Subscribe to Jefferson’s Newsletter:
|
I’m really excited to be teaching voice and guitar next week at the 2011 Mt. Shasta Fiddle Camp, located in beautiful Mt. Shasta, California. I’ll be working alongside an incredible lineup of teachers and performers including Tristan and Tashina Clarridge, Roger Tallroth, Sean Watkins, Tony Trischka, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, Maeve Gilchrist, Brittany Haas, Vishal Nayak, and many more!
I’m leaving camp early for a California tour with Anais Mitchell, the particular downside of which is I will miss the stellar 7th annual Summer String Summit at the College of the Siskiyous in Weed, CA, in the beautiful Kenneth Ford theater. Show is at 7:30. Buy tickets online at http://www.BrownPaperTickets.com.
Here’s a clip from last year’s concert with me, Tashina Clarridge, Maeve Gilchrist, Sarah Jarosz, and Paul Kowert.
Bay Area residents should also check out the post-camp String Explosion concert at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley on Saturday, July . Featuring Darol Anger, Roger Tallroth, The Bee Eaters, Jeremy Kittel, Brittany Haas, and more: http://www.thefreight.org/string-explosion.
These photos were taken by M’Adele Miller at the 5/7 GALA NYC Debut concert at the Brooklyn Lyceum.
Cellist Mike Block started up a new concert series in Brooklyn called the Gala NYC. I was pleased to be a part of the debut concert on May 7. Here’s a reprint of the review from the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/arts/music/gala-nyc-at-brooklyn-lyceum-review.html?_r=1
Genres and Styles Without Borders, in a Brooklyn Series
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
Published: May 10, 2011
The border-hopping proclivities of classical composers and performers have become more pronounced in recent years, resulting in a freewheeling blend of genres and styles. Gala NYC, a new series (the name means Global Art, Local Audience) founded by Mike Block, a Juilliard-trained cellist and disciple of Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project, aims to promote this healthy eclecticism by combining performers from varying disciplines.
The inaugural concert on Saturday evening in the warehouselike space of the Brooklyn Lyceum featured Mr. Block; Anastasia Khitruk, a Russian violinist; Jefferson Hamer, a folk singer and songwriter; John Hadfield, a percussionist; Kinan Azmeh, a Syrian clarinetist; Kyle Sanna, a guitarist; and Josh Meyers, a bass player. There was a pleasantly informal, spontaneous air to the proceedings, a jam session of sorts. The musicians explained the genesis of their various collaborations.
Some reflected the Middle Eastern heritage of Mr. Azmeh, like a traditional Arab piece in which a haunting, evocative clarinet melody unfolded over gentle cello and percussion accompaniment. Mr. Block introduced the work as the evening’s first installment of a trilogy about men suffering in love. Mr. Azmeh’s clarinet wailed rhapsodically in a rocking arrangement based on Syrian wedding music and floated soulfully in a work inspired by the morning after Thanksgiving.
The lineup included effective arrangements of the traditional folk song “Barbara Allen” and Vivaldi’s Double Violin Concerto in A minor. Ms. Khitruk offered a passionate rendition of a virtuosic work, “The Golem,” written for her by Michael Colina, and Mr. Hamer demonstrated his appealing voice in several selections.
The event concluded with audience participation: three women relayed memorable (and prosaic) details of their lives, to an improvised accompaniment.
Dear friends,
This has been a big spring for new recordings! On March 22, Laura Cortese and I re-released a limited pressing of our electric duo debut, “Two Amps, One Microphone“. It’s now available in both digital download and physical CD format from our favorite on-line source for independent music, bandcamp. Click here to preview and order the album on-line!
February saw the release of my first solo record in almost 7 years! “This Ragged World We Spanned” is a 7″ vinyl record which includes a voucher for a free digital download, available on-line from bandcamp. My heartfelt thanks go out to Jacob Silver and Media Blitz Records, who put out the record on their Brooklyn label. Media Blitz also features recordings by my talented friends Aoife O’Donovan and Mike Merenda. Read more about Media Blitz Records here!
