Fuasi Abdul-Khaliq

 Fuasi & Ensemble

is a Jazz quartet which has been performing in and around Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal and France since its founding in 1995. The group is composed of musicians from American(USA) and European origins.
Fuasi Abdul-Khaliq plays saxophone, clarinet, flute and percussion. He comes from Los Angeles, California where he studied composition, arranging and performance in the U.G.M.A.A. Foundation (Union of God's Musicians and Artist Ascension) with "Horace Tapscott and the Pan-African Peoples Arkestra".

Rolf Zielke was born in 1964 in Hameln, Germany. He started playing the piano at the age of seven and later studied music at the College of Music in Hannover. Since the mid-eighties, Rolf Zielke has been an active member of the international jazz scene, presenting his own projects or accompanying renowned artists such as Charlie Mariano. Through years of intensive concert touring in Germany, Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA he has developed an individual but international sound.The music of pianist and composer Rolf Zielke is a reflection of contemporary jazz and World Music.

On drums there is Kenny Martin from New York, New York who studied at the Berkley School of Music in Boston and with such greats as Tony Williams, Jack DeJonette, Billy Cobham , and Narada Michael Walden . Kenny Martin is well known as being the original drummer for 13 years with the world renowned group "Defunkt". He has also toured and recorded with "Liquid Hips", Bill Bickford's "Bigfood", Bob Singleton's "Golden Gospel Singers", "Sharifa and WordSong" and with Ramesh Weeratunga's "Electric Rama".

Maximilian Hughes was born and raised in Heidelberg, Germany and in America. He's been living in Berlin since 1993. He studied of classical and modern music at the University of California San Diego, then recieved a Bachelor of Arts in Music (1991) from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 1994 he's been teaching electric bass at the "Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik" in Berlin, later renamed the "Jazz Institute of Berlin" when combined with the "University of the Arts (UDK)" in Berlin. Since 1998 he has been teaching computer music at "JIB". He has performed with the likes of John-Paul Bourelly, Toni Braxton, Flo Dauner, Wolfgang Dauner, Abdourahmane Diop, Marcelo Elias, Blanche Elliz, Wolfgang Fiedler, Roland Gebhardt, Tino Gonzales, Derrick James to name a few.

Together they have created a unique sound which is identifiable from the first notes they play. Their music comes from the influences of "Blues", "Hard Bop", "Eastern", "African" and "Funk" which creates a music full of spirit, depth and energy. The CDs "Fuasi & Ensemble ", "Fuasimodo Rings A Bell“ , "Fuasi & Ensemble Live at Café Central in Madrid Spain" and „The Afro-Cubano Latin Jazz Connection“ , all from their "live" performances, are proof that this group is worth listening to "Live and in Living Color „. The latest CD, „The Abakuá“ is the first CD first production in the last 5 CD productions that Fuasi had recorded in a proper studio setting.