Four Across is an exciting jazz quartet focused on creating new improvised music. The group skillfully blends influences from organic folk melody, Latin and New Orleans grooves, contemporary classical music to Klezmer, while maintaining roots within traditional jazz. The four members met while studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where they played together in a variety of musical settings. The members have performed at festivals and jazz venues in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Panama, Canada, The Netherlands and Japan, as well as across the United States.
 Cover $10   www.myspace.com/fouracross

"While the jazz ethos is universal, Komeda's music distills the essence of Poland and pours it into the jazz bottle. Widely acclaimed as one of the prime creators of modern European jazz, Komeda's relatively short career had an enormous impact that is still being felt."
- Budd Kopmann/allaboutjazz.com

While best known for his haunting soundtracks to Roman Polanski films, the Polish pianist and composer made plenty of music that commands full engagement. This quintet explores that rich musical terrain.
- - New York Times/June2007

Among music fans, jazz people typically possess an exaggerated need for new stimuli. To hear something that has not been heard before is their endless quest. They are hereby directed to "Crazy Girl" by the Komeda Project. My admiration for the album continued to grow as I listened to it.

I think it is one of the strongest albums I have heard this year - and I get a LOT of albums in the mail! Performance: 4 Stars
- - Thomas Conrad/Stereophile Magazine/July2007

A very exciting project. The excitement, energy and the logical yet free structure of Komeda's work is readily apparent in the arrangements and playing. ... these tracks are not meant to be museum pieces, but rather a reaction in the present to the very core of Komeda's music. A wonderful introduction to the musical world of Krzysztof Komeda. Highly recommended.
- - Budd Kopman/allaboutjazz.com
 Cover $10   www.komedaproject.com

Jackie is back to feature Ellen Bass.

In 1973, Ellen Bass co-edited the groundbreaking book, No More Masks!, the first major anthology of women's poetry. Since then she's published several poetry books, including Mules of Love which won the Lambda Literary Award and The Human Line just published in June by Copper Canyon Press, as well as best-selling non-fiction, including The Courage to Heal. Among her other awards are a Pushcart Prize, The Pablo Neruda Prize, and the Larry Levis Prize. She teaches in Santa Cruz, CA and in the MFA program at Pacific University.

Arrive before 6 pm to sign up.

 Cover $7 (includes one house drink)

Now he is back in the West Village leading his own group!
 Cover $12   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Altschul

4 Storytellers, 3 True Stories, 1 Pack of Lies. Uncover the liar and win a prize worth its weight in fool's gold.

Have dinner while being fed a line: Four performers tell stories that will make you laugh or just make you glad you don't live with them. But listen carefully, because one of these basically honest people is making it all up. Interrogate the storytellers and expose the fraud to win an unbelievable "I Can Tell A Lie" t-shirt. $12 (includes one house drink)

Mike Daisey (NY Times, Wired)

James Braly (NPR, Edinburgh Fringe)

Ophira Eisenberg (Comedy Central)

Mark Katz (former Bill Clinton speech writer)

with host, Andy Christie (Moth Storytelling GrandSlam Champion).
 Cover $12 (includes one house drink)   www.TheLiarShow.com

Eade performs regularly in the U.S. and Europe. A frequent nominee for outstanding jazz vocalist in the Boston Music Awards since 1988, and the 1997 and 1999 winner in this category, Eade was also designated "Best Jazz Singer" in Entertainment Weekly's Regional Raves in 1997 and nominated for best new artist by the First Annual Jazz Awards (New York) in 1998. She was recognized in the 1998 Down Beat critics poll as "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition."

Her debut CD on RCA Victor, "When the Wind Was Cool," appeared in 1998 Top Ten lists in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Phoenix, and in Jazz Times and Jazziz magazines; her second RCA Victor CD, "The Long Way Home," was released in 1999, with contributions by Dave Holland, Victor Lewis, Mick Goodrick, and Bruce Barth. Her earlier CD, "My Resistance Is Low," was voted one of the top ten jazz CDs of 1995 by Billboard.

Eade has recorded with Bruce Barth, Stanley Cowell, Alan Dawson, Benny Golson, Fred Hersch, Dave Holland, George Mraz, Lewis Nash, and Steve Nelson, and has performed with Anthony Braxton, Bill Frisell, Mark Helias, Gene Bertoncini, Peter Leitch, Donald Brown, Butch Morris, Mick Goodrick, Ran Blake, and a number of contemporary ensembles.

Her latest recording, "Open" (Jazz Project) has been receiving much praise, and is featured in the June 2007 edition of Down Beat magainze in their "Hot Box" critics picks section.
 Cover $10   www.dominiqueeade.com ,  www.benmonder.com

What do galaxies, grapes, soil food webs, Zen ensos and dance troupes have in common? They are all patterns made of interacting parts. Tonight environmental scientist (and patternologist) Tyler Volk of NYU explores the nature of patterns in nature, culture, and the rest of the universe, and asks if there could be a science of everything based on patterns. His thoughts spin on the complementarity between patterns and their functions, for remarkable convergences are born when the forms that are woven by diverse scales of nature and culture (and even our minds) share common roles.

And, you ask, what more quintessential patterns of culture are there than dance and music? When Claude Debussy chastised Erik Satie, remarking that the eccentric composer ought to "soigner sa forme"--pay better attention to form--Satie replied, not in words, but in music. His riposte is the "Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear," a short suite for piano four-hands whose witty irony (not without a touch of sarcasm) is already signaled by the fact that the music consists not of three pieces, but seven.

Choreographer Christopher Caines, together with members of his dance company, presents excerpts from a new work in progress (specially arranged for the Cornelia Street Café) exploring this pivotal score in Satie's oeuvre. Caines, a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow, should prove the ideal choreographer to illuminate questions of structure, form, and pattern in the relation of dance to music.
 Cover $10

Through the exciting entertaining and diverse compositions of Christian Finger, and the effortless capacity of an elite ensemble of master musicians, the CHRISTIAN FINGER BAND explores American jazz tradition and mixes it with European sensitivity. Colorful and eclectic tunes mesmerize the audiences and enhance the intuitive and interactive playfulness of the band. The result is diverse: fast-paced and exciting, hauntingly beautiful and evocative, spontaneous and playful - all within a melodious framework that makes concerts by the CHRISTIAN FINGER BAND unique and accessible.

“… Great CD and playing and commitment to the moment, you should be proud, congratulations!”
-Jeff Ballard (Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau)
 Cover $10   www.christianfinger.com

New York City-based poet and actress Janet Ward, whose poems have been published in jazz album liner notes and on buses and subways, has been scribbling poems most of her life. In 2006 she was among the winners chosen for the Bridport Prize in London, which published her poem "99c dream" in their 2006 anthology. In 2003 she won the Poetry Society of America's 10th Anniversary Poetry-In-Motion Contest. She studied with Ron Koertge at Pasadena City College, and with Chana Bloch and Steven Ratcliffe at Mills College where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1995.
 Cover $7 (includes one house drink)

A new twist on the ancient tradition of oral history.

SpeakEasy is people telling stories-- true stories. Period. No scripts. No crib notes. No rehearsals. SpeakEasy has a dynamic and constantly changing cast of storytellers that include such greats as Mike Daisey, Jonathan Ames, and Reno, along with homemakers, lawyers, dog walkers, street magicians and writers.

You never know what you'll hear. So join us for what could be a life changing experience!
 Cover $8   www.speakeasystories.com