Gary Lucas reunites '30s music+Broadway+NYC jazzers with Max Fleischer's Cartoons March 5th at AFI Silver Theatre

The 2016 Washington Jewish Film Festival presents Gary Lucas' 'Fleischerei' a multimedia performance featuring 1930s cartoon tunes played live by a 6-piece ensemble direct from NYC featuring Broadway vocalist Sarah Stiles, and accompanied by screenings of Max Fleischer cartoons (Betty Boop, Popeye) On Saturday, March 5, 2016 at the AFI Silver Theatre 8633 Colesville Road Silver Spring MD 8:30 pm Tickets: $25 https://www.wjff.org/films/fleischerei/ [2016 WJFF festival passes are available for $150 / $30 (30 Years & Under)] Those who love early animation & classic cartoons; the history of American popular music & culture; guitarist Gary Lucas' music; Broadway musicals & vocalist Sarah Stiles; and all-star NY jazz ensembles are in for a very special treat on Saturday, March 5th, 2016. That night, Gary Lucas Fleischerei: Music From Max Fleischer Cartoons will present a multi-media performance (live music & Fleischer's cartoons) at the AFI (American Film Institute) in downtown Silver Spring as part of the 2016 Washington Jewish Film Festival. Max Fleischer, the creator of such iconic cartoons as Betty Boop, Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto, was one of America's top cartoonists, his NY-based Studios in the early 20th Century rivaled only by Walt Disney's on the West Coast. The music that accompanied his cartoons in the 1930s reflected NY/urban popular music of the time: a riotous, high-speed jumble of Harlem jungle jazz (Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway), Yiddish music hall, Tin Pan Alley and Broadway show tunes, and Klezmer. Gary Lucas' Fleischerei revives this music and performs it live at the AFI with a 6 piece acoustic ensemble, composed of some of NY's finest jazz musicians (Joe Fiedler-trombone & ensemble arrangements, Jeff Lederer-woodwinds, Rob Garcia-drums, & Rob Jost-bass) and Tony-nominated vocalist Sarah Stiles, who captures the spirited delivery of '30s actress Mae Questel. The March 5th performance by Gary Lucas' Fleischerei celebrates the album Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons, to be released February 22, 2016 on Cuneiform Records. Founded by DC/SS-native Steven Feigenbaum and based in downtown Silver Spring since 1984, Cuneiform is one of Washington DC's best-known and longest-lived contemporary-music record labels. Specializing in cutting-edge jazz, rock, electronic and genre-defiant musics by artists from around the world, Cuneiform has released over 420 critically-acclaimed albums that often appear on Best of Year lists and occasionally are finalists for prestigious awards (Pulitzer Prize in Music; Mercury Prize-UK). The March 5th performance is a landmark for two institutions in downtown Silver Spring's Art & Entertainment District: the first collaboration by Cuneiform and the AFI. Guitarist Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, Gods & Monsters) is the mastermind behind Gary Lucas' Fleischerei: Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons, a tribute to the music used in Max Fleischer's cartoons from the 1930s. With Broadway/Off-Broadway vocalist Sarah Stiles, trombonist/arranger Joe Fiedler (who crafted the ensemble's arrangements), woodwind player Jeff Lederer, bassist Michael Bates, and drummer Rob Garcia, Lucas revives the music once popularized by the Fleischer Studios via the cartoon characters Betty Boop, Olive Oyl and Popeye. The resulting album is an engaging, eye-opening musical extravaganza from a time when the Jazz Age crashed into the Great Depression, and Tin Pan Alley borrowed from Harlem. This music was the East Coast's gritty counterpart, savvy and street-smart, to the refined orchestral music wafting from Walt Disney's lily-white studios on the West Coast. Most of us heard this music decades ago as young children, when the cartoons once shown in movie houses were rebroadcast on TV. Hearing this music again today, with adult ears, is a revelation. Fleischerei opens doors into a forgotten American past, a long-overlooked slice of American culture forged by Jewish and Eastern European immigrants, and casts new light on classic cartoons that remain as nostalgically familiar to us as the stories our grandparents and great-grandparents told of the "old neighborhood" or the family farm. [WATCH: Gary Lucas' Fleischerei ft. Sarah Stiles - The Music Goes Round and Round Gary Lucas' Fleischerei | credit: Caroline Conejero We look forward to seeing you on March 5th, for Gary Lucas' Fleischerei at the AFI! "The Fleischer event was amazing and the response was rapturous; I can't remember a more enjoyable program in our theater. Thanks to [Gary] and Sarah." -David Schwartz, Chief Curator of the Museum of the Moving Image, NY ***** Please help us to spread the word about this very special event! ***** CUNEIFORM RECORDS OFFICIAL ALBUM PRESS RELEASE Prodigious American Guitar Explorer, Captain Beefheart Alumnus & Pop Culture/Film Archeologist GARY LUCAS