FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 16, 2012 BRIDE’S BLACK CAT BREW RECENT RECIPIENT TO AN ASCAP NATIONAL AWARD FOR ADVENTUROUS PROGRAMMING THE BRIDE STIRS-UP EXCITEMENT WITH A SPECIAL EVENT TO ACKNOWLEDGE JAZZ ON VINE – THE LONGEST CONTINUING JAZZ SERIES IN PHILADELPHIA AND ALSO ON TAP FOR THIS EVENING’S CELEBRATION, MTO PLAYS SLY STEVEN BERNSTEIN’S MILLENNIAL TERRITORY ORCHESTRA DEBUTS TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF SLY & THE FAMILY STONE AS PART OF PHILADELPHIA’S JAZZ APPRECIATION DAY Philadelphia, PA – Painted Bride Art Center presents Black Cat Brew, an evening honoring the Bride’s on-going music series and the artists that have played at the Bride over the past 39 years. The Bride’s Jazz on Vine series, the longest running jazz series in Philadelphia, was just awarded, for the second time, the ASCAP National Award for Adventurous Programming. Taking place during National Jazz Month on Friday, April 13 (Jazz Appreciation Day in Philadelphia) Black Cat Brew will fill the Bride’s walls with live music and art, a Silent Auction & raffle, jazz karaoke hosted by Sing Your Life, as well as dinner by 12th St. Catering and drinks by Flying Fish Brewery, Amanti Vino and Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. The main attraction for this special fundraising event will be Steven Bernstein’s MTO Plays SLY live in concert in the Bride’s theater. Silent Auction items include tickets to Chris’ Jazz Café, Live Arts Festival, Keswick Theater, Live with Kelly in NYC & Headlong Dance Theater…. signed CDs, posters & music memorabilia by Odean Pope, Bobby Zankel, Hannibal, John Hollenbeck, Papo Vazquez, Elio Villafranca & Adam Rudolph. Signed photos of past Bride jazz artists by Paul Kopicki, veteran Bride photographer……and MUCH, MUCH MORE! All funds raised from this event will be used to benefit Painted Bride Art Center and its programmatic and educational activities. This evening’s festivities will continue with Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra (MTO) for the regional debut performance of its third studio album, MTO Plays SLY. Grammy nominated trumpet-composer Steven Bernstein (Sex Mob) leads his 12-piece ensemble featuring a top-flight roster of talent through the monumental songbook of Sly & The Family Stone to deliver unforgettable fun for all as they perform from the freewheeling and jubilant 13- track tribute. The concert coincides with Philadelphia Jazz Appreciation Day. MTO Plays SLY is “a celebration, a loving jubilance, pure and simple…MTO romps through some of Stone's best- loved songs, sticking closely to the spirit of the originals,” says AllAbout Jazz.com. By filtering the music of Sly and The Family Stone through its own “downtown NYC” aesthetic, MTO illuminates the melodic and harmonic sophistication of this immortal body of work, while upholding the Day-Glo soul and psychedelic funk that’s the backbone for classics like M’Lady, Everyday People, and Family Affair. Regarding Bernstein’s creative approach to the project, Revivalist.com submits, “He could have taken the typical route with a standard rendition of these classic records…instead he chose to re-imagine the music under his own guise, making something completely new. But for its innovative approach, it has captured their legacy in its entirety. “ The evening’s stellar line-up includes: Steven Bernstein (trumpet, slide trumpet), Curtis Fowlkes (trombone), Charlie Burnham (violin), Marty Ehrlich (clarinet, tenor sax), Michael Blake (tenor/soprano sax), Erik Lawrence (baritone/soprano sax), Will Bernard (guitar), Ben Allison (bass), Ben Perowsky (drums), John Medeski (organ), Dean Bowman (vocal). Friday, April 13 6PM - Painted Bride’s Black Cat Brew (Fundraiser) 9PM - Steven Bernstein’s MTO Plays SLY (Concert performance) Concert: $25 in advance, $30 day of show Special event fundraiser: $75 Event Package: $100 (Black Cat Brew event AND Steve Bernstein performance) Phone: 215-925-9914 Website: www.paintedbride.org Venue: 230 Vine St., Phila., PA Concert tickets: $25 in advance and $30 on the day of show. For more information or to purchase advance tickets or for more information, call 215.925.9914 or visit paintedbride.org. The Bride’s box office hours are Tuesday through Saturday; noon to 6:00 p.m. Patrons enrolled in ticket discount program receive 20% off of single tickets all season long and 40% off tickets during semi-annual sales. Students and seniors with ID receive a 25% discount. The Bride is located at 230 Vine St. on the northern edge of Old City, Philadelphia. For additional information or to request an interview or work sample, please contact: Phil Sumpter, Director of Marketing and Communication at 215-925-9914, ext. 15 or [email protected]. ### About the Painted Bride Art Center: Continuing its role as a catalyst for independent artists from the