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BIOGRAPHY
About Dawn Drake and ZapOte:
This band has gone far and wide for the short period of time that it has been together. Formed in 2005 to record the original songs of Dawn Drake, the band shortly thereafter started to play venues in and around New York City, including the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music Cafe Live series, Medgar Evers College Womens Week, venues on NYC's legendary Bleecker Street, DROM, Nublu, Esperanto, Oliva, Jules Bistro, Boom, L'orange Bleue and others.
An active musician in New York City's African, Brazilian and Latin music scene, Dawn Drake started her career as an electric bassplayer
and percussionist. Now she is known first and foremost as a singer-songwriter, composer and bandleader.
As a Slovenian-American, Dawn's love of a variety of music first came from home. Later, she began traveling and studying world music at the University of Ghana, West Africa where she lived for a year. Upon moving to New York City, she started to play bass and percussion with groups which have included Obini Ashe; Beat the Donkey, Samba New York, The Femm Nameless, Jojo Kuo, Manmzel, Paprika, Azouhouni Adu, Nepo Soteri and others.
Dawn studied and played congas and batá in Cuba, and samba percussion in Brazil, where she played in Rio de Janiero's Carnaval. She has shared
the stage with Me'shell N'degeocello, Cyro Baptista, Trey Anastasio, Mo'Guajiro, Los Jovenes del Barrio, Kokolo, Jorge Alabê and members of Antibalas. She has appeared on The CBS Early Show, and Telemundo TV, PBS, WBAI, and played stages such as Symphony Space, SOB's, The Zinc Bar, Rockefeller Center's Rainbow Room, Radio City Music Hall, BAM CAFE, The Walker Art Center, Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, the New Orleans Jazz Festival.
"Dawn Drake & ZapOte" have performed live on WBAI, KPFA Pacifica Radio in Berkeley, Ca, KUSP in Santa Cruz, and WTJU in Charlottesville. They have toured Europe and the East and West Coast of the US, and they were featured performers at BAMCafe Live in 2007, the multi-city Bluemont Concert Series in Virginia, 2008, the Wisteria Cornstalk Festival and Culturefest WV in 2009, the Downtown Berkeley Music Festival in 2009 and 2010, the Brooklyn Academy of Music Cafe Live Music series 2010, and the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens Chili Pepper Festival in 2010. Their full-length album and two EPs are available at CD Baby, www.cdbaby.com/cd/dawndrake3, as well as on itunes at www.itunes.com/dawndrake.
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