Join the Eco-Music Big Band for a special Earth Day celebration! BLUES PLANET, MY LOVE is an evening of music that celebrates the liberation of our planet, and the liberation of all people. This concert features three world premieres of works by Albert Marques, Marie Incontrera, and Alexis Cuadrado, and works by Fred Ho, Cal Massey, and others, with special guest Los Angeles-based and internationally acclaimed hip hop artist, Olmeca.  This concert is made possible in part by the Eric Stokes Fund.

The Eco-Music Big Band is a 15-piece professional big band that spans many generations and includes some of the nation’s most acclaimed jazz musicians. Our roster includes bass trombonist David Taylor (Gil Evans, New York Philharmonic), saxophonist Jay Rodriguez (Ornette Coleman, Craig Harris), bass trombonist Earl McIntyre (Mel Lewis, Thad Jones), Zack O’Farrill and Adam O’Farrill (Arturo O’Farrill, Randy Weston). The Eco-Music Big Band is lead by Marie Incontrera, who was Fred Ho’s final composition protege.

Hailed as “talented… inspiring” (The Vermont Standard), The Eco-Music Big Band is committed to presenting the music of the legendary jazz composers of the 20th century that were overlooked (such as Cal Massey), to continuing the legacy its prodigious composer & founder (the late Fred Ho), and to providing a platform for the next generation of big band composers.  The Eco-Music Big Band regularly collaborates with hip hop artists from around the world.

6. Carolina Fonseca

Date: Wednesday, April 22 through Friday, April 24, 2015
Time: 8pm
Venue: Theaterlab (137 W. 14th Street, bet. 6 & 7 Avenues, NY)
Ticket: $20
Genre: dance and music

Created, interpreted and danced by Carolina Fonseca (Portugal).
Live music interpretation & performance: Hamidreza Maleki (Iran)
Video installation: Pedro Maia (Portugal)

This show is an immersion into the world of the dead and the living, and also on the process between the two. Death itself, its expansion, depth and magnificence is considered here as a study and compilation of different perspectives (or religions), namely Buddhist, Christian and Sufi (…). The show is divided into three acts: Life, the Between and the Death of a Dancer.

Carolina Fonseca uses techniques inspired on Flamenco, Sufi dance and Gypsy dances from Eastern Europe, Russia and Hungary, temporizing and breaking up in time and in space, what could be considered the conventions and traditions of these cultures, into new languages and forms brought to our times. Besides these influences and references, The Glimpse is also based on literary works such as Glimpse after Glimpse by Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan book of living and dying by Sogyal Rinpoche, The Wheel of Time by Carlos Castaneda, The Book of Prayers, the Holy Death in Mexico by Rodriguez dos Reis and Sufi Poetry, the Loving Death by Sufi Rumi.

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Dance Theatre: Lorca! Duende by Carolina Fonseca

7. Homage To Eleanora: A Musical Journey Through The Billie Holiday Song Book

Date: Friday, April 24, 2015
Time: 7pm
Venue: Manna House Workshops/School of the Performing Arts (338 E 106th St, New York, , New York 10029)
Ticket: $15
Genre: jazz

Keith A. Dames (vocals) & The Richard Clements Quartet with Richard Clements (piano) Chris Hanney (bass), Marvin Horne (guitar), Will Terrill (drums), Steph Walker (vocals) & Willie Gee (soprano Sax).

8. Greg Squared and Friends

Date: Saturday, April 25, 2015
Time: 6pm
Venue: Barbes (376 9th Street, Brooklyn, NY)
Ticket: $10
Genre: Balkan music fusing with jazz, art song, pop, experimental, and other styles

GREG SQUARED & FRIENDS Every Saturday in April. The clarinet and saxophone player has specialized in music from across the Balkan for the better part of this century. He has learned directly from some of the masters including Selim Sesler, Ferus Mustafov and the late Sami-Buco Zekirovski (of Esma Redzepova’s band) and he regularly regularly performs with Raya Brass band and Sherita as well a host of side projects.

This last installment of his residency at Barbes will feature Sherita. She gathers inspiration from the sounds of bygone eras to create music that is alive in the present moment. Through exploration of the acoustic traditions of the Balkans and the Near East, Sherita makes original music that is at once both ancient and modern; by turns haunting, exuberant, enchanting. Renee Bergan-percussion, vocals; Rima Fand-violin, vocals; Adam Good-oud; Greg Squared-clarinets.

9. Voyagers – Edith Lettner project – World

Date: Saturday, April 25, 2015
Time: 8pm-10pm
Venue: Silvana (300 W 116th Street, between Manhattan Ave & 8th Ave, New York, NY 10026)
Ticket: $10
Genre: West African nu music

Featured artists: Yacouba Sissoko (kora) and Banning Eyre (guitar).

Edith Lettner was born in Linz, Austria, in 1964. In 1983 she made Vienna the centre of her work as a freelance musician and painter. She showed her work in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad and staged painting performances together with jazz musicians. As a saxophonist, she studied with Leo Wright, Manfred Balasch, Herwig Gradischnig and most recently Oscar Noriega in New York. She took classes in jazz theory with Uli Scherer.

