Tonight:
The Stephanie & Saar DUO return for a Serial Underground residency, with works ranging from Conlon Nancarrow’s wildest excursions to Bill Evans’ most urgently lyrical inspirations (piano duo).

No Soap Radio Wonderland features Joshua Fried with a Buick steering wheel and old shoes hit with sticks that control the audio processing as he turns live radio into recombinant funk, abetted by CCi Artistic Director Jed Distler unplugged at the Cornelia Street Café Yamaha “Grand Upright,” as he processes everything around him with brain, fingers, and the skin of his teeth (electro-acoustic improvisation).

Box office: 212.663.1967 (advance purchase discount available)
Admission at the door: $15 gen’l, $10 student/sr + one drink minimum

  www.composerscollab.org

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 $10   www.speakeasystories.com

A fine press & publisher from the left coast visits NYC with some of her most interesting writers in tow.
 Cover $7 (includes one house drink)

Now in its 9th year, The Songwriter's Beat is New York's premiere performing songwriter series. Hosted and founded by Valerie Ghent, four up-and-coming songwriters perform new material in a supportive and intimate atmosphere.

Founded in 2000, The Songwriter's Beat has presented over 270 songwriters from the Tri-State area as well as visiting songwriters from other parts of the United States, Canada, France, the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Cuba and Japan. Every third Wednesday of the month, four songwriters of varying musical styles perform original songs and are encouraged to try out their newest material and arrangements. The series culminates in a week-long songwriters festival each July, featuring performers from throughout the years.

The Songwriter's Beat welcomes songwriters from around the world, so when planning your trip to New York, allow time for The Songwriter's Beat!

The Songwriter's Beat is honored to receive support from The ASCAP Foundation.

 Cover $10   songwritersbeat.com ,  valghent.com

Kathleen Sheeder, author of Slamming Open The Door ”.. A gift of power, truth, rage and beauty.” Sharon Olds

The jazz will be the DoubleSharps “The Double Sharps continue to wow with their commitment to keeping our music and history intact Doors Open at 5:30 and jazz begins at 5:45

Student price of 10$ (including a beverage) and 15$ for regular admission.

 Cover $15 (includes one house drink)

Prana Trio was established to transfer this universal idea of breath into a format based around musical improvisation. Since 2003, the group has been dedicated to exploring original compositions and improvisations based on the texts of Rumi, Hafiz, Lao Tzu, Kukai, Shankarcarya, Kabir, Issa as well as others. They have toured throughout the United States and Germany and have had the honor of playing with Ran Blake, Frank Carlberg, Dave Fiuczynski, and Stomu Takeishi. Described as "beautiful... magical..." by pianist Marilyn Crispell, the trio has released two albums on Circavision Productions: Pranam (2006) and After Dark (2004). Their third album is expected to be released in the winter of 2009.

"Like fine jewelers, Prana Trio craft's perfect settings for these poems." ~David Dupont, Cadence Magazine.

“The group is a nightmare journey from SoHo to Twin Peaks.” ~Ran Blake--pianist, writer of Primacy of the Ear.

Sara Serpa is a vocalist wielding an instrument as favorably unadorned and pure as any in jazz. She's the freshest vocalist on the scene at the moment, not just because she's new to it at age 28. It's certainly not because of the way she delivers a lyric, since there usually aren't any. Being from Portugal is also irrelevant, for like much of the great jazz coming our way in the past few years from Lisbon, there is nothing overtly ethnic about the music; it's sensuous, transporting, sultry and warm.

A main reason is that with one recording in, she raises profound questions regarding the previous role of the vocalist in jazz. What's radical, is that it's not about the ridiculous chops or inhuman gymnastic training or trickery. She sings as an instrumentalist, as a member of an ensemble with a bold conception, moving seamlessly as would a saxophonist from melodist to soloist, or from a front line horn to an ensemble voice—not the star of some show. Serpa sounds as if she's talking right to you, even though she's singing, not just in terms of the intimacy quotient, but in terms of the actual sound of it—literally, she sounds as if she must sing whenever she speaks." (Phil DiPietro,All About Jazz)
 Cover $10   brianadler.com/prana.htm ,  www.saraserpa.com

Arrive before 6 pm to sign up.

Tonight we feature the powerful Edwin Torres.

Edwin Torres is a highly respected New York-based spoken word poet known best for creating a movement which he called "Interactive Eclectrcism", which combines movement, audience participation, music and songs. Torres also created the "Poets Neurotica", where dancers and musicians performed alongside two to four poets. Torres has represented New York in the 1992 National Poetry Slam, and he has won the Nuyorican Poets Cafe First Annual Prize for Poetry with his poem "Po-Mo Griot". He has also appeared on MTV's Spoken Word Unplugged and the Charlie Rose Show and been featured on Newsweek, in Rolling Stone Magazine and in New York Magazine. His poem, "I Saw Your Empire State Building" was included in the book, Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam in the chapter which dealt with the poetry slam community's response to 9/11.
 Cover $7 (includes one house drink)

Rory Stuart has performed as a sideman with a remarkable range of jazz artists, from Charlie Rouse to Errol Parker, Steve Coleman’s Five Elements with Cassandra Wilson and Geri Allen to the Cadence All Stars, and has led highly-praised Quartets of his own. For his complete bio, album reviews and photos, please visit www.rorystuart.com.

