Featuring the singers:

Constance Cooper, composer and vocal/keyboards improviser, wrote for the trio FirstAvenue during the 1990s, performing at Merkin Hall, The Kitchen, and Princeton University. She won first prize in the 2002 Gustav Mahler Competition (Austria) for her double concerto “Acrobat.” A grant from the American Composers Forum supported “Coming From Us,” chamber music for strings and electro-acoustic trio. A residency at OMI International Arts Center resulted in “Replying to Sin-Driven Senators by Not Thinking About Them,” premiered at St. Peter’s Church at Citigroup. She is a founding member of the trios Chemical Composition, Arc Welding, and ArtStar. She recently improvised for Sachiyo Ito and Company, and for the Bad Theater, iBeam Marathon, and Fringe Festivals.Recordings: Cadence/Quixotic; iTunes; Princeton University Music Department label/Representation: Marilyn Gilbert Arts Management http://mgam.com/artist/constance-coopers-coming-from-us/

The soprano Beth Griffith continues her distinguished career as a stage and recital singer/dancer in the world of new serious music in the United States and Europe. After studies in the US and abroad, she appeared with Sequentia, Musikfabrik, Ensemble13, L’art pour l’Art, the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Paris Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique. She has worked personally with the composers John Cage, Mauricio Kagel, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Morton Feldman. Her one-hour solo recording of Feldman’s “Three Voices” won the German Record Critics Prize.

Vocalist, composer, pianist Lauren Lee calls her music “a hodgepodge of various influences, interests, and innate idiosyncrasies,” as she searches perpetually for the perfect balance of edgy and familiar. Lauren Lee is a midwestern transplant who arrived in New York in 2009 to complete an advanced degree at New York University, remaining here to live and work after finding her own voice and place in the artistic community. She attributes much of her eclectic sensibility to an upbringing rich in imagination and creativity. She favors strong rhythmic grooves, vocal-instrumentalism (a singer’s ability to rival instruments in speed, accuracy, and tone-colors), and non-traditional roles of instruments.

4. Brooklyn Raga Massive Features Tom Chess & Ravi Padmanabha

Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Time: 8:30pm
Venue: Bluebird (504 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225)
Tickets: $10
Genre: African-Indin music

Our wildly popular Africa/India Series continues as NYC Radio LIve, Afro Roots Tuesdays and Brooklyn Raga Massive presents Multi-instrumentalist/improviser/composer Tom Chess and Tabla wizard Ravi Padmanabha on Wednesday August 5th at our weekly sessions. This amazing concert will be followed by our weekly jam session featuring members of our collective.

Tom Chess has played and recorded with some of the heaviest players in the improvisational scene (Dewey Redman, Butch Morris, Pharoah Sanders, Drew Gress, Ronald Shannon Jackson), as well as Morrocan Sintarist Hassan Hakmoun. Having deeply studied the Near Eastern, and North African traditions he incorporated the tonal palette, rhythms, and forms of these traditional musics while never losing sight of his American roots and the importance and freedom of improvising.

Ravi Padmanabha is multi-instrumentalist specializing in percussion. He plays drums in Family FUNKtion and the Sitar Jams and also leads his own quartet “My Nada Brahma” and “Bul-Bul Tarang Gang”. Ravi has studied tabla with many great masters such as Pandit Sharda Sahai and Pandit Samar Saha and also studies Sarangi with Pankaj Misra. Ravi has performed in duo with Steve Baczkowski for many years. He has also performed with William Parker, Robert Dick, Peter Evans, Paul Flarthey , Cooper-Moore, Arrington De dionyso, Douglas Ewart, Butch Morris, Daniel Carter, Tomchess, Brandon Terzic, Sabir Khan, Boyd Lee Dunlop, Wilbert De Joode, Junni Booth ,and Jin Hi Kim.

5. DAWOUD

Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Time: 6pm
Venue: Rubin Museum (150 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011,  212-620-5000)
Ticket: free (sponsored by the Rubin Museum)
Genre: psyechedelic sitar music

Dawoud Kringle is a multi instrumentalist, composer, improviser, and band leader of the ensembles Renegade Sufi and God’s Unruly Friends. His experiments with applying jazz technique and electronics to the traditional Indian and eastern music is unprecedented. He has performed in the US and Europe, appeared on many recordings, has composed for film, theater, and dance performances, and has enjoyed radio airplay in the US, Europe, Russia, and Indonesia. Dawoud also conducts music meditation sessions, a process he invented wherein he guides group meditation using musical form and sound as a template for imagery. His teaching credits include offering private instruction since 1980, the Bronx School of Music and Art, and the Harlem School of the Arts, and is an accomplished writer / novelist.

