Lily White--Saxophone
Rob Garcia:  Drums
Jim Whitney-Bass
Bennett Paster--Piano
Clay jenkins -Trumpet

The Lily White Quintet is the classic lineup of jazz’s great modernist period—trumpet, tenor, piano, bass and drums, the minimal yet versatile configuration that served both the straight-ahead Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet and the venturesome second quintet of Miles Davis, with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. This dream band, with Rob Garcia on the drums, David Smith on the trumpet, Bennett Paster on the piano and Jim Whitney on bass takes the tradition and transports it to the 21st century. White’s timbre on the horn can be warm or dry or growly as the moment demands, and she has an encyclopedic command of the saxophone’s resources. In her every solo, you can hear her thinking, and feel her feeling.

EASY TICKETING PROCESS
To attend our regular concerts at the store, please register at BopShop.com. It’s just like buying a ticket … you can pay in advance or pay at the door. We’ll send out the link via email, but you can always sign up on the website at the event listing, too. If you’d rather get on the list by talking to a live person, call us at (585) 271-3354 and we’ll get you synced up. Walk-ups are always welcome, too, provided we have the room. 

Tickets for this event are $20

https://youtu.be/vZyxlCBaZrM?si=yxN1O6pTtJK4tmHe 

https://youtu.be/S77fbKt0AmU?si=1Y_f3CJyj4PYLABX

https://youtu.be/S1IAvNz9Zjk?si=X4l3hBlsw8Uc9xaP

https://www.lilywhitemusic.com

https://open.spotify.com/album/15Fkl1fZ7vfwvMd4nwlWQp?si=Tr3-bVhTQnmqM1ALFjExjQ

https://music.apple.com/us/album/daughter-of-fortune/1713580922

From now on, we are pleased to announce that we will be offering a 10% discount on everything in our store every Sunday. Yes, you heard that right—everything is included in this special promotion. This is a fantastic opportunity to snag some of our rarest and most sought-after records at a reduced price. Be sure to take advantage of this awesome oppertunity!

We are ALSO excited to announce that we will be having a fantastic CD sale throughout the entire month of November. Our inventory is overflowing with an impressive selection of great CDs, and we need to thin the herd in order to make room for even more (as we currently have pallets full of them in the basement). To make this event even more enticing, we are offering 50% off all used CDs and a delightful 25% off all new CDs. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to expand your collection!

This event is produced by Stereo Field Recordings.

Sit in for a special event, as Rochester sensation Gavin Rice & His Famous Collegiates perform their iconic repertoire — fresh and energetic takes of early orchestrated jazz — direct to stereo for their debut release! In one of Rochester's most intimate listening rooms, Bop Shop Records, you'll get an inside look at the live recording process.

Tickets are $20 & available online or at the door. Doors open at 7pm, and recording will begin at 8pm. If you want to come in early, meet the recording team and the band, come early! Students can attend for free with valid ID.

Special thanks to Bernunzio Uptown Music for their support in this project.

Thanks to Steve Wilt from Day Records & The Reel Sound for the stereo tape recording.

From now on, we are pleased to announce that we will be offering a 10% discount on everything in our store every Sunday. Yes, you heard that right—everything is included in this special promotion. This is a fantastic opportunity to snag some of our rarest and most sought-after records at a reduced price. Be sure to take advantage of this awesome oppertunity!

We are ALSO excited to announce that we will be having a fantastic CD sale throughout the entire month of November. Our inventory is overflowing with an impressive selection of great CDs, and we need to thin the herd in order to make room for even more (as we currently have pallets full of them in the basement). To make this event even more enticing, we are offering 50% off all used CDs and a delightful 25% off all new CDs. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to expand your collection!

Spin Cycle

Since 2014, contemporary jazz band Spin Cycle has been bringing their original music to clubs and concert halls across the US and Canada. Co-lead by Scott Neumann and Tom Christensen, the band highlights their flexibility, reach and capacity to surprise their audiences. On any given song, you might encounter the modal influence of John Coltrane, the second-line funk of New Orleans, or the edgy experimentation of free jazz. 

Featuring guitarist Pete McCann and bassist Dave Ambrosio, both bandleaders and well-respected artists in their own right, Spin Cycle has spent the last 7 years touring, recording, and providing educational workshops at colleges. The band’s fourth CD will be released soon on their label, Sound Footing Records.

