Festival Recommendation: Vision Festival 18 – Celebrating Milford Graves, For A Lifetime Of Achievement

image003WHAT: Acknowledging A Lifetime of Achievement by Milford Graves – First Life Time Achievement for a Visual Artist to be awarded to Robert Janz

WHEN: Festival -Wednesday, June 12 thru Sunday, June 16, 2013

Renaissance Man- Milford Graves, LifeTime of Achievement, June 12, 2013

Ephemeral nomadic artist Robert Janz, LifeTime of Achievement, June 13, 2013

WHERE: ROULETTE  (509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY)

TICKETS: Daily Admission:  $30 per day / $20 students & seniors, Festival Passes are $140

 

INFO: Email info@artsforart.org / Call (212) 254-5420

URL:  www.artsforart.org

AFA is excited to announce that Milford Graves will receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. This legendary drummer, scientist, herbalist, martial artist and acupuncturist is truly a renaissance man whose work has for too long gone either under the radar or like so many great artists, has been misunderstood. His groundbreaking work and scientific approach to understanding the effect of rhythm on the heart is matched with a belief in the power of art to move and inspire.  As a drummer, his roots are in latin/Cuban rhythms, which will be reflected in the first group on June 12 where he has invited David Virelles to join him with a group of 3 other Cuban musicians.  The Rest of the Night will be All Stars including Kidd Jordan, DD Jackson, Charles Gayle Roswell Rudd Amiri Baraka and William Parker!

On the Vision Festival:

“Avant-garde jazz culture has no better colloquy in this country than the Vision Festival” (Nate Chinen, The New York Times). Critics have described it as “arguably the most important free-jazz fest in the U.S.” (Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader), “unlike any other festival on the planet” (John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com) and “the most exciting, adventurous musical gathering that New York has to offer” (Jason Gross, The Village Voice).

“No single event in the past decade has done more for New York free jazz than the annual Vision Festival.”  (Ed Hazell, Boston Phoenix) “Besides raising the profile of musicians who’ve been marginalized by the mainstream media, the artist-run event has provided a forum for allied artists in various media in which to explore the common political-aesthetic-spiritual underpinnings of their art directly with their audiences.”

About Arts For Art, Inc:

Arts For Art, Inc. was founded in 1995 by arts organizer/choreographer Patricia Parker, who a decade earlier, along with bassists/composers William Parker and Peter Kowald, produced the Vision Festival precursor, the Sound Unity Festival, which was immortalized in the influential documentary film, Rising Tones Cross.  Since the first Vision Festival in 1996, Arts For Art, Inc. has presented the best of the best of the best of avantJazz / Free Jazz / Un-compromising music and art, that keeps faith with the ideals that first birthed this music.  These ideals are as important today as when they were expounded in the 40’ 50’s 60’s etc.  AFA has expanded its outreach to include other events and educational programing to find new ways to make great art available.

      

Vision Festival 18

Improvisation / Freedom / Revolution

 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12

Celebrate Milford Graves  – A Life-Time of Achievement

 

7:00                        Afro/Cuban Roots

  Milford Graves – drums, percussion

  David Virelles – acoustic piano

Román Díaz – percussions (congas, batá drums, añá), vocals

  Dezron Douglas – acoustic bass

  Román Filiú – alto saxophone

 

8:30                        Milford Graves Transition TRIO

                                Milford Graves – drums, percussion

  D.D. Jackson – piano

  Kidd Jordan – tenor saxophone

 

10:00                     Milford Graves NY HeArt Ensemble

                                Milford Graves – drums, percussion

  Charles Gayle – tenor saxophone

  William Parker – bass

  Roswell Rudd – trombone

  Amiri Baraka – poetry

 

 

THURSDAY, JUNE 13

Honoring Visual Artist ROBERT JANZ

 

7:00                        Maria Mitchell / Terry Jenoure

                                Maria Mitchell – dance

  Terry Jenoure – violin

 

7:45                        Roy Campbell’s Akhenaten Ensemble

                                Roy Campbell – trumpet

  Bryan Carrott – vibes

  Jason Kao Hwang – violin

  Hilliard Greene – bass

  Michael Wimberly – drums

 

9:00                        Rob Brown U_L Project

                                Joe McPhee – trumpet, sax

                                Rob Brown – alto saxophone

  Miya Masaoka – koto

  Mark Helias – bass

  Qasim Naqvi – drums

10:00                     Roscoe Mitchell Trio

                                Roscoe Mitchell – reeds

  Henry Grimes – bass

  Tani Tabbal – drums

 

