Lenox, MA (EnlightenNext) - On the heels of last year's overwhelmingly successful inaugural Live At Foxhollow benefit jazz concert, EnlightenNext, the Lenox-based educational nonprofit 'dedicated to a revolution in consciousness and culture' is upping the ante with a knockout 3-band lineup that is sure to be the jazz event of the summer in the Berkshires.
Columbia recording artists The Bad Plus will be headlining the evening of jazz, rock, funk, and fusion, followed by Screaming Headless Torsos (don't let the name fool you!) featuring master guitarist Dave Fiuczynski, with Lenox-based Unfulfilled Desires kicking off the event.
The outdoor concert is set for Saturday, August 12, and will again be held on the lawn at Foxhollow Estate overlooking Laurel Lake. Proceeds will support the continuation of EnlightenNext's educational speakers series (formerly Voices from the Edge), which brings the leading thinkers in politics, science, business leadership, environmental activism, and contemporary culture to the Berkshires year round.
If you've never heard of The Bad Plus you probably aren't tuned in to the pulse of the Nu-Jazz movement, which blends jazz, world music, and urban grooves into a fresh 21st century flavor. With their daring, amplified acoustic sound and original arrangements, The Bad Plus have spent the last few years busting up any preconceived notions of what an acoustic jazz trio ought to be. In doing so, they have been pushing the edges of contemporary jazz.
"There is a sound in the middle of the three of us that is The Bad Plus," says drummer David King. 'It moves and grows in fantastic new directions, testing limits of what an acoustic bass-piano-drums trio can accomplish and what genuinely new music can actually sound like.'
Racking up some 250 performances on four continents since the March 2004 release of their critically acclaimed CD, Give, they have become one of the most telepathically tight and musically adventurous bands on the planet. It's the quintessential jazz for the 21st century, without borders, pretensions, or delusions. Regardless of how you might describe the kind of music you like, you won't want to miss the opportunity to experience The Bad Plus performing live.
Following the Bad Plus is the iconoclastic and prolific jazz-rock guitarist David Fiuczynski and his band Screaming Headless Torsos. Bandleader, Fiuczynski, a local musician living in the Pioneer Valley, has been hailed by the world press as an incredibly innovative guitar hero, who continues to deliver with music that is unclassifiable, challenging, and invigorating-a jazz player who 'doesn't want to play just jazz.'
Billboard describes the Screaming Headless Torsos' music as 'cutting-edge sounds that define today's musical landscape.' And the DownBeat Critics Poll recently chose them as 'Rising Star' in the Electric Jazz Group category. Having been playing to international audiences numbering in the thousands for years, the Torsos are finally starting to create a buzz with US audiences.
Live At Foxhollow opens with Unfulfilled Desires, the up-and-coming international jazz-rock-funk collective based in Lenox, Massachusetts. The band has a fresh and eclectic sound-the combined expression of the classical, jazz, and rock backgrounds of their international lineup of players hailing from the US, Chile, France, and Germany. On a recent European tour, Time Out London described them as 'a hard-driving jazz-funk quintet playing virtuosic jazz and jazzrock,' choosing them as 'Hot Pick of the Week.'
Unfulfilled Desires' founder and drummer Andrew Cohen is also the founder of EnlightenNext, the main sponsor of Live At Foxhollow. EnlightenNext produces a variety of programs and publications to support their mission, including an international speakers series that has brought such luminaries as NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu, Nobel Prize nominee Dr. Munawar Anees, MIT Leadership Lab founder Otto Scharmer, and Muslim comedienne Shazia Mirza to the Berkshires.
Live At Foxhollow is again being sponsored by several local businesses including High Lawn Farms, Carlson Auto, Barrington Coffee, Marskandiser Florist, the Apple Tree Inn, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, and Clark's Garden, to name a few. This year's event is expected to double last year's attendance of 500 music fans.
Tickets for Live At Foxhollow are $30/$25 online; students $20/$15 online; children under 12 free. To order tickets, visit www.mktix.com or call 800.376.3210. Lawn chairs and picnics are welcome. Food, beer, and wine will be available for purchase. Doors open at 5pm; music begins at 6pm.
EnlightenNext is a nonprofit educational organization founded by Andrew Cohen in 1986. It is dedicated to furthering the evolution of human consciousness and culture. EnlightenNext produces a variety of programs and products, including an international speakers series (www.wie.org/voices), an accredited master's degree in conscious evolution, worldwide seminars and retreats, and online studies. EnlightenNext's publishing arm produces educational websites, books, audios, and videos related to the teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment (www.andrewcohen.org), as well as the award-winning What Is Enlightenment? magazine (www.wie.org) which includes a multimedia offering of audios and videos from today's leading thinkers in business, politics, environmental issues, science, spirituality, and contemporary culture. In 2006, WIE.org won the prestigious People's Voice Webby Award-the 'online Oscars' according to Time magazine-for best religion/spirituality website. Also in 2006, founder, Andrew Cohen, received the Kashi Humanitarian Award for his twenty years of tireless dedication to the evolution of consciousness and culture. EnlightenNext is based in Lenox, MA.
Information Websites:
Live At Foxhollow: www.liveatfoxhollow.com or call 800.376.3210.
The Bad Plus: www.thebadplus.com
Screaming Headless Torsos: www.torsos.com
Unfulfilled Desires: www.unfulfilleddesires.com
EnlightenNext: www.enlightennext.org
