OZOMATLI Performs at Pasadena Playhouse Tonight

The Pasadena Playhouse (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director and Elizabeth Doran Executive Director) announces a one-night only concert featuring Ozomatli, which continues the celebration of the ground-breaking musical diversity of its current production: One Night With Janis Joplin and Los Angeles' eclectic music landscape. A portion of the proceeds from this concert will benefit The Playhouse's Wells Fargo Theatrical Diversity Project. Tickets are now on sale for this special evening tonight, April 15, at 7:00 p.m. that will feature all-new music from their upcoming album.

A limited number of VIP tickets are available which include a Café Con Ozo meet and greet with the band members featuring Ozomatli's Ozo Espresso, courtesy of Zona Rosa Coffee. Zona Rosa Caffe and Ozomatli have a long history of collaboration, starting in 1995 when Ozo began playing weekly shows at the Pasadena coffeehouse that specializes in Organic and Latino coffees.

"Ozomatli's great history of tying performance to the celebration of diversity matches perfectly with The Pasadena Playhouse's own connection of art to culture," stated Elizabeth Doran, Executive Director of The Playhouse. "Here in the greater Los Angeles region we love Ozomatli because both on and off the stage they so clearly represent our shared diverse community. When they take music to refugee camps, they do it in a spirit that seems to take us all along with them. When they impact the lives of children, we feel like we are there, too. We strive for this kind of inclusion and impact here at The Playhouse, and could not be more delighted by the band's decision to come and perform to benefit our own diversity programming."

"One of the most important parts of our mission here at The Playhouse is developing young audiences and young artists," said Playhouse Artistic Director Sheldon Epps. "That vital initiative along with our efforts and our great success in the area of diversity on stage and off, are central to defining who we are as a theatre company. Having Ozomatli on our stage, delivering his wonderful work to an audience who might be coming to our theatre for the first time can only be described as a great success even in advance of what I know will be an exciting event for our theatre."

"We are super excited to bring Ozo energy to such a historic landmark in our backyard," said Ozomatli. "This is LA history."

In their eighteen years together as a band, celebrated Los Angeles culture-mashers Ozomatli have gone from hometown heroes to being named U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassadors.

Ozomatli has always juggled two key identities: they are the voice of their city and they are citizens of the world. Their music - a notorious urban-Latino-and-beyond collision of hip-hop and salsa, dancehall and cumbia, samba and funk, merengue and comparsa, East LA R&B and New Orleans second line, Jamaican regga and Indian raga - has long followed a key mantra: it will take you around the world by taking you around L.A.

The Wells Fargo Theatrical Diversity Project was organized in 2005 to support The Pasadena Playhouse's vision to build a legacy of artistic and theatrical diversity. Embracing diversity at The Pasadena Playhouse goes beyond promoting tolerance; it is about exploring and celebrating the human experience shared by people of all colors, genders, ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, learning and physical abilities, and socioeconomic positions. This initiative gives priority to eclectic and dynamic productions featuring a diverse array of artists, actors, and playwrights. Our productions reflect the diverse richness that defines (in an integral and not ancillary way) our community, while never forgetting that primary goal of theater - to entertain. It empowers and enriches young people of diverse ethnicities from disenfranchised communities through free student performances and arts education programs; and cultivates writers, actors, directors and designers of all backgrounds through new play development, mainstage productions and outreach programs.

OZOMATLI will perform tonight, April 15, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. The Pasadena Playhouse is located at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. Single ticket prices range from $30.00 - $75.00, with special VIP tickets which include a Café Con Ozo meet and greet experience, courtesy of Zona Rosa Coffee, available for $150.00. Service and theatre restoration fees apply to all purchases. Tickets are available by calling The Pasadena Playhouse Box Office at 626-356-7529. On non-performance dates, the Box Office is open Tuesday - Sunday from 12:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. On performance dates, the Box Office is open Tuesday - Saturday from 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. and Sunday from 12:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available 24 hours a day atwww.PasadenaPlayhouse.org. Group Sales (tickets for 8 or more people) are available by calling 626-921-1161. For additional information on The Pasadena Playhouse, please visit www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.

