8:30PM – 9:30PM – Elliot Sharp / Aggregate Trio

Elliot Sharp – sax Brad Jones – bass Ches Smith – drums

9:30PM – 10:30PM – Electrified ExPosed Blues

Fay Victor – voice Anders Nilsson – electric guitar Tim Dahl – electric bass, effects

2. CHILDISH GAMBINO (Benefit Concert)

Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Time: 7:00pm
Venue: Prospect Park Bandshell (9th St. and Prospect Park West entrance)
Ticket: free, but $3 donation
Genre: hip hop

CHILDISH GAMBINO has emerged as one of the premiere young talents in music. A unique blend of hip-hop with elements of multiple genres, combined with lyrical genius, GAMBINO has gone from a viral cult following to a mega sensation.

3. Terje Rypdal

Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, ph: 212- 505-3474)
Ticket: $30
Genre: contemporary Jazz

Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal has been name checked by Jeff Beck, David Torn, Bill Frisell, Andy Summers, Nels Cline—and possibly even Jimi Hendrix—as one of their favorite players. He has released and appeared on dozens of recordings throughout his 36-year association with the prestigious ECM label, running the gamut from cutting-edge jazz to orchestral works to rock power trios. His sound is one of the most original and immediately recognizable on the planet. And he is celebrated throughout Europe as one of the finest musicians and composers of the past half-century. Yet despite these myriad musical accomplishments, Rypdal remains comparatively unrecognized within the United States.
Terje Rypdal, electric guitar, Palle Mikkelborg, trumpet, Ståle Storløkken, Hammond B-3 organ and Paolo Vinaccia, drums/sampling

4. META

Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Time: 10:30pm
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, ph: 212- 505-3474)
Ticket: $15
Genre: no specific genre/jazzy ?

META is: Meta (voice/percussions) , Ari Hoenig (dms) , Francois Moutin (bass) and Thomas Enhco (piano/violin)

M E T A Songwriter, singer and percussionist, Meta writes spontaneous and sensitive music. He defines his work as world songs. “Songs” stands for the form he uses, “world” for the sounds and subsaharian rhythmic backbone as well as the large space he dedicates to improvisation. In order to give shape to his repertoire, Meta called upon accomplished jazz musicians ready to enter in resonance with his singular universe. Meta’s music is a magical blend of musical cultures that introduces a collection of songs charged with emotional depth and infused with the energy of his performances.

5. Blue Note Jazz Festival: Michel Camilo Trio & Alfredo Rodríguez Trio

Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Time: 8:00pm & 10:30pm
Venue: Highline Ballroom (431 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011,  212-414-5994)
Ticket: $40
Genre: Latin Jazz

Michel Camilo is a composer and pianist extraordinaire. He is a bandleader, lecturer, and visiting professor. He is a chart-topping producer and a Grammy, Latin Grammy, and Emmy Award winner. He is the recipient of his native country’s highest civilian honors. Camilo is all of these things and more, wrapped in a human being of boundless enthusiasm, musical passion, and love of life. His artistry and virtuosity bridge  the genres of jazz, classical, popular, and world music. He is a pianist with a brilliant technique and a composer who flavors his tunes with the spice of Caribbean rhythms and jazz harmonies. As Academy Award-winning filmmaker Fernando Trueba declared, “Every time I see [Camilo] play, I feel like I’m witnessing a miracle.”
A native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Camilo made his recorded debut in 1985 with Why Not?. Almost 30 years later, he has released numerous critically acclaimed albums. The pianist’s latest release, Mano a Mano (2011), finds him taking a new approach to the trio format, using congas and small percussion instead of a trap set.

A young pianist of astonishing virtuosity and imagination, Cuban-born Alfredo Rodríguez calls up images of legendary jazz pianists like Keith Jarrett, Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and his compatriot Chucho Valdés. Discovered at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2006 by Quincy Jones, Rodríguez’s star has risen rapidly under the tutelage of the famed producer. Since arriving in the US in 2009, the pianist has appeared on numerous prestigious stages, including the Playboy Jazz Festival; the Detroit, Newport, San Francisco, North Sea, Umbria, and Vienna Jazz Festivals; and in important jazz rooms such as Ronnie Scott’s, Sculler’s, Yoshi’s, the Jazz Standard, the Blue Note, and Jazz Alley.

