Sign the petition here to have the Williamsburg bridge renamed the Sonny Rollins bridge here
Support renaming the Williamsburg Bridge as the Sonny Rollins Williamsburg Bridge in honor of an outstanding New Yorker, the jazz legend Sonny Rollins, who practiced daily on the Williamsburg Bridge from the summer of 1959 to the fall of 1961. At that time, Mr. Rollins was living at 400 Grand Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and through reflection and discipline, adjusted his path and purpose, becoming a model of self-determination and resilience for all New Yorkers.
About the Williamsburg Bridge:
The Williamsburg Bridge is one of the major crossings of the East River, carrying approximately 140,000 motorists, 92,000 transit riders, 600 cyclists, and 500 pedestrians daily between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, and serving some of the busiest arteries in New York City. Currently, the bridge carries four two-lane vehicular roadways, a south roadway (inner and outer) and north roadway (inner and outer), with two rapid transit tracks (J, M, and Z subway lines) in between. A walkway and a bikeway also run across the bridge.
About Sonny Rollins:
Sonny Rollins is a jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader who has been making music for over six decades. Born in Harlem in 1930, Mr. Rollins is a musical pioneer who has helped jazz bridge the different eras of bebop, hard bop, fusion, free jazz, avant-garde, and post bop. He is considered by many to be the greatest improviser to have ever lived. Rollins is currently 87 years and a living legend from the golden age of jazz.
About the Sonny Rollins Bridge Project:
The Sonny Rollins Bridge Project seeks to rename the Williamsburg Bridge to commemorate Rollins’ musical sabbatical there from 1959-1961. The project was begun in March 2016 and the effort has received news coverage around the world, including publications in Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The project is working closely with New York City and State representatives to introduce legislation to officially rename the bridge to the Sonny Rollins Williamsburg Bridge.
The jazz supergroup of the year is right here – SHEroes, convened by pianist-composer Monika Herzig for a second recording by distinguished improvising virtuosos who are all, not just incidentally, women. Monika’s deft, always supportive pianism and her warm, joyous, practical sensibility marks every tune with SHEroes. As a Doctor of Music at Indiana University, she is a senior lecturer focusing on Arts Management in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She is the biographer of IU’s late Doctor David Baker and recently released “A listener’s guide to Chick Corea.” SHEroes also features an international cast of players: Reut Regev (Israel)- Trombone; Jennifer Vincent (USA/NYC)- Trumpet; Jamie Baum (NYC)- Flute; Leni Stern (Germany/NYC)- Electric Guitar; Rosa Avila (Mexico/NYC)- Drums. Each member is a first call, in demand artist for multiple groups and a leader/composer/arranger in her own right.
Monika will be playing two shows in the CT NY area
“Listening to Farell is like stepping back in Time, to mid-20th Century America, when Jazz and Romance were popular. His Sounscapes are like Odes to Love…Farell’s “Distant Song” provides enough soothing sounds for listeners to ponder the Human condition…He is joined by Dave Liebman on soprano & tenor Saxophones, and by Richie Beirach on acoustic Piano.”
“I give Fred, and his fellow master (musicians) an energy quotient rating of 4.99 for this CD.…One of the strongest Jazz Vocal performances I’ve listened to yet in 2018.”
“…FARELL is the real deal in terms of Sincerity, his voice speaks authority as does the tender Truth expressed in his Lyrics…and musical arrangements…A performance that regularly stops you…in your tracks…”
“The mood of the Program is dark blue, solemn, and well matched to Fred’s Baritone, and the accompanying Instrumentation…with Farell writing all the Lyrics.”
“Fred Farell’s new CD is rewarding on several levels. His lyrics for the songs of Dave Liebman and Richie Beirach show that the instrumental pieces are surprisingly singable, adding to the jazz vocal repertoire. His singing is warm, quietly expressive, and really gets into the messages of the songs. And the playing of Liebman and Beirach is as creative as ever. Their fans will find much to enjoy on this rewarding set.”
Vocalist Fred Farell’s latest project Distant Song captures the music of Liebman and Beirach beautifully. Farell didn’t merely copy Liebman’s and Beirach’s compositions, he added sublime lyrics and a magically ethereal vocal style.
