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 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 , MTO Plays SLY. Grammy nominated -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 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 that’s the backbone for classics like M’Lady, 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 (), Charlie Burnham (violin), (, tenor sax), (tenor/soprano sax), Erik Lawrence (baritone/soprano sax), Will Bernard (guitar), (bass), (drums), (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].

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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 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 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 , old friend and a collection of my favorite singers.

My relationship with 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 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 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. His legacy is the perfect balance of individualism and discipline. Yet at the same time, I felt that Sly’s music had not been properly celebrated for its genius. The specifics of his songs had been lost to countless LCD covers of his hits.

Choosing repertoire from Sly’s body of work was a challenge, so I left it to the moment. The fact that the original concert was a Woodstock tribute required that we use material from the set that made Sly a superstar. In some cases, the featured singers chose their favorite songs to perform. Martha singing Que Sera, Sera and Anthony singing Family Affair were sounds I needed to hear.

Having Bernie Worrell playing B3 in the room with MTO also allowed me to take a fresh look at one of my favorite orchestrations – with organ. There is a rich history here: McGriff and Basie, Wild Bill Davis and Ellington, Jimmy Smith with Oliver Nelson. Bernie Worrell’s chromatic inventions and historical relationship to this music takes these arrangements to a special place.

I have to acknowledge here, who not only introduced me to the most of these incredible singers, but also introduced me to the world of arranging and reinterpreting different composers works.

My desire with this recording was to honor the musical essence of Sly’s compositions and arrangements, while allowing the musicians to interpret the songs and improvise with impunity. To me, the beauty of my favorite large ensembles, from Duke Ellington and Count Basie to Sun Ra and , is their unique balance of individuality and discipline. The beauty of the recording live is capturing the inspired performances of great musicians. So here you have it. Two days of live recording (by the way, Vernon’s tracks were all recorded before two o’ clock in the afternoon the first day… he had to make a plane) played by amazing ensemble of musicians and my favorite singers in the world.

Liner notes – Steven Bernstein, Vernon Reid and yours truly all generationally emerge from a period when R&B and jazz were more tribal – musically, metaphorically, literally. We’re talking the pre-- licious ‘70s when bands mattered to the R&B audiences as much or more than singers did. Hell, even singing folk who were so bad they only went by their own name – , , – had magnificent ensembles. This band-centric moment in Afropop was pretty much set off by the advent of Sly and the Family Stone – the first utopic commune in the history of R&B. Even if you scrolled down to see ‘S. Stewart’ wrote and arranged all the music, you felt like this was one very homey band. Sly certainly had enough real kin in the group: an actual brother named Freddie and a blood-sister named Rose and a woman trumpeter, , who would later become the mother of a child with the titular leader. also boasted a monster, game-changing (and baritone vocalist) whose plucking and thumping percussive style would rapidly become a dominant sound in funk. In those pre- Benetton days of pre-post-racial Bay Area love The Family Stone was gendered and multi- ethnic, with tow Italian-Americans, saxophonist and drummer Gregg Errico, rounding out the rainbow. The band’s big first hit “Dance To The Music” was the first pop song we can cite where all the musicians are named in the verses and then given a chance to shine on their respective axes during tight acapella breaks. IN the context of 60’s R&B, where vocalist and their musical directors were generally tyrants and straw bosses, this was roughly akin to runaway Africans taking over the plantation and inviting their indentured European immigrants cousins over to rejoice. Racially and musically Sly & The Family Stone were on some next stuff in a still very segregated America. The prevailing business model in R&B was . That model was rife with dictatorial mandates. Something on the order of “YOU WILL wear these suits and gowns we gave you and this ordained hairstyle when you sing these songs we’ve produced for you and dance these steps we’ve had choreographed for you at exactly this point in the show.”

By contrast Sly & The Family Stone had the first bevy of anybody had seen in a top 40 R&B band as well as the first thigh high boots, halter-tops, applejacks and fringe vests too. Motown got the message and swapped out polyester suits and sequined gowns for denim and leather to stay au courant, especially when time came for the Detroit-gone-Hollywood label to launch their biggest ‘70’s act, The Jackson Five. Everything about The Family Stone screamed tribal utopia and democratic ideal—a festive body of rugged individualism with unique voices all working together for a common uplifting purpose. Younger musicians full of ideas, ambition, imagination and energy quickly go hip and soon R&B was full of insurrectionary globular Afro-ed grups: , Earth Wind & Fire, Rufus, War, Mandrill, Labelle, Isley Brothers, , Cymande, Maxayn, Mother’s Finest and concurrently, & The Wailers. If they’d had a Caucasoidal lead singer like another might funky breakthrough Bay Area band, Santana, they would have been easily marked as rockers too – but that’s another story for another day.

Suffice it to say now that for aspirant instrumentalist like Bernstein and others on this album, Sly & The Family Stone’s esthetics and community band ethic could also be found in the electronic jazz bands they idolized: ’ post-Bitches unites, ’s Headhunters, , Return to Forever, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Billy Cobham’s Spectrum. Over in freedom-jazz land Afro-futurism and cutting edge couture were also vividly on display wherever ’s Prime Time, Sun Ra’s Arkestra and The Art Ensemble of Chicago could be seen and heard. For those of us who where there to testify, it’s sometimes hard to believe that the dress code for improvisers now is so bland in comparison, whether grunge or Wall Street banker inspired.

The musicians on this very savvy and sophisticated tribute-album largely emerged in the 80’s; a richly communal epoch in downtown NYC musical history. A time when things musical and racial had loosened up quite a bit too: racially, stylistically, politically. Between Canal Street and 42nd Street there were hordes of places to play a brand of music that was mashing up every sound their generation ever loved: Miles, Monk , Mingus, Ornette, Coltrane, , Hendrix, Led Zeplin, Eddie Palmieri, Chic, P-Funk, Bowie, Sun Ra, CTI, AACM; often in venues shared with first-wave No-Wave NYC Punks (a movement that had actually originated on the Lower East Side, then got hijacked across the pond and came back with a brand name and some funny haircuts). The Punky Jazz party also got cozy with this other novel homegrown sonic phenom out of the South Bronx called hip-hop. The beauty of this moment for bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young players like Bernstein and coterie was that you could rip reasonably well in all those styles you’d routinely play in a host of very deviant and different bands. You could also invent a few novel ones of your own. The folks on this recording got avant-funk/punk/jazz/soul resumes like nobody’s business. Some were part of the more significant musical legacies of the past 30 years. Roll call Parliament-Funkadelic, , Lounge Lizards, Scrapping Foetus, The Decoding Society, Talking Heads, Chaka Khan. Then recall their own fire-breathing goodfoot-obsessive, shrapnel-propelling and still-orbital bands like , The Family Stand, Screaming Headless Torsos, Sexmob, Anthony and the Johnsons and The Woo Warriors.

The music of Sly Stone is roots music, tribal music, modern music and experimental American 20th century composition all combined through these players and singers. This album is a kind of throwback flash forward testament to a way more wide-open and daring commercial pop and electronic jazz era that Sly helped provoke back when Bernstein’s brigands were all baby musos and devoted fans. It is also true to their epoch’s superbad musical derangements of the senses, platforms for all their own hellaciously angelic wings of desire.