Check out also “So Rise Up,” the new release on SmartCatMusic. “rhythmic acrobats … tricky unison lines and extended, explorative solos… Combining the old and the new, and mixing it up just right” – Mark F. Turner “All About Jazz” (2008). Please join us!

cover $12/$9 w/ student ID   www.rorystuart.com

The music played by the alto saxophonist, with Masa Kamaguchi on bass and Jeff Williams on drums, is one of effortless beauty as a result of years of working together. For O'Gallagher, a composition is much more than a vehicle to improvise on; it is the source of the improvisation. Whether playing free improvisations or original compositions, the truth is that everything here is meticulously structured.
So, we have a composer in the good-old Duke Ellington way: he writes for the musicians who play with him, partly knowing by anticipation what to expect, and partly challenging them (and himself) to always go further. Very influenced by contemporary classical music, its solutions and ideas are used by the leader of this trio with a nod to the past in a genre known for its assimilation of elements coming from other musical languages. O'Gallagher speaks of 'opening new doors', and that's something jazz always did. Another particularity of this music is its visual character - the pieces function audibly like moving abstract images. The sense of space, line, color and density we find in painting is what this band translates to the art of sounds. "There definitely are parallels in painting and playing. When I improvise and compose, I'm influenced by a visual sense of trying to create objects and color," John O'Gallagher said in an interview to All About Jazz. "Dirty Hands" is the clear confirmation of that statement and is a recording not to be missed.
 Cover $10   www.johnogallagher.com

the compositional skill displayed by the sonic brush Green paints the tunes with will make you soon realize that your ears are in the presence of a master! ...this is high talent playing that will be enjoyed by jazz listeners of all stripes on through the next couple of decades! I give this one a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
- Dick Metcalf- zzaj.freehostia

Narrow Margin is hard-edged music about hard-edged cinema and, like the best noir characters, the music packs a wallop. ...Green's compositions have got all the stopping power of a blazing Tommy Gun.
- J Hunter - all about jazz.com
 Cover $10   www.agjazz.com ,  www.chopsfactory.com

...Blotnick's thoughtful compositions and warm-toned improvisations are showcased on this superb debut....graceful, evocative..."
- Bill Milkowski, Jazz Times

Since the release of his widely acclaimed Songlines CD Music Needs You in 2007, the New York based guitarist Ryan Blotnick has been performing with Michael Blake Band, Pete Robbins & Centric, and gigging in England and Europe. While there he met the Belgian reed player Joachim Badenhorst, Irish electric bassist Simon Jermyn, and NY drummer Jeff Williams. The impromptu quartet made a mostly free-form demo ("it had this kind of 70s rock vibe mixed with a more modern 'Icelandic' soundscape kind of thing," says Blotnick). When Badenhorst moved to New York last fall, Jermyn came over as well and the quartet did a tour and recording session, focusing on improvs as well as new pieces Blotnick had composed for his NY trio. In early 2009, on tour in Spain with 3/5 of the Music Needs You band (Barcelona-based US drummer Joe Smith and NY bassist Perry Wortman), the trio re-recorded those tunes. This CD selects the best takes from the two sessions and sequences them into two album sides. The lighter, groovier post-jazz trio tracks foreground Ryan's improvising on his compositions, while the quartet often has a heavier, freer avantrock/new music feel. The alternation sets up a series of contrasts and complementarities that make this a more provocatively organized and musically/emotionally diverse record than Music Needs You.

What one especially takes away from Everything Forgets is an appreciation for Blotnick's melodic gift (both in the writing and improvising), and how this music indeed evokes a range of feelings with grace and humanity. In the Songlines interview Ryan acknowledges his indebtedness in different pieces to Sonny Rollins, Benoît Delbecq, Skúli Sverrisson, and friends/colleagues Michael Blake, Bill McHenry, and Eivind Opsvik among others, but his music makes a true statement of its own.

-more info: www.ryanblotnick.com

10:00pm Ben Monder & Bill McHenry Duo

Monder and McHenry are united for their first duo set since the recording of "Bloom" ten years ago. These two widely-acclaimed musicians have worked together in Bill's quartet with Paul Motian and numerous other projects over the years.

"Broad 21st century jazz style expressions meet open sound landscapes on these soothing moods. The music takes you to a relaxed world, whether getting away from the daily reality or just enjoying art at its highest"
-All About Jazz

"...McHenry possesses a gift for unspooling elliptical melodies that nonetheless linger in the mind's ear, which are then wrapped in Monder's dense chords or caressed by his throaty lines."
-by Steve Smith, Music Editor Time Out NY

More info: www.benmonder.com
/www.billmchenry.com
 Cover $10