The Brooklyn, NY based collaborative trio Ember finds itself at the crossroads of musical and personal exploration resulting in true band-hood and non-hierarchical playing. Each of the members – Caleb Wheeler Curtis (alto saxophone), Noah Garabedian (bass), and Vinnie Sperrazza (drums) – are integral parts of the NY creative music community as leaders, collaborators and instigators. The music in this trio is organized but open and expressive. Their music opens up the true freedom of improvisation, exploration, and creativity.

Watch: Fred's Hop, No One Is Any One: Ember with Orrin Evans

Tickets: $20

This is a rare opportunity to hear this extrordinary guitarist in a solo setting. Joel had been here many times over the years and this is the first time ever as a soloist.  

Guitarist, composer, arranger, lyricist, writer, educator, and vocalist Joel Harrison has “created a new blueprint for jazz” (New Orleans Times-Picayune). A Guggenheim Fellow (2010) whose compositions have been commissioned by Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, New Music USA, the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, Harrison is a two-time winner of the Jazz Composers Alliance Composition Competition and has appeared repeatedly on DownBeat Magazine’s “Rising Star” poll.

His twenty-two releases as a leader showcase his prowess as a shapeshifting composer, with works for orchestra, string quartet, solo cello, and percussion as well as the PASIC award-winning marimba solo Fear of Silence. Notable releases include Free Country, featuring Norah Jones and David Binney; the recent America at War for jazz orchestra; String Choir: The Music of Paul Motian; and Search, featuring Donny McCaslin. His ever-surprising body of work seamlessly connects multiple American traditions. Harrison’s music may be founded on jazz but veers into classical, rock, country, and all manner of American roots music. Succinctly described by the New York Times as “protean… brilliant,” he is also an active film composer, having worked on the Oscar-nominated Traffic Stop and the Sundance awardee Southern Comfort.

A former student of Jimmy Wyble and Mick Goodrick, Harrison is the founder and director of the Alternative Guitar Summit, a yearly festival devoted to new and unusual guitar music. The festival has featured such artists as Fred Frith, Nels Cline, Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, and Pat Metheny, who has called the Summit “one of the most interesting and distinguished forums for guitar on the planet.”

From the brilliant corners of the collective artistic psyche, Empathy Gene takes us on a sonic journey of discovery that surprises, haunts, and transforms. Inspired by shaman sound traveler Clarence "Herb" Robertson, and brought into sharp focus by Ritual Music explorers Phil Haynes and Jim Yanda, this "quiet to riotous" trio takes us to unexpected and exquisite musical worlds. They breathe life into subconscious traditions that facilitate knowing home and our human community for the first time. Like Davis or Coleman before him - who jumped from acoustic to electronic universes - Jim Yanda both sheds his idiomatic clothing for Empathy Gene and births fresh acoustic expression as he and his cohorts revel in true independent unity. – CornerStoreJazz

"Trumpeter Robertson looks at jazz the way a mad scientist looks at test tubes-very daffy with equal roots in Cage and Mingus. Louis Armstrong would be proud." – Option Magazine

https://www.jimyanda.com/

Tickets - $20

Half price at door for students with valid ID

Guitarist/Composer Jim Yanda Releases Two Albums Spanning the 30-Year Career of His Brilliantly Inventive Trio

Featuring bassist Drew Gress and drummer Phil Haynes, Regional Cookin’ finds long-overdue release after decades on the shelf, while Home Road captures 2 CDs’ worth of newly-recorded music

Thirty years is a long time to keep any relationship going. It’s an almost impossibly long time to keep a secret. To a large extent the Jim Yanda Trio has managed to do both, creating exhilarating, spontaneous music together while remaining largely under the radar outside of those lucky enough to catch their sporadic performances in the New York area – despite the fact that the trio features Drew Gress, one of the music’s busiest and most in-demand bassists, and veteran
drummer/experimentalist Phil Haynes.

Yanda began his professional career playing Western Swing in Iowa honky-tonks near his family’s farm. He turned to rock in his high school years, inspired by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Allman Brothers, then finally discovered jazz in college. After a brief tenure in New York he spent six years in Chicago, regularly playing in local clubs, working with drummer/composer Damon Short and the Déjà Vu Big Band, and frequenting the legendary South Side jam sessions hosted by Von Freeman. He made his permanent return to New York in 1992.

Yanda was inspired to form the trio by his and Haynes’ shared mentor, trumpeter Paul Smoker, whose innovative trio work drew from influences that run the length and breadth of jazz history. “Paul went all the way back to field hollers, rags, New Orleans music, Louis Armstrong – primordial pre-jazz up through swing – then through Charlie Parker to free music, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the World Saxophone Quartet. As a listener it was so refreshing and gave the experience so much more depth to be able to draw on the entire history. The straight ahead stuff sounds fresher and the old stuff sounds more modern when you juxtapose those different eras and open up that wider history.”

https://www.jimyanda.com/

Tickets - $20

Half price at door for students with valid ID

Finding the trace, taking the path, connecting the beginning to the horizon to be better carried deep into the present. The NEW ORIGIN TRIO vibrates the space-time through a free, colourful music connecting the United States to Europe, learned music and wild freedom.

On the one hand Christophe Rocher, at the head of the Nautilis Ensemble, an important musician in Europe who had the opportunity to play with the greatest (Hamid Drake, Nicole Mitchell, Rob Mazurek, Vincent Courtois, Edward Perraud… ), and who participates in international projects such as ARCH or “The Bridge”.

