Ars Nova Workshop is excited to unveil the complete line-up for the 2019
October Revolution of Jazz & Contemporary Music. The festival’s third
annual incarnation is its most ambitious and diverse to date, expanding from
four days to an entire month of programming and featuring an eclectic mix of
legendary artists and modern-day innovators. "We started this festival two
years ago, hoping to bring a critical mass of the outstanding musicians that
Ars Nova Workshop presents throughout the year together, in one place, around a
single event that celebrates the spirit of improvisation, experimentation, and
freedom, and provides an opportunity to settle in for deep listening that can
cleanse our minds and refresh our souls,” states Mark Christman, Executive
& Artistic Director of Ars Nova Workshop. The festival also marks the
beginning of Ars Nova Workshop's 20th Anniversary Season, which is sure to
include must-see performances throughout 2020.
The October
Revolution, which The New York Times has called “a State of the Union for free
improvisation and avant-garde composition,” has been committed to exploring the
furthest edges of contemporary and experimental music in its myriad forms. The
2019 edition is no exception, with iconic figures who have helped shape the
evolution of modern music for half a century alongside emerging stars altering
its progression in distinctive new ways. The events will take place at venues
across Philadelphia, with 13 ground-breaking performers and ensembles, more
than half of them led by women, an indication of the festival’s (and the
music’s) dedication to diversity and inclusion.
THE OCTOBER
REVOLUTION 2019 FESTIVAL LINEUP:
The festival
opens with a generation-bridging duo performance pairing NEA Jazz Master Roscoe
Mitchell (founding member of the influential Art Ensemble of Chicago, which
recently celebrated its 50th anniversary) and Philly-based poet and musician
Moor Mother (a member of the Art Ensemble’s latest manifestation). The month
also includes the first Philly performance by Fred Frith (Henry Cow, Naked
City) in three decades, leading a trio featuring a special surprise guest;
Chicago drummer Makaya McCraven, a genre-blurring envelope-pusher whose
ensemble will feature Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker and Blue Note rising star
Joel Ross on vibes; drone explorers Sarah Davachi, Matchess, Lea Bertucci and
Angel Deradoorian (the latter a former key member of the Dirty Projectors);
former Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson and his quartet with a rare Philly
appearance by trumpeter Tom Harrell, celebrating their new ECM release; and an
ultra-rare appearance by vocal legend Patty Waters in her first local concert
in more than half a century.
The festival
will also allow audiences to experience what may well be the landmark
performance one of the city’s most beloved institutions, The Painted Bride Art
Center: an awe-inspiring performance bringing together Adam Rudolph’s
improvisatory Go: Organic Orchestra with the forward-looking Indian classical
musicians of Brooklyn Raga Massive. Drummer Charlie Hall of indie-rock darlings
The War on Drugs will assemble a special ensemble to pay tribute to the 50th
anniversary of Miles Davis’s immortal album In a Silent Way. And the festival
draws to a jaw-dropping close with the return of two long-dormant ensembles
forged by vibraphone great Khan Jamal and now led by guitarist Monnette Sudler:
Sounds of Liberation, which made a triumphant return to the stage earlier this
year, this time with special guest saxophonist David Murray stepping in for the
late, great Byard Lancaster; and the Creative Arts Ensemble featuring drummer
Chuck Treece, recreating Jamal’s dizzying psych-jazz classic Drum Dance to the
Motherland for the first time since its release in 1972.
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