Idris Ackamoor Ensemble

The Idris Ackamoor Ensemble creates a unique blend of traditional and contemporary American jazz with traditional Cuban and Latin melodies and rhythms.  With Chico Freeman producing and guesting on most of the album, "Homage to Cuba" presents a glorious celebration of the Cuban people, their culture and music.  It represents a great artistic growth for composer, arranger and saxophonist Idris Ackamoor, taking him further into "World Music" than he has been, while also building on styles he has been exploring since the 1970s with his group the Pyramids (whose 3 albums will be reissued soon).  He has released two previous solo outings, "Portrait" and "Centurian", both of which received strong reviews, and he is the co-director of Cultural Odyssey, a non-profit that takes the phrase "art as social activism" literally.  He has toured the world playing his unique brand of jazz to routinely sold-out concert halls and other venues, as well as collaborating on theater work with his sometime artistic partner, Rhodessa Jones.