Sound Bar: Aaron Irwin Trio
New York Live Arts and Le Train Bleu Present the perfect kick off to the week with Sound Bar. Join us at the Live Gallery Cafe, in our lobby for Live Music and happy hour specials on Mondays in November.
Five of the selections will be pieces from a larger work composed by Aaron Irwin which are inspired by the twelve published short stories by Breece D’J Pancake. Breece (Dexter John) Pancake (1952-1979), was an American short story author who was a native of West Virginia. He wrote one published book of short stories that was published posthumously after he shot himself at the age of 26. Pancake’s stories lay out a world located in the hills of West Virginia – “the pockets of neglected farm and mining country where people lose their livelihoods, their friends and lovers, their land and their birthrights, but remain stubbornly hewn in place”. Critical praise for his work has been nearly universal. Critics have found parallels between his work and that of Flannery O'Connor, Sherwood Anderson, John Steinbeck, James Joyce, and Ernest Hemingway.
These selections include:
Trilobites
A Room Forever
The Honored Dead
The Scrapper
Time and Again
Critically acclaimed saxophonist, multi-woodwind player, and composer, Aaron Irwin has emerged as a new and unique voice of his generation. His debut album Into the Light was hailed by the New Yorker magazine as being one of the ten best jazz recordings of 2006 alongside such artists such as Ornette Coleman, Joe Lovano, and Paul Motian. His playing has been described by Jazz Times as “generat[ing] thoughtful dialogs, crunchy little grooves, and moments of great emotive power.”
He can be heard on concert stages, jazz clubs, dive bars, and Broadway pit orchestras. He is on faculty teaching woodwind classes at the British International School in Manhattan, Bank Street School and Rutgers University in Camden, NJ. He also was featured in jazz author Cicily Janus’ new 2010 book The New Face of Jazz (Billboard Books) and has a new CD, Ordinary Lives, coming out this fall on the Fresh Sound/New Talent label. www.AaronIrwin.com
Trombonist Matthew McDonald has performed at numerous jazz festivals and conferences, including the Spoleto Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreaux Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, and IAJE. Since moving to New York in 2003, he has performed with many different ensembles including the Max Weinberg Big Band, Smoke Big Band, Birdland Big Band, Fat Cat Big Band, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and Ken Peplowski’s Kingdom of Swing. In 2007, he was invited to perform with his own quartet in Manizales and Medellin, Colombia as one of the “Promising Artists of the 21st Century.” He received his Bachelor of music at DePaul University in Chicago, his Masters of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, as well as receiving his Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School, studying with Wycliffe Gordon. He maintains a busy schedule as a sideman for many of New York’s finest bands and ensembles
Jazz guitarist Pete McCann has been an integral part of the New York City scene for 20 years. He currently leads an exciting new group of New York's finest jazz artists on his latest CD, Extra Mile, on Nineteen-Eight Records. McCann's other releases, Most Folks, You Remind Me of Someone, Parable, have been widely praised by top jazz critics.
McCann is one of the first-call sidemen in New York. He works in several groups including the Patti Austin band, Grace Kelly Quintet, Chris Tarry Quintet, Melissa Stylianou group, Dan Willis Sextet, Aimee Allen Trio, and Alison Wedding's group. Pete has performed with some of the greats in jazz: Kenny Wheeler, Dave Liebman, Lee Konitz, Kenny Garrett, Peter Erskine, Gary Thomas, Greg Osby, Brian Blade, and the Maria Schneider Orchestra. He has appeared on over 60 CDs including: Almost Certainly Dreaming, Chris Tarry group; I Think It's Going To Rain Today, Curtis Stigers; The Other Side of Ellington, The Palmetto All-Stars; Standard Wonder (The Music of Stevie Wonder), Dave Pietro; Round 'Bout Now, George Schuller; andPhase 2, Mahavishnu Project.
Pete's playing encompasses a wide variety of musical styles and genres — Straight-ahead, Post-Bop, Avant-Garde, Latin, Jazz-Rock Fusion. He has performed throughout the US, Canada and Europe from clubs to jazz festivals, musicals, award shows, and even an opera.
