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Newport Live Presents
The Suitcase Junket
"Grand in its imagery, sound, and staging."
Friday, June 7th at 7 PM
Jamestown Arts Center, Jamestown, RI
““The End Is New” shows that Lorenz hasn’t hardened with despair, but instead matured with valor, building something remarkable.” WBUR
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ABOUT THE SUITCASE JUNKET | |
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Newport Live and Jamestown Arts Center will be presenting the award winning singer/songwriter The Suitcase Junket at The Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown on Friday, August 5th at 7 PM. General Admission tickets are $35 and available through EventBrite and via Newport Live or Jamestown Arts Center websites.
Celebrate summer with Newport Live the Jamestown Arts Center. Get your tickets early. This show sold out the last 2 summers.
“Matt Lorenz's vision, manifest in The Suitcase Junket, developed in the tension between the grand and the solitary. Grand in its imagery, sound, and staging. Solitary in its thrift and self-reliance. What instruments he requires, Lorenz builds from scratch and salvage. What parts five players would perform, he performs alone. The spectacle of his one-man set bears constant comparison to legends of showmanship, brilliance, madness, and invention. The End is New was produced by trusted friend, producer Steve Berlin of Los Lobos
"The things I value are under attack," Lorenz writes. "And writing songs and making art are the methods I have for responding. I have tried to use my observations and reflections of the world bent through my fun-house-mirror mind to show what I see; a planet stressed. ... We can do better."
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Black Holes and Overdoses
Written and Performed by The Suitcase Junket (Matt Lorenz)
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““ The End Is New” shows that Lorenz hasn’t hardened with despair, but instead matured with valor, building something remarkable.” - WBUR
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Join us as we welcome The Suitcase Junket as we kick off our Summer Series with our partners at The Jamestown Arts Center.
Growing up in Cavendish, Vermont, Matt Lorenz began playing piano at age five, and later took up violin, saxophone, and guitar. During his years at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, he studied music and adaptive instrument design, a pursuit that included building a prototype for a drummer who couldn’t use their legs, where they’d be able to play the bass drum and hi-hat through a system of pulleys. After college, he headed to Europe on a $150 plane ticket, ran out of money in Barcelona, and spent a year playing music in the streets. “That’s where I learned how to sing loud, which got me figuring out what my voice could do,” Lorenz notes. Once he’d returned to Amherst, he formed the band Rusty Belle with his sister Kate and, several years later, started The Suitcase Junket with the aid of a guitar he’d found in a dumpster. ‘The Suitcase Junket’ is a nod to Lorenz’s longtime love of collecting old suitcases, including an antique that he’s refurbished into a bass drum, and to a secondary definition of junket, i.e. “a pleasure excursion."
The End is New is an artist expanding his possibilities, collaborating, matching his lyrical power over eleven tracks with the epic sounds and narratives of his imagination. “Black Holes and Overdoses” riffs off the unrelenting news cycle, the numbness that wants for oblivion. “And Then There Was Fire” finds Lorenz reflecting on current events, inspired by the destructive wildfire in Australia, which seems like three years ago at this point, but took place right at the end of last year and beginning of this year. “Light a Candle” (featuring J Mascis, lead guitarist of Dinosaur Jr.) is the simmering doom of lost love. “Can’t Look Away” protests the overuse of a planet. “Jesus! King of the Dinosaurs” is a romp poking fun at extremists and biblical timelines.
“Most of the time making records for a living is both fun and edifying,” says Berlin “But every once in a while I get rewarded with a simply superlative experience, and making The End Is New was certainly one of those.” He adds, “We had a blast building these ideas into songs, and Matt’s endless inventiveness made each workday a genuine pleasure. His talent is a unique gift.”
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I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY
Whitney Houston cover, Performed by The Suitcase Junket (Matt Lorenz)
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Eileen
The Suitcase Junket (Matt Lorenz)
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Live at Kennedy Center
Millenium Stage
he Suitcase Junket (Matt Lorenz)
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THIS SATURDAY !
