Naked Lore:

“A soundtrack to the folktales your great-grandparents vowed to forget,” Naked Lore is a trio dedicated to new music with ancient origins. Led by trumpeter Ben Holmes, the group features Brad Shepik on guitar and Shane Shanahan on percussion. The wordless stories they tell are by turns sinister, sweet, majestic, mischievous, rampaging and ruminative. The group’s debut album has been recorded, mixed and mastered and will be released in early 2020!

Naked Lore is the brainchild of Ben Holmes, a trumpeter/composer who has worked with artists including Slavic Soul Party!, Vampire Weekend, Gogol Bordello and Cynthia Hopkins. His music conjures ancient sounds through the filter of 20+ years of study in jazz, klezmer, and classical music. Featuring master musicians Brad Shepik on guitar (Paul Motian, Dave Douglas, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley) and Shane Shanahan on percussion (Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, James Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Philip Glass), the trio seemingly travels through thousands of years of history while remaining firmly rooted in the present moment, veering from tightly composed occultist chamber jazz to wild improvisation with the speed of a darting snake’s tongue.

Radiant Others:

Dan Blacksberg: trombone
Nick Millevoi: guitar

Radiant Others is the newest album by trombonist Dan Blacksberg, one of the acknowledged masters of klezmer trombone. Featuring original music and arrangements of traditional klezmer tunes that span the history of the tradition, Radiant Others is the first klezmer album to feature the trombone as the lead instrument. Live, Blacksberg pairs up with longtime collaborator, guitarist Nick Millevoi (John Zorn, Desertion Trio, Many Arms) to fill out a thoroughly modern sound.

On Radiant Others, Blacksberg brings together years of research and development on how to play klezmer melodies with all the virtuosity, ornamentation, and depth of emotion that we hear in the more common lead instruments like the clarinet or violin. This music presents the results of this search, creating a new language for the trombone that can lead a new role for the instrument in the klezmer tradition.

http://firemuseumpresents.com/events/naked-lore-radiant-others/

“A soundtrack to the folktales your great-grandparents vowed to forget”, Naked Lore is a trio dedicated to new music with ancient origins. Led by trumpeter Ben Holmes, the band features Shane Shanahan (percussion) and Brad Shepik (guitar). The wordless stories they tell are by turns sinister, sweet, majestic, mischievous, rampaging and ruminative.

The Erik Satie Quartet returns to Barbès! Music by Satie, Debussy, Milhaud, Poulenc, Sauget and many more.

The Erik Satie Quartet returns to Barbès! Music by Satie, Debussy, Milhaud, Poulenc, Sauget and many more.

“A soundtrack to the folktales your great-grandparents vowed to forget,” Naked Lore is led by trumpeter/composer Ben Holmes. The music flows between sinuous klezmer-based melodies and improvisations inspired by everything from Balkan brass band music to Olé Coltrane, with other treats and oddities thrown in along the way. This special duo performance is stripped down to trumpet and the guitar of Brad Shepik. The wordless stories they tell are by turns sinister, sweet, majestic, mischievous, rampaging and ruminative.

Trumpeter/composer/educator Ben Holmes lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His current projects as a leader or co-leader include Naked Lore (a trio w/ percussionist Shane Shanahan and guitarist Brad Shepik) and the Ben Holmes/Patrick Farrell Duo (for trumpet and accordion).

He has recorded two albums as a leader, 2012's Ben Holmes Trio and 2015's Anvil of the Lord, as well as co-producing two recordings with Tarras Band (a six-piece ensemble dedicated to the music of klezmer legend Dave Tarras), and three recordings of the Ben Holmes & Patrick Farrell Duo. He's recorded with Slavic Soul Party!, Romashka, Vampire Weekend, Gogol Bordello, Cynthia Hopkins, and many others.

Guitarist, composer, educator Brad Shepik has recorded 9 albums with his groups Brad Shepik Organ Trio, Brad Shepik Quartet, Brad Shepik Trio, Human Activity Quintet, Brad Shepik and the Commuters. Since 1995 his ensembles have performed at major festivals and clubs across Europe and North America including The North Sea Jazz Festival, Garda Jazz Festival, Cologne Biennale Jazz Festival, Toulouse Jazz Festival, Bell Atlantic Festival, Verizon, Earshot, Caramoor Jazz Festival, Langnau Jazz Festival, Groningen, Salzburg, Jerez, Cadiz, Sevilla, American Guitar Festival, Leeds, Rochester Jazz Festival, Cork, Brussels, Edgefest and others.

