Putney Musicians Perform in Jam Nation Music Festival
Jam Nation Music Festival 2005, Sat. Oct. 29Tony Vacca's World Rhythms with Massamba Diop, Jo Sallins Two Man Trio, Natural History, Eugene Uman Trio, Erik Lawrence/Where Everything Is Music, Bob Weiner, Verandah Porche, Rupa Cousins, Derrik Jordan at The Vermont Jazz Center and The Loft at Cotton Mill Hill, Brattleboro VT. Saturday October 29 at 6pm
$25 at the door, $20 in advance. (802)387-4050
Advance tickets available at Everyone's Books in Brattleboro, VT and Heartstone Books in Putney, VT
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Jam Nation Music Festival 2005
For the second year Jam Nation Music Festival returns to Brattleboro, VT at the Cotton Mill Hill. This improvisational World Music and Jazz extravaganza will take place in two neighboring venues, The Vermont Jazz Center and The Loft, and features some of the areas finest musicians and improvisers. On Saturday October 29 five bands performing on two stages and playing continuous music will delight listeners and dancers. This year's featured performers are Tony Vacca's World Rhythms with Massamba Diop, Jo Sallins Two Man Trio, Erik Lawrence/Where Everything Is Music, Eugene Uman Trio and Natural History.
The show starts at 6pm and runs till midnite. Each band will perform for an hour and as it finishes the next band will start in the adjoining venue which is only a very short walk away. Admission is $25 at the door or $20 in advance. Advance tickets are available in Brattleboro, VT at Everyone's Books and in Putney, VT at Heartstone Books. A Worldsoul Production. For more information call (802)387-4050.
About the performers:
Tony Vacca's World Rhythms is powered by a consortium of musicians whose collective skills combine elements of traditional African and Afro-Cuban rhythms with the American born tradition of innovation. They create a sound that is both elegant and slamming. It's the hypnotic and powerful sound of giant West African balafons; the urban bite of alto saxophone; the dreamy lyricism of electric violin; the funk and magic of electric bass, along with special guest Senegalese master of the tama or talking
drum, Massamba Diop (who is a member of international superstar Baaba Maal's band).
"Jo Sallins can do things with a bass that could make Flea drool." says James Heflin of the Valley Advocate. Jo Sallins Two Man Trio (yes, you read that right) features Jo on electric bass and keyboard simultaneously and up and coming 16 year old drummer Matt Garstka. The music is Jazz-funk and Jo is a virtuoso of the electric bass (he also plays drums) and is a spellbinding performer. He dazzles with his technique while he rocks your body with his serious funky rhythm. Jo is also a member of Tony Vacca's World Rhythms.
Natural History (aka Derrik Jordan, Jared Shapiro and Barry Hyman) have been breaking the multi-cultural sound barrier since 1974, weaving sounds, instruments and styles from every corner of the planet into a intricate and spontaneous musical tapestry. They have spent more than three decades exploring shamanistic trance music, Afro-Celtic grooves, improvisation with singing animals, modal ragas, cross-cultural dance music, hillbilly-tribal fusion and ecstatic chants. They play a wide variety of instruments including electric violin, cello, sitar, guitar, mbira, recorder, balafon, all kinds of percussion and they sing at the
same time creating the illusion of more than three people. Their sound is like nothing else: wild, unpredictable, playful, fearless, healing and always resplendent with humor and joy.
Eugene Uman Trio with Bob Weiner on percussion and poet Verandah Porche. Poet Verandah Porche and pianist Eugene Uman have created jazz and poetry projects with the youth of the Governors Institute of the Arts for many years. Uman is the artistic director of the Vermont Jazz Center where he teaches music, leads a weekly jam session and produces an annual summer jazz workshop and monthly jazz concerts. Eugene also teaches at Amherst College, and UMass Amherst. He has recently recorded a CD of his compositions with bassist Thomson Kneeland and Steve Johns and is currently working with a cooperative multi-media ensemble, the Ambassadors of Light. Uman has recorded with Claire Arenius, Carlos Averhoff, Louise Taylor, Derrik Jordan and others. He still maintains ties with a festival he co-started in Colombia, South America.
Erik Lawrence/Where Everything is Music - Saxophonist/Flutist/Composer/Putney resident Erik Lawrence has spent
most of his career in New York offering musical support to a list of great performers; The Band with Bob Dylan, Aaron Neville, Buddy Miles, Spin Doctors, jazz greats Chico Hamilton, Sonny Sharrock and many others. Mostly now he plays with the Levon Helm Band, his own New York quartet Hipmotism and Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra. But for
years he has held a passion for combining the spiritual poetry of Rumi, Tagore, Mirabai and others with improvised music and movement. Where Everything is Music picks up this dream with the sensitive and creative support of Derrik Jordan on electric violin and percussion, Eugene Uman on keyboards and very special guest Rupa Cousins who's "Expressive Turning" is a highly evolved and spirited outgrowth of whirling from the East. This deep listening ensemble makes history every time it comes
together.
Massamba Diop is a master of the tama or talking drum from Senegal, West Africa. He has worked with Afro-pop superstar Baaba Maal, as the lead tama player in Baaba's ensemble, Daande Lenol, since its inception over ten years ago. During that time he has incorporated the fiery Wolof traditions of his homeland into a contemporary sound. His music reflects the ancient origins of his instrument and the cosmopolitan environment of Dakar, Senegal's capital, where his work with Baaba Maal began. Massamba has also performed and/or recorded with Peter Gabriel and Afro-Celt Sound System, Herbie Han*censored* and James Brown.
Verandah Porche, a poet, performer and writing partner, based in rural Vermont since 1968. She has published two books of poems, The Body's Symmetry (Harper and Row) and Glancing Off (See Through Books) and has pursued an alternative literary career, creating collaborative writing projects in nontraditional settings: literacy and crisis centers, hospitals, factories, nursing homes, senior centers, and an urban working class neighborhood. She has developed a practice called 'told poetry' or 'shared narrative' to enable people who need a writing partner to create, preserve and share personal literature. Porche's
dedication to told poetry and spoken word led to her collaboration with composer Steve Sonntag to create a jazz suite to celebrate the 200th anniversary of The Old Tavern at Grafton, VT. She has performed her poems with singer Patty Carpenter and Boston-based horn player Scott Shetler. Eugene Uman and Verandah Porche teamed up at the Governors Institute on the Arts to create poetry and jazz workshops for Vermont teenagers.