Featuring Bassists Reggie Workman & Buster Williams,
Pianist Jason Moran & Drummer Lenny White,
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Price: $50 in advance. Last day for online purchases Thurs., February 15th.
Showtimes: 8:30 and 10.30 p.m.
Where: Sistas’ Place, 456 Nostrand Avenue@Jefferson Ave
Information: 718-398-1766
Ujima [Collective Work & Responsibility]: “To build and maintain our community together and to make our brother’s and sister’s problems, our problems and to solve them together.”
“A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective.”
Last day for online purchases Thursday, February 15th.
Call 718-398-1766 to make arrangements to purchase tickets at Sistas’ Place.
Out of the Collective is a production of Sistas’ Place, a collective organization. The project was originally conceived in May of 2018, coming out of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium’s (CBJC), Hall of Fame celebration. This event is now a celebration of the collective concept and as well, a celebration of the 23rd anniversary of Sistas’ Place and the 20th anniversary of the CBJC.
The project’s title reflects the fact that the artistic director of this event, Reggie Workman emerged from a collective, being a founding member of the Collective Black Artists (CBA). Reggie is still a member of one of the longest-running collectives in this music, Trio 3. Likewise, Buster Williams has had extensive involvement with collectives having been a member of the groups, Mwandishi, Sphere and The Timeless All-Stars. Drummer Lenny White was also part of a 1970’s collective called Return to Forever.
Out of the Collective is also a celebration of the centennial of the historic march from the Victory Arch on 25th Street seven miles up Fifth Avenue to Harlem in February of 1919 of James Reese Europe and his Hell Fighters from the 369th army battalion. He created the first successful known collective of African American musicians, known as the Clef Club. That organization, created in 1910, functioned both as a union and a performing collective.
Another great musician we are recognizing in this project is NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston to whom the Sistas’ Place 2018-19 season is dedicated. He performed A Tribute to James Reese Europe, African Rhythms, in early 2018. Pianist Jason Moran has also created a project THE HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS, James Reese Europe and the Absence of Ruin, to celebrate Mr. Europe and we should hear excerpts of that in this concert.
Out of the Collective, therefore, represents, during this African American History Month, and for all times, the historical importance of the collective to the art form, Jazz: A Music of the Spirit!