10% SUNDAYS
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!
Dan Atkinson small band
Sit in for a special event, as up-and-coming trombonist, composer, and bandleader Dan Atkinson presents a special original program, with fresh tunes, sounds, and a rotating lineup. In one of Rochester's most intimate listening rooms, Bop Shop Records, you'll get an inside look at Dan's launch!
Tickets are $20 at the door, or online. Free for students with valid ID! Ticket link soon!
Special thanks to executive producer Alec Drummond for making this one happen.
Doors open at 7pm, and recording will begin at 8pm.
KENNY FOSTER'S GAME NIGHT QUARTET
Presented by Stereo Field Recordings and Bop Shop Records
Tickets are $20 at the door, or online. Ticket link soon!
Free for students with valid ID!
Doors open at 7pm, and recording will begin at 8pm.
In this concert/open recording session, jazz lovers have a chance to hear the local combo GNQ stretch out, playing original tunes with their signature flair.
ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE
Kahil El’Zabar – drums, percussion
Corey Wilkes – trumpet
Alex Harding – baritone saxophone
A leading proponent of the AACM’s “ancient to the future” philosophy, multi-instrumentalist Kahil El’Zabar has led various incarnations of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble since 1973, one year after returning from his studies at the University of Ghana. His goal was to combine concepts of African American music-making with the roots of traditional African music to produce something that carried the music into the 21st century and beyond. Half a century later, this legendary band is still serving people worldwide with their special brand of 21st century Griot music. He’s recorded with Nina Simone, Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp, and many more.
EHE was formed in 1974 shortly after Sir Kahil El'Zabar graduated from Lake Forest College, with the goal “To combine concepts of African American music with its earlier roots in traditional African music, to produce new motifs and sounds true to their origins yet rmly pointed in a new artistic direction ”of enlightenment and deep listening". Half a century later and the rich, compelling, ever-evolving sound they are known for, is still going strong. Together with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble is one of the two remaining original groups active in the world today that were nurtured in the AACM( Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians).
In other words, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble has a strong rhythmic foundation, innovative harmonics and counterpoint, well-balanced interplay and polyphony among the players for highly developed ensemble dynamics. They are strong individual soloists with an in-depth grasp of music history, originality, fearlessness and deep spirituality. Alongside multi- faceted El’Zabar, the EHE’s current line-up includes Corey Wilkes on trumpet, who has worked with numerous jazz masters, including Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Elling, and multi- instrumentalist Alex Harding on baritone sax, who has performed with Dollar Brand, Julius Hemphill Sun Ra, and Fela The Musical. They whip up an electrifying mix of spiritual jazz and African rhythms built around fundamental brass improvisations and a swing-induced groove.
The resulting trance-like fervor, transports one into a mind opening journey of spiritually enlightened deep listening.
Tickets $25 advance & at the door.
The Fully Celebrated Orchestra
Jim Hobbs - alto saxophone and compositions
Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet
Ian Ayers - guitar
Timo Shanko - bass
Luther Gray - drums
The Fully Celebrated Orchestra has been a force on the Boston music scene since saxophonist/composer Jim Hobbs and bassist Timo Shanko started playing free jazz at punk rock clubs and street corners in the late 1980s. Still going strong as underground legends over three decades later, FCO also features cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, drummer Luther Gray, and guitarist Ian Ayers. Their latest album is Sob Story on Relative Pitch Records.
https://fullycelebrated.bandcamp.com/album/sob-story
Tickets: $25 in advance and at the door.
Jenny Scheinman presents All Species Parade featuring Carmen Staaf, Steve Cardenas, Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen
Jenny Scheinman – Violin, Compositions
Carmen Staaf – Piano
Steve Cardenas - guitar
Tony Scherr – Bass
Kenny Wollesen – Drums
Jenny Scheinman, acclaimed violinist and composer, for many years a stalwart of the New York jazz and creative music scenes, returned to her native Humboldt County, California in 2012. There she has continued her artistic evolution, as heard on her recent albums Here on Earth (“packed with moments of joyous ecstasy and wind-swept solemnity” – Downbeat), Parlour Game, a co-led collaboration with Allison Miller (“the band levitates and feels grounded both” – PopMatters), and The Littlest Prisoner, an album of songs in trio with Bill Frisell and Brian Blade (“self-assured, made with a deft, steady hand” – New York Times).
