Ethan Iverson and Ron Carter offer a powerful panacea for our long arctic siege.
The Hartford Jazz Society and New Haven’s Firehouse 12 celebrate the end of the winter of our discontent with sunny, regenerating concerts on the first official day of spring on March 20.
For its rite of spring, the HJS presents the duo of pianist Ethan Iverson, of Bad Plus fame, and the legendary bassist Ron Carter, performing at 8:00 pm on Friday, March 20, at thePolish National Home, Hartford.
Firehouse 12, the Elm City’s citadel of avant-garde improvisational music, kicks off its Spring 2015 Jazz Series that same night with bassist/composer Ben Wolfe leading his quartet greeting the arrival of the vernal equinox.
Initially, the HJS pairing of Iverson, a 42-year-old postmodernist, and Carter, a 77-year-old master modernist, might not seem exactly like a stylistic match made in jazz heaven. Nonetheless, the duo has been praised “as constantly riveting,” interacting with a warm intimacy in a program of standards, jazz classics, and Carter originals, prescribing what should be a powerful panacea for our long arctic siege.
Iverson, as it turns out, is a lifetime Carter fan, has written about him often on his jazz blog Do the Math, and is even quoted several times in Carter’s biography,Finding the Right Notes.
The Iverson/Carter pairing marks HJS’s Spring Concert in its ongoing Concert and Workshop Series, a multi-purpose package that not only brings a premier jazz act to town, but also offers a free workshop for young musicians. It also affords the opportunity for youth ensembles to play as the opening act for the famous headliners.
The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts Jazz Ensemble gets the honor this time out to open the concert at 7:00 pm for the duo match-up of two matchless musicians. A free student jazz workshop will be held at the venue from 4:30 to 6:00 pm.
When it comes to marking the calendar with jazz events, the HJS produces theMonday Night Jazz Series in Bushnell Park, a familiar symbol of summer’s arrival, as well as its annual Jazz Cruise on the Connecticut River, a longtime harbinger of fall.
Throughout the year, its concerts, various programs, and unstinting advocacy for jazz for 55 years make the HJS a jazz champion for all seasons. As the longest continuously operating jazz society in the nation, the HJS is anything but a summer solider or a sunshine patriot in the never ending war to keep jazz alive in Hartford.
Each event features separate sets at 8:30 and 10:00 pm. Tickets for the Iverson/Carter concert: general admission, $15.00 in advance and $20.00 at the door; HJS members, $10.00 in advance and $15.00 at the door; students, $5.00. Tickets available at the Polish National Home,Integrity ‘n Music in Wethersfield, and via PayPal at hartfordjazzsociety.com.
Firehouse’s Warm Spring Fare
AtFirehouse 12, spring comes in with aWolfe and goes out with lions likeRudresh Mahanthappa, Tim Berne, Julian Lage, andBilly Hart.
The series features debut performances at Firehouse 12 by guitarist Nels Cline, saxophonist Paul Flaherty, trumpeter John Raymond, and trombonist Joe Fiedler. Among the Firehouse regulars back for encores are Berne and Ches Smith. The ambitious series, which stretches out over 13 consecutive Friday nights, concludes on June 12 with a performance by bassist Noah Jarrett and his Triage Quartet.
Each event features separate sets at 8:30 and 10:00 pm. Tickets for all dates are $20.00 for the first set and $15.00 for the second set. They can be purchased online at firehouse12.com, by phone at (203) 785-0468, or in person at the box office beginning at 7:00 pm the night of the show. Season passes good for admission to both sets of every concert are available for $225.
Each concert is held in the intimate setting of the venue’s acoustically engineered recording studio, ideal for careful listening aficionados of cutting-edge music.
Here’s the lineup: Ben Wolfe Quartet, March 20; Paul Flaherty/Chris Corsano/Steve Baczkowski Trio, March 27; Ben Williams and Sound Effect, April 3; Ches Smith/Craig Taborn/Mat Maneri, April 10; Nels Cline and Julian Lage, April 17; and Joe Fiedler Trio, April 24.
Also, John Raymond Quartet featuring Billy Hart, May 1; Russ Nolan Quartet, May 8; Tim Berne and Matt Mitchell Duo, May 15; Spectral, May 22; TBA, May 29; Rudresh Mahanthappa Quintet, June 5; and Noah Jarrett’s Triage Quartet, June 12.
