Julian Gerstin Sextet
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Think of it as global jazz: music with lively Caribbean drums and sparkling trumpet, velvety clarinet and muscular piano. Music by turns lyrical and humorous, intense and peaceful, grooving and thoughtful, and always surprising. Think of it as tradition tweaked by jazz inventiveness. Think of it as connections.
Julian Gerstin has spent a lifetime playing music of the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and the U.S. — funk, R&B, and jazz, from jazz’s New Orleans origins to the avant-garde. Along the way he has lived and studied in Martinique, Cuba and Ghana, mastering dozens of percussion instruments and hundreds of traditional rhythms. On a given song you might hear him playing congas, jawbone, an enormous beaded shaker, or the tanbou drum of Martinique, on which he sits and uses one heel to change the pitch.
Gerstin founded the Sextet to bring his wide range of instruments and influences to a jazz setting, where they serve as a platform for his fellow musicians’ creativity. On stage, the group’s enjoyment of one another is plain to see: smiles, nods of appreciation, dancing. The group includes five of New England’s most creative talents: the electrifying clarinet virtuoso Anna Patton; versatile trumpeter Don Anderson; pianist Eugene Uman, who like Julian ranges across traditions and from funky grooves to experimentalism; bassist Wes Brown, whose career spans gigs with early jazz master Earl “Fatha” Hines to avant-gardists like Wadada Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton; Ben James, who was John Tchicai’s drummer for several years and can both swing and go “out there.” Since 2016 the Sextet has worked in clubs, festivals, house concerts and schools throughout New England and has released two CDs, The One Who Makes You Happy (2017) and The Old City (2019).
Tradition used creatively, intricate ideas used organically: the Julian Gerstin Sextet’s music makes connections, in sound, between musicians, and with audiences.
WORKSHOPS
The Julian Gerstin Sextet is available for university and high school residencies and workshops. Julian has a PhD in Anthropology, MFA in Composition, and over twenty-five years of teaching and publishing in ethnomusicology. Three of the other group members also have extensive college and community teaching experience and appropriate degrees.
CONTACT
Booking julian@juliangerstin.com
Telephone 802-246-1313
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/juliangerstinsextet/?skip_nax_wizard=true
Bandcamp https://juliangerstin.bandcamp.com/
THE OLD CITY
This 2018 album celebrates the world’s crossroads cities, where immigrants and long-term residents mingle their traditions and new styles emerge. Today especially, we need to remember that creativity arises not by building walls, but through sharing our worlds. Mazurka from Fort-de-France, mambo and danzón from Havana, lesno and cocek from Sofia, cumbia from Bogota, tsamikos from Athens, and Latin grooves from the streets of San Francisco, are all spoken here.
“Full of joy and high-energy talent … the driving forces of the universe are quite
apparent”
Dick Metcalf, Contemporary Fusion Reviews
“Uproarious and jubilant … sweet and strong like sugarcane”
Dee Dee McNeil, musicalmemoirs.com
THE ONE WHO MAKES YOU HAPPY
The Sextet’s first release (2017) consists of original compositions inspired by music of Martinique and Cuba, Turkey and Bulgaria, as well as grooves of Julian’s own invention. With Anna, Don, Eugene, Wes, Ben and Julian.
Songs range from the title ballad, a Bulgarian lesno, to the lively bèlè and danmyé rhythms of Martinique. The jazz rumba “Child Left Behind” is followed by “Apprendiendo Como Amar,” for which I wrote the lyrics, performed by myself and four of the SF Bay Area’s finest Cuban drummers and singers.
“Intoxicating … Joyful.”
“Far-ranging, wildly inventive, with more beats per minute than a street-side jackhammer … This has to be in the conversation for world album of the year.”
