Gurrumul Makes U.S. Debut In Spring

Quincy Jones presents the first date April 29 in New York City at SubCulture. Jones said, “Gurrumul is an incredible musician. Through his voice he paints you the complexity and beauty of his Aboriginal roots, and it reminds me of how we’re all so similar. Just beautiful.”

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu lives a traditional lifestyle in the remote Elcho Island off the Northern Territory coast. His 2008 debut Gurrumul, sung entirely in his Yolngu dialect, fused his 40,000-year old Aboriginal culture with a love for ’70s American rock.

The purity of his voice and his themes – identity, spirit, connection with the land and ancestral beings – struck a chord with a white metropolitan audience.

The album went triple platinum in Australia and sold half a million copies globally.

It was released July 2014 in the U.S. The follow-up Rralaka (2011) received airplay in Europe and the Asia Pacific.

The 45-year-old numbers Sting (who called him “the voice of a higher being”), Elton John, Stevie Wonder andwill i. am among fans.

Gurrumul, who is blind, also plays the New Orleans Jazz Fest (May 1), Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago (May 3), El Rey Theater, Los Angeles (May 6) and TBD- San Francisco (May 9).