2023 MUSIC SERIES
Curated by ADAM O’FARRILL

Our 2023 Music Series brings together a diverse array of groundbreaking musicians chosen by Adam O’Farrill, a gifted trumpeter, composer, and Duck Creek Alum. Each act is marked by a fearless ability to fuse their own unique cultural heritage, influences, and musical traditions with contemporary jazz.  This interweaving of cultural styles allows us to rethink the way we listen to and interpret our musical past, present, and future. 

La Manga (Sunday, June 4, 4pm)
Daniela Serna, Andrea Chavarro, Katherine Ocampo, Lina Fernanda Silva and Melody Feo.

La Manga members will begin this concert with a 30 minute introduction to Afro Colombian oral traditions, and a Cumbia workshop where audience members will learn to play this traditional rhythm using only their voices and bodies, followed by a 90 minute concert.

La Manga is a Brooklyn-based cultural identity laboratory inspired by the spirit of the modern and ancestral people of the Colombian Caribbean coast. This collective of women artists—composed of Daniela Serna, Andrea Chavarro, Katherine Ocampo, and Lina Fernanda Silva—work to foster a creative community that accesses the Afro-Colombian tradition by drumming as a lifeline to connect diverse cultures. In performance, the group honors Black and indigenous oral traditions by engaging the power of Afro-Colombian percussion, including tambor alegre, tambor llamador, tambora y maracas, and celebrating life through storytelling, dance and song.

Freedom First: Keith LaMar & Albert Marques (Saturday, June 17, 5pm)
Keith LaMar - poetry, Albert Marques - piano, Kazemde George -tenor saxophone, Caroline Davis - alto saxophone, Eva Lawitts - bass, Zack O’Farrill- drums
Keith Lamar is a Cleveland-born poet, writer, and activist who has spent over 30 years in solitary confinement on death row for a crime he didn’t commit.  He is scheduled for execution on November 16th. The Freedom First project began in August 2020 as a protest concert following the murder of George Floyd, with dozens of musicians on the streets of New York playing the jazz standards that LaMar says helped him survive solitary. More than a band, this project is a movement that has included more than 70 musicians and performed in the United States, South America and Europe. Freedom First is also the title of LaMar and Marques' album, released in February 2022, the first in history by an artist on death row.
FREEDOM FIRST VIDEO

Adam O’Farrill’s Stranger Days (Saturday, July 1, 5pm)
Adam O'Farrill- trumpet, Xavier Del Castillo- tenor sax, Walter Stinson- bass, Zach O’Farrill - drums.
This season’s curator, and award winning trumpeter and composer, Adam O’Farrill brings his quartet Stranger Days to our stage on July 4th weekend. The Wall Street Journal wrote of their most recent album, “Mr. O’Farrill’s music is refined and discreet; it integrates aspects of art rock and contemporary classical music and boasts a cinematic influence.” It was also listed as one of the best albums of 2021 by The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

Kassa Overall (Saturday July 8, 5pm)
Kassa Overall - lead vocal and drumset, Tomoki Sanders - sax and background vocals, Ian Fink - keyboards, Bendji Allonce - percussion and background vocals, Giulio Xavier Cetto - electric bass and background vocals

Kassa Overall is a Grammy-nominated musician, emcee, singer, producer, and drummer who melds avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to tilt the nexus of jazz and rap in unmapped directions. Kassa is always moving: between different expressive forms, the personal and the political, while keeping a balance between accessibility and entertainment.

Kaoru Watanabe: Incense (Saturday, August 19, 2023)
Kaoru will perform new works for Japanese flutes and percussion Japanese taiko drum and shinobue flutes.

Formerly of KODO with collaborators including Yo-Yo Ma, Wes Anderson, Jason Moran, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Watanabe created a bunch of new music while in quarantine. While reflecting the feelings of isolation, mourning, gratitude, and anger the world was experiencing, he found the resulting music surprisingly hopeful and uplifting, full of driving rhythms, plaintive melodies, and meditative contemplation.

“Kaoru Watanabe: a rare musician who traverses the traditional music forms both East and West, classical and contemporary, predetermined and improvisational. His expertise in taiko drumming and bamboo flutes gives his music both force with exteme delicacy. His superb musicianship makes him a joy to create with. He enriches any musical situation with his unique perspective.”

— Jason Moran (Jazz Pianist, Blue Note Recording Artist)

Anna Webber’s Shimmer Wince (Saturday, September 9, 5pm)
Anna Webber - tenor sax, flute, Adam O’Farrill - trumpet, Mariel Roberts - cello, Elias Stemeseder - synthesizer, Steven Crammer - drums.

Anna Webber is a flutist, saxophonist, and composer who takes an immersive approach to music. Living between avant-garde jazz and new classical music, she welcomes her audience in and then takes them in unexpected directions. Her attention is on the fundamentals of her instruments—starting with simple ideas and then dissecting, reshaping, and flipping them on their head.

Mali Obomsawin Quartet (Saturday, September 23, 5pm)
Mali Obomsawin - bass/vox/guitar, Zack O'Farril - drums, Kazemde George tenor sax, Nolan Tsang - trumpet

Mali Obomsawin is an award-winning bassist, songwriter, and composer from Abenaki First Nation at Odanak, merging music traditions, by immersing Abenaki First Nation elements in a jazz context. Mali is also a community organizer and advocate for Indigenous rights, environmental justice, and landback.

END OF SUMMER CONCERT
IN COLLABORATION WITH OLA OF EASTERN LONG ISLAND

Mambo Loco, September 10, 2023
Wayne Burgess - bass & vocals Bill Smith - piano & vocals Cristian Rivera - conga & vocals Larry Belford - percussion & vocals Steve Gluzband - trumpet Ozzy Cardona - trumpet

This concert was organized in collaboration with OLA of Eastern Long Island, to celebrate the end of summer with old-school Latin music by beloved locals Mambo Loco!