John Calloway & the Afro-Filipino Project is a Bay Area-based ensemble comprised of African American, Filipino American and Afro-Filipino musicians, dancers, and spoken word artists who are dedicated to exploring the artistic and cultural ties and commonalities among them. In celebration of Filipino American Heritage Month, the ensemble will perform an array of original arrangements and compositions that fuse jazz, traditional Filipino music, and the indigenous kulintang music of the southern Philippines. Much of the repertoire performed will be from the “Buffalo Soldier in the Philippines: A Crisis of Conscience” project conceived by Calloway in 2023. The ensemble will feature:

Ron Belcher – bass Eric Peralta – piano Deszon Claiborne – drums Sam Brown – violin Conrad Benedicto – kulintang instruments and spoken word Manuel Dragon – kulintang instruments Ting Jose Alvarez-Maquinta: reader, spoken word, dancer John Calloway – flutes, kulintang instruments