Samson’s Elementary School Uke Program in the News!
My elementary ukulele students and teaching method are featured FRONT PAGE in the Metro Section of the Richmond Times Dispatch! CLICK HERE to view the article and vid clip.
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Upper East Side Big Band’s first gig of the New Year!
Celebrating 8 amazing years of local independent radio from Richmond’s own WRIR 97.3fm. YOUR radio station. YOUR party. We’ll be performing 3rd on the Main Stage.
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 & The Upper East Side Big Band OPENING for Love Canon w/ special guest, John D’earth! Wha?!!!!!
We’re excited to be making our first live show appearance in Charlottesville opening up for 80s bluegrass band, Love Canon! Love Canon is vocalist/guitarist, Jesse Harper (of acoustic supergroup Old School Freight Train), bassist, Darrell Muller (also of OSFT), Adam Larrabee (jazz guitar/banjo virtuoso), Andy Thacker (mandolin), and Nate Leath (fiddle). It’s going to be an epic night with a finale featuring both ensembles on stage together performing new arrangements!
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
UES Big Band with SPARC present LIVE ART!!
Featuring students with and without developmental disabilities and hearing impairment performing alongside legendary musicians: Robbin Thompson, Steve Bassett, Susan Greenbaum, Jesse Harper, Josh Small, Marc Langelier, Samson Trinh and the Upper East Side Big Band. UESBB will be the house band under the musical direction of Samson. Richmond natives, Daniel Clarke (keyboardist for k.d. lang) and Jason Mraz will serve as artistic advisers for this mind blowing event! TICKETS ARE GOING FAST SO GET THEM NOW!
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
U.E.S. Big Band: Richmond Magazine Pollak Prize Article
CLICK HERE to read Harry Kollatz’s write up on Samson Trinh & The Upper East Side Big Band’s recent Pollak Prize win for Best Ensemble!
U.E.S. Big Band Wins Richmond Magazine Award!
Richmond Magazine awarded Samson Trinh & The Upper East Side Big Band Best Ensemble for the Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts! The issue hits the stands this October. Excellent write up and pics.
Excellent Write Up on UES Big Band’s Dell Show
Nice write up about Upper East Side Big Band’s recent Dogwood Dell performance by Karen from her blog, “I Could Go On and On”. Photo by Melisa Brugh:
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
JUNE 10TH: OPENING THE DOGWOOD DELL SEASON AGAIN!
That’s right!!! Friday, June 10th at 8PM… FREE! Dogwood Dell has invited Samson Trinh & The Upper East Side Big Band to open up the Summer Concert Series again! Last year’s turn out was filled way past the 2,400 seat capacity. Joining them for the first set will be the six-piece Jazz/Americana group, the Mills Family Band.
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
An Evening on Abbey Road
That’s right! On Friday, March 18, 2011, The Upper East Side Big Band will once again present our rendition of Abbey Road in its entirety! The concert will be held at The Steward School’s beautiful 500 seat Lora M. Robins Theatre in the Paul R. Cramer Center for the Arts! Seating is limited.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS NOW!
Best Richmond Albums of 2010
Samson Trinh & The Upper East Side Big Band’s “The Abbey Road Project” has been named as one of the Best Richmond Albums of 2010 by Richmond Playlist!
“Richmond had so many amazing albums come out this year, there was no way I could lump them in with national releases and narrow them down to 10. So I made a completely separate list. And it was still hard to do. Here are the best albums Richmond musicians had to offer for 2010.” – From the Article
Check out the full article HERE!!!
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