2012 Undead Jazz Festival Calendar – This Year’s a Good One
This year’s Undead Music Festival opens Wednesday, May 9th with their signature multi-venue marathon night featuring over two dozen combos at three West Village venues (le Poisson Rouge, Sullivan Hall and Kenny’s Castaways). A noteworthy development this year is the presence of Melissa Caruso Scott and John Scott, the creative forces behind Tonic, the fertile and sorely missed Norfolk Street haven for improvised music of every stripe. In memory of that scene, the Scotts have assembled a Tonic reunion show at le Poisson Rouge featuring Sex Mob, White Out, Yuka C. Honda, Elysian Fields, Billy Martin and others. Here’s the May 9 lineup:
LE POISSON ROUGE:
6:45 Heather Greene & Ursa Minor
7:45 Jamie Saft’s New Zion Trio
8:15 The Rufuseniks with Ted Reichman, John Hollenbeck & Reuben Radding
9:30 Billy Martin Improv with Shelley Hirsch, Erik Freidlander, and more TBA
10:00 Dougie Bowne’s Peninsula
10:30 Yuka C. Honda’s EUCADEMIX
11:00 White Out w/ Bill Nace
11:30 Elysian Fields
12:00 Steven Bernstein’s Sex Mob
12:30 Ben Perowsky’s Moodswing Orchestra with TK Webb, Danny Blume and Michael Blake
1:00 Vernon Reid, Calvin Weston and Jamaaladeen Tacuma Trio to close the show!
KENNY’S CASTAWAYS:
7:00 Secret Architecture
8:00 Ohad Talmor’s Newsreel (w/ Dan Weiss, Miles Okazaki, Shane Endsley, Jacob Sacks, Matt Pavolka)
9:00 Nate Wooley Quintet (w/ Josh Sinton, Matt Moran, Eivind Opsvik, Harris Eisenstadt)
10:00 Greg Ward Trio (w/ Joe Sanders, Damion Reid)
11:00 Chicago Underground Duo (Rob Mazurek, Chad Taylor)
12:00 Joe Sanders (w/ Pat Carroll, Rodney Green)
1:00 Val-Inc
SULLIVAN HALL:
7:30 Kris Davis Trio (w/ Michael Sarin, Eivind Opsvik)
8:30 Positive Catastrophe
9:30 Stabbing Eastward (Ryan Sawyer & Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio)
10:30 Tony Malaby’s Paloma Recio (w/ Ben Monder, Drew Gress, and Flin van Hemmen)
11:30 Chris Dingman’s Waking Dreams (w/ Loren Stillman, Fabian Almazan, Ike Sturm, and Jared Schonig)
12:30 Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host (w/ Darius Jones, Brandon Seabrook, Cooper-Moore, Pascal Niggenkemper)
1:30 Jonathan Finlayson & Sicilian Defense (w/ Shane Endsley, Miles Okazaki, Keith Witty, Damion Reid)
Friday, May 11th is Night of the Living DIY, emphasis on the wilder side of improvisation. Each show has a suggested $10 donation which includes a beer for every $10. The lineup is:
Seeds – 617 Vanderbilt Ave, Ft. Greene: solo performances from Jacob Garchik (trombone / computer), Miles Okazaki (guitar), Greg Heffernan (cello / computer), Dan Weiss (drums), Ohad Talmor (tenor sax), Jacob Sacks (Rhodes) + special guests
35 Claver – 35 Claver, Bed-Stuy: Noah Garabedian’s Big Butter & Egg Men + Why I Must Be Careful + First Cousins Once Removed (Adam Schatz, Danny Fisher-Lochhead, Jonathan Goldberger, Skye Steele) + Arts & Sciences
IBeam – 168 7th St., Gowanus: Denver General (Kirk Knuffké, Jonathan Goldberger, Jeff Davis) + Goldberg Variations for String Trio (Miranda Sielaff, Kristi Helberg, Andrea Lee) + The Four Bags (Brian Drye, Jacob Garchik, Mike McGinnis, Sean Moran)
Big Snow Buffalo Lodge – 89 Varet St., Bushwick: Nate Wooley + The Home Of Easy Credit (Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen & Tom Blancarte) + Talibam + Vavatican
ShapeShifter Lab – 18 Whitwell Place, Gowanus: Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra
Andrew D’Angelo at 58 N 6th St.,, Williamsburg: featuring artists from Denmark, Norway + Sweden + the group GNOM (tube, drums, trombone) + D’Angelo on bass clarinet and alto saxophone; MERGER with Andrew N D’Angelo and Kirk Knuffke + Spontaneous Constructions featuring many great NY improvisers: Greg Ward, Jeff Lederer, Kirk Knuffke, Josh Sinton, Dan Weiss, Josh Roseman, Hilmar Jensson, Adam Schatz, Kenny Warren, Jesse Stacken, Skye Steele, Jonathan Finlayson, Andrew D’Angelo and more
The festival winds up on Saturday, May 12th with a night of round robin duet improvisations at the 92YTribeca featuring a total of 17 artists in random order, beginning with a solo improvisation and then a parade of others joining in succession. Artists include Mark Helias (bass), Brandon Seabrook (banjo / guitar), Hilmar Jensson (guitar), Allison Miller (drums), Amir Ziv (drums), Mike Pride (drums), Bob Stewart (tuba), Cooper Moore (piano), Miles Okazaki (guitar), Marika Hughes (cello), John Hollenbeck (drums), Matthew Mottel (keys), Fabian Almazan (piano) and others TBA.
Advance single-day tickets are available now for the May 9 show at the Poisson Rouge box office for $25, ($30 day of ), with tickets for May 11 and 12 available soon. For diehard festivalgoers, the best deal is the festival pass which gets you into all the shows, May 9-12 for $55 including that lame 90s jam band you may or may not remember who’re playing in Fort Greene. Single-night tickets will also be available each night at the participating venues.
Lucid Culture 