Saturday, January 31, 2009

TONIGHT: BAD DOGS!!

Tonite! Sat. Jan. 31

BROMP TREB VS SAM GAS CAN
FLAMING DRAGONS OF MIDDLE EARTH (starting at EIGHT PM)
other special guests and non guests

178 L. Street Turners Falls
it's like a house warming gettergetter for the BEAR CAVE

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Joe Bonner Q & A at N.Hampton Center for Arts 2/20

A JAZZ HISTORY LESSON WITH JOE BONNER

Joe Bonner will give a free, and free-wheeling,
lecture/demonstration/Q&A at the Northampton Center for the Arts, from
3-4pm on Friday, February 20. Bonner will give a solo concert at the
Center that evening at 7:30pm. as part of 'A World of Piano' Series.

Since he hit the scene in the 1970s, pianist Joe Bonner has
collaborated with some of the most important figures in jazz,
including Roy Haynes, Freddie Hubbard, Pharoah Sanders and Billy
Harper. Bonner has released many highly regarded albums for Muse and
Steeplechase Records.

Bonner will tell stories, demonstrate from the piano and take your
questions. This event is open to students of all of ages and is made
possible by a grant from the Northampton Arts Council.

Joe Bonner emerged in the 1970s as one of the most exciting and in-demand pianists in jazz. Beginning in 1970, when Roy Haynes asked him to replace Chick Corea in his ensemble, Bonner spent the decade playing in some of the most exciting bands of the time. The late trumpeter HYPERLINK "http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,442687,00.html" Freddie Hubbard hired Bonner for two years before the pianist joined saxophonist HYPERLINK "http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,489033,00.html" Pharoah Sanders’ ensemble.
The band Bonner anchored through 1974, featuring Hannibal Marvin Peterson, Cecil McBee and Billy Hart, is arguably the best in Sanders’ career. Bonner can be found on “Black Unity”, “Village of the Pharoahs” and “Live At The East”, among others, all released on Impulse!. Later in the decade, Bonner performed with saxophone great HYPERLINK "http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,441268,00.html" Billy Harper, and appears on Harper’s “Black Saint”, the first recording on the venerable Italian label of the same name.
Joe Bonner was born in 1948 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the birthplace of another piano player: Thelonious Monk. (By coincidence, while living in New York, Bonner lived in Monk’s old building, just behind Lincoln Center on west 64th St. and West End Avenue.) Bonner’s early mentor in Rocky Mount was the respected tenor player Harold Vick, who knew Monk.
As Bonner tells the story, “I finally met Monk on one cold November night of jazz at the Village Vanguard. My mother had just sent me a white and blue plaid coat from Rocky Mount. He had on the exact same coat! He said to me, ‘Yeah Joe! I heard so much about you from our home-boy Harold Vick. You’re wearing my same jacket! I just got this one from my mother in Rocky Mount.’ Then he danced for me.”
Bonner’s grandfather was a performer in minstrel shows, his mother sang and his father played violin. He studied music from the time he was in elementary school. Bonner earned a Bachelor's Degree in Classical Music from Virginia State (Dr. Billy Taylor’s alma mater), before his travels took him to New York and around the world. He lived in Europe (mostly in Copenhagen), where he accompanied traveling jazz artists and made highly regarded recordings for the Muse, SteepleChase and Theresa labels. Since the 1980s, Bonner has lived in Denver.





original post for "world of piano" series here

Phantom Brain Exchange tonight CANCELLED!

Tonight, JAN 28, 2009 MPBE#14 is cancelled due to bad weather!

showing Daisies at the Rendezvous for those who still wanna come... please don't drive!

Monday, January 26, 2009

MORE MORE! two events Franklin County TUES JAN 27

January 27th

Undergrowth Farm presents, "Harlan County USA”, the 1976 Academy Award
winning film documenting a grueling coal miners's strike in a small
Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the
miners’ sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and
company thugs. Featuring a haunting soundtrack—with legendary country and
bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning, and Florence
Reece—the film is a heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle
between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the
bottom line.

Film will be followed by clips and commentary on current day struggles
against Mountain Top Removal in Appalachia.

