Cornelia Street Cafe Announces DU YUN & More

In May 1977 three artists--Robin Hirsch, a writer and director; Charles McKenna, an actor; and Raphaela Pivetta, a visual artist--stumbled across a tiny storefront on Cornelia Street in the heart of Greenwich Village and thought it the perfect place to open a café. For two months they scraped and sanded, plumbed and plastered, and did the intricate dance one does with the authorities who live beyond the Village, and on the weekend of July 4, 1977, mirabile dictu, they opened the Cornelia Street Café.

It was from the beginning an artists' café. Within a month there were poetry readings and music performances; and then a tiny play written for the café; and fiction writers; and Eskimo poetry; and puppeteers; and a living portrait of James Joyce; and the Four Quartets and the entire Iliad; and mime shows on the street outside the café; and comedians; and fairy tales and storytellers and Punch and Judy shows.

This Week At Cornelia Street Cafe

Mon Jun 28
8:30PM 21ST CENTURY SCHIZOID MUSIC PRESENTS: DU YUN
As a composer, she is Du Yun. As a performer, she is duYun. Lernanaen Hydra, Schizo-duYun, she embodies five Geminis. Whoever she is, tonight she is joined by two collaborators (who, like her, also walk on multiple sides) --- cool trumpeter Gareth Flowers and rock-steady electronic musician Phil Moffa, the brainchild from the acclaimed analogue hop beats, Vinyl Life.
Two sets: one tinkly smudge, one muted flamboyant. Perhaps they are of Kafka's Odradek, simply some stories with no clear purpose or apparent use. No matter. You decide.
Frank J. Oteri, host. Cover $10 http://www.myspace.com/duyun

Tue Jun 29
6:00PM HOW TO BE A BAD GIRL
(Lisa Faith Phillips, actor; Ellen Mandel, piano)
About How To Be a Bad Girl: Mistress Edition
Charismatic comedian and former stripper, Lisa Faith Phillips had a sold-out tour of her popular parody musical 7 ½ Habits of Highly Successful Mistresses in Dublin, Ireland, New York and at the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington D.C., before bring sued for trademark infringement by the FranklinCovey Corporation, owners of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People trademark.

Drawing on her colorful experiences, working as a stripper to pay her way through graduate school at the London School of Economics, and her background in stand-up comedy and music, Lisa Faith Phillips weaves topical humor and songs into a clever, thought-provoking and ultimately touching show. Part comedy, part cabaret, part one-woman theater piece, it all adds up to an evening of sophisticated, fun entertainment.

Raves for her show (formerly 7 ½ Habits of Highly Effective Mistresses):

"A close comparison to Goldie Hawn I thought, this performer was outrageously funny and successfully cunning. Devilishly clever and wildly entertaining....every line demanded a boisterous laugh. She exudes inherent fun like a bottle of champagne. Uplifting and unpredictable." -Carolyn Smith, Newyorkcool.com

Cover $15 http:// www.howtobeabadgirl.com

Tue 8:30PM ELEVATION - LIVE CD RECORDING
(Abraham Burton, tenor saxophone; Lucian Ban, piano; John Hébert, bass; Eric McPherson, drums)
" sound fractals, soaring tenor, eastern meets post bop piano, eMac's rhythm propensity, elevating sounds - ELEVATION - the new quartet from the Transylvanian expat pianist LUCIAN BAN and saxophonist ABRAHAM BURTON "one of the great tenors of our time". Together with long time collaborators and world class rhythm - JOHN HEBERT on bass and ERIC MCPHERSON on drums.
Lucian Ban recently collaborated with John Hebert on the unique Enesco Re-Imagined, Eric McPherson has been played with Mr. Burton for a more than 20 years, then the romanian born pianist has been playing duets and quartets with Abraham Burton from 2005 on going on to name their musical partnership elevation ... and Hebert & McPherson played with the late Andrew Hill for years appearing on his last blue note records album.
" If the young saxophonist Abraham Burton was ever to be drawn in a cartoon, he'd have flames coming out of his saxophone" - NY Times

"Ban plays with a fluency and sensibility that recalls Vladimir Horowitz as much as McCoy Tyner" - Terrell Holmes , All About Jazz NY

"Eric McPherson is at the vanguard of his generation's creative music drummers. His command of multiple percussion instruments is matched by the originality, electricity, versatility and sensitivity he adds to the continuum of the music" - WinterJazzFest

"Hebert's fractured ostinatos are a thing of wonder." - Chris May, All About Jazz For more info: www.lucianban.com www.abrahamburton.com www.johnhebert.com www.ericmcpherson.com
Cover $12

