1. Karl Berger’s Stone Workshop Orchestra
Date: Monday, May 23, 2011
Time: 7:30 & 10pm
Venue: The Stone (is located at the corner of Avenue C and 2nd Street)
Ticket: $10
Genre: Contemporary Jazz/improve
During the ‘70- and ‘80’s, the Woodstock-based Creative Music Studio was considered the premier study center for contemporary creative music. Founded in 1971 by Karl Berger , Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman, CMS brought together leading innovators in the jazz and world music communities. Unprecedented in its range and diversity, CMS was an acknowledged phenomenon in the international music world.
The Stone is proud to host a new series of CMS workshops in 2011: a new improviser’s workshop orchestra gets underway EVERY MONDAY NIGHT IN 2011 led by composer/pianist/vibist Karl Berger. Conducted in the tradition of the legendary Creative Music Studio (www.creativemusicstudio.org), original compositions, themes by the likes of Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, and world musical melodies will be utilized for orchestral explorations and contrasting solo/duo/trio flights. This series supports the Creative Music Studio Archive Project.
The musicians are: Art Bailey (accordion), Mike Pride (drums), Jorge Sylvester, David Schnug (alto sax), Stephen Gauci (tenor sax), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano sax), Skye Steele (violin), Sylvain Leroux (flutes), Brian Drye (trombone), Patrick Glynn, Adam Caine (guitar) Dominic Lash, David Perrott, Adam Lane (bass), Ingrid Sertso (vocals), Karl Berger (piano, melodica, conducting) and surprise guests.
2. Chicha Libre
Date: Monday, May 23, 2011
Time: 9;30pm
Venue: Barbes (376 9th Street, Brooklyn, NY)
Ticket: $10
Genre: a mixture of latin rhythms, surf music and psychedelic pop
Chicha Libre plays a mixture of latin rhythms, surf music and psychedelic pop inspired by 1970′s Peruvian music from the Amazon. The Brooklyn-based band mixes up covers of forgotten Chicha classics with French-tinged originals, re-interpretation of 70’s pop classics as well as cumbia versions of pieces by Satie and Ravel. With Greg Burrows – percussion; Joshua Camp – Hohner Electravox; Olivier Conan – Cuatro & Vocals – Nicholas Cudahy – bass; Vincent Douglas – Guitar – Neil Ochoa – percussio
3. BOOKER T. JONES
Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Bell House (149 7th Street, Brooklyn NY 11215, 718-643-6510)
Ticket: $25
Genre: R&B, Blues, Soul
Booker T. Jones (born November 12, 1944) is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with some of the highest regarded artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.
4. TRUE PEOPLE`S CEREMONY FOR TOHOKU DISASTER
Date: Tuesday, May 24 , 2011
Time: 8:30pm
Venue: Brooklyn Bowl
Tickets: $20 – $100
Genre: indie Rock/Worls/Electronica
Confirmed Artists: John Medeski / Billy Martin / Steven Bernstein / Club d’Elf featuring Hassan Hakmoun and Brahim Fribgane / Wicked Knee / Marco Benevento / Marshall Allen plus more to be announced soon
“Big in Japan” may be a cliché, but behind it stands the intense appreciation Japanese presenters and music fans have for deep and edgy music. Now a group of U.S.‐based friends and collaborators from the xperimental, transcultural edges of funk, rock, and jazz are returning the love, by raising funds for the victims of the recent earthquakes and nuclear disaster.
Moroccan psychedelic travelers Club D’Elf, groove‐oriented explorations from MAGO (John Medeski and Billy Martin), and the rag‐time funk of Wicked Knee are leaping to the aid of veteran Japanese presenter Taichi Komatsubara to stage the first multimedia True People’s CEREMONY for TOHOKU Disaster at Brooklyn Bowl.
All proceeds go to the Think the Earth Fund for the Japan Earthquake, which channels money directly into the hands of a dozen frontline NGOs working with the most vulnerable and stricken disaster victims. In addition to the artists above, the benefit will feature musical performances, film, dance, and other creative offerings to support the Japanese people.
“In Japan, music fans listen differently. They get into the nuance of the music,” reflects master of the keys, John Medeski, an admirer of Japanese culture from childhood. “The last time Medeski Martin & Wood visited Japan, we did an acoustic show and played one of our sweeter, ballad‐like pieces. It wasn’t the kind of thing that would have gone over well at a U.S. festival. But there, the audience was utterly silent. People had tears pouring down their faces. Their reaction really hit us in the heart.”
Medeski and drummer Billy Martin will revive the first spontaneous musical encounter that launched their longtime friendship, engaging funky Hammond‐based grooves as MAGO. They hope to raise spirits and awareness, as well as funds. “The nature of a lot of what we do is spontaneous,” Medeski continues. “We’ve trained ourselves to make music in the moment. We’ll be creating music as a prayer for the people of Japan.”
For Club D’Elf instigator, bassist, and sintir (camel‐skin bass) player Mike Rivard, Komatsubara’s call for help also struck a powerful chord. During a 2010 tour of Japan, where the group’s double album Electric Moroccoland/So Below was first released, Rivard had been wowed by the audience response: “Japanese listeners are completely committed,” recounts Rivard. “They are so present, and channel so much energy to performers. We’d like to channel some energy now to them in their time of need.”
