Sojourner’s Truth

Ella Zirina, (guitar) or Tineke Postma (alto & soprano saxophone)
Mark Lotz (flutes)
Frans van der Hoeven (Bass)
Sun-Mi Hong (drums)

The voices of female activists always are powerful, urgent, and deeply inspiring. Sojourner’s Truth was a musical tribute that brought their messages into the present through contemporary jazz.

Honoring Resistance and Protest

The project was named after Sojourner Truth (born Isabella ‘Belle’ Baumfree), the abolitionist and women’s rights advocate whose iconic Ain’t I A Woman? speech in 1851 still resonates today.

In an era of populism, #BlackLivesMatter, social unrest, and SARS-CoV-2, society craved personal engagement. Jazz, once a voice of resistance and protest, rarely tackled contemporary political and social themes. Sojourner’s Truth aimed to change that, reviving jazz’s roots as an art form of activism.

“If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”

Through this performance, the spirit of female activists take center stage. The music embodied their emotional depth, translating their struggle and passion into the present moment.

This ensemble later evaluated into the ensemble Freshta and the CD Freshta. With Claudio Puntin (clarinets, Jeroen van Vliet (piano), Jörg Brinkman (cello), Dirk-Peter Kölsch (drums)

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Performances

August 28, 2020 – Beauforthuis, Zeist
August 10, 2021 – Amersfoort World/Jazz Festival
December 10, 2021 – Willem II, ‘s-Hertogenbosch

Band Members

Ella Zirina

guitar, fx

Ella Zīriņa is a Latvian jazz guitarist and composer. Being a piano student till the age of 17 but decided to switch to guitar. Ella recently graduated with the highest honors at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. She has participated in the Expression of Art Award 2020 and been selected for the Keep an Eye Jazz Awards 2020.

Sun-Mi Hong

drums

Sun-Mi Hong is an Korean a drummer, composer and bandleader from Korea. She toured with a.o. Karel Boehlee Trio, Benjamin Herman and Daahoud Salim Quintet. Her sound pallet pulls from many diverse sources. A bachelor & master’s degree from the renowned Conservatorium van Amsterdam has seen to a strong and rooted basic in Jazz, Improvisation and technical ability.

Frans van der Hoeven

bass, elektronics

Frans does not understand himself in the traditional sense as a bass player but as a soloist, composer, accompanist and improviser. Frans contributed to the Jesse van Ruller Trio, Jasper Blom Quartet, Tineke Postma Quartet, Toon Roos quartet, Fay Claasen Group, Eef Albers Trio, the European Jazz Trio and performed with Clark Terry, Woody Shaw, Barney Wilen, Harry Sweets Edison, Art Farmer, Ronnie Cuber, Tom Harrel, Lee Konitz, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Fairouz and others. Toots Thielemans, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Jack de Johnette. Van der Hoeven experiments a lot with electronics and performs his solo program "Drum ’n Double Bass".

Tineke Postma

saxophone

Saxophonist and composer Tineke Postma tours worldwide as a bandleader and guest artist. The six albums she has released so far have received high praise. Tineke has won several awards, including the Jazz Juan Revelations Award (2009 Antibes Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival), an Edison (2011) for her album The Dawn of Light, and the prestigious Boy Edgar Prize (2015). She can be heard on two Grammy-winning albums by Terri Lyne Carrington and Dianne Reeves. Tineke is a former student of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Manhattan School of Music, New York.

Mark Alban Lotz

piccolo, concert-, alto-, bass-, pvc contra bass flutes, prepared flute, fx

Soloist, composer, producer in jazz and contemporary music often crossing borders with other cultures. Collaborations spans an arc with film, theater, performance art, visual arts and dance. Worked with many unknown and many famous but equally gifted unique voices in music all around the globe. Subject of international publications, prize-winner, nominated for the Edison and Beyond Magazine prize. Professor for flute at the Utrecht and Rotterdam Conservatories.