(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Medeski Martin and Wood keyboardist John Medeski and new-music ensemble SO Percussion will be on hand to help celebrate the pre-release of composer/bandleader/drummer Bobby Previte‘s new recording, “TERMINALS,” at Club Helsinki Hudson on Monday, October 20, 2014, at 8pm.
Since moving to Columbia County a few years ago, Bobby Previte has turned Hudson into a northern outpost of the downtown jazz avant-garde with his regular gigs at Helsinki Hudson, often featuring his ongoing Voodoo Orchestra North project devoted to Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew” music, and bringing a steady flow of cutting-edge improvisers to the Helsinki stage.
This time around, Previte celebrates the release of his terrific new recording, “TERMINALS,” a new work written for the spectacular SO Percussion (Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski and Jason Treuting) and a cadre of Previte’s favorite improvisers, including John Medeski, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, avant-jazz saxophonist Greg Osby, and downtown’s favorite harpist, Zeena Parkins.
SO Percussion – in residence at Bard College this semester – will warm up the crowd with selections from their vast repertoire, which spans the history of percussion music and beyond. Previte – also a skilled raconteur – will then hold forth on his sometimes harrowing, always hilarious 40 years in music, which may include the infamous “Chicago Hotel From Hell” and “Johnny’s Gonna Kill Ya” stories.
To cap off the evening, SO Percussion, Previte and keyboard legend John Medeski will join forces in a command performance of TERMINALS 4 and 5, for drum set, percussion, and Hammond B3 organ, “during which, if you’re close enough, you might feel the breeze from the end of Josh Quillen’s whip,” says Previte.
If the vinyl gods comply, there will be copies of the new double-vinyl LP “TERMINALS” from Cantaloupe on hand, literally hot-off-the-presses and ready for signing or spinning. The evening’s festivities will be filmed for later streaming on Cantaloupe Music’s YouTube channel and other media outlets.
Bobby Previte is a performer/composer whose work explores the nexus between composed and improvised music. A recipient of a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship for music, Previte is one of the seminal figures of the 1980s New York “Downtown” scene. His music has been labeled as “utterly original” by the New York Times, while the New Yorker says his ensembles “speak in visionary tongues” and the Village Voice calls him “a serious composer with the heart of a roadhouse rocker.”
Previte’s two hundred-plus original compositions have been recorded and released on Sony, Elektra, Rykodisc, Palmetto, New World, Ropeadope, Thirsty Ear, and Tzadik. Leading a plethora of diverse ensembles from his instrument, the drums, he constantly travels the world, presenting his music at clubs, concert halls, and festivals. He has collaborated with many of the leading lights in and beyond the world of music – from master composer John Adams to rock icon Tom Waits to the legendary filmmaker Robert Altman to Lenny Kaye, John Lurie, Elliott Sharp, Wayne Horvitz, Steven Bernstein, Charlie Hunter, Michael Tilson-Thomas and John Zorn.
Previte launched the original Voodoo Orchestra in the Tap Bar of New York City’s famed jazz club the Knitting Factory in 1999. Every Tuesday night, Previte and top jazz improvisers would assemble to play “Bitches Brew” in its entirety. The concept caught on, and Previte took the project to jazz clubs and festival stages around the world. Now that he has moved to Hudson, Previte has rebooted the project with a new slate of musicians drawn from the greater region: hence, the Voodoo Orchestra North.
Upcoming Voodoo Orchestra North performances at Helsinki Hudson are Saturday, November 15, at 9pm; Friday, February 13, 2015, at 9pm; and Friday, March 13, 2015, at 9pm.
For reservations in The Restaurant or in the club call 518.828.4800.