Though freely mixing everything from psychedelic rock to turntablism, Club D’Elf’s musical core springs from the striking traditions of Morocco’s Gnawa people. Joined for the benefit by Gnawan innovator Hassan Hakmoun, the group draws on distinctly North African sounds and the spirit of healing that pervades the trance‐inducing music and movement.
“The music I play is healing music, and it really helps a lot,” explains Hakmoun. “It can bring people closer to the divine or just help them relax a bit.” Hakmoun will be joined by close friend and New York‐based Japanese tap dancer Chicako Iwahori for collaborative dance pieces showing the unexpected connections between rhythm tap and Gnawan moves. This kind of free‐flowing creativity springs naturally from musicians like Medeski, Martin, and Rivard, and has long been savored by Komatsubara and the music lovers he serves. In his first U.S. venture, Komatsubara hopes to bring the same sense of the sacred edge and the grooving experimental he has been sharing with audiences in Japan for decades. All while raising desperately needed funds for hard‐hit Japanese communities.
When asked why he chose to call the event a ceremony, Komatsubara muses, “I really think that
when these very spiritual musicians make music in goodwill and love, that is a ceremony in itself.”
5. Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze
Date: Tuesday, May 25, 2011
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Drom (85 Avenue A, N, NY 10009, 212- 777-1157)
Ticket: $15
Genre: West African music
The mutual admiration society that is Volker Goetze and Ablaye Cissoko owes itself to a serendipitous meeting that took place in 2001 at the African-European Jazz Orchestra rehearsals in Saint-Louis, Senegal, where they’d been invited to open for Senegalese legend Youssou N’Dour. Despite any cultural barriers that separated them, the German-born trumpeter and the Senegalese kora player and singer discovered they had much in common, both musically and personally. Their commonalities can be heard on Sira, which is an album that reaffirms the maxim that music is the universal language. The album was released in October 2008 on ObliqSound.
6. Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen
Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Sullivan Hall (214 Sullivan Street btwn. Bleeker & W. 3rd, NY)
Ticket: $15
Genre: Jazz/free Jazz
4. Gary Lucas & Gods And Monsters
Date: Friday, May 27, 2011
Time: 9:30pm
Venue: Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette St, NY)
Ticket: $17
Genre: blues/jam band/avant rock
Gods and Monsters is an avant-rock supergroup/jamband playing intense psychedelic rock. Featuring guitarist extraordinaire and Grammy-nominated songwriter Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley) on guitars and vocals; Billy Ficca (Television) on drums; Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers) on bass and vocals; Jason Candler (Hungry March Band) on alto sax; and Joe Hendel (Latest Show on Earth), trombone and keyboards. Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) occasionally joins the group live on stage and in the studio on keyboards, and has performed with the band in Russia, Holland, NYC, Oberlin College, and at SXSW in Austin Texas. A hit producer (Live, OAR), Jerry Harrison has just finished producing Gods and Monsters new studio album. You can preview tracks at Gary’s MySpace site and at the Gods and Monsters MySpace site.
5. The David White Jazz Orchestra
Date: Friday, May 27, 2011
Time: 8:30 pm
Venue: Leonard Nimoy Thalia/Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street, New York, NY 10025-6990)
Tickets: $25; Members, Students, Seniors, Children $15; Day of Show $30 – buy tickets
Genre: Jazz
The David White Jazz Orchestra visits Symphony Space to celebrate the release of Flashpoint, their debut CD.
The David White Jazz Orchestra is the creation of trombonist, composer, arranger David White. The Orchestra, which began performing in the fall of 2007, play Mr. White’s original music and arrangements exclusively. The members of the orchestra come from diverse backgrounds and each individual adds something unique to the tapestry of the whole. Although they take a deep bow to the traditions passed down by their elders, their music is progressive and this is most decidedly not your grandfather’s big band.
David White Jazz Orchestra features David White – composer, arranger, conductor, solo trombone; Andrew Gould – lead alto saxophone; Omar Daniels – alto saxophone; Sam Taylor – tenor saxophone; Sam Dillon – tenor saxophone; Stephen Plekan – baritone saxophone; Miki Hirose – lead trumpet; Volker Goetze– trumpet, flugelhorn; Alicia Rau – trumpet; Michael Irwin – trumpet, flugelhorn; Melissa Gardiner – lead trombone; Rick Parker – trombone; Barry Cooper – trombone; Robert Statel – bass trombone; Nick Consol – piano; Doug Drewes – bass; Paul Francis – drum.
6. Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars
Date: Saturday, May 28, 2011
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Bell House (149 7th Street, Brooklyn NY 11215, 718-643-6510)
Ticket: $15
Genre: Sierra Leone Pop/Reggae
Formed in a refugee camp during Sierra Leone’s civil war, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars’ incredible story is documented in the award winning, compelling and emotionally-driven film, “Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars.” Initial support for the film came from executive producers Steve Bing and Shelley Lazar as well as Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, and Angelina Jolie. The resulting studio album, Living Like A Refugee (Anti Records 2006), is one of the most acclaimed world music releases of the past few years, garnering the band international acclaim and high profile fans including Aerosmith, who the All Stars collaborated with in concert and in the studio. SLRAS has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show; CNN International; PBS’s P.O.V. Series and CBS Sunday Morning as well as NPR’s World Cafe and a special piece with vocalist Black Nature on MTV’s Cause Effect.
