I am Dr. Pascal Bokar Thiam. I am a Guitarist/Vocalist and a faculty in the Performing Arts & Social Justice Department of the University of San Francisco, CA (USF) where I teach African and African American Music and direct the (USF) Jazz Band.
I am the recipient of the Jim Hall Jazz Master Award from the Berklee College of Music and the Outstanding Jazz Soloist Award from Dizzy Gillespie and James Moody. My CD entitled “Guitar Balafonics” received Downbeat Magazine “Best CD of 2015”.
I am also the bandleader of the Pascal Bokar Afro Blue Grazz Band with more than 60 appearances at US Jazz & World Music Festivals. I lecture on the topic of Jazz and its relationship to African culture in colleges and universities in the US and abroad.