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New Languages Announces its 3rd Annual Festival celebrating Jazz in New
York City - May 25th through June 2nd New Languages returns on May 25th with its largest festival yet - 14 ensembles spanning five nights over two weekends. The festival has grown every year since saxophonists Jackson Moore and Aaron Ali Shaikh produced the first New Languages festival at the Anthology Film Archives in 2005. It is becoming an annual moment of reckoning for the next generation of jazz musicians. The jazz musicians who grew up in the wake of neo-classicism are now in their twenties and early thirties; they will define what becomes of jazz in the twenty-first century. Like their predecessors, they are largely out in the trenches, beyond the purview of established institutions, assembling groups from scratch and playing as much music as possible even as they struggle to survive. The New Languages festival attempts to provide a panoramic view of this activity. The focus is on what makes the next generation different than their predecessors, and what they will do to carry the art form into the future. To answer these questions, Jackson and Aaron have cast as wide a net as possible. The stylistic diversity within the festival program, and even within a single night of the program, is remarkable. Listeners are invited to decide for themselves if there is something deeper that ties all of this activity together - a common thread, a collective groundswell, an emerging sea change, or a nascent revolution. Williamsburg is a home base with firm grassroots. It is a place where innovative young jazz musicians can perform for an edgy young audience ready to fall in love with music all over again. Away from the shadows of past masters that inhabit the venerable jazz clubs of Manhattan, the musicians take risks. At the same time, the neighborhood is easily accessible from other parts of the city. Even as commercial jazz regresses and rock grows more redundant, improvisation continues to be a wellspring of ideas and techniques that musicians turn to for inspiration. New Languages aims to cultivate that wellspring and bring the creativity, talent and innovation of its custodians to a wider audience. It is our belief that the risks and payoffs of improvised music make it the most compelling and entertaining music out there today. FULL SCHEDULE Week 1 Friday May 25 8:30 pm - The Jacob Sacks Quintet 10:00 pm - Nate Wooley's Attack / Adorn / Decay 11:30 pm - Buck-Buck Saturday May 26 8:30 pm - Heavy Merge with Russ Lossing, Mark Helias, and Randy Peterson 10:00 pm - The Jackson Moore Trio 11:30 pm - Akoya Afrobeat Thursday May 31 8:30 pm - Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition 10:00 pm - Little Women 11:30 pm- Zemog El Gallo Bueno Week 2 Friday June 1 8:30 pm - Judith Berkson's Liederkreiss 10:00 pm - Mat Maneri/Randy Peterson Duo 11:30 pm - The Dub Trio Saturday June 2 8:30 pm - The Mark Taylor Quartet 10:00 pm - The Aaron Ali Shaikh Trio 11:30 pm - Harriet Tubman with Brandon Ross, JT Lewis, and Melvin Gibbs DETAILED SCHEDULE Friday May 25 8:30 pm - The Jacob Sacks Quintet Jacob Sacks - Piano Jacob Garchik - Trombone Ben Gerstein - Trombone Dave Ambrosio - Bass Vinnie Sperrazza - Drums Jacob Sacks has brought a deeply personal voice to a variety of settings ranging from mainstream jazz to compositional free jazz to vamp based fusion. His own projects include the Jacob Sacks Chamber Quartet, an ensemble inspired by twentieth century classical music as well as jazz, and the Jacob Sacks Quintet, a group that explores musical freedom in a variety of ways. In addition to teaching students in private practice, Jacob is also a co-founder of the Creative Music Workshop, a non-profit school based upon helping students of all ages and levels transcend the boundaries of style to find their own voices through the creation of original works, both written and spontaneously conceived. Jacob currently resides in Brooklyn, where he is working on several recording projects and on a book for beginning pianists. 