Wabanaki bassist, composer, and songwriter Mali Obomsawin released Sweet Tooth earlier this year. It’s a “suite for Indigenous resistance” that blends field recordings from relatives at Odanak First Nation — featuring “stories and songs passed down in Obomsawin’s own family with tunes addressing contemporary Indigenous life, colonization, continuity, love and rage” — with contemporary jazz, as part of a sextet, that also includes drummer Savannah Harris, guitarist Miriam Elhajli, clarinetist and saxophonist player Allison Burik, saxophonist Noah Campbell, and cornet and flugelhorn player Taylor Ho Bynum.
“Telling Indigenous stories through the language of jazz is not a new phenomenon,” Obomsawin says. “My people have had to innovate endlessly to get our stories heard – learning to express ourselves in French, English, Abenaki… but sometimes words fail us, and we must use sound. Sweet Tooth is a testament to this.” You can listen to the album and watch the video for “Wawasint8da” below, and learn more about it here.
Mali has a few tour dates on the horizon, including a few sextet shows in NYC. They play December 23 at a “surprise location,”, along with two shows during the APAP conference in January (details TBA). Mali also will perform as part of “Welcome to Indian Country” — an “evening length celebration of Native culture through music and storytelling” — in February at a few colleges around the country. All dates are listed below.
Mali Obomsawin – 2022/2023 Tour Dates
DEC 23 Mali Obomsawin Sextet [Surprise Location!!] – New York City, NY
JAN 13 Mali Obomsawin Sextet at APAP – New York City, NY
JAN 14 Mali Obomsawin Sextet at APAP – New York City, NY
JAN 22-28 Artist Residency at Dartmouth College – Hanover, NH
JAN 31 Brian Shankar Addler Quartet – Augusta, ME
FEB 4 Welcome to Indian Country at Vassar College – Poughkeepsie, NY
FEB 10 Welcome to Indian Country at Amherst College – Amherst, MA
FEB 14 Welcome to Indian Country at ASU Kerr – Scottsdale, AZ
FEB 17 Welcome to Indian Country at University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, WI