Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s Stretch Music Residency at Harlem Stage

Harlem Stage, the legendary uptown venue that for over 30 years has promoted the creative legacy of Harlem and artists of color from around the corner and across the globe, is proud to present its Spring 2018 season of performances. The season is curated by Monique Martin, newly appointed Director of Programming for Harlem Stage and features artists as #Disrupters, who take creative risk. They reflect the times via a range of artistic genres, offering audiences the chance to experience legendary performers and rising stars.

Harlem Stage is thrilled to continue its partnership with Edison Award-winning and Grammy-nominated trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah to re-establish jazz as a social music through the Stretch Music Residency. This second year of Adjuah’s residency will feature the 2nd annual Stretch Music Festival, a FREE Pop-Up Concert at Silvana’s restaurant, a FREE intensive class, a screening of the film “Samaria,” and Jazz: Then And Now conversation series, in addition to kicking off an exciting series of humanities and online engagement activities taking place from March 27 – 31.

The series kicks off on March 27th with Harlem Stage’s first ever FREE Pop-up performance taking place at Silvana’s Restaurant featuring Stretch Music’s Sarah Elizabeth Charles and hosted by Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. Ms. Charles will perform music from her latest album ‘Free of Form’. During the day, musicians and jazz lovers can participate in a FREE immersive music class and jam session at Manhattan School of Music.

On March 28th, the screening of “Samaria” will be followed by a discussion between Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, who composed the music for the film, and Samora Pinderhughes, composer of “Whose Streets,” the award-winning film directed by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis. Moderated by Producer/Director Lisa Cortès.

On March 29th, Jazz: Then and Now is a conversation series, that brings together innovative thought leaders in the field in dialogue on the history, the present and the future of jazz. Ethnomusicologist Fredara Hadley PhD. will moderate what promises to be a rich conversation between Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and Stefon Harris, Director of the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Arts Program. The conversation will be preceded by a performance by the Manhattan School of Music’s Mingus Ensemble.

Closing out the series on March 30th and 31st will be performances by Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and his band, in addition to bands led by The Curtis Brothers, Max Moran and Neospectric, Lawrence Fields, Kris Funn and special surprise guests. The second year of the Stretch Music festival emphasizes musicians who push the boundaries of jazz as they reach back into the past creating bridges to the present. Rhythms such as Kassa Soro from Mali, that predate the transatlantic slave trade as well as Salsa and Son which came after can be found in Blues, Funk, Trap, Hip Hop and Stretch Music. Ancestral recall of the bata, dun and djembe drums show up. New forms created from these rhythmic bridges inform the future of jazz music in all of its complexity.

The Stretch Music Residency is organized by Harlem Stage in partnership with Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University, has been made possible with support from Chamber Music America through its Residency Endowment Fund.

The Stretch Music Residency is a part of Harlem Stage’s WaterWorks program. WaterWorks is supported by Ford Foundation, Time Warner Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Lambent Foundation, SHS Foundation and Bob and Eileen Gilman Family Foundation.

Stretch Music Festival artists are supported by Jerome Foundation.


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