For years, Scheinman nursed the idea of a musical homage to Humboldt, in particular the area known as the Lost Coast, a remote, earthquake- and mudslide-prone region of coastal northern California, where she was raised. She considered the project from many angles. She wrote a song cycle based on the “crusty characters” from her hometown and sketched out a surrealist multimedia project based on the county’s namesake, Alexander Von Humboldt. She collaborated with filmmaker Ai Aiwane on a video installation about the Mattole River (Cojo Come Home) and immersed herself in the sounds and cultural history of the region, with hopes of conjuring, in music, the extraordinary diversity of life, past and present, in the Pacific Northwest. Her epic new release, All Species Parade, is the result of these meditations.
Though All Species Parade offers a brimming 72 minutes of music, it only contains 10 songs, several over 11 minutes long, and three of which (“Jaroujiji,” “The Sea Also Rises” and “All Species Parade”) comprise an Ellington-inspired suite that clocks in at 20 minutes. This long-form approach is a departure for Scheinman, whose ten previous albums tend toward a more concise, song-like aesthetic. On this album she says that she “wanted to let us play. I encouraged the musicians to spill over the edges and be their most expansive selves. This is nature worship music, and I didn’t want it to feel domesticated.” Scheinman also deliberately orchestrated the album with multiple chordal players, which, “like the complex understory of a forest,” creates a multi- textured, ever-adapting network of sound.
Scheinman’s playing is radiant, soulful, stamped with jazz vernacular and old-time fiddling tradition and buoyed by her superb lyrical poise and technique. Throughout we hear Frisell’s exploratory wisdom and evidence of his deep connection with Scheinman (whose side-person credits include nine Frisell albums). The songs with straight quintet range from the playful “Ornette Goes Home” and the Mancini-eseque “Every Bear That Ever There Was,” to the more placid, atmospheric “With Sea Lions” and the grooving and immersive title track, which Scheinman describes as “a party to which animals of all sizes, colors and adaptations are invited.”
Tickets for this extraordinary concert: $30 in advance and at the door
EXTC
EXTC - XTC’s Terry Chambers & Friends
TERRY CHAMBERS - drums
STEVE HAMPTON - lead vocals, guitar
TERRY LINES - bass guitar, vocalsFollowing 80 successful dates across North America between 2022 and 2024, legendary drummer Terry Chambers and his band EXTC are returning to the United States and Canada for two extended North American tours: a 10-week run in April/May/June on the East Coast and an 8-week run in September/October 2024 on the West Coast
For almost four decades XTC fans could only dream of witnessing the sensational XTC classic songbook played live. That dream has now become a reality. XTC’s legendary drummer Terry Chambers is back on the road with his band EXTC (named and approved by XTC frontman, Andy Partridge).
Emerging out of the post-punk and new-wave explosion of the late 70s XTC experienced global success touring with the likes of The Police and Talking Heads. The band put their hometown of Swindon UK on the map. They achieved huge success in North America and Japan. Sadly their legions of loyal fans would be left in limbo when in 1982 XTC stopped touring becoming a studio-based entity.Fast forward to 2017 Terry returned to the UK from Australia and reconnected with XTC bandmate Colin Moulding. The two would go on to collaborate on new venture TC&I releasing an EP and live album.
Sadly the project was short-lived with TC&I disbanding in early 2019. By now the flame inside Terry had been reignited. His time with TC&I made him realise he wanted to continue doing what he does best. His love and passion for playing music and performing live gave him the idea for his new project EXTC.