Wed Jun 30
8:30PM ELEVATION - LIVE CD RECORDING
(Abraham Burton, tenor saxophone; Lucian Ban, piano; John Hébert, bass; Eric McPherson, drums)
" sound fractals, soaring tenor, eastern meets post bop piano, eMac's rhythm propensity, elevating sounds - ELEVATION - the new quartet from the Transylvanian expat pianist LUCIAN BAN and saxophonist ABRAHAM BURTON "one of the great tenors of our time". Together with long time collaborators and world class rhythm - JOHN HEBERT on bass and ERIC MCPHERSON on drums.
Lucian Ban recently collaborated with John Hebert on the unique Enesco Re-Imagined, Eric McPherson has been played with Mr. Burton for a more than 20 years, then the romanian born pianist has been playing duets and quartets with Abraham Burton from 2005 on going on to name their musical partnership elevation ... and Hebert & McPherson played with the late Andrew Hill for years appearing on his last blue note records album.
" If the young saxophonist Abraham Burton was ever to be drawn in a cartoon, he'd have flames coming out of his saxophone" - NY Times

"Ban plays with a fluency and sensibility that recalls Vladimir Horowitz as much as McCoy Tyner" - Terrell Holmes , All About Jazz NY

"Eric McPherson is at the vanguard of his generation's creative music drummers. His command of multiple percussion instruments is matched by the originality, electricity, versatility and sensitivity he adds to the continuum of the music" - WinterJazzFest

"Hebert's fractured ostinatos are a thing of wonder." - Chris May, All About Jazz For more info: www.lucianban.com www.abrahamburton.com www.johnhebert.com www.ericmcpherson.com
Cover $12

Thu Jul 01
8:30PM Mark Dresser/DIANE MOSER DUO
(Mark Dresser, bass; Diane Moser, piano)
Friends and colleagues for over 30 years, bassist Mark Dresser http://www.mark-dresser.com and pianist Diane Moser http://www.myspace.com/dianemosercomposerbigband will be performing the music from their soon to be released CD "Duetto" (CIMP records).
"Mark Dresser is an inventor. He also may be the most important bassist to emerge since 1980 in jazz or classical music."
Harvey Pekar, Boston Herald

"Moser is a first class jazz pianist!"
George Kanzler for the Star Ledger, NJ
Cover $12

Fri Jul 02
9:00PM & 10:30PM BASSCENTRIC
(Joelle Leandre, bass; Mark Helias, bass; Mark Dresser, bass)
9PM Joelle Leandre
www.joelle-leandre.com describes herself as an improviser who composes. Her music is political, always provocative and sometimes humorous. She is an innovator of techniques for the double bass and a profound musician.
"We are totally responsible to do something when we arrive on stage....... "

"Now is the life, today and not tomorrow. This can be understood quite young, understood clearly. I can be an angry woman, and this is a good vibration. I can use inner rage to keep the utopia, the idea of changing the world. Artists have a job, to change the world."

French double bass player, improviser and composer, Joëlle Léandre is one of the dominant figures of the new European music. Trained in orchestral as well as contemporary music, she has played with l'Itinéraire, 2e2m and Pierre Boulez's Ensemble Intercontemporain. Joëlle Léandre has also worked with Merce Cunningham and with John Cage, who has composed especially for her - as have Scelsi, Fénelon, Hersant, Lacy, Campana, Jolas, Clementi and about 40 composers.

As well as working in contemporary music, Léandre has played with some of the great names in jazz and improvisation, such as Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Evan Parker, Irene Schweizer, William Parker, Barre Phillips, Pascal Contet, Steve Lacy, Lauren Newton, Peter Kowald, Urs Leimgruber, Mat Maneri, Roy Campbell, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Mark Naussef, Marilyn Crispell, India Cooke and so many others.....

10:30PM The Marks Brothers
featuring Mark Helias www.markhelias.com and Mark Dresser, www.mark-dresser.com has grown out of a thirty year friendship and artistic relationship. The two Marks are very complimentary (distinctly different and compatible) both as composers and bassists. They have approached the concept of a bass duo largely from a compositional perspective and the improvisations are natural outgrowths of the notated materials allowing for a high degree of variety and expression during their concerts. Their programs are liberally peppered with the type of monster chops-laden improvisations that send many bass players back to the woodshed. Their first CD "The Marks Brothers was released in 2001 on the W.E.R.F. label.

