Photos - Cultural Arts Collective @ Pratten Park - The (nice ones) live shots by Stephen Mifsud
Cultural Arts Collective @ Pratten Park Ashfield
A community based venue pushing contemporary music boundaries
with culturally diverse original AUSTRALIAN music!
Initially Funded by Live Music Australia
Our program has featured Aboriginal Reggae, Hip Hop, African and Balkan Jazz and Alt Country
WE are back from MaRCH 25, 2023
With another year of culturally diverse original music!
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Saturday 25 November - Mirko Golub Trio Ft. Nina Dosenovic
Jazz meets Balkan Gypsy - amazing musicianship with an amazing vocalist, NINA!
Music that will make you move, dance and feel. Songs you love performed with a twist by a band that will take you on a journey of sound throughout the world.
Mirko has 20 years’ experience in Europe performing Balkan, Latin Jazz and contemporary piano. Since moving back to Australia, Mirko has been a hired gun for Balkan superstars touring Australia and has recently performed in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.
Mirko’s Trio will perform some of his original works as well as popular Balkan and World melodies in a funky jazz setting.
For the first time, Mirko will be joined by the amazing Nina Dosenovic on vocals.
Saturday 29 April - Saray Iluminado - Melbourne
This 5 piece ensemble from Melbourne are reimagining Bosnian Sevdah and Sephardic Jewish music.
Saray Iluminado draw on a number of traditions and mix them with their own diasporic Australian voices.
They have a distinctive performance style that blends music and story-telling rituals, intimately uniting the musicians with their audiences.
Saturday 25 March - Avaye Rood
Avaye Rood- Persian sound of the river
Avaye Rood was founded by Behzad Ansari in 2006 and has performed Iranian folk and traditional songs and Behzad's original compositions at many festivals and venues in Iran and other countries.
past events - 2022 Highlights
Worlds Collide ALBUM LAUNCH
Special horn section + guest artists - this gig is going to explode!
Fun, authentic, energetic and engaging, Worlds Collide melds languages and genres to make you think and dance, with seven cultures fusing hip hop rhymes, melodic hooks, African percussion, Latin drums, Silk Road melodies and Rock guitars.
Shanti Fire
SHANTI FIRE is the meeting of 5 seasoned musicians who bring their depth of experience in Indian classical, jazz, soul, kirtan, West African, Jewish folk and flamenco to produce music that is unique, hypnotic and passionate.
Special Guest - Baran Yildiz - a Sydney based multi-instrumentalist from Turkey.
Pathways Festival
12 - 5PM - FREE - Great Food - Great Music
Featuring the Next Wave of Culturally Diverse Artists - Afro Jazz, First Nations Hip Hop, Kurdish Rock and More
Funded by Multicultural NSW and Create NSW
DENGÊ HÊVÎ (KURDISH ROCK)
Fusing Kurdish-Turkish rock and traditional sounds, this seven-piece ensemble represent a contemporary cross cultural new sound from Blacktown, Western Sydney, with their songs of freedom and love.
FRINGE DWELLERS (FIRST NATIONS HIP HOP)
SEPORA and more
Victor Valdes Trio & Ben Goodger World Trio
Victor is renowned for his Mariachi Band, but his performance at Pratten Park will be a rare opportunity to hear him in a different way, intimate and playing Latin Jazz arrangements on Harp of traditional Latin American songs
Ben Goodger joins forces with prolific Flautist & composer Keyna Wilkins and Drummer/Percussionist Juan Andrés to take listeners on a journey through Latin America and classical Europe.
Eishan Ensemble
“Eishan Ensemble is a rare attempt in fusing contemporary Persian classical music with modern jazz. While being seemingly disparate traditions, the modal systems of both allows for a flawless combination, as evidenced by the fine compositions on this debut recording.” - Songlines” UK ★★★★
Miriam Lieberman Trio & Alexi Kaye
African influences blend seamlessly with blues-infused melodies and soaring vocal harmonies in the music by Sydney singer song-writer, Miriam Lieberman.
Her albums are soulful collections of stories, beautifully told through strings, African kora and Lieberman’s unmistakable voice
Gervais Koffi and the African Diaspora
Born in Cote d’Ivoire - West Africa, Gervais Koffi has travelled the world performing and recording with world-class musicians and producers. After a very successful musical career in Johannesburg he decided to explore the music scene in Australia in 1998. Ever since, he has been entertaining audiences in all major venues and festivals in the country.
According to the Basement, they are "easily the best Afro-roots show in town, and they play a pretty awesome Latin set too!"
Culture X Ashfield
AUSTRALIA’S LEADING CROSS CULTURAL BANDS
A high energy and moving concert, showcasing three culturally diverse bands changing the face of Australian contemporary music.
The Seven Ups (Melbourne) - The 7-piece heavy groove combo from Melbourne will take you on an abstruse journey into the darker fringes of instrumental music, drifting from funk to spiritual jazz and through to psychedelic fuzz rock.
Farhan Shah & SufiOz (Adelaide) - Sufi inspired fusions featuring the ‘Pakistani Pavarotti’ and his high-powered cross cultural ensemble
Worlds Collide - (Sydney) cross cultural Grooves, Rhymes and Riffs from Sydney’s proponents of the ‘Western Sydney Sound’
Funded by Create NSW
ARK
ARK is Marguerite Montes on vocals, John Napier on cello and dancer, Annalouise Paul. Together in a brand-new collaboration performing improvised compositions. Improvised compositions draw on traditional practices from India, Spain and European Folk Art where a theme or motif is used to develop short complete works. Each is a unique and original offering.