Newport Live Presents
Siya Charles, South African Jazz
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of South African Freedom Day
With an all star band
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Newport Live is celebrating the 30th anniversary of South African Freedom Day with 4 concerts by 4 award winning South African Artists. THIS Saturday. May 18th, Newport Live presents trombonist and composer and Standard Band Jazz Award winner Siya Charles on Saturday, May 18th at 7:00 PM at the Jamestown Arts Center, 28 Valley Street in Jamestown, RI.
Call Newport Live at (401)400-2774. Watch our website for details. Tickets available on EventBrite or at the Newport Live website. For more about South Africa's Freedom day, click here.
Siya Charles is a tenor/ bass trombonist, composer and arranger based in New York City. An alumnus of the University of Cape Town’s South African College of Music, she has worked with the likes of the late Hugh Masekela, Jimmy Dludlu, Nduduzi Makhathini, American/Costa Rican trombonist Luis Bonilla, trombonist Steve Turre, bassist Endea Owens, saxophonist Chad “LB” Lefkowitz Brown, and Grammy Award-winning drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. Siya has won the jazz component of the Fine Music Radio Bursary, as well as the 1st Emirates Pursuit of Jazz Competition. She has performed in the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival, Grahamstown Jazz Festival, Arcevia Jazz Feast (Italy), Stockholm Jazz Festival (Sweden), Kongsberg Jazz Festival (Norway), Blue Note Jazz Club (USA), Birdland Jazz Club (USA), Dizzy’s Jazz Club (USA), Calabar Jazz Festival (Nigeria), Standard Bank Acacia Jazz Festival (Moçambique), Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) and the Jazz is Back Festival (Croatia).
After many years of serving as a reliable sideman, she has established her newly formed musical collective titled: "The Siya Charles Sextet", featuring some of South Africa’s finest jazz musicians. The compositions and arrangements of The Siya Charles Sextet are inspired by classic jazz, South African jazz, the bebop and post-bop era, as well as Brazilian jazz.
Siya is currently completing her Masters in Music degree in jazz studies at the world- renowned Juilliard School. She is a FirstRand Laurie Dippenaar laureate, Jerome L. Greene Fellow and National Arts Council scholarship recipient.
Siya is bringing an amazing band with her who include:
Cory Cox (drums)
Cory has performed and toured with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Reggie Workman, the Ben Flocks Quartet, John Ellis, Joel Frahm, Javier Vercher, Marcus Strickland, Jimmy Owens, John Raymond, the Hironobu Saito Group, Thana Pavelic, Lorenzo Conte and many others. Cory receiving a scholarship from Blue Note recording artist Jason Moran to attend college and he was selected as a 2006-08 Brubeck Institute Fellow at the University of the Pacific
Willerm Delisfort (piano)
Willerm's versatility has created a high demand for him with prominent jazz, rap, soul, and fusion artists including 2009 Best World Guitarist Fareed Haque, Grammy Award winning artist T-Pain, Louis Bellson , Lew Soloff, Calvin Newborne, Corey Wilkes, Curtis Fuller, Jimmy Heath, David Sanchez, Jennifer Holiday, George Freeman, Red Holloway, Javon Jackson, Melton Mustafa Sr, Peter Erskine, Freddie Jackson, and more.
Tim Norton (double bass)
Tim has played with Jason Palmer, Ralph Peterson, Bill Mchenry, Josh Evans, John Mcniel, Leandro Pellegrino, and others. When not performing, he serves on the faculty at Syracuse University and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Beer and wine are available from our friends at
Ragged Island Brewing and Greenvale Vineyards.
Help us welcome Siya and these special musicians from South Africa!
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN JAZZ
BY RUSTY ACEVES
April 27 is the 30th anniversary of Freedom Day in South Africa. Here’s a deeper look at the history of the holiday and the leading figures from the South African jazz tradition.
(link here)
Generous support from Ragged Island Brewing Co., the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA), the RI Culture, Humanities, and Arts Recovery Grants (RI CHARG) Newport Vineyards, and an SBA/SVOG grant have made this series possible.