Revives the Street-Smart, Playful Music of Classic 1930s Cartoons with the Tribute MUSIC FROM MAX FLEISCHER CARTOONS Featuring Broadway & Off-Broadway Vocal Sensation SARAH STILES Capturing the Playfully Erotic Spirit of Betty Boop and Mischievious Energy of Olive Oyl GARY LUCAS' FLEISCHEREI [FEATURING SARAH STILES] MUSIC FROM MAX FLEISCHER CARTOONS STREAM/SHARE: "The Broken Record" stream: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube MORE INFO: www.garylucas.com/www/fleischerei https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Stiles www.cuneiformrecords.com Cat. #: Rune 405, Format: CD / DIGITAL DOWNLOAD Genre: Jazz / Musical Release Date: February 5, 2016 Gary Lucas is one of the great spelunkers of contemporary culture, a fearless explorer who delves into forgotten and overlooked crevices and returns bearing exquisite treasures. His latest project Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons is a particularly spectacular find, a gleaming confection from a hurly-burly era when the Jazz Age crashed into the Great Depression and Tin Pan Alley borrowed shamelessly from Harlem. A 2016 Cuneiform release, the album features songs from Fleischer Studios cartoons originally delivered by actress Mae Questel, who provided the voice and vocals for two beloved but very different characters: the eternally sexy Betty Boop and Popeye’s sometime ‘goilfriend’ Olive Oyl. A breathtaking guitarist whose dauntingly eclectic career encompasses a formative stint with Captain Beefheart, a crucial collaboration with Jeff Buckley, and an abiding passion for film scoring (just for starters), Lucas enlisted trombonist/arranger Joe Fiedler to craft zingy, kinetic and historically grounded arrangements for Sarah Stiles, a fiercely intelligent actor and singer best known for her work on and Off Broadway (in Hand to God and Avenue Q, respectively). Loose-limbed and girlish, sensuous and soulful, Stiles taps into the raw, unsentimental energy that animated Max Fleischer’s angsty animation, which provided a street-smart East Coast alternative to Walt Disney’s California confections. “Fleischer’s animation has a gritty, funky urban sensibility that feeds right into R. Crumb,” Lucas says. “His cartoons had that Jewish and urban wiseguy sensibility. There’s a dark, black humor associated with Eastern European immigrants, and even though I’m from upstate, those are my roots. Betty Boop in particular embodies a knowing sophistication emanating out of Times Square, which was a node of melting pot culture where Broadway, Yiddish theater, and jazz all converged.” Fiedler brought in a brilliant group of players for the project. Jeff Lederer is a supremely versatile saxophonist who can be found playing salsa with trombonist Jimmy Bosch and raucous post-bop with drummer Matt Wilson. Michael Bates, a virtuoso bassist with nine albums under his own name, has delved deeply into cutting edge jazz and soul, while drummer Rob Garcia is also an acclaimed bandleader and composer who’s at the center of Brooklyn’s vibrant jazz scene. Casting the cats was the easy part. Finding a singer who could capture the insouciant spirit of Mae Questel while comfortably inhabiting the material proved far more difficult. Lucas turned to his wife Caroline Sinclair, a New York City casting director, who said, “why don’t you let me cast this one?” “That was a good idea,” Lucas says. “Sarah is really a bundle of fire who can do it all. It was crucial to find a singer who wouldn’t try to hijack the idea and make it about her. We conceived this as a tribute to Mae Questel and the Fleischers. This is about trying to spread Fleischermania.” Part of what makes Stiles such a perfect fit for the material is the way she captures the spirit of the characters. It’s immediately obvious when she’s singing a song associated with the effervescent Ms. Boop and when she’s donning the slippery guise of Ms. Oyl. The album opens and closes with bits lifted from Fleischer productions. Lucas himself raises the curtain, crooning a brief bit of silliness on “Sweet Betty,” which is followed by Stiles’ winning rendition of the Boopsters’ theme song “Don't Take My Boop-Oop-a-Doop Away” (we wouldn’t dream of it Betty). She gives such a sly and sultry sheen to another Boop vehicle, “That's My Weakness Now,” that it’s hard to understand why it didn’t become a standard. Some of Betty Boop’s numbers did make it into the pop pantheon, particularly, “Penthouse Serenade,” which opens as a touching recitative before turning into a roiling rent party (“that’s instrumental music we lifted straight off the cartoon soundtrack,” Lucas says). She’s beyond charming on the beguilingly goofy “The Music Goes Round and Round” and so forthrightly amorous on “Do Something” it’s no wonder that the prudes enforcing the Hays Code were determined to hide her shimmying boop-oop-a-doop under a bushel. Stiles slips effortlessly into Olive Oyl’s considerable shoes on her bump-and-grind anti-hirsute anthem “I Want a Clean Shaven Man” and the can’t-we-all-get-along plea “Brotherly Love” (two numbers that are clearly ripe for revival). The album closes with a vivid and hilarious recreation of the soundtrack for the classic 1935 cartoon “Beware of Barnacle Bill,” where Popeye and Bill vie for the affections of the resilient Oyl. Hewing closely to the original scores, Lucas and his crew summon a lost world of rent parties and Yiddish music halls, Vaudeville emporiums, Broadway revues, and even klezmer dance parties (themes often written by Fleischer Studios mainstay Sammy Timberg). Lucas actually took an earlier stab at some of this music, creating a solo National guitar medley of Popeye and Betty Boop tunes for his 1998 Tzadik album Busy Being Born under the title of "Fleischerei" (which is German for butcher shop, word play evoking the cartoons’ raucous, irreverent sensibility). As an artist who thrives by keeping dozens of projects spinning at any given time, Lucas credits Fiedler with moving Fleischerei from the back burner to the front. He had mentioned the idea to the trombonist about a decade ago as they worked on two albums for Cuneiform with Fast N’ Bulbous: The Captain Beefheart Project. When their paths crossed about two years ago, Fiedler brought up the Fleischer concept, noting that his day job as music director for Sesame Street left him ideally situated to tackle the project. “That was the immediate spur,” Lucas says. “I’ve got a guy with the perfect skill set. I’m a classically trained musician and can read but I don’t write out music when I don’t have to. I prefer to do everything as head arrangements, but this needed a real arranger’s touch. Independent of Joe I figured out guitar arrangements in the original keys, to keep the flavor of the songs.” Gary Lucas' Fleischerei | credit: Caroline Conejero In many ways, Fleischerei is the latest dispatch from Lucas' lifetime affair with the moving image. Growing up in Syracuse, he would rent silent 8-mm copies of classic Universal horror films and screen them for neighborhood kids ("I had a piggybank filled with nickels and dimes," he recalls). He made his own stop-motion animated shorts, and by the time he was in high school got hired for a gig scored an animated film about DNA created for biology classes. His budding career as a director screeched to a halt when he enrolled at Yale, which then didn't offer any filmmaking courses. But over the course of his exuberantly creative journey in music, he's never lost his acute case of cinephilia. Still, summing up Lucas' kaleidoscopic career is a daunting task by any measure. He's got a project for every day of the week, and three on Sunday. He composes soundtracks for television and film, and can often be found performing his scores live, including the classic 1934 Chinese silent feature The Goddess and the Brazilian cult classic This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse. Not surprisingly given his Castle-haunted youth, he's demonstrated a particular affinity for horror films, creating acclaimed scores for Carl Theodor Dreyer's classic 1932 Vampyr, a Spanish-language version of Tod Browning's immortal version of Dracula, and James Whale's definitive Frankenstein (both from 1931). Famously dubbed "the thinking man's guitar hero" by The New Yorker, Lucas first made his mark in the early 1980s with the last incarnation of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, an association that continued fruitfully after Don Van Vliet's retirement from music. He collaborated with the lamented legend Jeff Buckley, contributing incisive guitar work and two songs to the epochal 1994 album Grace (including the title track). More recently, he's released Otherworld (Esoteric/Cherry Red Records); a duo collaboration with UK vocalist Peter Hammill; and a project with Hungarian jazz-rock ensemble DeBORT. With Fleischerei, Lucas has created a particularly vivid and entrancing realm, a musical world that's uncannily familiar, utterly original and tantalizingly foreign like only the past can be. ******* PROMOTIONAL TRACKS // If you'd like to share music from this release, please feel free to use the following track: "The Broken Record": @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube PURCHASE LINKS // ITUNES - AMAZON - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC MORE INFO: www.garylucas.com/www/fleischerei - www.cuneiformrecords.com ******** UPCOMING PERFORMANCES TO CELEBRATE Gary Lucas' Fleischerei: Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons March 5, 2015: WASHINGTON DC Washington Jewish Film Festival @ AFI Theatre Silver Spring MD "Gary Lucas' Fleischerei: Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons" Full six-piece ensemble performs live, accompanied by cartoon screenings http://www.wjff.org/films/fleischerei/ ****** Gary Lucas & Sarah Stiles | credit: Jesse Winter [WATCH: Gary Lucas & Sarah Stiles - Don't Take My Boop-Oop-a-Doop Away] - http://www.cuneiformrecords.com http://twitter.com/cuneiformrecord https://www.facebook.com/cuneiformrecords http://www.youtube.com/user/CuneiformRecords