10. Thollem McDonas

Date: Sunday, April 26, 2015
Time: 8:15pm – 9;15pm
Venue: ShapeShifter Lab (18 Whitwell Pl, between Carroll St & 1st St, Brooklyn, NY 11215, 646-820-9452)
Ticket: $25
Genre: piano solo/jazz/improv

Thollem McDonas “transgresses genre boundaries as much as transcends them” in his solo piano concert.

Thollem has been delving into the piano, excavating depths of sound and energy for 48 years. His spontaneous compositions unfold in the moment influenced by his experiences both with the piano and away from it, and at times, within it. The seeds of his work come from near and far: studies as a concert pianist, collaboration, political and ecological activism, teaching, perpetual travel. This adventurous music engages the imagination differently from moment to moment with a stream of unique musical worlds influenced by the individual piano itself, the venue, the audience, his tour throughout Europe the month previous to this concert. His music is for the mind and the body, designed to encourage respect for the unpredictability of the present moment, with curiosity and openness in the context of time and events.

Since 2006, Thollem McDonas has been traveling perpetually, performing his own compositions from San Francisco to Oaxaca to Sicily to Stockholm to New Orleans and onward.

11. GREG WARD QUINTET

Date: Sunday, April 26, 2015
Time: 8:30pm
Venue: The Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia St., NY, NY 10014)
Ticket: $10
Genre: jazz

Greg Ward, alto sax;  Ben Wendell, tenor sax;  Glenn Zaleski, piano;  Rashaan Carter, bass;  Kenneth Salters, drums

Saxophonist and composer, Greg Ward, returns to Cornelia Street Cafe with a new ensemble featuring some of New York City’s finest improvisers. This group will be performing Ward’s original music including some world premieres.

12. Evolving Pop-Up theme is OUR EARTH / OUR WORLD Music Series

Date: Wednesday, April 1 through Friday, May 1, 2015
Time: 7pm – 11pm
Venue:  Clemente Soto Velez Center (107 Suffolk St, New York, New York 10002)
Ticket: one set: $11 / two sets: $16 / 3 sets: $22
Genre: Free jazz, music, poetry, dance, visual art & conversations

April Evolving Pop-Up theme is OUR EARTH / OUR WORLD. Incudes a VISUAL ART SHOW featuring Jeff Schlanger, musicWitness® and musician portraits by Bill Mazza and environmentalist / photographer Carolyn Monastra.

Schedule for this week, 4/21-4/25:
Tue 21st
7 pm EarthSongs: Andrea Wolper – voice, poetry, compositions / Mazz Swift – violin / Adam Caine – guitar
8 pm DC / Zak & Friends: Daniel Carter – sax, trp / Zak Sherzad – cello, cornet, soprano sax / Devin Waldman – alto sax / Mike Bisio – bass / TA Thompson – drums
9 pm Ana Îsma Viel Cross Breath: Ana Îsma Viel – vocals / Daro Behroozi – sax / Jalalu K Nelson – trumpet / Claire deBrunner – bassoon / Francois Grillot and Pascal Niggenkemper – bass / Jake Sokolov – cello / Lea Lanoe – video

Wed 22nd EARTH DAY
7 pm Ramya Ramana – poet
8 pm Baraka / Parker / Nicholson: Patricia Nicholson – dance, words / Amina Baraka – poetry / William Parker – bass
9 pm Music Unit Now: Ras Moshe – sax, flute / Bill Cole – sona, hojok, piri, didgeridoo, nagaswarm, flutes / Larry Roland – bass, poetry / Lisette Santiago – congas, bata, theremin

Thurs 23rd
7 pm Chris Forbes Trio: Chris Forbes – piano / Ken Filiano – bass / Michael TA Thompson – drums
8 pm Wooley / Courvoisier / Corsano: Nate Wooley – trumpet / Sylvie Courvoisier – piano / Chris Corsano – drums
9 pm While We Still Have Bodies: Michael Foster – sax / Ben Gerstein – trombone / Sean Ali – bass / Flin Van Hemmen – drums

Fri 24th
7 pm Nicholson’s ‘because I am breathing’ : Jason Jordan, Patricia Nicholson & others TBA dance / Michael TA Thompson – drums
8 pm Joe Morris WILDLIFE: Joe Morris – bass / Jim Hobbs – alto / Luther Gray – drums / Petr Cancura – tenor
9 pm JD Parran and Harlem Reunion: Stephen Haynes – cornets / Alexi Marcelo – piano / Baba Don Eaton – percussion / JD Parran – tenor, clarinet, flutes, mbira

Sat 25th
7 pm Garrison Fewell Ensemble: Garrison Fewell – guitar / Jim Hobbs – alto / Luther Gray -drs / Special Guest: Henry Grimes – bass, violin 
8 pm Whit Dickey Ensemble: Rob Brown – alto / Daniel Levin – cello / Michael Bisio – bass / Whit Dickey – drums
9 pm Gordon Beeferman Trio: Gordon Beeferman – piano / James Ilgenfritz – bass / Michael Evans – drums