Written by: TheJazzGallery on September 28, 2010.Quarterly Late Night Jams to Build Community and Support NYC’s Non-Profit Jazz Incubator Friday, October 8th, 2010, 11:30 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. at City Winery The Jazz Gallery announces The Inaugural Jazz Gallery Rent Jam, hosted by Roy Hargrove. The Rent Jam will be the first in a new [...]
A Habana | Harlem™ premiere at Harlem Stage, and part of George Wein’s CareFusion Jazz Festival, June 25, 2010
Cultural Fusion: Past, Present, Future explores the parallels between Havana and New Orleans by celebrating the music of composers who set the tone for later generations of artists and thinkers. Tickets on sale now: www.harlemstage.org
“The Ice Sire” T Minus…. by Andy Bragen
Written by: TheJazzGallery on June 18, 2010.I’m just back from ICE SIREN rehearsal, caught the first half of it at Michiko, a rehearsal room in midtown. As a playwright, in theatre rehearsals, I’m pretty active. Here, as a librettist, I don’t have too much to do. John is integrating three new musicians into the Dreamscapes [...]
“The Jazz Gallery All-Stars” at Symphony Space
Written by: TheJazzGallery on June 14, 2010. “The Jazz Gallery All-Stars” has been 10 years in the making. When I started programming music at The Jazz Gallery a little over 10 years ago, I had no idea that what I was doing would culminate into this. With the exception of Roy Hargrove, every musician we [...]
Miles’ Mournful Scat – Birth of “The Ice Siren” Part II by Andy Bragen
Written by: TheJazzGallery on June 10, 2010.While “The Ice Siren” is a through-composed piece, John has left space in the score for improvisation. And I have left some space for improvisation in the libretto, at the end of a couple of the sections. There are certain key words, and larger themes (love, loss, the cold), [...]
HARLEM STAGE PRESENTS HABANA|HARLEM™
Written by: HarlemStage on June 9, 2010.Two-Night Series Features Henry Butler, Osmany Paredes, and The Pedro Martinez Project Harlem Stage presents Habana|Harlem™, two nights of stellar performances honoring the legacy of cross-cultural collaboration between the capital of Cuba and one of the world’s most famous Black communities. The first show, on Friday, June 25 at [...]
Birth of “The Ice Siren” by Andy Bragen
Written by: TheJazzGallery on June 8, 2010.“The Ice Siren”, John Ellis’ and my second collaboration, was written in a three month fever last winter in time for its debut in May 2009. In early 2009, we started talking about genres and themes that were intriguing to us. We talked about “Coraline”, and “The Nightmare Before [...]
Notes From The Inside
I have been lucky in that for the past few years I have worked for George Wein and his company: New Festival Productions, a company which has given me a voice for my opinions and made me feel like a valued contributor, thereby enhancing my enthusiasm about our upcoming CareFusion jazz festivals.
WEIN, JUNE & JAZZ
As I write this, I am sitting in the Gran Hotel Havana in beautiful Barcelona, Spain. My friend Joan Cararach, artistic director of the Barcelona International Jazz Festival, and the festival promoter Tito Ramoneda asked me to join them in a collaboration to cross-promote our festivals. CareFusion Newport Jazz Festival (August 6 – 8 ) and Voll-Damm Barcelona International Jazz Festival (November 3 – December 4) are now sister festivals. By the time you read this, I will have had the opportunity to perform with two of Barcelona’s fine musicians, Horacio Fumero on contrabass and Jordi Rossy on drums in a celebration of this international collaboration.