CALENDAR

DOORS @ 7:30 / SHOWS @ 8PM, UNLESS POSTED OTHERWISE 

• Sat

  07

  Sep

  2019

  Utsav Lal / Masters of Fright / Damon Smith / The Cradle Sept 7

  7:30 Doors $10.00 Suggested Donation

  

  

  

  Young Steinway Artist, Indian pianist /composer UTSAV LAL, known as the ‘Raga Pianist’ has set a precedent with his innovative handling of Indian Classical music. Recognized for his creative vision, the 26 year classical & jazz pianist has an impressive career  which includes solo performances at  global venues like Carnegie Hall-NYC, Southbank Centre-London,  Kennedy Center-Washington DC and extensive collaborative work with Irish, Scottish and Indian musicians. With his distinctively unique raga repertoire, Utsav Lal has often been the first on the programming calendar of well- known Indian Classical, Jazz, Silent Film & World Music festivals. Debut album release ‘Piano Moods of Indian Ragas” by label Times Music(2008), Utsav has five subsequent records released including a solo recording of ragas on the world’s first ever ‘Fluid Piano’, released by the Fluid Piano Tuning label ( 2016).Utsav’s unfailing clarity of technique and rhythmic virtuosity showcases itself in his rendition of ragas. Treading the careful line between an ancient tradition and the innate desire for innovation with utmost respect, Utsav Lal’s music is influenced by his guru Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar and also gains inspiration from a vast array of sources such as the Persian piano tradition, the work of Australian minimalist piano trio – The Necks and musicians who sought to expand the expressive capabilities of the piano like Ran Blake, Anthony Coleman, Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou and Cecil Taylor. His music has a quiet intensity and is acclaimed for its sincerity and depth. More details on www.utsavlal.com

  Masters of Fright’s Sammy Weissberg is a multi instrumentalist and composer based out of Brooklyn, NY. He’s collaborated with artists such as The Cradle, Girlpool and Eyes of Love.  The other member of the duo is Kana Miyamoto is a New York based flautist, composer and educator originally from Japan. Her group Kanacept released their debut album “spring doze” in January, 2017. She graduated from The Tokyo College of Music and The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. 

  Damon Isaac Smith is a Northeast based pianist, songwriter, improviser. He’s a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and performs as a sideman and performer with the legendary “Losers Lounge” series at Joe’s Pub (2014 onward). He started his career performing and touring with artists such as Jon Anderson of Yes and Napoleon Murphy Brock of Frank Zappa’s band. He’s played his original music at the Stone, Highline Ballroom, the Knitting Factory, CBGB’s, and the Bitter End, and as a sideman in festivals such as Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, and Zappanale. Damon is a founding member of two bands: The Jacobins and Cricket. His debut solo album, “Intimate Machinery,” came out on ERASED! tapes in December 2017.

  The Cradle is the creative vehicle of Brooklyn-born-and-based musician/writer Paco Cathcart. The project began in 2013 with a series of process-as-product style recordings on 4-track cassette. These early tapes are as much explorations of the relationship between artist and her means of production as they are collections of songs: the loose pre-written music was a means to the ends of engaging the sonic possibilities of the tape machine, the room, and the objects immediately present. In the proceeding years, The Cradle has evolved from a deliberately experimental recording project, and the moniker now encompasses more traditional singer-songwriter music where a peculiar poetics and sense of story telling come to the forefront, busted, insular electronic music, soundscape and spoken word, and really just whatever else Cathcart finds himself wanting to do in between, including live performance that ranges from solo guitar and voice to noise-and-movement sets to a groove-oriented, mbira-led full-band incarnation. Despite The Cradle’s ever-expanding oeuvre, the original ethos of spontaneity, reactivity and exploration remains the backbone of Cathcart’s work.