Music

The Vermont Jazz Center welcomes the Bobby Broom Trio on Saturday January 23rd at 8:00 PM. Broom is Chicago’s leading guitarist and, due to his commitment to teaching and his ability to draw crowds in Chicago’s best listening rooms, it is a rare treat to catch him on the east coast. He will perform with his long-standing trio of Dennis Carroll on bass and Makaya McCraven on drums who have each, respectively, played with Broom for 20 and 5 years. The trio will travel from Chicago to Vermont for this “one-off” concert with no other east coast gigs listed on their itinerary.

Broom stands out as one of the best guitarists in the world and has won the Downbeat Critic’s poll as Best Guitarist for 3 of the last 4 years. His music is both intelligent and soulful at the same time. He is a deep listener and an arranger who understands the power of space. He was “the first guitarist to be asked by Art Blakey to be a part of his group,” he loves standards, and can funk-out with the best of them. He has a beautiful tone, an extensive vocabulary of chordal voicings, a deep connection to the blues and a grooving rhythmical sensibility.

McNeill’s Brewery presents contemporary bluegrass and folk music quartet The Stockwell Brothers on Friday, January 15 at 9:00 pm.

Bruce, Barry, Alan and Kelly Stockwell’s music spans traditional and progressive styles, but their trademark acoustic sound features new singer/songwriter material recast with banjo, alternative rhythms and three-part harmonies. They cover straight ahead bluegrass songs, finger picked acoustic guitar ballads, full tilt breakdowns and traditional mandolin tunes mixed in with more unusual fare – Americana melodies riding world beat grooves and Celtic, jazzy, even neo-classical instrumentals.

Guilford, Vt. – Friends of Music at Guilford’s 43rd Christmas at Christ Church program is set for December 11 & 12, Friday at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday at 4:00. These annual gatherings feature both choral and instrumental Christmas music, a story, and a short carol-sing.This year’s program includes an eclectic selection of songs, both sacred and secular, to bring in the holidays. Under the direction of Tom Baehr, the Guilford Chamber Singers present perennial favorites “Carol of the Bells” and “Deck the Halls” with much earlier carols from the 14th to the 17th centuries.

To these are added contemporary pieces “Bethlehem Spiritual” and “The Winter’s Night,” a hauntingly beautiful and evocative song that has become the group’s favorite; an entertaining setting of “Winter Wonderland” and even an arrangement of “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy” from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.” “Come, Dear Children” by Alfred Burt is an invitation to participate in the season’s festivities.

It’s a Wonderful Messiah Sing
Anyone who has ever sung Händel’s Messiah should come enjoy Brattleboro’s annual Messiah Sing on the first Saturday of December. You should probably cram first. I do. This post is our Saturday morning cram guide.

‘s Messiah Sing is Brattleboro at its best. It’s when everyone from our diverse music community is drawn to one place. The soloists are not boring. They’re either up-and-and coming locals or let-me-show-you-how-this-is-done professionals. For the choruses, you’ll always be near a strong singer. Brattleboro is lousy with them. You can just hum along if you’re unsure and then sing loud for the Hallelujah Raucus. If the singing stops during that dramatic rest just before the final Hallelujah, it’s wonderful and glorious. Someone ususally goofs, but there’s always next year when we’re sure to get it right. You just gotta let go on the Hallelujah Chorus. That’s the thing and ’tis the season. As the page turn will tell you, I Know That My Redeemer Liveth!

Friends of Music at Guilford invites singers and music lovers in the Tri-State region to start their holiday season at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 5, with the 45th annual Community Messiah Sing, a benefit for the homeless. Centre Congregational Church, at 193 Main Street in Brattleboro, has been home for the Sing since 1982 and for a few prior seasons as well.

Terry Larsen, a resident of Southampton, Mass., returns for a ninth season to lead the Sing. He brings over twenty-five years of experience as a music teacher, choral singer, soloist, and conductor to his role at the helm. William McKim, who has played the organ at this event for twenty-seven past seasons, and officially “retired” twice from doing so, agreed to step in on short notice when UVM’s David Neiweem, who played for the Sing in 2014, broke a collarbone in late October.

Mole Hill Theatre presents contemporary bluegrass and folk music quartet The Stockwell Brothers on Friday, December 4 at 7:30 pm.

Bruce, Barry, Alan and Kelly Stockwell’s music spans traditional and progressive styles, but their trademark acoustic sound features new singer/songwriter material recast with banjo, alternative rhythms and three-part harmonies. They cover straight ahead bluegrass songs, finger picked acoustic guitar ballads, full tilt breakdowns and traditional mandolin tunes mixed in with more unusual fare – Americana melodies riding world beat grooves and Celtic, jazzy, even neo-classical instrumentals.