region and around the globe – Painted Bride Art Center enters its 42nd year offering audiences alternative travel passage to experience a world of culture fueled by various artistic forms and genres including music, dance, theater and the visual arts. The Painted Bride Experience (YouTube) About Jazz Appreciation Month: Jazz Appreciation Month is a project of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History and this year marks the 11th anniversary of the national celebration. The goal of Jazz Appreciation Month is to further stimulate the current jazz scene and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz by studying the genre, attending concerts, listening to jazz on radio and recordings, reading books on the topic and supporting institutional jazz programs. The Philadelphia Jazz Coalition -- a group of musicians, presenters, club owners, media and music schools in the jazz community -- has been established to spearhead the City's celebration efforts by collaborating to promote and support Philadelphia’s rich jazz tradition and assets. Show/Artist related links: Artist image: http://tinyurl.com/6tfpogy MTO Plays SLY album art: http://tinyurl.com/7awyd4h Artist website: http://www.stevenbernstein.net/ Artist full bio: http://www.stevenbernstein.net/sb-biography NPR MUSIC coverage: http://www.npr.org/artists/15235981/steven-bernstein AllAboutJazz.com album review: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40272 Jazz Times album review: http://jazztimes.com/articles/28601-mto-plays-sly-steven-bernstein-s- millennial-territory-orchestra Revivalist.com album review: http://revivalist.okayplayer.com/2011/10/11/steven-bernstein- mto-plays-sly/ About MTO PLAYS SLY Liner notes – Steven Bernstein Sylvester Stewart/Sly is a great American inventor – a true individualist. Lyrically, harmonically, rhythmically, visually and socially, he created something brand new. And unlike so many pop superstars, he wasn’t a creation of the music industry – he created a music industry. For a generation of us, seeing a racially and sexually mixed band led by a charismatic visionary with an Afro and a Jewish star meant the walls had been torn down (or so we thought). About this project… You have to wonder about a recording like this in the post-CD era. Getting 11 instrumentalists and multiple singers into the studio for two consecutive days is not an easy task: logistically, financially, technically – but it was something I had to do. Here’s a little back- story. In May of 2009 I received an email from a music lover saying he wanted to help finance my next recording project. I explained that I was working on a tribute to Sly with the Millennial Territory Orchestra for a Woodstock 40th anniversary celebration at the River to River Festival in NYC, and if the music turned out the way I hoped this would be the next project. The elements were all in place: MTO had been performing as a unite for ten years, I enlisted one of my musical heroes, P-Funk legend Bernie Worrell, old friend Vernon Reid and a collection of my favorite singers. My relationship with Sly Stone goes back to 1969 when my family moved to Berkeley, California. Out next-door neighbors, the Scales, were a prototypical Berkeley family. He was a professor, she was an artist, and their oldest son was a photographer for the Black Panthers who rode a motorcycle (my parents went to a signing party for Soul On Ice at their house). That was Berkeley in 1969. I remember being a little kid and hearing Sly’s music roaring through their walls. It was a soundtrack for those early years. When I started to play trumpet I immersed myself in jazz, going to the Keystone Korner on the weekends to hear the Art Ensemble, Dexter Gordon, Rahsaan, and Art Blakely, and subsequently fell in love with the music ranging from Duke Ellington to Albert Ayler. A jazz snob as they say. Then one day in 1979 I bought a copy of Sly’s Greatest Hits at a yard sale. I put it on and the memories came flooding back. It was like watching an old home movie, very powerful and very personal. I’ve been hooked ever since. The combination of Sly’s music (from my past) and P-Funk (from my present) transformed me into a born again Funkateer. Sly’s music was so ahead of its time that when I moved to NYC in Fall of 1979, the albums There’s a Riot Goin’ On and Fresh made perfect sense in the context of downtown music in the early 80’s. Sly’s skeletal, stripped down grooves seemed to be the precursor to everything from Talking Heads to the punk/funk bands that populated East Village. In fact, Vernon and I played In Time with Jessica Hagedorn and the Gangster Choir at 55 Grand. The more I learned about the music, the more Sly’s music continued to inspire, on many levels, from its impeccable arrangements and personality filled ensemble playing to its rhythmic and harmonic sophistication.