STAR SYSTEMS (Stuart Popejoy bass, Anders Nilsson guitar, Vinnie Sperrazza drums) plays at Zebulon this Sunday with a fabulous lineup.
Star Systems is an electric trio playing original hard-driving compositions by the members plus the occasional Zappa cover — our first show of 2012.
Joining us are two great groups: Sarah Bernstein/Dan Blake/Pascal Niggenkemper at 9pm and then Jon Goldberger/Chris Tordini/JP Schlegelmilch/Justin Carroll/Devin Gray at 10pm.
Please join us!
SUNDAY OCTOBER 14 @ ZEBULON
STAR SYSTEMS ================== 11pm
JON GOLDBERGER GROUP ========== 10pm
BERNSTEIN/BLAKE/NIGGENKEMPER == 9pm
Free
258 Wythe Ave @ Metropolitan, Williamsburg
L to Bedford Ave JMZ to Marcy Ave
http://zebuloncafeconcert.com
STUART POPEJOY is a bassist/keyboardist in Brooklyn NY. Current projects are Iron Dog (with Sarah Bernstein and Andrew Drury), Bassoon (with Sean Moran and John Mettam), and Star Systems (with Anders Nillson and Vinnie Sperrazza). Stuart recently premiered “Pleonid” for quintet featuring original algorithmic compositional methods. He is an active improviser utilizing bass and electronics and is currently curating the “Aural Dystopia” series at Jack, Brooklyn. Recent collaborators include Kevin Shea, Kenny Wollesen, Steve Swell, Adam Rudolph, Marco Cappelli, Avram Fefer, and post-rock heroes Harvey Milk. https://www.popejoy.org
ANDERS NILSSON is a guitarist and composer in NYC. Currently he leads Anders Nilsson Group (in NYC), Anders Nilsson’s AORTA (in Sweden), and The Hot Trio (an Ellington project), co-leads Fulminate Trio together with percussionist Michael Evans and bassist Ken Filiano, and Exposed Blues Duo with vocalist Fay Victor. He also plays solo guitar shows. He moved to New York in 2000 after having worked as a musician in Sweden for a number of years. He has performed and/or recorded with many musicians across the blues/jazz/experimental spectrum such as Sabir Mateen, Raoul Björkenheim, Eugene Chadbourne, Paquito D’Rivera, William Parker, Elliot Sharp, Fay Victor Ensemble, poet John Sinclair, art-metal band Angelblood. Always into interdisciplinary interaction, he has collaborated with Butoh artist Akira Kasai and theatre director Doris Mirescu. Nilsson’s work as a composer includes music for short films, dance performances, theatre plays, as well as a book of compositions for ensembles and solo guitar of which some can be heard on 5 highly acclaimed albums.
VINNIE SPERRAZZA is a Brooklyn percussionist in demand as a sideman and has made a name for himself as a leader. His recordings as a leader include “Peak Inn” (FS 343) with Jacob Sacks and Dave Ambrosio, and “Barcelona Holiday” with Sacks and bassist Masa Kamaguchi, chosen as an “Honorable Mention- Best of 2011” by The New York Jazz Record. Sperrazza earned a degree in jazz studies from William Paterson University and worked closely with legendary pianist James Williams, performing in concerts and recordings with Clark Terry, Bill Mobley, Steve Wilson, Javon Jackson, Richard Davis, and Mulgrew Miller. Other collaborators include Tony Malaby, Joe McPhee, Rich Perry, Joel Frahm, Wayne Escoffery, Jimmy Greene, Rick Margitza, Lenny Pickett, Roy Nathanson, Michael Attias, Dave Binney, Jon Irabagon, Loren Stillman, Ohad Talmor, Dave Scott, John McNeil, Shane Endsley, Judith Berkson, Jim Black, Ben Gerstein, Dominic Duval, Thomas Morgan, Chris Lightcap, Brad Shepik, Steve Cardenas, and Miles Okazaki.
JONATHAN GOLDBERGER is a guitarist and composer in NYC. He has worked extensively in both the music and film worlds, including composing and producing the music for the award-winning feature films Trans and The Hawk Is Dying. He currently plays guitar with artists including Todd Sickafoose, Josh Roseman, Jim Black, and Briggan Krauss, and has just released the CD Surface to Air—a collective with Rohin Khemani (tabla) and Jonti Siman (upright bass).
DEVIN GRAY’s fresh approach to modern drumming has enabled him to play with many of America’s great jazz musicians, such as Tony Malaby, Gary Thomas, Ingrid Jensen, Dave Burrell, Dave Ballou, Michael Formanek, George Garzone, Chris Speed, Sam Rivers, John O’Gallagher, Ellery Eskelin, Kris Davis, Ted Rosenthal, Dave Liebman, Andrew D’Angelo, Vardan Ovsepian, Bill McHenry. Current projects include a quartet recording (Dirigo Rataplan) and tour of compositions written for, Ellery Eskelin, Dave Ballou, and Michael Formanek. He is currently living, playing, and composing in Brooklyn, New York.
JP SCHLEGELMILCH is a Brooklyn-based pianist, accordionist and composer. In addition to his own groups, JP has performed with renowned improvisors such as Tim Berne and Oscar Noriega. JP also frequently plays with rock bands and has toured the country with the chamber-pop group The Silent League, and the indie rock singer Abby Payne. In each musical project JP seeks to synthesize his diverse musical interests, creating a personal and non-genre-specific music. He strives to continually enrich his musical language through studying various musical traditions including jazz, experimental music, classical music, and folk music from around the world.