At The Brick House, 24 3rd st. Turners Falls. 7pm. Free. Refreshments
provided by the Greenfields Market. Donations to the Hot Spot teen center
gratefully accepted.

This event is part of the film series, "Movements for
Self-Determination". Next months film, February 17th.

...and later that night:

Ben Morris-Cronin hosts a night of shorts sets by lesser-known, rarely seen gems of the Franklin County weirdo underground (improv, noise, drone psych, etc etc)

10 ish @ the People's Pint
Greenfield, MA

More than you can or should shake a stick at

Today at Elevens:

Jake Meginsky (member of slaughterhouse percussion)
John Shaw (son of earth, apostasy)
Chris Cooper / Jess Goddard / Joshua Vrysen trio (too many)

DJ Sets by:
Matt Krefting
Ben Daly
George W Myers

Wednesday at the Rendezvous:

Montague Phantom Brain Exchange #14
Wednesday, January 28th, 9pm Five Bucks!
at the Rendezvous
78 3rd St
Turners Falls, MA 01376

Keith Fullerton Whitman
Idea Fire Company
lecture by Scott Foust
DJ Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase

new website!: http://phantombrainexchange.suchfun.net/

ok read on:

good morning, the Montague Phantom Brain Exchange is back in session
with a Season Two deluxe box set, special hidden features, and
fold-out, trim-on-dotted-line-template apparatus that can be used as
both legitimate currency and as code breaker flashcards. Let's begin
2009 with our 14th event, skipping the pointless half-points and
getting straight to the meat that matters most.

Keith Fullerton Whitman is trekking Rte 2 from the frosted Eastern
Ring of Massachusetts to present his basketfuls of sonic finery.
Those of you familiar with the various shards of electronic dance
musics at the turn of this century, might recall Whitman routinely
eviscerating samples under the Hrvatski moniker. These days his time
is divided between maintaining the impressive Mimaroglu Music Sales
webstore & composing/performing deftly articulated masterpieces of
electro-acoustic music incorprating "elements from nearly every era: a
reel-to-reel tape machine, a selection of small "jerry-rigged" /
"circuit-bent" battery-powered sound-producing boxes, an analog
modular synthesizer, an early "consumer" home-computer, and at the
core; a contemporary computer running a custom-built max-msp based
modular system that both controls these elements and acts as a central
conduit into which their sounds are captured/collected, processed,
then diffused to up to eight separate channels/speakers/amplifiers."
If neither that spiel nor info from these links below stirs a boner,
i'd suggest peeping the Mimaroglu site, as it is rich with
cross-referenced detail and elevates record browsing to an educational
experience.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Fullerton_Whitman
http://www.myspace.com/keithfullertonwhitman
http://www.mimaroglumusicsales.com/

Time bandits of minimal drone propagation, Idea Fire Company
consistently strike detailed tableaux from the larger Anti-Naturals
epic. The core duo of Scott Foust & Carla Borecky have previously
harnessed the robust talents of Meara O'Reilly, Jessi Swenson, Matt
Krefting, Frans de Waard, Graham Lambkin, and Dr. Timothy Shortell.
For this evening's performance, they will be joined by Son-of-Earther
& Burroughs scholar Matt Krefting.

As if 2009 couldn't get any better, IFCO founder Scott Foust has
agreed to provide us with some context & deliver his lecture entitled
"How to Make Your Life into an Art Object." The perfect Phantom Brain
Exchange material indeed! After this, you will be able to define what
is hyperbole & what is fact.