6. Brian Landrus KALEIDOSCOPE 

Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Time: 8:30pm
Venue: Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY)
Ticket: $10
Genre: Jazz

After the Landrus Kaleidoscope’s 2009 creation, the band has gone on to record it’s internationally praised album “Capsule”. The band focuses on melody and groove at it’s foundation with the freedom for all to stretch.

“Baritone saxophonist and bass clarinetist Brian Landrus makes the low, heavy horns float on air. Landrus demonstrates the tonal nuance, melodic sense and instrumental command that set him apart from his peers.”–Downbeat Magazine 2012

7. Blue Note Jazz Festival: Meshell Ndegeocello

Date: Thursday, June 28, 2012
Time: 9pm
Venue: Highline Ballroom (431 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011, 212-414-5994)
Ticket: $30
Genre: singer song writer/ hip hop, rock, R&B, new wave, and punk

Canonized, marginalized, or just scrutinized, Meshell Ndegeocello has given up trying to explain herself. After 20 years in an industry that has called her everything from avant-garde to a dying breed, what unquestionably remains is a fearsome bassist, a prolific songwriter, and the creativity and curiosity of an authentic musical force. With these elements alone, she has earned critical acclaim (including 10 Grammy nominations), the unfailing respect of fellow players, songwriters, and composers, and the dedication of her diverse, unclassifiable fans.

Ndegeocello was born Michelle Johnson in Berlin, Germany, and was raised in Washington, DC. By the early ’90s, she had landed in New York armed with a demo recorded in her bedroom, joined the Black Rock Coalition, and was soon signed to Madonna’s label, Maverick Records. Her albums, nine to date, have offered lyrical ruminations on race, love, sex, betrayal, God, and power, and she has simultaneously embraced and challenged listeners with her refusal to be pigeon-holed musically or personally. A vast array of influences have informed all of her releases, and there are traces of her native go-go, hip hop, rock, R&B, new wave, and punk in each.

8. TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE / THE BROOKLYN STEPPERS / DAYNA KURTZ

Date: Friday, June 29, 2012
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Prospect Park Bandshell (9th St. and Prospect Park West entrance)
Ticket: free, but $3 donation
Genre: New Orleans Jazz

Troy “TROMBONE SHORTY” Andrews, “New Orleans’ brightest new star in a generation,” (SF Chronicle) and his untouchable band whip up “a near-deafening, funk-charged blast of percussion, brass, reeds and guitar distortion” (Washington Post) that unites the Crescent City’s past and future. The soulful local favorite DAYNA KURTZ, who released two albums simultaneously this spring, gets things started, and THE BROOKLYN STEPPERS MARCHING BAND swings by for an explosive drum line interlude.

9. Blue Note Jazz Festival: Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars

Date: Friday, June 29, 2012
Time: 8pm
Venue: Highline Ballroom (431 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011, 212-414-5994)
Ticket: $30
Genre: Sierra Leone traditional and pop music

Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars have risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of war and enflamed the passions of fans across the globe with their uplifting songs of hope, faith, and joy. The band is a potent example of the redeeming power of music and the ability of the human spirit to persevere through unimaginable hardship and emerge with optimism intact. From their humble beginnings in West African refugee camps in the midst of their country’s bloody civil war, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars have performed on some of the world’s most prestigious stages and matured into one of Africa’s top touring and recording bands.

The All-Stars first gained notoriety on the global stage thanks to a 2005 documentary by American filmmakers Zach Niles and Banker White. Their film introduced the world to the band members’ personalities and dramatic stories, not to mention their instantly appealing music. “As harrowing as these personal tales may be,” wrote The New York Times, “the music buoying them is uplifting.” Newsweek raved, “”It’s as easy to fall in love with these guys as it was with the Buena Vista Social Club.” Together with the group’s 2006 debut album Living Like a Refugee, the movie and subsequent US tours helped the band expand its following. Soon the All-Stars were playing in front of enraptured audiences of tens of thousands, appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show, undertaking high-profile collaborations, and earning praise and backing from Sir Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Ice Cube, Angelina Jolie, and others inspired by their life-affirming story and captivating music.

