Related show

• Artist: Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber
• Tour: Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (the Hood Opera) Streaming Live
• Date: Saturday, February 20th 2010
• Time: 8:30pm
• City: Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber in On The World Wide Web
• Venue: Arte Live Web TV
• Country: FR
• Notes: This performance is scheduled to stream live on Arte Live Web TV! Watch it here!
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

Many thanks and a HUGE shout out to Brooklyn Independent Television, a community media program of BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn !

Check them out here

The story includes audio excerpts of the interview.

Check it out here at  NY Times Online

The freedom of speech and coarseness of some scenes, strongly contrast with Hollywood’s puritanism as well as the way he shows the Afro-American community from the inside. The sexual exploits of the hero, his runaway to Mexico with the police on his trail, the ceaseless race on the verge of exhaustion of this man, still standing up, always at odds with society; the whole story composes a significant metaphor of Back men difficulties in the American society of that time.

The film becomes now an opera, and a world premiere for Sons d’hiver festival, led by Melvin Van Peebles himself! Greg Tate and Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber provide the musical part. As a matter of fact, the idea is not to replay the original but to adapt this unique work for the stage in a contemporary way. Co-founder of the Black Rock Coalition, Greg Tate and his Burnt Sugar Arkestra seems the perfect ensemble to take up the challenge, carrying on the heritage of a certain Black music from Duke Ellington to the Art Ensemble of Chicago to Funkadelic and Sun Ra.

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (the Hood Opera) is a musical adaptation written,  composed and directed by Mr. Van Peebles: developed in residence at The Apollo Theater Salon Series, Harlem NY and at BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, Brooklyn, NY.  The production will have it’s world premiere at the Sons d’hiver Festival in Paris, France at Maison des Arts on Friday, February 19th & Saturday, February 20th, 2010 procured by Jared Michael Nickerson for Burnt Sugar Index LLC.

Best known as the “Godfather of independent film and modern black cinema,” Melvin Van Peebles has also distinguished himself in an impressive list of other aspects of the entertainment industry – as a director, producer, writer, and composer.  He is an Emmy award-winner and has received two NAACP Awards in addition to three Grammy nominations and eleven Tony nominations.  He published five novels in French, one of which became the basis of his first feature, a French film entitled, La Permission” (The Story of A Three Day Pass), which won the Critic’s Choice Award at the 1967 San Francisco Film Festival.  He became the first black director to shoot a film in Hollywood with his film Waterman Man and he used the money he earned from this project to finance his next feature, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. He later went on to write and compose two Tony Award-nominated Broadway musicals, Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death and Don’t Play Us Cheap.  In television, Van Peebles wrote the screenplay for a CBS movie pilot Just an Old Sweet Song (1976) followed by the sequel Down Home.  He wrote and acted in Sophisticated Gents and also wrote the Emmy award-winning after school special, The Day They Came to Arrest the Book.  Most recently he starred in his off-Broadway show, Unmitigated Truth (Life, a Lavatory, Loves & Ladies), directed and starred in the film Confessions of a Ex-Doofus Intchy Footed Mutha, and was also awarded the prestigious French Legion of Honor.

Written and Directed by Melvin Van Peebles
Featuring the Hood Opera Cast and Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber

Alfred Preisser            Creative Consultant to the Director
Jared Nickerson        General Manager
Grier Coleman            Wardrobe Supervisor
Kimberly Glennon        Wardrobe Coordinator
LaRonda Davis            Company Manager
Naima Ince            Director’s Assistant

Cast
(in alphabetical order)

Chelsea Adewunmi
Roger Binette
Alex Dittmer
Jeffery Glaser
Jeremiah Griffen
Tracy Jack  — Choreographer
Karma Mayet Johnson
Derrin Maxwell
Kimberlee Monroe
Jacqueline Thuener-Rego
Lelund Durond Thompson
Gillian Wiggin
Rejinald Woods

Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber — Sweetback Edition
(in alphabetical order)

Lewis “Flip” Barnes Jr.         Trumpet
Mikel Banks             Harmonica, Flute and Freak-A-Phone
Jason DiMatteo             Acoustic Bass
Christopher Eddleton         Drums
Avram Fefer             Tenor Sax
Micah Gaugh             Alto Sax
“Moist” Paula Henderson     Baritone Sax
Andre Lassalle             Guitar
Bruce Mack             Keyboards
William Martina         Cello
Jared Michael Nickerson     Electric Bass
David Smith             Trombone
Mazz Swift             Electric Violin
Gregory S. Tate         Musical Director, Guitar

www.sonsdhiver.org

Related show

• Artist: Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber
• Tour: Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (the Hood Opera)
• Date: Friday, February 19th 2010
• Time: 8:30pm
• City: Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber in Paris (CRETEIL)
• Venue: sons d’hiver festival de musiques
• Address: MAISON DES ARTS
• Country: FR
• Admission: 20.00 €
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

• Artist: Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber
• Tour: Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (the Hood Opera)
• Date: Saturday, February 20th 2010
• Time: 8:30pm
• City: Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber in Paris (CRETEIL)
• Venue: sons d’hiver festival de musiques
• Address: MAISON DES ARTS
• Country: FR
• Admission: 20.00 €
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

Chelsea Adewunmi with Burnt Sugar

She is a recent graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (2008) and is a Presidential Fellow at Princeton University, where she researches the arts and sciences through funkentelechy, kinesthetic empathy, and synesthesia.

