Proof of Covid 19 vaccination status and mask wearing required.

Co-presented with Clavius Productions.

Andrea Centazzo & Heath Watts:

Italian American composer, percussionist and multimedia artist Andrea Centazzo has been for 40 years a bold explorer of contemporary art. In the early 70’s he introduced a new concept of percussion playing, migrating from the Free Jazz to a new form of improvised music, defining itself.

In the late 70’s, Centazzo was one of the founders of the NY Downtown Music Scene with his seminal collaboration with John Zorn, Tom Cora, Eugene Chadbourne, Toshinori Kondo and others, documented in many albums.

In 1976 he established ICTUS Records, one of the first musician operated labels, recording with Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Pierre Favre, Derek Bailey, John Zorn, Alvin Curran, Albert Mangelsdorff, Don Cherry and many others.

He left the improvised music scene in 1986, moving shortly after to Los Angeles, CA and dedicating himself to composition and video making. Centazzo authored 3 operas, 2 symphonies and almost 500 compositions for all kind of ensembles, plus many award winning video films.

Back to live performing in 1998, he created solo concerts and solo multimedia concerts, playing live in synch with videos that he shoots and edits.

His last project “Einstein’s Cosmic Messengers” has been produced by LIGO, Caltech and NASA.

The Library of the University of Bologna at DAMS, just recently dedicated to the composer the Fondo Andrea Centazzo where all his works are collected and made available to students and scholars.

Heath Watts is a soprano saxophonist living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who specializes in free improvisation and free jazz. He has released three albums on Leo Records, Sensoria, Bright Yellow With Bass, and Breathe If You Can. Roeba Records released Philadelphia Company #1 in 2007 with Watts, drummer Dan Pell, and guitarist Barry Chabala. He has also self-released the album 2x with pianist Alexandra Swaney in 2007.

Noa Even, Matt Engle & Scott Verastro trio:

Noa Even is a versatile saxophonist dedicated to the creation of new music through close collaboration with other artists, improvisation, and most recently, composition. She embraces the challenge of incorporating unfamiliar elements into her work on a regular basis. The process of navigating new territory and synthesizing ideas yields immense personal and artistic growth.

Noa began improvising as a doctoral student and has since continued developing her skills in that area. As an improviser, she is interested in iteration, speech patterns, and other forms of vocalized communication, and exploring the idiomatic, tactile qualities of the saxophone.

Matt Engle grew up in the Philadelphia area and has been an active member of the creative and improvised music scene for 20 years. He has contributed to many varying musical situations and has previously performed with Dan Blacksberg, Bobby Zankel, Sonic Liberation Front, Shot By Shot, Jarrett Gilgore, Split Red, Dave Liebman, Tim Young, Marshall Allen, Sam Newsome, Jaimie Branch, Elliot Levin, Anthony Pirog, Raymond King, David Middleton, Vince Johnson, Veronica MJ, Muhammad Ali, Oliver Lake, Tim Berne, Jack Wright, Thurman Barker, Jay Lunar, and Brandon Seabrook among many others.

Percussionist Scott Verrastro utilizes a plethora of sticks, brushes, bells, shakers, cymbals and gongs, bowed metal, contact mics, and household items -- in addition to a traditional drum kit -- to coax a wide palette of sounds. Verrastro received a degree in music literature from Northeastern University in Boston and continues to examine many forms of music, including all styles of improvisation and traditional folk. 

Past and present collaborations include Damo Suzuki, Marshall Allen, Peter Brotzmann, Jandek, Gibby Haynes, Elliott Levin, Paul Flaherty, Khan Jamal, George Kinney (of Golden Dawn), Richard Pinhas (of Heldon), Mike Tamburo, Rat Bastard, Kenny Millions, Little Howlin' Wolf, John Dikeman, Anthony Pirog and many more.

More info: https://www.firemuseumpresents.com/upcoming/andrea-centazzo-heath-watts-duo

Admission is FREE.  

Bert Harris & the  AfroJazzGumbo will perform a concert of South African Jazz tunes honoring the life of Reverend Desmond Tutu. 

Doors at 7:30pm. Show at 8pmJazz was a powerful part of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. This is a birthday concert for Reverend Tutu who was born on October 7,1926, and whose tireless activism helped to defeat apartheid.  

Bert Harris (double bass),Laurent Bass (tenor and clarinet), David Fishkin (alto saxophone), David Dubinski (piano) Pio Voluntad (drums)Karen Smith (congas and djembe)

Admission is FREE

Website Design for Artists with Chinua T. Umoja, PhD., software engineer for Amazon

Part of the The Bigger Picture 2022 Workshop Series collection

An overview of basic website design specifically tailored for artists

Workshop topics include:

Registration is required.

