Valentine's Day with Ethnic Heritage Ensemble at Government Center, North Side

The Chicago-based Ethnic Heritage Ensemble has recorded innumerable celebrated projects and has toured internationally for the last 45 years. The current line-up features Corey Wilkes (trumpet), Alex Harding (baritone sax), and the band’s founder, Dr. Kahil El’Zabar (multi-percussion/composition).
https://ethnicheritageensemble.bandcamp.com/

The EHE is a 21st-century griot, making great Black music for the mind, body, and spirit! Their 2019 touring season kicked off with Amazon Prime’s world premiere of the EHE’s international award-winning feature film documentary, Be Known!. It was executive produced by actors Angela Bassett and Courtney Vance and was directed by Dwayne Johnson Cochran.

Of their latest album, Be Known (Spiritmuse), the venerable publication Jazz Times says: "Among the most venerable carriers of the legacy of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians...the [EHE] sound is buoyed, rather than daunted, by the history it bears—offerings here include tributes to Roy Hargrove, Pharoah Sanders, the late poet and playwright Ntozake Shange, and Hamiet Bluiett... As a percussionist, El’Zabar interweaves effortlessly with the blues, bebop, hard bop, modern classical, free jazz, and R&B. Wilkes can rise to the most daunting challenges with disarming facility... [while] Harding is alternately humorist, tragedian, revolutionary, and romanticist with his variegated tone and sharply honed attack."