* Cover is given where known * There is a one-drinkminimum per set * Reservations for shows downstairs can only be made by phone:212-989-9319
Mari et Femme by Regis de Sa Moreira
Moi non by Patrick Goujon (Published in 2003 by Editions Gallimard)
Le Jour où Nina Simone a cessé de chanter by Darina Al-Joundi
Cover $7 (includes one house drink)
A first-generation American, Bhatia is currently completing an interdisciplinary honors degree in economics and cognitive science at Oberlin College. He is also associated with the world-renowned Oberlin Conservatory, where his concept quickly caught the attention of prolific drummer Billy Hart. Besides apprenticing under Hart and Cleveland-based drummer Paul Samuels (Greg Osby), Bhatia is the artist-in-residence at The Feve, an Oberlin mainstay, where his group has attracted a loyal fan-base and critical acclaim for their weekly performances. He also frequently returns to New York, performing with the Rafiq Bhatia Collective and studying with Downbeat magazine's "Rising Star Jazz Pianist/Composer" Vijay Iyer.
"A contemporary mind with the true potential of the future, Rafiq Bhatia is definitely an artist to look forward to hearing." —Billy Hart, legendary jazz drummer Cover $10 www.rafiqbhatia.com , www.myspace.com/rafiqbhatiamusic
Eve's feature is Tsaurah Litzky.
Arrive before 6 pm to sign up.
“…The pianist illuminates the silence, suspends the time, and intensifies the collective flux. The wealth of his harmonic knowledge, the fluidity of his phrasing and his attention to the weight of every single note creates a sound palette for endless pleasures.” --- JazzMan Magazine (France) Cover $10 www.russlossing.com
“[He] not only conveys wildly different locales but also the wealth of emotions that surround the getting there and back…. Shepik seems guided by the joy of the moment more than anything. And that’s a place you won’t ever want to leave.” – Time Out Chicago
Growing up outside Seattle in the ’70s and ’80s, Brad Shepik spent a lot of time outdoors, hiking, camping, skiing, fly fishing and sailing. Later, as a New York based guitarist fascinated by traditional world music, he traveled in Bali, Morocco, the middle East, South America, and Europe, experiencing the natural beauty and cultures of those places. Human Activity Suite: Sounding a Response to Climate Change is a personal statement about his concern for our future: “I wanted to connect my musical expression to how I felt about the earth and the environment we are creating for ourselves as a result of how we live. The idea to do that had been brewing in me for a long time.” Commissioned by Chamber Music America, the suite was premiered and recorded in New York in June 2008.
Shepik is among the most versatile and distinctive guitarists of his generation, having recorded extensively as a leader and performed and recorded with Joey Baron, Dave Douglas, Carla Bley and Paul Motian. He is equally acclaimed for his work in various styles of world-jazz with groups such as Pachora, Tridruga, the Paradox Trio, Yuri Yunakov’s Bulgarian Wedding Band, and his own band the Commuters, as well as with oud and violin virtuoso Simon Shaheen. Shepik conceived Human Activity Suite for his current working trio (Places You Go, Songlines SA1562) plus trumpet and bass. The instrumentation offered an expanded palette to develop music that would “take the listener on a journey around the globe, and focus on how these issues affect us as people living on the earth rather than people living in a nation. Instrumental music can’t really address this subject in a concrete way, but my hope is that it can provide an opportunity for greater awareness, and that it get echoed from other directions. Humans have to actively and creatively work together to reverse the trend and figure out a way we can live on the planet or perish.”
