Vision Festival: Take a Stand

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Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Music

Published on Friday, 03 June 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The 16th annual Vision Festival is on from June 5 - 11, 2011 at Abrons Art Center, the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center and Campos Plaza Playground in Manhattan, New York.

The Vision Festival draws people from around the world who are interested in what is great, creative and innovative.

Arts For Art (AFA) leads the way in building opportunities for uniting the spectrum of creative arts. AFA has been working to strengthen the artistic communities by holding town meetings, panel discussions and creating opportunities for artists to perform and come together, so as to build a power through unity.

Special Events:

Peter Brötzmann - A Lifetime of Achievement
This year, Arts For Art and The Vision Festival celebrate a Lifetime of Achievement by Peter Brötzmann, one of the first practitioners of the Free Jazz movement in Europe. The 70-year-old has programmed his own evening to reflect his ongoing pursuit of musical innovation. Brötzmann is not interested in looking back -- only in looking forward and being as creative as possible in the present time. 

The Opening Night of the Festival is a tribute to another Giant of Jazz, Marion Brown, the great alto saxophone legend, visual artist and ethnomusicologist. The Group, an all-star collective featuring Andrew Cyrille, Hamiet Bluiett, Ahmed Abdullah, Charles Burnham, Bob Stewart.

Billy Bang – Honored
Violin legend Billy Bang was honored in last year‛s Festival with a special award for his leadership, vision, and musical genius. This year he was scheduled to perform on the last night of the festival. The music world lost Bang in April.

The Festival Finale is a Tribute performance of Bang‛s composition Mystery of the Mekong, featuring a 25 piece string ensemble, plus special guests, under the direction of William Parker.

Four tracks make up the Festival -- Music, Dance, Visual Arts, Word -- with such acts as:

Music:

• Tchicai's Ascension Unending – In the footsteps of John Coltrane
• Josh Roseman's Water Surgeons
• Dawn of Midi
• Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up
• Pulverize the Sound
• Planetary Unkown
• Connie Crothers Quartet
• Geraldine Eguiluz's Albedo Solo

Dance:

• Action Theory
• Emily Coates Dancers & Charles Burnham Violin
• Raging Waters, Red Sands

Visual Arts:

• The Films of Robert O'Haire and Jeff Burns
• Going to the Center, dir. Bill Dixon
• Earthtones, dir. Joseph Daley
• Rwanda 15, documentary by Kivu Ruhorahoza
• The Pied Cow /a rip improvisation
• Art Installations: Jeff Schlanger, Jorgo Schaeffer, Jackson Krall,
• Photo Exhibit: Gannushkin, Luciano Rossetti, Mark Sheldon, Michael Wilderman

Words:

• Invocation
• David Henderson & Bob Marshall
• Obama, Class Struggle, The Media & The Arts – Panel
• Imagining a Culture of Resistance & Radical Vision: Artists & Social Action – A panel of artists and activists from different perspectives
• Music and Politics – A Black Perspective with Amiri Baraka
• Organizing today/unions/artists/social action with Marc Ribot

For more information, visit www.visionfestival.org.

Vision Festival
June 5 - 11, 2011

Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
212-598-0400

Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center
107 Suffolk Street
New York, NY 10002
212-260-4080

Campos Plaza Playground
13 Street between Ave A & Ave B
New York, NY

Sacramento Jazz Festival

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Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Music

Published on Tuesday, 24 May 2011 05:00

Written by FFestivalTraveler Staff

The 38th annual Sacramento Jazz Festival and Jubilee runs Memorial Day Weekend, May 27 - 30, 2011 at numerous venues in Old Sacramento, including the refurbished Delta King River Boat (afloat on the Sacramento River), and The Convention Center Area at the Hyatt Regency and the Sheraton Grand Hotels along with other venues in Sacramento, California.

THe 2011 "Emperor" of the 38th annual Sacramento Jazz Festival & Jubilee is Tom Rigney, who appears with his band, Flambeau.

Specialty concerts and events:

• Opening Day Parade on Friday
• Swing Dance Contest on Saturday
• Gospel Sets on Sunday
• Memorial Day Salute to Service

With more than 400 sets of live music in 20 venues with over 70 bands, Featured Music covers all the bases, including:

• Traditional jazz, also known as Dixieland or classic jazz, inspired by Louis Armstrong
• Swing music, inspired by big band music of the '30s and '40s.
• Blues, inspired by American roots music of the Mississippi Delta
• New Orleans 2nd-line & street beat
• Zydeco party music
• Soulful rhythm & blues
• Ragtime and early jazz
• Straight-ahead & mainstream jazz
• Latin jazz and mariachi music
• Marching bands
• Jazz orchestras
• Youth bands
• Tributes and specialty concerts
• Banjo performances

Featured Artists:

• Banu Gibson & New Orleans Hot Jazz
• Black Dogs
• Carl "Sonny" Leyland, 2010 Inductee, Boogie-Woogie Piano Hall of Fame
• Hal Smith's International Sextet
• Lisa Haley & the Zydekats, Grammy nominee for Best Zydeco/Cajun CD
• Neville Dickie & Danny Coots
• The Tin Men (Matt Perrine, Alex McMurray, Washboard Chaz)
• Vince Bartels’ Swing Quintet

Classic Jazz & Swing Bands include:

• 101st Army Dixieland Jazz Band
• Big Mama Sue Quartet
• Catsnjammer Jazz Band
• Dr. Bach & the Jazz Practitioners 
• Dutch's Gramercy Six
• Fulton Street Jazz Band
• Miss Margie & the Hot Five
• Natural Gas Jazz Band
• Pearl Django
• Red Skunk Jipzee Swing Band
• Royal Society Jazz Orchestra
• Shelley Burns & Avalon Swing
• Wally's Warehouse Waifs

Straight-ahead & Mainstream Jazz:

• Capital Jazz Project 
• Beth Duncan Quintet
• Jerry Krahn Band
• Vivian Lee Quintet
• Jim Martinez Quintet

Zydeco Bands:

• Gator Beat 
• Mark St. Mary Louisiana Blues & Zydeco Band
• Tom Rigney & Flambeau

Blues Bands:

• Catfish & the Crawdaddies 
• Delta Wires
• Mick Martin & the Blues Rockers
• Sacramento Blues Revue

Tribute Bands:

• James Garner "Johnny Cash Tribute"
• Rhythm Vandals "Tribute to Santana"
• Steelin' Dan "The Music of Steely Dan"

In addition, Drexel University's Jazz Master Class Series presents well-known musicians speaking at the high-tech campus in Old Sac.

For more information, go to www.sacjazz.com.

Sacramento Jazz Festival and Jubilee
Memorial Day Weekend, May 27 - 30, 2011

Delta King Paddlewheel Saloon
1000 Front Street
Sacramento, CA
1-800-825-5464
www.deltaking.com

Hyatt Ballroom
209 L Street
Sacramento, CA
916-443-1234

Sheraton Ballroom
1230 J Street
Sacramento, CA
916-447-1700

plus other venues in Sacramento

Elektra 12: Visualizing Sound

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Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Music

Published on Monday, 02 May 2011 10:00

Written by Lynne Shannon

The 12th edition of Elektra, the Digital Arts Festival, powers up May 4 - 8, 2011 in Montreal (QC), Canada at Usine C, Cinémathèque québécoise and other venues around Montreal. Elektra is dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of digital art in all its forms.

This year‛s theme is Visualizing Sound, with audio-visual and immersive performances by over 30 artists presenting robotic, interactive and sound installations of state-of-the-art electronic music and visual creations using the latest technology.

Read more: Elektra 12: Visualizing Sound