Access to workshop replays will be available to attendees only.

The Bigger Picture is a new workshop series partnership with The Bigger Picture (TBP) is a new workshop series in partnership with the Rotunda, offering free monthly resource workshops for artists and artists' organizations, facilitated by local artists and creative entrepreneurs.

Registration is required in order to receive the Zoom link for the workshop. Please register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/website-design-for-artists-tickets-409378410847

Newest ARCHIVE DISCOVERIES: UNSEEN CURIOSITIES FROM THE SECRET CINEMA COLLECTION at The RotundaOn Thursday, October 13, The Secret Cinema will return to The Rotunda with another chapter of our occasional series, ARCHIVE DISCOVERIES: UNSEEN CURIOSITIES FROM THE SECRET CINEMA COLLECTION. Once again we'll feature a mélange of fascinating short films from the past. As we go through our collection, reel by reel, we continually find films that don't necessarily lend themselves to fitting into a themed group, yet are too interesting, or fun, or funny to not share. None have been shown in previous Secret Cinema programs. Indeed, few of these films are likely to have been seen ANYWHERE in recent years.There will be one complete show at 8:00 pm. Admission is FREE (as are all programs in The Rotunda's monthly "Bright Bulb Screening Series").As always -- still -- Secret Cinema programs are shown using 16mm (not video, not digital) FILM projected on a giant screen.A few highlights from this new edition of ARCHIVE DISCOVERIES… include:MONSIEUR JEAN-CLAUDE VAUCHERIN (1968, Dir: Pascal Aubier) - In this peculiar, absurd film, a man sits alone in his office, desperate to occupy himself, yet appears to have no work to do (he has many pens, however!). Writer/director Aubier directed several short films, a few features, and acted in many more, including Godard's PIERROT LE FOU and the unique drug addiction epic CHAPPAQUA (its cast also included William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Ornette Coleman and Hervé Villechaize!). With Dominique Spinetta and Bernadette Lafont, who would become "the face of French New Wave" soon after her debut in Truffaut's short film, LES MISTONS.EDDIE (1969, Dir: Laurence Salzmann and Peter Barton) - "There are over 40,000 people living in single-room 'welfare' hotels in New York City alone. This is a film about one of them." So begins a remarkable (and grim) documentary, co-made by Philadelphia photographer Salzmann, with a grant from the brand-new American Film Institute. To study his subject, Salzmann lived for a period in the same single-room occupancy hotel (it also led to a companion film, ALFRED, and a photo portfolio, NEIGHBORS ON THE BLOCK).THE SWINGING SCENE OF RAY ANTHONY (1968, Dir: Milton Lehr) - Bandleader Ray Anthony began his musical career in 1940, playing trumpet with Glenn Miller. In the 1950s he led his own big band, scored hits with "The Bunny Hop" and "Hokey Pokey," starred in some TV series, and acted in movies, including a couple with his then-wife, Mamie Van Doren. Today at 100, Anthony is the last surviving member of Glenn Miller's big band. Which brings us to this 1968 syndicated television special (which we'll present a fragment from). Already well past his peak years, Anthony tries hard to appear relevant with the "swinging scene" of the Vietnam era: He packs the show with bikini-clad girls, rockin' numbers like "What'd I Say" and "Do the Swim," corny jokes (with laugh track), and even performs a medley of hits by the Tijuana Brass. My initial viewing notes say, "Amazing! Awful! Great!"…but judge for yourself.Plus LYMAN H. HOWE'S HODGE-PODGE (1933), G.I. MOVIE WEEKLY (1945),THUNDERING RAILS (1948) and much more!

Admission is FREESince 1992, the Secret Cinema has been the Philadelphia area's premiere floating repertory cinema series, bringing hundreds of unique programs to nightclubs, bars, coffee houses, museums, open fields, colleges, art galleries, bookstores, and sometimes even theaters and film festivals. Drawing on its own large private film archive (as well as other collections), the Secret Cinema attempts to explore the uncharted territory and genres that fall between the cracks, with programs devoted to educational and industrial films, cult and exploitation features, cartoons, rare television, local history, home movies, erotic films, politically incorrect material, and the odd Hollywood classic. As long as it exists on real celluloid, that is -- Secret Cinema screenings never use video/digital projection. While mainly based in Philadelphia, the Secret Cinema has also brought programming to other cities and countries.SECRET CINEMA WEBSITE: https://www.thesecretcinema.comSecret Cinema was named "Best Film-Nerd Fun" in PhiladelphiaMagazine's 2022 Best of Philly issue.

