Cornelia Street Cafe Announces This Weeks Performances

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.

Over the years it has presented an enormous variety of artists, from singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega to poet-senator Eugene McCarthy, from members of Monty Python to members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. It has offered a performance home to the Songwriters Exchange, the Writers Room, the Writers Studio, the Greek-American Writers Association, the Italian-American Writers Association, the New Works Project/Theatre, and many others.

This Week At Cornelia Street Cafe

Wed Mar 17
8:30PM THE SONGWRITER'S BEAT
(Tommy Mandel; Kati Mac; Jon Albrink; Pia Zierhut; Alan Starr)
Now in its 10th year, The Songwriter's Beat is New York's premiere performing songwriter series. Hosted and founded by singer-songwriter Valerie Ghent, four up-and-coming songwriters perform new material in a supportive and intimate atmosphere.

This month's Songwriter's Beat features Tommy Mandel, Kati Mac, Jon Albrink, Pia Zierhut, and special guest Alan Starr from the Dublin band DC Tempest.

Every third Wednesday of the month, four songwriters of varying musical styles perform original songs and are encouraged to try out their newest material and arrangements. The series culminates in a week-long festival each July, featuring performers from throughout the years.

Founded in 2000, The Songwriter's Beat has presented over 280 songwriters from the Tri-State area as well as visiting songwriters from other parts of the United States, Canada, France, the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Cuba and Japan.

Join us!

The Songwriter's Beat is honored to receive support from The ASCAP Foundation.

Valerie Ghent, host. Cover $10 http://songwritersbeat.com

Thu Mar 18
6:00PM POJAZZ : "WOMEN GET THE BLUES"
(Jim Bartow, vocals, guitar; Hilliard Greene, bass; The Double Sharps, sax, piano, bass, drums; Nika di Liberto Sabasteanski, poet)
CELEBRATE WOMENS "HERSTORY" MONTH
The Double Sharps: Dan Lipsitz, sax; Pierre Piscitelli, piano; Nathaniel Schroeder, bass; Francis DiNoto, drums.

Jim Bartow, is ever mindful of his audience. We get the words of his poets, wrapped lovingly in Jim's remarkable renditions- Kenneth P. Neilson, Director, All Seasons Art

Hilliard Greene, Intense. Powerful. Versatile. Not for the faint-hearted,... Greene showed us how it's done- Bass World, Journal for the International Society of Bassists

Golda Solomon, Poet Solomon... think of it as Jack Kerouac revisiting the mile high city and grabbing a sandwich at the New York deli while in town- Norman Provizer, Rocky Mountain News

The Double Sharps, They are respectful and mindful of the masters and find their own voice in the classic standards and originals they compose and play- Golda Solomon, Poet and Host, Po'Jazz at Cornelia Street Café

Nika Di Liberto Sabasteanski, I have watched and heard this young poet, now young woman, grow. Her words are wisdom!- Golda Solomon, Poet and Host, Po'Jazz at Cornelia Street Café

doors open at 5:30; Jazz begins at 5:45

$15 ($10 students with ID) includes one drink (cash only)

Hosted and Words by Golda Solomon "THE MEDICINE WOMAN" of Jazz. Cover $15

8:30PM GNU VOX: WENDY GILLES
(Wendy Gilles, voice; Petr Cancura, sax, mandolin; Alan Markley, piano; Kendall Eddy, bass; Brian Adler, drums)
Since moving to New York in 2006, vocalist and songwriter, Wendy Gilles, has been a part of several musical projects, and performs regularly as a leader of her own ensemble. Her quintet plays an eclectic variety of original compositions, jazz standards, and covers at such venues as Cornelia Street Café, Via Della Pace and the Peter Max Gallery. Wendy has also sung with Joe Phillips' Numinous and Sam Sadigursky's Words Project Ensemble at the Puffin Room, Rose Live Music, and Brooklyn Lyceum. Wendy can be heard on Sadigursky's Words Project II, released by New Amsterdam Records in 2008.
Wendy is a versatile singer whose voice lends itself easily to any genre. A Washington native, she earned her Bachelors degree in Vocal Performance from Pacific Lutheran University, and completed her Masters in Jazz Studies at New England Conservatory in Boston. She has had the opportunity to study with teachers in varied disciplines; Marcia Baldwin, Dominique Eade, John McNeil, and Sharla Nafziger, and to perform in many capacities; from big band to symphony orchestra, and jazz quartet to chamber ensemble.