A curator and practioner of performance art, she has performed in pieces by Christian Tomaszewski (Mother, Earth, Sister, Moon, Performa ’09) and Alan Kaprow (18 Happenings in 6 Parts, Performa ’07), which won the AICA (International Association of Art Critics, USA) award for Best Performance of 2008.

She is also a choreographer and dancer for music video, most recently for Anti-pop Consortiuum and Theophilus London.  Upcoming projects include a new show with Jason Samuels Smith and Dule Hill.

Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber brings our genre-bending live show to York College’s Performing Art Center in Queens on Friday, November 13th & The World Famous Blue Note in Manhattan on Monday, November 16th.

Witness the next step in the evolution of The Arkestra Chamber as “Pass the Baton” makes its NYC area debut at York College’s Performing Art Center on Friday, November 13.

Road tested (and Burnt Sugar approved) in Chicago, Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware; “Pass the Baton” is Greg Tate’s latest Burnt Sugar brain-child. With the pass of a baton, Conduction duties are shared between members of the band. The result is a dynamic multi flavored performance as each conductor adds their flavor to the pot.

During this performance, the baton will be passed between Lewis “Flip” Barnes, Karma Mayet Johnson, Micah Gaugh and Mikel Banks.

On Monday, November 16, Burnt Sugar returns to The Blue Note NYC for 2 evening performances conducted by Greg Tate.

We hope you’ll come out both nights and experience the groovacious funk-a-fied versatility of the Arkestra Chamber. — As it’s been said,  Burnt Sugar never plays a song the same way once.

With the Autumn weather chill in full effect (and our last Manhattan show being on the sold-out tip), we advise you to buy your tickets in advance and walk right though the door.

And that leads up to what we are up to this coming Sunday and Monday!!.…

SUNDAY(10/18):
Join us for A Bashir Project feat live performances by Jamila Raegan, Burnt Sugar, and DJ WAJEED
A Bashir Project is the launch of a FUNdraising campaign for Bashir Oliver, a child with multiple disabilities, including Autism. Spear headed and supported by allied communities of artists and activists invested in the future of this beautiful boy. Proceeds from this event will be used to assist payment of Bashir’s education, medical necessities, and special needs not met by the Department of Education or Medicaid.

Date: Sunday, October 18th 2009
Doors: 7:00pm — (show starts ’round 8pm)
Venue: Littlefield Performance & Art Space
www.littlefieldnyc.com
Brook lyn NYC, NY
Address: 622 Degraw Street  (between 3rd and 4th Avenue  –in the Gowanus).
venue phone: 781–855‑3388
Admis sion: $7.00
all ages
Advanced tickets: here
*

MONDAY (10/19):
Interactive Cell-Structure Sessions feat Marque Gilmore, Mikel Banks, Greg Tate, Burnt Sugar
PRESENTED BY Marque Gilmore & DRUM FM

From the Cre ator of the World’s 1st Inter active Live Jungle/DnB Club comes “Interactive Cell-Structure Sessions” featuring Marque Gilmore the inna-most (BK/UK) and Mikel Banks da “Spirit-Hood” (Dust bin Broth ers). With special guests Greg Tate + members of Burnt Sugar & surprise 12th Planet Funka­teers! A sonic exploration into the sub-atomic structure of reality and Funque… A full-spectrum Ancestral analysis of Black-Electric progression in a DRUM-FM “Interactive Tribalistic Session”.

(Big ups and welcome back to Marque Gilmore, our brother from Brooklyn & Stockholm, London and South East UK)

Date: Mon day, October 19th 2009
Doors: 7:00pm (show starts ’round 8pm)
Venue: Littlefield Performance & Art Space
www.littlefieldnyc.com
City: Brook lyn NYC, NY
Address: 622 Degraw Street  (between 3rd and 4th Avenue  –in the Gowanus).
Venue phone: 781–855‑3388
Admis sion: $10.00
Age restric tions: 21+
Advanced tickets here
*

Terri’s Music Blog - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 — Burnt Sugar @ Joe’s Pub 8/22/09
“I walked up at 9:30 (showtime) and bought a ticket. The band was still getting situated and didn’t start until about 9:45 — 9:50. There were so many of them, something like 17–20 musicians. The 2 keyboards had to be on the floor, by the stage. There was a segment when the trombone player was standing offstage, behind the curtain, and playing the trombone through the curtain, effectively onstage. That’s how crowded it was up there.

And it was off the hook. From start to finish, fabulous. It was tight in the crowd, too. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to stay at first. I was feeling claustrophobic. They shouldn’t have had the stools at the bar. But once the music started, there was no prying me out of there. It was incredible. That huge ensemble really put it out until they had to get off the stage at 11. I have to make a point of seeing them more often. That’s how I left, wanting more, more, more.“
*

Micah has also acted in the season five premier of  ‘Sex in the City’ and is in a play entitled ‘American Book of the Dead.’  He paints and writes novels.

Micah Gaugh is the progenitor of Puppet.  Puppet is an opera that follows the relationship of a man living in New York then going to Denmark to find love.  The love is lost and he returns home.  The music for Puppet was released as “Everything” on Matthew Herbert’s music label Accidental records.