But wait, "Who is Scott Foust?" you ask - this answer can be found on
the Swill Radio site: "Visionary theorist, musician, composer,
filmmaker, performance artist- Scott Foust is a true outsider artist.
Unlike most outsider artists, who tend to be mystical crackpots or
mental defectives (usually both), Foust has a clear world view
grounded in reality. For three decades Foust, now 50, has pounded away
at The Spectacle, employing a wide array of aesthetic approaches with
no public or financial support. Foust's hermeneutics lie at the
strange crossroads between Guy Debord and Oscar Wilde. If Foust's
ideas seem idealistic and impractical at first, it is only because
being against power and for beauty is always idealistic and
impractical. His Swill Radio record label, founded in 1983, has
released not only his own work, but LPs by The Shadow Ring, Asmus
Tietchens, and Ralf Wehowsky among others. His longest running musical
project, Idea Fire Company (founded with long time associate Karla
Borecky in 1988) - while not having the bloated catalog of many
contemporary bands - produced three of the finest, if still unknown
LPs of the last decade: Anti-Natural, Stranded, and The Island Of
Taste. In 1997 Foust along with Borecky and Dr. Timothy Shortell
founded the Anti-Naturals, an art and theory group which has few but
dedicated members worldwide." Can somebody on this list write his
Wikipedia entry?
http://www.anti-naturals.org/swill/

Lastly and thoroughly, DJ Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase (aka Chris Cooper)
will be slingin' vinyl from his vast stacks. Another highly
knowledgeable dude with a taste for the obtuse, obscure, & opulent,
your ears will be rewarded with his selections.

Also for 2009, the MPBE is stepping up to provide an informative
program with admission to each event, whereby a handy two-sided,
single piece of 11x17 b/w photocopied paper will be utilized. please
consider submitting material: collaged scraps, drawings, comics,
cutups, weather reports, seed calendars, musical scores, maps,
diagrams, photos, catalogs, advertisements, dj playlists, hotlinks,
armor designs, information relevant to that evening's proceedings,
book/record/film reviews, advice, venetian blinds, plastic hamburgers,
stereo cassette decks, gardening tips, facebook profiles, bold new
initiatives, power grid schemata, fashion advice, clockwork manuals,
and shapeshifter accounts. submission are accepted via post, email, or
at the event.
or MPBE c/o Yeay! pobox7 turners falls, ma 01376 usa.

Thursday there's that thing listed below at the Florence VFW

Friday at the Rendezvous:

ERIC HNATOW-I will have new musical recordings at this show along with a bunch of other things both new and old.

http://www.myspace.com/erichnatow

GEORGE W. MYERS / SNACK ATTACK- Breaking Word Records CEO performing music and playing records between bands

http://www.myspace.com/breakingworldrecords

SUNRISE SWORDS- Joseph Rogers of Bare Teeth and many other ripper projects. First show in this area!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=359229661

21+
9:30 PM
$3

Friday at Elevens

The Great Mix-CD Mix-UP
Bring a home made Mix-CD and leave with another one.

A concert featuring:

The Luckless Pedestrian - our newest Northampton act who just moved here from Seattle. She's enlisted Brian Marchese, Ken Maiuri, and F. Alex Johnson to play with her. I hear she also plans on having an up-to ten piece orchestra with her. http://www.myspace.com/thelucklesspedestrian

The Jason Bourgeois Band - Jason from the Bourgeois Heroes and the Novels presents a selection of his great songs with the help of Mike McLellan (The Novels) on bass, Abbey Harlow on Keyboard, Ryan Quinn (Los Ijos Unicos, The Salvation Alley Band) on guitar, and Henning Ohlenbusch (The Fawns, School for the Dead) on drums. http://www.myspace.com/bourgeoisheroes

One Happy Island, an indiepop band from Boston with sloppy DIY tendencies. Chief exports include handclaps, ukulele strings, harmonicas, bittersweetly jangley ballads, furiously unfocused kazoo solos, and unashamed lo-fi recordings. It is the intention of Shannon, Rebecca, Clint, and Brad to take their songcraft and melodies to new levels of fun, fun, and fun. http://www.myspace.com/onehappyislandmusic

And the Fawns - Lesa Bezo's jangly-powerpop combo with songs about snow storms and high school parties and freaking out. http://www.thefawns.com

Sunday, January 25, 2009

more goodness!!!!

Tuesday, Feb. 3rd @ Earthfoods @7:00

The Cheaters Club
www.myspace.com/thecheatersclub2

Sunrise Swords
www.myspace.com/sunriseswords

Eric Hnatow
www.myspace.com/erichnatow

AND, ON TOUR FROM BALTIMORE:

Mark Brown
www.mcbrown.info

Thrust Lab
www.myspace.com/thrustlab


PS. If you have christmas lights or any other type of colorful/fancy lighting, BRING EM

MAgik Markers / Thurston Moore & Mats Gustaffson et. al 01/29/09 Florence MA

This Thursday 1/29 in Florence at the vfw, CT's own Magik Markers!