Connecting the General Public to Jazz in London's Subway: Empirical's Pop-Up Jazz Lounge

EMPIRICAL "The coolest of Britain’s young jazz bands." (Daily Telegraph) Strives to CONNECT the General Public to Jazz By Launching a Pop-up Jazz Lounge in one of London's Busiest Underground Stations 22 - 27 February 2016 Old Street Underground Station UK jazz super group Empirical announce an exciting new project to take their music direct to Londoners in February 2016. For six days from 22 – 27 February, the band will take over a retail unit in the centre of Old Street Underground Station and transform the space into a pop-up Jazz Lounge. Listeners are invited to visit the lounge for lunchtime and evening commute live sets, with late night sessions scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Early birds will also be able to catch an 8am mid-week performance. All gigs will be free of charge. Continuing to draw strong influence from the 1960s, the residency series aims to capture the spirit of an era when bands often played several sets a day over many weeks. Road-tested in their highly successful six-day stint at the iconic central London bookshop Foyles in the run-up to the recording of Empirical's new album Connection, due out on 18th March (in the UK), the residency concept gives the band intense practice whilst allowing the audience to witness the creative process as the band develops new material. Old Street Underground Station was chosen for its high footfall (35,000 daily station users) and the vibrant demographic mix the area attracts. As a result of the collaboration between Transport for London and Appearhere, the station itself has recently become a trendy hotspot featuring ever-changing pop-up shops and a rooftop bar in the centre of Old Street roundabout. Empirical are also inviting Hackney and Islington schools and community groups to sign up to free educational workshops during the Jazz Lounge, demonstrating the principles of jazz improvisation and giving younger audiences a chance to experience live jazz at more suitable times. Empirical believe that this radical approach of taking their music directly to Londoners in their daily lives will connect them to new audiences. They aim to take the pop-up Jazz Lounge concept nationwide in 2016/17, setting up in places not normally associated with jazz in major cities across the UK. [Empirical | photo credit: Tom Barnes] POP-UP JAZZ LOUNGE SCHEDULE: Monday 22nd February 2016 1pm Open lunchtime rehearsal 5pm Live performance Tuesday 23rd February 2016 8am Live performance 1pm Open lunchtime rehearsal 5pm Live performance Wednesday 24th February 2016 1pm Open lunchtime rehearsal 5pm Live performance Thursday 25th February 2016 1pm Open lunchtime rehearsal 5pm Live performance 10pm Late night session & jam Friday 26th February 2016 1pm Open lunchtime rehearsal 5pm Live performance 10pm Late night session & jam Saturday 27th February 2016 7pm Live performance 10pm Late night session & jam NOTES: The pop-up Jazz Lounge project is made possible by support from Arts Council England, the Worshipful Company of Musicians, Trinitiy Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Transport for London and Appearhere. Hailed as the "coolest of Britain's young jazz bands" by the Daily Telegraph, Empirical are known for their forward-looking, creative music and live performances. Formed in 2007, Empirical's eponymous debut album released in the same year met with universal critical acclaim. After settling on the current line-up in 2008, their second release Out 'n' In, a tribute to Eric Dolphy, let to a MOBO Award in 2010 for Best Jazz Act. On the strength of their third release Elements of Truth (2011), Empirical won the inaugural Golubovich Jazz Scholars fellowship at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. The fellowship resulted in their 2013 double album Tabula Rasa, featuring the Benyounes String Quartet. Their fifth studio album, entitled Connection (Cuneiform Records), is set to be released on 18th March and launched on the same day at London's King's Place. WATCH: Empirical - "Driving Force" (Video) RECENT PRESS: The Arts Desk: "10 Questions for Jazz Quartet Empirical" Empirical bassist Tom Farmer on musical risk-taking, scientific method and taking jazz to bleary-eyed London commuters http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/10-questions-jazz-quartet-empirical