The Christine Correa Ensemble will highlight Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite and Percussion Bitter Sweet at Next Stage Arts on Sunday, March 10th, at 7:00 pm, at 15 Kimball Hill in downtown Putney, VT. Tickets are $20 in advance / $25 at the door / $10 livestream, and may be purchased at nextstagearts.org.
“Max Roach broke the mold with his ‘We Insist!’ record in 1960, being one of the first jazz records that publicly proclaimed racial injustice. Christine Correa is bringing an all-star lineup of New York-based Jazz musicians to play Roach’s album live, allowing the audience to hear its ferocity and message live,” says Keith Marks, Executive Director of Next Stage Arts. “Through the generosity of Chamber Music America, we’re able to bring this to our region.”
The Christine Correa Ensemble will highlight Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite and Percussion Bitter Sweet in order to celebrate the creative and activist legacy of Max Roach, a high-profile artist who was an outspoken civil rights advocate and who used the arts as a catalyst for change.
For Correa and her five-member ensemble, honoring Roach’s work means approaching his innovative music and powerful performances with deep reverence and sympathy. As such, the ensemble’s goal is to stay as true to the spirit of the music as possible by returning to the powerful emotional and creative content with sincerity and artfulness. After the performance, there will be an opportunity for the audience to converse with the musicians, which aims to not only shed light on the historical and social context that informed Roach’s work, but will also provide an opportunity for audiences to reflect on their experiences of this work and its relevance in the present moment.
The Christine Correa Ensemble includes:
Christine Correa – vocals
Sam Newsome – soprano saxophone
Andrew Boudreau – piano
Kim Cass – bass
Michael Sarin – drums
Vocalist Christine Correa is a native of Bombay, India currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. After relocating to the U.S. in 1979, she soon became involved in a variety of improvisational contexts. Christine has performed and recorded with artists such as Ran Blake, Steve Lacy and John LaPorta and has appeared at numerous festivals and clubs in the U.S., Europe, South America, Africa, the Middle East and India. Christine has also been featured on projects by composers Frank Carlberg, Steve Grover, Sam Sadigursky, Nicholas Urie, Guillaume Orti and Laurent Coq. Christine is currently on the faculty at Columbia University’s Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, Teacher’s College at Columbia University and the New School in New York City and has been Director of the Maine Jazz Camp since 1994.
New York-based saxophonist and composer Sam Newsome often works in the medium of solo saxophone, an approach for which he gained world-wide critical acclaim with his 2009 recording Blue Soliloquy: Solo Works for Soprano Saxophone. This recording received a five-star review in Downbeat magazine. Many of the notes and sounds used in his compositions and improvisations stem from his sound palette of extended techniques and saxophone preparations. Newsome often attaches tube extensions to the neck of the soprano that significantly changes the timbre of the instrument as well as extends the soprano’s range by an octave or two. Conceptually speaking, Newsome sees himself more along the lines of a visual artist who paints with notes and sounds rather than shapes and colors. Newsome has also received numerous accolades for his adventurous work, including this year’s 2020 Instant Award in Improvised Music, along with fellow avant-gardists Peter Brotzmann and John Butcher. He was also nominated for Soprano Saxophonist of the Year by the 2020 Jazz Journalist Association. Past recognitions include the 2018 New Music USA Grant, the 2018 Alpert/Ragdale Prize in Music Composition and the 2016 NYFA Fellowship for Music Composition. In addition to his solo work, Newsome leads a trio with Hilliard Greene and Reggie Nicholson. He is a frequent collaborator with drummer Andrew Cyrille, vocalist Fay Victor, and tours regularly with Pepperland, a music and dance work with Mark Morris and Ethan Iverson that pays tribute to The Beatles. Newsome is currently Director of the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports and Entertainment at Long Island University.
Canadian pianist Andrew Boudreau is an active member of the North American and
international jazz and creative music scenes. In 2019 he was a prizewinner at the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. One of eight Canadian musicians to receive the Astral Artist Prize (2013) at the National Arts Centre (Ottawa, Canada), Andrew is also the recipient of the OPUS Prize for Concert of the Year – Jazz and World Music in Quebec (2016). Andrew has performed in the Montreal International Jazz Festival, OFF festival de jazz de Montreal, and the International Chamber Music Festival (Stavanger, Norway) among others. He has performed with a diverse array of musicians and ensembles such as the Orchestra national de jazz de Montreal with David Binney, soprano Measha Brueggergosman, and the Altsys Jazz Orchestra. As a soloist, he has been pianist-in-residence at the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA) and at 7132 (Vals, Switzerland). Andrew is on faculty at Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY) and completed a Master of Music at the New England Conservatory of Music, Bachelor or Music at McGill University, and Associate of the Royal Conservatory Diploma (Piano Performance) from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto). Current collaborators include Christine Correa, violist/ethnomusicologist Tanya Kalmanovitch, vocalist Amanda Ekery, accordionist Sunniva Brynnel and collective trio Family Plan, which released their debut album Family Plan on Endectomorph Records in September 2021.
Kim Cass, originally from Bar Harbor, Maine, spent his early life producing solo recordings of upright bass in electronic composed settings, and always striving to develop a unique voice as an improvisational conceptualizer and technical virtuoso. After receiving his degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston, Kim relocated to San Francisco and then New York City. He has worked with Rudresh Mahanthappa, Jason Moran, Matt Mitchell, John Zorn, Matt Maneri, Noah Preminger, Tyshawn Sorey, David Binney, among others. In 2015, released his self-titled debut recording for solo bass and electronics which received critical acclaim from critics and his peers. He is currently focused on composing for instruments in new ways that stretch rhythmic, technical and harmonic boundaries, resulting in a new album of original music to be released in 2021 featuring pianist Matt Mitchell. Cass utilizes a unique style of handwritten notation, which has become an important part of his creative exploration. Kim is part of the esteemed faculty at The New School in NYC.
Over the last 30 years, drummer Michael Sarin has been at the center of New York City’s
genre-bending jazz and improvised music community. His versatility and musical wit helped forge long associations with forward-looking artists Ben Allison, Frank Carlberg, Thomas Chapin, Dave Douglas, Mark Dresser, Erik Friedlander, David Krakauer, Myra Melford and Mario Pavone. His unique style and approach to the drum set has been highly sought after by musicians looking to expand the definitions of jazz and improvised music; he can be heard on hundreds of recordings. Michael performs all over the world – in major and minor festivals, concert halls, famous and infamous, big and small. He is a longtime member of the Maine Jazz Camp, and currently a faculty member at the New York Jazz Workshop.
Next Stage Arts Project’s presentation of the Christine Corréa Ensemble is supported through a Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz grant in collaboration with The Dance Hall and Portland Conservatory of Music.
A component of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, Presenter Consortium for Jazz is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.
This concert is sponsored in part by Community Bank NA.
Next Stage is located at 15 Kimball Hill in downtown Putney, VT. Tickets are $20 Advance / $25 At the Door / $10 Livestream. Advance tickets are available at nextstagearts.org. Next Stage will provide a beer, wine, and cocktail cash bar. For information, call 802-387-0102 or visit nextstagearts.org.