On the other, two internationally known American musicians, Joe Fonda and Harvey Sorgen. They have collaborated withWadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Barry Altchul, Dave Douglas, Oliver Lake, Hot Tuna, Brenda Bufalino, Karl Berger, Ahmad Jamal and many others.

Over many years of touring and recording, the members of this trio have left their mark on the history of jazz and improvised music. Numerous reviews, awards and distinctions have been given to each of them.

https://youtu.be/kp_xjl8TyBA

Tickets - $20 / $25 at the door

Half price at door for students with valid ID

ERIC VLOEIMANS

Trumpeter Eric Vloeimans is one of the best-known musicians in his native country, the Netherlands. He has led a wide variety of ensembles over the years and is a frequent guest soloist with bands and orchestras of all kinds. He has won several Edison prizes (the “Dutch Grammy”) for his recordings. His own projects have included his "chamber-jazz” Fugimundi trio, Gatecrash, and Oliver’s Cinema. These groups perform a wide range of highly original music and have toured throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. Vloeimans' versatility, easy-going attitude and great sense of humor have brought him to play with artists such as Mercer Ellington, John Taylor, Peter Erskine, The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Wayne Horvitz, Nguyên Lê, Jimmy Haslip, Joey Baron, the Holland Baroque Society, the Matangi Quartet, Bojan Z., the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and many others. He has played all over the world, and experiences from his travels can be heard in many of his compositions. Eric Vloeimans is a musician who plays from the heart; he has shown a remarkable power to create bridges and connect with audiences all over the world.

ERIC'S WEBSITE

WILL HOLSHOUSER

Will Holshouser is an accordionist, composer and improviser whose music draws on a wide variety of inspirations, from traditional accordion folk styles to jazz, hymns, classical and experimental music. Embracing clear melodies, pulsating rhythms and contrapuntal textures, Will’s music relates to many different musical languages. As a working musician in New York who plays with artists in many genres from around the world, he distills these experiences into his own compositions, exploring new sounds while staying in touch with the accordion’s expressive qualities and sense of fun.  Three albums of music for his trio were released on the Portuguese label Clean Feed. A collaborative trio with Matt Munisteri and Marcus Rojas, Musette Explosion, made an album that received widespread acclaim. Will has performed all over the world with artists such as Regina Carter, David Krakauer, Antony & the Johnsons, Han Bennink & Michael Moore, Uri Caine, Andy Statman, Mark Morris Dance, Guy Klucevsek, New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, Suzanne Vega, and others. Will studied accordion and composition with composition with Tania León and Dalit Warshaw at Brooklyn College.

WILL'S WEBSITE

Watch ERIC & WILL here

Tickets - $20

Half price at door for students with valid ID

The violist and his band continue to defy easy categorization as they draw from their varied pasts and mesh genres from classical to Eastern European folk, producing novel results.  Larry Blumenfeld

Mat’s deepest memories are buried within particular musical phrases or renditions. One track here, “Brahms,” is based on the Andante from Johannes Brahms’s Viola Sonata No. 1, Op. 120, as Mr. Maneri remembers it played by violist James Bergin, who studied with his father. The brief yet dramatic phrases that form the basis of Mr. Maneri’s “Earth” were drawn from a 1964 “Peace Concert” by his father (in duet with drummer Peter Dolger), which Mr. Maneri listened to obsessively on a reel-to-reel tape (it was commercially released in 2008).

Mr. Maneri is one of modern music’s most distinctive string players, and one of its freest-ranging talents. He has played with past masters including pianists Cecil Taylor and Paul Bley, and is an essential element in several important groups (pianist Matthew Shipp’s String Trio, including Mr. Maneri and bassist William Parker, is a singular and wondrous ensemble).

If his playing knows no genre and often defies standard notation, it’s because he was raised in the spaces between those styles and notes. Joe Maneri’s music and scholarship placed modern jazz, composer Arnold Schoenberg’s Second Viennese School, and Eastern European folk styles on equal footing; his abiding fascination was with microtonalism, music that uses intervals smaller than the semitone, the smallest by Western music standards (and which occur naturally in most folk music and blues). The quartet Mat played in and assembled in the 1990s for his father to lead focused on, he told me, “pitches within pitches, rhythms within rhythms, dynamics within dynamics.”

That same sense of granular expression, of continuums rather than fixed points, animates Mr. Maneri’s current quartet, which made its debut on his 2019 release, “Dust.” These musicians now mine their own communal memories. Mr. Maneri began playing with Mr. Peterson in the 1980s and with Mr. Hébert a decade later. His close bond with Mr. Ban, who was born and raised in central Romania, began in 2010, and includes their 2013 duet recording, “Transylvanian Concert.”

On the new release Mr. Ban’s composition “Dust to Dust” extends his “Mojave,” from Mr. Maneri’s previous recording, into a 10-minute-plus piece; Mr. Maneri plays its bittersweet melody with brilliant clarity and complex shades of feeling. For his own composition “Cold World Lullaby,” Mr. Maneri draws upon three references: Sol Kaplan’s score to “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” (a favorite film of his childhood); a Sicilian lullaby his grandfather taught him; and “Lume, Lume,” a traditional Romanian song he learned from Mr. Ban. On another original composition, “Glimmer,” Mr. Maneri’s viola often sounds like a horn in a jazz band—a quality that he said owes as much to his studies of Baroque music with Juilliard String Quartet co-founder Robert Koff as to his listening to Miles Davis recordings. It also results from the way he combines his instrument’s natural qualities with deft use of amplification and a volume pedal.