Jazzwise Magazine: "Empirical Video Exclusive 'The Two-Edged Sword'" http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com/breaking-news/14092-empirical-video-exclusive-the-two-edged-sword Jazzwise Magazine: "Empirical Video Exclusive 'Card Clash'" http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com/breaking-news/14071-video-exclusive-empirical-live-at-foyles Echoes Magazine: "Pop Up Empirical" http://echoesmagazine.co.uk/2016/02/09/pop-up-empirical/ JazzFM: "Empirical's pop-up jazz at Old Street station" http://www.jazzfm.com/news/music-news/empiricals-pop-up-jazz-at-old-street-station/ -- MOBO Award-Winning British Jazz Quartet – EMPIRICAL – Delivers a Potent Dispatch from the Post-Bop Frontier with CONNECTION a Program of Smart and Searing Originals EMPIRICAL CONNECTION STREAM/SHARE: "The Two-Edged Sword" stream: @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube Cat. #: Rune 416, Format: CD / Digital Download Genre: Jazz US Release Date: February 5, 2016 / UK Release Date: March 18, 2016 While Empirical’s moniker implies cool detachment and disinterested observation, the quartet has become one of Europe’s top jazz ensembles by creating a bracing sound rife with roiling emotion. The band builds on the extroverted improvisational ethos of the 1960s New Thing, embracing oblique harmonies, translucent textures and jagged, quick shifting rhythms. Featuring Nathaniel Facey (alto saxophone), Shaney Forbes (drums), Lewis Wright (vibraphone) and Tom Farmer (bass), Connection is the fifth Empirical album. The band’s first release on the American label Cuneiform, it captures the ensemble at its most pure and potent. “Each of our previous albums was an experiment, where we included various guests from a string quartet to a pianist to bass clarinet,” Farmer says. “This time we went into a great sounding studio with just the four of us. It’s an accurate representation of what we’re doing now, what our gigs sound like. This is our expression.” Following the release of its eponymous debut album in 2007, which was produced by British saxophone star Courtney Pine and released on his Destin-E label, Empirical quickly established itself as a creatively-charged crew unafraid to explore jazz’s wild and wooly left field. They threw down the gauntlet with their acclaimed second album, 2009’s Out ‘n’ In (Naim). Produced by rising British saxophonist Jason Yarde, the project offers a highly personal salute to Eric Dolphy that won the band Best Jazz Act in the 2010 MOBO Awards (MOBO stands for Music Of Black Origin). [Empirical | photo credit: Tom Barnes] In many ways Connection is a similarly bold statement, a program of original music that unfolds with the kind of intuitive narrative momentum generated by a great set. Opening with Farmer’s concise stop-and-start “Initiate the Initiations,” the album kicks off like a carnival parade driven by Forbes’ deft trap work. Farmer contributes half of the album’s 10 tracks, and his pieces often key on particular emotional states. “Anxiety Society” pits Facey discursive alto against Wright’s calm and cool vibes. By the end of the piece, they are both caught in a labyrinth, searching for a way out. He explores a different kind of disorientation on “Maze,” a piece that sways too and fro in various directions before breaking apart at the end as the center cannot hold. Facey offers several surprises on “Stay the Course,” the album’s longest track. With three distinct sections, it opens with a brooding theme, moves to an introverted swagger, and resolves with a long skittering vibes solo that’s unlike anything else on the album. Wright contributes some of the album’s most divergent tracks, from the seductive tranquility of “Lethe” to the angular “Mind Over Mayhem,” an abstract, intricately constructed sojourn tips the balance from order to disorder. In a fascinating pairing, Wright’s “It’s Out of Your Hands” follows, closing the album on a soft, insinuating ostinato. It’s another moment of probing contemplation on a musical journey marked by unanticipated swerves and cutting drama. If Empirical sounds uncommonly grounded in jazz’s experimental tradition, it’s probably because the quartet came together in an environment that treats jazz as a search rather than a destination. The musicians came together while involved in the scene around the acclaimed