Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble – 1200 Broadway, Seattle\u00a0 –\u00a0 July 30, 2025<\/p>\n
The venue is an outdoor plaza at what was formerly known as the IBM Building.\u00a0 Ethnic Heritage Ensemble is a trio, with leader El’Zabar rotating through cajon (depicted), a trap set, and kalimba.\u00a0 Harding spent most of his time on baritone sax, but also played a small whistle at a propos<\/em> strategic junctures, and a few tiny jingly things that were on hand; cellist Ali stuck to his singular instrument.\u00a0 El’Zabar contributes vocalizations, not exactly singing, perhaps closer to a grunt\/moan hybrid and not subtle at all, at times in unison with Harding’s bari riffs.\u00a0 Among the tunes, some dinosaur-scream Love Supreme<\/em>, smooth All Blues<\/em>, and Gershwin’s Summertime<\/em>, sultry and languorous, led by EL’Zabar’s simple, patient kalimba figure, to close.\u00a0 Harding had some down time while the band was setting up and El’Zabar went out to grab a bite, so he consented to posing for the up-close portrait while we chatted.\u00a0 I later realized that there was an earlier portrayal of him as a member of Abdullah Ibrahim’s combo back in 2014 (https:\/\/parkergambino.com\/?p=2154<\/a>).\u00a0 El’Zabar had also been a subject, even earlier, as one-third of the group Trifactor about 20 years ago, prior to my archiving events in this blog, thus unlinkable.<\/p>\n Kahil El’Zabar’s Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble – 1200 Broadway, Seattle\u00a0 –\u00a0 July 30, 2025 The venue is an outdoor plaza at what was formerly known as the IBM Building.\u00a0 Ethnic Heritage Ensemble is a trio, with leader El’Zabar rotating through cajon … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/parkergambino.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ethnic-Heritage-Ensemble-v2-1024x728.jpg\")
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Ethnic Heritage Ensemble<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"