FRED FARELL began singing professionally during his military service in the USA, and Europe in 1967. His musical training includes: jazz vocal improvisation with pianist-composer and educator Richard Beirach; Private voice studies with Cynthia Hoffman, Richard Dorr, and Larry Chelsi; and music courses taken at The City College of New York; at which time he enrolled in Jazz studies taught by Jazz songstress and educator Sheila Jordan. His first appearances as a solo artist and group leader in New York, were at Loft galleries, and Jazz clubs during the 1970’s and early 1980’s; including return engagements at Sweet Basil, and Greene Street; during which time he was
an artist-member of Cobi Narita’s Universal Jazz Coalition. As a featured soloist, as well as an ensemble singer, Mr. Farell has performed at Avery Fisher Hall, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kitchen, WBAI Radio, The Museum of Modern Art, and Symphony Space, with such jazz masters and artists as the late saxophonist Dexter Gordon; Pianists: Barry Harris, the late Albert Dailey, and Kenny Barron; Bassists: the late Herman Wright, Rufus Reid and Ratso Harris; Female Vocal Artist-educator Jay Clayton (The Voice Group); and Natural Sound Composer-pianist Kirk Nurock. In the creative expression of Jazz used to present the Gospel message, the singer has been a featured soloist with the Don Hanson Ensemble, led by the saxophonist-composer; has appeared on the Queens Public Cable TV Network; and is currently co-leader of the Gospel Jazz group “JazzLite”. In this group setting, Mr. Farell ministers with his gospel lyrics for original compositions, and Jazz standards, and features Pianists Jeff Kruh, and Joel Weiskopf in varying instrumental formats, depending upon the venues entered.
Richard Beirach, Dave Liebman, Frederick Farell, Red Rock Recording Studios, June 11, 2015. David W. Coulter Photography
KRISTEN LEE SERGEANT has been gigging around the New York City area for several years, developing her jazz vocal chops. Inside/Out (Whaling City Sound – 087) is her first album, and from the evidence here, she was certainly ready to spread her talent to a wider audience. With backing from David Budway on piano, Chris Berger on piano and Victor Ector on drums, she sings six standards, “Never Will I Marry,” “Old Devil Moon,” “Lullaby of the Leaves,” “So Many Stars” “I Wish I Were in Love Again” and “It Never Entered My Mind.” Like so many younger singers, she grew up listening to the pop music of her generation, and has chosen to include some material from more contemporary sources to her repertoire. In this instance, she selected hits by Tears for Fears, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” the Police, “Every Breath You Take,” and Modern English, “I Melt with You,” to fill out her program. Perhaps it is a generational thing, but these songs just do not hold up well next to the older songs, but Sergeant does a fine job of bringing them into a jazz context. The lady can sing, and there should be more fine albums like this one coming from her down the road.
Some vocalists aspire to be jazz singers. Others claim the mantle but fall short. The lucky few, like Kristen Lee Sergeant, meet the challenge and merit the title.
Inside Out displays Sergeant’s qualifications – her superior intonation and control, an interpretive command that ranges from defiance to gentility, a willingness to take risks with harmony and rhythm, the freshness of her arrangements, synchronicity with her accompanists, and the manner in which all these elements yield a supremely musical package. She has refined these skills over the past decade, and her woodshedding period has yielded an imposing debut album.
Sergeant grew up in Manchester-by-the-Sea, a suburb on Boston’s North Shore that she is quick to point out is the home of Singing Beach. During her high school and college years, she was focused on theater and classical singing, and when she moved to New York after graduating from Brandeis University her intent was to pursue a theatrical career and study opera. Then her roommate suggested that Sergeant check out cabaret legend Marilyn Maye, and a new fascination took hold. “I had listened to cabaret and jazz a bit, but hadn’t really been exposed,” Sergeant recalls. “Seeing Marilyn perform convinced me that there was a more intimate way of reaching an audience.“ Sergeant has become a student of Maye’s. “Marilyn reminds me to celebrate the beauty in my instrument.”
Sergeant also found herself immersed in jazz after the leader of a big band heard her rehearsing bel canto in a practice studio and invited her to sit in. Soon she was a permanent member of the ensemble, which only added to her growing sense of the music. “I was able to observe how the soloists were trying to discover something,” she explains, “which taught me to embrace the process of improvisation. The band played a lot of transcribed solos from Art Blakey records, and just singing along was a great education in itself.”
Hearing Maye and working with the big band led Sergeant to reconsider her musical priorities. “I saw that technique is a double-edged sword,” she says. “Classical training can make you more adept, but it can also be a shield, as if being able to do all of the tricks puts you beyond criticism. And there’s stuff you miss in more traditional vocal study, particularly in the area of rhythm. I began to realize that as a student I had reached a peak, only to discover that I could see a higher summit.”
Another key moment in Sergeant’s development was encountering a Carmen McRae video from the 1960s television series Jazz Casual. “Carmen’s incredible commitment to the lyrics, together with her complete musicality, made me realize that such things were possible. Around that time, a theatrical project I had been involved in for quite a while got a New York tryout on a night that I had a jazz gig. I realized that I had undergone a transition and missed the tryout.”