There is, to be sure, plenty of musical variety provided by Spin Cycle, with compositions by Christensen, a consummate multi-instrumentalist who mostly plays tenor saxophone, and by Neumann a versatile and expressive drummer. Having performed in all kinds of settings including the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Jazz Mandolin Project, the Gil Evans Project, Madeleine Peyroux’s touring group, Broadway pit bands and with Cecile McLorin Salvant, Rufus Reid and Maria Schneider the co-leaders know how to bring out the intimacy of a ballad as well as the soulful feeling of swing.

www.spincyclemusic.org

EASY TICKETING PROCESS
To attend our regular concerts at the store, please register at BopShop.com. It’s just like buying a ticket … you can pay in advance or pay at the door. We’ll send out the link via email, but you can always sign up on the website at the event listing, too. If you’d rather get on the list by talking to a live person, call us at (585) 271-3354 and we’ll get you synced up. Walk-ups are always welcome, too, provided we have the room. 

Tickets for this show are $20

From now on, we are pleased to announce that we will be offering a 10% discount on everything in our store every Sunday. Yes, you heard that right—everything is included in this special promotion. This is a fantastic opportunity to snag some of our rarest and most sought-after records at a reduced price. Be sure to take advantage of this awesome oppertunity!

We are ALSO excited to announce that we will be having a fantastic CD sale throughout the entire month of November. Our inventory is overflowing with an impressive selection of great CDs, and we need to thin the herd in order to make room for even more (as we currently have pallets full of them in the basement). To make this event even more enticing, we are offering 50% off all used CDs and a delightful 25% off all new CDs. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to expand your collection!

Lou Grassi - drums
Joe Fonda - bass
Ken Wessel - guitar
Cécile Broché - villin

Lou Grassi is recognized in traditional and avant-garde jazz, performing from Ragtime to No-Time. He has toured with pianist Max Morath and leads the Dixie Peppers. Grassi has collaborated with notable artists like Marshall Allen, Billy Bang, and Roy Campbell, appearing on over 80 recordings, with more than 30 as a leader. He has extensively toured the U.S., Canada, Europe, Russia, and Central America, and has been featured at numerous international festivals, including The Stork Music Festival, The Vision Festival, and the Rochester Jazz Festival. He has also performed at Banlieues Bleues Festival, Luneburg Jazz Nights, and The International Dixieland Festival.

Joe Fonda is a composer, bassist, recording artist, performer, producer, and educator. An accomplished Jazz artist, he has performed with his own groups in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia. Fonda has worked with artists like Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, and Lou Donaldson. He was the bassist for Anthony Braxton's sextet, octet, and tentet from 1984 to 1999 and served on the Tri-Centric Foundation's Board of Directors from 1994 to 1999, including as President from 1997 to 1999. He also played in the 38-piece Tri-Centric Orchestra, conducted by Braxton, and was the bassist for the premiere of Braxton's opera, "Shalla Fears for the Poor," in October 1996 in New York City.

Ken Wessel is a versatile, sensitive, and soulful guitarist and composer. He is a vital and personal voice on the jazz guitar, playing a range of styles from straight-ahead to free music. Wessel is interested in the intersection of jazz and Indian music and has performed and recorded with musicians worldwide. He has played at major jazz festivals, concert halls, and on radio and TV in 27 countries. Wessel worked closely with the revolutionary jazz artist Ornette Coleman for over 12 years, touring as a member of his groundbreaking ensemble Prime Time. He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic and London's Philharmonia Orchestra, and appeared as a featured guitar soloist on Steely Dan frontman Donald Fagen's album. Wessel has collaborated with a diverse array of jazz artists, including John Abercrombie, David Liebman, and Johnny Hartmann.

Cécile Broché is a Belgian violin teacher and performer skilled in classical, contemporary, improvisation, and jazz music. She graduated from the Conservatories of Liège and Brussels with top honors in violin and chamber music. Cécile has studied under renowned musicians like Philip Hirshorn and Didier Lockwood, and later learned composition with Peter Swinnen at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. Alongside her musical studies, she practices movement and body awareness techniques, including yoga and Feldenkrais.

As a violinist, she has worked on various projects, engaging with contemporary music ensembles, free improvisation, dancers, actors, and visual artists. Cécile's composing style is unique and personal, drawing inspiration from her diverse experiences. She explores the electric violin's wide range of rhythms and melodies, blending music with everyday sounds to tell the story of life through sound.

From now on, we are pleased to announce that we will be offering a 10% discount on everything in our store every Sunday. Yes, you heard that right—everything is included in this special promotion. This is a fantastic opportunity to snag some of our rarest and most sought-after records at a reduced price. Be sure to take advantage of this awesome oppertunity!

