$5 Cover @ the Door / Start 7pm / Door 7pm / Seated Show
Sarah Mendelsohn
As a singing drummer, industry folks have always said, “Get the girl out front!” Well, now she’s out front and loving it. While still playing drums and singing in the ever-popular Bob Marley tribute band, Duppy Conquerors, Sarah slides easily into the role of the front person singing her original music and playing guitar in her own band.
Sarah’s songs are at once beautifully melodic with catchy hooks, rich harmonies and heartfelt lyrics. They are songs of love, loss, vulnerability, motherhood, hope, and determination over the rhythmic backbones of rock, americana, ska, reggae, and ballads that bring the house down.
Sarah is no stranger to the music scene:
“I feel very lucky to have been in three really great and long-lasting bands over the years, playing music that has deeply moved me and those listening as well. People have gone out of their way to tell me how much the music has meant to them and how it has been an important backdrop in their lives. There is no higher praise than that, and to me, that is truly the essence of what music is and should be – moving.”
While Sarah wrote the songs, each member of her band brought their ideas, influences and unique sounds to her album, “IF.” Engineered, mixed and co-produced by three-time Grammy Award winner Ducky Carlisle (along with Jonas Kahn and Sarah) — the album really shines.
Jeff Robinson
St. Louis Missouri native, saxophonist, composer, radio disc jockey, actor, director, playwright, and poet, Jeff started the Jeff Robinson Trio in 1995 as a bridge between music and theatre. The "Trio" accompanies poets at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA, and has a weekly residency that has lasted nearly 20 years. The Jeff Robinson Trio has performed with some of the best poets in the United States of America, including Patricia Smith, Amiri Baraka, and Quincy Troupe, amongst thousands more.
Jeff is an alumnus of Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he studied with saxophonists Bill Pierce and George Garzone. He's studied theatre with Oleg Tabakov, Artistic Director of the legendary Moscow Art Theatre Company, and Shakespeare scholar Kristin Linklater. Jeff's one-person show about jazz legend Charlie "Bird" Parker entitled "Live Bird" has appeared off-Broadway and in Charlie Parker's hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. "I knew Charlie as a man and not simply as a musical genius. Jeff portrays the Charlie I knew." Widow, Doris Parker
He has directed several plays, including Pearl Cleage's "Blues for an Alabama Sky," He received an Independent Reviewers of New England Awards (IRNE) nomination for Best Director. Robinson directed Craig Lucas's "Reckless" for Theatre Zone and also his self-scripted "Alley Cats" at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston, MA, with the Baldwin Theatre Company.
He received an IRNE Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of the 'Stage Manager" in Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" at the Wheelock Theatre, as well as his portrayal of Charlie Parker in "Live Bird" for the Baldwin Theatre. His radio show "Poetry Jam" was aired on WMBR 88.1 FM in Cambridge and streamed live. He has recorded for Rounder Records and is working on a new recording with his trio.