Duende Libre trio live at CIKAN House in Bozeman, MT with Rob Kohler on bass.
Sunday November 10th at 6:30 pm - $30
31 Hitching Post Road
Limited seating available.
About the band:
Duende Libre is an award-winning jazz trio from the Pacific Northwest, whose original music draws upon the ancestral musical traditions of Cuba, Brazil and West Africa. Each having apprenticed with direct descendants and master musicians of these traditions, they consider themselves disciples of their teachers. The result: A euphoric new jazz that honors its historical roots, pushing open the boundaries of genre to invoke a powerful sonic freedom. “Each member’s experiences are vital as they filter West African traditional rhythms through their own hands, voices, minds, bodies, each song as much choreography as a composition,” PopMatters wrote. “Hopeful in sound as well as in ideological foundation” the band “[creates music] full of heart and historical multitudes.
About Rob Kohler:
A bassist and composer with a unique voice, Rob Kohler has been a fixture of the Pacific Northwest music scene for forty years. He has appeared on over 100 diverse recordings as bassist or engineer. He first caught international attention as a member of the trio In Flight, through their appearance at Montreux Jazz Festival in 1989.
Recently, Kohler has played in the trio Betty Jane, appearing with them on 11th & Grant on Montana PBS in 2020. In 2018-19 he toured in North America and Asia with Halie Loren. In 2019, he released the critically acclaimed album Winter Colors on Origin Records, with his brother Lee Kohler, cousin Dave Peterson, longtime colleague Brent Jensen, and Origin founder John Bishop.
Kohler is also a beloved educator. For twenty years he taught K-12 music at Headwaters Academy, Oak Hill School, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and Inglewood District Schools. He has been a regular at the Stanford Jazz Workshop since 1991, serving as education director there from 2006-07. Kohler has also been an integral part of the South Delta Jazz Workshop in Vancouver B.C. since 2003. While on the NOCCA faculty from 2007-09, he created and directed the school's first middle school jazz program. In 2013 he wrote a beginning jazz theory textbook, Music Theory from A to G.
