Brooklyn 30 Lafayette Avenue Communications Department Academy Brooklyn NY 11217-1486 Sandy Sawotka of Telephone: 718.636.4111 Fatima Kafele Music Fax: 718.857.2021 Jennifer Lam 718.636.4129 [email protected] News Release BAM Announces its BAMcafe Live November Music Programming Featuring Jazz, Middle Eastern, Chamber Pop, Baroque Cabaret, and Hip-Hop
Highlights include the NextNext music series showcase, modern jazz arrangements of Bjork's music, the Middle Eastern musical hybrid of Shusmo, chamber pop with Greta Gertler, the jazz fusion of Fred Ho and the Afro Asian Music Ensemble, pop-cabaret with Daniel Isengart, the ukulele/viola sounds of Songs from a Random House, and a Thanksgiving holiday weekend hip-hop extravaganza with Akim Funk Buddha
No cover! $10 food/drink minimum, Friday-Saturday
BROOKLYN, October 4, 2005-As part of BAM's 2005 Next Wave Festival, BAMcafe Live, the performance series curated by Limor Tomer, presents an eclectic mix of jazz, spoken word, rock, pop, and world beat Friday and Saturday nights. BAMcafe Live events have no cover charge ($1 0 food/drink minimum). For information and updates, call 718.636.4139 or visit www.bam.org. (For press reservations and photos, contact Fatima Kafele at 718.636.4129 x4 or [email protected]).
BAMcafe kicks off a month of great music with Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra (November 4), a group that crafts modem jazz arrangements of Bjork's visionary techno pop. The next night (November 5), Shusmo concludes the NextNext series of talented musicians in their 20s, with an eclectic, Middle Eastern blend of jazz and Latin Rhythms. Seventies chamber pop by singer songwriter Greta Gertler (November 11) follows, while conceptual composer Fred Ho and the Afro Asian Music Ensemble (November 12) bring a night of intriguing musical blends to BAMcafe. Daniel Isengart (November 18) presents a night of avant-garde German cabaret and pop interpretations of the works of Klaus Nomi, and New York City's Songs from a Random House (November 19) utilize their unique instrumentation built on a ukulele backbone to shape an exciting live show. Akim Funk Buddha (November 25 & 26) closes out the month with a series of Thanksgiving weekend performances of hip-hop beat-boxing and rhyming.
The complete November schedule follows.
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Friday, November 4 at 9pm Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra
"This is the hippest of New York's downtown jazz scene, spun into a context that can be easily digested by younger fans with an appetite for pop music. " -Boston Globe
Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra blends the music of eclectic artist Bjork's visionary techno pop with the harmonic and improvisational elements of modem jazz. Comprised of some of New York City's finest jazz musicians, this eighteen-piece ensemble features full hom and rhythm sections, talented vocalist Diana Kazakova, as well as laptop electronics. Individual members of Bjorkestra have performed with the likes of Charlie Hunter, Ray Charles, The Spam Allstars, Jessica Simpson, and the "Saturday Night Live" band.
Saturday, November 5 at 9pm NextNext: Shusmo
Concluding BAMcafe Live's NextNext music series (of groundbreaking artists in their 20s) is Shusmo, a New York-based musical ensemble that strives to blend various elements of jazz and Middle Eastern music. Founding member Tareq Abboushi, grew up in Ramallah and plays the buzuq, a pear-shaped lute with a long neck found mainly in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories. The group has recorded the theme music for WBAI radio's "Fen Meshnoon with Dean and Maysoon," and performed at The Jerusalem Festival.
Friday, November 11 at 9pm Greta Gertler
"A spacious voice and a welcome weakness for lushly orchestrated 70s-era singer-songwriter pop." -The New Yorker
Australian-born, Brooklyn-based pianist and singer-songwriter Greta Gertler's sound is a unique mix of sweet pop, Slavic rhythms, New Orleans swing, jazz, and contemporary classical sensibilities. For tonight's show, she performs with her backup band, The Extroverts, featuring Matt Moran on percussion, Ros Caswell on tuba, guitarist Pete Galub, lap steel blues and jazz guitarist Michael Gomez, and Eliot Krimsky on glockenspiel and organ. Gertler's latest recording, Nervous Breakthroughs. cemented her reputation as an intriguing and ultra talented musician on the rise, who the TheW all Street Journal described as possessing a "sweet lyrical voice, an arrestingly quirky sensibility, and a chamber-pop band that fits no pigeonholes."