10:00 pm - Attack / Adorn / Decay Nate Wooley - Trumpet Matt Bauder - Tenor Saxophone Jason Mears - Alto Saxophone Ben Gerstein - Trombone Loren Dempster - Cello Christopher Hoffman - Cello Reuben Radding - Bass Tom Blancarte - Bass Kris Davis - Piano Andrew Drury - Percussion Harris Eisenstadt - Percussion Nate Wooley has striven to blur the demarcations between tonality and texture, extreme sound and the protracted use of silence, nervous energy and an almost painful amount of patience. At times he provokes the listener with machine-like holds/ostinatos and eruptions of charged clumsiness; at others he invites the surrounding environment to take his place while he develops the next ideas as soon as they come to mind. In his hands even the absence of events becomes dangerous. His music seems to move in an unidentifiable biological space, waddling over leaves, tripping over rocks, plopping into puddles. It's the sounds of animals that don't quite exist, with motions and moods that defy human understanding. The core of Attack/Adorn/Decay consists of Radding, Drury, and Bauder, with others joining the family depending on the composition at hand. At New Languages they will present a new composition from Nate's "V." cycle, "flights of migratory birds to the ornithologists". 11:30 pm - Buck-Buck Morgan Wiley - Keyboards Abe Seiferth - Guitar Ben Bromley - Bass Guy Licata - Drums Combining elements of classic dance and psychedelic music with improvisation and modern electronic music, this band pushes the envelope while remaining true to its song writing roots. It strives to create a sound of the future and of the past at the same time, while keeping the crowd engaged and the party moving. Saturday May 26 8:30 pm - Heavy Merge Russ Lossing - Piano Mark Helias - Bass Randy Peterson - Drums Heavy Merge is a collaboration between three heavyweights on the New York jazz scene. Russ Lossing straddles the line between 20th century classical music and modern jazz. In addition to being a risk-taking improviser, he has composed hundreds of notated pieces. His life long passion for music theory and analysis has resulted in a unique syntax for improvising and composing that allows him to blend written and improvised music in works with ease, and his music is bolstered by a faith in intuitive engagement with musical structure. Randy Peterson seldom plays a timekeeping role, instead thinking in terms of phrasing and psychological time. He has sensitivity to tone uncommon amongst percussionists. Mark Helias is a prolific composer and a legendary bassist. 10:00 pm - The Jackson Moore Trio Jackson Moore - Alto Saxophone Eivind Opsvik - Bass Eric Mcpherson - Drums Composer and saxophonist Jackson Moore returns to Rose with two brilliant colleagues, both of whom share his propensity for unscripted melodicism and propulsive swing. Fascinated by the degree of stability that the language of jazz has attained at the turn of the century, Jackson has dedicated himself to shaking it up. As a composer and bandleader he furnishes an environment of maximum volatility and risk - an environment where perpetual rupture creates an opportunity for fresh responses. As these exceptionally nimble improvisers rise to the challenge, expect the sound of surprise. 11:30 pm - Akoya Afrobeat Yoshi Takemasa - Congas Gabriel Hays - Keyboards Mayteana Morales- vocals Kemba Russell - Background Vocals, Stick Felix Chen - Bass Duke Mseleku - Tenor Sax Yoshio Tony Kobayashi - Drums Will Jones - Baritone Sax Taku Kuroda - Trumpet Seth Paris - Baritone Sax Ryan Blotnick - Guitar Nikhil Yerawadekar - Guitar With a furious storm of thundering congas and a tight, blasting horn section, the Akoya Afrobeat takes to the stage an explosion of dance rhythms. Fusing a mixture of African, Afro-Cuban, Jazz, and Funk music, Akoya is New York’s finest example of a musical melting pot. Featuring members from Ghana, Benin, South Africa, Japan and the US this 13-piece ensemble embraces unity and positive vibrations. Armed with original music and an arsenal of songs by Afrobeat founder, Fela Kuti, Akoya consistently brings a new level of dance floor frenzy with every performance. Akoya takes the contributions of Fela Kuti one step further by drawing on their experiences on the New York music community. They have developed a style that incorporates