He currently performs solo concerts and with Brad Shepik Organ Trio, The Brad Shepik Quartet, Rambler, Combo Nuvo, Tom Beckham/Brad Shepik Duo, Balkan Peppers, Jamie Baum Septet, Matt Darriau's Paradox Trio, George Schuller's Circle Wide, Arthur Kell and others.

He teaches Theory, Improvisation, World Ensemble, Jazz Combo, Chicago Blues, Balkan Music and private guitar at New York University and private guitar at New England Conservatory and City College of New York.

Monday Dec 24th: PURELY COINCIDENTAL NIGHT OF KLEZMER - A sporadically occurring but date-specific evening of Klezmer music pops up at Barbès on December 24th every here and then. There's no logic or pattern that we can detect to why this date should have been selected in particular. If, on this particular evening, you're among the unoccupied or just looking for fun away from Hearth & Home, we're happy to say that PCNOK has awakened from it's deep slumber to once more sally forth and greet the frosty end of the goyishe calendar with raucous freylekhs and other rhythms that lie elsewhere on the raucous/sedate continuum. 

This time around, the band will feature violinist Jake Shulman-Ment, guitarist Yoshi Fruchter, bassist Zoe Guigueno, and myself on trumpet. Guest singers Tamar Korn and Eleanor Weill will sing some Yiddish faves. This year, we start at 9 PM. We will play one or two sets, strictly determined by your enthusiasm, which will be measured pecuniarily. Tamar Korn & her band Kornucopia will be playing at 7, so we strongly suggest you make a full evening of it. 

And as a special advisory note, we remind you that Hannukah is OVER so please don't call for any of those tunes and that's not what this evening is about anyway, thank you very much and I swear I'll throw my horn in the Gowanus before any dreidel-related music comes out of it. That'll hold until late 2019. 

Hope to see you there! 

The Erik Satie Quartet returns to Barbès! Music by Satie, Debussy, Milhaud, Poulenc, Sauget and many more.

The Erik Satie Quartet (Monthly Residency)

The Erik Satie Quartet is a mixed­-voice chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of Erik Satie, Les Six, and related composers. Trombonist/arranger Ron Hay's arrangements feature the novel instrumentation of trombone, trumpet (Ben Holmes), bass trombone (Max Seigel) and baritone saxophonist (special guest Carl Marighi). Performances incorporate related poetry.

“A soundtrack to the folktales your great-grandparents vowed to forget”, Naked Lore is a trio dedicated to new music with ancient origins. Led by trumpeter Ben Holmes, the band features Brad Shepik on acoustic guitar and Shane Shanahan on percussion. The wordless stories they tell are by turns sinister, sweet, majestic, mischievous, rampaging and ruminative.

Ben Holmes & Michael Winograd been writing veritable SHEAVES of new klezmer music. Seriously, they’ve got about a sheaf each. They’ve been performing this music in public once a month at Barbes, while continuing to add new tunes. Come out to hear the debut of newly composed works that both fit within the klezmer idiom and assertively, if not downright aggressively, push at its boundaries. 

The Erik Satie Quartet is a wind group whose focus of repertoire starts with Erik Satie, his times, and beyond. The four lithe and muscular voices present music that is unique and strange for the uninitiated, yet with warmth and humanity at its core. Repertoire is drawn from the works of Milhaud, Auric, Poulenc, Stravinsky, Britten, Durey, Sibelius, and of course the Velvet Gentleman himself. Featuring arrangements by leader and trombonist Ron Hay, the group includes Alex Hamlin (bari sax/clarinet), Max Seigel (bass trombone), Ben Holmes (trumpet/flugelhorn)

Ben Holmes & Michael Winograd been writing veritable SHEAVES of new klezmer music. Seriously, they’ve got about a sheaf each. They’ve been performing this music in public once a month at Barbes, while continuing to add new tunes. Come out to hear the debut of newly composed works that both fit within the klezmer idiom and assertively, if not downright aggressively, push at its boundaries. This months installment will feature Carmen Staaf (piano) and Zoe Guigueno (bass).

In this afternoon performance, we'll present a set of works in progress in, composed firmly within the klezmer idiom but assertively confronting its boundaries.

 Ben Holmes & Patrick Farrell have collaborated for the last 6 years to create new arrangements and compositions for the unusual instrumentation of trumpet and accordion. Drawing on their experiences in the folk music of eastern Europe, classical piano repertoire, American pop songs, their repertoire also showcases their own compositional sensibilities. They'll be playing some brand new music this time around, conceived of intercontinentally (Patty lives in Germany) but executed quite locally (assuming you, the reader, are near Brooklyn). 

Mike and I have been writing new Klezmer music, and playing it every month at Barbès. Workshop style! Been a blast so far.