-also-

Thurston Moore will be performing alongside Sweedish free jazz stalwart Mats Gustafsson. I'll refrain from naming too many names of the latter 2 musician's spec sheets, but lets just say that they are also a major chunk of a group called Original Silence which should be checked out promptly @ http://www.myspace.com/thefirstoriginalsilence

Noise nomads, Bill Nace and Pak will also be on hand.

8pm. 7 bucks. 18 meadow st. florence

Friday, January 23, 2009

Change of Venue for Kokolo Show 2/7!!!! still free!!!!

A quick note that due to scheduling conflicts, the Kokolo show talked about below will now take place in the Bluewall, on the first floor of the Umass Campus Center (essentially the same building--connected underground with the Student Union). All other details remain the same and the show will still be FREE!!!!!!

original text:

Just wanted to take a minute to let y'all know that one of NYC's (and the world's) finest ensembles will be giving us a FREE concert at the University of Massachusetts on Saturday Feb 7th.

Kokolo blend heavy funk, afrobeat, and latin musics with punk energy. They even do a Clash cover. Led by Ray Lugo, this eight piece band is absolutely killer with heavy polyrythms, urgent vocals, and positive vibes. Extremely danceable and a lot of fun. The event is FREE!!!! (Can't beat the price!)

The band has four highly acclaimed LPs, as well as numerous singles for such labels as Freestyle, Record Kicks, and others. They have performed all over the world. Check the band's website here. And the Myspace page is here. Their new album "Heavy Hustling" is available now on Recordkicks.com.

The show is at the Student Union Commonwealth Room (Earthfoods), and will be kicked off by WMUA.org DJs Andujar and Victor Signore. The doors open at 730pm, the show is all ages and open to the public. There will also be activist/information tables around the room. Anybody wishing to table should get in touch...bombasticos@yahoo.com.

The Monday before the concert Andujar will be conducting a live on-air interview with Ray Lugo on his weekly radio program "clandestino". The program runs 230-430pm (eastern time) and the interview will air on Monday Feb 2nd. Tune in to WMUA.org (91.1 FM in Western Massachusetts) to hear it. The interview will also be featured www.peaceandrhythm.com




The concert is being presented by WMUA.org. For more info call 413-325-3382. Hope to see ya there! (Did I mention it was FREEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

PS--watch out for the forthcoming compilation by Andujar and DJ Bongohead called "Rough Guide to Afrobeat Revival", due out in March, featuring more music from Kokolo.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Hot Hot Shows for Cold Times

Sat. Jan 31st
178 L st. Turners Falls
all welcome

Flaming Dragons of Middle Earth: turners falls legends of arbitrary mindfulness, and epic mud lightning metal. In order to conform to leader Danny Cruz's curfew, FDOME will be kicking things off EXACTLY at eight, and playing for exactly eighty minutes.

Bromp Treb: turners falls derelict cloaca spins clutsy comedowns on cannibalized tape...

Sam Gas Can: worcester's finest. good cop//bad cop

plus bryan phantom fairlane

----also----
coming up in future days

Dubious Liftings (part d)
Sat. Feb. 14th 8pm
109 bridge st. noho: purple haze
monies will be taken

sunburned hand of the man (<>)
crank sturgeon (ME)
mudboy (RI)
ambergris (matt thurber NY)
open star clusters (CT)
skinny vinny (MA)

happy valentine's day

Charles Neville and Friends Take On Vt. Yankee: A Benefit Concert for VCAN

Sunday January 25
2:30 pm
Butterfly Restaurant, Back Banquet Room Rt 9,48 Russell St (Rt. 9), Hadley, MA

Charles Neville will perform a benefit show to support the Vermont Citizens
Action Network's (VCAN) campaign to shut down Vt. Yankee.