In addition to her individual musical pursuits, Wendy is also an active church musician. She is a frequent guest vocalist with the St. Bartholomew's Choir as part of their Summer Festival of Sacred Music and Great Music Series. She held a section leader and soloist position in the Compostela Choir at ST. James' Church for two years, and also sang with the choirs of St. Luke in the Fields and St. Mary the Virgin. Wendy currently holds the alto position in the choir at St. Thomas More Church, and maintains a busy freelance choral schedule.
David Devoe, host. Cover $10 http:// www.wendygilles.com

Fri Mar 19
9:00PM & 10:30PM SCIENSONIC EVENING OF NEW MUSIC WITH SCOTT ROBINSON
(Scott Robinson, saxophones, winds, theremin & sonic devices; Julian Thayer, bass; Marshall Allen, alto sax, flute & electronic valve instrument; Kevin Norton, vibraphone, drums & percussion; Pat O'Leary, bass, cello, sonic toys & devices; Sharon Robinson, flute & wind machine)
Scott Robinson celebrates 200 recordings, 25 years in New York and 50 years on Earth with the launching of ScienSonic Laboratories LLC, his new outlet for creative and far-reaching projects. ScienSonic Laboratories will have its first two exciting releases in hand and available on March 19. Live at Space Farms featuring Marshall Allen is a lavish 2-CD set in a special wallet, with Enhanced CD capability including text, video and photo gallery, recorded live with the amazing bell tower in a cow pasture at Space Farms.
Nucleus is the long-awaited duo project with Julian Thayer, recorded entirely at Scott's ScienSonic Laboratory facility in NJ. This duo gave an unforgettable performance at Cornelia Street several years ago: "Jules and Scott gave me a night of music I'll never forget. It was abstract, but at the same time felt utterly composed... who needs a composer with two masterful and connected individuals such as this?" -- Grammy-winning composer Maria Schneider
All musicians who have so far recorded for ScienSonic Laboratories will be present for this very special evening of "Experiential Music for Adventurous Listeners": Scott Robinson, saxophones, winds, theremin and sonic devices; Julian Thayer, bass; Marshall Allen, alto sax, flute and electronic valve instrument; Kevin Norton, vibraphone, drums and percussion; Pat O'Leary, bass, cello, sonic toys and devices; Sharon Robinson, flute and wind machine
Cover $15

Sat Mar 20
9:00PM & 10:30PM HOT & COOL: NEC JAZZ 40TH: ANTHONY COLEMAN GROUP & JEREMY UDDEN'S PLAINVILLE
(Anthony Coleman, piano; Satoshi Takeshi, percussion; Ashley Paul, alto saxophone; Sean Comly, bass; Jeremy Udden, alto saxophone; Brad Shepik, guitar; Pete Rende, pump organ, rhodes; Rob Jost, bass; RJ Miller, drums)

9PM
Hot & Cool: NEC Jazz 40th and the Cornelia Street Café present internationally acclaimed pianist/composer and Downtown music legend Anthony Coleman an NEC grad now on the NEC faculty. The All Music Guide calls Coleman "one of New York's finest avant-garde musicians," and here he's performing with percussionist Satoshi Takeshi, alto saxophonist Ashley Paul '01B.M., '07 MM, and bassist Sean Comly.