FRIDAY, JUNE 14 –  A French American Connection

 

7:00                        VOCAL-EASE

  Steve Dalachinsky – poetry

  Connie Crothers – piano

 

7:30                        Bern Nix Quartet

  Bern Nix – guitar

  Francois Grillot – bass

Matt Lavelle – trumpet

  Reggie Sylvester – drums

 

8:45                        East-West Collective

                                Didier Petit – cello

  Sylvain Kassap – clarinets

  Xu Fengxia – guhzeng

  Larry Ochs – tenor sax

  Miya Masaoka – koto

 

10:00                     The French-American Peace Ensemble

                                Francois Tusques – piano

  Louis Sclavis – clarinets

  Kidd Jordan – tenor sax

  William Parker – bass

  Hamid Drake – drums

 

Performances by FAPE & East West Collective is made possible through the French-American Jazz Exchange, a program of FACE  & Mid-Atlantic Arts, with funds from French Embassy, Doris Duke Foundation, SACEM

 

SATURDAY, JUNE 15

 

12:30                     PANEL on Building a Future where improvisation and Culture come Together

2 pm                      Visionary Youth Band– coT.I.M.E. initiative bklyn / Jeff Lederer, Jessica Jones

2:30                        York College Creative Ensemble – CUNY Queens / Tom Zlabinger – Director

3 pm                      Achievement First Middle School Band – Brooklyn / Gene Baker director

3:30                        All schools (80 young musicians) under direction of William Parker

                  with guest artist Hamid Drake

                 

5 pm      Panel on the French-American exchange of musical ideas & social, political ideals

                                past and present – moderated by Michel Dorbon

French: Didier Petit, Francois Tusques

Americans, William Parker, Larry Ochs

 

7:30 pm                Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up

  Brian Settles – sax

Jonathan Finlayson – trumpet

Mary Halvorson – guitar

Michael Formanek – bass

Tomas Fujiwara – drums

 

8:45                        Davis/Revis/Cyrile Trio

                                Kris Davis – piano

  Eric Revis – bass

  Andrew Cyrille – drums

 

9:45                        Simmons / Burrell Duo

                                Sonny Simmons – alto saxophone

  Dave Burrell – piano

 

10:45                     Reggie Workman WORKz

                                Reggie Workman – bass

  Marilyn Crispell – piano

  Odean Pope – tenor saxophone

  Tapan Modak – tablas

Pheeroan akLaff – drums

 

SUNDAY, JUNE 16

 

2:00                        Panel – Decolonizing the Music:

Reclaiming the Power of Creative Music in Communities of Color                          

 

4:30                        Film on Butch Morris ‘Black February by Vipal Monga

 

6:00                        Inner City: Migration

                                Miriam Parker – dance, choreographer

  Jason Jordan – dance

  Hamid Drake – drums

  Jo Wood Brown – art

Robert Janz – guest visual artist

 

6:30                        Positive Knowledge

  Oluyemi Thomas – sax

  Ijeoma Thomas – voice/words

  Henry Grimes – bass ?

  Michael Wimberly – drums

 

7:30                        Hamiet Bluiett Quartet

                                Hamiet Bluiett – baritone sax

DD. Jackson – piano

  Harrison Bankhead – bass

  Hamid Drake – drums

 

8:30                        Mario Pavone ARC Trio

                                Mario Pavone – bass

  Craig Taborn – piano

  Gerald Cleaver – drums

 

9:30                        Marshall Allen & McBrides BASS ROOTS

                                Marshall Allen – alto sax

  Christian McBride – bass

  Lee Smith – bass

  Howard Cooper – bass

AFA acknowledges Visual Artist Robert Janz

For A Lifetime Of Achievement

For the first time, Arts for Art will honor a great visual artist for a lifetime of achievement at the 18th Vision Festival in June 13, 2013.  Robert Janz was born in 1932 in Ireland but received his art training in the US. He was part of the ‘Zen Generation’ led by Pacific Coast Beat artists.  His work, in his own words, is  ‘totemic …haikus’.  Robert Janz has lived all his art always slightly under the radar, creating powerfully resonant, nomadic, overlooked, poetic, ephemeral, challenging art.  And his art and philosophy has influenced generations of artists all over the world as his nomadic life led him.  It is Arts for Art’s honor to shine a light on his work and creative philosophy.