 It’s a holiday drawn from the author’s own need for new cultural practices and extended as an offering for anybody to use with hopes of contributing to collective liberation. Bloodtide attempts queer futurity, without mythologies of settler innocence and with sustained recognition that time extends through our ancestors: recent ones and ancient. Bloodtide promotes horizontalist structure building practices through pageantry, crabaoke, naturedrag, cardboard sculpting, feasting and other hands-on, locally oriented, commemorative & survivalist practices. Bloodtide posits that homage and attention to horseshoe crabs might further all repair efforts and other insufficient necessities for our collective and individual healing/transformation.--

Admission is FREE

cinéSPEAK presents Jean Luc Herbulot's Senegalese genre-bender SALOUM (2021)

**EVENT FLOW**

DOORS @ 6:30PM

FILM @ 7:00PM

ABOUT THE FILM:

Dir. Jean Luc Herbulot / Senegal / 2022 / 124 min / French and Wolof with English subtitles

‘Freely mixes and marries the cinematic languages of spaghetti Westerns, samurai dramas and classic monster movies to tell an exciting and distinctly African story.’ —Variety

‘With expert visual precision, the film flows into each new, wild narrative wrinkle as if it were the most logical thing in the world.’ —Slant Magazine

A trio of mercenaries become embroiled with malevolent supernatural forces in this genre-defying Senegalese thriller.

WATCH THE TRAILER

AUDIENCE ADVISORY: intense violence and brief discussion childhood sexual abuse and trauma

Seating is limited so we strongly advise buying tickets in advance. No one will ever be turned away for lack of funds so if you can't pay the $10 ticket price, you can select the pay-what-you-can option. Please purchase at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cinespeak-presents-jean-luc-herbulots-saloum-tickets-411432314127

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

George Stavis is a singular player, among the finest 5-string banjo players of his generation. Although trained in the traditions of Pete Seeger and Earl Scruggs, in the late 1960s Stavis developed a unique approach to the instrument which expanded it in both popular and exotic directions. His first solo album, Labyrinths, on the Vanguard label, is considered a landmark for improvisational performance (“. . . one of the essential albums, in any genre, of the 1960s.” –Glenn Jones), one that brought the banjo into the “world music” category, with its evocations of jazz, classical and Indian music. Later, Stavis developed the electric banjo, fronting a popular West Coast band, Oganookie, who performed up to 160 nights per year. In the mid-’80s, Stavis released a folk orchestral album, Morning Mood, which featured his long-time collaborator, violinist / fiddler Robert Stern, and included such notables such as Darol Anger and Mike Marshall on violin and mandolin, respectively. Stavis has performed on eight recordings, including four as principal, and has opened for such artists as Richie Havens, Neil Young, the Grateful Dead and Jean-Luc Ponty, as well as performing duets with the another of the banjo’s most notable innovators, the late Bill Keith. His early work has recently been re-released in Italy and the UK, and a recent solo piece can be heard on Imaginational Anthem, Vol. 3 (Tompkins Square). Though he has not been an active performer in recent years, he still plays out from time to time, and recently performed to a rapt audience at the Thousand Incarnations of the Rose Festival of American Primitive Music. Stavis currently lives in Dobbs Ferry, New York.

The guitar music of Elkhorn is rooted in the interplay of Jesse Sheppard’s twelve-string acoustic fingerpicking and Drew Gardner’s electric lead. Their music draws from folk, psych, blues, and jazz sources. This evening they will be joined by Ian McColm on drums, who plays on their new LP “Distances,” available September 16th on Feeding Tube Records. As Byron Coley writes, “This formation is capable of psyching-out with pure guitar force. The Ouroboran elements of open-form improvisation-based music really gel when the snakes are encouraged to eat their own tails.”

HEALTH & SAFETYThis is an “in person” event.   In consideration of the ongoing pandemic and the safety of those in our community, Bowerbird is requiring all audience members, staff, and performers to wear a mask while inside the venue (please note that musicians will have the option to perform without masks once on stage).

More info: https://www.bowerbird.org/event/george-stavis-2022/

Admission is FREE/pay-what-you-wish

Content Creation for Artists with Alicia Young-Collins

Part of the The Bigger Picture 2022 Workshop Series collection

Learn how to create content that connects to your audience

Are you a busy artist ready to make content that generals sales? Are you an artist overwhelmed with the idea of creating content and unsure of where to start? Do you have a Canva basic membership and want to level up your skills to become a Canva pro?

If so, this workshop is just for you! Workshop take aways include:

The Bigger Picture (TBP) is a new workshop series in partnership with The Rotunda, offering free monthly resource workshops for artists and art organizations, facilitated by local artists and creative entrepreneurs.

Registration is required. Access to workshop replays will be available to attendees only.

Please register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/content-creation-for-artists-with-alicia-young-collins-tickets-419323085637