The Vermont Jazz Center will present its annual big band swing gala on Friday, December 4th at 8:00 PM. All proceeds will support the VJC’s Scholarship Program. This year’s concert will feature the music of world-class vibraphonist Terry Gibbs and his Dream Band. The VJC will use the same arrangements that Gibbs’ Ensemble performed during the group’s apex that took place in the late 1950s and early ‘60s.

Based out of Los Angeles, Gibbs’ Dream Band is still recognized as one of the best big bands to emerge after the bebop movement. It included heavy hitters Mel Lewis, Joe Maini, Frank Rosolino, Conte Candoli and Richie Kamuca and was given the title of “Best Band in the World” in Downbeat’s 1962 Critic’s Poll. Arrangers for the Dream Band were some of the finest jazz composers of the time including Bill Holman, Med Flory, Shorty Rogers, Lennie Niehaus, Marty Paich, Al Cohn, Bob Brookmeyer and Manny Albam.

Next Stage Arts Project, in collaboration with Twilight Music, Popolo and WOOL91.5, presents contemporary folk singer/songwriter Antje Duvekot and newgrass quartet The Stockwell Brothers at The Windham Ballroom in Bellows Falls, VT on Saturday, November 14 at 8:00 pm.

Antje Duvekot is a German-born, American-raised singer/songwriter whose songs have been critically praised for their hard-won wisdom, dark-eyed realism and street-smart romanticism. Her bicultural upbringing and relative newness to English have helped shape her unique way with a song, giving her a startlingly original poetic palette. They are the keys to the powerful, even revolutionary, empathy that informs everything she writes. She has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the Kerrville Folk Festival Best New Folk Award and the Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act.

On Saturday, November 14th at 8:00 PM, the Vermont Jazz Center presents “A Tribute to Jobim,” a performance by three leading artists from Brazil, all of whom had direct connections with Antônio Carlos Jobim who is widely regarded as “one of the most important songwriters of the 20th century.” The VJC presents pianist/musical director, Grammy Award-winning Hélio Alves, Grammy Award-winning vocalist Maucha Adnet (who for 10 years sang with maestro Jobim) and Grammy Award-winning drummer, Duduka Da Fonseca. They will be supported by first-call bassist David Finck in an evening of beautiful Bossa Novas and exhilarating sambas.

To this day, Antônio Carlos Jobim’s compositions continue to serve as a musical bridge between Brazil and the United States. He is best known for penning How Insensitive and Wave but, by just scratching the surface of his tremendous compositional output, we discover other gems such as A Felicidade, Triste, Agua de Beber, Chega de Saudade, Aguas de Março just to name a few. The composer first became known through his association with the Brazilian intellectual, poet, bon vivant and diplomat Vinicius Moraes who hired the then little-known pianist to write music for his play/movie “Black Orpheus.”

Brattleboro–Area youth bands will compete at Youth Services’ Battle of the Bands at the River Garden on Friday, November 6, during Brattleboro’s Gallery Walk night, from 7 to 10 p.m.

The public is encouraged to attend and vote for their favorite group with their applause. Competing bands to date are: Negative Space, The Regulars, Wicked Thirsty, Raspberry Jam, Sometime Sunday, and Nomad vs. Settler. Opening the event will be a performance by the indie-rock band Snaz, which helped get their start as winners of the Battle of the Bands in 2012.

Vocalist Sofia Reí is everywhere these days: This fall season alone she will tour to Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Florida, she’ll drop in at the Vermont Jazz Center on October 30th at 8:00 PM, make music in her adopted city of New York and then travel to Austria and Germany to play with her trio. This Argentinian singer is making a splash everywhere she travels. Her versatility and brilliance have the New York Times claiming: “the passion and clarity with which she assayed a tricky mix of South American rhythms and jazz-inflected harmonies made clear why she has been embraced by New York City audiences from Carnegie Hall to the hippest downtown haunts.”

On Friday, October 30th at 8:00 PM, Sofia Rei’s concert will mark the first collaboration between the Vermont Jazz Center and Next Stage Arts. Their managing teams agree that Rei’s complex yet accessible music fits both of their individual programming goals while supporting their shared vision. Rei’s repertoire is comprised of rich original compositions set over a well-spring of rhythms from Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Peru. Her music is naturally diverse and inherently beautiful and it thrives on grooving rhythms illuminated by carefully crafted arrangements and uncompromising musicianship.

Those around Brattleboro who remembeer the Chelsea House will remember Sparky Rucker from his many visits there in the ‘70s. The Chelsea House may be gone, but Sparly and his wife, Rhonda, are back for a house concert on Nov. 5.

Sparky and Rhonda’s music includes a variety of old-time blues, Appalachian music, slave songs, and spirituals as well as originals, and they accompany themselves with fingerstyle picking and bottleneck blues guitar, blues harmonica, old-time banjo, piano, spoons, and bones.

The Ruckers also weave American history, traditional storytelling, and humor into their concerts, and they have been featured tellers at the International Storytelling Center and Festival.