Vt. Yankee is one of the oldest nuclear facilities in the country, and has
consistently made headlines with potentially disastrous equipment malfunctions.
The Vermont state legislature is on the brink of voting on the fate of Vt.
Yankee. The Citizens Action Network is head to head with corporate lobbyists to
get the majority vote to shut Vt. Yankee down. Charles Neville and Friends are
entering the fray with a benefit show to support the lobbying work of VCAN.

Neville will be joined by local musicians Kate O'Connor, Rico Spence,Ricardo
Barrett, and Jimmy Connors

Doors open at 2.

Tickets are $17 in advance
$20 at the door
anyone under 21 pays $10.

Tickets are available at the Northampton Box office 1-800-THE TICK or 586-8686.
All proceeds go directly to democracy.

Contact: Jimmy Connors 413.364.7072 or jollytinkerman@hotmail.com

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

KOKOLO TO ROCK UMASS 2/7...FREE CONCERT!!!!!!!!

Just wanted to take a minute to let y'all know that one of NYC's (and the world's) finest ensembles will be giving us a FREE concert at the University of Massachusetts on Saturday Feb 7th.

Kokolo blend heavy funk, afrobeat, and latin musics with punk energy. They even do a Clash cover. Led by Ray Lugo, this eight piece band is absolutely killer with heavy polyrythms, urgent vocals, and positive vibes. Extremely danceable and a lot of fun. The event is FREE!!!! (Can't beat the price!)

The band has four highly acclaimed LPs, as well as numerous singles for such labels as Freestyle, Record Kicks, and others. They have performed all over the world. Check the band's website here. And the Myspace page is here. Their new album "Heavy Hustling" is available now on Recordkicks.com.

The show is at the Student Union Commonwealth Room (Earthfoods), and will be kicked off by WMUA.org DJs Andujar and Victor Signore. The doors open at 730pm, the show is all ages and open to the public. There will also be activist/information tables around the room. Anybody wishing to table should get in touch...bombasticos@yahoo.com.

The Monday before the concert Andujar will be conducting a live on-air interview with Ray Lugo on his weekly radio program "clandestino". The program runs 230-430pm (eastern time) and the interview will air on Monday Feb 2nd. Tune in to WMUA.org (91.1 FM in Western Massachusetts) to hear it. The interview will also be featured at Andujar's website www.peaceandrhythm.com




The concert is being presented by WMUA.org. For more info call 413-325-3382. Hope to see ya there! (Did I mention it was FREEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

PS--watch out for the forthcoming compilation by Andujar and DJ Bongohead called "Rough Guide to Afrobeat Revival", due out in March, featuring more music from Kokolo.

Anthony writes

...thought you would like to know Glenn Jones (cul de sac) will be performing a solo set and was wondering if you would mind posting it on your blog...

January 31st
7 PM / 8 Bucks
The Microtheater 311 North Street
Pittsfield, MA
Glenn Jones (http://www.myspace.com/glennjonesguitar)
Justin Pigott (http://www.myspace.com/justinpigott)
Crystalline Roses (http://crystallineroses.blogspot.com)

Friday, January 16, 2009

TONITE!!! FREE!!! ALL AGES!!! ALL VINYL!!!


andujar, snack attack & jenny-o
hard funk, soul, R&B, afrobeat, reggae, garage & more
free, all ages, all vinyl
10pm, people's pint, greenfield

try the imperial stoudt...it'll warm ya up!!
last minute info: 413-325-3382

www.peaceandrhythm.com
www.musicalepisode.podomatic.com

Thursday, January 15, 2009

ben miller, fwoe, thrillpillow, ct brown

Monday, January 19 9:30pm $6 The Elevens 140 Pleasant St., Northampton

A very special and rare area appearance by guitarist Ben Miller. Ben was a member of legendary Detroit band Destroy All Monsters with the late Ron Asheton from the Stooges and the MC5's Michael Davis. He has also recorded solo and with his brother Roger (Mission of Burma). For this show he'll be playing in a duo with percussionist Matt Weston. Ben's myspace is: http://www.myspace.com/benmillerdegeneration

also appearing on this fabulous bill are:

Fat Worm of Error http://www.myspace.com/fatwormoferror

Thrillpillow http://www.myspace.com/thrillpillow

Courtney Brown, electro-acoustic composer from NYC http://www.myspace.com/courtneydbrown

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

MYSTERY TRAIN MOVIE TRAIN!