Born in early 2019 EXTC would set out to achieve its goals of performing to audiences who had waited so long to hear the EXTC back catalogue performed live only to be bought to a standstill in 2020 due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.Terry was keen to get on the road with EXTC with a tour of the United States scheduled for autumn 2020. Unfortunately this would be postponed due to covid restrictions still in place the tour being rescheduled for the following year.
The band eventually began gigging again in 2021 with sold-out dates around the UK. This would include the Isle of Wight Festival and gigs in Terry Chambers and XTC’s hometown of Swindon. The band would go on to do further successful tours of the United States and Canada with EXTC also heading to Japan in early 2023.EXTC has kept much of the original fan base from XTC’s glory days of the late 70s and early 80s as well as gaining a new following of fans in their own right. Enthusiastic fans have lapped up the chance to see Terry and EXTC perform all those classics live once more.Alongside Terry the EXTC line-up features frontman Steve Hampton (lead vocals & guitar - Joe Jackson, The Vapors and Dead Crow Road) and Terry Lines (bass & vocals - The Rams and Dead Crow Road).
Originally a four-piece EXTC band members have changed frequently over recent years. EXTC announced in November 2022 that they are now moving forward as a three-piece. Terry Steve and Terry will bring you the full EXTC experience with their mesmerising and engaging live performances as you relive the heyday of XTC. With new material already in the works EXTC is a band on an upward trajectory. With their popularity gaining momentum and international tour schedules increasing it is clear the sky is the limit for Terry Chambers and EXTC!
A brand new live album will be released by a US-based record label on Friday, April 4, 2025. Full release information will be announced in the first week of December this year.
Tickets: $30 in advance $35 at the door
JOE FONDA AND BASE OF OPERATION
Featuring:
Joe Fonda - bass & compositions
Harvey Sorgen - drums
Jeff Lederer - clarinet
Michael Rabinowitz - bassoon
How we found this sound?
I hired this group of musicians to do a weeklong tour in the USA in 2022. I had written and organized the music months prior to the tour and sent it to everyone so they could check it out and look it over before the first rehearsal. So, when we got together for the first rehearsal everyone had had a chance to work on the music.
I had thought that it would be Tenor Saxophone and Bassoon as the front line, but at the first rehearsal, Jeff Lederer who I had hired to play Saxophone said, Joe do really want saxophone and he went on to explain how when he was practicing the music he was not hearing it played on saxophone but on clarinet and Flute and on one piece piccolo. I was not so sure, but Jeff was persistent. He said that to him the written material sounded like Stravinsky or something more classical.
So, we tried it and we all really liked the sound of the Bassoon with Jeff's clarinets and flutes. The sound became less jazz and more like a chamber Ensemble.
Jeff was right, it sounded great.
While we were on tour playing 7 nights in a row the sound of the quartet developed into something quite unique.
So sit back and enjoy the sound of something you most likely have never heard before.
Joe Fonda 2/24/2024
CHARLIE PARR
In the music of Charlie Parr, there is a sincere conviction and earnest drive to create. The Minnesota-born guitarist, songwriter, and interpreter of traditional music has released 19 albums over two decades and has been known to perform up to 275 shows a year. Parr is a folk troubadour in the truest sense: taking to the road between shows, writing and rewriting songs as he plays, fueled by a belief that music is eternal and cannot be claimed or adequately explained. The bluesman poet pulls closely from the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship built by his influences. The sounds from his working-class upbringing—including Folkways legends such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie—imbue Parr’s music with stylistic echoes of blues and folk icons of decades past. Parr sees himself merely as a continuer of a folk tradition: “I feel like I stand on a lot of big shoulders,” he said in an interview. “I hope that I’ve brought a little bit of myself to the music.”
With a discography simultaneously transcendental in nature and grounded in roots music, Charlie Parr is the humble master of the 21st century folk tradition. Parr started recording in Duluth in 2002, where he lives today. Life in the port town on Lake Superior has a way of bleeding into his work the same way his childhood in Austin, Minnesota does. Parr self-released his debut album, Criminals and Sinners, and did the same for his sophomore album 1922 (2002). With growing popularity abroad, Parr signed with Red House Records in 2015, where he recorded break-out albums Stumpjumper (2015) and Dog (2017). Parr’s music has an overwhelming sense of being present and mindful, and his sound is timeless.
