Takatu Boostep

RICK IANNACONE-GUITAR
Rick has been playing guitar since 1965.
He has worked and recorded with:
Billy Paul (Philly International Records), T. Life (Arista Records), Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Ronald Shannon Jackson Decoding Society, Jamaaladeen Tacuma (Gramavision Records), Wolfgang Puchnig (Amadeo Records, Vienna),
Samul Nori (ECM and Nanjang Records, Seoul Korea), Bobby Zankel (CIMP records),
Burhan Ocal (DoubleMoon Records Istanbul Turkey), Samarai Celestial (Carrot Top Records), Tyrone Hill, The Shamanistics,
Interplay Ensemble (Porter Records), and New Ghost (ESP Records).
Rick has also led the group Character We and played with the Group Motion Dance Company as well as modern dance programs at Bryn Mawr College, University of the Arts, Temple University, Drexel University.

KEN SOKOLOV-DRUMS & PERCUSSION
Ken has accompanied and toured with musicians like country superstar Ferlin Husky, folk legend Donovan, and African music icon Thomas Mapfumo.
He studied and performed west African drumming for over 20 years as well as North Indian tabla and Balkan rhythms.
You can hear him in other groups like the Klezmonauts, Kef, Beatcrunchers, and Chibuku.
He is also a singer and adept on stringed instruments such as fiddle, guitar and mandolin.

MICHAEL RUBINSTEIN-BASS
After coming up playing jazz, rock, and blues in the New York area and studying with Rufus Reid in college, Michael moved to Miami to work in a pop band, then to Paris to join a French rock group, playing jazz on the side, and getting studio work with rappers. Returning stateside in 1990 Michael moved to California to teach, then went out on the road with the Portland Slam, an R&B group. After a stint in Seattle exploring experimental jazz, he settled in Eugene and formed the jump blues group The Deb Cleveland Band, after he and a buddy discovered the unknown singer. He worked extensively with his own trio and quartet throughout the 90’s. Michael has been working with the world music group The Klezmonauts for 20 years. He is a founding member.

ROBERT LEE-WOODWINDS & BACKUP VOCALS
Rob has been making music for thirty years and playing saxophone for twenty-three.
He grew up an improviser and loves the possibilities it opens up for all of music. He has been studying the saxophone since he was ten years old, with his parents as his first teachers, and grew through Minnesota school and state honor jazz bands as well as his own small jazz groups he led for area weddings and events. While living in New York and after studying at the New School for Jazz in Manhattan, he led his own group (Gym, Deer) with his own original vocal music through venues around the city and on record. Along with working the ocean-cruise circuit, he has also worked as a sideman for various groups, found on recordings by Charlie Persip, In One Wind, Names Of War, Walrus Ghost, and more. Now a proud resident of Cottage Grove, Oregon, he plays with Tonewood Trio, Thomas Mapfumo, Kudana, and Takatu Boostep.

MALLORY GLASER-VOCALS
Mal has dipped her toes into jazz, funk, classical art song, free improvisation, live electronica, and the folk musics of the Middle East, the Balkans and West Africa. She is a transplant from New York City, where she studied jazz and was member of the experimental folk band, In One Wind. She now lives in Cottage Grove, where she performs with the Tonewood Trio, Takatu Boostep, Bossanaire, and Kudana. She is also a member of Gym, Deer– an electro-acoustic folk group that explores the resilience of the human spirit.