Jimmy Lopez is joining him on percussion.

6. Marc Cary’s Weekly “Harlem Sessions”

Date: Thursday, August 6, 2015
Time: 9pm
Venue: Gin Fizz (308 Lenox Avenue (125th Street), New York, NY 10027)
Ticket: $t.b.a.
Genre: jazz

Marc Cary’s “Harlem Sessions,” which takes place every Thursday night at the New York City speakeasy Gin Fizz, continues to gain ground in the community that the keyboardist-composer-bandleader calls home, and where he’s emerging as a leader committed to the values of the Harlem Renaissance pioneers such as Langston Hughes and Duke Ellington, in the spirit of providing fresh lifeblood to Harlem’s unique and vibrant cultural scene.

Cary began hosting the late night jam session in May, opening it to musicians, poets, rappers, dancers and comedians, and announcing the song menu in advance via social media, to develop an organic and crucial cutting ground for artists. It’s a celebration of local artists, groups and composers who truly brought a melting pot of influences together; take a song like “Harlem River Drive” (by pianist Eddie Palmieri‘s super group), cultivate it, and that typifies what this session is about and how deeply its local roots grow.

Beyond honoring Harlem’s pioneers, Cary’s leadership engenders the exploration of ways that familiar repertoire has evolved stylistically and globally: highlighting some of the most inspirational works of titanic jazz composers and performers that have been foundational building blocks in soul, R&B and rock; celebrating essential black and American songwriters of our time whose music crossed multiple genres; illuminating the true connectors between jazz, funk and soul; and celebrating great interpreters of songs that have been foundational in the building blocks of hip hop.

Cary’s longtime rhythm section features Rashaan Carter on bass and Sameer Gupta on drums/tabla. Guest artists have been as wide-ranging as poet/performance artist (and five-time winner of “It’s Showtime at the Apollo”) Jessica Care Moore, along with new MC phenom Amani Fela; UK saxophonist Denys Baptiste (Mercury and Mobo prize winner);tap percussionist extraordinaire Omar Edwards, Malian vocalist Awa Sangho; Cuban percussion whiz Joaquin Pozo, the grandson of Dizzy Gillespie associate Chano Pozo, one of the founders of Latin jazz; 1st Annual Duke Ellington Vocal Competition winner Charles Turner, and Mike Casey (both alumni of Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead); Lauryn Hill’s current horn section (Igmar Thomas, Sharif Clayton, James Casey); and Harlem’s own self-described ‘Black Americana’ singer Queen Esther.

7. Dervisi

Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2015
Time: 9pm
Venue: TROOST (1011 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11222)
Ticket: donation
Genre: Greek Blues/Rembetika music

DERVISI performing exotic Greek Gangsta Blues called Rembetika. Rembetika originally the songs of hashish clans and outlaws; and Smyrnaika, the elaborate oriental cafe music of the refugees from Greek Asia minor.

CHECK them out on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/barba-yiorgi/sets/dervisi-live-2014-3-songs

8. Third World / Awa Sangho

Date: Friday, August 7, 2015
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Celebrate Brooklyn! (141 Prospect Park W, Brooklyn, New York 11215)
Ticket: free but a little donation
Genre: Reggae/Mali music

1973 in Kingston, Jamaica was an absolutely insane time in musical history. Bob Marley and his label Island Records were at the peak of their powers, dub music and deejaying were emerging from a reggae subculture, and new configurations of R&B and calypso were lighting up dance clubs around the city. Enter THIRD WORLD, a group of friends who found their own place in this rich ecosystem, “seamlessly fusing reggae with soul and pop” (Billboard). They caught Marley’s eye, were asked to tour in support of the Wailers, and the rest is history. Forty-plus years and ten GRAMMY nominations later, they are as cool, steady and easy as ever.