The Estey Organ Museum will host an “Organ Spooktacular with the Phantom” on Friday, October 30, at 7:00 PM at the First Baptist Church, 190 Main Street, Brattleboro. The event will feature two shortened silent films, “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Nosferatu”. The “Phantom” features Lon Chaney, and “Nosferatu” includes Max Schreck in the lead roles. Both will receive appropriate accompaniment on the church’s Estey pipe organ.

In addition there will be live performances of songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera” as well as appropriate spooky music played on the organ.

Organist for the event will be Mark Andersen from Lumberton, NC. Mark began his education at East Carolina University in North Carolina where he studied organ, harp, voice and carillon. His graduate studies carried him to Chicago and the American Conservatory and then on to a full scholarship at the Paris Conservatory where he studied organ with Marcel Dupre and composition with Nadia Boulanger.

Renowned folk musicians Tony Barrand and Keith Murphy will perform a benefit concert in the Main Reading Room of Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St., Brattleboro, on Friday, November 6 at 7PM.

Barrand and Murphy will feature songs and ballads composed by James Atwood and family members during the mid19^th century in West Dover, Vermont.

The Atwood collection includes dramatic ballads, romantic and funny songs about domestic life and marriage, and children’s songs.  Tony and Keith will sing “Jubilee Jim Fisk,” a song about Brattleboro’s own Jim Fisk, notorious Robber Baron of the Gilded Age.

Over the years the Estey Organ Museum in Brattleboro, VT has received a number of reed organs which are no longer needed for the museum’s permanent collection. As a way to free up storage space as well as pass some of these instruments on to those who would have a use for them, the museum is holding a Reed Organ Re-Homing Weekend on October 24 & 25, 10 AM to 4 PM, at the museum, 108 Birge Street, Brattleboro, VT.

These instruments range in condition from just dusty to requiring complete re-building or re-purposing. Also available are parts for reed organs, pipe organs, and early electronic organs.

On Saturday, October 17th, the Vermont Jazz Center will present world-class drummer Carl Allen with his group “The Art of Elvin.” This working band includes Tivon Pennicott, saxophones; Freddie Hendrix, trumpet; Xavier Davis, piano; Dezron Douglas, bass, and group leader Carl Allen on drums. Allen states: “The group is a tribute to Art Blakey and Elvin Jones and features music performed by both Art Blakey and/or Elvin Jones as well as some original music. In the tradition of both Art and Elvin the music is hard bop, gospel infused, hard swinging music that is designed to make one feel good. It’s high energy as well as toe tapping.”

“Guy Davis. He’s out of New York, and he’s America’s greatest link to the blues right now.” ~ Windsor Star, Ontario, Canada. July 31, 2015.

Guy Davis last played Brattleboro in 2008, alongside Pete Seeger in a memorable, sold-out concert at the Lathis.

Friday night, you have a chance to hear him, solo, at the River Garden.

Seating is limited to 200, all seats are just $20. Tickets and information: .

Here he is playing one of the songs on his brand new album, Kokomo Kidd:

This will be acoustic music at its finest with Barbara Higbie (piano), David Cullen (guitar), Jill Haley (oboe & English horn), David Lindsay (guitar), and Tom Eaton (piano)! The concert is presented by Will Ackerman, (Grammy winner and founder of Windham HIll Records), who has been praised for producing some of the best acoustic instrumental music in the world in recent years at his Imaginary Roads Studio in West Dummerston. 

 The Gathering Concert will be at The Centre Congregational Church this Friday, Oct. 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets $20 – available at Hermit Thrush Brewery, 29 High Street, at the door, and at at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1990848

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present contemporary folk and pop singer/songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Seth Glier and Hannah Hoffman at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery on Saturday, October 3 at 7:30 pm.

Singer, songwriter, pianist, guitarist, producer and Grammy nominee Seth Glier is renowned for his fearless vocal delivery, musical exuberance and seasoned songwriting beyond his years. A troubadour in every sense of the word who averages over 250 live performances annually, 26 year-old Glier has gone from opening act to headlining his own shows and playing major festivals. He’s shared the stage with artists as diverse as James Taylor, Ani DiFranco, Edwin McCain, Martin Sexton, Emmylou Harris and Ryan Adams, and has quickly become known for his passionate live sets and powerful command of both piano and guitar.

Guest performers to include Tyler Gibbons of Red Heart the Ticker

BRATTLEBORO, VT — Singer-songwriter David Berkeley returns to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) on Wednesday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m., for the New England release of his newest album, “Cardboard Boat,” and the accompanying novella, “The Free Brontosaurus (Rare Bird).” Joined by guitarist Bill Titus and special guest Tyler Gibbons of the Vermont-based duo Red Heart the Ticker, Berkeley will perform in the museum’s Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason Gallery, surrounded by the artwork of Jim Dine. Tickets are $16 in advance, $20 at the door. Purchase online at or call .