Jazz in the Basement is a monthly concert series featuring local jazz artists, organized by the DC Public Library and curated by Bertrand Uberall and John Cook. The concerts are intended to highlight young artists, new composers, or unique jazz sounds to broaden the listening landscape of our Washington, DC audiences. DC Public Library is a proud supporter of our local music community and looks forward to expanding valuable resources to assist musicians in their creative and professional endeavors.
This May, we are excited to present a double bill featuring Berlin-based trio
Der lange Schatten and a local duo consisting of Rachel Winder and Simone Baron.
Admission for the concert is free; limited seating is available on a first come, first served basis.
RSVP
Der lange Schatten was established in summer 2009 and is based in Berlin. Drawing on a repertoire of compositions by all three members, the Italian/German/Norwegian trio has a distinct sound, but a seemingly endless range of possibilities and expressions. Precise unisons follow tightly-woven counterpoints. Nimble techniques enable stop-on-a-dime accuracy. The instrumentation allows for allows for clarity and transparency. Sometimes they sound spiky and modernistic. At other times, they swing. Sometimes they may even have a touch of the baroque, or a bit of folkiness. There are melodies that ring of Monk’s angularity, with whiffs of his oblique humor. There’s a dose of Anthony Braxton’s obsessive mania. Dizzying cascades of notes and extended instrumental techniques echo the classic generation of European improvisation. The stylistic blend of "modern-classical" with "jazz" and the relationship of improvisation to composition recall Jimmy Guiffre’s groundbreaking trio, with whom they share the same instrumentation. One might hear a bit of Messiaen’s quartet in there, as well as many other possible sources and influences. Do
Der lange Schatten cast a "long shadow" or do they stand in one?
Håvard Wiik – Piano
Michael Thieke – Clarinet
Antonio Borghini – Bass
Rachel Winder, a native of Baltimore, is an up-and-coming saxophonist, flutist, and vocalist in multiple genres of music. She studied saxophone at the Baltimore School for the Arts and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where she was awarded the Noble Levi Jolley, Sr. Jazz Studies Scholarship. She regularly performs with musicians in Baltimore, as well as with her quintet at
An Die Musik in Baltimore. She features as the lead alto saxophonist in the New World Outreach Jazz Orchestra, Benny Russell Jazz Orchestra, David Murray Baltimore Big Band, and many more. Rachel is dedicated to the education of young people and musicians in Baltimore City.
Simone Baron is a multifaceted musician whose work as a pianist, accordionist, conductor, arranger, and composer strives to experiment and engage with a broad range of audiences, musical languages / traditions, and art forms. Simone’s innovative programming spanning her own works as well as the traditional and modern repertoire have led her to perform internationally throughout Europe, Israel, and North America, appearing as a soloist and chamber musician in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall, Targ Hall (Jerusalem), Centro Pitigaliani (Rome), DC’s Kennedy Center, the Hirshhorn Museum, and Wolf Trap. Simone studied piano and conducting at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann School of Music. Her unique voice and re-imagination of the accordion’s possibilities have opened the door to cross-genre collaborations with dancers, actors, puppeteers, visual and performance artists.
Arco Belo, her current project, is a hybrid chamber jazz sextet with strings and percussion that features original compositions and innovative arrangements of works from different musical traditions. Past engagements include residencies as a 2016-2017 Strathmore AIR, and a return artist residency at the Banff Arts Centre in Alberta, Canada.
Back