program Tomorrow’s Warriors, which was founded by prolific Jamaican-born bassist and arranger Gary Crosby (the nephew of guitar legend Ernest Ranglin and a founding member of the hugely influential mid-80s band Jazz Warriors). [Empirical | photo credit: Tom Barnes] With its West African-tinged compositions and conventional hard-bop instrumentation of trumpet, sax, piano, bass and drums, Empirical’s 2007 debut album hinted at the band’s potential. But it wasn’t until the horn players and pianist dropped out, Farmer took over the bass chair, and vibraphonist Lewis Wright joined the following year that the quartet’s distinctive sound came sharply into focus. While developing arrangements for a tribute to Eric Dolphy, Empirical delved into his classic 1964 Blue Note album Out To Lunch! featuring vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. The concert was a huge success, but more importantly, the musicians bonded with a sense of purpose driven by devotion to jazz’s defiant ethos. “We were working really well, taking it really seriously,” Farmer says. “I’d never met guys who took it so seriously. The process of studying together is really what brought us together, and we just carried on doing it.” The band’s interactive group approach in built on Farmer and Forbes highly kinetic rhythm section tandem, while Facey possesses an instantly recognizable alto tone. But in many ways Wright’s vibes define the group’s sound. From the moment he joined the band, he catalyzed a new way of writing and arranging material. “We all loved the transparency,” Farmer says. “You can hear exactly what everyone’s playing. Lewis is quite a unique player. He gets this warmth on an instrument that can sound quite harsh and metallic. I love having all this room on the bottom, without having to think about a pianist’s left hand.” After the 2011 release of the band’s third album Elements of Truth (Naim), Empirical won the inaugural Golubovich Jazz Scholars fellowship at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. The residency at the prestigious conservatory led to the band’s collaboration with the all-women string ensemble Benyounes Quartet, who were featured on Empirical’s 2013 double album Tabula Rasa (Naim). The ambitious, often spiritually-tinged project featured some of the band’s most beautiful and complex writing. Released by Cuneiform in February 2016, it’s no surprise that Connection finds the quartet getting back to basics. Recorded after a week-long run at Foyles Bookshop London, the album captures the raw energy, brash ideas, and volatile group sound that Empirical has built upon the vast territory opened by jazz’s mid-1960s explorers. “That particular period isn’t just a musical inspiration,” Farmer says. “That constant search for meaning in the early avant garde was really powerful. A lot of those ideas are relevant today and they’re essential to our band.” PROMOTIONAL TRACK // If you'd like to share music from this release, please feel free to use the following track: "The Two-Edged Sword": @SoundCloud / @Bandcamp / @YouTube PURCHASE LINKS // ITUNES - AMAZON - BANDCAMP - WAYSIDE MUSIC ARTIST WEB SITES // www.empiricalmusic.com - www.facebook.com/Emprical - www.cuneiformrecords.com EMPIRICAL - TOUR DATES: 2016 // February 22-27 - London, UK Old Street Underground Pop-UP Jazz Lounge - London, UK [For six days, the band will take over a retail unit in the centre of Old Street Underground station and transform the space into an inviting pop-up Jazz Lounge featuring performances and workshops! Listeners will be invited to visit the lounge for lunchtime and evening commute live sets, with late night sessions scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Early birds will also be able to catch an 8am mid-week performance. All gigs will be free of charge. To give younger audiences a chance to experience live jazz at more suitable times, Empirical also invites Hackney and Islington school and community groups to sign up to free educational workshops demonstrating the principles of jazz improvisation.] February 29 UK The Cockpit Theatre Marylebone London, UK Jazz in the Round for BBC Radio 3 March 18 8:00pm UK Kings Place Hall 2 York Way London, UK Empirical UK Album Launch Event March 19 UK Quarry Theatre 26 St Peter’s Street Bedford, UK Consica Jazz Festival June 1 DE A-Trane Charlottenburg Berlin, Germany