In Mr. Maneri’s hands, the viola is both acoustic and electric; each tone is neither this note nor that; his quartet, which sometimes sounds larger than it is, mostly moves as one; and his music speaks simultaneously of a distant past and a present moment.

Mat Maneri

Tickets - $25

Half price at door for students with valid ID

One of the most influential and innovative guitarists of the past quarter century, Preston Reed invented integrated percussive guitar playing in the late 1980's, revolutionising the way the acoustic guitar is played and inspiring generations of musicians around the world ever since. Employing multi-voiced grooves, polyrhythmic percussion and story-telling compositions, Reed's visionary approach fully exploits the breathtaking orchestral potential of the acoustic guitar.
Since 1979 Preston has released fifteen critically-acclaimed albums and performed on six continents. His long teaching experience includes The Swannanoa Gathering, where he taught Kaki King, his own week-long workshops in Scotland, attended by many over the years including Ed Sheeran, and his recent masterclass at Berklee College of Music. His 1994 instructional video, The Guitar Of Preston Reed: Expanding The Realm Of Acoustic Playing continues to set today's and tomorrow's top players on the path to developing their own musical voices on the instrument.

The Last Viking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l09lN1L6sDM
Delayed Train: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fs4vpCxKmI
Tractor Pull: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oVzB0zRBU0
Waltz Of The Snails https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDr61OdaSQo
Funkin' At The Junction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnQvzsmlwlg
www.prestonreed.com

I’ve known Chris Beard for quite some time now, and I’m very excited about his new CD. I’ve had a good listen and it’s exceptional. He’s doing a series of shows to promote its release, with the Rochester concert coming up at 8 p.m. Friday, September 22, at 75 Stutson Street, which is the venue at, conveniently, 75 Stutson St.

Tickets can be obtained in person here at Bop Shop Records or online through Eventbrite.

Bop Shop Records isn’t affiliated with this show, but we highly recommend it for all the blues enthusiasts out there.

Born in 1957, Beard is the son of blues guitarist, Joe Beard, who grew up on Beale Street in the 1950s. When family friends like Matt “Guitar” Murphy and Buddy Guy stopped by to visit, young Beard became their willing pupil. Chris says, “when your father grew up on Beale Street and music was in your DNA, then blues is who you are and what you do.”

“Blues is my roots,” continues Chris, “as Joe Beards son, I grew up around some of the best bluesmen. The influence of Buddy has been major for me. All he had to say to me was, 'keep on doing what you’re doing' and Matt always told me, 'the guitar has to become an extension of you', that will always stick with me.”

Circular Jazz is a trio dedicated to musical dialogue and conversation in the jazz and new improvised music tradition. Currently exploring the music of the late, great Bert Wilson. Although, not a household name in jazz, he and his music has influenced many of the who’s who of the jazz world.

A skilled creative improvisational player, saxophonist Bert Wilson was little known to all but the most dedicated jazz buffs. A skilled and original performer equally at home on tenor, alto, and soprano, he first emerged during the 1960s, appearing on records from the likes of Sonny Simmons and James Zitro. When Wilson finally began leading his own dates years later, most of his albums were released on his own FMO label, and as a result were never privy to the kind of wide distribution they deserved. Those issued on other, more high-profile labels, like 1986's The Next Rebirth and 1994's Endless Fingers, typically earned high marks from critics.

Circular Jazz is:

Dan Blake, tenor and straight alto saxophones

Bryan Copeland, bass violin

Bob Meyer, drums and cymbals

THE CHARLES RUGGIERO QUARTET :

Charles Ruggiero - drums
Justin Flynn - sax,
Andy Calabrese - keys and
Peter Chwazik - bass

Charles Ruggiero is a professional drummer, producer, artist, and bandleader. Born a “rock & roller” he quickly became fascinated with jazz and began forging the love for that music into a career in the early 1990’s. He honed his skills in those early years alongside Joshua Redman, Peter Bernstein, Ryan Kisor, Brad Mehldau, Myron Walden, and Chris Potter, eventually earning the drum chair in Chuck Mangione's band playing (for a time) alongside the legendary drummer Steve Gadd. "He taught me so much, and he never uttered one word about music." says Ruggiero.

Late in the year 2000, former MTV/VH1 vee-jay, Abby Gennet, asked Charles to play on a demo of a few of her songs, and the rock-n-roll band SLUNT was born. In only their second year they were on tour with Marilyn Manson. The following years found them on tour with Motorhead, and Paul Stanley (KISS) and releasing two albums on Repossession Records. After SLUNT Charles found himself on Ozzy Ozbourne's Ozzfest tour, replacing drummer Matt Sorum (Guns and Roses/Velvet Revolver) as a member of Circus Diablo - a band which also featured Billy Duffy (The Cult), Brett Scallions (FUEL), Billy Morrison (Billy Idol), and Ricky Warwick (The Almighty).  

2007 was a big change - Ruggiero moved to Los Angeles. Working as a session drummer, making pop and rock records, he also got back to his jazz roots, working  with the finest musicians in LA including Larry Goldings, Eric Reed, Bob Reynolds, Tom Scott, Kenny G., and 80's icon Molly Ringwald. A three year return to NYC in 2013 found Ruggiero making his debut as a bandleader with his album “Boom Bang, Boom Bang!” receiving both critical and public acclaim. Now home again in his adopted Los Angeles, Charles continues to thrive. Touring and recording regularly. In 2022, his seventh recording as a leader “Drummer. Composer.” reached #19 on the jazz charts and made the list of top 100 jazz albums of the year!

