Date: May
4, 2007
To: Listings/Critics/Features
From: JAZZJAUNTS
Contact: GOLDA
SOLOMON: 877-529-9528 or gs@goldajazz.com
GOLDA SOLOMON “The
Medicine Woman of Jazz” with PO’JAZZ
welcomes
MAMAPALOOZA
Downstairs at The
Cornelia Street Café
29
Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, 212-989-9319, www.corneliastreetcafe.com
THURSDAY, MAY 17th,
2007, 6 - 8 PM
$15
($10 students/seniors) includes one drink
featuring
MERGE
CASSANDRA
CLEGHORN poetry, voice • ERIK
LAWRENCE saxophones, flutes
ALLISON
MILLER drums • RENE
HART acoustic bass, gadgets
and
musicians
HASTINGS
BLUESMOTHERS
HOPE BERKELEY harmonica • MARGIE
BOYD bass • IRENE
MAHER guitar, vocals
JENNY MURPHY
lead vocals • BILL REEVE drums • PAM
SKLAR flute
MAMAPALOOZA is the only festival of its kind, celebrating mothers in the arts. This May, the women of Mamapalooza are taking to
stages, poetry jams and concert halls, forging new ways of thinking, being,
celebrating and defining what it is to be an artist and mother in the 21st
Century. www.mamapalooza.com
Merge: “Merge is another step forward in celebrating the marriage
of poetry and music” — David Amram
www.myspace.com/mergepoetrymusic
Hastings Bluesmothers: "...Striking
an excellent balance between the lighthearted joy of playing and making
relevant political points." www.myspace.com/hastingsbluesmothers
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
“PO’JAZZ at CORNELIA STREET is one big friendly party of good words,
good sounds, and good food.”
—
Gladys Serrano, Mutable Music
The Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia Street
Greenwich Village, NY
10014
"a culinary as well as a cultural landmark" -- Mayoral Proclamation, City of New York 1987
Tel: 212-989-9319 /
Fax: 212-243-4207 / Web: www.corneliastreetcafe.com
between West 4th and Bleecker Streets, Greenwich Village
by subway: 1 or 9 to Christopher Street - Sheridan Square; A, C, E,
B, D, F & V to West 4th St.
Hope
Berkeley (Hastings Bluesmothers
harmonica)
has a long history of playing blues harmonica in clubs and bands in the New
York metropolitan area. A versatile
musician and songwriter, she also sings in a madrigals group.
Margie
Boyd (Hastings Bluesmothers bass) started out on guitar and saxophone, and found her niche
later with the bass. She has performed
in several bands and singing groups and has taken away several prizes as a
dancer in her disco days. When she
isn't playing the bass she is enjoying her other passion of acrobatic flying.
Cassandra
Cleghorn (Merge poetry/voice)
has taught English and American Studies at Williams College since 1990. She
earned her BA in Greek from University of California, Santa Cruz and her PhD in
American Studies from Yale University. She was a finalist for the 2000
Massachusetts Cultural Council award in poetry. Her writing has appeared in
journals including The Paris Review, Yale Review, Prairie Schooner, Southwest
Review, Western Humanities Review
and Tin House magazine. www.myspace.com/mergepoetrymusic
Rene
Hart (Merge acoustic bass)
spends much of his time lately touring with English blues/pop sensation James
Hunter, with whom he has recently played the Conan O'Brian and Jay Leno shows,
and opened for Aretha Franklin and Van Morrison. Rene has recorded and/or
performed with artists including Julian Priester, Charles Davis, Steven
Bernstein, Clark Terry, Sean Lennon and Billy Hart. His current commitments
include Hipmotism and Yonadav Halevy's Sienna Quartet. www.myspace.com/renehart
Hastings
Bluesmothers is based in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY and consists of Hope Berkeley,
harmonica; Margie Boyd, bass; Irene Maher, guitar vocals; Jenny Murphy, lead
vocals; Bill Reeve, drums; Pam Sklar, flute. "...Striking an excellent balance
between the lighthearted joy of playing and making relevant political
points." http://www.myspace.com/hastingsbluesmothers
Erik
Lawrence (Merge
saxophones/flutes) is currently featured playing with legendary Levon Helm,
Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra and Erik's other band
Hipmotism (featuring Rene Hart, Allison Miller and Steven Bernstein). He has
also played and recorded with Chico Hamilton, Sonny Sharrock, The Band with Bob
Dylan, Buddy Miles, John Medeski, David Amram, Barry Wallenstein, Frank
Messina, Jane LeCroy, Trey Anastasio, Spin Doctors, Joan Osborne, his father
Arnie Lawrence and many others. Erik’s music has always been inspired by
poetry, literature, visual arts, dance and nature. He has been a college
educator since he was 18 years old and currently teaches jazz saxophone and
flute at Williams College and the Putney School. For Erik, Merge is a dream come true.
www.myspace.com/hipmotism
and www.levonhelm.com/erik_lawrence.htm
Irene Maher (Hastings
Bluesmothers guitar and
vocals) has been writing and performing folk influenced music most of her
life. She and Pam have recorded and
performed together and one of their collaborations earned them an honorable
mention in a Billboard Magazine songwriting contest.