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The Suitcase Junket
June 7
Jamestown Arts Center
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“Matt Lorenz's vision, manifest in The Suitcase Junket, developed in the tension between the grand and the solitary. Grand in its imagery, sound, and staging. Solitary in its thrift and self-reliance. What instruments he requires, Lorenz builds from scratch and salvage. What parts five players would perform, he performs alone. The spectacle of his one-man set bears constant comparison to legends of showmanship, brilliance, madness, and invention. The End is New was produced by trusted friend, producer Steve Berlin of Los Lobos
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Melanie Scholtz/
Aaron Rimbui
Jazz from South Africa
June 21,
Newport Art Museum
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A Cape Town native, Melanie Scholtz has been a major artist on the South African scene since the early 2000s, releasing five acclaimed albums, working with jazz legend and Miriam Makeba’s one-time husband Hugh Masekela, and touring the world with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in 2019.
Dubbed “the greatest pianist in East Africa” by the major African newspaper Daily Nation, Kenyan multi-instrumentalist and composer Aaron Rimbui is a rising force on the international scene, having collaborated with a global roster of major artists. Together, Melanie and Aaron put on an amazing show.
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Alisa Amador
July 11
Norman Bird Sanctuary
| Alisa Amador is back Thursday, July 11th,at the Norman Bird Sanctuary to open our4th Annual Newport Live and Norman Bird Sanctuary's Summer Outdoor Seriesof shows. Tickets on sale soon onEventBrite. You can check back on ourNewport Livewebsite for updated information. Alisa is celebrating a new album release. Alisa won last year's Tiny Desk Concert of the Year. | |
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Naledi,
Jazz from South Africa
August 9
Norman Bird Sanctuary
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Embark on a musical odyssey with NALEDI, South African vocalist, educator, and storyteller, currently based in New York City. Her soulful melodies echo the vibrant tales of her African heritage, weaving through the jazz tradition, storytelling, and a boundless artistic curiosity.
"Listening to her music brings James Baldwin’s words in Giovanni’s Room to mind: “Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.”
- Elizabeth Howard, Arts Fuse
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Alexa Rose
August 23
Norman Bird Sanctuary
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Alexa Rose will round out our Norman Bird Sanctuary summer outdoor series on Friday, August 23rd and we are thrilled to have her.
“An enchanting new Appalachian voice wraps her rambling mind around a dream; it sounds like the soul child of Bob Dylan and Dolly Parton.” - NPR
"She writes and sings with the conviction of someone who’s spent night after night on the front porch, the Allegheny Mountains in the foreground, spinning details of the day’s hardships into music."
Rolling Stone
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John Gorka is a world-renowned singer-songwriter who got his start at a neighborhood coffeehouse in eastern Pennsylvania. Red House Records caught wind of John’s talents and released his first album, I Know, to popular and critical acclaim. Writing in the Margins followed in 2006 and featured guest vocalists Nanci Griffith, Lucy Kaplansky and Alice Peacock. John has graced the stage of Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, etown and has appeared on CNN. His new song “Where No Monuments Stand” is featured in the upcoming documentary Every War Has Two Losers, about activist and Oregon Poet Laureate William Stafford.
"…the leading singer/songwriter of the New Folk movement”
- Rolling Stone
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Concert Dates At Norman Bird Sanctuary
Thursday, July 11 at 7:00 p.m.: Alisa Amador
Friday, August 9 at 7:00 p.m.: Naledi, from South Africa
Friday, August 23 at 7:00 p.m.: Alexa Rose
Concert At Jamestown Arts Center
Thursday, July 21 at 7:00 p.m.: Laura Veirs And special guest, Mary-Elaine Jenkins
Concert At Newport Art Museum
Friday, June 21 at 7:00 p.m.: Melanie Scholtz with Aaron Rimbui, Jazz From South Africa
Concert TBA
Thursday, August 29 at 7:00 p.m.: John Gorka
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Newport Live is a 501(c)3 non-profit arts organization whose mission is to celebrate Celebrating diverse music traditions through vibrant performances. by creating community-based opportunities for cultural exchange. | |
As a person who cares about celebrating and preserving diverse folk music traditions, please consider making a donation. Your donation will help us continue to support these important artists and allow us to make folk music available to a wider audience on Aquidneck Island and across Rhode Island. Please give today. | |
The Jedd Sullivan
Memorial Series
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