June 12-17, I’m excited to be teaching at the Miles of Music Camp located on beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. Founded by my musical compatriots Laura Cortese and Kristin Andreassen, and featuring an all-star cast of instructors, this all-ages camp will combine instrumental instruction, songwriting and singing, outdoor recreation, and general merriment and revelry! Spots are filling fast, and this promises to be an incredible week of fun and musical enrichment. Visit the miles of music website for more details and registration information.
I’ve got lots of exciting live shows in the next few months, including a New England tour with word-wise songwriter Robert Sarazin Blake, shows with Cambridge’s finest Session Americana and Kris Delmhorst, a spot teaching guitar at Big Sur Fiddle Camp and follow-up West Coast Tour with Fiddler extraordinaire Tashina Clarridge, a live performance singing the role of Orpheus in Anais Mitchell’s Hadestown, and an acoustic feature in an incredible cross-genre gathering of world-reknown jazz, classical, and folk musicians called GALA NYC, May 7th at the Brooklyn Lyceum. Scroll down to see the schedule!
As always, it’s great to hear from everyone. Please email me your thoughts and questions, and I look forward to seeing you at my shows this spring!
~jefferson
follow me: http://www.twitter.com/jeffersonhamer
blog and website: http://www.jeffersonhamer.com
listen and buy music: http://www.jeffersonhamer.bandcamp.com
like on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jeffersonhamermusic
NE shows with Robert Sarazin Blake and the Powderkegs:
Monday, 4/18
Portsmouth, NH
Red Door
Jefferson Hamer solo, and playing with Robert Sarazin Blake and The Powderkegs
8:00
Tuesday, 4/19
Cambridge, MA
Lizard Lounge
Jefferson Hamer playing with Robert Sarazin Blake and The Powderkegs
opening for Lake Street Dive
8:00
Wednesday, 4/20
Portland, ME
Space
Jefferson Hamer solo, and playing with Robert Sarazin Blake and The Powderkegs
8:00
Thursday, 4/21
Biddeford, ME
Oak and Axe
Jefferson Hamer solo, and playing with Robert Sarazin Blake and The Powderkegs
8:00
Session Americana and Kris Delmhorst:
Friday, 4/22
Fall River, MA
Narrows Center for the Performing Arts
Session Americana and Kris Delmhorst
8:00
Saturday, 4/23
Glover, VT
Parker Pie
Session Americana and Kris Delmhorst
8:00
Spring Tour with Tashina Clarridge:
Monday, 4/25 – Friday 4/29
Big Sur, CA
Big Sur Fiddle Camp featuring Tristan and Tashina Clarridge, Natalie Haas, Jeremy Kittel, Jordan Tice, and many more! For registration information, write to taclarridge@gmail.com.
*email for tickets and show information*
Monday, 5/2
Bear Valley, CA
Phil (Bear Valley) powderbears@gmail.com
Tuesday, 5/3
McKinleyville, CA
Holly (McKinleyville) molamola13@hotmail.com
Wednesday, 5/4
Bend, OR
Nancy (Bend) westsidefarm@yahoo.com
looking ahead:
Friday, 5/6
Marblehead, MA
Me & Thee Coffeehouse
Anais Mitchell’s Hadestown featuring Tim Gearan, Amy Correia, and Jefferson Hamer
8:00
Saturday, 5/7
Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Lyceum
GALA NYC
Tuesday, 5/10
Cambridge, MA
Toad
Jefferson Hamer, and Robert Sarazin Blake
7:00 *early show*
Friday, 5/13
Portland, ME
One Longfellow Square
Session Americana and Kris Delmhorst
Saturday, 5/14
Session Americana and Kris Delmhorst
Northhampton, MA
Iron Horse
Wednesday, 6/8
Whately, MA
Watermelon Wednesdays
Jefferson Hamer, Tashina Clarridge, and Maeve Gilchrist
Thursday, 6/9
Stone Mountain Center for the Performing Arts
Laura Cortese and Jefferson Hamer
Sunday, 6/12 – Friday, 6/17
Miles of Music Camp
Miles of Music Camp is a mind-blowing week of classes, jams, dances, general inspiration and free time on a gorgeous island in New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee.