Merge is a quartet comprised of poet Cassandra Cleghorn,
reedman Erik Lawrence, drummer Allison Miller and bassist Rene Hart. In the
eighteen tracks on their new CD (Merge), the band creates a union of
word, rhythm and melody that recalls the origins of poetry in voice and
song. David Amram, called by the Boston Globe "the Renaissance man
of American music," calls Merge "an exciting and highly creative new
collaboration." Amram recognizes
the affinities between Merge and his own work with Beat poets: "In an era when Spoken Word has finally
come to fruition, the spirit of collaboration, ensemble and spontaneity that
Jack Kerouac and I pioneered in NYC's first-ever jazz poetry reading in 1957
are now reaching new plateaus. Merge is
another step forward in celebrating the marriage of poetry and music."
Allison
Miller (Merge drums) was
voted in September 2006 as Rising Star drummer in Downbeat's Critics Poll, the second year in a row she has received
this honor. As bandleader and/or collaborator, she currently performs and
records with TILT, Agrazing Maze, and Boom Tic Boom, all of which have recent,
critically acclaimed outings on the Foxhaven label. She also appears regularly
with Hipmotism, Marty Ehrlich's Sextet, The Natalie Merchant Band, Doctor
Lonnie Smith, Kitty Margolis and Erin McKeown.
www.allisonmiller.com
Jenny
Murphy (Hastings
Bluesmothers lead vocals)
started with Irish drinking songs at 3 and has been singing ever since,
everything from classical choral works at Lincoln Center to folk music anywhere
with The Walkabout Clearwater Chorus.
Bill
Reeve (Hastings Bluesmothers drums) is a
former marching band director for the University of New Hampshire where he met
his wife Angela (french horn) and made loose plans for a large family.
Pam Sklar (Hastings Bluesmothers) performs frequently on flute, alto flute, bass flute and
piccolo. She enjoys working closely
with composers, jazz artists, with visual artists and has appeared repeatedly
with Claude Bolling, Dave Brubeck, Alan Hovhaness, as well as on TV; in
Broadway orchestras; with the JVC Jazz Festival Orchestra, the Annual
Songwriters' Hall of Fame Awards and The Grammy Awards Orchestra. Pam can be
heard on many recordings and has appeared in concerts throughout the USA,
Canada, Mexico, Italy, Japan, and in Paris and Morocco.
Golda Solomon (poet), “the medicine woman of jazz,” is a professor of communications, speech,
and theater arts; a poet, performer, producer, and docent; a supporter of women
musicians as well as young musicians, poets, and performers. She was project director of Po’Jazz at The
Hudson Valley Writers’ Center for four years before bringing the series to The
Cornelia Street Café in 2003. Golda has
pioneered several unique businesses including JazzJaunts, a personalized jazz service, and, with Barbara Sfraga,
ICAAN (Interactive Communication and Arts Network), which provides innovative,
on-site, organization-specific arts programming to workplaces, schools, and
other organizations. She is currently
conducting “From Page to Performance” workshops for emerging poets and “ready
to come out of the closet” writers.
Golda has a collection of poetry, Flatbush
Cowgirl, published in 1999, for which she co-produced a companion CD, First Set, and a second CD of her
poetry, Word Riffs. Her latest
collection is Never More Than a Borough Away, Brooklyn Bops (Clique Calm
Books). She also co-produced the CD Po’Jazz: Takin’ It To The Hollow. She is an active member and presenter for
IAJE (International Association for Jazz Education) and a founding member of
IWJ (International Women In Jazz). As an IWJ awardee, she was part of the
week-long 40th anniversary celebration of All Nite Soul at St. Peter’s, the
“Jazz Church” in midtown Manhattan. She returns to St Peter’s Church as part of
the First Women In Jazz Festival 2007. Several of her poems are currently
featured on the poetry page of www.jerryjazzmusician.com,
and she is included in the yearly collection, The Mom Egg, a collection
of poetry, prose and drawings by creative artists who are also mothers. Solomon’s book and CDs are available
on www.amazon.com, www.cdbaby.com and www.jazzjaunts.com. "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