More info: http://www.myspace.com/antcol8

10:30PM Saxophonist/composer Jeremy Udden NEC '02 B.M. '03 M.M. the "gifted alto saxophonist and composer with the gorgeous tone" (JazzTimes) will perform music from his highly acclaimed new CD Plainville. Joining Udden are Brad Shepik (guitar), Pete Rende (pump organ/rhodes), Rob Jost (bass) and RJ Miller (drums). Udden has found a voice in a variety of contexts, including the Grammy nominated Either/Orchestra, throughout his two recordings as a leader for the Fresh Sound New Talent label, and on over 20 recordings as a sideman. http://www.jeremyudden.com/

This performance is part of a week-long New York celebration of NEC's first-in-the-nation Jazz Studies program. With a faculty that has included 5 MacArthur "genius" grant winners and 4 NEA Jazz Masters, and alumni that reads like a who's who of jazz, NEC's Jazz Studies Program has spawned numerous Grammy winning composers and performers. As Mike West writes in JazzTimes: "Four decades after its founding, NEC's jazz studies department is among the most acclaimed and successful in the world; so says the roster of visionary artists that have comprised both its faculty and alumni."

Sun Mar 21
8:30PM HOT & COOL: NEC JAZZ 40TH: ANDRÉ MATOS
(André Matos, guitar; Noah Preminger, tenor saxophone; Sara Serpa, voice; Thomas Morgan, bass; Leo Genovese, piano; Ted Poor, drums)

8:30 & 10PM
Hot & Cool: NEC Jazz 40th and the Cornelia Street Café present the brilliant young Portuguese guitarist André Matos '08 M.M. as he celebrates the release of his stellar new CD "Quare" featuring saxophonist Noah Preminger '08 B.M., vocalist Sara Serpa '08 M.M. along with bassist Thomas Morgan, pianist Leo Genovese and drummer Ted Poor.
The distance between modern post-bop sounds and free jazz suffused with high-tech experimentalism narrows significantly on the new CD Quare from André Matos, a dazzling young guitarist and Portuguese native now living in the United States. Released on Greg Osby's Inner Circle Music, Quare is Matos's third album as a leader, and it features his spectral playing in various musical settings with accompaniment from some of the top young jazz artists on the scene today.

"Matos is a free thinker. He combines modern jazz with the attitude, mood and tinge of modern rock and creates what could be termed "alternative" jazz.... Both in writing and execution, Matos takes more than literal ownership..."
- Phil DiPietro, All About Jazz

This performance is part of a week-long New York celebration of NEC's first-in-the-nation Jazz Studies program. With a faculty that has included 5 MacArthur "genius" grant winners and 4 NEA Jazz Masters, and alumni that reads like a who's who of jazz, NEC's Jazz Studies Program has spawned numerous Grammy winning composers and performers. As Mike West writes in JazzTimes: "Four decades after its founding, NEC's jazz studies department is among the most acclaimed and successful in the world; so says the roster of visionary artists that have comprised both its faculty and alumni."
http://www.andrematosmusic.com

Mon Mar 22
8:30PM 21ST CENTURY SCHIZOID MUSIC PRESENTS: PHIL FRIED
(Phil Fried; Anna Brandsoy; Jill Dawe)
Phil Fried: composer, performer, improvisor, blogger, writer, humorist, educator - not necessarily in that order.
Phil comes from a noted musical family. His father, Louis Fried, was an original cast member in several Broadway shows including Brigadoon and Carousel. His cousin was the noted composer Isadore Freed. Second to music is Phil's passionate interest in literature. He has written several texts and librettos including the text for his opera, The Dungeon of Esmeralda, and an adaptation of Hemingway's short story, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." In 2006 he received a Centennial Commission from the Minnesota Orchestra. He was a 2008 McKnight Foundation Fellow grantee. Most recently Phil became the composer in residence and core member for Opera Bob, a new music collaborative in Minnesota.

As a Jazz musician, Phil was a founding member of the New York Artists Collective. Performing with Ray Nance was his first professional jazz experience in the 1970's. He has performed all over the United States. More info: http://philfried.com and http://Operabob.org

Anna Brandsoy's recent operatic roles include Mimi (La Bohème), the Governess (The Turn of the Screw), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Elle (La Voix Humaine), Giulietta (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), Lady Billows (Albert Herring), and Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos). She spent two summers training and performing in Europe, the first at the world-famous Mozarteum and the second in the Tyrolean region of Austria, and holds a D.M.A. in voice performance from the University of Minnesota. This summer, she performed at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in "Opera Bob's" premiere show, Secret's Revealed! In addition to opera, Ms. Brandsoy is an avid recitalist, recently featured in Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs, a new arrangement of Maurice Ravel's Scheherezade, and as the soprano soloist in Poulenc's Gloria with Exultate Orchestra. Dedicated to the performance of new music, she has had the pleasure of premiering several of Phil Fried's pieces.

