HUDOST KICKS OFF NEW SONGWRITERS SHOWCASE at MISSION BAR + TAPAS
HuDost - Jemal Wade Hines, left, and Moksha Sommer - kicks off Mission's new Songwriters Room on April 1, 2012.
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Experimental world-rock ensemble Hudost kicks off a new songwriters showcase at Mission Bar + Tapas on Sunday, April 1, 2012. The core of Hudost is singer-songwriters Moksha Sommer from Montreal and Jemal Wade Hines from New York, who write and harmonize organically. The duo often performs with other musicians as full-fledged ensemble featuring percussion, flutes, bass guitar and other instrumentation.
The duo’s work embraces a panoply of styles, based in mainstream folk-pop and accented with taste of traditional Sufi music, Eastern European influences, Turkish, Arabic, and Asian flavors. The group’s most recent album was produced by Daniel Lanois protege Malcolm Burn, and some of the tracks demonstrate the hard-charging influence of epic-rock bands such as the Lanois-produced U2.
The WordXWord Festival and Mission Bar + Tapas are teaming up to create an ongoing showcase for songwriters. Beginning April 1, 2012, the WordXWord Festival will host a twice-weekly songwriters showcase at Mission. The Songwriters Room is similar to the weekly Writers Room at yBar, in that it is an opportunity for songwriters to try out new material in front of a welcoming audience in an informal setting.
LEGENDARY JAZZ PIANIST AHMAD JAMAL to PLAY COLONIAL
Ahmad Jamal
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Jazz legend Ahmad Jamal, who calls Sheffield, Mass., home, will be celebrating the release of his newest CD, Blue Moon, in concert at the Colonial Theatre on Saturday, March 31, 2012, at 8pm.
Comprised of brilliant new interpretations of songs from two of America’s most storied mediums of entertainment – classic films and Broadway – and originals that convey pure majesty, each of the nine pieces the hard-swinging Blue Moon recording showcases Jamal’s creative reinvention as well as his orchestral approach to the piano keyboard.
SELF-STYLED ‘STRANGE’ ARTWORKS on EXHIBIT at GALLERY 51
'Barricade' by Wayne Hopkins
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Beginning Thursday, March 29, 2012, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Gallery 51 will present Strange Soup, an exhibition of striking, colorful, bizarre and challenging artwork by North Adams-based artists Wayne Hopkins and Cathy Wysocki. An opening reception, free and open to the public, will be held on Thursday, March 29, 5-7 p.m.
Hopkins and Wysocki are fairly recent transplants to the Berkshires from Albuquerque, N.M. Last summer, North Adams was introduced to their respective works through the exhibition, End of an Empire, at Grass Gallery, a part of DownStreet Art.
(WILLIAMSTOWN and GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.)- Oliver Goldsmith’s comedic masterpiece, She Stoops to Conquer, comes to the Mahaiwe on Thursday, March 29, 2012, at 7pm ($25 / $18 Students) and The Clark ($25/ $23 members and students) on Friday, March 30 at 2 pm, live in HD from London’s National Theatre.
One of the great, generous-hearted, and ingenious comedies of the English language, Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer offers a celebration of chaos, courtship, and the dysfunctional family. Hardcastle, a man of substance, looks forward to acquainting his daughter with his old pal’s son with a view to marriage. But thanks to playboy Lumpkin, he’s mistaken by his prospective son-in-law Marlow for an innkeeper and his daughter for the local barmaid. The good news is, while Marlow can barely speak to a woman of quality, he’s a charmer with those of a different stamp. And so, as Hardcastle’s indignation intensifies, Miss Hardcastle’s appreciation for her misguided suitor soars.