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This Week at The Cornelia Street Cafe: November 29 to December 6

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This Week @ The CORNELIA STREET CAFE
NOVEMBER 29—December 6, 2010

Venue: The Cornelia Street Café
“A Culinary As Well A Cultural Landmark"
Proclamation, City of New York, 1987

For reservations and more info call 212-989-9319
Located at 29 Cornelia Street, Greenwich
Village, NYC 10014, [email protected]

Showtimes: Weeknights: 6:00 PM, 8:30 PM, 10:00 PM, Weekends: 6:00 PM, 9:00 PM and 10:30 PM (doors open @ 5:45 PM-early shows, & @ 8:30 PM-late shows)

Admission: Cover charge varies, when known, indicated below

What makes The Cornelia Street Café a true New York City landmark, an epicurean destination, an artist's café that cultivates and inspires, and one of the few remaining Greenwich Village bastions for creative music, spoken word, art, theatre, cabaret and much more?:

For more than thirty years the Café has provided food for the soul as well as the body, with more than 700 performances a year covering everything from science to songwriting, from Russian poetry to Latin jazz, from theatre to cabaret.

-When the Café opened its doors on July 4th weekend, 1977, it was run by three artists, Robin Hirsch, Judith Kallas and Bob Siegler, there was one room with a toaster-oven, a cappuccino machine and a refrigerator display case. Now, the three artists remain, but with two full kitchens and two full bars which serve more than thirty wines by the glass. There are three dining rooms, one with a working fireplace, and an audience and artist-friendly performance space. And in the summer there is one of the Village's loveliest sidewalk cafes.

-The Cornelia Street Café represents a long and excellent past with the jazz scene in New York City. One that extends from Sheila Jordan all the way to Paul Motian, and yet has plenty of room for up and coming artists who are redefining the modern vocabulary of what jazz improvisation is. It is this unique quality of providing a space which encourages the contemporary and new, while keeping any eye on the past, that truly sets the Café apart.

-Singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega got her start at the Café, as did Eve Ensler's “Vagina Monologues." Senator & presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy & attorney-activist William Kunstler have read their poetry; Dr. Oliver Sacks continues to read his prose. Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann presents a monthly Science Series; members of Monty Python & the Royal Shakespeare Company intermittently perform.

Awards & Distinctions:
Zagat Nightlife—Award of Distinction. All About Jazz New York—Top five venues in NYC & jazz venue of the year, 2008. DownBeat Magazine's 100 Great Jazz Clubs of The World. New York Post's Must Bar. Poetry Calendar's Best Poetry Series in New York. Time Out's Top 100 Restaurants. The Village Voice's Best of New York Food. Village Arts Award Inspired Cuisine. Where Magazine Best Neighborhood Ambiance. Waterford Crystal Award of Distinction Best Wine-By-The-Glass Program.

TONIGHT—Monday, November 29 @ 8:30PM
Harris Eisenstadt AND CANADA DAY
Nate Wooley, trumpet; Matt Bauder, tenor saxophone; Chris Dingman, vibraphone; Eivind Opsvik, bass; Harris Eisenstadt, drums, compositions. “One of the new generation's leading composers," AllAboutJazz, Troy Collins, Harris Eisenstadt's working quintet Canada Day features some of the most distinctive young musicians on the New York scene. Canada Day's eponymous debut on the Portuguese label Clean Feed made numerous Best of 2009 lists, including the Village Voice, All About Jazz New York, Jazzhouse, WFMU, Ni Kantu, CKUT, Dusted Magazine, and Time Out Lisbon. Days after their gig at Cornelia, the group goes into the studio to record their second record for release summer 2011 on the Songlines label. “He's a true jazz composer, without being pretentious about it." Hank Shteamer, Time Out New York. Cover $10

Wednesday, December 1, 8:30 PM
Brad Shepik QUARTET
Brad Shepik, guitar; Tom Beckham, vibraphone; Jorge Roeder, bass; Mark Guiliana, drums. Brad Shepik who has spent time in a host of groups led by luminaries (Paul Motian, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Dave Douglas, Joey Baron, Pachora) will perform with his new quartet music from their upcoming CD “Across the Way" (Songlines). “Downtown guitarist Brad Shepik goes far too long between albums; the best way to keep tabs on this compelling melodist, nimble improviser and thoughtful composer is to catch him on the bandstand." Time Out NY Cover $10

Thursday, December 2, 8:30 PM
Scott Lee GROUP
Scott Lee, bass, compositions; Billy Drewes, reeds; Gary Versace, piano; Jeff Hirshfield, drums. Bassist/Composer Scott Lee has been leading a group of close musical friends to experiment in different forms and new ways of improvising. Scott will be performing music from his new cd “Leaving" (Steeplechase Records). “This is the heart and soul of Jazz and improvised music—Scott, with Billy Drewes, Gary Versace and Jeff Hirshfield, capture your attention and take you places....They are some of my favorite improvisers, Beautiful!" Joe Lovano “Maybe the annual jazz awards need to add a new category for musicians like Scott Lee. It could be titled “master musicians deserving of wider recognition." Mark Corrotto, All About Jazz. Cover $10

Friday, December 3, 6:00 PM
DAVIDA SINGER & FRIENDS: KHUPE & BEYOND
Ken Filiano, bass; Frank London, trumpet; John Rangel, piano. 'khupe' is the hebrew word for marriage canopy. khupe & beyond is the join of poetry and music (jazz and klezmer), in which each has its own integrity and voice. The two meet through harmonies and textural blend, expanded by improvisational riffs. Thus, no two performances are exactly alike. There is always the journey but each flight is unique, spontaneous and filled with magic and surprise.

