The Buttonwood Tree hosts events every night this week from Tai chi on Wednesday to the world-class musicians performing in the 12th Annual Composers and Improvisers Festival.
Here's our line-up:
Acoustic Open Mic with Bob Gotta
Thursday, May 2nd | 7-9 pm | $5 | Details here
Story City Troupe
Friday, May 3 @ 8-10 pm $10
Story City Troupe is led by Sue Huggans and takes the audience on a ride through life's strange and familiar. This month’s themes are “Awkward Moments “and “Tellers Choice”. The cast will be: Saul Fussiner, Mike Isko, Sue Huggan and others.
Click to reserve your seat.
Click to reserve your seat.
Personal Development Workshop & Meditation
"Aligned with Source"
May 4 @ 10:30-12 pm
Topic: Control
Is Control good or bad? How much control do we have of our life? Why do we feel the need to
control others? Prepare for lively discussion!
Suggested Donation: $10 (Give what you can)
Art Reception for Ruth LeBar
"Journeys"
May 4 @ 2-4 pm
The photography of Ruth LeBar invites the viewer into intimate and sometimes surprising conversation with the visual world. What is the essential nature of the rock, the plant, the animal? And what are the possibilities for connection between us human and these fellow travelers on our planet? Ruth hopes that all those who take time with her work will come to share her sense of gratitude and awe for this planet we live on. This planet we share with all creation. Refreshments will be served. Meet and Greet the artist!
12th Annual Composers and Improvisers Festival
May 4 @ 7:30-10:30 pm $20
Save the date! The 12th Annual Composers Festival is coming to town! (not the 14th as we listed before – oops) This will be a tremendous evening of new jazz featuring bassist Joe Fonda, percussionist Kevin Norton, and cornet player Taylor Ho Bynum. Reserve tickets now to watch three extraordinary jazz artists demonstrate their widely renowned skill.
Joe Fonda is a composer, bassist, recording artist, interdisciplinary performer, producer and educator. An accomplished international Jazz artist, Fonda has performed with his own ensembles throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. He has collaborated and performed with such artists as Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, Ken McIntyre, Lou Donaldson, Bill and Kenny Barron, Leo Smith, Perry Robinson, Dave Douglas, Curtis Fuller, , Bill Dixon, Han Bennink, Bobby Naughton, Xu Fengia, Randy Weston, Gebhard Ullmann, Carla Bley, Carlo Zingaro, Barry Altschul, Billy Bang.
Fonda was the bassist with the renowned Anthony Braxton sextet, octet, tentet, from 1984 through 1999. Fonda also sat on the Board of Directors from 1994 to 1999, and was the President from 1997 to 1999 of the newly formed Tri-Centric Foundation. He has also performed with the 38-piece Tri-Centric orchestra under the direction of Anthony Braxton, and was the bassist for the premiere performance of Anthony Braxton’s opera, Shalla Fears for the Poor, performed at the John Jay Theater in New York, New York, October 1996.
Kevin Norton was born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island, NY. Studies at Hunter College introduced Kevin to Milt Hinton and after a short period, Kevin began to perform with Milt Hinton, eventually recording The Judge’s Decision with a quartet led by Milt.
After getting his Masters Degree from Manhattan School of Music, he became very active as a percussionist in New York, especially taking part in the blossoming downtown New York City scene. This lead to him playing with Fred Frith‘s band Keep the Dog,which also included harpist Zeena Parkins and saxophonist John Zorn. However, he longed to return to his jazz roots and began to play with downtown outsiders Phillip Johnston and Joel Forrester and their co-led band, the Microscopic Septet(and later Johnston’s Big Trouble, with two CDs on Black Saint). Too numerous to list here: Kevin played with many musicians on the downtown scene but eventually concentrated on his own compositions and own ensembles For Guy Debord (in nine events)is a composition for quintet and woodwind soloist (originally Anthony Braxton) based on the texts of the radical French philosopher whose thought proved central to the riots of Paris, 1968.
Other great American masters Kevin has performed and/or recorded with include John Lindberg, Connie Crothers, James Emery, Scott Robinson, Nick Didkovsky, Steve LaSpina, Marshall Allen, Kazzrie Jaxen, Peter Zummo, Henry Grimes and poet/activist John Sinclair. In June of 2002, Kevin Norton was a resident composer at the prestigious MacDowell Colony. Norton worked closely with composer Pat Irwin on the animated television show, Roco’s Modern Lifefor the Nickelodeon network (approximately 1993-1996). Norton composed the original soundtrack for the movie Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words(2013).
Recent recordings include John Zorn’s Nosferatu (2012),Tipple’s No Sugar on Anything (2014),John Lindberg’s BC3 Born in an Urban Ruin (2016),Kevin Norton’s Breakfast of Champignon(s) Staten Island: All that is solid melts into air (2017)
He has served on the faculty of several schools including the University of Maryland and is currently on the faculty of William Paterson University (Jazz Studies Program).
He’s spent his career navigating the intersections between structure and improvisation – through musical composition, performance and interdisciplinary collaboration, and through production, organizing, teaching, writing and advocacy. Bynum’s expressionistic playing on cornet and his expansive vision as composer have garnered him critical attention on over twenty recordings as a bandleader and dozens more as a sideman.
Recent releases on the Firehouse 12 Records label include the 4-album set “Navigation” (2013) with his Sextet and 7-tette, and “Enter the Plustet” (2016), the debut recording of his 15-piece creative orchestra. “The Ambiguity Manifesto”, featuring Bynum’s 9-tette, will be released in the spring of 2019.His varied endeavors include his Acoustic Bicycle Tours (where he travels to concerts solely by bike across thousands of miles) and his stewardship of Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Foundation (which he serves as executive director, producing and performing on most of Braxton’s recent major projects).
In addition to his own bands and his ongoing collaboration with Braxton, past work includes other legendary figures such as Bill Dixon and Cecil Taylor, and current collective projects feature forward thinking peers like Mary Halvorson and Tomas Fujiwara. Bynum increasingly travels the globe to conduct community-based large ensembles in explorations of new creative orchestra music, and has taught at universities, festivals and workshops worldwide.
Since 2017 he has been the director of the jazz and creative music ensemble at Dartmouth College. Bynum’s writing has been published in the New Yorker, Point of Departure and Sound American, and he has served as a panelist, board member and consultant for leading funders, arts organizations and individual artists. His work has received support from Creative Capital, the Connecticut Office of the Arts, Chamber Music America, New Music USA, US Artists International and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Link to Site: http://taylorhobynum.com/
Sponsored By:
ON SUNDAY, TBT will host an information table at Veterans Park, for the St. Vincent de Paul, Middletown event - Walk in the Park.
The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts Center is located at 605 Main Street, Middletown. There is ample, free parking behind It's Only Natural market. Refreshments, viewing of Buttonwood's Art show, the bookstore and refreshments are all open and available. Call for info: (860) 347-4957. If you want to see what events we have lined up for the month check our website's event calendar here.
No comments:
Post a Comment