modern improvisation, interesting use of meter and groove as well as utilizing the high level of musicianship inherent in the ensemble's lineup through spontaneity. Rarely does group attempt to bring Fela's music into the 21st century. Akoya not only possesses a fresh and experimental approach to Afrobeat, their live execution is a spectacle to behold. Thursday May 31 8:30 pm - The Indo-Pak Coalition Rudresh Mahanthappa - Alto Saxophone Rez Abbasi - Guitar Dan Weiss - Tabla Synthesizing jazz with the astutely improvised musical forms of South Asia, the Indo-Pak Coalition transcends any preconception of Indo-jazz fusion. Led by Indian-American saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, this trio with Pakistani-American guitarist Rez Abbasi and rising tabla star Dan Weiss is already turning heads internationally in both the jazz and world music scenes. Recently awarded the prestigious Guggenheim fellowship Rudresh Mahanthappa is one of the most innovative young musicians and composers in jazz today. Named a Rising Star of the alto saxophone by the Downbeat International Critics Poll for the past four years, #2 in 2006, Rudresh has incorporated the culture of his Indian ancestry and has fused myriad influences to create a truly groundbreaking artistic vision. 10:00 pm - Little Women Darius Jones - Alto Saxophone Travis Laplante - Tenor Saxophone Ben Greenberg - Guitar Jason Nazary - Drums "Little Women has a very genuine raucousness. Also though there's a gorgeous sense of structure. The band - 2 saxes, guitar and drums - works a lot with these sort of fanfare type themes, often with jagged, proggy rhythms. For the improvisations, the band atomizes, constantly splitting up into different mini groups. The guitarist Ben Greenberg...plays with a crazy snarling tone and extreme volume, giving the music a real attack feel, and the saxists just completely go for it as well. Tenor player Travis Laplante has an absolutely huge sound, with an apocalyptic-free-jazz meets R&B kind of vibe. The set ended with this amazing coda: the two saxists - the other being the excellent Darius Jones - took off their mouthpieces and just started basically ranting/moaning/emoting into their horns, using the keys to fuck with the sound. It was unsettling and beautiful." - Hank Shteamer 11:30 pm- Zemog El Gallo Bueno Abraham Gomez-Delgado - Composer, Vocals, Guitar Alvaro Benavides - Bass, coro Matt Bauder- tenor Sax, Clarinets Roberto Rosario - Congas, coro Emilio Valdez- Drumset Ted Nordlander- Electric guitar Colin Stetson - Baritone Sax Oscar Muñozm- Guiara, Guiro, maracas, coro Taylor Ho-Bynum- Cornet Zemog El Gallo Bueno plays 21st Century Latin music, reflecting all of the contradictions and cultural tensions of what it means to be Latin in America in 2006. Bandleader Abraham Gomez-Delgado, of Peruvian descent, left his native Puerto Rico as a child and relocated to the US, and as a result Zemog's music incorporates everything from bomba and plena to Sun Ra and Van Halen in an uncategorizable, unique sound. Downbeat magazine says Zemog "does for Afro-Latin music what Tom Waits did for Weillian cabaret, bringing a madcap energy and willful weirdness to the basic ingredients and blowing it up with his personality. ...Zemog has developed an original, satisfying spin on Latin rock that reveals a understanding of the plena and bomba and a desire to subvert [stereotypical ideas of 'Latin music']. Gomez-Delgado grounds his group's music in clave rhythms, but ranges far and wide in his melodic constructions without ever suggesting a glib mish-mosh of ingredients." Friday June 1 8:30 pm - Liederkreiss Judith Berkson - Vocals, Keyboards Peter Evans - Trumpet Jacob Garchik - Trombone Brandon Seabrook - Guitar Lori Bingel - Bass John Mclellan - Drums Judith Berkson's experience ranges from encounters with folk legend Theodore Bikel and saxophonist Steve Coleman to renditions of the works of Milton Babbitt to collaborations with Joe Maneri and Osvaldo Golijov. As a soloist she accompanies her microtonal singing on analog wurlitzer. She currently teaches a class in microtones as well as harmony and counterpoint and in addition to performing new music she is a Cantor and teaches liturgical music at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation on Long Island. Liederkreiss features compositions by Judith, written especially for this group of musicians, which pay homage to bebop, Webern, Eric Dolphy, and Maria Callas. 