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12/15 Monday

7:00 PM Patrick Breiner/Becca Stevens/Quartet of Happiness

A veteran of the New York jazz scene, Patrick Breiner now resides in Madison, WI and is a member of Billy Hart's "Academy" band, NOOK, Myk Freedman's Whistle Sound Band and Suit, Bing and Ruth, and Greg Heffernan's Sauce.

Patrick chooses to use the alias Vartan Mamigonian while performing his solo saxophone works. He is, after all, not himself while summoning everything from ferocious screams to velvety subtone from his instrument whilst weaving hypnotically rhythmic melodies. Vartan Mamigonian appears in both history and literature as both sinner and saint. Similarly, Breiner's works can be tender or abrasive or anywhere in between.
Becca Stevens

Becca Stevens was born into a musical family in North Carolina and was on stage by the age of two performing her father's music. When she was ten she starred in a year-long national tour of The Secret Garden. Becca graduated from high school at the N.C. School of the Arts as a classical guitar major, and graduated college in '07 studying vocal jazz and composition at The New School University in Manhattan. Outside school, Becca plays solo performances in New York and writes and arranges music for the Becca Stevens Band (BSB). Aside from her own band, Becca is the regular singer with Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra. Becca collaborates with other musicians in the city and has written lyrics for and recorded with Frank LoCrasto on his record "When You're There" (released in 2006 on Max Jazz), and for Jeremy Pelt's band "Wired" (also released on Max Jazz, '07). Becca has also recently recorded with Sam Sadigursky (The Words Project), Andy Milne's "Dapp Theory", Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra, and on The Solos Unit's "Electric City" (released in 2007). Becca teaches suzuki guitar and Music-in-the-Box at the Greenwich Suzuki Academy in Connecticut. Music-in-the-Box is a music readiness program for very young children.

Quartet of Happiness

Quartet of Happiness takes modern jazz and infuses it with a hefty dose of cheekiness and irreverent humor, wrapping it all up in the sort of theatrics reminiscent of Blue Man Group. The group has made it its mission to take jazz out of the ivory tower and make it accessible to a wide-ranging audience. Playing games, wearing costumes, and engaging the audience with their antics, the Quartet of Happiness’ performances are at times reminiscent of a cross between an improv comedy show and a theater of the bizarre. It’s part jazz, part performance art, and all of it the child of insane wit.

10:22 PM The Fringe

Bob Gullotti drums
John Lockwood bass
George Garzone saxes

The premier Free Improvisational Trio in the WORLD!