We are ALSO excited to announce that we will be having a fantastic CD sale throughout the entire month of November. Our inventory is overflowing with an impressive selection of great CDs, and we need to thin the herd in order to make room for even more (as we currently have pallets full of them in the basement). To make this event even more enticing, we are offering 50% off all used CDs and a delightful 25% off all new CDs. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to expand your collection!

TRANSYLVANIAN DANCE 

Lucian Ban piano   Mat Maneri viola

On their second ECM duo album Romanian pianist Lucian Ban and US violist Mat Maneri find fresh inspiration as they follow the trail of Béla Bartók, revisiting the folk music that spurred the imagination of the great Hungarian composer who, in the early 20th century, collected and transcribed numerous pieces from Transylvania. For the duo these songs have become “springboards and sources of melodic material” for arrangements “that capture the spirit of the original yet allow us to improvise and bring our own world to them. If you go deeper into the source material, new vistas open up. These folk songs teach us many things.” (Steve Lake, album liner notes). Recorded live in October 2022 in the context of the Retracing Bartók project in Timișoara, these performances also bear testimony to the finely attuned understanding that Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri have achieved in their long-running musical partnership.

Their previous investigation of the Béla Bartók field recordings with legendary British reedman JOHN SURMAN produced the acclaimed Transylvanian Folk Songs album and was, as JAZZ TIMES put it “as much an act of tribute as it is a transformation”. The album quickly to Billboard charts, European Jazz Media Charts, Balkan World Music Charts, New York City Jazz Record BEST of 2020 and was named an NPR 2020 Jazz Critics Poll album. Rave reviews followed - the WIRE describes it as “Lush and romantic, with each note placed as carefully as a stone”, Deutchlandfunk Radio called the album “A magical event”, and the Financial Times talks how “Village dances with a fresh spin -jazz, folk and classical influences merge into a singular jazz voice”, and NPR describes the ““mystery in that bare-bones music and in much else on the album”. Discussing with Berlin Jazz Festival their investigation of folk music of Romanian people Mat Maneri talks about the “spirituality of these peasants that speak through music and how he loves this the most” while Lucian Ban underlines how “observing the traditions of folk music can teach us so much about improvisation and ultimately about music and life”.  

EASY TICKETING PROCESS
To attend our regular concerts at the store, please register at BopShop.com. It’s just like buying a ticket … you can pay in advance or pay at the door. We’ll send out the link via email, but you can always sign up on the website at the event listing, too. If you’d rather get on the list by talking to a live person, call us at (585) 271-3354 and we’ll get you synced up. Walk-ups are always welcome, too, provided we have the room. 

 Tickets - $25

Amy Rigby Album Release show with Eric Goulden bass/guitar and Sam Shepherd drums

Amy Rigby has established herself one of America’s enduring underground/cult/indie artists, combining the insight and humor of country and folk songwriting with classic rock craftsmanship and punk DIY spirit. She formed pre-Americana country band Last Roundup (Rounder) and Richard Hell’s favorite girl group the Shams (Matador) in downtown NYC before launching a solo career with 90s classic album Diary Of A Mod Housewife. Amy’s honest, kinetic songwriting has earned her praise from critics (“pithy wisdom, acerbic pen and sterling American guitar classicism” MOJO) and other artists: “Think Randy Newman and Loudon Wainwright, at their best,” says Steve Earle. Her songs have been covered by Laura Cantrell and Ronnie Spector, John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants and Maria Doyle Kennedy. Her 2019 memoir Girl To City was called “an instant classic” by The Big Takeover. “You can smell the damp, see the clothes, hear the guitars!” says Goldmine. She divides her time between New York and the UK with her husband and sometime duo partner Wreckless Eric.

And the first single/video Dylan In Dubuque:  https://youtu.be/D9iTxYcrB5A?si=hAw0LWIk7JrGGSQY

Soft Machine concert rescheduled

SOFT MACHINE 2024

JOHN ETHERIDGE - guitar
THEO TRAVIS - flute, sax, Fender Rhodes piano
FREDDY BAKER - bass guitar
ASAF SIRKIS - drums

Soft Machine is a journey through time and space and their glorious artistic past, but also through a classy present, with a band that, despite the changes in members, maintains intact that unique style of psychedelic jazz that combines power and subtlety and that is, almost six decades after its formation, a registered trademark of one of the  greatest contemporary instrumental bands. - ROCKAXIS MAGAZINE, CHILE

The band enjoys life on that perilous bridge conjoining  experimentation and tradition.- NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Tickets are on sale now! $30 in advance and $35 door.

