December 4th 2pm - Dan Blake and The Party Suite

Sunday December 4th
2pm
Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St.
Brooklyn, NY
$10 suggested donation


Our final concert of the year will feature noted saxophonist, composer, and educator Dan Blake performing The Party Suite, which won the John Lennon Songwriting Prize while Dan was still in college. The piece features two saxophones, bass, and drums, and combines high-energy improvising with a unique melodic and rhythmic language, which the musicians will help introduce children to.


Dan Blake has established himself as a positive force in many areas of creative music. His versatility and ecclectic interests have brought him to the forefront of many different creative communities. As saxophonist, he has performed and toured internationally with artists such as Esperanza Spalding, Anthony Braxton, Kenny Werner, Danilo Perez, Lukas Ligeti, Peter Evans, Ricardo Gallo, and many others. In January 2010 he joined Grammy-nominated artist Julian Lage and has been touring internationally as a composer and saxophonist with this group. Most recently, the band was featured at Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, and Newport Jazz festival. He was recently selected to be a featured soloist for Anthony Braxton's "Trillium E" opera cycled, to be recorded in March 2010, and performed in June 2011. His compositions have garnered recognition by ASCAP and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, and have been featured by such notable new music ensembles as Cygnus Ensemble, The Kenners, Duo Diorama, and redfish bluefish ensemble. Most recently, he saw the premier of his work First Beginnings for recorder and interactive 8-channel electronics was premiered at the Electronic Music Foundation’s annual symposium in New York City. His latest recording "The Aquarian Suite" is due for release in the fall 2011 for Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records.

Dan Blake is currently a Ph.D. candidate in composition at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and serves as adjunct lecturer in music history at The Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. He was recently awarded the 2010 Baisley Powell Elebash Fund for an ongoing research project examining New York City’s improvised music scene.

For more about Dan, visit http://danielblake.net/

Next Concert: Sunday November 6th - The Jean Rohe Trio

Jean Rohe Trio
Sunday November 6th
2pm
Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St. (betweeen 3th and 4th Ave.)
Brooklyn, NY
$10 suggested donation



"Ms. Rohe is a confident young singer whose compositions tend toward a literate and imploring tone."
- Nate Chinen, New York Times

The Jean Rohe Trio brings their audiences an exciting blend of music from both North and South America. Jean’s beautiful voice and captivating stage presence won her the audience favorite award at the Montreux Jazz Festival (2006) and found her performing everywhere from New York City’s Birdland to Havana’s Teatro Nacional, with artists as diverse as Blue Note recording artist Robert Glasper and the alt-country group Calexico. Her trio features three part harmony singing and the talented Ilusha Tsinadze on guitar, Liam Robinson on accordion, and Jean on mandolin and a cornucopia of Latin American percussion instruments. The project involves the full breadth of their stylistic attractions, challenging traditional boundaries around musical genres. Jean’s original compositions and the trio’s fresh arrangements of songs from North and South America explore the intersections of jazz, North American folk music, Brazilian and Afro-Peruvian dance traditions in a participatory and engaging performance. “The act of singing together is uniquely subversive,” Jean says. “It breaks us out of our individual isolation and carries us into a new space of community with our fellow human beings.”

A versatile musician, Jean began her musical career at eight years old with her family folk band. She has spent much of her adult life bringing music to children and young adults in New York City public schools and in private music classes. Ilusha Tsinadze, a native of the Republic of Georgia, has already garnered much praise for his forthcoming record, Mother Tongue, an album of traditional Georgian dance music filtered through an American lens. He teaches guitar lessons to children and adults in Brooklyn and New Jersey. Liam Robinson is a composer and co-director of Red Light New Music, a New York City contemporary music nonprofit. He also calls contra dances and records and performs with singer-songwriters in New York.

“I am absolutely floored by Lead Me Home. It's some of the best music to hit my iPod in a very long time.”
--Joel Hurd, North Country Public Radio Production Manager

www.jeanrohe.com

Next Concert: Sunday October 2nd 2pm - Michael Lowenstern

Sunday October 2
2pm
Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St.
Brooklyn, NY
www.295douglass.org
$10/suggested donation

PLEASE NOTE: THE CONCERT SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 4TH WITH PETR CANCURA HAS BEEN CANCELED DUE TO SCHEDULING CONFLICTS!

Renowned bass clarinetist and composer Michael Lowenstern will do a live debut of his entire Ten Children suite for bass clarinet and electronics, which has never been performed live in its entirety! Michael is one of the most dynamic performers around and has spent years crafting something that is totally his own...


Michael Lowenstern (b. Chicago, Illinois, United States, 1968) in the Hyde Park neighborhood, is an American bass clarinetist and composer specializing in new music.

