Qyuarantine 8/15

WHEN:
Saturday: 8/15/2020
7pm

WHERE:
Open Source Gallery (306 17th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215)

WHAT:
Open Source will be hosting “Quarantine Jams” at the gallery on 17th and 6th ave. Putting together some of the neighborhood’s great musicians, for casual jam sessions, Open Source will be putting these on at various times this season. With no inside gigs, let’s take advantage of summer and of Open Source’s wide open gallery space. Wander by, give a donation and maybe dance!

QUARANTINE JAM 8/15

Jamming with the Amadinda

ABOUT THE AMADINDA: The amadinda is a unique xylophone, originating in the East African country of Uganda. Amadinda music is pentatonic, or in other words, five tones per octave. Two players sit opposite each other and play in between each other’s melodies in steady rhythm, within the 5 pitch scale. The resultant combined melody yields the top part, played by a third musician, doubling at the octave whenever either of the lower two players strikes the bottom 2 pitches in their scale This creates a two pitch melody which darts back and forth between the two lower parts, creating a complex, steady, hypnotic music.

MUSICIANS:
Tigger Benford
Rex Benincasa
Todd Isler
Martha Partridge
Lily White

TIGGER BENFORD is a percussionist, composer and educator, specializing in hand drumming, improvisation and music for dancers. Over the years he has produced six full length CDs of original material, and two anthologies of dance scores. He produced a number of body rhythm pieces in collaboration with Martha Partridge. He also spent 12 summers on staff at Bates Dance Festival, in Lewiston, Maine, and 4 summers at American Dance Festival. He is a Professor Emeritus at Mason Gross School of the Arts Dance Department at Rutgers University, where he directed music for the Department of Dance for 30 years, producing numerous dance scores and teaching courses in music for dancers.

MARTHA PARTRIDGE has a rich and varied background as a dancer, musician, body worker and educator. With an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College, Martha taught and performed at American Dance Festival, Laban Institute in London, and NYU Tisch School of the arts, among many others. As a body worker, she ran a practice in Manhattan for 20 years, treating people with Parkinsons Disease and other ailments through Trager work, Cranial Sacral work and Pilates. As a musician she recently spent 8 years learning English Change Ringing, a complex bell ringing tradition, and most recently has begun studying voice with Rachel Levine, and singing in the Brooklyn Voices women’s chorus. She and Benford have collaborated for decades, making body percussion pieces, dance scores and CDs.

LILY WHITE is a professional saxophone player living in the New York area. Playing with various groups of her own and composing her own music for over twenty years, she has won many awards including, Meet the Composer, National Endowment for the Arts, and a DCA grant last year for composing for treble choir. She makes her living teaching piano, sax and flute and performs all over the world. She has produced three CDs of her original quintet music along with a CD of her organ band, Big Blue Line.

REX BENINCASA has been a freelancing musician in NYC since 1978. His music projects include drums and percussion for Flamenco dance ensembles, recording, Early Music groups, Broadway shows, and club work. Rex’s original compositions and highly produced videos can be seen on YouTube.

Drummer percussionist, teacher and author TODD ISLER has traveled the globe in search of sounds and grooves that make people dance. Equally at home on drum set and unusual hand drums, he has released two discs under his own name and played on hundreds of genre-crossing recordings. Todd currently plays with his quartet, International Orange, Mike Gordon (Phish), and many others.

All four percussionists have been the band playing Benford’s dance score, “Fluctuating Hemlines”, which premiered in 1991 and has been performed 100s of times by numerous ballet companies, most recently in February 2020

Photo from the album cover , “Vessel of Gratitude”, released in 2014 by Tigger Benford.

Qyuarantine 8/15

QUARANTINE JAM 8/15

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