Music Mountain to Launch New Collaboration with Catskill Jazz Factory

Music Mountain, America's Oldest Continuing Summer Chamber Music Festival, announces an exciting new collaboration with The Catskill Jazz Factory! Beginning on Saturday, July 16, a variety of jazz musicians will bring their talents to Music Mountain for a 5-weekend concert series. Artists scheduled to appear include Joanna Wallfisch, Dan Tepfer, Peter and Will Anderson Quintet, Chris Washburne's Ragtime Band and Chris Pattishall Octet. Concerts are scheduled Saturday evenings (6:30pm) beginning July 16 and running thru August 13. "We are absolutely thrilled to have the Catskill Jazz Factory for five consecutive weeks. These not to be missed concerts will lift our Saturday Twilight series to new heights of excitement and popularity, "announced Nicholas Gordon, President, Music Mountain.

"To bring our jazz program to Music Mountain audiences is both an honor and an exciting new step for us as an organization that values bringing our premiere projects to diverse audiences", enthuses Piers Playfair, Founder & Artistic Director of Catskill Jazz Factory. "Music Mountain is an intimate and beautiful space to bring jazz, especially considering the superb quality of their annual chamber programming as it enters its 87th season. We can't wait to share
our program and play our part in this halls history."

"Music Mountain has always been a place that supported many of the most prominent string quartets from the beginning of their careers. We are thrilled that, through this auspicious collaboration, we can support the remarkable artistry already flourishing in the new generation of jazz artists. We believe in Piers' and the Catskill Jazz Factory's vision, and look forward to a lengthy and fruitful relationship," stated Music Mountain Music Director Jonathan Yates.

The Catskill Jazz Factory is a non-profit program founded in 2012 that supports today's best young jazz artists. CJF offers year-round school workshops, concerts, mountaintop residencies, lectures, and free world-class performances in diverse spaces to a variety of regional audiences. By developing opportunities for artist residencies, cross-generational collaborations, creative project development and community engagement, Catskill Jazz Factory brings talent to the community while also bringing new audiences and ears to the art of jazz. By partnering with educational facilities, arts organizations, and a variety of local non-profits and businesses, the Catskill Jazz Factory encourages audiences of all ages to participate in community building through jazz.

Opening the series on July 16 is jazz vocalist Joanna Wallfisch. Her world debut retrospective of 1960's songstresses will bridge the sounds and stories of folk and jazz improvisations, calling on Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Judee Sill, Carole King, Lesley Gore, Laura Nyro and more. In a unique and fresh revamping of the Great American Songbook but with a 1960's songstress twist, Wallfisch will explore greater themes of connectivity in both musical and historical relevance of the genre, carving a space of her own within its powerful lineage.

Following on July 23 is pianist-composer Dan Tepfer performing his original, critically acclaimed Goldberg Variations/Variations - a stunning performance of J.S. Bach's masterpiece paired with Tepfer's own improvised variations. In what the Wall Street Journal calls a "bridge across centuries and genres", the jazz pianist follows his performance of each of Bach's original Variations with an improvised jazz variation of his own. Don't miss the Music Mountain premiere of this one-of-a-kind work.

Music Mountain welcomes back Peter and Will Anderson on July 30. Saxophonists Peter and Will Anderson will be joined by jazz organist Pat Bianchi, guitarist Peter Bernstein, and drummer Kenny Washington to present Sax Squared, celebrating the 175th anniversary of the saxophone. The concert will include the repertoire and stylings of sax legends like Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, and Coleman Hawkins in addition to new original works by the Andersons composed specifically for this concert. Don't miss the soulful Hammond B-3 organ, bluesy jazz guitar, swinging drum set, and sultry saxophone that evoke the sounds of 1950's hard bop, groove and swing.

Next up on August 6 is Ragtime and the Birth of Jazz! "One of the best trombonists in New York" (New York Times) joins forces with "one of Brazil's best kept secrets" (EJazz News) to lead an ensemble in this bi-hemispheric ragtime revival! Latin Jazz master trombonist and Catskill Jazz Factory all-star Chris Washburne, alongside Brazilian virtuoso pianist André Mehmari, master New Orleans clarinetist Evan Christopher, vocalist Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Alphonso Horne (trumpet) and Candice Hoyes (vocals) present the first installment of a two-year project in centennial tribute to the "King of Ragtime Writers" Scott Joplin and an exploration of the international roots of jazz performing the best of the Cuban Habanera and Brazilian Choro traditions.

Chris Pattishall Octet will present Borges in Tango on August 13. Named by Wynton Marsalis as one of the top five jazz musicians under 30 to watch, pianist Chris Pattishall will lead an octet in this debut night dedicated to the writings of Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges and the rich history of tango. Borges, a monumental magical realist and master of the short story, described the tango, the lifeblood of Argentine culture, as invoking "an apocryphal past, simultaneously stoic and orgiastic, in which I have challenged and fought, in the end to fall silently in an obscure knife-fight." Pattishall's compositions will draw on classic tango such as Angel Villoldo's "El Choclo," the symphonic tone poems of Rimsky-Korsakov and Richard Strauss, and the works of Astor Piazzolla, weaving a network of inspiration, reference and imagination.

Music Mountain is located in Falls Village, Connecticut on Music Mountain Road, where a short scenic drive will bring you to Gordon Hall atop Music Mountain. Free parking and picnic facilities are available. This summer, Music Mountain will welcome South County Crepes and Wraps offering artisan crepes filled with fresh fruits and other traditional toppings, along with healthy, delicious wraps and quesadillas. Coffee, iced teas, water, cookies, rich chocolate brownies and ice cream novelties are also available.

Music Mountain is supported, in part, by the Connecticut Commission On Culture & Tourism.

Photo Credit: Josh Goleman