Speaking in Tongues

SPEAKING IN TONGUES is comprised of four astonishing musicians from four different cultures with four native tongues. With superb musicianship and an infectious camaraderie, Speaking in Tongues creates an environment that is engaging and exhilarating. The collective sound of the group draws on so many sources that listeners from all walks of life can connect easily. Four outstanding musicians blend music from four different cultures on a stage full of instruments from all over the world. The result - a concert experience which is spellbinding, entertaining, and unprecedented. Speaking in Tongues is master drummer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Sowah Mensah from Ghana, Enrique Toussaint, the virtuoso bassist from Mexico City, Twin Cities master percussionist Marc Anderson, and Gao Hong, one of the world's foremost performers on the Chinese four-stringed lute, the pipa. When considering the individual voices, one is struck by the truly distinctive quality of this music and the level of skill and musical maturity required to shape it into the spirited and the coherent musical expression that it is. Their music has been described as a West African drum ensemble driving along under the butterfly wings of an Asian melody, the romance of Brazilian jazz orchestrated with Middle Eastern drums, and folk music from a new world. Rich compositions set up by free roaming improvisations lead the listener through open landscapes of gentle rustlings and sparse instrumentation and then, with a subtle turn, plunge them into thick forests populated by percussion and bass.