BOP SHOP RECORDS IS DELIGHTED TO BRING EUGENE CHADBOURNE

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH 8PM

BOP SHOP RECORDS 1460 MONROE AVE.

A seemingly endless -- and endlessly eclectic -- series of releases made the innovative guitarist Eugene Chadbourne one of the underground community's most well-known and well-regarded eccentrics. Born January 4, 1954 in Mount Vernon, NY, Chadbourne was raised in Boulder, CO, by his mother, a refugee of the Nazi death camps. At the age of 11, the Beatles inspired him to learn guitar; later exposure to Jimi Hendrix prompted him to begin experimenting with distortion pedals and fuzzboxes. Ultimately, however, he became dissatisfied with the conventions of rock and pop, and traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic one, on which he began to learn to play bottleneck blues.

Perhaps Chadbourne's most significant formative discovery was jazz; initially drawn to John Coltrane and Roland Kirk, he later became an acolyte of the avant excursions of Derek Bailey and Anthony Braxton. Despite the huge influence music exerted over his life, however, Chadbourne first studied to become a journalist, but his career was derailed when he fled to Canada rather than fight in Vietnam; only President Jimmy Carter's declaration of amnesty for conscientious objectors allowed the vociferously left-wing Chadbourne to return to the U.S. in 1976, at which time he plunged headlong into the New York downtown music scene. After releasing his 1976 debut, Solo Acoustic Guitar, he began collaborating on purely improvisational music with the visionary saxophonist John Zorn and the acclaimed guitarist Henry Kaiser.

Quickly, Chadbourne carved out a singular style, comprised of equal parts protest music, free improvisation, and avant-garde jazz, topped off with his absurd, squeaky vocals. A complete list of Chadbourne's countless subsequent collaborations and genre workouts is far too lengthy and detailed to exhaustively document, although in the early '80s he garnered some of his first significant attention as the frontman of Shockabilly, a demented rockabilly revisionist outfit which also featured the well-known producer Kramer. Following the group's breakup, Chadbourne turned to his own idiosyncratic brand of country and folk, accurately dubbed LSD C&W on a 1987 release, the same year he joined the members of Camper Van Beethoven for a one-off covers project. In addition, he recorded with artists ranging from Fred Frith and Elliott Sharp to Evan Johns and Jimmy Carl Black, the original drummer in the Mothers of Invention; in between, he continued exploring unique styles inspired by music from the four corners of the globe, all the while issuing a seemingly innumerable string of records, most of them on his own Parachute label.

tu:NER. will perform their original music, improvs and honor as well their King Crimson/ProjeKcts DNA, as well as also bring to the stage some of the material produced by TU and TUNER during the past two decades. The music of those projects is known for being innovative yet accessible in nature, drawing on elements of rock, jazz, prog, funk, and other genres.

All the different influences coming together through these three artists are notable for their endlessly creative approach to music, and for the highly skilled musicianship of the players involved. The music produced by all these precedent projects is highly rewarding for those who are willing to listen with an open mind. After three decades of partial collaborations in pairs, and two decades since Trey introduced Pat to Markus, they have created pieces like Face, Absinthe, Pole, Műűt, Untamed Chicken, Flinch, Fandango, and Deception of the Thrush, all having become part of the classic neo-progressive rock catalogue of the 21st century. Together with staples from the King Crimson songbook such as EleKtriK, Level Five, Vrooom Vrooom, and FraKctured, all co-written by members of this outfit, these three amazingly talented friends guarantee an evening of mind-expanding music of the highest standards of virtuosity, innovation, and melodicity. 

Of course, the creative impulse of these three musos would never be fully satisfied by simply revisiting their back catalogues, as if it were a mere trip down memory lane. Far from it, audiences will be treated to new pieces, as well as their characteristic improvisations, which, instead of consisting of simply jamming and noodling, in their case always comprise "instant compositions," where the three musicians are constantly listening to each other with their ears and with their souls, in the telepathic fashion of a true R&D small intelligent unit. Because Trey, Pat and Markus are the best musicians at creating magic musical concoctions on the spot, away from the rock or jazz traditional rules of improvisation. 

Listeners who are fans of King Crimson, and progressive music in general, will soon realize this new trio incarnation of tu:NER is the musical collaboration of the decade. Twenty years since the disbanding of the Double Duo, the spirit of the ProjeKcts is finally back on the road with Gunn, Reuter and Mastelotto. 

Tickets - $30 advance $35 day of show

On their transformative debut album Nakshatra, violinists Trina Basu and Arun Ramamurthy reach both deep into their past and high into the celestial realm, culminating in a lush and spiritual collaboration that bridges traditions and defies genres. A Sanskrit word evocative of constellations, stars, and interconnectedness, nakshatra perfectly encapsulates the album’s expansive sound, which quite surprisingly, is made by just two violins vibrating together in sublime harmony. Profoundly intimate yet bearing a cinematic gravitas, this work five years in the making conveys a feeling of two souls in conversation spanning hundreds of years into the past and the future.

