3PM, The Jazz Room at William Paterson University
November 22, 2015
A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon:
Seed Artists’ first concert for the Jazz Room Series at William Paterson University is a real gem. Living legends Richard Davis (bass) and Andrew Cyrille (drums) join brilliant collaborators Angelica Sanchez (piano) and Aska Kaneko (violin) for a concert recording of masterful group improvisation. Public performances by Davis are rare as it is, but a free-improv setting like this is truly a must-hear event. And it will be recorded for release.
The group performed for the first and only time at last year’s Eric Dolphy: Freedom of Sound festival in Montclair. They drew an encore. Davis was so taken with the experience that he asked to do it again. We are thrilled to oblige.
Seed Artists is honored to present this concert in the Jazz Room, the nation’s longest-running university-based concert series. Fans can attend a pre-concert Q & A session with the artists. William Paterson students will open the show.
The Musicians:
NEA Jazz Master Richard Davis is one of the greatest bassists in jazz history. He appears on more than 3,000 recordings, including many seminal dates of the 1960s avant garde, and has performed with everyone from Dizzy, Miles and Sarah Vaughan to Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen. Downbeat International Critics Poll named him Best Bassist from 1967-74.
Avant-garde icon Andrew Cyrille has been a force in modern jazz for more than five decades. He is best known for his decade-long work with pianist Cecil Taylor. His many credits include Coleman Hawkins, Mary Lou Williams, Sun Ra, Peter Brotzmann, Carla Bley and Jimmy Giuffre.
Angelica Sanchez has established herself as a compelling voice in creative music, and her releases consistently make “Best of” lists. She leads several groups, and her collaborators include Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Motian, Susie Ibarra, Tim Berne and Mark Dresser.
Aska Kaneko’s nearly twenty recordings span a wide range of settings. Her many projects include the London-based group Mekong Zoo, the Japanese-Argentinian combo Gaia Cuatro, a duo project with harpist Amy Camie, and collaborations with Zakir Hussain, Bill Laswell, Butch Morris and Pheeroan AkLaff.
FuturePresent: Bandsc@pe
7PM Montclair Public LIbrary & Foundation
Jun 29, 2016
Music for your ears,
Science for your mind.
FREE.
Outdoors.
This ain’t grandma’s jazz. (Although she’s welcome.)
Seed Artists and the Adult School Department of the Montclair Public Library present an evening of adventurous jazz and a journey through the neuroscience of music. Free and open to the public, a summer’s night on the library plaza.
The trio of Pheeroan akLaff (drums), Scott Robinson (reeds, brass, woodwinds, theremin…) and Julian Thayer, Ph.D. (bass), have been pushing the boundaries of jazz for 25 years. Between them, they have recorded and performed with everyone from Ella Fitzgerald, Sting and Vernon Reid to avant-garde icons Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton. With the help of three very special guests—Nat Adderley Jr. (piano), Aska Kaneko (violin), Julius Tomkins (guitar)—they will take the audience on a wild musical ride that starts with jazz and ends wherever their collective creativity takes them.
Dr. Thayer, an eminent cognitive scientist at Ohio State University, will intersperse the concert with an engaging discussion of the neuroscience of music and the nature of improvisation.
FuturePresent is the latest Seed Artists project to introduce audiences to boundary-pushing jazz and its vanguard musicians. Like all of Seed’s programming, this concert is intended to enrich the cultural fabric, encourage curiosity, and build community through the arts. And as always, children are welcome.
Seed Artists began presenting children’s music and art programming at the library via the Youth Services Department in May. This is our first collaboration with the Adult School.
The concert is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and administered by the Essex County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs and from the Reberta C. and Louis F. Albright Foundation.