Ex-Centric Sound System formed in the late nineties when Yossi Fine, world-renowned bass player-producer and Nana Dadzie, well-known Ghanaian musician-dancer met in Israel. Together they have created and performed music that mixes sounds of the contemporary beats with that of traditional African music. With their music and dancing the Ex-Centric ensemble gives a gripping performance.
Yossi Fine, former bassist for David Bowie, Lou Reed, and Me’Shell Ndegocello wants you to feel the bass in your body. He leads this cutting-edge musical experience with his bass, samples and dubs. Fine has a career spanning over two decades and six continents that includes seven gold and platinum CDs. Fine fully engineered and produced over 25 albums, while contributing the bass on more than 150. Most recently, he produced Vieux Farka Toure highly praised album Fondo.
Prince Nana Dadzie is the son of a native chief of the Fanti tribe in the Central region of Ghana-Cape Coast. Dadzie plays intricately carved drums that have been passed down from father to son for centuries. His drums have been blessed by generations of hands and resonate with ages of rhythms and memories.
Fine and Dadzie are joined by traditional Ghanaian musician-dancer Miss Adevo and Moroccan-Israeli drummer Michael Avgil. Fine, who was born in Paris to a West Indian singer and an Israeli guitarist. explains that the sound system is a very important element in the African Diaspora for gathering people.
“I am a DJ too,” explains Fine. “I have spun world music dance albums, but most of them are either too soft on beats or too soft on the African element. People just get off the dance floor! Being a band with Ghanaian dancers and musicians, when we play live, people really dance!”Ex-Centric Sound System broke onto the music scene in 2000 with their debut Electric Voodooland which was called “spiritual food in the pop-music desert” (Vibe) and “fostering some arresting transglobal fusions” (Chicago Reader), among many other critical accolades. The CD, which was on hip-hop label Loud Records, drew fans across many boundaries. The progressive world music collective released two additional albums and went on to embark on numerous successful worldwide tours, performing at such prestigious venues as the Hollywood Bowl, New York’s Central Park Summer stage and the Montreal Jazz Festival.
