CALENDAR

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

• Sun

  29

  Sep

  2019

  Open Ground: Matt Mitchell- piano / Jake Charkey - cello Sept 29

  7:30 Doors $10.00 Suggested Donation

  

   

  8pm. Matt Mitchell – solo piano

  9pm  Jake Charkey – cello, & Mir Naqibal Islam – tabla 

  “A pianist of burrowing focus and an indispensable fixture of the contemporary vanguard” – Nate Chinen, The New York Times

  Matt Mitchell is a pianist and composer interested in the intersections of various strains of acoustic, electric, composed, and improvised new music. He currently composes for and leads several ensembles featuring many of the current foremost musicians and improvisers, including Tim Berne, Kim Cass, Kate Gentile, Ben Gerstein, Jon Irabagon, Travis Laplante, Ava Mendoza, Miles Okazaki, Ches Smith, Chris Speed, Tyshawn Sorey, Chris Tordini, Anna Webber, Dan Weiss. He is an anchor member of several significant creative music ensembles which integrate composed and improvised music, including Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, the Dave Douglas Quintet, John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble, Dan Weiss’s Starebaby, Jonathan Finlayson’s Sicilian Defense, Steve Coleman’s Natal Eclipse, Kate Gentile’s Mannequins, Mario Pavone’s Blue Dialect Trio, Anna Webber’s Simple Trio, Ches Smith’s We All Break, the Dave King Trio, and Quinsin Nachoff’s Flux. He is also among the core performers of John Zorn’s Bagatelles.

   

  Jake studied cello in the Western Classical tradition under Zon Eastes, Paul Cohen, Leopold Teraspulsky, and finally with Norman Fischer at the Shepherd School of music at Rice University in Houston, TX.  Seeking to broaden his musical skills and vocabulary after conservatory training, he took an interest in Hindustani music.  His studies began in Toronto with the sarangi player, Aruna Narayan, who urged him to adapt Hindustani music to cello rather than learn an Indian instrument.  He continued in Los Angeles where he took up intensive training with Jagan Ramamoorthy, a senior disciple of the violin virtuoso Padmabushan Dr. N. Rajam.  He completed his M.F.A. at CalArts in Hindustani music under the guidance of Aashish Khan and Swapan Chaudury and with additional instruction on cello and contemporary techniques from Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick.  While at CalArts he also incorporated other modalities of improvisation into his playing with Vinny Golia, Wadada Leo Smith, and Charlie Haden. Currently, Jake lives in Brooklyn and performs with Adam Rudolph’s GO Organic Orchestra and is a frequent collaborator with the Brooklyn Raga Massive.

   

  An avid student of Tabla, Mir has trained in the traditional guru-shisya style of Indian Classical
  music from Pt. Ashoke Paul, disciple of the great tabla guru Pt. Jnan Prakash Ghosh.
  Now living and working in New York city, he performs regularly with musicians from a wide
  variety of other genres, bringing tabla to Jazz, Middle-Eastern music and other contexts. By
  listening, learning and playing with musicians from around the globe, Mir is developing a unique
  musical aesthetic bringing together the musical influences of traditional Farukhabad style tabla
  and 21st century New York.