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Event
Crooked Jades and Gwyneth & Monko
The Crooked Jades are on a mission to reinvent old-world music for a modern age, pushing boundaries and blurring categories with their fiery, soulful performances. Innovative, unpredictable and passionate, they bring their driving dance tunes and haunting ballads to rock clubs, festivals, traditional folk venues and concert halls across America and Europe.
Known for their rare and obscure repertoire, beautiful original compositions, inspired arrangements and eclectic, often vintage instrumentation, The Crooked Jades began with band leader/founder Jeff Kazor's vision to revive the dark and hypnotic sounds of pre-radio music. With this old-time foundation, the band has created the unique Crooked Jades sound by exploring the roots of Americana and interweaving the diverse musical influences of Europe and Africa. Filtering these old-world sounds with universal and ancient themes through a post-9/11 lens, they seek to make sense of the future.
A collective of West and East Coast pickers with equal parts attitude and respect, always led by Kazor, the band performs with a thrilling energy that has audiences on their feet dancing and critics comparing them to everyone from The New Lost City Ramblers and The Pogues to Gillian Welch, Nick Cave and Tom Waits.
The current lineup of the Crooked Jades is a core trio of co-founders Jeff Kazor (vocals/guitar/ukulele) and Lisa Berman (vocals/slide guitar/banjo/harmonium), with Erik Pearson (vocals/banjos/ukulele/harmonium/slide guitar) often joined by Charlie Rose (bass), and Rose Sinclair (banjo/banjo uke/minstrel banjo/slide guitar).
Adjunct members of the collective include Leah Abramson (vocals/uke/guitar/harmonium), Megan Adie (bass), Jennie Benford (vocals/mandolin/guitar) Elise Engelberg (fiddle), Genessa Kealoha (bass), Tom Lucas (banjos), Stephanie Prausnitz (fiddle), Josh Rabie (fiddle/mandolin), Adam Tanner (fiddle/mandolin) and Sophie Vitells (fiddle/vocals).
Started by Kazor in San Francisco from a kitchen jam in 1994, The Crooked Jades have 6 critically-acclaimed CDs, including World's on Fire(on the sound track for Sean Pennâ 2007 film Into the Wildâ), two CDs co-produced by alt-countryâ Richard Buckner, and âSeven Sisters the soundtrack to an award-winning PBS documentary. Their brand new release Shining Darkness features the current lineup playing 19 original songs and instrumentals on harmonium, bao (Vietnamese one-string box zither) and mbira in symphony with string-band standards fiddle, banjo, guitar ukulele and arco bass.
YouTube
Let It Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZJUQaBhxCM
Pretty Little Widow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZlBldCxikQ
Old Cow Died: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4g4FnXqNmc
Spark-KQED Public Television Arts & Culture Feature:
http://www.kqed.org/arts/places/spark/profile.jsp?id=9862
Catalog
* Jade Note CJ008 Shining Darkness2008
* Jade Note Music CJ206 "World's on Fire"Ã,© 2006
(on soundtrack for Sean Penn's 2007 film Into the Wild)
* Jade Note Music CJ904: "The Crooked Jades" (5 song EP) © 2004
* Jade Note Music CJ004: "The Unfortunate Rake, Vol. 2: Yellow Mercury"
(co-produced by Richard Buckner) Ã,© 2003
* Jade Note Music CJ003: "The UnfortunateRake, Vol. 1"
(co-produced by Richard Buckner) Ã,© 2000
* Jade Note Music CJ002: "Seven Sisters: A Kentucky Portrait"
(soundtrack to PBS documentary) Ã,© 2000
Bios
Jeff Kazor founded his groundbreaking and internationally influential band The Crooked Jades in San Francisco in 1996, recording 7 albums and touring the US and Europe playing festivals including Rudolstadt World Music Fest in Germany, Hebridean Celtic Festival in Scotland, Belfast Festival at Queens in Ireland, Calgary Folk Festival in Canada and (Hardly) Strictly Bluegrass, Merlefest, and Strawberry Festivals in the US. The Crooked Jades have showcased at SXSW, Folk Alliance and IBMA and been profiled on the PBS art magazine SPARK. Live radio performances include BBC in Scotland, England and Ireland and NPR in the US. A producer, musicologist and composer, as well as multi-instrumentalist and magnetic vocalist and performer, Kazor created the soundtrack to award-winning PBS documentary film Seven Sisters (2000) and produced music selected by Sean Penn for Into the Wild (2007). Recently selected by prestigious UK folk music magazine fRoots as one of 10 bands representing the best of Americana, Kazor and The Crooked Jades are currently being profiled and filmed for an upcoming 4-part television series (co-production of the US and Britain's BBC) to represent the cutting-edge modern folk music scene. Kazor co-founded the grassroots San Francisco Bluegrass & Old-Time Festival in 1999.