Jill Dawe is a native of Newfoundland and a graduate of Eastman School of Music. Active as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher, she lives and works in the Twin Cities and is an associate professor of music at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.

Tonight's performance represents the many sides of Phil as a free improvisor and as a composer. Along with improvisation I present three different styles of my notated vocal music; my Operas and complete song cycles are not included.
Serious and serial songs
Cabaret songs in popular style
Humorous Arias composed in the style of other composers.

"After working 10 years on my opera The Snow's of Kilimanjaro I was in the mood for funny.

I found my voice as a solo instrumentalist performing on an upright electric bass. The sound is amplified/unamplified, processed/unprocessed, and mixed via touch and foot pedals in real time. The "soundscapes" I create are explore many angles of experimental music. My approach is non tonal, as in my composed music, but its effect is more intimate and personal. It was critical for me that my first explorations into non-extended tonal materials were with jazz music. I have come full circle and have returned to improvisation after the careful study of composed music and classical string bass technique." -Phil Fried
Frank J. Oteri, host. Cover $10

Spoken Word

Mon Mar 15
6:00PM NEW YORK QUARTERLY
(Norman Stock; Pui Ying Wong; Sampson Starkweather)

8:30PM Ted Jonathan, host. Cover $7
MORRISON MOTEL
(Hannibal Buress; Ophira Eisenberg; Lee Camp; Rob Paravonian; Susie Felber; Charlie Kasov; Katherine Williams)
John Morrison's monthly comedy quickie--some of the smartest, most politically savvy comedians in or passing through New York make and unmake their bed here before some soon to be deported illegal third world alien comes in to clean it all up . . .
"One of the city's best alt-comedy shows."
- The NY Post
John Morrison, host. Cover $10 http://www.myspace.com/morrisongod

Tue Mar 16
6:00PM SPEAKEASY: STORIES FROM THE BACKROOM--THE FINALE
(James Braly; Andy Christie; Michele Carlo; Robin Hirsch; Rick Patrick; Mark Katz; Darlene White; Adam Wade; Martin Dockery; Krista Weaver, Steve Northeast, musical guests)
After five years, SpeakEasy, Sherry Weaver's freewheeling storytelling series, is coming to an end
She is going out with a bang--twelve storytellers from her earliest days in Brooklyn, together with our Minister of Culture, who will honor the tradition of storytelling (as opposed to writing) by attempting to swing without a net. These are some of the finest practitioners of the genre. We will go all night!
Sherry Weaver, host. Cover $10 http://www.speakeasystories.com

8:30PM SPEAKEASY: THE END OF THE AFFAIR
Storytellers still standing after the early show keep going till the last dog dies . . .

Wed Mar 17
6:00PM George Wallace POETRY EXPLOSION
(George Spencer; Sarah Serai)
The hardest working man in poetry brings featured readers and his energetic open mic to our basement.
George Wallace, host. Cover $7

Fri Mar 19
6:00PM SON OF PONY
The Friday night legendary open mic poetry series.
Arrive before 6 pm to sign up.

Dada Poetry Salon
Kat Georges, host. Cover $7

Sat Mar 20
6:00PM GREEK-AMERICAN WRITERS ASSOCIATION
Dean's featured guests are Octavio Gonzalez, Maria Micheles, and Stephan Morrow.

Dean Kostos. Cover $7

Sun Mar 21
6:00PM SLAPERING HOL PRESS
(Suzanne Cleary; Lynn Wagner; Sean Nevin; B. K. Fischer)
Slapering Hol Press Reading at Cornelia Street Café
Suzanne Cleary's third book, Beauty Mark, will be published next year by Carnegie Mellon University Press, which previously published her books Keeping Time and Trick Pear. Winner of a Pushcart Prize, she has recent poems in Poetry London and the 2009 edition of Best American Poetry.

