Our chamber-jazz quartet,The Why, is currently wrapping up its third and by far most productive season yet.
We break each summer as our cellist, Catherine Bent, heads off again to Brazil to play Choro music in the vibrant Rio scene down there. This gives us the opportunity to experience the rhythms built into the seasons, and in this way take advantage of their energies of reinvention, engagement, and rest.
We are going out with a bang as we close this year with concerts, a new CD, new videos, and a new website. www.thewhymusic.com
We are playing at the Green Room in Union Square, Somerville, on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm, March 29. This is a relatively new intimate performance space. A dedicated music fan named Mark Redmond has been curating and promoting a series of local jazz musicians there. He has worked enthusiastically to put this place on the map, maintaining a consistent artistic standard and an ability to draw good audiences. The room holds only 25 to 30 people so if you are interested in hearing us there please check his web site for more information.
http://www.jazzatthegreenroom.com.
We are also playing Friday, March 27 in New York City at a private house concert. We have played three of these type of performances this year – a perfect way for us to be heard and for us to get to know our audiences. These concerts always involve socializing before and after the set of music. If you have a piano and would like to invite us to play in your home, please contact me. This is a new/old model of how musicians are re-inventing their world: relying on the essential connection that is possible when audiences gather and musicians play in intimate spaces. This kind of magic, this form of communication, this way of building community, seems as old as human society itself.
We finish our mini-tour with a gig at the Lily Pad in Inman Square on Thursday, April 1st from 7:30 to 8:45.
I will bring our new CD “The Why” to all these gigs to sell. But you can also get it on line or at iTunes by clicking through to these pages from our new website www.thewhymusic.com.
We have a few videos up of complete tunes recorded at the session where the CD was made. We recorded at Futura Productions the same place (and engineer) where Yo Yo Ma recorded his most recent Silk-Road CD. The quality of the recorded sound is exquisite.
Our newest video is a talkie – where each of us says something about our connection to the band. Watch it here or at our web site. I was deeply moved by the insights of my band mates on that video. Our feelings of respect and affection have only deepened, leading us to a broader collaboration. Our new plan is for each of us to write music to bring to the band. Up until now we have only played “my” tunes, though these great musicians have absolutely made them their own, our own.
Each of is taking a greater role in making this band a team, and this, above all, answers the engaging question “Why?”
For now – please enjoy some of the music and videos on line at our new site
www.thewhymusic.com and please make plans to come help us celebrate the end of our third year of playing together by coming out to hear us live.
Thank you so much,
bert