YESHEmusic Artist Biography: Yeshe Hailing from Germany but a true world citizen, Yeshe has explored all corners of the globe in developing a rich tapestry of sound and vivid collage of musical culture. Yeshe embodies the musical nomad drawing heavily from his African teachings but expressing his music with a sophisticated style and distinctly cosmopolitan flavour. Now based in Australia, Yeshe was born and raised near Dusseldorf, Germany - where the Ruhr River joins the Rhine. At this juncture Yeshe at a young age was exposed to a unique collision of cultures, customs and music and a chance meeting as a teenager with African drummer Mustapha Tettey Addy became the foundation for his musical evolution and the African sound, which would feature so prominently in his music. Addy was a master Ghanaian drummer and ethnomusicologist and enthralled by his creative drumming compositions Yeshe began performing locally with Addy's percussion ensembles and by the age of sixteen had left school to tour the world. Yeshe kept returning to West Africa each winter to advance his musical and cultural mentorship and would perform during the European summers with acts traversing genres of Latin, Funk, Soul, Reggae and South African Jive. It was during one of these summers that he would meet another one of his musical mentors Reggae singer/multi-instrumentalist Tefo Hlaele, who was a founding member of the world famous South African musical, Ipi N’tombi. Tefo would later reconnect with Yeshe to perform on his award winning album Roots and Wings. Yeshe also spent five years in Japan working as a session musician with several Japanese and international artists. During this time, Yeshe travelled throughout Asia to absorb the various percussion styles of its many cultures.  He was invited to study with the Peliatan Gamelan Orchestra in Bali, the Kodo Drummers of Sado Island in Japan, and Samul Nori of South Korea. Yeshe’s musical apprenticeship would continue to evolve through the 80’s & 90’s after meeting Canada’s most awarded blues artist Harry Manx who is world renown for his exquisite combination of Blues, Folk, and Hindustan Classical music. Yeshe and Manx became good friends and worked and toured together with many different acts around the globe. Manx would have a tremendous and powerful influence on Yeshe's future musical development, eventually inspiring his solo career. While in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1996, Yeshe met American singer/songwriter Chris Berry of the band Panjea. Yeshe would perform with Panjea over several successful tours of the US and Australia. Berry was a master Mbira player who had already released many successful songs in Zimbabwe. It was this important meeting that sparked Yeshe's interest in the Mbira. As Yeshe recalls: “After stumbling across the Mbira in the desert of New Mexico I was immediately put under a spell and shortly after had to follow it to it’s birthplace in Zimbabwe. There I found Mbira master Garkayi Tirikoti and totally immersed myself into the Shona culture, basically never leaving his sight and sleeping on his floor in the ghettos of Harare. The Mbira thereafter became the centerpiece of my music.” Yeshe would later use the same approach to learn Kamele ngoni an instrument native to Mali and Burkina Faso in Africa, Again he would head for the source and study it with two brothers Aruna and Siaka Diarra from a Burkina Griot family. It was after a tour late in 2003, that with Harry Manx’s production guidance, they would record Yeshe’s début album entitled World Citizen through Manx’s Canadian based label, Dog My Cat Records. “Yeshe's music will never go out of fashion, this kind of music will remain relevant for ages to come” says Manx. World citizen charted and won multiple international awards with the largest independent e-tailor on earth CD Baby calling it “a true gem in our World Music category”. Supports and collaborations with world dance musician Ganga Giri (also featured on the record) and regular performances with a host of other artists in different genres at major festivals continue to broaden Yeshe’s audience from world music into contemporary dance and beyond. This brings us to 2011 and Yeshe is about to release his finest work to date. Opening track “Peace of Mind” was voted number one in the World category of the esteemed Billboard World Song Contest 2009. Progressive, evolving and rooted powerful in the earth Yeshe continues to push cultural boundaries to find new sounds, new experiences and share simple messages of hope and peace. Yeshe is a world citizen in the truest sense of the word. See www.yeshemusic.com for the latest news. MEDIA RELEASE Album release: Roots and Wings Artist: Yeshe Label: World Citizen Records More information: www.yeshemusic.com Title: Roots & Wings It seems ironic that the origins of a deeply soulful world music album would come from a multi-national behemoth but stranger things have happened. The meeting of the old and new worlds began on that cross cultural super highway known as Google where it was that world music troubadour Yeshe from Byron Bay Australia crossed paths again with an old musical companion, world renown South African reggae singer/ multi-instrumentalist Tefo Hlaele. Yeshe and Tefo had lost contact for almost 15 years and found each other on a Google search. As Yeshe recalls afterwards: “It was very emotional and we were so