 Basu (Karavika) and Ramamurthy (Arun Ramamurthy Trio) are deeply rooted in traditions of South Indian classical music, Western chamber music, and jazz, uniquely positioning them to create a sound that feels ancient, orchestral, and contemporary or as The New Yorker put it, “free-flowing and globe-spanning.” Through the duo’s grounding in tradition paired with their fluency in improvisation, the compositions on Nakshatra have a clear architecture, which allows space for their two violins to be deliciously indiscernible while shining individually. Basu says of the duo’s collaboration, “Our hope for our music is to be a meeting point for the tradition of South Indian classical music—raga music—that Arun comes from and Western classical music and creative improvisation that I come from, and bring these pieces together in a way that creates a sound that reflects who we are, a sound that reflects our multicultural background, and our experiences in this world.”

You can see lots more about these wonderful musicians on their website HERE.

TICKETS - $20

Jeremy bleich - guitar / Paul brown - bass / Milton villarrubia III - drums

Based in Santa Fe, NM and led by Jeremy Bleich’s eclectic guitar and compositional style,

The Glass Key Trio explores compositions inspired by country, world music, folk, and film noir.
Each composition is a vehicle for spirited dialogue between the players ushering the listener into a narrative exploration of musical landscapes.  GKT has been nominated for two 2023 New Mexico Music Awards including Best Jazz Album and Best Instrumental Song.
"The Glass Key Trio... has conceived a strange combination of folk, gospel, spirituals, jazz and experimental curiosities, all without adhering too intensely to any one, and without an easy
means to genre-fy." - Santa Fe Reporter
Jeremy Bleich is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who incorporates a wide palette of sound and
culture into the process of creating music. He has toured extensively across Europe and the U.S playing bass and electronics with critically acclaimed trio “Birth”. He resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he is involved with presenting new music on his Grasshopper Music record label, teaching Orchestra at Los Alamos Public Schools and conducting with the Santa Fe Youth Symphony. Jeremy has played and/or recorded with musicians as diverse as Count Vu, Joe Maneri, Chris Jonas, Carmen Castaldi, and songwriters Jason White, Keven McCarthy, and Rick Elias.

Paul Brown has been playing music for 47 years, studying bass
and improvisation at the Berklee College of Music, and ud and makam with Haig Manoukian and Yordal Tokcan. Comfortable in all styles of music from Eastern Europe and beyond, he is in demand across the country, playing electric and acoustic bass with a number of bands (Édessa, Souren Baronian’s Taksim, Pontic Firebird) at music and dance camps, concerts, and festivals.

Milton Villarrubia, III grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and has bee n crafting his music art in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1996. Milton has performed with EllisMarsalis, Myra Melford, Anthony Braxton, Peter Bernstein, Steve Masakowski, The University of New Orleans Jazz Studies Program,
The Santa Fe Opera, New Mexico School for the Arts, William A. Thompson, IV, Circus Luminous,
The Academy for Technology and the Classics, Candyman Strings and Things, Ray Francen's Drum
Center and Drummer's World. In 2016 Milton and the Santa Fe based group Kodama Trio won best Jazz Album as well as Best Jazz Song in the Prestigious New Mexico
Music Awards.

New York native trumpeter Chris Pasin and his band Ornettiquette pay tribute to saxophonist Ornette Coleman and his long-time sonic partner trumpeter Don Cherry.

Featuring Chris Pasin (trumpet), Harvey Sorgen (drums), Jeff Lederer (saxophones), and Michael Bisio (bass).

Chris Pasin, a graduate of the New England Conservatory, spent two years playing with the Buddy Rich band in the early 80’s, touring with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, and many others .Then he relocated to New York City. Much of the next decade was spent playing jazz with various groups, including the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin big band. There was also work with Jack McDuff, many Salsa and Brazilian bands, and various other jazz ensembles, including the Lee Shaw quintet in recent years.

TICKETS - $20

Bop Shop Records is thrilled to present STEVE KATZ
Sunday, July 16th
Bop Shop Records 1460 Monroe Ave.
Rochester NY 14618
$20 advance, $25 day of show.

Legendary guitarist Steve Katz is or at least was definitely a rock star: a pioneer of the blues-rock genre with his early 1960s band, the Blues Project; a founder in the late 1960s of the groundbreaking and hugely popular jazz-rock big band Blood, Sweat & Tears; and the producer of Lou Reed’s best-selling and still-influential live LP Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal (as well as its follow-up Sally Can’t Dance, Reed’s only top-10 album). Katz engagingly recounts fascinating stories in an insightful, intelligent, sometimes wistful and sometimes funny style that makes this one of the few rock memoirs worth reading from beginning to end. Highlights include his early days getting lessons from blues guitar genius Rev. Gary Davis in a “little clapboard shanty” in the South Bronx; the birth of Blood, Sweat & Tears despite Katz’s contentious relationship with co-founder and Dylan collaborator Al Kooper (“Al never liked my guitar playing and I never liked his voice”); the phenomenal success—with Kooper’s replacement singer, David Clayton-Thomas of BS&T’s second self-titled LP with hits such as “Spinning Wheel”; and later, “David’s transformation from soul singer to slinger of schmaltz.” Katz also reveals that the audience sound on Reed’s live LP was lost and then replaced by the audience track from a John Denver live LP, a priceless story for all Reed fans or detractors. – PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY, MAY, 2015

