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| UnderСover Presents: Tributes To Nick Drake’s Pink Moon UnderCover Presents is thrilled to announce that Nick Drake's Pink Moon is the next album they plan on putting a Bay Area stamp on. UCP selected Darren Johnston, renowned trumpeter and composer, as Guest Music Director for this particular album. Johnston carefully selected roughly a dozen ensembles to create a diverse range of reinterpretations of Drake's masterpiece for the performance at Rickshaw Stop. Darren Johnston is an accomplished trumpeter and composer residing in the Bay Area. Johnston has performed with such artists as Meklit Hadero, Brass Menažeri, Nice Guy Trio, and many more. He approached UnderCover on his own volition saying that Pink Moon was an album that reached out to him and he wanted to find a collective of musicians that would do it justice. Each lineup for UnderCover definitely lends a sense to the spirit of not just the album itself, but to the Guest Music Director. Velvet Underground & Nico, directed by Charith Premawardhana of Classical Revolution, was rich in classical instruments and a wide variety of styles. Aaron Novik's lineup for Doolittle was experimental and a bit on the darker side of the spectrum. Prince's Birthday Throwdown by Jazz Mafia was a funkadelic force that made the entire house pulse and sweat. For Pink Moon Darren Johnston has put together a roster of musicians that tend to stay true to their instruments and stray away from technology in music. This leads to simple, clear, and sparkling arrangements. This time around the lineup ranges between Brass Menažeri [Balkan Romani ("Gypsy) brass band], Kapowski (pop/experimental), Real Vocal String Quartet (all woman world chamber/vocals), Kally Price (blues/jazz), David Boyce (jazz/blues/Afrobeat), Pocketful of Rye (Gypsy/Acoustic/Folk), Broken Shadows Family Band (debut of Darren Johnston's newest project, Balkan/hi-life/country jazz), Freddi Price (of Rube Wadell and Lord Loves A Working Man, junkyard-folk/Americana), Ramon and Jessica (post-fi indie-pop), Aaron Novik (psychedelic/minimalist/experimental/prog rock), Jazz Mafia (urban jazz/hip-hop/classical/funk). UnderCover Presents is an audiophile's one-stop shop for Bay Area music. Each project selects a different guest music director who chooses an influential album to which they wish to pay tribute. They then curate a lineup featuring a wide variety of San Francisco Bay Area Bands to reconstruct the album, with a different band on each song. Every band is encouraged to reinterpret their song in a way that reflects their own unique sound, with the end product being a live performance. The project is a collaborative of Faultline Studios, UnderCover Presents, and the Bay Area music community. Groups that participate in UnderCover are carefully selected based on their enthusiasm for the album as well as their ability to reflect the diverse styles and cultures that make Bay Area music unique. With dozens of ensembles convening for each project, UnderCover encourages artists to cross-pollinate musicians, resulting with a collaborative sound explosion. By having one band per song, the night offers a "flight of music" while paying tribute to the essence that defines the influential album. UnderCover Presents has strengthened the music community tremendously. It has allowed the audience to connect with various genres that they don't normally seek out by relating their experience to an album that they are already familiar with. Having dozens of musicians in one performance has also led to a unique fusion of rich instrumentation. Musicians have formed bonds that have led to a multitude of collaborations since the show. The night will include a variety of Pink Moon themed food by Apothocurious as well as video footage by Joseph Case. Additionally a local and sustainable designer named Rachel Znerold will be dressing our leading ladies in some incredible outfits. Special thanks to KALX Radio for co-announcing, Faultline Studios for co-producing, Hear It Local for promotional partnership, and The Rickshaw Stop for hosting. Upcoming projects from UnderCover include Black Sabbath's Paranoid at The Independent on May 19, 2012. write your comments about the article :: © 2012 Jazz News :: home page |