Kinetic Generations Joseph Sheehan & Kinetic

• Joseph Sheehan: Parade:
• 1 Sheehan: Parade 04:57
• A Gift:
• 2 Sheehan: A Gift 04:20
• Omugongo:
• 3 Traditional: Omugongo 03:55
• Little Child:
• 4 Sheehan: Little Child 05:43
• Nabirye:
• 5 Traditional: Nabirye 04:12
• Traditional: Sprig of Thyme:
• 6 Traditional: Sprig of Thyme 03:46
• Joseph Sheehan: Still:
• 7 Sheehan: Still 04:51
• Incantation:
• 8 Sheehan: Incantation 03:26
• Traditional: This Little Light of Mine:
• 9 Traditional: This Little Light of Mine 04:27
• Total Runtime 39:37

Info for Kinetic Generations

Blending traditional songs from Uganda and the United States with original compositions, GENERATIONS continues Joe Sheehan’s evolving exploration of folk music through a contemporary jazz lens. The album includes arrangements of Ugandan songs Omugongo and Nabirye, the British and Irish folk ballad Sprig of Thyme, and the spiritual This Little Light of Mine, alongside five originals by Sheehan and his ensemble, Kinetic. Inspired by fieldwork and performance in Ghana and Uganda, these songs reflect on how we might live more fully and wisely. GENERATIONS expands the ensemble’s mission of cross-cultural dialogue, drawing on global folk traditions to create music that speaks across generations.

Kinetic:
Anita Levels, vocals
Mariko Reid, vocals, background vocals
Erika Johnson, vocals, background vocals
Anthony Ambroso, guitar
John Shannon, guitar
Joseph Sheehan, piano, keyboard, percussion, background vocals
Denzel Chismar-Oliver, bass
James Johnson III, drums, percussion
Hugo Cruz, percussion
Bryce Rabideau, mandolin
Zoe Sorrell, flute
Jason Neukom, violin

Joseph Sheehan
composes and performs music to connect with musicians and audiences from diverse traditions. His music has been performed at prestigious concert halls, underground jazz clubs, outdoor music festivals, and intimate chamber settings. Musicians involved with his work include professional performers of jazz, classical, hip-hop, and African traditional music.

His work is rooted in three music traditions: jazz, classical, and West African traditional music, drawing from years of study and engagement with all three traditions. This includes several extended trips in Ghana studying its traditional music and dance, academic degrees in classical composition, and countless gigs as a professional jazz pianist. For Sheehan, all three music traditions share the value of wisdom. A wisdom that, though expressed differently in each, balances knowledge of tradition with the novelty of self-expression and stylistic evolution. It is to this quality of wisdom that Sheehan’s music and performances aspire to.

Sheehan’s classical compositions have been performed by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, percussionist Lisa Pegher, violinists Jeremy Cohen (QSF) and Paul Brancato (San Francisco Symphony), and cellist Eugene Friesen (Paul Winter Consort), at several CMS and ITG music conferences, and at the 2016 and 2017 Clazz International Music Festivals.

Sheehan founded the afro-jazz group Kinetic, which is releasing its second album Songs of Lake Volta on Ansonica Records in August 2018. The album features nine Ghanaian traditional songs blended with original jazz and classical music, and also involves members of the Kassia Ensemble, an all-female classical chamber ensemble. Kinetic’s first album, World of Wonder, was released in 2014. This led to the ensemble touring in New York City and Philadelphia, as well as featured airplay on WESA and WYEP Pittsburgh.

As a pianist, Sheehan performs jazz, hip-hop, and R&B in Pittsburgh and beyond, at events such as the BNY Mellon JazzLive Series, Three Rivers Arts Festival, the African Arts Festival in the Park, and Home for the Holidays, a holiday song revue featuring renowned Pittsburgh vocalists. He is a frequent collaborator with genre-defying projects such as the Groove Aesthetic, which blends hip-hop with classical music, and Cool Like Dat, a series of live hip-hop and R&B shows.

Dr. Sheehan teaches Musicianship at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, teaching classes in music theory, composition, songwriting, and African music. He has taught three Duquesne University Maymester study abroad programs: twice in Ghana, and once in Rome. Sheehan is also a faculty member at the Clazz International Music Festival Jazz Session in Arcidosso, Italy.

Kinetic
Utilizing a unique blend of global folk traditions and contemporary jazz, Kinetic’s performance efforts celebrate multiculturalism, wisdom, and joy. The diverse and adaptable music collective was first imagined when its founder, composer and pianist Joseph Sheehan, created music that reflected his experiences studying and performing traditional Ghanaian, jazz, and classical music.

Kinetic has released two albums respectfully blending folk songs from Ghana with original music. Songs of Lake Volta (2018), released on Ansonica Records, shared nine folk songs performed by a vocal jazz quintet and string quartet (featuring members of the Kassia Ensemble). Sonograma.org wrote “[Songs of Lake Volta] is the best we’ve heard in a long time of what we call world music.” Textura.org wrote “[It] blends classical strings and jazz ensemble playing with nine traditional Ghanaian songs… as if it’s the most natural thing in the world,” and rated it as No. 5 in its Top 20 Classical releases of 2018. Dances of Lake Volta (2021) reimagined songs from its predecessor with an expanded roster of musicians and added new songs including an original afrobeat composition by Samuel Boateng. Textura.org wrote “[it] engages instantly… vocals, percussion, bass, and piano come together gloriously in this ravishing statement… ‘Another Day’ is irresistible, as is the celebratory closer ‘Subo.’”

Kinetic has performed at concert halls, art galleries, universities, jazz clubs, and outdoor music festivals, including in Ghana, Uganda, Hong Kong, Toronto, and at the Clazz International Music Festival in Italy. In Pittsburgh, performances include Chamber Music Pittsburgh (2021, 2018, 2016), Sweetwater Center for the Arts (2025), BNY JazzLive Series (2024), Three Rivers Arts Festival (2016, 2014), African Arts in the Park Festival (2012), Alphabet City, and Con Alma. The ensemble has been featured at Americana Radio, WQED Classical FM, WESA (NPR), and the Pittsburgh City Paper.

This album contains no booklet.