Partners in Crime
NED ROTHENBERG@ LOCATION ONE
Location One, 26 Greene St. (bet Canal & Grand), NYC. Reservations and Information: 212-334-3347. Performances @ 9:00 p.m. Admission: $8
Two Appearances:
Friday, Dec.15th with
SYNC
Saturday, Dec.16th with
Partners in Crime
Partners in Crime
Ned Rothenberg – Winds
Gerry Hemingway – drums
Mark Dresser – bass
Ned Rothenberg’s SYNC
Ned Rothenberg – alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute)
Jerome Harris – steel string guitar, acoustic bass guitar
Samir Chatterjee – tabla, percussion
“Sync might be envisioned as a modified sax/bass/drum trio, where the bassist has been replaced by Jerome Harris on either acoustic guitar or acoustic bass guitar, and where the drummer’s role is taken by Samir Chatterjee on tabla and dumbek.
With Rothenberg moving among alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, and the Japanese shakuhachi and composing looping ribbons of melody with odd rhythmic contours, the trio has found a most palatable merger of jazz and Asian music.
The uncommon instrumentation is enhanced by a shared sense of purpose that gives Sync its winning character. Each player displays both the techniques and the sensitivity required to function as both soloist and accompanist, allowing Sync to maintain its three-way conversations after Rothenberg has finished soloing. This is not simply a matter of the leader’s ability to sustain extended melodic and rhythmic variations at lower volumes through circular breathing; it also results from the assurance that allows Harris to sustain a pronounced rhythmic underpinning in his guitar work and rare melodic fluency on bass.
Chatterjee, who can sing and then play back the most complex patterns in the manner of the great tabla masters, also senses how to highlight more compact, swing-oriented parts through shifts in accents and dynamics. The sound of Sync (is) always warm and glowing.” Bob Blumenthal, Boston Globe
JEROME HARRIS
Jerome Harris has been widely acclaimed as one of the most versatile and penetrating jazz and new music stylists of his generation on both the guitar and the bass guitar. His formative musical experiences included singing and playing rural and urban blues, folk and gospel music, in addition to the full range of American popular music genres. His first major professional performing experience came as bassist with Sonny Rollins in 1978; more recently he has played guitar for Rollins, and has also recorded and/or performed live on six continents with Jack DeJohnette, Bobby Previte, Bill Frisell, Oliver Lake, Ray Anderson, Bob Stewart, George Russell, Julius Hemphill,Amina Claudine Myers, Ned Rothenberg, Bob Moses, and many others.
Harris’ extensive international touring has included several stints in Japan with Sonny Rollins, as well as U.S. State Department tours of India and the Middle East with Jay Hoggard and of five African nations with Oliver Lake and Jump Up.
After studying psychology and social relations at Harvard University (A.B. 1973), Harris attended New England Conservatory of Music as a scholarship student in jazz guitar, graduating with honors in 1977. Harris’ debut recording as a leader, Algorithms (Minor Music), garnered accolades from critics for his deeply personal guitar playing and original electric jazz compositions. In Passing (Muse) highlighted his melodic and driving bass guitar work.
Harris’ newest recording, titled Hidden In Plain View (New World), places his acoustic bass guitar at the heart of an all-star group, creatively interpreting pieces by the inspiring, challenging jazz master Eric Dolphy.
SAMIR CHATTERJEE
Samir Chatterjee is one of the leading Tabla-drum players of India. Born into a musical family in Calcutta, he began his studies of North Indian classical music at age 5. His principal studies have been under the careful guidance of Pandit. Amalesh Chatterjee (since 1966) and Pandit. Shyamal Bose (since 1984). As such Samir represents the Farrukhabad Gharana (school) of Tabla-playing. Chatterjee has appeared as a soloist and an accompanist at concerts and music festivals in India and abroad.
In September, 1998 he first performed with Pandit Ravi Shankar at Carnegie Hall and has since become Shankar’s regular accompanist in the U.S. Since 1982 he has toured regularly, visiting the U.S.A., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Poland, Tunisia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Bangladesh, Laos etc.
He is attached to All India Radio as an “A” grade artist and has been featured in major events presented by radio and T.V.. Samir has accompanied many of India’s greatest musicians including Pdt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pdt. Jasraj, Pdt. Nikhil Banerjee, Pdt. V.G. Jog, Pdt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Dr. L. Subhramaniam, Ustd. Salamat Ali Khan, Ustd. Nissar Hussain Khan, Pdt. Nibruttibua Sarnaik, Ustd. Gulam Mustafa Khan, Smt. Lakshmi Shankar, Pdt. G.S. Sachdev, Pdt. Raghunath Seth, Ustd. Bahadur Khan, Pdt. Manilal Nag, Ustd. Ashish Khan, Shujat Khan, Nishat Khan, Ajoy Chakraborty, Rasid Khan to name only a few.
In July, 1994 Samir moved with his family to New York City in order to develop relationships with western musicians and to teach and perform Indian Classical music. Presently he is engaged in collaborations with musicians like Pauline Oliveros, Ned Rothenberg, Glen Velez, Bobby Senabria, Jerome Harris, Ben Verdery, Steve Gorn, and others. He was featured, along with Jerry Garcia, in Sanjoy MishraÃs CD “Blue Incantation”. He is musical advisor/performer for two major dance companies based in New York: The Battery Dance Co. in “Songs of Tagore” and the Kathak Ensemble in “KA-TAP”.
Samir has been teaching for the last 20 years and many of his students are already established performers. He is the founder and director of CHHANDAYAN, an organization working in Calcutta, New York, Washington D.C. and Wilmington-Delaware to promote and preserve Indian music and culture.
GERRY HEMINGWAY
Gerry Hemingway has been composing and performing solo and ensemble music since 1974. Mr. Hemingway’s newest working band is a quartet with either Ray Anderson, Robin Eubanks-trombone or Herb Robertson-trumpet, Ellery Eskelin-tenor sax and either Mark Dresser, Drew Gress or Mike Formanek on bass. The band performed 40 concerts in the US in 1998 and it’s first recording, Johnny’s Corner Song was released on the Auricle Record label in March of 1998.
MARK DRESSER
Mark Dresser has been composing and performing solo contrabass and ensemble music professionally since 1972 throughout North America, Europe and the Far East. His own projects include Mark Dresser’s “Force Green,” and the Mark Dresser Trio, performing his music for the French Surrealist film masterpiece of Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, “Un Chien Andalou” as well as the German expressionist silent film classic, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”.
Additional original solo bass music was composed for the New York Shakespeare Festival Production of HENRY VI. Collaborative projects include “The Double Trio” comprised of the “Arcado String Trio” and the Trio du Clarinettes.