Saturday, November 12 at 9pm Fred Ho and the Afro Asian Music Ensemble
"The music merges Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus with Chinese instruments and vocal styles from Western opera, Chinese opera, and jazz; for a fusion that never seems forced. " -The New York Times
Composer and interdisciplinary artist Fred Ho and his Afro Asian Music Ensemble return to BAMcafe for an evening of epic music spanning Africa, Asia, and the Americas-all sources of their musical and thematic inspiration. For tonight's performance the ensemble plays excerpts from Ho's compositional oeuvres including-The Black Panther Suite, the martial arts-sword epic Deadly She-Wolf Assassin at Armageddon, and many others. Ho will be joined by Ed Jackson on alto sax, David Bindman on tenor, Royal Hartigan on drums, Wes Brown on bass, Art Hirahara on piano, and Jennifer Kidwell on vocals.
Friday, November 18 at 9pm Daniel Isengart: Do you Nomi Now?
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"A Cabaret Sensation"- Time Out New York
In an avant-garde fusion of opera, German cabaret, and pop, Daniel Isengart brings to life the repertoire and style of the late countertenor and New Wave icon, Klaus Nomi. An extremely refined, dramatic performer, Isengart's acclaimed one-man show consists of a unique blend of intense German kabarett, intelligent popular hits, and sophisticated French chansons. He has drawn audiences of all ages and backgrounds to such diverse performance spaces as the notorious Bar d'O in Greenwich Village, Cafe Sabarsky at the Neue Galerie, and Berlin's legendary cabaret establishment, Bar Jeder Vernunft. Isengart is keen on moving away from the cabaret cliche, revealing the understated and sensitive side of Germany's popular songs. His interpretations of Nomi' s repertoire (Nomi himself was a cabaret enthusiast) should make for an electrifying night.
Saturday, November 19 at 9pm Songs from a Random House
New York's Songs from a Random House is an electric ukulele/viola/upright bass/percussion/voice combo formed in the mid-80s by musicians Steven Swartz and Alan Drogin. The group's current lineup also features violist Gregor Kitzis, string bassist Jason DiMatteo, and drummer John Bollinger. The group's unique instrumentation and exciting live shows led The Boston Patriot-Ledger to say the band has "a sound and song craft unlike any other band heard in popular music right now ... alternately mysterious, propulsive and comedic." With tonight's performance the group marks its 20th anniversary and will play music from its latest CD gLISTEN.
Friday and Saturday, November 25th & 26th at 9pm Akim Funk Buddha's "Hip Hop Holiday"
Storytelling, throat-singing, beat-boxing B-Boy emcee Akim Funk Buddha returns to BAMcafe over Thanksgiving weekend to present two nights of collaborations with New York City's hottest emerging talents. After leaving his native Zimbabwe in 1990, Akim began experimenting with hip-hop, tap dancing, poetry, and Mongolian throat-singing, merging these into a smorgasbord of expression. He and his creative cohorts utilize all these forms while reconstructing, restoring, and reclaiming hip-hop in the service of art and culture. One night will feature Zimbabwe Legit, Akim's hip-hop ensemble with his brother Dumi (head of the Hip Hop Restoration Council in Washington, D.C.). The next night will feature the EboNYasia project-exploring multiculturalism in hip-hop and performance art forms-and including cellist Dana Leong.
Credits
BAMcafe Live events are sponsored by Con Edison with additional support from Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. The BAMcafe piano is provided by Deutsche Bank. BAM 2005 Next Wave Festival is sponsored by Altria Group, Inc.
General information BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, BAMcafe, and Shakespeare & Co. BAMshop are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn's only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafe, operated by Great Performances, also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music on Friday and Saturday nights. A $21 three-course dinner at BAMcafe is available Thu-Sat for BAM Rose Cinemas ticket holders (day of screening only). BAMcafe is open Thursday-Saturday from 5pm-closing. Additionally, BAMcafe is open two hours prior to all Howard Gilman Opera House and Harvey Theater performances. (Note: BAMcafe is closed in August/September.)
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Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue; D, M, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue Train: Long Island Railroad to Flatbush Avenue Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM
For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit www.bam.org.
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