Natalia Zukerman, Taylor Mali, Everton Sylvester Headline Fall 2017 ‘Rogovoy Salon’ Series at Helsinki Hudson

Natalia Zukerman

(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Singer-songwriter Natalia Zukerman (October 22), slam poet Taylor Mali (November 12), and funk poet Everton Sylvester (December 3) will headline the fall 2017 season of the monthly “Rogovoy Salon” music, literary, and art series curated and hosted by music journalist Seth Rogovoy at Club Helsinki Hudson.

After a successful summer of concerts devoted to innovative, genre-defying, and interdisciplinary performances by the Ahn Trio, the Krakauer-Tagg Duo, and Jen Chapin, the fall lineup promises to be equally intriguing and entertaining.

“We’ve got a genre-defying musician from a family of musicians from all over the musical map; a world-champion spoken-word artist; and an innovative poet, also from the spoken-word scene, who places his wry observations of urban and immigrant life into a funk-jazz musical setting,” says Rogovoy.

For the Rogovoy Salon, Seth selects the performers and hosts the evening at Helsinki. When appropriate, Seth will interview the artists onstage and moderate an audience Q&A.

Natalia Zukerman comes equipped with a triple-threat toolbox: she’s an incisive songwriter with the vocal phrasing of a jazz-blues singer and a phenomenal instrumental talent on anything with strings. She’s a master of guitar, slide guitar, Dobro, lap-steel guitar, and banjo – and she’s even been seen to pick up a violin on occasion. Why not, when your private teacher is the world-renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman (her father).

Taylor Mali

Drawing upon these influences and talents, Zukerman is an astounding singer-songwriter whose compositions tell stories and capture moments of intimacy with the soul of Bonnie Raitt and the heart of Shawn Colvin. Indeed, she’s accompanied and opened for some of acoustic music’s greats, including Janis Ian, Willy Porter, Susan Werner, Erin McKeown, Shawn Colvin, Ani DiFranco, Richard Thompson, Tom Paxton, and many others.

Zukerman was to the manor born – in addition to her illustrious father, her mother is the critically acclaimed flutist Eugenia Zukerman, and her sister is Arianna Zukerman, a lyric soprano who performs with some of the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies.

Author-poet Taylor Mali is one of the few genuine celebrities to emerge from the competitive slam-poetry scene. He is perhaps best known for the poem “What Teachers Make,” a question he expanded upon in his bestselling book, “What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World.” Mali appeared in the documentaries “SlamNation” (1997) and “Slam Planet” (2006). He was also in the HBO production, “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry,” which won a Peabody Award in 2003. Mali’s incisive work, which spares no one, especially himself, is often about family, masculinity, marriage, divorce, fatherhood, race, and education. It’s also mostly funny. His brand new chapbook, “The Whetting Stone,” is a brutally honest and heartbreaking examination of love, loss, depression, suicide – and the will to live.

Everton Sylvester

Jamaican-born Everton Sylvester is a founding member of the Brooklyn Funk Essentials. He has been touring, writing, and recording with BFE for the past 25 years and half a dozen albums. Lead vocalist and/or writer on many of Funk Essentials’ most loved hits (like the cult classic, “I Got Cash”), Everton’s cleverly crafted lyrics are alertly ironic — simultaneously funny and thought-provoking.

Everton’s spoken-word lyrics are set to deep Jamaican grooves by Searching for Banjo, Everton’s band of wildly talented musicians (Booker King, Masa Shimizu, Danny Sadownic, and Yusuke Yamamoto), lending the evening the feel of a roots-reggae bash. Everton will be performing tracks from his just-released album “Trial Separation,” as well as some Brooklyn Funk Essentials classics.

Concerts are on Sunday evenings at 7pm.


For reservations in The Restaurant or in the club call 518.828.4800.

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