Blowin’ the Blahs Away
A cure for the wintry New England blahs is offered byRed Baraat, the powerhouse, fiercely festive drum and horn ensemble, as it rolls intoNorthampton’s Iron Horse at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, March 11, to unleash its steamrolling, high-octane wedding of American and Indian music traditions in celebration of its raucous and rolling, attention-seizing new CD, Gaadi of Truth (Sinj Records).
Led by founder and leader Sunny Jain, Red Baraat, the uber party band, is basking in success with its sold-out shows across the country and even a gig in the White House.
Its high-energy performances are ignited by an explosive mix of hard-driving rhythms of North Indian bhangra, Indian brass band traditions, go-go, funk, Latin, free jazz, hip-hop, and not easily categorized but totally boisterous, exuberant elements.
Jain is the inspirational leader upfront and churning out power rhythms on the dohl, a barrel-shaped Punjabi drum slung over his shoulder and wacked with sticks, generating a perpetual motion force.
It’s a prime part of the mesmerizing, primal power that propels Gaadi of Truth and fuels Red Baraat’s incendiary live performances. Gaadi is Hindi for car or train and, Jain said, Gaadi of Truth “is about the multiple ways of looking at things.”
Red Baraat means “red wedding procession,” a name that popped into the percussionist/composer’s fertile mind when he was looking for musicians to play at his own wedding.
At its freewheeling live concerts, the constantly evolving eight-piece band loves to try out new ideas and take crazy risks to make its already singular sound even more singular, happily marrying the spirited with the spiritual.
“The only consistent thing in this band is change,” said Jain. “We’re heading there. Wherever there is,” he said, sounding a bit like Sun Ra, the great free jazz explorer who also thought of music as a cosmic realm of infinite meaning and possibilities.
Jain, a first-generation Indian American, grew up in Rochester, New York, happily immersed in Indian classical music and devotional songs at home since early childhood. His father, who was a research scientist at Rutgers University -- where Jain later studied jazz performance -- filled the family home with the sound of Bollywood music, yet another influence for the innovative bandleader/percussionist to tap into when he founded his Brooklyn-based band in 2008.
“I really wanted a large band with a massive sound, but comprised of just drums and horns,” he has explained. The horns, he said, were inspired by the brass band tradition of India, another sound he absorbed at home since he was five. Add to this volatile mix his passion for the dohl, a dance drum of northern India, plus all the film music of Bollywood that he loved as a kid hooked on his father’s reel-to-reel collection of Bollywood soundtracks.
What this electrifying eclectic did early on was to fuse Punjabi rhythms and Indian brass band traditions into an all-embracing, highly original and exultant mix that has morphed into the mighty Red Baraat, which could just as easily have been called Jain’s Juggernaut.
What remains a constant throughout Red Baraat’s ongoing creative evolution, Jain said, is that the band “is still very much about that raw, visceral, on-the-edge deliverance of music.”
Also on the program is Khalif Big Chief Neville & the Defenestrators featuring the soulful saxophonist Charles Neville of Neville Brothers fame. Admission: $15.00 in advance; $18.00 at the door. Information: iheg.com and box office, (413) 586-8686.
Chamber Duo at Baby Grand Jazz
With his singing, horn-like lines, and wealth of empathy, guitarist Joshua Breakstone is a natural for any chamber jazz setting, something he’s proven many times with his trio recordings and on his 2014 release, With the Wind and the Rain, on which he plays in both intimate guitar trio and cello quartet settings.
Breakstone’s chamber chops will be exhibited chapter and verse as he teams up as the headliner with the celebrated, Connecticut-based pianistNoah Baerman at 3:00 pm on Sunday, March 15, in the Hartford Public Library’s admission-free Baby Grand Jazz Series. Information:hplct.org and (860) 695-6300.
Jazz and Dance in Classy Pas de Deux
In yet another side of his multi-faceted musical persona, the great Indian American alto saxophonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa has composed a full-length piece, "Song of the Jasmine," in collaboration with the celebrated contemporary Indian dance company Ragamala.
