Dialogues for the Ear and Eye
A monthly multi-disciplinary arts series
Curated by Joanne Pagano Weber and Bruce Weber
9W DINER, 3 Simmons Plaza, Saugerties, NY
Tuesday, May 6, 7-9PM 

This Month’s Guest Artists

NINA SHENGOLD is a writer. Her books include Reservoir Year: A Walker’s Book of Days, River of Words: Portraits of Hudson Valley Writers, the novel Clearcut, and 14 theatre anthologies for Vintage and Viking Penguin. She won a Writers Guild Award for her teleplay Labor of Love and the ABC Playwright Award for Homesteaders. A founding organizer of Hudson Valley Writers Resist, Word Cafe, and Actors & Writers, she teaches creative writing at Vassar College.

JEN HICKS is a multidisciplinary artist. She is a visual artist and she has taught dance, performance art and fine arts for many years. She has exhibited and performed widely in such prominent settings as The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The School of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, CAVE NYC, The San Francisco Butoh Festival, and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to name a few. She was a Butoh dancer for over 30 years, yoga instructor, Trance Dance facilitator and director of her own dance company called Chimera Lab based in Boston. She was also a member of the Mobius performance collective in Boston for over 10 years. She participated in collaborations with Liars & Believers, a Cambridge-based theatre company. She is the founder and director of Jane St Art Center in Saugerties, New York.

JIM YANDA is a guitarist who creates music at the nexus of Jazz, New Music, Free Improvisation, Blues, Country and Folk traditions. He grew up the youngest son of a farming family near Anamosa, Iowa. His earliest professional experience included performing western swing music in regional dance halls. In high school, gigging garage Rock bands added to his stylistic influences, as Yanda fell in love with guitarists Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page. He attended Coe College where he was introduced to jazz and avant garde 20th Century music by maverick trumpeter and university mentor, Paul Smoker. Yanda then spent several years on Chicago’s jazz scene before moving to New York to work with longtime collaborator Phil Haynes. Since then, Yanda has recorded his own music on Regional Cookin’ and Home Road and released recordings with Phil Haynes & Free Country, Damon Short, and Herb Robertson.

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Guests present their work for about twenty minutes each, followed by an open discussion/Q&A. Open mic sign-up – Three artists maximum – strict three minute limit per artist
Please note:
The 9W Diner is our host for Dialogues for the Ear and Eye 
• There is a great menu, and a beautiful spacious side room where we will have our gathering. We suggest that you come before 7 and get situated in the performance room and order food or drinks early so that we can focus on the artists between 7 and 9. The restaurant closes at 9 but we are allowed to linger a bit.
• Covid awareness – please use discretion and sign in so if someone gets sick, we can notify you.
• You don’t have to register for tickets or prepay, just arrive!
• Our hosts kindly aren’t asking for a minimum order, but we encourage you to support the venue by enjoying their good food and beverages.
• Please be generous to the artists when we pass the hat. All money we collect goes to the artists. We suggest a donation of $10 or more, but leave this to your discretion..

A memory from Brad Goode:

I’m saddened to hear of Paul Smoker’s passing. He was a great artist, trumpeter and educator, and a very important musical influence in my life.
During the late 1980’s, drummer Damon Short began bringing Paul to Chicago from Iowa, where they often played together at the Get Me High Jazz Club, The Green Mill and the Bop Shop. I was told that Paul was a great player, and that I would really appreciate him, but I was unprepared for meeting and hearing someone who would change my whole philosophy of improvisation.
Paul’s approach embraced all aspects of his musical background. He had started out as a Dixieland player, played in brass quintets, big bands, and for a brief period he flirted with a career in commercial music in New York, studying with Doc Severinsen. He found his perfect setting later in life, as a creative improviser.

When he performed, he reached all the way down and went for total self-expression, 100 % of the time. He played so hard and long, shaking and drenched with sweat, that it often appeared his head would explode. What emerged was a presentation that was totally personal, using every sound and texture he could find. Nothing was off-limits, and he used this open approach on material from Trad tunes and ballads to his own compositions and total improvisations.

We became good friends, and developed a kind of mutual appreciation. He came to hear me, I attended all of his Chicago gigs, and we would often sit-in together. I admired his ability to stand alone and apart, with total conviction to his unique approach. At the time we met, I was very young, and I had been struggling to figure out how I fit in to the cliquish world of Jazz styles. After hearing Paul, and hanging out with him, I began to understand that my only job as an improviser was to be myself, and to not worry about such trivial matters as style.

The photo here was taken in the 1990’s at the “Underground Fest” in Chicago; we were both to appear with our own groups on the same evening. Earlier that night, we had a very deep conversation about all of this stuff. I expressed to Paul that I was having a hard time with all of this stylistic rigidity, etc. Just before the music began, Paul said, “ When they announce my trio, you go up there in my place and play a free set, and then I’ll play a straight-ahead set with your band. That’ll really mess them up!”

Do yourself a favor and check out Paul’s great recordings. As one critic said, “he seems to come from everyplace at the same time.”

Here’s the facebook link for this:
https://www.facebook.com/brad.goode.3/posts/pfbid0bNYWUf9CtiQapePK54GyQgkiJkdTJMAVhk8E8ccruP8m1hmGYRYgV1vnbMrgeHFRl

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for supporting live music!
I’m thrilled to be playing a four-night tour with two bands in three cities.
We look forward to seeing you out there!

Yours in music,
Jim

Thursday November 9, 7pm
Regional Cookin’ at The Tavern

Jim Yanda – guitar  |  Drew Gress – bass  |  Phil Haynes – drums
The Tavern Stone Ridge
3978 Atwood Rd
Stone Ridge, NY 12484-5463
The Tavern on Instagram
regionalcookin.com

Friday November 10, 8pm
Regional Cookin’ at The Bop Shop
Bop Shop Records
1460 Monroe Avenue
Rochester, NY 14618
bopshop.com

Saturday November 11, 8pm
Empathy Gene at The Bop Shop

Herb Robertson – trumpet, etc  |  Jim Yanda – guitar  |  Phil Haynes – drums
Bop Shop Records
1460 Monroe Avenue
Rochester, NY 14618
bopshop.com
empathygene.us

Sunday November 12, 8pm
Empathy Gene at Tubby’s
Tubby’s Kingston586 Broadway
Kingston, NY 12401
tubbyskingston.com
Clifford Allen’s Instagram post about the gig.

We’re honored to be opening for Mississippi blues legend RL Boyce at Tubby’s on July 11th. This is gonna be an incredible evening.

Get tickets while you can!