#NewsFlash | Infectious, Unique African Music to Fill Flushing Town Hall

Flushing Town Hall is celebrating 42 years of arts with a musical project that combines jazz, gospel, and blues with traditional African polyphonies, polyrhythms, and melodies.

The Gino Sitson Trio presents Beautiful Vibration: Colors of African Music via a hybrid format on Friday, Aug. 20, at 7 pm.

Sitson — who was born in Central Africa’s Cameroon, but currently lives on Manhattan’s Upper East Side — descends from a long line of musicians known as “Ntontas” or “players of horns.” He has recorded eight albums, including the recent Echo Chamber, which was preceded in 2016 by Body & Voice, an entirely a cappella solo album of 16 songs.

His Trio generates a new, exciting, and multicultural sound with Sitson’s original compositions, four-octave vocal range, and body percussion, alongside Lonnie Plaxico on double bass and Marvin Sewell on acoustic guitar and voice.

To ensure Covid safety, Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., will open in a limited capacity with 42 in-person tickets. The concert will also be livestreamed and an unlimited number of virtual tickets are available.

Virtual tickets cost $7. In-person tickets cost $12.

Sitson, who has a PhD in musicology from the Paris-Sorbonne University, has enjoyed a long and diverse career that includes composing for the Nickelodeon show “Dora The Explorer” and appearing with Bobby McFerrin at Carnegie Hall. Since 2006, he has been the Cultural Arts Ambassador for the City of Miami. He’s also a UNICEF CAMEROON Goodwill Ambassador and Associate Researcher at IreMus (Institut de recherche en musicologie: Paris-Sorbonne, CNRS, BnF, Ministère de la culture).

Top image: Gino Sitson; bottom image: Flushing Town Hall