Steven Bernstein (photo Michael Weintrob)
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Grammy Award-winner Steven Bernstein, the jazz wizard-genius who knows as well as anyone how to combine cutting-edge jazz, funk, and pop music – brings his Universal Melody Brass Band to the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA on Saturday, February 4, at 8pm, in a ticketed event culminating MASS MoCA’s annual Free Day.
Trumpeter/bandleader Bernstein presides over consciousness-expanding arrangements from Sly and the Family Stone, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Allen Toussaint, The Band, and more, accompanied by a wicked horn section featuring stalwarts of the downtown avant-garde, including tubist Ben Stapp, trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, saxophonist Oscar Noriega, trumpeter Duane Eubanks, saxophonist Erik Lawrence, and slide trombone master Art Baron. Superstar drummer Billy Martin (Medeski Martin & Wood) drives the band.
Prolific trumpeter, arranger/composer, and bandleader Steven Bernstein is no stranger to the region’s stages. With 30 years of arrangements under his belt, Bernstein is known for his bandleader efforts in Sex Mob, the Millennial Territory Orchestra, the Lounge Lizards, Butler, Bernstein & the Hot 9, and Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble Band.
Bernstein has been awarded three Grammy Awards, four DownBeat Critics Poll Awards, and the London Times’ “Jazz Record of the Year.” He has collaborated with both classic and contemporary musical icons, including Marianne Faithfull, Roswell Rudd, Rufus Wainwright, Bill Frisell, Elton John, Levon Helm, Courtney Love, and My Morning Jacket.
Steven Bernstein
MASS MoCA’s annual Free Day runs from 11am to 7pm, when the cultural laboratory swings open the doors for an extensive program of art-making, galleries, tours, and pop-up performances.
Lickety Split, MASS MoCA’s café, serves up crisp salads, hearty soups, and lip-smacking pub fare. A full bar serves Bright Ideas Brewing beers and Berkshire Mountain Distillery spirits.
Tickets for The Universal Melody Brass Band are $10 for students, $16 advance, and $22 day- of.
Tickets for all events are available through the MASS MoCA box office located on Marshall Street in North Adams, open 11am to 5pm every day except Tuesdays. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during box office hours or purchased online at MASS MoCA.
About MASS MoCA
MASS MoCA is one of the world’s liveliest (and largest) centers for making, displaying, and enjoying today’s most important art, music, dance, theater, film, and video. MASS MoCA will nearly double its gallery space in spring 2017, with artist partnerships that include Laurie Anderson, the Louise Bourgeois Trust, Jenny Holzer, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and James Turrell.
Gallery admission is $18 for adults, $16 for veterans and seniors, $12 for students, $8 for children 6 to 16, and free for children 5 and under through May 21, 2017. Members are admitted free year-round. The Hall Art Foundation’s Anselm Kiefer exhibition is open seasonally, spring–fall. For additional information, call 413.662.2111 x1 or visit MASS MoCA.
Hours
11am to 5pm, closed Tuesdays