10:00 pm - Mat Maneri/Randy Peterson Duo Mat Maneri - Viola Randy Peterson - Drums These two musicians have added something profound and genuine to jazz and American music. Their shared history runs deep: a relationship that reaches back almost twenty years from the legendary Joe Maneri groups to Mat's trio and extended ensembles. Mat has recently been performing in Paul Motian's ensembles. This set will be their first meeting in two years, and their first duo performance in four years. They have recorded as a duo for the No More label on the album Light Trigger, and they can also be heard on Leo and ECM recordings. 11:30 pm - The Dub Trio DP Holmes - Guitar, Keys, Dubs Stu Brooks - Bass, Keys, Dubs Joe Tomino - Drums, Keys, Dubs The three gentlemen collectively known as Dub Trio play drums, bass, and guitar primarily, but the "job description" for each member varies immensely. In the hands of Joe Tomino, the drums function as a section unto themselves, not just a single instrument. They can suddenly transform from machine-like sounds to a big rock assault in an instant, the pulse never wavering. Joe's inspired moment-to-moment decisions act as the foil in a three way cat and mouse game that the trio brings to the bandstand. Stu Brooks delivers the low end like a weapon swinging towards your gut one moment, and like a playful rump locked in with Joe's groove the next. Stu changes faces many times in a performance, but never loses the pocket. DP Holmes is the man who cues a response in the listener. Aggressive, dreamy, liquid, solid - there is a command of the elements in the guitar section. The medium becomes the message when the distortion kicks in. Staying away from cliched genre restrictions, Dub Trio will bring you to the dance floor, or to tears, or at least give you a peek at the three minds at work. Saturday June 2 8:30 pm - The Mark Taylor Quartet Mark Taylor - French Horn, Composition Lalo - Vibraphone Keith Witty - Bass Brady Miller - Drums One of the few performers to tackle the notoriously difficult french horn in jazz and improvised music, Taylor's sound has been described as "rapturous" and "golden" (Coda Magazine); "as fluid and limpid as (the) flute, and as gnarly as (the) alto." (JazzTimes). His innovative style has won him recognition by such legendary artists as Max Roach, who said, "Mark Taylor is a virtuoso instrumentalist...there is no one dealing with the french horn or the music the way Mark is doing." 10:00 pm - The Aaron Ali Shaikh Trio Aaron Ali Shaikh - Alto Saxophone Michael Formanek - Bass Randy Peterson - Drums Aaron Ali Shaikh is moving towards the realization of the saxophone as a true microtonal instrument, inspired by the Qawwali music of his Sindhi/South Asian heritage and the American saxophone styles of the early 1900s. In the past decade he has created a personality-based music: an interpretation of these practices via his emotional memory and life inside and outside of ensembles. He is one of the most distinctive voices of his generation - a single note is enough to know who one is listening to. This evening he is joined by a veteran and very accomplished rhythm section. This will mark their second performance as a trio. 11:30 pm - Harriet Tubman Brandon Ross - Guitar Melvin Gibbs - Bass JT Lewis - Drums Harriet Tubman explores electronics and pan-tonality to sculpt a multidimensional, interactive, sonic language in a "classic" R&B/Rock configuration of guitar, bass, and drums. Recontextualizing musical technology to create innovative compositional and cultural spaces is an important part of the African-American cultural tradition, and Tubman is dedicated to musical revelation/investigation in the ever-evolving pan-african vernacular. Harriet Tubman's music reflects a search for something greater, something incorruptible, something real and void of the empty superficiality of unexamined living. Content as liberator. Freedom. Contact: Aaron Ali Shaikh |