Supporting artists: renowned Flamenco guitarist, Robbie Varga and Peter Urquhart on viola and violin.
Buddy Glass special guest Bryan Estepa
Buddy Glass is one of the masterminds behind Sydney Inner City cult band Peabody, who recorded 5 albums over the last 26 years, played the Big Day Out , toured Australia and overseas.
fronting indie pop band Swivel in the late-90s pub scene.
Bryan Estepa Ex Swivel frontman started his solo career after a year of travelling across the USA and performing at open mic nights inspired his debut EP, Start Again in 2003 and since then has gone on to release six critically acclaimed solo albums.
What the artists are saying:
"It was a lovely experience for my band to perform in a space that supports a variety of musical experiences, and we got to met the legendary Gladys and jam with Sepora" - Kween G
"Cultural Arts Collective have created a local community gig space that original artists like me dream of. So grateful to feel both heard and seen after a year of almost no gigs. Can't wait to come back before the season is finished!" - Sepora
“The vibe is amazing, you've created a wonderful community hub there. Congratulations! I've had a few texts this morning from band members and audience who all LOVED the experience of being there. Loved the space, culturally diverse music program, the community feel and the bar. Can't get better than that.” - Gai Bryant (ALLY)
PAST EVENTS - 2021
13 March - GiiMusic & Simone east - Tickets, listen and More Info here
GiiMusic
Gii creates new music that is a mix of Australian Folk music and our connection to Country and Culture. With blazing blues inspired vocals and deep grooves from Mother Earth.
Simone East
Simone East is a Sydney artist whose songs of heartache and thwarted dreams are paeans to those with little left to lose.
27 March - Kween G and the SisterShip and Sepora - Tickets, listen and More Info here
Kween G & The SisterShip
Sydney’s Kween of Hip Hop delivers a hard hitting performance bringing a squad of empowered women to the front.
Sepora
A self-proclaimed dreamy-dark-pop princess from South New Zealand; Sepora feels good being a little bad and she sings a little sad.
10 April - ‘ALLY’ and Mirko Golub Balkan Jazz Trio - TICKETS, LISTEN AND MORE INFO HERE
ALLY
Killer jazz line up working with Afro-Peruvian, Cuban and Caribbean traditional rhythms
Mirko Golub Balkan Jazz Trio
Mirko’s powerhouse Trio will bend and twist Balkan melodies into future Australian Jazz Standards.
24 April - Moussa Diakite & Wassado with special guests Karifi - TICKETS, LISTEN AND MORE INFO HERE
SOLD OUT - SOLD OUT - SOLD OUT - SOLD OUT -SOLD OUT - SOLD OUT
Moussa Diakite & Wassado
Moussa Diakite is a guitarist, singer and composer born in Mali, best know for his work with Salif Keita
Karifi
Authentic Tribal drumming and chant from Ghana
8 May - Rock and Roll! Fireglow with special guests meza- TICKETS, LISTEN AND MORE
Fireglow
60s Jangle, soul and groove, coupled with the attitude and edge of the 70s. Catchy melodies, soaring guitars and a swinging rhythm section
MEZA
MEZA is a 3-piece rock band playing guitar-driven rock with a middle eastern flavour. Featuring Emad Younan, The Voice finalist 2016.
22 May- REGGAE NIGHT- Green Hand Band and Summer Remedy- TICKETS, LISTEN AND MORE INFO
Green Hand Band
Poverty, racism and inequality are cornerstone concepts Redfern-based reggae fusion group Green Hand Band aims to break down barriers about. Musical influences soul, reggae & desert rock genres
Summer Remedy
Summer Remedy is a multicultural band dedicated to spreading the rhythms and positive vibes of reggae music.
5 June - Alt Country Pop - Big Sky Mountain with guests Swamp Daisies- TICKETS, LISTEN AND MORE INFO
- SOLD OUT - SOLD OUT - SOLD OUT - SOLD OUT -
Big Sky Mountain
Big enough to be a netball team but small enough to be a good luck charm…BSM don’t look like your typical Australian country band…. Seven women, a kaleidoscope of harmonies and one trumpet – chaotic, earthy and real.
Swamp Daisies
The live experience of Swamp Daises is hard to describe and even harder to predict. Suffice to say they’ll make you smile and laugh. Then they’ll make you dance a little or sway involuntarily while you sing along to choruses you don’t yet know.
19 June - World Fusion - Rhythm Hunters and Shohrat Tursun Trio - tickets, listen and more info
Rhythm Hunters
“… a force of nature rather than a grouping of musicians… a show that was so musically engaging and complex that it feels like you have slipped inside an ancient myth or otherworld…’
Shohrat Tursun Trio
a combination of ancient melodies and African rhythms woven into compositions that can only be found in Australia.
COVID CANCELED my gig :( - COVID CANCELED my gig :( COVID CANCELED my gig :(
3 July - Mongolian Fusion- Equus supported by Keyna Wilkins - tickets, listen and more info -
Equus
Featuring Bukhu Gamburged who featured in The VOICE 2020- cross cultural Mongolian world music
Keyna Wilkins
"Keyna Wilkins is a restless artist. An adventurous soloist, equally brilliant as a pianist and flutist" AUSTRALIAN JAZZ
Saturday 4 Dec - Sepora - Swamp Daisies and Worlds Collide
Our first gig since lock down and our last for the year- Come down and celebrate a crazy year (kids welcome)
Genre hoping NIGHT of Dark Pop, killer Blues Guitars and the hip hop world fusion sounds of Western Sydney