MOVIE NIGHT @ MYSTERY TRAIN

I Need That Record!
The Death (Or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store
By Brendon Toller

Featuring Ian MacKaye, Mike Watt, Thurston Moore, Glenn Branca and
more...


and Films by Zach Iannazzi and Ted Lee

FREE!
7:00 PM
FRIDAY
JANUARY 23rd, 2008
MYSTERY TRAIN, AMHERST MA

Monday, January 12, 2009

sweet exorcist...andujar, snack attack, jenny-o

come out this friday nite (1/16) to the people's pint in greenfield, MA to hear "sweet exorcist".
hosted by djs snack attack and andujar, with special guest dj jenny-o, this is an all ages, all vinyl affair and it is FREE. (donations for djs encouraged).
it starts at 10pm...funk, soul, afrobeat, jamaican, and whatever else. come dance.

more info: bombasticos@yahoo.com

Monthly Comedy Open Mic at the VOO

Check out and even try out live stand up comedy every month at the Rendezvous in Turners Falls. FREE! Hosted by Shawn Smith on the first Sunday of every month.(excluding Feb. 1st Super Bowl Sunday) Sign up starts at 7:30 pm , show starts at 8:00. For more info call Shawn at 413-330-1055 or visit the Rendezvous online at www.rendezvoustfma.com

Mass Transition Radio Show on VFR 103.3fm

Tune into the Mass Transition radio show every saturday night from 10 to midnight on 103.3 fm. Valley Free Radio WXOJ-LP Northampton! Also streaming live at valleyfreeradio.org. Hosted by Shiz the Selector. Eclectic heavy music and sounds complimented by free thought on sustainable and sensible transportation for the planet. Studio line 413-330-1055

Saturday, January 10, 2009

saturday sound

Sat Jan.
10th @ The Purple House
109 Bridge St, Northampton, MA
9pm

Noise Nomads (jeff)
Chris Cooper / Joshua Vrysen (that's angst hase & tumble cat)
Bonos (peter)
No Sound (?)

Spread the word if you want to be there with other people besides yourself...
Hope to see you there!

a world of piano

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Glenn Siegel, Penny Burke, 413-584-7327, www.nohoarts.org

A WORLD OF PIANO

In celebration of creative music, the Northampton Center for the Arts presents: A World of Piano, a series of solo piano concerts by three modern masters of jazz keyboards. The artists: Curtis Clark, Connie Crothers and Joe Bonner have established international careers and represent a broad range of approaches to the piano. The concerts will take place Friday, February 6, 13 and 20, 2009, at the Center, 17 New South St., at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $15 for the general public ($40 for the entire Series), $12 for students and seniors over 65, and are available at AJ Hastings in Amherst, and State Street Fruit Market and the Center for the Arts in Northampton.





Curtis Clark (2/6) was born in Chicago in 1950, and spent his student years in Los Angeles. After graduating from the California Institute of Arts, Clark moved to New York, where he began working and recording with saxophonist David Murray. Active in New York’s “loft scene”, Clark recorded and toured with Oscar Brown Jr., Billy Bang, Richard Davis, Abby Lincoln, Charles Tyler, John Tchicai and Han Bennink. “Clark sounds like a combination of Bill Evans and Red Garland,” writes Ken Waxman, “with tingling arpeggios falling from his fingers.” Clark spent decades living in Amsterdam, playing with leading Dutch and South African musicians and recording a number of outstanding releases for Nimbus Records. Clark now lives in Portland, Maine and travels New England performing with his Quartet. “An unsung talent,” writes Dusty Groove. “with the same open-ended format as Horace Tapscott.” Clark’s 2007 solo recording, Reach, Believe It & Play, “offers up a more sensitive side of Clark's work than we remember -- long tracks that are beautifully personal, and filled with as many gentle moments as sharp-edged ones -- in ways that take us back to some of Thelonious Monk's best solo expressions of the 50s and 60s.”
