Open Sesame merges the two worlds of Joseph Fiedler—one as music director for Sesame Street for the past fourteen seasons, the other as internationally recognized jazz trombonist—by presenting his unique and slightly edgy arrangements of Sesame Street classics. "Open Sesame was unnervingly satisfying—hitting a note between scripted nostalgia and improvised jazz that was both exciting and comforting at the same time.”—London Jazz News.

Tickets are available through the Fringe box office.
$25 in advance and at the door.
Seating is limited to 50

Sandcatchers is a musical collective fronted by visionary vocalist, composer and oud player Yoshie Fruchter, accompanied by lap-steel-guitar-whiz Myk Freedman, bassist Michael Bates and drummer Shai Wetzer. Their unique mix of Middle Eastern sounds and Americana blend in a beautiful music that both respects and expands tradition. Join them at Bop Shop records as they celebrate the release of their new album.

Tickets are available through the Fringe box office.
$25 in advance and at the door.
Seating is limited to 50

The Matt Pavolka Band is on tour supporting their new release, "Disciplinary Architecture," on Sunnyside Records. This is their first new studio recording since their now-legendary 2008 debut, "Something People Can Use." The band's sound has been described as a "virus-like sonic discharge." This is their first appearance in Rochester. Featuring Matt Pavolka, Ben Monder, Santiago Leibson, and Allan Mednard.

Tickets are available through the Fringe box office.
$25 in advance and at the door.
Seating is limited to 50

One Huge Musical Bash featuring WAMMO!!!!

• Abilene Bar & Lounge153 Liberty Pole WayRochester, NY, 14604United States (map)

A Very Special Show featuring… WAMMO!!!

Don’t miss Wammo, former Asylum Street Spankers’ front man…and backed by Rochester’s baddest blues musicians for an evening of passion, soul, and laughter!

https://www.facebook.com/billydavewammo

Doors at 4pm, music at 7pm $10 at the door

Show runs until Wammo and everyone is tired and drunk!

Richard Smith is a renowned fingerstyle guitarist celebrated for his exceptional mastery of the instrument and innovative approach to music. Born on December 12, 1971, in Beckenham, England, Smith's prodigious talent was evident from an early age.

Smith's musical journey began at the age of five when he asked his father to show him his song, “Down South Blues”, laying the foundation for his future success. He later explored various genres, including , jazz, bluegrass, classical guitar and country, which would later influence his distinctive style.

Smith's professional career took off in the 1990s with his Brothers Rob and Sam with their debut album, "Richard Smith, Guitar Trio" garnering critical acclaim and establishing him as a rising star in the guitar world. He has since released several albums, each showcasing his technical virtuosity and artistic growth.

Throughout his career, Smith has performed alongside legendary musicians, including Chet Atkins, Les Paul, and Tommy Emmanuel, and has won numerous awards, including the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship and the Golden Thumbpick Award.

Smith's music transcends genre boundaries, appealing to a broad audience with its emotional depth, technical precision, and lyrical beauty. He continues to inspire and influence a new generation of guitarists, solidifying his position as one of the most respected and beloved figures in the world of fingerstyle guitar.

Tickets are $20 in advance or at the door

Joseph Allred is a Tennessee-based guitarist, singer,multi-instrumental composer, and visualartistwith deep roots in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee and Kentucky. Their guitarplaying draws fromdiversemusical styles including Appalachian folk,bluegrass,blues,flamenco, and classical guitar, aswell asfrom folk iconoclasts John Fahey and Robbie Basho,figures of the 20th century avant-garde likeAlbert Ayler,Derek Bailey and Henry Flynt, and themusical traditions of India, Iran, and the Arab world.They have released music on Feeding TubeRecords, Worried Songs, Scissor Tail Editions, AKTI, Island House, Blue Hole Recordings,Garden Portal, Reverb Worship/Future Grave, and their own Meliphonic Records imprint.

Listen to his music here

That’s right, I’m doing a DJ gig with lots of my personal 45s. Haven’t done this in years. Should be ridiculous.

SKYLARK LOUNGE is located at 40 S Union St, Rochester, NY 14607
Great beer selection and food. Nice room to hear bands too!

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. For more on Bill visit www.billkirchen.com

Tickets on sale soon

Psychic Temple is the ever-morphing, ever-mutating constellation of players constituting Chris Schlarb’s own Planet Long Beach Rock and Roll Orchestra.

