Roots Grown Deep presents Musical Ecology 2 LIVE! “They take us beyond blood and bone, beyond memory and fear, to a place where everything is ‘no thing’ made of a single substance.”

The beloved multi-cultural world music ensemble Roots Grown Deep performs music from their watershed work Musical Ecology 2 which is due for release in May 2026.

Roots Grown Deep is a multi-cultural, multi-continental world ensemble project guided by composer Joel Karabo Elliott. The original African Branches were founded in Southern Africa in 2012 and since 2020 the American Branches have grown together in southern Appalachia (western North Carolina). Musical Ecology 2 naturally follows upon the release of the album reSonate reFlect reLease reMember by Joel Karabo Elliott & Roots Grown Deep in April 2025, and of Musical Ecology 1 (2024) which represents the primary repertoire and creative expression of the African Branches of Roots Grown Deep. Guided, produced and co-composed by Joel Karabo Elliott, these audio epics represent a journey of culmination in the expression of two continental branches of a world music family who are tending to the rites of passage — birth, initiation and death thresholds.

The ensemble will include core American Branches members including:

Jahidi — tabla, percussion

Paloma Devi — voice, dance

Scott Sheerin — flutes, saxophones

Chinobay — endongo, kora, kalimbas

Aditi Sethi — harmonium, voice

Jay Brown — guitars