Coming up in April at Bird & Beckett

 

which way west?
Sunday concert series
always 4:30-6:30 pm

Two Sundays of solo piano —
Joe Lasqo on April 1st
Joel Forrester on April 8th (Easter Sunday)

April 1:  Joe Lasqo merges Indian and Middle Eastern music with jazz and “Stockhausen meeting the sound of one hand clapping.”  You can always catch him on Wednesday afternoons at Viracocha on Valencia, where he plays intently as the world goes by, and on April 12 he’ll be at El Valenciano on that same fine street.  Then there’s the occasional gig at the Turquoise Yantra Grotto, which we’ll be happy to hip you to if you just ask…

But you’ll hear Joe best on our little stage a week from this Sunday.

His “Turquoise Sessions” cd (shown above at left) is a killer excursion across a vast and expansive terrain.

April 8:  As for Joel Forrester, he’s a jazz cat through & through.  He’s coming out west on an Easter weekend swing from NYC to play a little solo piano accompaniment for a Buster Keaton silent and some classic cartoons on Saturday down Saratoga way.  Then, he’ll grace us with a couple of sets on Sunday…

When in New York, you can often catch Joel at a lovely brunch gig out at the northern tip of Manhattan at the Indian Roads Cafe, or Sunday mornings at Grace Gospel Church in the South Bronx.  Mondays when he’s in town, it’s the Brandy Library in Tribeca, an experience unlike any other…  Sometimes it’s Cleopatra’s Needle on the Upper West Side or the Gershwin Hotel on 27th Ave. or the Manhattan Inn out in Greenpoint in Brooklyn…  He does get around a bit… the French say he’s the world’s foremost accompanist for silent films… lucky Saratogans!

He’s also renowned for his work with the Microscopic Septet and for composing the “Fresh Air” theme you hear before all those Terry Gross interviews on WHYY!

We’re always happy when Joel comes out to play.

Read a little more about Joel here, we think you’ll find it most enlightening…

 

On Sunday, April 15th,
a John Coltrane date with
the Anthony Brown Trio

The remarkable young reed player Masaru Koga joins master percussionist/composer/musicologist Anthony Brown to explore the music of John Coltrane.

The two sets of trio music start at 4:30, following a 2:30-4:00 pm panel discussion by Drs. Tommy Lee Lott, Herman Gray and Anthony Brown, all contributors to the recent book John Coltrane and Black America’s Quest for Freedom (Oxford University Press).

 

 

Sunday, April 22
Mallar Bhattacharya (sarode) and Ferhan Qureshi (tabla)

Hindustani classical music

 

Sunday, April 29
Bengal & Beyond

“Jazz curry, no hurry” merging jazz with Bengali influences.