Psychic Temple has been a lot of things: a semi-cult, a recording collective, a rock band that plays like a jazz band or the other way around. Schlarb has also been many things: a truck driver, a video game composer, a private investigator, but he is first and foremost an assembler, someone whose vision and imaginative spirit intuitively understands how disparate artists might fit together, forming cosmic pickup bands that bring his visions to life: free jazz freakouts, fusions of folk, pop, rock and roll. Psychic Temple remains an ever-adaptable organism, mutating as required to fit the moment and Schlarb’s creative inclinations.

Yet despite this industrious zeal and continual output, there is one thing Psychic Temple is definitively not: a business. “I’m just going to do what I want to do,” Schlarb says. “I’m not trying to sabotage it, but I have to leave open the possibility of complete sabotage if that’s what is required.” 

Somewhere along the line, Schlarb got it into his head that perhaps his musical visions will lead him elsewhere from here on out. “9 is the end, it’s over,” Schlarb sings after the ninth song on this, his ninth album under the Psychic Temple banner. He wrote the gnomic, elliptical figure with 7-year old daughter Isabella at the kitchen table. As drummer Tabor Allen and bassist Josh Ottum dig into a swampy, two chord groove, Schlarb is joined by a choir of acoustics (drummer Ben Lumsdaine on 6- and Max Knouse on 12-string), aching pedal steel from Dave Easley, electric sitar from Mike Baggetta, Hammond organ and a group of sympathetic voices that includes longtime companions, collaborators, and family. If this were the end of Psychic Temple, it wouldn’t be such a bad end after all. 

AUDIO (new album, Doggie Paddlin’ Thru The Cosmic Consciousness)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/5vdhklik918s834bobtpd/h?rlkey=ljnvsdqfb1sil0qu6kpfotemd&dl=0

tickets for this incredible show are $20

Every summer I celebrate my birthday with a concert of my friends from the jazz world. This July is no exception. Here are two of my favorite humans and awesome musicians. Join us for cake and jazz:)

The New York Times has pinpointed a “feeling for a rugged but jaunty experimentalism” in the music of trombone veteran Joe Fiedler, a figure as esteemed in New York jazz circles as he is in the Afro-Caribbean and pop scenes. He’s an adventurous improviser and bandleader whose recordings range from solo trombone (The Howland Sessions) to quintet (Like, Strange) to trombone/tuba quartet (Big Sackbut, Sackbut Stomp, Live in Graz — “the intersection of gutbucket blues and avant-garde audacity,” JazzTimes) to chordless trio (The Crab, Sacred Chrome Orb, I’m In, Joe Fiedler Plays the Music of Albert Mangelsdorff).

Fiedler’s two Sesame Street-themed albums to date, Open Sesame and Fuzzy and Blue, pay homage to the beloved children’s show where Fiedler has worked as a music director for nearly 15 years. With bold and inventive arrangements of timeless music by Joe Raposo, Jeffrey Moss and more, Fiedler grapples with the legacy of the storied show of which he’s become an integral part. Fuzzy and Blue, opined London Jazz News, is “unnervingly satisfying — hitting a note between scripted nostalgia and improvised jazz that [is] both exciting and comforting at the same time.”

Erik Lawrence has toured the world as a saxophonist, flutist and composer. He currently performs solo and with his own group, Erik Lawrence Trio and Hipmotism and co-leads a band with his Jazz vocalist sister, Marya Lawrence, featuring Cameron Brown on bass and Ben Perowsky on drums.

Erik has often been found support of a wide variety of legendary artists, counting his time with masters from many genres as part of his foundation, among them:  American music masters: Levon Helm, Chico Hamilton, Sonny Sharrock, Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Miles, David Amram, Henry Butler; from the Spiritual music world Yungchen Lamo, Nawhang Khechog, Gabrielle Roth. He has gratitude for a more than 20 year association with modern jazz master Steven Bernstein and has played and recorded with Spin Doctors, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, My Morning Jacket, Roger Waters, Joan Osborne, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Aaron Neville, Big Chief Russell Moore, The Levin Brothers (Tony Levin and Pete Levin), and with the Jose Limon Dance Company.  In addition Erik has worked with tea masters playing Tea Ceremony meditation music. 

