JAYME STONE'S LOMAX PROJECT Comes to Hartford

As part of THE AMERICAN ROOTS FESTIVAL, the Autorino Center for the Arts and Humanities at the University of Saint Joseph presents two concerts of Jayme Stone's Lomax Project and one free community workshop. All activities will be located on the University's main campus at 1678 Asylum Avenue, West Hartford, Conn. The concerts will be performed on March 31 and April 1, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. with Mama's Marmalade from Amherst, MA to play an opening set. On March 30, 2017 at 6 p.m., Jayme Stone will also be leading a free TED-style talk about how he worked his way through the immense Lomax archive to create this live touring performance.

Jayme Stone, two-time Juno winning banjoist, composer, and instigator, makes music inspired by sounds from around the world bridging folk, jazz, and chamber music. His award-winning albums both defy and honor the banjo's long role in the world's music, turning historical connections into compelling sounds. Jayme Stone's Lomax Project focuses on songs collected by folklorist and field recording pioneer Alan Lomax. Alan Lomax (1915-2002) was a major figure in folklore and ethnomusicology, known for his theoretical work, cultural advocacy, and seminal public programs. There are over 10,000 Lomax recordings in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

The Lomax Project "collaboratory" brings together distinctive roots musicians to revive, recycle, and reimagine traditional music. The repertoire includes Bahamian sea shanties, Gullah spirituals, Appalachian ballads, fiddle tunes, and work songs collected from both well-known musicians and everyday folk: sea captains, cowhands, fishermen, prisoners, and homemakers.

Mr. Stone's current tour is celebrating the second album in the Lomax series, Jayme Stone's Folklife, due out in April on Borealis Records. Folklifeoffers spellbinding singing, virtuosic playing, and captivating storytelling.

"Jayme unearths musical artifacts to help rekindle these understudied sounds in a concert that is moving and inventive in a way that makes you want to jump up on your feet and whoop and holler," says Steven Raider-Ginsburg, Director of the Autorino Center for the Arts.

Mama's Marmalade will play an opening set. Mama's Marmalade is a Western MA-based string band that plays across multiple genres incorporating bluegrass, funk, blues, and folk into unique covers and original tunes.

Alan Lomax was a folklorist, ethnomusicologist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and filmmaker. Lomax is most famous for his work in the penitentiaries, plantations, and lonely farms of the Mississippi Delta.

Lomax Project Documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLfyOEXBDDU

Tickets are $25 for Adults | $20 for Seniors, Let's Go Arts, and USJ Alumni| $15 for Students with valid IDs, and can be purchased at the Frances Driscoll Box Office: 860.231.5555 or online at www.usj.edu/arts.

The American Roots Festival at the University of Saint Joseph runs through April 21, 2017 with just two shows remaining: Lomax Project and Healing Blues Band. Visit http://www.usj.edu/arts/performing-arts/our-current-season/ for our current season.

To post a comment, you must register and login.