Parr’s mastery of his craft is only more apparent when contextualized within the history of folk tradition of which Parr has dedicated his practice The land and lives around and intersecting with Parr have always influenced him, from the hills and valleys of Hollandale, Minnesota to the Depression-era stories from his father. Parr strives to listen to everything: “I don’t see that I’d ever be capable of creating anything if it weren’t for these inspirations and influences, books and music as well as the weather and random interactions with strangers and animals. So, the well never runs dry as long as my eyes and ears are open,” Parr said in a 2020 interview. Before he was even 10 years old Parr was rummaging through his father’s record collection—sometimes drawing dinosaurs on the vinyl sleeves—and listening to country, folk, and blues legends, many of whom are staples in the Folkways catalog. When Parr sings and plays his resonator or 12-string, you can hear influences like Mance Lipscomb, Charley Patton, Spinder John Koerner, Rev. Gary Davis, and Dock Boggs. This is especially true in his playing, when, after a diagnosis of focal dystonia, Parr turned to greats like Davis, Doc Watson, and Booker White for two-finger picking inspiration. Gifted a 1965 Gibson B-45 12-string by his father, Parr has never had a formal lesson and learned by to listening records and watching musicians he admired.
Parr’s first album with Smithsonian Folkways, Last of Better Days Head (2021), foregrounded his lyrical craftsmanship and sophisticated bluesman confidence, with spare production highlighting Parr’s mastery of guitar and elevating his poetry. Last of Better Days Ahead is a portrait of how Parr saw the world in that moment, reflecting on time and memories that have past while holding an enduring desire to be present. In his 2024 release, Little Sun, Parr weaves together stories celebrating music, community, and communing with nature. Putting forth an ambitious and raw album that exemplifies the best of Parr's sound: a blend of the blues and folk traditions he continues to carry with him and the steadfast originality of a poet.
Get a little taste of Charlie Parr here
CHARLIE PARR (Copy)
In the music of Charlie Parr, there is a sincere conviction and earnest drive to create. The Minnesota-born guitarist, songwriter, and interpreter of traditional music has released 19 albums over two decades and has been known to perform up to 275 shows a year. Parr is a folk troubadour in the truest sense: taking to the road between shows, writing and rewriting songs as he plays, fueled by a belief that music is eternal and cannot be claimed or adequately explained. The bluesman poet pulls closely from the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship built by his influences. The sounds from his working-class upbringing—including Folkways legends such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie—imbue Parr’s music with stylistic echoes of blues and folk icons of decades past. Parr sees himself merely as a continuer of a folk tradition: “I feel like I stand on a lot of big shoulders,” he said in an interview. “I hope that I’ve brought a little bit of myself to the music.”
With a discography simultaneously transcendental in nature and grounded in roots music, Charlie Parr is the humble master of the 21st century folk tradition. Parr started recording in Duluth in 2002, where he lives today. Life in the port town on Lake Superior has a way of bleeding into his work the same way his childhood in Austin, Minnesota does. Parr self-released his debut album, Criminals and Sinners, and did the same for his sophomore album 1922 (2002). With growing popularity abroad, Parr signed with Red House Records in 2015, where he recorded break-out albums Stumpjumper (2015) and Dog (2017). Parr’s music has an overwhelming sense of being present and mindful, and his sound is timeless.