Aaron Irwin - sax Mike Bagetta - guitar Bill Campbell - drums

Saxophonist, multi-woodwind player, and composer Aaron Irwin is from Decatur, IL. Known as a lyrical alto saxophonist and a compelling original composer (Steve Futterman, The New Yorker), Irwin is a sought-after commodity in both the jazz and commercial worlds. His latest recording Music for Sextet was released on Innova Recordings in January of 2021. He has seven other recordings as a leader with various instrumentations. In addition to his own groups, Irwin has performed with many leading jazz voices in the New York jazz community including the Grammy-nominated Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Bob Sabin’s Tentet, The Mike Fahie Jazz Orchestra, the mixed wind group Weathervest, as well as pop performers Kristen Chenoweth, Rufus Wainwright, Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, and The Roots. Prior to the global pandemic shutdown, Irwin maintained a busy schedule as a freelance musician, performing in jazz clubs, concert halls, and Broadway theatres working with many of New York’s finest musicians and bands.

Irwin holds a bachelor’s degree in music from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois and a master’s degree in music from the University of Miami in Miami, Florida. He is a dedicated educator with over 15 years of teaching experience and currently serves as an adjunct saxophone professor at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, and woodwind instructor at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

The Danse Macabre: Celebration and Survival in New Orleans

Cheryl Gerber is a freelance journalist and documentary photographer working in New Orleans, where she was born. She began her journalism career as a reporter but switched to photography after spending a year working in Honduras. In 1992, she began working for Michael P. Smith, who nurtured her desire to document daily life in New Orleans. She has been a regular contributor to The New York Times, the Associated Press, New Orleans Magazine, and has been a staff photographer for Gambit Weekly since 1994. During the past two decades, Cheryl has won several awards from the New Orleans Press Club for her work on social issues and news photography.

New Orleans is a city of contradictions: comic and tragic, sacred and secular, profound and profane; steeped heavily in tradition and religion yet drenched in decadence and debauchery. The Danse Macabre reveals the city’s rebellious and humorous spirit, which celebrates life in the face of disaster and death.
In this street-level tableau of New Orleans culture, photographer Cheryl Gerber portrays the city’s rich and famous while paying homage to the everyday people who make life so special in her hometown. Colorful shots of Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, second lines, and other iconic arrays of New Orleans culture are juxtaposed with images of the homelessness, crime, and racism that are equally central to life in the Crescent City. Within these pages we find Southern Decadence revelers clashing with religious protesters, Catholic traditions merging with Voodoo, and New Orleanians from all walks of life expressing themselves through satire and parody. In short, we witness the city not only as a backdrop to cataclysmic confrontations, but also as a force that rouses them.

Tenor saxophonist Ricky Ford studied at the New England Conservatory, with, among others, Gunther Schuller and Ran Blake; while still in his early 20s, he toured with both the Duke Ellington Orchestra (under Mercer Ellington's leadership) and Charles Mingus. By the 1980s, he was considered one of the leading tenor saxophonists of his generation. He worked with Dannie Richmond's Quintet, Lionel Hampton, Mal Waldron, Beaver Harris and Abdullah Ibrahim’s Ekaya, and also more than a dozen albums as a leader. He has lived in France since the 1990s.

Thurman Barker Grew up in Chicago in the 1950s, Thurman Barker was exposed to the city’s rich musical heritage, regularly hearing R&B, doo-wop, soul, jazz, and blues. Accordingly, he began his professional career at age 17 by anchoring the rhythm section for blues legend Mighty Joe Young. He then attended the American Conservatory of Music and later Roosevelt University, where he received classical training. While serving as percussionist for the city’s Shubert Theatre throughout much of the 1960s, Barker played for numerous national touring productions, including Hair, The Wiz, Grease, One Mo’ Time, and Ain’t Misbehavin’. A versatile drummer and percussionist, he also performed with singers Billy Eckstine, Marvin Gaye, Bette Midler, and Vicki Carr, and worked with classical groups like the Chicago Chamber Players and the New York City Opera. Perhaps Barker’s most notable musical experience has been with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), an organization founded in the 1960s to promote innovative music and its players. A charter member of the group, Barker first appeared in AACM productions with Joseph Jarman’s pioneering ensemble. He then went on to play with many other members, including Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Meyers, Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell, and Henry Threadgill. In the 1970s and ’80s, after moving to New York, Barker worked with jazz giants Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers and Billy Bang, touring with their groups and recording numerous albums with them. Most recently, he has performed with trombonist and composer George Lewis at the Festival International Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Quebec. Since creating Uptee Records in the late 1980s, Barker has released five recordings as a leader, including Voyage (1987), The Way I Hear It (1999), Time Factor (2001), Strike Force (2004), and Rediscovered (2008). In 1994, his work “Dialogue,” commissioned by Mutable Music, premiered at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra premiered Barker’s chamber piece “Expansions” in May 1999, and that same year he became a lecturer at Smolny University in St. Petersburg, Russia. Barker has taught jazz history and performance at Bard College since 1993. Through his efforts to develop the program, he was appointed professor of jazz studies in June 2016.