Connie Crothers’ (2/13) approach, while very much her own, has been shaped by her mentor: Lennie Tristano. Crothers moved from California to New York in 1962 and began studying with the iconoclastic pianist and composer. In 1972 he began presenting her in performance, including four solo concerts at Carnegie Recital Hall. She released her first record, Perception for the SteepleChase label, in 1974. "Her mastery of the piano is not to be gainsaid," wrote Gary Giddins, in the Village Voice. "It is her own enigmatic personality that gives this disc its special, haunting character. It clearly heralds the arrival of a pianist of stature." Crothers has recorded and performed around the world with the late Max Roach, and has worked with Jemeel Moondoc, Henry Grimes, Roscoe Mitchell and Warne Marsh, in her distinguished career. In 1980 she began a musical relationship with percussionist Max Roach that lasted into 2002. Their duo recording, "Swish," on New Artists, a record company they co-founded, received a four-star review in Down Beat. "Because she has unerring fingers, unerring swing, and an unerring blues sensibility," writes Patrick Williams, "the music of Connie Crothers causes a captivating joy."














Joe Bonner (2/20) emerged in the 1970s as one of the most exciting and in-demand pianists in jazz. Beginning in 1970, when Roy Haynes asked him to replace Chick Corea in his ensemble, Bonner spent the decade playing in some of the most exciting bands of the time. The late trumpet great Freddie Hubbard hired Bonner from 1971-1972, before the pianist joined saxophonist Pharoah Sanders’ band. The ensemble Bonner anchored through 1974, -arguably the best in Sanders’ career- featured Stanley Clarke, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart, Hannibal Marvin Peterson and Carlos Garnett, among others. Bonner can be found on six Impulse! Recordings, including Black Unity, Village of the Pharoahs and Live At The East. Later in the decade, Bonner performed with saxophone great Billy Harper. Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1948, he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Classical Music from Virginia State, before his travels took him to New York and around the world. He lived for 12 years in Europe, (most of them in Copenhagen), where he accompanied traveling jazz artists and made a dozen highly regarded recordings on the Steeplechase label. Since the 1980s, Bonner has lived in Denver, where he leads The Bonner Party.


A World of Piano is made possible by a grant from the Northampton Arts Council and Meet the Composer, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts. Thanks to Amherst College, Dept. of Music.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Psych Sunday Sunday Sunday!

this sunday at 7:30 at the king st. manor (113 king st, northampton) will be the following fine musical fare:

Viking Moses - world travelling legend, spare, melancholy, and most beautific
Golden Ghost - spare, most beautific, and sporting an upcoming album'z worth of newnewnew songs and more
Whyte Kastles - only the finest of valley psyche
Pictish Trail - from scotland, their first tour of american soil!

as always, we're hoping for kind donations of $5 (or more if'n you can) and you oughtta bring along some extra loot for the fine recordings these cats'll have in tow.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

purity supreme action

hey friends.

a few events of note from us here at purity supreme!

Every Tuesday @ the basement!
dj cashman and snack attack spinning hip hop, funk, 80's, dancehall,
electro and more! 10pm-2am
downtown northampton

Every Saturday @ the basement!
DJ Cashman & Snack Attack spinning soul, funk, rock, motown, oldies,
etc. tons of fun! 10pm-2am
21+ no cover
downtown northampton

Friday Jan 16th @ the Peoples Pint
Snack Attack and DJ Andujar spinning hard funk, soul, afrobeat, R&B, salsa, reggae and more. w/ special guest DJ Jenny-O!
10pm-1am.
no cover!

Sunday Jan 18th @ The Bishop's Lounge
Snack Attack and guest will be spinning w/ guest
21+ 10pm-2am
no cover

More coming!
Late Feb!
TGIWTF 80's / Electro night @ Pearl St with Voltskool

Sunday, January 4, 2009

THIS SATURDAY!! January 10th @ Purple House Northampton, MA

JANUARY 10th PURPLE HOUSE SHOW!!!

Noise Nomads, Chris Cooper, Bonos, No Sound and one more mystery guest.
Will start around 9pm. Good Times! Come All!

Saturday, January 3, 2009