Parr’s mastery of his craft is only more apparent when contextualized within the history of folk tradition of which Parr has dedicated his practice The land and lives around and intersecting with Parr have always influenced him, from the hills and valleys of Hollandale, Minnesota to the Depression-era stories from his father. Parr strives to listen to everything: “I don’t see that I’d ever be capable of creating anything if it weren’t for these inspirations and influences, books and music as well as the weather and random interactions with strangers and animals. So, the well never runs dry as long as my eyes and ears are open,” Parr said in a 2020 interview. Before he was even 10 years old Parr was rummaging through his father’s record collection—sometimes drawing dinosaurs on the vinyl sleeves—and listening to country, folk, and blues legends, many of whom are staples in the Folkways catalog. When Parr sings and plays his resonator or 12-string, you can hear influences like Mance Lipscomb, Charley Patton, Spinder John Koerner, Rev. Gary Davis, and Dock Boggs. This is especially true in his playing, when, after a diagnosis of focal dystonia, Parr turned to greats like Davis, Doc Watson, and Booker White for two-finger picking inspiration. Gifted a 1965 Gibson B-45 12-string by his father, Parr has never had a formal lesson and learned by to listening records and watching musicians he admired.
Parr’s first album with Smithsonian Folkways, Last of Better Days Head (2021), foregrounded his lyrical craftsmanship and sophisticated bluesman confidence, with spare production highlighting Parr’s mastery of guitar and elevating his poetry. Last of Better Days Ahead is a portrait of how Parr saw the world in that moment, reflecting on time and memories that have past while holding an enduring desire to be present. In his 2024 release, Little Sun, Parr weaves together stories celebrating music, community, and communing with nature. Putting forth an ambitious and raw album that exemplifies the best of Parr's sound: a blend of the blues and folk traditions he continues to carry with him and the steadfast originality of a poet.
Get a little taste of Charlie Parr here
10% SUNDAYS
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!
10% SUNDAYS
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!
Bill Kirchen’s Honky Tonk Holiday
For a real taste of seasonal cheer, nothing says joy to the world like Bill Kirchen singing "Daddy's Drinkin' Up Our Christmas!"
Bill Kirchen and his Silent Knights will make a stop on their annual Honky Tonk Holiday Tour at Lovin' Cup on Monday 12/2, Featured is a sleigh-full of rarely heard holiday numbers from the blues, rock 'n' roll and honky tonk bags: "Silent Surfin' Night," "Truckin' Trees for Christmas," "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin," and more. But be ye not afraid, there'll be so much more than holiday songs of questionable taste; you can count on a truckload of dieselbilly classics, rockers, and country weepers to take the edge off the holiday fuss. So mark your calendars and check 'em twice - Santa Claus is back in town! Kirchen is touring with his all-star Texas guys - Jack Saunders on bass and Rick Richards on drums.
Bill Kirchen is one of the fortunate few who can step on any stage, play those trademark guitar licks which he created for the seminal Commander Cody classic, "Hot Rod Lincoln," and elicit immediate recognition.
As a founding father of the proto-Americana group Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, Kirchen wrought a diesel-fueled guitar hook that drove their Hot Rod Lincoln into the Top 10 nationwide. Kirchen went on to the Grammys where he was nominated for Best Country Instrumental in 2001.
He has recorded with Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Dan Hicks, Maria Muldaur, Hoyt Axton, Hazel Dickens, Gene Vincent and Link Wray, and has toured the world as guitarist with Cody, Nick Lowe, Hoyt Axton and Emmylou Harris.
Bill Kirchen was inducted into the Hall Of Fame of the Washington DC Wammie Music Awards in 2001, alongside Dave Grohl and John Phillip Sousa. He joined a remarkable list of prior inductees including Bo Diddly, Duke Ellington, Ruth Brown, Marvin Gaye, Patsy Cline, Shirley Horn, Emmylou Harris, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady.
His recent disc, Transatlanticana, entered the Americana Radio Chart Top 10 in 2018, joining his extensive catalogue of over 2 dozen albums, from the Commander Cody discs on through his current 12 releases on the Proper and Last Music Company labels. Bill’s latest releases are Back from the Ozone, a Lost Planet Airmen reunion CD out in October 2023 and, from 2021, the LPs Waxworks and Tombstone Every Mile, along with The Proper Years and Tombstone on CD and in all digital formats, all on the Last Music Company label.
