello Rolim-percussion. Tiye Giraud/Barbara Mendes/Dina Alexander/Philip Solomon/Veronica White-lead vocals

Instruments flutes/voice/chorus/percussion/cellos/keyboards & bass

Albums Worlds Collide

Press Reviews THE BEAT magazine August 2000 Black people in Brazil know they share a deep religious bond with Cuba and Haiti. From their common West African roots, candomble and santeria continue the age-old dance between our physical world and the forces that reign in other dimensions. Flautist Anne Pollack has this to say:"Through the course of nature there live patterns, designs and energies that are constantly pushing us and pulling us. In Brazil and Cuba these natural forces are recognized and celebrated as divinities called orixas (orishas). The orixas bring their blessings to Earth in the form of divine transformational energy call axe (ashe), [and in turn they are celebrated by] devotional songs, melodies and percussion of Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Cuban origin..."Anne Pollack, a classical and jazz flautist and composer, came in frequent contact with West African music in its myriad forms over years of working in New York, Paris and Guadeloupe. When she was "called on to respond," she went deep, invoking ceremonial rhythms and traditional chants she had heard and learned in Bahia, Brazil.Worlds Collide opens with "Exu's Lament," ode to the deity of the crossroads, the bacchanal, the divine trickster. Call and response with full chorus bring emotion to the surface. The drumming is insistent, and the stellar instrumental arrangement builds tension with controlled dissonance, finally releasing and resolving, leaving only lightness that carries over to the next song about Oxum, goddess of the waters.The mix works. Anne's playing is divine, whether she is on concert flute, penny whistle, "Big Bamboo," or "small African flute." The flute is an essential element in Brazilian popular music, its importance dating to the mid-19th century and the birth of choro,the first true integration of African and European musical forms on Brazilian soil.Most of the songs are Brazil-inspired, but Haitian banda style takes over in the hard-hitting "Pwazon Rat," and the Cuban palomatanza rhythms team up with a steamy contemporary arrangement to make "Deusa ex-Machina" one of the most intriguing tracks.An independent release, this album deserves attention and should not be taken lightly. Few have told a musical diaspora story with such frankness and grace.~Mara Weiss

Location New York, New York - USA

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