Last year they lost their beloved leader William “Bunny Rugs” Clarke, but the magnificent AJ Brown took on lead vocals and they have risen like the phoenix from the ashes, discovering new corners of the same time-tested grooves. Brooklyn is home to the largest Jamaican population anywhere other than Kingston. The faithful will be out in force, so come early to this one.

Opening the evening is AWA SANGHO, “the Golden Voice of Mali.” Born near Timbuktu and raised in the Ivory Coast, Sangho carries the rich tradition of West African song in her heart and lungs.

9. tUnE-yArDs / Shabazz Palaces

Date: Saturday, August 8, 2015
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Celebrate Brooklyn! (141 Prospect Park W, Brooklyn, New York 11215)
Ticket: free but a little donation
Genre: electronica/avant-pop/Hip Hop

The season closes on an ecstatically high note with the one-of-a-kind tUnE-yArDs, project of New England native Merrill Garbus who has been called everything from “righteous with a carnival kick,” (NY Times) to “idiosyncratic, high-stakes and empowering.” (Pitchfork). Her 2011 record Whokill is hailed as a modern classic, with a lo-fi tapestry of beats, guitars, and horns weaving around her unmistakable, fearlessly belting voice. After three years of touring she returned last May with her follow-up Nikki Nack, which casts her songwriting and voice in a candied indie pop setting, complete with a Seussian stage setup and costumes. Pitchfork praises the record for its “songs that sound like playgrounds full of street kids ricocheting off each other like bumper cars.” Garbus is a genuine tour de force and possesses the rare combination of wicked braininess with complete warmth and lack of pretense. In other words, she is very Celebrate Brooklyn!

The “free associative, raw and radical” (LA Times) experimental hip-hop duo SHABBAZZ PALACES rounds out the bill. After emerging a few years ago in a cloud of mystery, they have come to stand for a woozy, patchwork, and altogether intoxicating approach to beat-making. Together, they threaten to make this the NYC show of the summer.

10. Harmolodic Raga Cycle

Date: Saturday, August 8, 2015
Time: 9pm
Venue: Music Inn (169 West 4th Street, NY)
Ticket: free (sponsored by the Rubin Museum)
Genre: psyechedelic/jazz sitar music

Tonight is Harmolodic Raga Cycle’s premier. This is a series of compositions / improvisational templates that bridge the concepts of harmolodics with the primordial essence of Indian Raga. This will be a Dawoud solo performance (with possible special guest).

Dawoud Kringle is a multi instrumentalist, composer, improviser, and band leader of the ensembles Renegade Sufi and God’s Unruly Friends. His experiments with applying jazz technique and electronics to the traditional Indian and eastern music is unprecedented. He has performed in the US and Europe, appeared on many recordings, has composed for film, theater, and dance performances, and has enjoyed radio airplay in the US, Europe, Russia, and Indonesia. Dawoud also conducts music meditation sessions, a process he invented wherein he guides group meditation using musical form and sound as a template for imagery. His teaching credits include offering private instruction since 1980, the Bronx School of Music and Art, and the Harlem School of the Arts, and is an accomplished writer / novelist.

11. Go: Organic Orchestra

Date: Sunday, August 9, 2015
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Brooklyn Conservatory of Music (58 Seventh Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217)
Ticket: $15
Genre: jazz/world/improv

Go: Organic Orchestra, the dream project of composer and percussionist Adam Rudolph, marks the release of their long-awaited debut studio recording, Sonic Mandala on Meta Records, with a blow out celebration concert. A 33-player orchestra that covers an astounding number of instruments, everything from the Malian hunter’s harp and bamboo trumpets to the Fender Rhodes and the Japanese noh-kan flute, Go: Organic Orchestra emphasizes the healing power of improvised music with an emphasis on percussion traditions from across the globe. A testament of a long-standing musical association among like-minded musicians who are multigenerational and international, this performance of Sonic Mandala encompasses the Orchestra’s deep engagement with world traditions and their deeper devotion to a community through shared creative expression.

“There’s something about playing into the center of the expressive quality of the music, something really intuitive that the musicians bring to it, as they focus on it. It’s about being in tune, being completely in the present.” –Adam Rudolph

metarecords.com/adam.html
facebook.com/pages/Go-Organic-Orchestra/49249259623