Mahanthappa and his ensemble create a live soundscape for the dance company performing the evocative choreography created by artistic directors Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy at 7:30 pm on Thursday, March 12, at theUniversity of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center in Amherst.
https://vimeo.com/109854429">Song of the Jasmine trailer - Ragamala Dance Company and Rudresh Mahanthappa, by Dancing Camera from https://vimeo.com/user4217913">Ragamala Dance on Vimeo.
"Song of the Jasmine" by Ragamala Dance Company, as the dance performance is titled, was inspired by the mythic poems of the eighth century, Tamil mystic poet Andal, conceived by Aparna Ramaswamy, and created in collaboration with Mahanthappa. It marks a melding of the talents of two, first-generation Indian American artists whose bicultural identities have influenced and enriched their creative work in their seemingly disparate but now merged disciplines.
Mahanthappa’s band features the noted guitarist Rez Abbasi and the Carnatic Ensemble. Tickets range from $35.00, $30.00, and $20.00 general admission to $10.00 for designated area college students and youths 17 and under.
On March 28, the saxophonist returns to the Amherst campus as a guest at the daylong 33rd New England Saxophone Symposium, whose schedule includes performances, clinics and competitions, all held at UMass’s Bezanson Hall.
The industrious, ingenious saxophonist is now on a tour that includes, among various events, presentations of Song of the Jasmine with Ragamala Dance Company as well appearances promoting his new, groundbreaking CD,Bird Calls.
On June 5, he leads his quintet in a celebration of the release of Bird Calls with a performance at New Haven’s Firehouse 12. On June 16 and June 17, he’s back in New Haven for presentations of "Song of the Jasmine" with Ragamala Dance Company at the Elm City’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
Mahanthappa as Ornithologist
Bird Calls is Mahanthappa’s highly original homage to alto saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, the bebop king whom he cites as one of his earliest and most enduring inspirations. But the new CD is anything but your usual "Bird" tribute album, of which there have been many since Parker died in 1955.
There is, in fact, not even a single Parker tune played here. Instead, Mahanthappa creates all new music that re-imagines or re-contextualizes a particular Parker melody or solo as its source of inspiration. What maestro Mahanthappa sets out to do is to examine what he describes as "Bird’s" foundational influence and how it manifests itself in a 21st century context.
“It’s easy to say that 'Bird' influenced modern music without dissecting that notion,” he said, explaining his album’s distinctly different analytical, intellectual and aesthetic approach.
“If I had any agenda for this album, it was to really demonstrate that. This music says, ‘Yes, 'Bird’s' influence is absolutely indelible, and here’s why.’ This is music that is all directly inspired by Charlie Parker, but it sounds as modern as anything today.”
Mahanthappa’s ornithological insights and reflections on "Bird" are assisted by his collaborators featuring the 20-year-old trumpet prodigy Adam O’Farrill (son of pianist and Afro Latin Jazz Alliance founder Arturo O’Farrill); pianistMatt Mitchell, bassistFrancois Moutin, and drummer Rudy Royston.
More than likely, this will be another red-hot Firehouse 12 date whose two sets will sell out quickly. See Firehouse 12’s schedule and information on tickets above.
No Faux Blues: Soulful Singer is the Real Deal
Danielle Nicole, a singer/songwriter/bassist with a deep, soulful sense of groove wrapped in the aura of authenticity, is being groomed by Concord Records for far greater things with the recent release of her stomping, widely expressive, self-titled EP. With good reason, Concord plans to release a full-length album by this ascending artist in late summer.
Nicole’s EP crackles with her direct, emotional prowess as a New Orleans-flavored, blues and soul-based soloist with a knack for the vibrant and the visceral. Her delivery sounds completely natural, unstrained, and totally unpretentious, expressing everything from sadness to defiance, often with an edgy emotional elegance.
Her terrific rendition of Bob Dylan’s "Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right" must definitely have given Concord executives many reasons not to think twice about releasing a full-length album, a showcase that promises to have many encores.
With her rocking band, Nicole presents her brightly burnished, emotionally furnished blues and celebratory soul and funk manifestos at 7:00 pm on Sunday, March 15, at Bridge Street Live in Collinsville. Her upbeat, blues-drenched bandmates are Mike “Shinetop” Sedovic, keyboard;Brandon Miller, guitar; and Jan Faircloth, drums. Admission: $20.00/$29.00. Information: 41bridgestreet.com and (860) 693-9762.
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