https://stevekatzmusic.wordpress.com

Bill Kirchen and His Band

Upon tallying how many decades he’s worked as a professional guitar slinger, Telecaster master Bill Kirchen quips, “Well, they don't make 50 years like they used to.” They don’t often make careers like his, either.
From performing with his Who Knows Pickers jug band in Ann Arbor High School’s senior talent show (also on the program: the future Iggy Pop), to birthing the Americana genre with the original “hippie country band,” Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, this affable Austinite has been everywhere, man, flying alongside some of the planet’s coolest cats — including the Jesus of Cool, Nick Lowe, and Lowe’s old protégé, Elvis Costello.
Kirchen has toured the world with Lowe, who produced an album by Kirchen’s post-Airmen band, the Moonlighters, and Costello recruited Kirchen for high-profile gigs like the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival — and even named his festival band after Kirchen’s Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods album. Lowe appears on that 2006 album, and its 2010 follow-up, Word to the Wise, along with Costello, Maria Muldaur, Dan Hicks and other luminaries.

Now those albums, plus Kirchen’s third Proper Records release, 2013’s Seeds and Stems, are being combined with three bonus tracks from Transatlantica, his 2016 project with pub-rock progenitor Austin de Lone, as a two-CD retrospective titled The Proper Years. Waxworks, is a vinyl best-of version of the full collection. 

A well-balanced mix of engaging originals and wonderfully rendered covers, The Proper Years admirably conveys Kirchen’s versatility as a player and singer — one of the first to mash up rockabilly, country, western swing, honky-tonk, jump blues, jazz, boogie-woogie and even the “psychedelic folk rock” he played with the Seventh Seal, the band he formed while attending  the University of Michigan. (MC5 manager/activist John Sinclair got them a deal on the ESP-Disk label, home of Sun Ra, but the band turned it down.)

Somewhere between steering Commander Cody’s “Hot Rod Lincoln” into a top-10 hit and scoring a Grammy nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance, Kirchen dubbed his sound “dieselbilly,” wrapping his fondness for country’s truck-driving song subgenre (as in big rigs, not pickups), its intersection with the Bakersfield Sound and his own name into one memorable moniker. 
Kirchen’s right-place-at-the-right-time career has put him at the forefront of many musical movements, including outlaw country; Commander Cody’s 1974 album, Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas, recorded at Austin’s legendary Armadillo World Headquarters, made Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Albums of All Time list.  
But whatever label Kirchen’s music wears, it’s always notable for its balance of high-octane energy and deft understatement. There’s no leadfoot excess; Kirchen’s all about finesse — a sensibility absorbed from the symphonies and Broadway musicals his parents loved, along with the orchestral works he played as a school-band trombonist.

Home Page of Bill Kirchen, Titan of The Telecaster

Tickets: $25 advance, $30 day of show and on sale online beginning Wednesday, March 15 at https://www.abilene.showare.com/ and at the bar

KAHIL EL’ZABAR AND DAVID MURRAY HAVE COLLABORATED SUCCESSFULLY FOR 40 YEARS, PERFORMING IN NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA TO SOLD OUT AUDIENCES. THEY HAVE RECEIVED ENORMOUS MEDIA RECOGNITION, AND STELLAR REVIEWS FROM THE GLOBAL PRESS!

Sir Kahil El’Zabar, was Knighted by the Council General of France for his Global contributions to the Arts. He has performed with luminaries like, Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderley, Pharoah Sanders, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Archie Shepp, Eddie Harris, Donny Hathaway, Paul Simon, Ntozake Shange, Nona Hendryx, Neneh Cherry, Lester Bowie, Hamiet Bluiett, Malachi Favors, Billy Bang, Gene Ammons, to name a few. Dr.El’Zabar, holds a PHD from Lake Forest College in Inter-Disciplinary Arts. He taught music and inter disciplinary arts at the U. Nebraska/Lincoln, and U. IL/Chicago. He was Appointed by Pres. Bill Clinton to the National Task Force for Arts Presenting in Education. He won the International Ambassador Award from Pres. Barak Obama’s Administration. Kahil El’zabar ,has served on the prestigious boards of the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund, The National Endowment of the Arts, and the National Campaign for the Freedom of Expression. He is also the former chairmen of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians AACM. El’Zabar, Has recorded over 100 acclaimed projects, and founded and leads the legendary Ethnic Heritage Ensemble and Ritual Trio.

David Murray is considered to be the most influential tenor saxophonist of his generation. He has recorded more than 300 acclaimed projects. He has worked with many of the giants, such as Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Cecil Taylor, Jack DeJohnette, Chico Hamilton, Elvin Jones, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Randy Weston, the list goes on. He is co founder of the World Saxophone Quartet, and leads the famed David Murray Quartet, David Murray Octet, and the David Murray Big Band. Dr. Murray was awarded a PHD in the Arts from Claremont College, and is also a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar. Mr. Murray has won 2 Grammys and is the prestigious recipient of the Jazz Par Award from the country of Denmark.

TICKETS - $25 advance $30 day of show

Devin Gray - solo percussion with electronics

An artist interested in multiple musical directions and one who strives for quality and sincerity in his work. His exciting energy has compelled him towards many different musical directions and projects. Considered by his contemporaries as cutting edge, Gray shows promise as an artist that will not only move the music forward, but one who will share his unique musical vision with the world of music.