Studies with vocalist/pianist Tom Lellis put the finishing touches on Sergeant’s jazz apprenticeship. “Tom is a great teacher,” she confirms, “and he was particularly helpful in my approach to rhythm. Hard bop is my favorite listening music, which may seem like an odd choice for a singer, but Tom helped me apply the colors of hard bop to my approach. And he made me realize that, in jazz, vibrato is a choice rather than an essential. Most importantly, I learned that while I may be as deliberate as need be when I practice, what comes out when I perform has to relate more to instinct. When I’m into a song, the chances I take are all instinctual. And the meaning of each tune is my window into improvisation. If what I’m trying to do is not based in a deep well of feeling, it’s not going to happen.”
Sergeant has put her philosophy into practice in this debut program, which places her individual stamp on a half-dozen consensus standards plus three additional hits from the ‘80s. She explains the presence of the latter by noting that “I chose `Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ and `Every Breath You Take’ because these songs are in the back of all of our minds. We hear them at Whole Foods, or in malls, or wherever we find ourselves wandering around; yet they aren’t sacred cows, so they are approachable for rearrangement. I took that freedom,” she jokes, “and abused it.” “I Melt with You,” the Modern English hit, is less familiar than the Tears for Fears and Police tunes, yet provided the kind of open meaning that Sergeant finds inspiring. “Thinking about melting led me to the messy intro,” she explains, “and then thinking more about melting led to the spoken word statement that alludes to both personal attraction and nuclear war.”
The rest of the program is personalized as well, with such memorable touches as her half-time statement against the rhythm section at the start of “Old Devil Moon,” the Monkish setting of “I Wish I Were in Love Again” and the straightforward wonder of “So Many Stars.” As the tracks were being recorded, producer Suzi Reynolds pointed out that Sergeant had created a song cycle, one that began with the power of “Never Will I Marry” and ultimately looped back to another form of never. “All of these songs mean something to me,” Sergeant confirms, “and the musical vocabulary of jazz allowed me to reinvent. `It Never Entered My Mind’ is so personal that I can’t listen to it. It’s the sucker punch at the end of our visit to all of these rapturous places.”
Sergeant is quick to share the credit with her rhythm section, which is comprised of players who, in her words, “can say what they need to say explosively.” She has a history of playing with pianist David Budway and bassist Chris Berger; and while many of her gigs do not allow for drummers, she found Vince Ector “a treat to work with.” She shares this writer’s appreciation of Budway’s contribution, both as a member of the trio and, on the closing two tracks, as the sole accompanist. “I’ve done gigs with David almost as long as I’ve been in New York. He’s such a versatile musician that he’s even done classical things with me. David has an endless imagination. You can work with great accompanists and great soloists, but only a few can do both. David is one of the few.”
What has resulted on Inside Out is nothing less than a confirmation of Kristen Lee Sergeant’s embrace of the jazz aesthetic. “Jazz is about bringing something new to what may be familiar material,” she insists. “The art form doesn’t need you if you’re not seeking a new way. Unlike my work in theater, it’s about what I want to say, what I can bring that no one else can bring. And while my training with a big band was invaluable, your own improvising is limited because this massive machine surrounds you. The trio gave me more opportunity to play off what everyone else is doing, which is another thing that I love about jazz. It allowed me to follow Suzi’s advice to `seize the musical moment.’”
Consider the moment seized.
Bob Blumenthal
Track Listing & Publishing Info
1 Never Will I Marry 3:32
(Frank Loesser, rearranged by Kristen Lee Sergeant) MPL Music Publishing Inc. OBO Frank Music Corp.
2 Everybody Wants to Rule the World 4:06
(Orzabal, Stanley, Hughes, rearranged by Kristen Lee Sergeant) Platinum Songs OBO Amusements LTD, Rights Management Rosetta VM PKA Virgin Songs, BMG
3 Old Devil Moon 4:28
(Burton Lane & E.Y. Harburg) Chappell & Co. Shapiro Bernstein OBO Glocca MorraMusic
5 I Melt With You 5:44
(Richard Ian Brown, Stephen James Walker, Robert James Grey, Michael Frances Conroy, Gary Frances Mcdowell, Dalton Dieh, rearranged by Kristen Lee Sergeant) Universal – Songs of Polyg OBO Universal/Momentum Music 3 LTD
6 So Many Stars 4:02
(Sergio Mendez, Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman) WB Music Corp Spirit Two Music OBO Spirit Services Holdings, SARL
7 Every Breath You Take 3:16
(Sting, rearranged by Kristen Lee Sergeant) EMI Blackwood Music Inc. OBO Magnetic Publishing LTD.
or Alan Bernstein at 401-500-1243 or alan@communitystringproject.org
COMMUNITY STRING PROJECT TO OFFER CLASSICAL GUITAR ENSEMBLES THIS FALL
Instruction in Classical Guitar will be added to the Community String Project classes for adult students this Fall. The new program, available to adults 18 and older, consists of a Beginning Classical Guitar Ensemble and an Advanced Ensemble. Students must have their own classical guitar.
