“Ye-de-gbe” for release Fall 2012 on 5Passion
Yosvany Terry
YE-DE-GBE & Afro Caribbean Legacy
“Ye-dé-bgé” is a phrase in the West African language Fon, originally spoken in Dahomey. It means “with the approval of the spirits.” Musician and composer Yosvany Terry seeks through his music to unify the legacy of traditions, musical and spiritual, practiced throughout the Pan-African regions stretching from the African continent to the islands of the Caribbean and parts of North and South America.
In early September 2007 Yosvany Terry traveled from New York City to Matanzas, Cuba, to trace the roots of the Arará musical tradition. This tradition was originally brought to the island by slaves taken from Dahomey, now called Benin, in West Africa. While in Matanzas, famous for its dedication to folkloric music and dance traditions, Terry also commissioned a set of Arará drums. These rare and massive drums were crafted specifically for the ensemble he calls Ye-dé-bgé & the Afro-Caribbean Legacy and Terry will premier the complete recording during the Fall of 2012.
On the same trip, Terry studied with Mario Rodriguez Pedroso, or Maño, a great master of the Arará tradition and in fact one of the last living drummers initiated in the tradition. He serves as the director of the “Sabaluno Cabildo” in Matanzas. Cabildos are associations that were organized centuries ago by African slaves as a means of retaining and expressing their cultural heritage though ceremonies and rituals including music and dance, pilgrimages, and celebrations of their deities. “Sabaluno Cabildo” was named after Savalú, a city in Dahomey, present day Benin, where the Arará tradition originated.
In the Ye-dé-bgé Project, Terry consciously communicates his African and Cuban lineage through sounds that originated in Africa and inspired new music in the Caribbean, Brazil, and in the American South. It is a unique opportunity for Terry to express hundreds of years of tradition by re-integrating the obscure rhythms of the Arará into the jazz tradition. Although now a New York resident and a frequent performer in clubs and concert halls, Terry left his native Cuba only eight years ago. Terry grew up in the Camagüey province with his parents who are of both Haitian and Cuban descent and whose ancestors came from Africa and Europe.
During Terry’s recent pilgrimage to study the Arará tradition, he discovered that he was already familiar with many of the melodies and rhythms. Growing up Terry learned and practiced Vodou rituals with his family. His grandmother, Basilia Leon Charles from Haiti, traces her ancestors to Dahomey. She was a devoted practitioner of the religion and raised her children with the songs and fetishes representing the pantheon of deities shared among numerous African traditions. Eladio Terry, Yosvany’s father, is a world-renowned musician and also a devout practitioner. It was within this rich cultural and musical family that Yosvany Terry became a bearer of the ancient traditions.
Afro-Cuban Jazz Artist Yosvany Terry brings rare Arara drums, African music traditions to Harlem: Terry’s Ye-de-gbe project performed on January 12 at Harlem School of the Arts.
Latin Beat Magazine – April 1, 2008
Gale Reference Team
The Afro-Cuban composer and saxophonist Yosvany Terry brought the music, dance and religious traditions of the West African Arará culture–which traveled with the slaves from the Dahomey (now Benin) region of West Africa to Cuba, Haiti and Brazil hundreds of years ago and was preserved there–to Harlem. Yosvany Terry, with Ye-de-gbe and Afro-Caribbean Legacy, performed The Arará Suite, a new work of world music commissioned by the Stanford Jazz Workshop (SJW), a nonprofit organization dedicated to jazz education and appreciation, at the Harlem School of the Arts as part of its Saturdays at Noon series.
The performance gave a rare opportunity to see and hear Arará drums, and savor the authentic sound of the music, Terry was commissioned to bring to the U.S. what may be the first Arará musical exhibit of its kind to reach North American shores.
Ye-de-gbe means “with the approval of the spirits” in the West African Fon language, and it is the name of Terry’s latest endeavor, a fusion of the Afro-Cuban Arará culture and North American jazz. The music is known for its distinct percussive elements: drumming, hand clapping and body percussion. While the Arará culture continues to thrive in Cuba and throughout the Caribbean, few in the U. S., and particularly in its inner cities, have been exposed to it. Terry is taking measures to keep it alive through The Arará Suite, an exploration of Terry’s West African heritage. The Arará culture and traditions have traveled through the years from West Africa’s Benin (formerly Dahomey) to Cuba, and now to Harlem.
In early September of 2007, Terry traveled from New York City to Matanzas, Cuba, to trace the roots of the Arará musical tradition, originally brought to the island by slaves taken from the Dahomey region in West Africa. There, he studied with Mario Rodríguez Pedroso, a master of and one of the last living drummers initiated in the Arará tradition. He also commissioned a special set of drums needed to perform the music.
Terry (who was born and raised in the Camagüey province of Cuba) realized that he was already familiarized with many of the melodies and rhythms. Growing up, he learned and practiced Vodou rituals with his family. His Haitian grandmother, Basilica León Charles, practices the religion and traces her ancestors to Dahomey. His father, Eladio “Don Pancho” Ferry, a world renowned violinist and Cuba’s leading chekeré player, is also a devout practitioner. It was within this rich cultural and musical family that Yosvany Terry became a bearer of the ancient traditions.
“It is important to preserve the roots and tradition of today’s music and help the new generations understand our cultural heritage,” he said. “We’re finding that while this is new to audiences, they can still recognize the musical traditions that are a part of their history and appreciate how they are expressed in modern music.”
After receiving his first musical training with his father, Yosvany went on to study classical music, graduating from both the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) and Amadeo Roldan Conservatory. He founded the influential group, Columna B, which represented the new voice of young Cuban jazz players, before immigrating to the U.S. in 1999.
The performance was made possible by a generous grant from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in the wake of the payola scandals involving major recording and radio broadcasting companies. The fund is designed to benefit and expose New Yorkers to exemplary contemporary music of all genres through music education and appreciation programs.