The basic concept was to write a piece for each of the seven continents, and other pieces about factors and effects of climate change such as carbon, desertification, and changing ocean currents. But the suite moves beyond its programmatic framework to embrace Brad’s vision of a musical world without borders: “How can one term, ‘world music,’ cover such a range of human expression in sound? When I use it I’m referring to folk music that is indigenous to a certain area and transmitted through mostly an oral tradition. But I meet musicians and music lovers from different parts of the world who listen to and are informed by everything under the sun…. Ultimately it all gets filtered through my own sensibility. I think we can assume that music is expressing something sub- or beyond verbal, no matter what program we attach to it. And in jazz we improvise, we tell our own story. I tried to set up situations for that, within the context of the individual movements. My musicians are all great improvisers, and they brought the project to life through their creative powers.” The result, enhanced by audiophile production, is a recording whose open-hearted beauty, variety, humor and broad stylistic reach is one artist’s appeal to engage in global thinking and living. Cover $10 www.bradshepik.com
Elaine Sexton is the author of two collections of poetry, CAUSEWAY published in 2008, and SLEUTH in 2003, both with New Issues. Her poems, essays, art and book reviews have been published in numerous journals including American Poetry Review, Poetry, Art in America, O! the Oprah Magazine, and the Lambda Book Report. She teaches at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. Cover $7 (includes one house drink)
“Matteo’s music is energetic, refreshing and at the same time ‘smooth around the edges.’ I find that his compositions are sincere and gallant in their explorative nature. It feels to me metaphorically as if “in flight toward new horizons, eagles and doves soar together.” - Billy Harper
Cover $10 www.myspace.com/matteosabattinimusic , www.myspace.com/msnyq
"Playfully restive compositions" - The New York Times "A cliché-free, inventive player" - Jazz Times www.amandamonaco.com
Brendan Constantine was born in Los Angeles and grew up there, the second child of two working actors. Before pursuing his MFA degree at Vermont college Constantine had already toured the US and Europe. His work has appeared in numerous journals, most notably Ploughshares, The Los Angeles Review, Artlife, The Cortland Review, The Cider Press Review, Directions, RUNES, and the LA Times Best-seller The Underground Guide To Los Angeles. The creator of Industrial Poetry, a workshop for adults and teens struggling with writer's block, Constantine is currently poet in residence at both the Windward School in west Los Angeles and the Idyllwild Arts Summer Youth Writing program. His first official book-length collection, Letters To Guns, is due out this Spring from Red Hen Press. He is a three time finalist for the National Poetry Series and in 2002 was nominated by the Poetry Super Highway for poet laureate of the state of California.
Jamey Hecht was born in 1968, between the murders of Dr. King and RFK. He's the author of Plato's Symposium: Eros and the Human Predicament (Twayne, 1999) and a translation, Sophocles' Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the Tyrant, Oedipus at Colonus (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, 2004). He has edited the books Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil by Michael C. Ruppert, and Someone Would Have Talked: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Conspiracy to Mislead History by Larry Hancock. Hecht's poetry and prose have been published in a variety of scholarly journals and literary magazines.
Amy Lemmon is the author of two poetry collections: Fine Motor (Sow's Ear Poetry Review Press, 2008) and Saint Nobody (Red Hen Press, 2009). Her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, Verse, Court Green, The Journal, Barrow Street, and many other magazines and anthologies. Amy holds a PhD in English/Creative Writing from the University of Cincinnati. She is Associate Professor of English at the Fashion Institute of Technology and lives with her two children in Astoria, Queens. , http://www.jameyhecht.com
Warm and liquid, the music of jazz guitarist Greg Ruggiero slides into the ear so easily, you don’t notice until it’s already had its way with you. The first signs include a slowing of the breath, a relaxed attentiveness and a heightened awareness of one’s blessings. - WEEKLY ALIBI ARTICLE V.16 No.50 | December 13 - 19, 2007 Albuquerque, New Mexico Cover $8 www.myspace.com/gregruggiero
This installment of April's Freerange Readings will be quite extraordinary! We'll be featuring the very talented writers Hsin-ya Chow and Mary Ellen Marks, as well as my yogi Vijay Seshadri, former editor at The New Yorker; essayist and book reviewer in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Threepenny Review, The American Scholar,and author of Wild Kingdom and The Long Meadow (poetry collections).
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!! We are blessed to have Abigail Thomas, author of Safekeeping; A Three Dog Life; and Thinking About Memoir join us as well! By the way, A Three Dog Life was chosen one of the best books of 2006 by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. It will be a night more memorable than your high school prom.
Hsin-ya Chow has worked for magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Time Out NY, and Luck. She was a ghost writer for Xaviera Hollander’s Penthouse column “Call Me Madam.” For money, she has held a series of dumb jobs like coat checking in clubs, cleaning apartments, and hostessing at the Soho Grand Hotel. She lives in the East Village with three cats.
Mary Ellen Marks is the Nonfiction Editor of Lumina, the Sarah Lawrence Literary Journal, and she works for the college as a Student Admissions Liaison. Her nonfiction piece, Child of the Sea, is published in the University of California at Santa Barbara’s 2008 Spectrum Anthology. She’s writing a memoir that chronicles her former experiences as a dental hygienist and college instructor. Raised on the island Walt Whitman affectionately calls Paumanok, she’d always rather be at the beach. A 2009 Creative Nonfiction MFA candidate at Sarah Lawrence College, she currently resides in Rockland County, New York with her husband of thirty-four years and their two children.
Vijay Seshadri was born in India and came to the United States in 1959, at the age of five. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and has lived in many parts of the country, including the Northwest, where he spent five years working in the fishing industry, and the Upper West Side, where he was a sometime graduate student in Columbia’s Ph.D. program in Middle Eastern Languages and Literature.He is the author of Wild Kingdom and The Long Meadow (poetry collections); former editor at The New Yorker; essayist and book reviewer in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Threepenny Review, The American Scholar, and various literary quarterlies; recipient of the James Laughlin Prize of the Academy of American Poets, MacDowell Colony’s Fellowship for Distinguished Poetic Achievement, The Paris Review’s Bernard F. Conners Long Poem Prize, New York Foundation for the Arts grant, National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial fellowship and area studies fellowships from Columbia University.
