Cornelia Street Cafe to Feature Fabian Almazan Trio et al. 8/31

The Fabian Almazan Trio (pianist and composer Fabian Almazan, bassist Linda Oh, and drummer Justin Brown) will perform on August 31 at 8:30pm at the Cornelia Street Café.

Pianist Fabian Almazan has gained high visibility for the last two years as a member of Terence Blanchard's acclaimed quintet. He appears on Blanchard's latest disc 'Choices' as well as the soundtrack for the Spike Lee joint 'Miracle at St. Anna.' A native of Cuba now residing in New York, Almazan attended the New World School of the Arts High School in Miami. After graduation in 2002 he soon migrated to the Brubeck Institute in California and finally Manhattan School of Music where he recently completed his Masters, a path that entailed private study with Jason Moran. In addition to his work with Blanchard, he has performed with Gretchen Parlato, Lionel Loueke, Ambrose Akinmusire, Walter Smith, Derrick Hodge, Chris Dingman, E.J. Strickland and Bilal, among others. This week the pianist leads a trio with Linda Oh and Justin Brown, both highly respected and familiar New York musicians.  Of Almazan, the New York Times said, "Fabian Almazan is the latest pianistic prodigy... a Cuban-born dazzler with a melodic instinct to match his technique."  The cover charge will be $10.  For more information, visit http://www.fabianalmazan.com.

The evening will also include a poetry performance at 6:00pm, featuring Alexandra van de Kamp, Janet Kaplan, Joanne McFarland, and Steve Caratzas.

Alexandra van de Kamp lives in Port Jefferson, NY, with her husband, the writer William Glenn, and teaches at Stony Brook University. Her chapbook, The Rainiest May in the Twentieth Century, was a winner of the 2001 Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize. A second chapbook, The Photographer's Interview, was published by The Premier Poets Chapbook Series in 2006. Her first full-length collection of poems, The Park of Upside-Down Chairs, was published by CW Books (WordTech Press) this past April. She is one of the founding editors of Terra Incognita, a bilingual literary journal distributed in Spain and the United States, and lived in Madrid, Spain, for six years.
JoAnne McFarland is an artist and writer working near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. Her artwork is part of many private and public collections including the Library of Congress and the Columbus Museum of Art. She is the author of six poetry collections, the latest of which, Acid Rain, received Honorable Mention in the inaugural Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Second Book Award 2009. JoAnne's current work centers around the theme of domestic abuse and how violence, particularly violence against women, seeks to thwart the creative process.  For more information, visit www.alexandravandekamp.com.  

Janet Kaplan is the author of The Groundnote, winner of the New York/New England competition from Alice James Books; The Glazier's Country, winner of the Poets Out Loud Prize from Fordham University Press; and Dreamlife of a Philanthropist, winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry and forthcoming in January from the University of Notre Dame Press. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships in poetry, including a poetry fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. A fourth collection of poetry, Ephemeris Time, is in progress, as is a novel, tentatively titled "The Desire of the Line." She is Poet in Residence at Fordham University.

Steve Caratzas is a writer, musician and artist living in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. His poetry and reviews have been published in The Tiny, Terra Incognita, Surgery of Modern Warfare, NewPages.com, the flash fiction anthology entitled "The Mysterious Dr. Ramsey," and numerous other publications.

Angelo Verga will host. The cover charge will be $7, in addition to a $ 7 drink minimum.  

The Cornelia Street Café is located at 29 Cornelia Street in New York City. For more information, call 212-989-9319 or visit www.corneliastreetcafe.com.