Bands also performing: Dead Fame Canary Oh Canary Wolf//Goat

Date: Friday, February 1st
Venue: The Renaissance
Time: 7:00pm
Address: 107 West Broad Street # 300

Samson Trinh arranges, orchestrates, conducts, and produces The Upper East Side Big Band on this classic John Lennon/Yoko Ono holiday piece sung by Susan Greenbaum and The City Singers Children’s Choir (director: Leslie Moruza Dripps). CLICK THE LINK ABOVE TO SAMPLE AND BUY this epic single for only 99 CENTS!

Fresh off from our recent “Live Art” show with SPARC, The Upper East Side Big Band is back and tighter than ever. And to add more awesomeness, jazz trumpet legend, John D’earth will be joining the UESBB horn section that night to blow your faces off!

For tickets, go to The Jefferson Theater’s website HERE:

http://www.jeffersontheater.com/love-canon

Doors open @ 8PM. UESBB performs @ 8:30PM.

UPPER EAST SIDE BIG BAND:
Samson Trinh: musical director, arranger, sax, clarinet, uke

VOX, KEYS, & ORGAN: Adrian Duke
VOCALS: Allyson Mills-Steele & Terri Simpson
GUITAR/MANDO: John Conley
BASS: Andrew Randazzo
DRUMS & PERCUSSION: Aaron Thompson, Andy Brockmann, and Mike Boyd

REEDS: Suzi Fischer (alto sax, flute), Dr. John Wittman (tenor sax), Jonathan Gibson (bari sax, flute)

TRUMPETS: Rob Quallich (lead) and special guest, John D’earth
TROMBONES: Pete Anderson & Josh Wright

LINKS:

www.sparconline.org/liveart – ticket sales page

http://bit.ly/LiveArtExcerpt – 4 minute except from the LIVE ART documentary

sparcliveart.tumblr.com/ – LIVE ART tumble page @SPARConline- Twitter name

http://www.facebook.com/sparconline – Facebook page

Wouldn’t It Be Nice? (Saturday, June 11, 2011)

“Next time, bring a glass.”

That’s what the woman sitting near me at Dogwood Dell said to me at the end of the evening. Earlier, when she’d tried to surreptitiously open a bottle of wine, I’d looked over and grinned at her.

All good Richmonders know alcohol is forbidden at the Dell. That said, I’ve never once been to a a performance there and not seen people drinking. Most people.

So at the end of the evening, she’d made sure to tell me that if I brought a glass in the future, it would be filled. Good to know and yet completely meaningless from a stranger.

A neighbor and I had gone for opening night to see the Upper East Side Big Band. As it turned out, we also got the Mills Family band as an opener.

Their set list ranged from “Little Liza Jane” to Paul Simon’s “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover” to Sesame Street, all enhanced by Samson Trinh’s unique bluegrass saxophone and nonstop leg gyrations..

We enjoyed our picnic supper of fried chicken, watermelon, grapes and German chocolate cake. We weren’t going to starve; he also brought a sandwich and I also ate a salad. Picnic of champions.

The night was beautiful, what with the temperature and humidity having dropped earlier despite no signs of the predicted thunderstorms.

As always at the Dell, dusk brought out the swooping bats over the trees and eventually the moon.

We had Jackson Ward neighbors sitting right in front of us (“We should have formed a caravan over from the Ward”), who only noticed us once my friend began lobbing grapes at them. Ah, the pleasures of thrown foodstuffs at outdoor activities.

The Upper East Side Big Band is big, with probably 18 or 19 musicians, including brass members from Bio Ritmo, Glows in the Dark and No BS Brass Band.

Their set led off with “Very Strange Night” from their first album and bandleader Trinh alternated vigorous musical directing with playing the flute. His multi-tasking was an indication of things to come.

A few songs later, out came five jazz vocalists. four women and one man, to augment the musicians on stage. “This is part one of blowing your mind,” he told the audience.

They began with “Back in the USSR” with keyboard player Adrian Duke on lead vocal (the closet vocal comparison I could think of was David Clayton Thomas) and the other five on backup.

Segueing into “Dear Prudence,” Trinh became a rubber-legged wonder, all but moon walking across the stage.

Raving about his love for the Beach Boys’ masterpiece “Pet Sounds,” Trinh said that, “This will be the first time in Richmond that the Beach Boys are done right.”