Lowenstern holds a B.M. and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, an Artist's Certificate from the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam, and an M.M. and D.M.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 1989, Lowenstern received a Fulbright grant to study in Amsterdam with bass clarinet virtuoso Harry Sparnaay. In addition to Sparnaay, Lowenstern's clarinet and bass clarinet teachers have included Charles Neidich, Richard MacDowell, and John Bruce Yeh, and he has also studied composition with Daniel Weymouth.

Based in Brooklyn, New York, Lowenstern's playing is characterized by an expressive, almost vocal tone, an agile technique, and a strong command of the instrument's upper register. He has performed with ensembles representing a wide range of musical genres, including The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Steve Reich and Musicians, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Klezmatics, Robin Cox Ensemble, John Zorn, and Billband. In 1991 he won the first prize at the International Gaudeamus Competition in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Lowenstern has created numerous compositions for bass clarinet, both solo and with electronics. His works explore the possibilities of large ensembles of bass clarinets (done by multi-tracking), as well as juxtaposing the instrument with drum and bass-style beats more common to electronic dance music than to contemporary classical music. He has also composed music for film, dance, and the Internet. Since October 2006, a segment of his playing with Billband has been used as the theme for the National Public Radio segment "Science Out of the Box," which airs on the Weekend All Things Considered program.

Lowenstern has served on the faculties of New York University and the Juilliard School, and is now on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, teaching bass clarinet in their Contemporary Performance Program. He served as bass clarinetist of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra from 2000 until his retirement from orchestral playing in 2005. He appears on over forty CDs, including five solo recordings: Spasm (New World Records, 1996), 1985 (Capstone Records, 2000), Ten Children (Earspasm Music, 2003), Fade (Earspasm Music, 2007) and Spin Cycle (Earspasm Music, 2010). The album Ten Children garnered Lowenstern a "Parenting Pick" award in Parenting magazine's music listing for 2004.

In 2009, Lowenstern took part in the In C Remixed project which featured remixes of the seminal Terry Riley work "In C" by 16 artists including Meat Beat Manifesto's Jack Dangers, DJ Spooky, David Lang, Radiolab's Jad Abumrad and many others.

Next Concert: Sunday, July 10th - 2pm - The Debbie Deane Trio

Sunday, July 10th
2pm
Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St. betw. 3rd and 4th Ave.
Brooklyn, NY
$10 suggested donation






Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, the multi-talented Debbie Deane grew up listening to Carole King, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan. She found herself driven to explore the fertile ground of music and lyrics. Her older brother introduced her to folk, funk and fusion. She listened to all the great divas in the folk, pop and jazz worlds, and developed an intense interest in groove music and jazz harmony. Music was the ultimate refuge.

After earning a degree in English Literature, Debbie embarked on her music career. She studied jazz intensively at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, honing the piano skills that she continues to display as a singer-songwriter. At first her songwriting and singing came as an afterthought, but then took the forefront. In the last five years she’s shown impressive development on the guitar as well.

In her performing and recording life, Debbie has had the good fortune to work with top-tier jazz musicians who share her interest in quality songwriting — people like drummer Brian Blade and saxophonist Joshua Redman. Upon moving back to Brooklyn, she lived in a “jazz den” with some of the city’s most promising jazz musicians, including saxophonist Seamus Blake, drummer Marc Miralta and pianists John Stetch and George Colligan. “Everyone came through our place,” says Debbie. “The people I’ve played with, they’re all my friends and they’ve known me, they’ve been my roommates and people I went to school with.” Their presence on Debbie’s recordings and at her live shows is a powerful endorsement.

Debbie continues to gig extensively in New York and beyond. She is proud to be a part of Brooklyn Above Ground, a diverse music collective that has donated proceeds from its compilation CD to the grass-roots organization World Hunger Year. Debbie’s songs have appeared on TV’s “Party of Five,” on Jennifer Love Hewitt’s album Let’s Go Bang, and in a number of films. In addition, she is a cast member of the Great American Pop Show: the History of American Popular Music, which tours elementary schools in and around New York City. Teaching music is a big part of her life.

Her self-titled debut CD, produced by bassist Jeff Andrews and featuring Wayne Krantz, Joshua Redman, Brian Blade, Phil Markowitz and more, was licensed by ESC Records and released in Europe in 2005. She was featured on Radio France, and on Lufthansa Airline's Inflight program in 2006. The label also honored Debbie by including her rendition of “Any World (That I’m Welcome To)” on the 2006 compilation Maestros of Cool: a Tribute to Steely Dan.

In June 2007 Debbie releases her second album, the richly rewarding Grove House, on RKM Records, a label run by the illustrious jazz saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. Once again, she brings warmth, sophistication and rock-n-roll edge to the table, leading another cast of fine musicians as she sings of love, ambivalence and freedom.