Open to musicians of all ages and abilities, the camp is a place for creativity and the exchange of skills & ideas in the roots music community.
What would happen if an Arab folk musician, a chart-topping rock guitarist and a Grammy-nominated classical violinist decided to play each other’s music? And co-write a new piece? And even cover a Justin Bieber song? Who knows…and that’s exactly the point of GALA/NYC, a one-of-a-kind performance series at the Brooklyn Lyceum that will preview for four concerts in May with a full season of twice-monthly shows to begin in September. The first shows will take place on Saturday evenings at 8 PM on May 7, 14, 21 and 28.
Anchored and developed by the versatile Juilliard-trained cellist and composer Mike Block—hailed by Yo Yo Ma as “the ideal 21st century musician”—the concert series expands the musical conversation to create an artistically multi-lingual program that’s intimate, immediate and interactive. Drawing performers from a wide swath of musical styles and arts disciplines, GALA/NYC serves as a platform for artists to collaborate and connect with one another, and with the audience, in a unique and spontaneous way.
“At the highest level, GALA/NYC is about a personal interaction between the specific artists,” he says. “It’s not an academic exercise about how can we combine genres but a dialogue shaped by peoples’ individual backgrounds, responses and influences.” Equally important to Block is involving the audience in the artistic process. “I want to break down the barrier between audiences and performers so it becomes one creative community. The audience can influence the direction the show takes.”
To open a more direct communication between musicians and concertgoers, the program will always include an improvisational element guided by audience members. Also, Block will keep a blog during rehearsals that reveal collaborations in real-time and viewers can give their input on the music being created. Responses to the concert preparations can actually influence the final performances. Block’s blog will feature interviews with upcoming guest artists and GALA/NYC shows will be streamed live on the Internet so that people outside of New York can get in on the action.
The remarkable range of artists includes multiple Grammy winners and nominees as well as other world-class musicians from diverse backgrounds. The concerts in May will feature Aaron Dugan, guitarist for the Top-40 band Matisyahu; and Classical Grammy nominees—Russian violin soloist Anastasia Khitruk, and the Enso String Quartet. Among the other outstanding performers scheduled are: Aoife O’Donovan, vocalist for the Alt-Bluegrass band Crooked Still; Jay Foote, bassist for pop singer-songwriter Diane Birch; Mathias Kunzli, a percussionist for Lauryn Hill and Moby; Japanese folk and jazz flutist Kaoru Watanabe; Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and his City Band; Kristin Andreassen, a folk singer-songwriter with Uncle Earl; and Shane Shanahan, a percussionist who performs regularly with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and for the Broadway show “Shrek.”
Beyond music, GALA/NYC will regularly reach into other art forms: a hip-hop dance duo, improvisational comedians, and Kevork Mourad, a visual artist who illustrates live with music, are slated to take part.
With such a deep pool of diverse talent, New York is the perfect spot to launch and support Block’s endeavor. Block’s own career trajectory as a cellist, singer, composer and educator frequently takes a border crossing path. While still a Julliard student, he joined Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, a collective of accomplished musicians, composers, arrangers, visual artists and storytellers from more than 20 countries. Shortly thereafter he joined Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz Trio, which relies on American traditional music to inform a new American classical genre. Additionally, he has toured extensively with Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings, a creative quartet that mingled bluegrass, jazz, classical, pop and world music; and The Knights, a New York-based chamber ensemble that cultivates collaborative music-making and seeks to creatively engage audiences.
In 2009, he founded the Mike Block String Camp in Vero Beach, Florida, to empower students to compose, arrange, learn, and perform music from different styles, all by ear. Block is also the Lead Teaching Artist for Silk Road Connect. A groundbreaking partnership between the New York Department of Education and the Silk Road Project, the program brings musicians from different parts of the world into 6th grade classes of the city’s public schools. For Block, GALA/NYC is an opportunity to continue these explorations with all the people and artists in New York.
