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MARTY EHRLICH: Travelers Tales feat. Stan Strickland

  • The Lilypad 1353 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA, 02139 (map)

$20 Cover @ the Door ($15 Students) / Start 8pm / Doors 7:30pm / Seated Show

CMS presents from New York & Boston:

A rare chance to hear this genuine master of creative music—a legend absent from Boston’s scene—coming with accompanying world class musicians from New York, plus, Stan Strickland, a Boston Jazz icon/hero who used to play with Ehrlich years ago.

Tonight’s concert reunites two musical compatriots for the first time in many years. Marty Ehrlich and Stan Strickland sustained a decade’s long collaboration in Ehrlich’s ensembles, performing throughout Europe and America, and recording four critically acclaimed CD’s on Enja Records. They met in Boston in the 1970’s when Strickland was performing with the Boston Art Ensemble and Ehrlich was a student at the New England Conservatory. The musical sparks went from there, in New York City and on the road, performances centered around the improvisational forays of these two kindred artists.

Marty Ehrlich, alto, clarinet

Stan Strickland, tenor, soprano, flute

Michael Formanek, Bass

Michael Sarin, Drums

Marty Ehrlich

“This quartet release matches the cool-toned reeds of Marty Ehrlich (heard on clarinet, alto, and soprano) and Stan Strickland (doubling on flute and tenor) with bassist Michael Formanek (who operates as an active partner)… “ - New York Times

Marty is celebrating thirty-five years in the nexus of creative music centered in New York City. He began his musical career in St. Louis, Missouri, while in high school, performing and recording with the Human Arts Ensemble. He graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music with honors in 1977, where his teachers included George Russell, Jaki Byard, Joseph Allard, and Gunther Schuller.

As a multi-instrumentalist passionate about improvisation and interpretation, he has performed with a who’s who of contemporary composers including Muhal Richard Abrams, Ray Anderson, Steven Bernstein, Anthony Braxton, John Carter, Andrew Cyrille, Jack DeJohnette, Anthony Davis, Mark Dresser, Peter Erskine, Michael Formanek, Don Grolnick, Chico Hamilton, Julius Hemphill, Andrew Hill, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Leroy Jenkins, Myra Melford, James Newton, Bobby Previte, David Schiff, Wadada Leo Smith, and John Zorn. He appears on more than 100 recordings with these and other composers.

He has made twenty-five recordings of his compositions for ensembles ranging in size from duo to jazz orchestra.

Ehrlich has performed with the Chicago Symphony, the BBC Symphony, the New York City Opera, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, and other classical ensembles. He has worked with the Jose Limón and Bill T. Jones dance companies, among others. He is currently presenting a concert program for twelve musicians entitled “Julius Hemphill: A Composer Portrait." His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition, the Peter Ivers Visiting Artist Residency at Harvard University, composition grants from Chamber Music America, the NEA, and NYFA, “Clarinetist of the Year" from the Jazz Journalist Association, and a Distinguished Alumni award from NEC. He was formerly an Associate Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Music at Hampshire College, Amherst, MA.

Stan Strickland

Singer, saxophonist, flutist, actor, Stan Strickland has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, New Zealand and the Caribbean. He has performed with the Boston Pops, the Village People, Aretha Franklin, and jazz greats Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Mann, and opened for Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and The Bare Naked Ladies. 

Strickland has a M.A. degree from Lesley College in Expressive Arts Therapy, and is an adjunct professor there, teaching classes in music and movement therapy. He also teaches at Berklee College of Music, Tufts University and Longy School of Music. Stan is more known as an associate professor at Berklee College of Music,

Stan is also the executive co-director of Express Yourself, a multi-cultural arts agency that serves mentally ill youth. The program is centered on the understanding that art-making has tremendous restorative powers.

Michael Sarin

Over the last twenty-seven years, drummer Michael Sarin has been at the center of New York City’s genre bending jazz and improvisation community. His versatility and musical wit helped forge long associations with forward-looking artists Thomas Chapin, Dave Douglas, Myra Melford, Ben Allison, and David Krakauer.  Born in 1965, Michael was raised on Bainbridge Island, WA. He went on to study with Tom Collier at the University of Washington, and later with master drummer, Jerry Granelli.

Since moving to New York in 1989, Michael’s unique style and approach to the drum set has been highly sought after by NYC and European musicians.  Along the way, Michael has performed and/or recorded with musicians who color a broad spectrum of jazz and improvised music

He has contributed to recordings by the aforementioned artists as well as those of Frank Carlberg, Anthony Coleman, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Mark Helias, Denman Maroney, Simon Nabatov, Mario Pavone, Ned Rothenberg, and Fred Wesley.

Over the last twenty-seven years, drummer Michael Sarin has been at the center of New York City’s genre bending jazz and improvisation community. Michael has been on the faculty of the Maine Jazz Camp since 1999

Michael Formanek

“The esteemed bassist and composer Michael Formanek…Add to that a deep grasp of knotty grooves, free-form improv, fetching themes, and sweet, sweet swing. The sequencing is peerless […] Extraordinary.” - Jon Garelick, The Boston Globe

One marker of the esteemed bassist Michael Formanek’s creativity and versatility is the range of distinguished musicians of several generations he's worked with. While still a teenager in the 1970s he toured with drummer Tony Williams and saxophonist Joe Henderson; starting in the '80s he played long stints with Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Fred Hersch and Freddie Hubbard. (As a callback to those days, Formanek recorded with hardbop pianist Freddie Redd in 2013). The bassist has played a pivotal role on New York's creative jazz scene going back to the '90s when he notably led his own quintet and played in Tim Berne's barnstorming quartet Bloodcount. Nowadays Formanek's in the co-op Thumbscrew with Brooklyn guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara.

soundcloud.com/michael-formanek

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