Tony Marino has been playing the bass, that is acoustic and electric, since he was in high school when he switched from guitar so that he might participate in the music curriculum.

Soon after, he started his professional music career as the house bass player at clubs and resorts in the Pocono and Catskill Mountains providing back-up to a myriad of well-known entertainers. Since then, he has toured internationally with the Dave Liebman Band. He also has played several times at SUNY Orange with the Chris Parker Quartet and Septet. In addition, he is the bass in the String Trio of New York. Recently, he recorded CDs with The Kaleidoscope Quintet with world-renowned saxophonist Joe Lovano, and with Expansions, Dave Liebman’s Quintet, which performed at Dizzys in NYC.

Marino’s versatility and wide range of musicality has afforded him opportunities to accompany and record with numerous artists from jazz to folk to pop. The bass is a part of his being. When he is playing, Marino and his bass are one and the instrument is his voice.

John Kordalewski is the leader, arranger and pianist for the Makanda Project, a 13-piece group performing previously unrecorded Makanda Ken McIntyre compositions. He has performed with musicians such as Charlie Rouse, Cab Calloway, Julius Hemphill, Odean Pope, Ricky Ford, Carl Grubbs, Webster Young, Byard Lancaster and Oliver Lake. For many years, he led a trio featuring Boston drummer Bobby Ward. He has conducted clinics and workshops at many colleges and universities, most recently at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban, South Africa, where his arrangements of compositions by pianist Ndikho Xaba and trumpeter Feya Faku have been performed. He is also currently collaborating with saxophonist Chico Freeman, writing first-ever big band arrangements of Freeman’s compositions.

Tickets: $30

Bill MacKay is an acclaimed guitarist, composer, and improviser based in Chicago whose music ranges freely across the experimental folk, rock, and avant-garde scenes. His creative, unpredictable approach to the guitar is augmented by his original approach to songwriting. He has been recording music since 2004 and is a prolific collaborator with artists across the musical spectrum. He is best known to rock fans as the founder of the bands Sounds of Now, Broken Things, and Darts & Arrows. He described his music loosely as "garage jazz" for 2005's Bill Mackay & Sounds of Now. The set's raw production sensibilities reveal intuitive improvisations, canny group interplay, and influences steeped in rock, blues, and folk, and set the stage for 2007's meld of hard rock and free jazz Swim to the River. MacKay's sideman duties and other projects led to the formation of Darts & Arrows, who issued a pair of albums between 2010 and 2012, before his collaborative projects claimed most of his time. He found time to release a tribute acoustic offering on Tompkins Square, Sunrise: Bill Mackay Plays the Songs of John Hulburt, worked in a duo with Ryley Walker, and in 2017 signed his own deal with Drag City.

MacKay was born in Tarrytown, New York on April 3, 1968. He grew up in Rochester, New York and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of a trumpeter (both parents were fans of Broadway show tunes, classical music, and jazz). His early influences include the Beatles, Frédéric Chopin, John and Alice Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, and Laura Nyro, among others, and his literary influences include beat poets Kenneth Patchen and Jack Kerouac, Edgar Allan Poe, and Antonin Artaud. In Rochester, he briefly studied classical guitar with Kevin Morse, and in Pittsburgh he was in the music program at Chartiers Valley High School from 1982-1984 and Penn Hills High School, graduating in 1986, taking further instruction with guitarists Eric Susoeff and Joe Negri. MacKay attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston for the next two years and took a course in improvisation and composition with pianist, violinist, composer, and singer Alice Orpheus at the New England Conservatory in 2005.

Tickets: $15 in advance or at the door. Seating is limited to 50 so get your tickets early.

The title of this heart-stopping collaboration by Gloversville bassist Michael Bisio (Matthew Shipp Trio) and Beacon vocalist and acoustic guitarist Timothy Hill is rich in layered meaning. Recorded in one continuous take—with no edits or pauses—this sublime set takes its sweet, soft time meandering through jazz standards (Coleman's "Law Years," Coltrane's "Wise One"), Great American Songbook ballads (Cahn and Styne's "I Fall in Love Too Easily," Coots and Lewis's "For All We Know") and spontaneous originals, with everything moving freely and naturally between structure and improvisation—inside and outside. "[H]is expressive touch is distinctive," observes the New York Times of Bisio's deft technique, which is on glorious display in the solo "Bridge," while Hill's vocalizing draws on Chet Baker and the Tuvan and Hindustani styles he's studied. Carve out a quiet moment and, like the duo suggests, listen to this album in one sitting. You'll be deeply rewarded.