"Dresser and Helias' performances are powerful reminders that an instrument still too often thought of as merely an ensemble workhorse can sing with the same illuminating purity as the most coveted Italian violin"
Bill Shoemaker

"Their duets are ranging affairs, stressing the instrument's deep sonorities and unusual textures. Be on the lookout for extended technique and lots of precision."
Jim Macnie, Village Voice
Cover $15

Sat Jul 03
6:00PM THE DOUBLE SHARPS
Dan Lipsitz, sax
Jason Prover, trumpet

Pierre Piscitelli, piano and organ

Nathaniel Schroeder, bass

John Bishop, drums

Dan Lipsitz. Cover $5 (plus $ 7 Drink Minimum)

Sat Jul 3 9:00PM & 10:30PM SCOTT LEE GROUP - CD RELEASE
(Scott Lee, bass, compositions; Billy Drewes, reeds; Gary Versace, piano; Jeff Hirshfield, drums)
Bassist/Composer Scott Lee has been leading a group of close musical friends to experiment in different forms and new ways of improvising. Scott will be performing music from his new cd "Leaving" (Steeplechase Records).
" This is the heart and soul of Jazz and improvised music - Scott, with Billy Drewes, Gary Versace and Jeff Hirshfield, capture your attention and take you places....They are some of my favorite improvisers, Beautiful!" Joe Lovano
Cover $10 http://www.scottleemusic.com/

Mon Jul 05
8:30PM AMRAM & CO
(David Amram, piano, french horn, flutes, composition & surprises; Kevin Twigg, drums, glockenspiel; John de Witt, bass; Adam Amram, percussion; John Ventimiglia, actor)
This series explores in his highly personable, generous and informal style the astonishing variety of David Amram's interests and accomplishments--renowned composer of symphonic classical music, jazz compositions, improvisation, spoken word, scat, he sits at the piano, schmoozes about music, about the greats, the beats, the obscure, the legendary; plays the French horn, pulls out all kinds of instruments (flutes, drums, horns) gathered from his many circumnavigations of the globe, pulls in guests drawn from just about every artistic walk of life.
Cover $10 http://www.davidamram.com
Spoken Word

 

Mon Jun 28
6:00PM SILKIE GIRL
(Kathleen Frazier)
Kathleen Frazier, Fellow this summer at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony, reads from "Silkie Girl", magical historical fiction, told from the perspective of a ghost looking back on her amazing, however short, life here on earth.
Molly McGillicuddy is a fifteen year old Irish lass, wondering if she came from a silkie mother as she flees the poverty and cruelty of her early life for the promise of freedom in America, 1899. Instead she is met by a lecherous cousin and rescued by fellow travelers.

(A note: silkies are shapeshifters, seals that shed their skin to become human.)
Angelo Verga, host. Cover $7

Wed Jun 30
6:00PM HOW THE PAST MOVES THROUGH TIME
(Thomas Pryor; Robin Hirsch; Angelo Verga)
Thomas Pryor's work has appeared in The New York Times, Mr. Beller's Neighborhood, A Prairie Home Companion, New York Press, Underground Voices Magazine, Opium Magazine Online, Our Town and Ducts. His story, "Madame Butterfly Goes Down", is part of Thomas Beller's anthology, Lost and Found: Stories from New York. Thomas has written his first book, Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts. His blog, (same title as the book), is listed in the Blog Roll of The New York Times City Room.
Robin Hirsch co-founded the Cornelia Street Cafe in 1977. Here, as Minister of Culture, Wine Czar, and Dean of Faculty, he manages to boss people around, drink copiously and, with the aid of Angelo Verga and other magnificent curators, produce some 700 cultural events a year; somehow, he still finds time to perform and write (Last Dance at the Hotel Kempinski, MOSAIC: Fragments of a Jewish Life, FEG: Stupid Poems for Intelligent Children, and innumerable checks).

Poet, teacher, editor, manuscript doctor, curator of innumerable literary events, Angelo Verga's sixth collection is a long poem set in the crooked footpaths of lower Manhattan, Praise for What Remains, Three Rooms Press, 2009. He has been widely published and anthologized, and translated into a dozen languages.
http://www.yorkvillestoopstonuts.blogspot.com

Thu Jul 01
6:00PM ARTISTS' SALON
This is a monthly opportunity for artists associated with the cafe--from every genre and every generation, past, present, and future--to gather informally, schmooze, re-invent the world, and hoist a glass of quelque chose (the only kind of chose to hoist). Our glorious curators are present, you can buttonhole them to find out what's cooking, you can introduce yourself to other toilers in the vineyard, invent projects and discover collaborators.
All are welcome.
Robin, Angelo, and Tom, hosts.

Fri Jul 02
6:00PM SON OF PONY
The Friday night legendary open mic poetry series.
Arrive before 6 pm to sign up.

Kat Georges, host. Cover $7

Mon Jul 05
6:00PM POETRY: SHORT POEMS BY POETS OF STATURE
(Sanford Fraser; Susan Gerardi Bello; Cindy Hochman; Sarah Cohen; Angelo Verga; Dorothea Scher)
Many of the best poems being written today are brief; these six poets are among the outstanding contemporary practitioners of the quick powerful poem.
Cover $7