Press Contact:
Diane Blackman
BR Public Relations /212-249.5125
dblackman@brpublicrelations.com
Patricia Jones/pellen325@yahoo.com
 My friends and musical collaborators Laura Cortese and Kristin Andreassen have created a new kind of music camp, one designed for instrumentalists, singers, and songwriters. I’m thrilled to be teaching June 12-17 at the Miles of Music Camp on picturesque Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. Some great friends of mine are also teaching, and registrations are going fast! Visit http://www.milesofmusiccamp.com/index.htm to get more info and register!
I’m happy to be heading to California to teach guitar and songs at the Big Sur Fiddle Camp. Set on the beautiful California coast, this gathering of musicians of all ages is run by some good friends of mine. In the past couple years I’ve been fortunate to get to know many inspiring players associated with the west coast fiddle camp community, camps like Valley of the Moon, Shasta, Sierra, Big Sur. These camps have been happening for years and have given rise to some of today’s exciting young players in old-time, Irish, bluegrass, and progressive acoustic music. They’re all run by extraordinarily talented and generous instructors, and everyone has a great time. There’s still room for a few last-minute signups. For more info, check the camp website:
http://bigsurfiddlecamp.com
I’m excited to play on Boston’s WGBH station with host Brian O’ Donovan on Saturday, April 2. The show runs live from 5-6 PM, and I’m sharing the hour (dubbed the Guest Street Sessions) with my friends in the progressive instrumental string ensemble The Bee Eaters. I often play with their fiddler Tashina Clarridge, and we’ll be collaborating during the set.
Stream the show live on the internet at: www.wgbh.org
Boston-area residents can tune in on the radio at:
89.7 FM
 I’m currently on tour in the Pacific Northwest with talented Boston-based fiddler Tashina Clarridge. We are playing acoustic duo concerts in Portland, Seattle, Whidbey Island, Bainbridge Island, and Bellingham. We are also playing a folk-song workshop at the Wintergrass festival in Belleview, WA. These concerts feature a mix of original songs, traditional ballads, and fiddle tunes.
Wednesday, Feb. 23 – 7:30 PM.
SE Portland, OR, House Concert and Workshop
Potluck refreshments @ 7:00 PM and at intermission.
Please RSVP for directions as seating is limited.
Donation $15 general / $10 student
Contact: Abbie Weisenbloom 503-233-4945 // email: abbiew@froggie.com
Workshop: Fiddle & Guitar 6-7PM before show. $20-30 sliding + discount if you attend the show afterward
Saturday, Feb. 26 – 11:15 AM
Wintergrass Festival
Hyatt Regency – Belleview, WA
3rd Floor – Laurel Room
Workshop “Folk Songs”
http://www.acousticsound.org/PDF/Wintergrass_Workshops_2011.pdf
Sunday, Feb. 27 – 3:00 PM
Whidbey Island Acoustic House Concert Series
Home of Elizabeth and Kent Lovelace
please call for Reservation and Directions:
ELIZABETH LOVELACE 360-222-3467, elizabethlovelace1@gmail.com
OR
BEVERLY HEISING 360-321-4715, heisings@msn.com
Adults $15 Children FREE
Tuesday, March 1 – 6:30 PM
Eisenhauer House Concert on Bainbridge Island, WA
9414 Green Spot Pl NE
Bainbridge Island, WA
email mail@jeffersonhamer.com for RSVP
$20
Wednesday, March 2 – 8:00 PM
Seattle, WA, Empty Sea Studios
6300 Phinney Avenue North
(206) 228-2483
concert link: http://www.emptysea.com/2011/03/jefferson-hamer-tashina-clarridge/
buy tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/159065
Tickets: $12 advance, $16 at the door.
Thursday, March 3 – 9:00 PM
Bellingham, WA, Green Frog Acoustic Tavern
902 N State St # 104
(360) 756-1213
http://www.acoustictavern.com/
I’ll be singing and playing with some amazing musicians at this Valentine’s Day show at Pete’s Candy Store , located at 709 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn, NY. We play from 9:30 PM into the night. The concert will feature Christina Courtin, Aoife O’Donovan, The Jenkins Sisters, Kristin Andreassen, Angelina Moysou, Jefferson Hamer, Ryan Scott, Jacob Silver, Robin Macmillan, and Tom Ayres. Come out and throw some chocolates in the tip jar.
|
|