Lisa Berman is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Internationally known as a pioneer in bringing the Hawaiian slide guitar back to old-time music and redefining its sound, she also performs on claw-hammer banjo, dobro, guitar, harmonium, and baritone ukulele. Berman co-founded The Crooked Jades with Jeff Kazor, where her rare gift for harmony singing has been showcased and critically acclaimed as hauntingly beautiful and goosebump- raising. Her performance style incorporates elements of body music and dance, drawing from her studies of African and Afro-American styles. Berman also records and tours with the renowned Stairwell Sisters (an all-woman old-time string band she co-founded), including performances on Prairie Home Companion, Lincoln Center (NYC), (Hardly) Strictly Bluegrass Festival (San Francisco), Celtic Connections Festival (Scotland), the BBC and Sesame Street. A sought-after session player and teacher, Berman has worked with such traditional-music stalwarts as the late Mike Seeger, Laurie Lewis, Mac Martin and Tut Taylor.
Erik Pearson has been an integral part of The Crooked Jades since the beginning, first recording with the band on the Seven Sisters project. In addition he has performed and recorded as a solo artist and with a multitude of bands including Mushroom, Sonya Hunter, Alice Bierhorst, The Billy Talbot Band, Irene Sazer and The Stairwell Sisters. Pearson tours the US with master storyteller Diane Ferlatte accompanying her on banjo and guitar. They have made six award-winning CDs, including three ParentâÂÂs Choice Gold awards, and a 2007 GrammyÃ, nomination for Wickety Whack, Brer Rabbit is Back. Performance highlights include The National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN (where 10,000+ people come to hear stories), and The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Pearson, who studied Music Composition and Cultural Anthropology at Oberlin College/Conservatory of Music, has composed music for San Francisco choreographers Chris Black and Jordan Fuchs, and written film and chamber music ranging from Creeping Dawn: Mountain & Shadow, a prize winning composition for 24 recorders commissioned by the American Recorder Orchestra of the West, to âÂÂFork & FileâÂÂ, a banjo composition on the Crooked Jadesâ WorldâÂÂs on Fire CD which was included in the soundtrack for Sean PennâÂÂs 2007 film Into the Wild.
Charlie Rose (bass) grew up in Kansas where he was first exposed to string band music by listening to bands like the Freight Hoppers, the Wilders, and Split Lip Rayfield at the legendary Walnut Valley festival in Winfield, Kansas. A talented and adventurous multi-instrumentalist, he has moved around the United States playing with bands including the Asylum Street Spankers and South Austin Jug Band of Austin, Texas. Charlie joined the Crooked Jades in 2007 at the recommendation of Uncle EarlâÂÂs Abby Washburn. He currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts where he is in demand with artists such as Tony Trischka and Adrienne Young.
Rose Sinclair (banjo, slide guitar) is the newest member of the Crooked Jades. Rose was a founding member of Green Linnet recording artists, the Heartbeats Rhythm Quartet, an influential neo-traditional string band that toured extensively in North America and Europe during the late '80s and early '90s, and was featured on A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, E-Town and Voice of America. Rose has taught at folk music camps on both coasts and appears on various recordings. She has toured as a multi-instrumentalist sideman with Robin & Linda Williams, James Leva and Memory Theater, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, and Martha Scanlan. At home in western Massachusetts, Rose plays non-pedal steel guitar around the Northeast with the classic honky tonk combo, Girl Howdy.
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LocationArcata Playhouse
1251-9th St.
Arcata, CA 95521
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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