Abigail Thomas has published two short story collections, a novel, and three memoirs: Safekeeping; A Three Dog Life; and Thinking About Memoir (which is kind of a how-to). A Three Dog Life was chosen one of the best books of 2006 by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. She teaches privately and does the occasional summer gig.
Chemistry Set
Chemistry Set is a new improvising chamber trio featuring:
Rebecca Schmoyer - classical guitar James Keepnews - acoustic guitar Daniel Carter - saxophones, clarinet, flute and trumpet
Rebecca Schmoyer has previously performed as an electric guitarist in the noise band 5Chin400 and in the ensemble The Aquartet with Sabir Mateen on reeds and featuring Schmoyer's 5Chin bandmates Paul Geluso on bass and Michael Lopez on drums. More recently, Schmoyer has as performed in master classes with classical guitarists Dominic Frasca, Laura Oltman and Ana Vidovic and is also a member of the Harry Partch Ensemble.
James Keepnews leads the groups People's Revolutionary Party and Stalker. He is best known as an electric guitarist who improvises in computer-interactive contexts, but he began life as a guitarist as a student of Guitar Craft, performing with such NYC-based Crafty ensembles as The New York Chapter of Crafty Guitarists, Chapter Two and The New York Guitar Project. This debut performance with Chemistry Set will be Keepnews' first public performance on acoustic guitar in over 15 years.
Daniel Carter is one of the legendary masters of creative music. Born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania in 1945. He has performed or recorded over the past three decades with such artists as: Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Billy Bang, William Parker, Roy Campbell, Sabir Mateen, Sonic Youth, Simone Forti, Joan Miller, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Nayo Takasaki, Earl Freeman, Dewey Johnson, Nami Yamamoto, Matthew Shipp, Billy Martin, John Medeski, Wilber Morris, Denis Charles, Butch Morris, TEST, Other Dimensions In Music, One World Ensemble, Saturnalia String Trio, Levitation Unit, Wet Paint and countless others.
- more info: http://rebeccaschmoyer.com http://www.metaharmonic.com/ http://www.myspace.com/lightlovepower 9:45PM
Cristian Amigo and Kingdom of Jones.
Guggenheimer Cristian Amigo (Innova Recordings) has distinguished himself as a guitarist and creator of innovative music ranging from string quartets through Latin music through opera. Tonight, Amigo leads the improv-heavy Kingdom of Jones ensemble through planes of soulful sounds. Come recognize yourself in Jone's joyful din. Izzi Ramkissoon: bass and laptop; Gonzalo Martinez de la Cotera: drums, Rami ElAsser:Egyptian percussion; Amigo: electric guitars and soundcapes.
" Guitarist-composer Cristian Amigo straddles the contemporary-classical, improv and rock worlds; no wonder he calls his Kingdom of Jones a “new music jam-band.” During any given performance, Messiaen grapples with Led Zeppelin while Perez Prado teaches Stravinsky to mambo." - TIME OUT NEW YORK
“ I kind of hate myself for digging this abrasive clatter [War is Good for Business] because it’s galaxies away from my Beatles- and Beethoven-forged sense of composition. But it rocks real hard against its orchestra of bloops and bleeps, and then breaks down to a mournful sound collage. A great theme for Halliburton’s symphony of opportunism." -GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE
-“Blistering guitar work” - WHITE FUNGUS Magazine Cover $10 www.cristianamigo.com , www.myspace.com/cristianamigo
Cecilia Stalín, who got her largest breakthrough in her collaboration with the nu-jazz duo Koop and their song ‘Waltz for Koop’ which was made soundtrack to Woody Allens film Match Point, has worked in different constellations over her years in the business, amongst them Charles Tolliver Big band. First and foremost she has focused on her own ensembles; She recorded her debut cd ‘Straight Up’, as soon as she was done with college, with her Swedish quintet in 2005 witch was released in Japan and USA in 2006. At the same time she has been involved in a large number of different collaborations and this combined has given her an international breakthrough. In her music, Cecilia Stalín explores genres like nu-jazz and bop/swing through the more classical traditions. Her voice is her trademark and differs through a wide spectra off closeness and fragility to great willpower. Cover $10 www.myspace.com/zfoley , www.ceciliastalin.com
Cover is given where known Many spoken words events are free There is always a one-drink minimum per set; times are door opening times
March 26-April 02, 2009 