Davida Singer is a poet/performance artist, whose writing is infused with an intensity of rhythm and sounds. She has done numerous performances highlighting improvisation with spoken word and music—especially jazz and klezmer. Her first collection, Shelter Island Poems (Canio's Editions), led to a project in collaboration with five musicians (including Frank London & Ken Filiano), titled khupe, which was performed at downtown Manhattan venues, including The Kitchen and The Cornelia Street Café. Davida is the recipient of a 2004, 2005 and 2006 Fellowship from the Helen Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. Currently, Davida is editing her soon-to-be-published, 2nd poetry collection, Port of Call, and working on a multimedia play titled The Hospital Class. She teaches creative writing and literature at Hunter College and School of Visual Arts, and has been running a private creative writing workshop for the past 12 years. Cover $10 plus $7 food or drink minimum.

Friday, December 3, 9:00 & 10:30 PM
Gerald Cleaver GROUP
Jean Carla Rodea, vocals; Andrew Bishop, reeds; Dave Ballou, trumpet; Chris Lightcap, bass; Gerald Cleaver, drums. Gerald Cleaver, born in Detroit in 1963, began playing drums, trumpet, and violin at an early age. He earned a BA in music education from University of Michigan and, while there, was awarded a National Endowment For The Arts Jazz Study Fellowship to study with Victor Lewis. He worked as a band teacher in Detroit, Lecturer at Michigan State University and Assistant Professor at University of Michigan before relocating to New York. Over the years he has worked with Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Hank Jones, Joe Morris, Craig Taborn, William Parker, and Miroslav Vitous, to name only a few. In 2002, Cleaver's Veil of Names, featuring Mat Maneri, Ben Monder, Andrew Bishop, Craig Taborn, and Reid Anderson, received a Best Debut Recording nomination from the Jazz Journalists Association for their album Adjust. Cleaver also leads the bands Uncle June, Violet Hour, and Farmers By Nature. Cleaver has assembled some of the top musicians to work in this group. Cover $10

Saturday & Sunday, December 4 & 5, 9:00 & 10:30 PM
Joel Harrison SEPTET: SINGULARITY
Joel Harrison, guitar; Zach Brock, violin; Donny McCaslin, saxophones; Dana Leong, cello; Gary Versace, piano; Stephan Crump, bass; Clarence Penn, drums Guitarist, composer, and Guggenheim Fellow Joel Harrison debuts a new project this fall entitled Singularity, featuring a septet of top-notch New York jazz musicians. These new compositions were commissioned by Chamber Music America's “New Works" program. Harrison's compositional influences span the globe. It's only appropriate then, that for the Singularity jazz project, he's made use of techniques employed by classical composers like John Adams, Charles Ives, and Olivier Messiaen. Singularity merges Harrison's wealth of experience in jazz and world styles with his longstanding interest in contemporary composition to create a sound that's often described as “chamber jazz." Cover $15

Sunday, December 5, 6:00 PM
SERIAL UNDERGROUND
Serial Underground: New York's premier New Music Variety Show. From Sandover, a short new opera for four singers and supertitle screen, with libretto adapted from James Merrill's epic poem The Changing Light at Sandover. Matt Aucoin, composer/pianist; Victoria Crutchfield, director/supertitlist; With James Onstad, tenor, Stewart Kramer, baritone, Sofia Selowsky, mezzo, Christopher Aaron Smith, tenor; Giuffre Sketches, for multi-reeds and piano; Demetrius Spaneas, composer/tenor & baritone saxophones, clarinet; Jed Distler, piano. Cover $10

Monday, December 6, 8:30 PM
AMRAM & CO
David Amram, piano, french horn, flutes, composition & surprises; Kevin Twigg, drums, glockenspiel; John de Witt, bass; Adam Amram, percussion. This series explores in his highly personable, generous and informal style the astonishing variety of David Amram's interests and accomplishments—renowned composer of symphonic classical music, jazz compositions, improvisation, spoken word, scat, he sits at the piano, schmoozes about music, about the greats, the beats, the obscure, the legendary; plays the French horn, pulls out all kinds of instruments (flutes, drums, horns) gathered from his many circumnavigations of the globe, pulls in guests drawn from just about every artistic walk of life. Cover $10

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