Devin Gray’s fresh approach to modern drumming has enabled him to play with many of the worlds great jazz musicians. He has performed and recorded with innovative musicians of contrasting styles and backgrounds such as: David Liebman, Tony Malaby, Gary Thomas, Ingrid Jensen, Dave Burrell, Dave Ballou, Michael Formanek, Nate Wooley, Stephan Crump, George Garzone, Chris Speed, Drew Gress, Sam Rivers, Ralph Alessi, John O’Gallagher, Ellery Eskelin, Kris Davis, Ted Rosenthal, Matt Mitchell, Satoko Fujii, Uri Caine, Andrew D’Angelo, Vardan Ovsepian, Angelica Sanchez, as well as many others.

Devin has been fortunate to perform in many places around the globe. He is a top call young drummer in many modern jazz circles in New York City. Current leader projects include two quartets: “Dirigo Rataplan” featuring Ellery Eskelin, Dave Ballou, and Michael Formanek, and “RelativE ResonancE” featuring Chris Speed, Kris Davis, and Chris Tordini. He is currently living, playing, and composing in Brooklyn, New York.

TICKETS - $20

Half price at door for students with valid ID

Knuffke has released 18 recordings as leader or co-leader and is featured as a sideman on over 50 recordings with leaders Matt Wilson, Allison Miller, Butch Morris, Uri Caine, Pierre Dorge and Michael Formanek to name a few. It’s no wonder the New York Times tagged Knuffke as “one of New York City’s Busiest Musicians.”

Originally from Colorado, self-taught Knuffke began playing with Butch Morris after landing in NYC in 2005. This friendship resulted in 4 recordings and several European tours. Knuffke then joined the celebrated Matt Wilson Quartet in 2009, recording Gathering Call (Palmetto) featuring John Medeski. He also currently performs with Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom, Sifter with Mary Halvorson and Wilson,
and groups led by Charlie Hunter, Ben Allison, Ray Anderson, Mark Helias, Bill Goodwin, Karl Berger, Michael Bisio and Ted Brown.

Knuffke’s way of “perfectly balancing sly groove and meditative exploration" (Time Out New York) has been highlighted during collaborations with a host of incredible musicians including Roswell Rudd, William Parker, Myra Melford, Steve Swell, Marshall Allen, Tootie Health and Billie Hart.  Knuffke has studied privately with Ornette Coleman, Art Lande and Ron Miles. He recently recorded a duo with John Medeski slated for 2018.

About Michel Bisio:
If you happen to be a liner note geek you probably have noticed the name Michael Bisio mentioned frequently on album sleeves. Whether the author is the session leader or analyst, the general consensus is the bassist is the cornerstone upon which great music is built. His playing allows a fellow musician to access not only other player's innovations, but also their own wellspring of creativity and imagination. The bassist was quite busy in 2021 with an abundance of albums released and coming soon. They include: The Sweet Spot (Rogue Art, 2021) with Joe McPhee, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Juma Sultan, Joe McPhee & Strings (Rogue Art, 2022), a solo bass recording Inimitable (Mung Music, 2022), a new duo recording with Matthew Shipp, Flow Of Everything (Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2022), a quartet featuring Karl Berger, Mat Maneri, and Whit Dickey entitled MBefore (TAO Forms, 2022), the Matthew Shipp Trio with Newman Taylor Baker featured on World Construct (ESP Disk, 2022), a duo with Kirk Knuffke entitled For You I Don't Wanna' Go (NoBusiness, 2022), the Kirk Knuffke led trio date with Matthew Shipp entitled Gravity Without Airs (TAO Forms, 2022), and lastly a trio recording with Whit Dickey and Kirk Knuffke (TAO Forms, 2023). I sat down with Bisio (via Zoom) to get some insight into his life and process, and learn what's next for this great man.

TICKETS - $20

Half price at door for students with valid ID

The musical evolution of Old Blind Dogs began in Aberdeen in 1992 with roots that grew from the eclectic music scene that flourished there during the early 90’s. Four musicians from very different musical backgrounds came together to create a full-time professional touring band with the aim of showcasing the rich tradition of songs and tunes of the northeast of Scotland on an international stage.
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Like many of the early flag-bearing Scottish folk bands, the Old Blind Dogs lineup has faced inevitable changes over the years, but the core values at the band’s musical heart continue. The current band lineup has been settled for several years now and consists of four of Scotland’s finest traditional musicians at the top of their game. Original member Jonny Hardie (fiddle/vocals) is joined by Aaron Jones (cittern/guitar/vocals), Elias Alexander (pipes/whistles/vocals) and Donald Hay (percussion/vocals) and collectively they are one of the hottest live tickets on the traditional Scottish music scene today.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS!

SEATED TICKETS ARE LIMITED… IF ALL SEATING SELLS OUT, STANDING TICKETS WILL BECOME AVAILABLE ONLINE AND AT THE DOOR.

IF YOU PURCHASED A SEATED TICKET… To secure your seating for this show, please call the venue at (585) 292-9940 to make a reservation (only after everyone in your party has purchased a seated ticket). YOU MUST be the person who placed the ticket order to make the reservation, and the number of tickets purchased must match the number of people in your reservation. A seated ticket guarantees you admission and some form of seating, but if you don’t make a reservation, your whole party may not be sat together and/or some members may have to sit at the bar or other areas. You may not include standing ticket holders in your reservation.