JUSTIN CARROLL is a keyboardist and composer currently living in New York City. Justin plays acoustic piano, hammond organ, various electric keyboards and plays in numerous musical situations. Justin has toured with Van Morrison band, written and performed music for contemporary dance and theatre and has made collaborative projects with many jazz musicians. Justin has worked with many Irish singer songwriters such as Glen Hansard, Lisa Hannigan, Jerry Fish and Mary Coughlan. Justin has worked with many touring jazz musicians such as Greg Osby, Bobby Watson, Ronnie Cuber, Loren Stillman, Jason Rigby, Ed Rosenberg, Nils Wogram, Stéphane Payen, Tom Arthurs, as well as leading Dublin based quartet ‘Togetherness’ and playing with an organ trio ‘Organics’ who started as a regular Friday night fixture at Slattery’s bar in Rathmines, Dublin and went on to perform extensively in Ireland, Mexico, USA and South Africa. Justin composed music and performed in a theatre show ‘1900, the pianist on the Ocean’ with Donal O’Kelly and a live 5-piece jazz group. He composed music and performed in “Beatbox Bingo” by Catapult Dance Company with live music of organ and vocal beatbox; and “Secondary Sources” by Rex Levitates Dance Company performing at the Dublin Dance Festival and APAP New York. Justin’s composition ‘Helicopter Duo’, an electronic piece for two performers to manually rotate two hand-held speakers was performed at the Crash Ensemble Festival and the RTE Living Music Festival 2004. He also plays in several New York based groups such as ‘3-Way’ with trombonist Ryan Kerberle and drummer Jeff Davis; and groups ‘Glue Gun Optimism’ and ‘Sir Richard’ with Edward Rosenberg III. Justin is also a member of creative music collective ‘Bottlenote’ which host musical events and an annual festival.
SARAH BERNSTEIN is a violinist, composer, improviser, vocalist and poet. She leads the duo Unearthish with Satoshi Takeishi, presenting minimalist motifs with avant-jazz song form and original poetry, and is part of the improv trio Iron Dog with Stuart Popejoy and Andrew Drury, which showcases her sonic range on processed violin and spoken word. The recently debuted Sarah Bernstein Chamber Project introduces new acoustic compositions for nine instruments in various configurations. She performs and records with artists such as Anthony Braxton, Adam Rudolph, Joseph Daley, Dave Scott, and the Jazz & Poetry Choir Collective. Her film scores include the web documentaries of photojournalist Katja Heinemann. Originally from San Francisco, Sarah lives in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a BFA in Violin Performance from the California Institute of the Arts and an MA in Jazz Studies from CUNY Queens College.
PASCAL NIGGENKEMPER is a German-french bassist who is active in the creative music scene in the US and Europe. He coleaded the audio visual dance project Turbo Pascale. PNTrio, with Robin Verheyen and Tyshawn Sorey, recorded the CD “pasàpas” (Konnex 2008) and “urban creatures” (JazzHausMusik 2010), touring extensively in Europe, performing at the Jazzcologne Festival and the Jazzherbst Konstanz. Their performances were recorded for the WDR and the BR Radio. In June 2010 the Trio performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington. With Simon Nabatov and Gerald Cleaver, Pascal released in September 2011 the CD/LP upcoming hurricane on NoBusiness Records which is listed among ‘ALBUMS OF THE YEAR’ 2011 in the ‘The New York City Jazz Record’. Pascal is also co-leading the groups baloni (CD ‘fremdenzimmer’ Clean Feed Nov 2011) a duo for two prepared basses with Sean Ali called PascAli (CD ‘suspicious activity’ creative sources September 2012) and speaking tube with Emilie Lesbros and Frantz Loriot. With friends, he curates in NY the house concert series ze couch, where every month artists meet to present their work. He is a member of Thomas Heberer’s Clarino (CD ‘klippe’ Clean Feed Sept 2011 & ‘cookbook’ red toucan 2012), Joe Hertenstein’s HNH (HNH on clean feed 2010) and polylemma (CD polylemma on red toucan 2011), Joe Morris Quartet, Carlo Costa’s Minerva (CD ‘saturnismo’ between the lines 2011), Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host and Jean Carla Rodea’s Azares.
DAN BLAKE is a saxophonist and composer in New York City’s creative music scene. He performs regularly with the Grammy-nominated Julian Lage Group, Lukas Ligeti’s Kaleidoscope Point, Kenny Werner, Anthony Braxton, Peter Evans, and Ricardo Gallo. As a recording artist, Blake is a featured soloist on Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding’s forthcoming Radio Music Society (Heads Up). He is also a featured soloist on Anthony Braxton’s opera Trillium E (Tri-Centric Records), and on Danilo Perez’s Panama Suite (Artistshare). Blake’s work as a composer has garnered the John Lennon Songwriting Contest’s Grand Prize, ASCAP’s Young Jazz Composer’s Award, City University’s Morton Feldman Composition Award and most recently, the prestigious Jerome Fund Commissioning Grant. Dan Blake is currently a Ph.D. candidate in composition at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and serves as adjunct lecturer in music history at The Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. He was recently awarded the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund for an ongoing research project examining New York City’s improvised music scene.