In a uniquely satisfying musical synthesis, singer/composer Timothy Hill weaves a natural purity of voice with threads of otherworldly abstract sound, blending seamlessly into a style that transcends genre.

Having performed with such diverse artists as John Cage, Bill Frisell, Jeff Buckley, Allen Ginsberg, Odetta, Pete Seeger, Madan Gopal Singh, Pauline Oliveros, Iva Bittova, Brooklyn Raga Massive, and Brad Mehldau, Hill's musical explorations span folk, jazz, world music, contemporary classical and improvisation.

With David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir, he has been a pioneer in the art of harmonic singing, prompting The New York Times critic Robert Palmer to praise Hill as "a virtuoso of the Tibetan chanting technique."

Hill has released three recordings of original songs - This Bright World, The Human Place, and Spirit's Body. He contributed to the Grammy-nominated spoken-word-with-music collection Pete Seeger: The Storm King, and appears on recordings by artists such as jazz pianist/composer Brad Mehldau, alt-rock chanteuse Katell Keineg, klezmer clarinetist Giora Feidman, composer/cellist Robert Een, Irish traditional singer and flautist Cathal McConnell, and interspecies improviser/author David Rothenberg.

Hill performed on eight recordings by David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir, including their seminal work, Hearing Solar Winds. He leads or co-leads several ensembles performing original music, including New Cicada Trio with vocalist/violinist Iva Bittova and David Rothenberg, and Chimera, with Bittova, flautist Steve Gorn and bassist Michael Bisio. He has participated in premier performances under the direction of composers John Cage, Joe Maneri, Butch Morris and Carter Burwell.

More on the musicians and their current recording visit Origin records

Tickets are $20 in advance or at the door.

Charlie Ballantine - Guitar
Jon Cowherd - piano
Dave King - drums
Quinn Sternberg - bass

Named as one of the top 200 living guitarists by All About Jazz Magazine, Charlie Ballantine is acclaimed as one of the finest and most versatile  young guitarists on the scene today. JAZZ TIMES MAGAZINE hails his playing as “teeming with intricate grooves and maniacal precision his guitar work is both beautiful and complex” and VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE described his style by stating “Jazz, rock, and folk music peacefully coexist in Charlie Ballantine’s world”. 

   Equipped with an impressive body of original compositions on albums like “Vonnegut” and “Cold Coffee”, Ballantine also displays a great reverence for the jazz tradition through the inclusion of standards like ‘My One and Only Love’, ‘East of the Sun’ and an entire double album dedicated to the music of Thelonious Monk released September 2021.  “In the vein of fellow guitarists like John Scofield, Bill Frisell and Julian Lage, Ballantine reconciles his educational background in jazz with the stylistic background of his instrument. He approaches the gratifying tonal and harmonic language of rock/roots with the groove, ambition and improvisational focus of a jazz musician” - (JAZZIZ MAGAZINE)

   After graduating from the Jacobs School of Music under the direction of David Baker, Ballantine relocated to Indianapolis and quickly developed a name for himself with a string of high energy performances at clubs like the Jazz Kitchen and Chatterbox Jazz Club. After releasing two solo albums Ballantine was able to attain global recognition with his award winning third album “Life is Brief: The Music of Bob Dylan” which ALL ABOUT JAZZ named in their top ten jazz albums of the year. “From the opening bars of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" it is clear that something special is happening” - (ALL ABOUT JAZZ) 

   Although primarily a front man for his own projects with tours and frequent appearances throughout the US and Canada at venues and festivals such as the Indianapolis Jazz Festival, The Winnipeg International Jazz Festival and The Elkhart Jazz Festival, Ballantine also has an extensive list of side man credits having performed with names like Rob Dixon, Emmett Cohen, and Amanda Gardier helping to further solidify him as a creative force and  put him in the highest of ranks as a performer.  

"Befitting a guitarist from America's heartland, Charlie Ballantine mixes jazz, folk-rock, surf/instro, blues, pop, and country into a simmering pot of guitar sound and style."

VISIT - Charlie Ballantine