Doors @ 6pm | $30 ADV / $35 DOS
Show @ 7pm

The musical evolution of Old Blind Dogs began in Aberdeen in 1992 with roots that grew from the eclectic music scene that flourished there during the early 90’s. Four musicians from very different musical backgrounds came together to create a full-time professional touring band with the aim of showcasing the rich tradition of songs and tunes of the northeast of Scotland on an international stage.
​
Like many of the early flag-bearing Scottish folk bands, the Old Blind Dogs lineup has faced inevitable changes over the years, but the core values at the band’s musical heart continue. The current band lineup has been settled for several years now and consists of four of Scotland’s finest traditional musicians at the top of their game. Original member Jonny Hardie (fiddle/vocals) is joined by Aaron Jones (cittern/guitar/vocals), Elias Alexander (pipes/whistles/vocals) and Donald Hay (percussion/vocals) and collectively they are one of the hottest live tickets on the traditional Scottish music scene today.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS!

SEATED TICKETS ARE LIMITED… IF ALL SEATING SELLS OUT, STANDING TICKETS WILL BECOME AVAILABLE ONLINE AND AT THE DOOR.

IF YOU PURCHASED A SEATED TICKET… To secure your seating for this show, please call the venue at (585) 292-9940 to make a reservation (only after everyone in your party has purchased a seated ticket). YOU MUST be the person who placed the ticket order to make the reservation, and the number of tickets purchased must match the number of people in your reservation. A seated ticket guarantees you admission and some form of seating, but if you don’t make a reservation, your whole party may not be sat together and/or some members may have to sit at the bar or other areas. You may not include standing ticket holders in your reservation.

Doors @ 6pm | $30 ADV / $35 DOS
Show @ 7pm

Saturday, May 13, 2023, 7:30 pm

Greece Baptist Church, 1230 Long Pond Rd, Rochester, NY 14626

For more than eleven years, the Ohio-based Americana band Hey Mavis has been weaving a musical tapestry and igniting a following of dedicated fans. With heartfelt vocals, honest songwriting, blazing instrumental solos, and an undeniable onstage musical chemistry, this quartet is the definition of great Americana music.

Banjoist/songwriter Laurie Michelle Caner and violinist/fiddler Eddie Caner formed Hey Mavis while serving as artists-in-residence in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The band also includes bassist Bryan Thomas and percussionist Anthony Taddeo. 

Producer Don Dixon (REM/Smithereens/Red Clay Ramblers) “discovered” the group on a local Christmas compilation CD and went on to produce their first two albums, both of which hit the top 10 on the national Folk DJ radio charts and amassed favorable reviews across the globe. 

Their most recent album, Live at Lovin’ Cup, was recorded right here in Rochester and released as a QR code on the side of a bottle of Karma Sauce hot sauce!

Hey Mavis has appeared on NPR’s Mountain Stage, NPR’s Whad’ya Know?, and PBS’s Songs from the Center. The group has performed standing-room-only shows at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival as well as nine consecutive sell-out concerts in their hometown of Akron, Ohio. In 2018, Melissa Etheridge personally chose Hey Mavis to perform on her music cruise featuring Etheridge and Sarah McLachlan.

The Chet Doxas Trio  w/ Jacob Sacks & Thomas Morgan is a musical sandbox where Doxas’ compositions and these world class improvisers get the chance to play and discover new sonic territories together. 

Both the inspiration and the encouragement to put this album together can be traced back to Carla Bley. Jimmy Giuffre’s trio was a big influence on Doxas – “the way he shapes and articulates is one of a kind" - and the group regularly featured Bley’s music. While in tour together, an early-morning airport transfer saw Doxas discussing future plans with Bley and Steve Swallow, who advised Doxas to write “one song a month”, distraction- free for a year. That process gradually revealed his trio, selected for their personal sensibilities as much as their outstanding technical capabilities.

Eminently imaginative in inspiration, construction and delivery, Doxas’ trio gels immediately to create a varied emotional palette filled with wonder, humor and curiosity. 

Tickets are $20 in advance or at the door. Half price for students with ID.

Celebrating more than 30 years of Celtic Rock!Since forming in 1988, Tempest has delivered a globally-renowned hybrid of high-energy folk rock, fusing Irish reels, Scottish ballads, Norwegian influences and other world music elements. The last 30 plus years have seen the San Francisco Bay Area based act release eighteen critically acclaimed CDs and play more than 2,500 gigs. It’s also enjoyed an evolving line-up that’s enabled musicianship and creativity to progress in delightful ways with each new member.

Hailing from Oslo, Norway, founding member and lead singer/electric mandolinist, Lief Sorbye is recognized as a driving force in the modern folk-rock movement. He started Tempest after years of touring and recording on the folk circuit.

San Francisco native fiddler Lee Corbie-Wells comes to the band with a special passion for Celtic and Scandinavian music and Gaelic language traditions. A touring and performing child of a musical family, she plays fiery traditional fiddle tunes, and is also known to keep a bit of blues and folk improvisation up her sleeve.

Nikolay Georgiev studied modern rock guitar under Martin Goulding at the Guitar Institute of Technology in London, U.K. and classical guitar performance in his native Bulgaria. Nikolay brings a fresh and global flavor to Tempest’s brand of world music.

The latest addition to the band is the seasoned Bass Player Hugh Caley. He is a Michigan transplant, who brings energy, genuine enthusiasm and a damn fine kilt to this frisky iteration of Celtic and roots music.

Cuban-born drummer Adolfo Lazo, an original Tempest member, thickens the band’s sound with inventive rhythms, and rock-steady drumming.

Doors @ 6pm | $20 general admission
Show @ 7pm