Upcoming: For Living Lovers and Harriet Tubman

I've been neglecting the posting of upcoming shows, but still going to them. Like Taylor Ho Bynum and SpiderMonkey Strings last month at the Jazz Gallery--which was intriguing, and at points amazing--but unfortunately missing Henry Threadgill's ZOOID (argh!).

This I just found when I was looking up BAM's offerings, an increasingly rare US appearance by Brandon Ross (right) and Stomu Takeishi. Ross' ensemble/experiment For Living Lovers (think on the name for a while, not just the literal implications) features Ross on guitar/banjo/vocal, Takeishi on acoustic bass guitar, and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. Ross is known for his work with Henry Threadgill, Leroy Jenkins, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, as well as being musical director for Cassandra Wilson, and his co-leadership of the power trio Harriet Tubman (with Melvin Gibbs, bass; and JT Lewis, drums). Takeishi has also played with Morris and Threadgill; Sorey has led his own groups and recently released an album with the trio Fieldwork: Vijay Iyer, piano; Steve Lehman, saxophone, and Sorey on drums. You can read my thoughts on one of Ross' other projects, Theorema, here, also featuring Takeishi on acoustic bass guitar, and Gerald Cleaver on drums.

For Living Lovers is appearing next week at BAMCaféLive's BAM Jam series, which I understand as an improvised music performance series (I guess "BAM Jam" is a more marketing friendly term--or younger demographic inviting? Hmm, well could be...).

Details:

For Living Lovers - Brandon Ross, Stomu Takeishi, Tyshawn Sorey
BAMCaféLive
30 Lafayette Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Friday, December 12, 10pm
FREE
more info

For those who have been missing the Harriet Tubman sound while its members were playing various gigs as a trio, or as sidemen, in Europe, they're back playing a wintertime gig at Nublu.

Harriet Tubman - Brandon Ross, Melvin Gibbs, JT Lewis
Nublu
62 Ave C, between E.4 & E.5th St
East Village, Manhattan
Friday, December 12, 11:45pm
!!CORRECTION!!
Friday, December 19, 11:45pm
$10

Video excerpt of Harriet Tubman performance in the Netherlands, November 24, 2008 at Cafe Wilhelmina. The clip starts with what sounds like the beginning of "Of Passage" (from Prototype, (Avant Japan, 2000)--now a collector's item) and then there's a cross-fade edit into the first part of the recent work, "I'll Overcome Someday" which begins with a spoken invocation by Brandon Ross.