June 5th concert CANCELED!!!!!

Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, the DSMC concert scheduled for June 5th with Sam Sadigursky has been canceled.

The next concert will be Sunday July 10th at 2pm, featuring vocalist and pianist Debbie Deane.

Stay tuned for details!

This Sunday May8th at 2pm: The Daniel Kelly Emerge Trio

This Sunday!

2pm @ Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St. between 3rd and 4th Ave.
Brooklyn, NY
suggested donation $10





The Daniel Kelly Emerge Trio
Daniel Kelly - piano
Brian Ladd - bass
Jordan Perlson - drums



Award-winning composer and pianist, Daniel Kelly has developed a unique and personal approach to jazz, free improvisation and modern chamber music. Daniel has collaborated in performance and on disc with a wide range of artists, including Michael Brecker, Lauryn Hill, Ray Barretto, Don Byron, Bobby Sanabria, William Parker, John Zorn, David Murray, Donny McCaslin, David Binney, Brad Shepik, Joel Harrison, Nestor Torres, Briggan Krauss, Iva Bittova, Candido and many others. He performs regularly with bassist Harvie S and the genre-busting modern chamber ensemble the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Daniel has toured throughout the US, Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central America. In addition to the several CDs he has recorded as sideman, he has recorded highly acclaimed CDs as a leader, including World and Duets with Ghosts which features Daniel’s unique approach to electronic sound manipulation and sampler. Daniel’s third CD Portal is an improvised solo piano suite that arose from his continuing series of improvised solo piano concerts. His quartet was the recipient of the 2007 Chamber Music America/ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award. His fourth CD, Emerge, will be released on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records.

Daniel serves as the artistic director of the music based non-profit organization Connection Works. Along with founder, Rob Garcia and co-artistic director Michel Gentile, he has organized and helped present workshops for young people and an ongoing series of daylong concerts featuring artists such as Joe Lovano, Fly (with Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard), Dave Liebman, Adam Kolker Trio with John Abercrombie and Billy Hart, Dafnis Prieto Quartet, Yosvany Terry Quartet, Anat Cohen and Howard Alden, Wycliffe Gordon, Nikki Denner Septet with Dave Valentin, Adam Rudolph’s Go Organic Orchestra, Matt Darriau’s Yo Lateef and the Tony Malaby Trio.

Daniel has exhibited his commitment to arts education and young audiences by performing in schools and in artistic multi-media works for family audiences. His most notable collaborator is storyteller David Gonzalez. In addition to performing in hundreds of schools, they have toured to performing art centers throughout the US and Canada and the Royal National Theatre in London. They developed the multi-media theatrical work The Frog Bride, which premiered at the New Victory Theater on Broadway and incorporated Daniel’s music with the music of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev and video images of paintings by Wassily Kandinsky. It was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 2006. Daniel composed music for a new collaboration called Wounded Splendor, a multi-media work that is part of the University of Maryland’s “Performance as Politic/Artist as Activist” 2009 season bringing together music with video, poetry and monologues inspired from interviews with activists and experts in the environmental movement. David and Daniel have also been Lincoln Center Institute Repertory artists from 2002-05 and 2008-09.

Daniel was chosen by the US State Department to be a Jazz Ambassador, performing a six-week tour to India, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam and Bangladesh. This highly prestigious honor is only awarded to a few groups each year that travel to developing countries to perform concerts and workshops.

Daniel's talents as film composer can be heard in the films The Receipt, Suzana’s Dreams, Below the Belt (awarded Best Film of the Oregon Film Festival) and the feature film The Legend of Johnson Roebling.

Visit him at www.myspace.com/danielkellymusic and www.danielkellymusic.com.

P R E S S

“Daniel Kelly is a pianist and composer who confidently splits the difference between murky history and sleek progressivism” Nate Chinen, New York Times

"Pianist Daniel Kelly is original and adventurous."
-Howard Mandel, Author of Future Jazz and Miles, Coltrane & Cecil

April 10th at 2pm: Drummer/percussionist Ziv Ravitz

For our next concert, Ziv Ravitz will present a special solo concert and workshop introducing children (and adults) to different rhythms and instruments from around the world. Ziv has toured all the continents collecting instruments and playing them with all types of groups, and will share his collection and his music. He will also be leading a drum circle for those children who wish to participate. Recommended age for children is 2-8 years.

Originally from Israel, Ziv is one of the most in-demand drummers in NYC, currently touring with a number of artists including Lee Konitz and Omer Avital. He's also a father of two young children and a proud Brooklyn resident. Learn more about him at his website: http://www.ziv-ravitz.com/.