Washington Post: "Seldom has traveling across the rock and country landscape been this much fun"
Guitar Player magazine: “The Titan of the Telecaster...cuts loose with some of the fattest, gnarliest low-down twang imaginable”
Rolling Stone: “A musical treasure, a fantastic player, and, in these roots-conscious times, very much a pioneer, Bill Kirchen is one of our best.”
Tickets: $30 advance / $35 at door
10% SUNDAYS
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!
Rhett Miller of Old 97's
The Return of… RHETT MILLER
Texas native Rhett Miller is perhaps best known as the frontman of the Dallas-based alt-country band the Old 97's, although he has also pursued a critically acclaimed solo career. Formed in 1993, the Old 97's built a devoted following with their brash blend of country and power pop influences. All four members also pursued side projects, but Miller's solo career captured the most attention, with the literate songwriter training his eye on such subjects as fatherhood, sex, and love. After releasing one of the Old 97's' strongest albums in years with 2014's Most Messed Up, Miller took a new turn in his solo career with 2015's The Traveler, which featured backing from the band Black Prairie (which includes several members of the Decemberists) and a guest appearance from Peter Buck of R.E.M. Following more recording and touring with the Old 97's, Miller repaired to Brooklyn, New York, where he cut the 2018 album The Messenger with producer and multi-instrumentalist Sam Cohen, who previously worked with Apollo Sunshine and Yellowbirds.
https://www.rhettmiller.com/
Doors 4pm, Music 8:30pm
Tickets: $30 advance, $35 day of show and on sale now at https://abilene.showare.com/ and at the bar
Special thanks to Bop Shop Records!
https://bopshop.com/about-u
10% SUNDAYS
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!
LILY WHITE QUINTET
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
10% SUNDAYS
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!
Gavin Rice & His Famous Collegiates: An Album Recording Extravaganza!!
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.
10% SUNDAYS
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
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.
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
10% SUNDAYS
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 Quartet
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.
10% SUNDAYS
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!
Lucian Ban & Mat Maneri
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 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
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.
The Rochester Fringe Festival and Bop Shop Records present Joe Fiedler's Open Sesame
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
The Rochester Fringe Festival and Bop Shop Records present Sandcatchers
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 Rochester Fringe Festival and Bop Shop Records present The Matt Pavolka Band
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
WAMMO at Abilene
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!
CLASSICAL MUSIC SALE
We are at this point swimming in great classical recordings, so much so that we are having a sale on all classical CDs & LPs. We need the room! New collections come in all the time so its time to thin the herd. For the entire month of September all of our classical inventory will be half off, thats right 50% off. What a deal, we will even load it into your car for you:) Our classical curator will be in most Saturdays to help with your choices as well. Thanks and enjoy.
RICHARD SMITH
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
Sidewalk Sale 2024
8 days of huge deals on records, CDS, 45s, tapes, & books!
It’s sidewalk sale time again, kids! (Indoors, as usual, of course.) We’ve boxed up thousands of “less-than-perfect” items from our inventory for you to browse & enjoy! You’ll find a wide variety of items from every genre of music regularly stocked in our store.
Get there early to get a good shot at some of the best titles. We guarantee you’ll find some real gems during this once-a-year clearance sale.
Regular inventory is not included in the Sidewalk Sale
Days 1–3 (Wednesday 8/7 – Saturday 8/10): All sale items $1 each
Days 4–6 (Sunday 8/11 –Monday 8/12): All sale items 50 cents each
Day 7 (Tuesday, 8/14): 5 sale items for $1
Day 8 (Wednesday, 8/14): All remaining Sidewalk Sale items are FREE!
Bop Shop Records will be open 7 days a week during this sale:
Sunday–Wednesday: 12pm–5pm
Thursday–Saturday: 11am–6pm
JOSEPH ALLRED
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
Tom's DJ gig at Skylark Lounge
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!
BILL KIRCHEN
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
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
Joe Fiedler - Erik Lawrence solo and duo performance
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 TRIO
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.