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Artist: Sultans Of String
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Sultans Of String:

Walking Through the Fire

What do Crystal Shawanda, Leela Gilday, Northern Cree powwow group, a dozen other Indigenous artists, and Roots band Sultans of String have in common? They have all come together in the spirit of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action and Final Report that calls for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to work together to find a path forward, and have created Walking Through the Fire. This album and live show are a powerful collection of collaborations between the roots group and First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists from across Turtle Island, with the CD releasing September 15, 2023, and a live concert tour launching on September 28, leading up to and following the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Fire can be destructive, as we have seen with the unprecedented forest fires still burning in Canada. But what we see right afterward is interesting, as collaborating Indigenous art director Mark Rutledge explains, referencing the title and cover art of Walking Through the Fire. “You’ll see the burnt-out husks of trees and the ash and the charcoal on the landscape. But fireweed is the first plant after a forest fire that emerges, and you’ll see rivers and fields of magenta within the barren landscape, and those nutrients are going back into the soil for the next generation of trees and flowers and regrowth.”

There is fear instilled within the very notion of fire because it can be so destructive, not just to the landscape, but to the lives of people. But what lies beyond fear that holds people back from achieving what they want to achieve? “The other side of fear is growth and potential with collaboration between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people,” Mark continues. “When we drop the word reconciliation on people, there’s a large group of people who don’t understand what that means. And when you don’t understand something, you are fearful of it. But if we go through the same experience together, we walk through that fire together, and we come out together on the other end and have that unified experience together, that’s the power in this album.”

Together these artists are making a safe, creative space where new connections can be dreamed of – not in the Western way of thinking and problematizing – but instead a deeper sharing and understanding, with music being the common ground to help cultures connect and understand each other. “We are opening doors for each other, as Indigenous peoples, as settler peoples. This project is about creating connections and spaces to learn from each other” explains collaborator Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk, violist with Métis Fiddler Quartet.

Sultans Of String:

Sanctuary

NY Times and BILLBOARD charting world music supergroup Sultans of String are releasing their brand-new single Mi Santuario on Sept 10, 2021. This song features the four core Sultans as well as an incredibly talented and inspiring special guest Juan Carlos Medrano, who co-wrote the music with the band, and sings his original lyrics, as well as performing on gaita, the traditional flute. Originally from Cartagena in the north coast of Colombia, Juan Carlos moved Canada in 2006 as a refugee.

SOS releases 'Mi Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)' on Oct 8, 2021. This song features the four core Sultans as well as incredibly talented and inspiring special guests Tara Salah Moneka & Ahmed Moneka.

Originally written by Sonny Bono and sung by Cher and Nancy Sinatra, this is a new take on the song that speaks to people from the perpective of marginalized voices, and is a benchmark of how the world has changed with the Black Lives Matter movement, and the thirst for equality around the world. 

Sultans Of String:

Christmas Caravan

"Canadian band Sultans of String keeps imaginative imperatives in overdrive for the entirety of Christmas Caravan, a generous pitch for global unity through the music of Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. These five musicians have jubilantly recharged the classics with arrangements that demand attention. ???? - Downbeat, USA

As winter crests and the mercury falls, everyone from your taxi driver to the music supervisor at the mall starts running timeless hits like "Jingle Bells" and "Silent Night." 

But Canada's global groove wizards Sultans of String wanted to go deeper into this beautiful tradition, and have launched their 2021 Christmas Caravan Playlist, featuring songs from their album which hit Billboard's World Music Charts and the New York Times Hits List. Recorded and co-produced with JUNO Award winning engineer John ‘Beetle' Bailey, Christmas Caravan isn't your typical holiday collection. You may recognize a few titles but you've never experienced seasonal music quite like this before.  They celebrate the holiday spirit with an adventurous musical trip around the world, featuring exuberant originals, world-music inspired classics, and seasonal favourites to warm your heart on a cold winter's night. 

They kick it off with a fresh version of Feliz Navidad along with Alex Cuba, who was just nominated for another Grammy in the Best Latin Pop category with his new album Mendo. In addition to his four Grammy nominations (all for Best Latin Pop Album in 2011, 2016, 2018 and 2022), Cuba has been nominated for five Latin Grammy Awards, four of which he won.

