MIC~ART Productions Presents Take It OUT Tuesday Concert Series

MIC~ART Productions together with Medicine Show Theatre is very  pleased to announce that the George Brandon Blue Unity Ensemble will be performing at the upcoming Take It OUT Tuesday Concert Series event on September 26th @ 8:30 and 10pm.



549 W. 52nd Street, 3rd Flr., NYC 10019 (212) 262-4216



The group consists of: Waldron Mahdi Ricks-Trumpet; Jorge Sylvester-Alto Saxophone; Terry Greene, III-Trombone; Donald Nicks-Bass; Ethan Kogan-Drums; and, George Brandon-Diverse Percussion Instruments.

Please save and pass on this flyer and come out to support the legendary experimental Medicine Show Theatre, the Take It OUT!! Tuesday monthly concert series and this amazing group, George Brandon Blue Unity Ensemble. 

One of the main things about this group and for that matter, all of the groups that Dr. Brandon leads is the compositions.  George Brandon is an interesting and intricate composer who draws from many sources. His writing is soulful, harmonically rich and rhythmically rooted in the African Diaspora but that being said, his subject matter and lyrical content is on another level and page altogether - talk about imagination but also in your face reality and truth delving into intuition, spirituality, social activism, matters of the heart and beyond. His sound is both familiar and other-worldly, bluesy and very jazzy, it swings and it transports, mind, body and spirit to far away places, back to the roots, the past, present and the future.

For this performance, I will be joining the group on Brandon's arrangement of "April in Paris". The two shows will include a mixture of post-bop and free music the sextet has been doing since it was formed earlier this year with the addition of George's poetry and a reenactment for added dimension. The highly skilled band is comprised of some of the most renowned jazz musicians, improvisers, composers, conceptualist and bandleaders in New York. 

When I asked George how he writes for the sextet he responded, "It is a difficult question to answer. I'm still trying to figure that one out myself."  Humility and humor - a good combination. Well whatever he's doing, he's doing it right! Please come out and hear for yourself and while you're at it, join his email list to receive his newsletter and information about upcoming shows. gbrandon1@juno.com

Listen to George Brandon's music here:
https://www.reverbnation.com/georgebrandon

MORE ABOUT GEORGE BRANDON

George Brandon, PhD

Transdisciplinary Artist, Integrative Sound Music Practitioner

Poet, Composer, Anthropologist

“The Blue Unity Orchestra tries to create a space that is firmly based in Black music traditions but is beyond category.” G. Brandon

By the time he graduated from Barringer High School in his home town of Newark, NJ, George Brandon was already playing trombone professionally in local swing bands, rhythm and blues, gospel, and classical ensembles.

STUDIED:  jazz, contemporary experimental European classical music, West African music, Balinese and Javanese gamelan, electronic music, Afro-Cuban chant and calypso.

STUDIED WITH:  Trombonist Chris White at the Institute for Jazz Studies and as a charter member of the Jazzmobile workshop; Frank Foster, Curtis Fuller, Jimmy Heath and Jimmy Owens. With the support and encouragement of Chris White and Trombonist, Grachan Moncur III, he applied for and received an NEA grant to study privately with jazz composer and theorist George Russell.

After completing a doctorate in anthropology at Rutgers University in 1983, he taught African American Studies and medical anthropology at the University of Maryland (1982-1989) and from 1989-2014 taught at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at the City University of New York. His anthropological studies have given him a global historical, cultural and social perspective that decisively affects his conception of music and guides his work as composer and sound and music practitioner.

Since 1989 he has composed for and directed the Blue Unity Orchestra.


COMING UP at the next Take It OUT!! Tuesday on OCTOBER 24th will be Blaise Siwula and his group "SESSIONS". 

Blaise is a New York City based free jazz musician and curator.

Blaise curated the long-running weekly C.O.M.A. music event at ABC No Rio on the lower east side, NYC for about 13 yrs. 

SESSIONS includes:

Blaise Siwula reeds, Stan Nishimura trombone, Anthony DiGregorio guitar, Aron Namenwirth guitar/banjo/bass, 
Eric Plaks keyboard, John Loggia drums/perc and Grady Gerbacht drums/perc

This group  has performed at Shapeshifter Lab, The Firehouse Space and Public Houses. The core structure uses multiple combinations of players in a progression towards unity.