The crowd lapped up “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows” before a guest guitarist was brought onstage for “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Given Trinh’s love of the Beatles, finishing with “Rocky Raccoon” was no surprise. Many people packed up and made for the parking lot at that point, only to miss the barn-burner of the evening, “Helter Skelter.” It got the baby boomers dancing, that’s for sure.

Clearly pumped at the audience’s reaction, Trinh shouted, “Maybe next year we can be on Style’s Best Bands list. Five years and nothing!”

Had it been up to the crowd tonight, they’d have been a write-in vote.

After so much retro music, neighbor and I headed to Cous Cous for something much more au courant. The Diamond Center, those recent veterans of South by Southwest and Austin’s Psychfest, were playing a free show.

I’m always torn about shows at Cous Cous; it’s an ill-configured place to see a band perform and the crowd can be obnoxious.

It’s impossible to have a conversation without endlessly repeating yourself and a pain in the neck to get a drink from the overcrowded bar.

But the show was free and the Diamond Center were playing. I always see scads of people I know, always the music lovers. It’s a trade-off, she said diplomatically.

Visual projections were by Cosmic Hum and were they ever groovy. Amoeba-like forms morphed and moved over the screen behind the band and the ceiling.

At one point, the red blobs showing on the ductwork looked like blood spatters. Groovy and gruesome.

And then there’s the music, with its hazy guitar (including a twelve-string), haunting melodies and a sense of urgency that has bodies moving and heads bobbing.

There is a reason so many of us show up whenever they play. I ran into a musician friend who, like neighbor and I, had begun the evening at the Dell and moved on to something completely different sans his neighbor.

I saw the big-voiced singer and ukulele player I’d seen busking in Charlottesville before the Arcade Fire show. She’d been smart and watched the show from outside, saving herself from group sweat-in I endured.

And I saw the comedian/ukulele player/man-about-town who perennially suggests that I join his group after the show for some late night munchies and chatter at McLean’s.

I declined; the picnic had more than scratched that itch. Even my insatiable need for music and conversation had been well-satisfied.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say I had everything I need on this Friday night.

But next time, I’ll bring a glass and see who’s willing to fill it. There’s just no telling.

View this blog @ http://icouldgoonandon.blogspot.com/2011/06/wouldnt-it-be-nice.html

The 20-piece big band will feature guest vocalists Adrian Duke, Allyson Mills-Steele, Curtis Mills, Desiree Roots Centeo, John Winn (from the Neighborliness Jazz Quartet), Terri Simpson (from the Butterbean Quartet), and Laura Ann Singh (from Quatro na Bossa). This is the DREAM TEAM of Richmond singers!!!

Why SO many vocalists? Because Samson’s going to present a smorgasbord of brand-spanking new musical arrangements, which will include new Samson Trinh originals, selections from The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album, and selections from The Beatles’ “White Album”! And to top it off, the big band will perform cuts from Samson’s first
album “Very Strange Night” to celebrate its 5th anniversary reissue.

And if that’s not enough, there will be three drummers on stage with a plethora of percussion toys! They’re going to be back and forth on drum sets, timpani, bass drum, bell chimes, xylophone, glockenspiel, cowbell, and more!

This is going to be a special and magical night. And the best part… it’s FREE! Spread the news to your friends and family. Pack a picnic and be prepared for us to blow your minds again! See you all on Friday,
June 10th at 8PM!

- Samson

THE LINEUP…

SET 1 – MILLS FAMILY BAND

Allyson Mills-Steele: vocals, guitar
Curtis Mills: vocals, guitar
Samson Trinh: sax, flute, clarinet
Rusty Farmer: bass
Andy Brockmann: drums, background vocals
Carter Gravatt: mandolin (special guest from Carbon Leaf)

SET 2 – UPPER EAST SIDE BIG BAND

Samson Trinh: musical director, composer, arranger, sax

VOCALISTS: Adrian Duke (keyboards/arranger), Allyson Mills-Steele,
Curtis Mills (guitar), Desiree Roots Centeio, John Winn, Terri Simpson,
Laura Ann Singh

GUITAR: Tom Patti

BASS: Rusty Farmer

DRUMS & PERCUSSION: Aaron Thompson, Andy Brockmann, Mike Boyd

SAXES, FLUTES, CLARINETS: Kevin Simpson, Suzi Fisher, Jonathan Gibson

TRUMPETS: Rob Quallich, Scott Frock

TROMBONES: Pete Anderson, Stefan Demetriadis

SPECIAL GUEST: Slashtipher Coleman