May 01, 2005
World-Jazz Extravaganza at Makor
Thursday May 19, 8PM
Aaron Alexander’s Midrash Mish Mosh with Scott Kettner’s Nation Beat.
A World-Jazz Extravaganza is coming to Makor Steinhardt center on
Thursday May 19, 2005, featuring Aaron Alexander's Midrash Mish Mosh
and Scott Kettner’s Nation Beat Ensemble. Makor is located at 35 W.
67th St., (bet. Columbus and Ctrl Park West), in NYC’s Upper West Side.
Tickets are $15 at the door.
Both groups on the bill blend world music traditions with modern
sounds, styles and improvisation.
Both groups offer dynamic music which aims to bring together vernacular
with artistic music in fun, and thought provoking way.
Aaron Alexander’s Midrash Mish Mosh brings together old world klezmer
with electric instruments, free jazz, balkan rhythms and thrash punk.
Their record on the Tzadik label has received acclaim from critics in
the klezmer world and the modern jazz world. The band features some of
the top players in the downtown scene, including members of Hasidic New
Wave, Klezmatics, Babkas, Klez Dispensers, Paradox Trio and others.
The band at Makor will be: Greg Wall- clarinet, Alex Kontorovich –
saxophone/clarinet, Ben Holmes– trumpet, Jacob Garchik – trombone,
Brad Shepik – guitar, Fima Ephron - bass, Aaron Alexander – drums.
Aaron Alexander is one of the premier drummers in New York City, a
first-call musician on the feverishly creative downtown scene who
excels at playing modern jazz and a cross-pollinating pluralistic music
based in a klezmer aesthetic that’s just too bold and free-wheeling for
easy categorization. Whichever style he plays, this technically expert
musician originally from Seattle animates his traps with a supreme
confidence, an uncommonly rich musical imagination, and an almost
palpable passion or tenderness.
Based in New York City since 1993, Alexander has involved himself in
many high-quality jazz and Jewish music-oriented projects, both as
bandleader and sideman. His career highlights to date include touring
Europe numerous times with his collective trio Babkas, and the downtown
super-group Hasidic New Wave, among others, supporting jazz-blues great
Mose Allison in a week at Seattle’s Jazz Alley, driving the Klezmatics
with interlocking rhythms at majestic Royal Festival Hall in London,
and making his recently released feature album, Midrash Mish Mosh