10. BEAT MASTERS : AMIR ZIV/CYRO BAPTISTA/BILLY MARTIN

Date: Friday, June 29, 2012
Time: 8:30pm
Venue: ShapeShifter Lab (18 Whitwell Pl, between Carroll St & 1st St, Brooklyn, NY 11215, 646-820-9452)
Ticket: $15
Genre: percussion music

“Three of NYC’s most eccentric and influential groove icons come together to demonstrate that 1+1+1 is greater than 3. WAY greater. The Ziv/Martin/Baptista trio will be setting out to prove that innovative compositional & sonic ideas X unpredictable tempo and energy = exponential illumination! Live music is the new math.”

11. ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO’S WOMEN WAGING PEACE with special guests LAURIE ANDERSON / SOMI and more!

Date: Saturday, June 30, 2012
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Prospect Park Bandshell (9th St. and Prospect Park West entrance)
Ticket: free, but $3 donation
Genre: African pops

World music superstar ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO, named one of the “World’s 100 Most Inspiring Women” by the Guardian UK, curates this very special commission tribute to Wangari Maathai, the late Nobel Peace Prize winner and Kenyan political, environmental and women’s activist. WOMEN WAGING PEACE features a concert at the Bandshell with an opening set by “world music luminary” (The New Yorker) SOMI followed by Kidjo and her band, along with special guest LAURIE ANDERSON.

12. Min-Xiao Fen

Date: Saturday, June 30, 2012
Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Venue: QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART ( New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY 11368, 718-592-9700)
Ticket: free
Genre: Chinese folk, regional operas and Taoist music with John Cage and contemporary sounds

Two masters join forces — Min Xiao-Fen, a Chinese pipa player, singer and composer performs a concert with her ensembles featuring Amir ElSaffar, an Iraqi jazz trumpeter, Maqam singer, santoor player and composer. Mr. ElSaffar is influenced by the classical vocal tradition of Iraq as well as jazz and blues, while Ms. Min combines Chinese folk, regional operas and Taoist music with John Cage and contemporary sounds. When “East Meets Middle East,” the result is a bold new fusion that transcends time and borders.

13. JC Sanford & Carmen Staaf Duo

Date: Saturday, June 30, 2012
Time: noon-3pm
Venue:  Tea Lounge (837 Union St., bet. 6th & 7th Aves., Park Slope, Brooklyn)
Ticket: $5
Genre: Jazz

Trombonist/composer/conductor JC Sanford is a musician of rare breadth, deeply rooted in the traditions of Jazz and Classical music, yet constantly pushing at their boundaries. As a trombonist, JC has performed with many of the jazz world’s leading figures, such as Matt Wilson, Danilo Perez, and John McNeil. His compositions and arrangemnets have been performed by John Abercrombie, Lew Soloff, Dave Liebman, Ingrid Jensen, and modern classical pianist Andrew Russo, to name a few. His collaboration with fellow composer David Schumacher and their jazz orchestra Sound Assembly yielded the CD Edge of the Mind, which received many accolades including CD Baby’s Top 10 Jazz Records of 2009. JC also conducts the twice-Grammy-nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, the Alan Ferber Nonet with Strings, and the Alice Coltrane Orchestra featuring Ravi Coltrane and Jack DeJohnette. JC now leads his own unique 15-piece ensemble which features percussionist Satoshi Takeishi and fuses his jazz, classical, and world music sensibilities.

Carmen Staaf is a critically acclaimed professional jazz pianist.

An Evening Of Haitian Jazz Feat. special guest: EMELINE MICHEL, JOWEE OMICIL, RIGAUD SIMON and SPECIAL GUEST: MONVOLYNO ALEXIS.