More About Ozomatli

Originally formed to play at a Los Angeles labor protest, Ozomatli spent their early days participating in everything from earthquake prep "hip hop ghetto plays" at inner-city elementary schools to community activist events, protests, and city fundraisers. Since then, they have been synonymous with their city: their music has been taken up by MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers and the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, they recorded the travelogue "City of Angels" as a new urban anthem, and they were featured as part of the prominent L.A. figures imaging campaign "We Are 4 L.A." on NBC-TV. Ozomatli also have the distinction of headlining the Hollywood Bowl three times, in 2008, 2010 and 2012. In recognition of their efforts, the City of Los Angeles has officially declared every April 23rd in perpetuity as "Ozomatli Day".?

On the national stage, the band were recognized for their service not just to Los Angeles but as global activists, receiving the National Council of LA Raza's Humanitarian Award, and performing twice for President Barack Obama.

?"This band could not have happened anywhere else but L.A.," saxophonist and clarinetist Ulises Bella has said. "Man, the tension of it, the multiculturalism of it. L.A. is like, we're bonded by bridges." Ozomatli is also a product of the city's grassroots political scene. Proudly born as a multi-racial crew in post-uprising 90s Los Angeles, the band has built a formidable reputation over five full-length studio albums as well as a relentless touring schedule.??"Just being who we are and just doing what we're doing with music at this time is very political," says bassist Wil-Dog Abers. "The youth see us up there and recognize themselves. So in a playful, party-type of way, I think it's real easy for this band to get dangerous. We are starting to realize just how big of a voice we actually have as a band and how important it is for us to use it."??

Several years ago, the reach and power of that voice went to new global heights. The band had long been a favorite of international audiences-playing everywhere from Japan to North Africa and Australia-and their music had always been internationalist in its scope, seamlessly blending and transforming traditions from Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East (what other band could record a song once described as "Arabic jarocho dancehall"?), but that year they entered the global arena in a different way. ??

They were invited by the U.S. State Department to serve as official Cultural Ambassadors on a series of government-sponsored international tours to Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East, tours that linked Ozomatli to a tradition of cultural diplomacy that also includes the esteemed likes of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Louis Armstrong.?? In places like Tunisia, Egypt, India, Jordan, and Nepal, Ozo didn't just play rousing free public concerts, but offered musical workshops and master classes and visited arts centers, summer camps, youth rehabilitation centers, and even a Palestinian refugee camp. They listened to performances by local musicians and often joined in for impromptu jam sessions with student bands and community musicians. Most shows ended up with kids dancing on stage and their new collaborators sitting in for a tabla solo or a run on the slide guitar. ?

?In the case of Nepal, the band's trip was part of a celebration of the country's newly ratified peace accord. Their concert, which drew over 14,000 people, was a historic one. Ozo were the first Western band to do a concert in Nepal, and the event was the country's first peaceful mass gathering that was not a protest or religious ceremony. They then went on to be the first contemporary western band to play public concerts in Mongolia (drawing a crowd of 25,000), and to perform in Myanmar during the height of military rule.?? Ozomatli also traveled to China, South Africa, Madagascar, Vietnam and Thailand performing free concerts and extending humanitarian outreach, including HIV and AIDS care clinics, visits to schools for the blind and deaf, orphanages, Methadone clinics, and outreach programs to refugees and disadvantaged youth. ??

Ozomatli were honored to accompany the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Celebrating the Pops 125th Anniversary. Since that first orchestral collaboration, they have gone on to perform Ozo classics live with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, the Colorado Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, and the New York Pops.???Ozomatli made an appearance at TEDxSF - the first musical talk ever given at any TED conference - mixing discussion and sound to explore the challenges and promises of musical identities in a global age.?

In addition to their substantial history licensing their music for film, television and video games, the band has also gone on to compose and score, recently contributing music to Happy Feet 2 and Elmo's Musical Monsterpiece for Warner Brothers Interactive, SIMS for EA Games, music for PBS Kids, the motion pictures A Better Life and Harlistas, and Gabriel Iglesias Presents Stand-Up Revolution on Comedy Central..?The past few years have seen the band focused on Ozomatli Presents "Ozokidz", a special family friendly set geared towards performing for children and adults alike. The album, released on Hornblow Recordings in fall of 2012 has been recognized by the media as a standout release in the children's music genre, with plaudits coming from NPR, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, New York Daily News, iTunes and more.

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