happy to reconnect and see each other again that we decided to record some tracks together before Tefo’s return to London. That’s when ‘Peace of Mind’ was born which landed me number one in the World category at the esteemed Billboard World Song contest.” London based Tefo Hlaele is a founding member of Ipi N'tombi of the world famous South African Dance Theatre, and was part of the first performance ever to a mixed (black/white) audience during the Apartheid era. Tefo was a big musical influence on Yeshe and one of his early mentors when touring around Europe in the early 1980s. Yeshe, an internationally respected and critically acclaimed musician in his own right has been exploring the terrain of world music since the 1970’s with a strong foundation laid down at a young age. Yeshe immersed himself in world music culture and spent many years in Africa honing his percussion and developing an affinity for the traditional African sounds of the Mbira and Kamele ngoni. Yeshe says: “I totally immersed myself into the Shona culture, studying and playing with Mbira master Garkayi Tirikoti, basically never leaving his sight and sleeping on his floor in the ghettos of Harare.” After years of international touring Yeshe found inspiration in the hills of Byron Bay and it was here that he continued the award winning work started with Tefo and took it to a new level. Recorded at ‘Art of Audio’ in the hills near Mullumbimby part of the magical Byron Shire in Australia, “Roots & Wings” was co-produced by the recent Grammy nominated Kamal Engels, recognised for his "Pure Sound" album by The Gyoto Monks of Tibet to be announced at the upcoming 53rd Annual Grammy Awards World Music Category. Yeshe drew upon a rich reservoir of his past and present musical cohorts from nine countries including Harry Manx (Canada’s most awarded blues artist and long time collaborator with Yeshe), Ganga Giri (Australia’s international Didjeridoo/dance export), Violin virtuoso Cye Wood (Lisa Gerrard), Siaka Diarra (one of Yeshe’s Ngoni teachers from Burkina Faso) and Avishai Barnatan (founding member of Israel’s favourite ‘Sheva’). Additional recording was done in Sydney, L.A, Ubud (Bali) and Accra (Ghana) adding to the rich layered world sound. Two of the songs have been sung in French, inspired by the success of Yeshe’ debut album ‘World Citizen” in Quebec, Canada which had chart success. As Yeshe states “ I loved playing to audiences in Quebec so much that I decided to record my version of the Quebec classic ‘La Ballade de Jean Batailleur’ by Zachary Richard”. The other French song ‘Ta Chambre’ Yeshe wrote as a love song to his wife while on one of his trips around French speaking West Africa. The record also has songs in English as well as original interpretations of traditional African songs. A very unique version of the classic ‘Summertime’, featuring Harry Manx on Mohan Veena ( Rajastani slide guitar) and Siaka Diarra on Kamele Ngoni’ provides real contrast in the material although the record is heavily flavoured by Yeshe’s African foundations and instrumentation binding the styles strongly together. In fact the title Roots and Wings honours his musical foots in Africa, which as Yeshe says, has “helped me grow my musical wings”. With international acclaim from the Billboard World Song Contest to springboard from, along with the high calibre of musical personnel featured on the record, it is clear that 2011 will be a big year for Yeshe. For all the details on the upcoming tours go to www.yeshemusic.com . SELECTED MEDIA QUOTES "Yeshe brings together diverse cultures and music with striking compatibility and resonance. A true gem in our world music category." (CD Baby, USA) "Beware, it's addictive!!!.....Yeshe's compositions range from the gentle to the spirited, fusing a complex percussive structure with layering of melody and lyrics, from overtly African to anywhere-in-the- wordly." (Jackey Coyle 'Rhythms' magazine, Australia) "Yeshe's half whispered vocals and liquid Mbira Dzavadzimu creates an intimacy that makes you want to lean into the music." ( Soundroots, USA ) "Yeshe's own singular voice was supple like worn leather and made for an earthy counterpoint to the otherwordly sound of the Mbira".                                             ('The Village Voice', Canada ) "This is brilliant African-sounding music from a multi-cultural percussionist with a wide open mind to all the globe's notes. Usually we think of world music as something traditional and specific to a culture. But Yeshe modernizes and crosses geographic and musical boundaries like a Paul Simon in reverse."…. "A Feast for music tourists"  ( NB Reader, Canada ) "... a very soothing record with undeniable freshness and humanity."                         ( L'ACTUALITE, Canada ) "Sublime. *****"  ( Montreal Metro, Canada ) "So beautiful it makes you appreciate life on our good old earth again. Includes a highly commendable version of No Woman, No Cry." ( Voir, Canada ) "Profoundly gentle - in the best sense of the word - evocative of Geoffrey Oryema's Exile." ( Penguin Eggs , Canada ) "If you are looking for some world music to bring some calm and peace to your inner world, World Citizen, by Yeshe, will take you there."……. "You find your self immersed in a release of beauty and grace”….. "Discover the beauty!!!!"                    ( Faster and Louder, Australia ) HOME BIO NEWS INSTRUMENTS     PRESS CONTACT