ALEC K. REDFEARN & the EYESORES Announce 3 DC-Baltimore Events for Valentine's Day Weekend!!

 

SPEND VALENTINE'S DAY WEEKEND WITH ALEC K. REDFEARN & THE EYESORES!

Alec K. Redfearn & the Eyesores descend on the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan Region on Valentines Day Weekend for THREE very special events:

• a CONCERT on the evening of Feb. 13th in Baltimore MD

• an ARTIST SALON with Eyesore members' SOLO Performances on the afternoon of Feb. 14 in Silver Spring MD (Washington DC / Red Line)

• a CONCERT in Washington DC on the evening of Feb. 14th

Based in Providence RI, Alec K. Redfearn & the Eyesores have been astounding folk, indie and experimental rock audiences with their unique mix of electrified accordion, combo organ, double bass, French horn, drums, vocals and dark lyrics for over 15 years. They arrive in the DC/Baltimore area fresh off performances at the 2015 Rock In Opposition festival in France and a European tour.

Alec K. Redfearn & the Eyesores consists of:

Alec K. Redfearn - Accordion

Matt McLaren - Drums/Percussion

Chris Sandlers - Double Bass

Ann Schattle - French Horn

Ember Schrag - Keyboards/Synth

“From harsh nightmare riddles, to sweetly swooning tranced-out droning somnambulant reveries, psychedelic folk, prog-rock, old-time country, acidic cabaret, dark circus music, and sinister dream fragments … well worth investigating.” –Dream Magazine

More info:

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/redfearn.html

http://www.aleckredfearn.com/shows.html  

https://www.facebook.com/aleckredfearnandtheeyesores/

https://twitter.com/AlecKRedfearn

VIDEOS of Full Band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1dHLgmjZ1k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAR0zXdpSu4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5FVtYHmVUU

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - BALTIMORE

Orion Studios

2903 Whittington Ave

Baltimore, Maryland 21230

$10.00 at the door    All ages welcome

Doors: 7:30PM   Music: 8:00PM

BYOB - Coolers Welcome

Small folding chairs recommended

ALEC K. REDFEARN & THE EYESORES

https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sister-death

with Special Guests!

WUME

https://wume.bandcamp.com/

-------------

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2016 - SILVER SPRING, MD

A Sweet Treat:  Valentine's Day Afternoon 2-4 pm with Cuneiform Recording artists Alec K. Redfearn & the Eyesores!!

Bump 'n Grind

1200 East-West Hwy, Silver Spring, MD 20910

(301) 588-8000

bumpngrind.co

2-4PM

FREE to the public  

All ages welcome

Bump 'n Grind has delicious drinks (coffees, teas, beer & wine), food, & pastries available for purchase.

Bump 'n Grind facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bumpngrindcafe/

As a tempting appetizer before their full-band show that Valentines night in DC (Back Alley Theater - 5501 Colorado Avenue NW, Washington DC), Providence Rhode Island’s famed avant-folk/art-rockers Alec K. Redfearn & the Eyesores will hold an informal meet/greet&more with their loving fans (and soon-to-be fans) at Bump’n’Grind. 

There will be “surprise" (and surprising) solo performances by some band members, including Alec. K Redfearn (accordion & vocals) and Ember Schrag (vocals & guitar) and Chris Sandlers (double bass) and.....

Considering that the exotic instrumentation is as fascinating as the musicians and the uniquely distinct & rewarding music (Electrified accordion!!!!!!  French Horn!!!  Double Bass!!) this will be an ear-opening, heart warming event. 

This friendly and casual afternoon “artist salon” event provides an opportunity to talk with the band members and with representatives from Cuneiform Records.  Besides the solo performances, you may also be able to listen to some of the band’s albums

Eyesores member Ember Schrag also has a solo career, and she’ll be playing her own songs on guitar at Bump n Gind. For more info:  https://emberschrag.bandcamp.com/www.emberschrag.com

Presented by http://www.CuneiformRecords.com, based in Silver spring since 1984.

****** 

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14 - DC 

[who DOESN'T want to spend Valentine's Day with an accordion and a bunch of Eyesores?]

Back Alley Theater

5501 Colorado Avenue, NW (basement)

Washington, DC 20011

$10.00 at the door

All ages welcome

Doors: 6:30pm

Music: 7:00pm

ALEC K. REDFEARN & THE EYESORES

https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sister-death

with special guests

SUSAN ALCORN

http://www.susanalcorn.net/

CHESTER HAWKINS

https://intangiblearts.bandcamp.com/album/apostasy-suite


Cuneiform and Alec K. Redfearn & the Eyesores would LOVE to have your company on Valentine's Day Weekend at all of some of these wonderful concerts & events!