From fiery fiddle tunes to a Caribbean sleigh ride, the surprising and delightful holiday Christmas Caravan fiesta heats up when Sultans of String bring their signature sound to well known gems such as The Christmas Song, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, a Turkish twist on Greensleeves, Silent Night, a Django-jazz inspired Django Christmas, not to mention a Rumba-Flamenca fuelled Jingle Bells. 

Special guests also include jazz chanteuse Nikki Yanofsky, Mary Fahl from the October Project, hang drum player David Charrier from France, Turkish string group Gundem Yayli Grubu, Canadas' singer to the stars Rebecca Campbell, African-American a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, Panamanian star Ruben Blades and Luba Mason, Pakistani-Canadian sitar player Anwar Khurshid, and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra!

Of special note is Sing for Kwanzaa, a cut featuring Richard Bona and Sudanese-Canadian Waleed Abdulhamid. Fans call Bona "The African Sting," critics call him a pro, but it's his unique and electrifying style of connecting with his audience that titles him what he really is-a true musician. This is the perfect song to celebrate Kwanzaa held December 26 - January 1 each year.

Joining Sultans of String for the Christmas Caravan December tour is Rebecca Campbell, and on select shows Donné Roberts (JUNO winning African Guitar Summit) w/ Singer-Songwriter Yukiko Tsutsui from Japan, soulful-pop JUNO winning singer Kellylee Evans, award winning flamenco dancer/singer Tamar Ilana, multiple CFMA winner Lynne Hanson, Andalusian classical and Arabic jazz instrumentalist Fethi Nadjem, the velvet voice of Kristine St-Pierre who won CFMA for "Francophone Songwriter of the Year", and UK-Canadian multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Saskia Tomkins.

Sultans Of String:

Subcontinental Drift

SiriusXM Independent Music Awards winners, Sultans of String are releasing their fifth album Subcontinental Drift featuring special guest, sitar master, Anwar Khurshid. The new album was produced by band co-founder Chris McKhool, recorded at The Drive Shed Recording Studios in Toronto. Subcontinental Drift is being released on Sultans of String/CEN through RED Distribution, a division of Sony Music on February 5.

Sultans Of String:

Refuge

Sultans of String release; ‘Refuge' Produced by Chris McKhool and John ‘Beetle' Bailey

Chris McKhool: violin, viola, ChinCello, vocals, Kevin Laliberté: nylon, steel & electric guitars, vocals Eddie Paton: high strung acoustic guitar, vocals, Drew Birston: electric & acoustic bass, Moog Synth, vocals Rosendo ‘Chendy' León: drums, percussion, vocals Turkish String Session: Gündem Yayli Grubu

CLICK HERE FOR 'Refuge' EPK

Sultans Of String:

Symphony

A note from the Sultans - We are so excited to share this music with you. For two days in June we brought together the finest musicians from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Ballet Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and others to realize our vision of recording with a full symphony. Having developed the live show under the guidance of conductor John Morris Russell (Cincinnati Pops), we were very excited to try to capture the magic of these incredible arrangements in a studio setting, under the direction of recording conductor Jamie Hopkings.  What Jamie, along with orchestral engineer Gary Gray, arranger Rebecca Pellett, the incredible musicians, along with the rest of the team were able to achieve in two days was beyond our expectations. It was a thrill for us to hear the symphony parts in all their intricacies, as well as bring in some special guests we have always wanted to work with. Put on your best set of headphones, sit back, and enjoy!

Sultans Of String:

Heart Of Gold

Sultans of String releases Heart of Gold (Live) By NEIL YOUNG (Silver Fiddle Music) on Nov. 12, on Neil Young's Birthday!! This song has a lot of meaning to SOS leader Chris McKhool. He grew up in a classic music loving house. His mother was a piano teacher and all the kids from the neighbourhood would come to their living room for lesson. McKhool's first instrument was classical violin, which was amazing for ear training. He was even in a string orchestra called the National Capital String Academy, and loved it. But by the time he was a teenager, violin was kind of a square instrument, and when he got to high school he had learned enough about music already that he could teach himself how to play guitar and bought his first steel string guitar from Steve's Music in Ottawa where he grew up. A plywood model by Yamaha. Heart of Gold by Neil Young was the very first song he learned on it.