The Classical Guitar Program will be taught by Virginia “Vicki” Boyle who has been teaching Classical Guitar at Mt. Hope High School for the past 20 years. Ms. Boyle developed the Guitar Program at Mt. Hope – four years of high school guitar culminating in a classical guitar ensemble. Her award-winning ensembles have performed throughout New England as well as New York, Washington, D.C. and Florida.
Ms. Boyle will be demonstrating the Classical Guitar at CSP’s upcoming String Instrument Playgrounds at 6pm on September 10th at the East Providence Library, 6pm on September 12th at the Portsmouth Library, and at 6:30pm on September 13th at the Barrington Library.
CSP, now in it’s 10th year of bringing affordable and accessible string instrument lessons to the East Bay Community, is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization and a member of The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
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2017
For release during the week of September 4th
Contact: Robert Arsenault 396-7395
Have you ever been tempted to pluck a string or four on a Double Bass? Do you fancy yourself whipping out the violin at a family gathering and accompanying the chorus of Christmas carols? Does the sound of a viola in the quiet of a summer backyard or beach send shivers up your heartstrings? Is that irrepressible urge to play the elegant cello still alive in your soul? Come to the first annual “String Instrument Playground” presented by Community String Project and let the music begin!
The event will begin at 6:30 pm on Monday, September 11, 2017 in the Gallery Room at the Barrington Public Library. Adult musicians (participants and instructors) from the Community String Project will give a brief performance/demonstration of their own beloved instrument- violin, viola, cello and bass, and explain their own journey to CSP. Some of these folks took the leap and began with no prior musical experience or note reading ability. Others have rekindled an old relationship with their instrument that began in grade school! Following the demonstrations, the audience is invited to put their own “hands on” each instrument to truly get a feel for how it is unique in shape and sound.
Should your hands, heart and ears fall in love with an instrument that evening, CSP registration materials will be available. Anyone who signs up that evening will receive a one time 15% discount off the cost of a semester fee. The Community String Project offers beginner, intermediate and advanced instruction in a group setting, rents instruments at a nominal fee while supply lasts and offers comprehensive support in the procurement, care and use of stringed instruments. Lessons and rehearsals in each of our four Adult Ensembles begin at the end of September and take place at the First Congregational Church (corner of Bradford and High Streets) in Bristol.
The Community String Project is beginning its 9th year, providing affordable and accessible string instrument lessons to children and adults. View our website at www.communitystringproject.org. For further information, contact Alan Bernstein at 401-500-1243 or alan@communitystringproject.org.
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Interested in learning to play a string instrument? Did you play when you were younger and want to regain and improve your musical skills? The Community String Project provides affordable lessons to more than 135 youngsters and adults in Bristol, RI. This non-profit organization has provided after-school lessons and a Youth Orchestra Program for elementary and middle school students. With CSP, students get the opportunity to become involved in a supportive activity that have increased their self-esteem and engagement. Adults travel from as far away as Kingston and Pascoag to join with others to play music each week. CSP offers weekly beginner lessons and lessons for more experienced musicians.
Learn to play a string instrument in a supportive environment-registration is on September 10. A limited number of instruments are available to rent from CSP. Lessons take place at the First Congregational Church in Bristol, RI beginning the week of September 22nd.
Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the devastating wildfires in California. If you’re in the L.A. area and need support, resources are available to help during this difficult time. Visit these links for assistance: ➡️ bit.ly/40upATb ➡️ bit.ly/3C2cenX
Start your week with the heartfelt lyrics and soulful melodies of Mary Ann Rossoni's "Measure My Love" from her album #TimberAndNails. 💕🛠️ This track is a tender exploration of love, devotion, and how we express what truly matters. 🎸🎤
Music industry consultant and publicist Ginny Shea has garnered international exposure for her clients through radio and video promotion, print media, and her vast industry network.
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For release during the week of September 4th 
Music industry consultant and publicist Ginny Shea has garnered international exposure for her clients through radio and video promotion, print media, and her vast industry network.