Lynn Wagner's poems have appeared in Shenandoah, subtropics, Rhino and 5AM and other literary journals. She has been awarded fellowships to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts by the Vira I. Heinz Foundation. Lynn received an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was awarded the Academy of American Poets prize. A newcomer to Colorado, she has taught youth classes at Lighthouse Writers Workshop and maintains a web presence at http://lynnwagner.pbwiki.com/.

Sean Nevin is assistant director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. He is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as fellowships from the Eastern Frontier Education Foundation and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. He is the author of A House That Falls, winner of the 2005 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Prize, and Oblivio Gate, selected for the Crab Orchard Award Series First Book Prize (Southern Illinois University Press, 2008).

B. K. Fischer's poems have appeared recently in FIELD, The Hopkins Review, and Literary Mama, and have also appeared in The Paris Review, Boston Review, Ekphrasis, Southwest Review, and other journals. Her manuscript The Anatomy Archives was a finalist for the 2009 National Poetry Series and the FIELD Prize, and she was nominated for Best New Poets 2009. She is the author of a critical study, Museum Mediations: Reframing Ekphrasis in Contemporary American Poetry (Routledge, 2006) and teaches at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center.

Margo Stever, host. Cover $7

Mon Mar 22
6:00PM HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOLEM ALEICHEM
(Bel Kaufman, author of Up the Down Staircase; Isaiah Sheffer, artistic director of Symphony Space; George Guidall, a golden voice in the audiobook industry; Art Bailey, pianist and accordionist; Tanya Kalmanovitch, violist and violinist)
Tonight's occasion is the 150th birthday of one of the world's most beloved writers.
BEL KAUFMAN grew up in Russia, learned English at age twelve, and went on to a distinguished literary, academic, and teaching career. She has won many awards for her writing and public speaking, addressing educators and students here and abroad. She is the granddaughter of the celebrated Yiddish humorist Sholem Aleichem.

Isaiah Sheffer is a co-founder and Artistic Director of Symphony Space where he directs and hosts the popular public radio series, SELECTED SHORTS:A CELEBRATION OF THE SHORT STORY, as well as the THALIA FOLLIES POLITICAL CABARET, and the annual James Joyce extravaganza, BLOOMSDAY ON BROADWAY. As a child, he performed with the great Maurice Schwartz in the Yiddish Art Theatre, and in Yiddish theatre versions of Isaac Bashevis Singer plays. He is the author of the librettos for the musicals THE RISE OF David LevinSKY, YIDDLE WITH A FIDDLE, and a play about Singer entitled DREAMERS AND DEMONS. During some of his misspent youth he was the English-language announcer on the Yiddish radio station WEVD, where he managed to create the only existing Yiddish Halloween song, "BOO, BOO, HAINT IZ HALLOVEEN".

George Guidall has recorded over 900 unabridged novels. Audiofile Magazine named him one of the originAl Golden voices in the audiobook industry. Guidall's forty-five year career as a performer includes leading roles in regional theatre and Broadway, an Obie Award for best performance Off-Broadway, and numerous appearances on film and television.

Pianist and accordionist Art Bailey is active in the improvised and world music scenes, and has appeared with such diverse musical performers as jazz saxophonist Steve Lacy, classical violinist Itzhak Perlman, and renowned bluegrass musician Del McCoury. Art has been the pianist with the Klezmer Conservatory Band since 1998, contributing new arrangements to the band's repertoire and making stage and television appearances worldwide.

Canadian violist and violinist Tanya Kalmanovitch operates at the intersection of contemporary jazz, classical music and free improvisation. Since moving to New York in 2004, she has fast made a name for herself in the city's jazz and improvised music scene. In 2004 she was named "Best New Talent"by All About Jazz New York, and Time Out New York described her as "the Juilliard-trained violist who's been tearing up the scene."
Paul Hecht, presenter. Cover $10 http://www.georgeguidall.com/

 

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