Multicultural Point of View at CSUSM

Classes only began Monday at Cal State San Marcos, but the university is already enhancing the local music scene, spreading a healthy message of multiculturalism.

In the new university’s founding mission statement, multiculturalism is a high priority. Two musical groups hired as artists-in-residence add to the evidence that the school plans to pay much more than lip service to its global point of view.

Sankofa is an African drumming and dance ensemble fronted by Cal State music professor Dr. Komla Amoaku. A group called Chasqui specializes in ancient Andean music and is led by Dr. Don Funes, also a professor at the university.

At least one jazz player is hailing Sankofa as an important new source of inspiration. Jazz bassist Gunnar Biggs of Vista has performed with major jazz players including Thad Jones, Red Norvo and Buddy Rich, but he says being a member of Sankofa for the last few months has provided new enlightenment.

“Until now, I have never really heard Africa in jazz,” Biggs said. “The circularity of the rhythms, the poly-metric way everything coincides. When African music is played right it swings, it is the weirdest thing. All of a sudden, it clicks and you say, ‘That’s where swing came from!’ ”

As artists-in-residence, the members of Sankofa and Chasqui will lead on-campus seminars and give performances for the public and in local schools. Band members will receive stipends to cover teaching, performance and rehearsal time.

This last item is important. Until now, Sankofa’s members were too busy making a living in other jobs to rehearse much. Now, the group will be able to master a batch of new material written by Amoaku.

The artists-in-residence program also will fund Sankofa’s first recording, which Amoaku hopes will be out by year’s end. He said the university plans, eventually, to set up its own recording label for the variety of ethnic music to be taught on campus.

Amoaku moved to San Marcos a year ago from Ohio, where he had taught at Central State University. He made the move for the chance to make a difference at a new university where there would be no status quo, no preconceived notions of what education should be.

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“That is what lured me, the emphasis on multiculturalism and globalism,” Amoaku said. “It is a university with a vision. For those of us who have been involved with multicultural programs for many years but have always met resistance, this institution provides us with the capability to actually utilize our talent, to look forward with it.”

Funes was trained as a classical woodwind player but got hooked on Andean music. He has extensive knowledge of Andean music and culture, and even makes his own wind instruments.

Sankofa will perform Friday and Saturday nights at the Horton Grand Hotel in downtown San Diego. Music starts at 8:30.

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Last Labor Day weekend, Brazilian singer Lula headlined the “Brazil by the Bay” festival on Mission Bay and spurred a crowd of 450 into a dancing frenzy. Sunday night he returns, but with his band, Afro Brazil, as the main attraction at “From Rio to Bahia,” another Brazilian blowout, this time at the U.S. Grant Hotel downtown. Also on the bill is Escola de Samba Sol e Mar, a top San Diego Brazilian percussion ensemble.

Lula is actually Nilton Almeida, a Bahia-born singer who writes most of Afro Brazil’s music. The Los Angeles-based group has toured Japan, South Korea and China, but is still looking for a recording contract.

The sound of Sol e Mar has evolved since the group added vocalist and cavaquinho player Josias dos Santos, who moved to San Diego from Rio de Janeiro earlier this year. Cavaquinho is a small, ukulele-like string instrument that adds to the music’s melodic qualities.

“We have really souped up the group,” said Sol e Mar’s leader, Mark Lamson. “Before, we were mainly doing batucada , which is samba without singing. Now, we can do all of the Carnival sambas.”

The 12-piece ensemble is still dominated by driving percussion, but with Santos’, the group can incorporate lyrics.

“By rules of Carnival , themes have to relate to Brazil,” Lamson explained. “They could be about the cinema, or myths about Brazil--the coming of the Portuguese, African mythology.”

On Sunday night, each group will play several sets. Music often continues for a half hour or longer as bands segue seamlessly from song to song, or repeat the same song over and over as Brazilian bands do when they march during Carnival . Needless to say, it’s all great for dancing.

Steve Spencer, who is promoting the concert and is also a member of Sol e Mar, hopes to attract as many as 700 for his third consecutive Brazilian Labor Day blast.

“The energy is there,” Spencer said. “Sol e Mar has been playing all summer at Cafe Sevilla (downtown), with a steady following of about 200.”

The show starts at 8:30. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door. Call 222-6911 for information.

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RIFFS: El Nopal, the little Tijuana club that hosts a variety of cultural events including jazz, will feature Yugoslav guitarist Miroslav Tadic on Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. The club is at 675 Callejon Cinco de Mayo, near the intersection of Sixth and F. . . .

KSDS-FM (88.3) celebrates the late saxophonist Art Pepper’s birthday by featuring his music today. Pepper, who died in 1982, was a top alto saxman who started out in the big bands of Benny Carter and Stan Kenton and went on make some solid recordings of his own, despite chronic battles with drug addiction.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

TUTTA PASTA FOR JAZZ

North County residents don’t have to drive south to hear jazz anymore.

When it opened in June, Tutta Pasta restaurant in Carlsbad experimented with traditional jazz, booking Murray Davison’s North County All Stars. Beginning Sept. 13, the All Stars play for Sunday Champagne brunch.

Meanwhile, last month the restaurant added light jazz to its menu on Thursday nights, joining KIFM’s “Lites Out” club circuit. Bands come from the station’s recommended list of top San Diego County groups. Thursday night at 7:30, for example, Tutta Pasta will offer Amber Whitlock and the Cutting Edge. Next week, it’s saxophonist Hollis Gentry, who has toured with David Benoit and Larry Carlton.