Video & Audio
Julian Gerstin Sextet
I Remember It Differently
Rosemary and the Taxi Driver
Get Along
Iroko Hop
Old City
The King Dreams of Flying
Madeleine’s Mazurka
Jugo de Mambo
Kaiman ka Modé
The One Who Makes You Happy
Dig It Deeper
I Remember It Differently – Wendy’s
Child Left Behind
Iroko Hop
Polar Bear Meltdown
I Remember It Differently
The One Who Makes You Happy
Kalman Ka Mode
Child Left Behind
Apprendiendo Como Amar
The King Dreams of Flying
Dig It Deeper
Mongo’s Lament
Love That Stumbles Across the Earth in Ecstasy
Trio Mambo
Hot Latin jazz for cold winter nights! Trio Mambo brings you the classic Latin trio of piano, bass and congas, grooving and rococo at the same time. Classics like “Mambo Influenciado” and “Come Candela” mingle with brash originals such as “Hunting Quayle With the Dick [Cheney]” and “Soukwé soukwé” (“Shake it, shake it!”), as well as gentler ballads and boleros. The trio features three veterans of New England jazz: Dan DeWalt on piano, Wes Brown on bass and Julian Gerstin on percussion.
Before Trio Mambo, the three bandmates had worked together for many years in various combinations, notably as the rhythm section of Cuban singer/percussionist William Rodriguez’ De Lomas y Sones. Their kindred spirits and delight in each other’s musicality led to the formation of Trio Mambo, and make their performances both lively and intimate.
Pianist/trombonist Dan DeWalt has led the jazz group Green Mountain Mambo, is a founding member of the beloved world beat ensemble Simba, and is a trombonist with Latin big band Joe Velez y Creación and the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band. Dan’s live, original piano accompaniments for Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” and other classic silent films have become must-see events in southern Vermont.
Bassist Wes Brown cut his professional teeth at age eighteen with two years on the road with legendary pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines. Wes went on to study music at Wesleyan College and to perform and record with Wadada Leo Smith, Fred Ho’s Afro-Asian Ensemble. He is an original member of royal hartigan’s Blood Drum Spirit, and performs with Matan Rubenstein and many other jazz artists. Wes has taught bass in several New England colleges.
Percussionist Julian Gerstin specializes in African and Caribbean traditions and popular styles, as well as jazz. His credits include stints with experimental jazz composer Joel Harrison, afrobeat legends Orlando Julius and Baba Ken Okulolo, Cuban folkloric ensemble Iroko Nuevo and Puerto Rican folklore ensemble Bomba de Aquí, and Dan’s Green Mountain Mambo. Julian also currently leads his own group, the JG Sextet (Wes is the group’s bassist) and is studying composition at the Vermont Academy of Fine Arts.
Trio Mambo is available for teaching and workshops in high schools, colleges and community venues. Julian’s PhD research in Martinique led to numerous academic publications, and he has enjoyed a long career in both college and community teaching. Wes has taught bass at several New England universities.
Bomba de Aquí
Bomba is part of Puerto Rico’s African heritage, brought “here” (Springfield MA) by dancer Brendaliz Cepeda-Peñalosa, drummer Saul Peñalosa, and friends. I’m honored to join this group’s celebration of their heritage. The dancing is joyous, the lyrics moving and proud, and the drumming powerful.
Bomba de Aquí maintains an active schedule of classes and workshops in the Springfield/Holyoke schools and performs for festivals, weddings, saint’s days, fundraisers, and other community events. The group is available for residencies and workshops throughout New England and New York.
Bomba de Aquí’s demo CD is available in the shop.
For more info and booking, contact Brendalíz at bombadeaqui123@gmail.com.
Click images to view full size
Bombajazzeando
The drumming is lively, loud and joyous. A dancer faces four drummers, who match her movements in sound. The trumpeter wails, the piano glides with him. Bombajazzeando is jazz plus Puerto Rican bomba — an African-based tradition of drums, singing and dancing. Jazz and bomba are both musics of connection. Musician with musician, and dancers, and the audience. The island and the mainland. There are smiles of recognition. The audience joins the dance.
Bombajazzeando is the joint effort of wife-and-husband team Brendalíz Cepeda and Saúl Peñalosa, and composer-percussionist Julian Gerstin. Brendalíz and Saúl are co-directors of the traditional bomba group Bomba de Aquí (Bomba Here), serving the huge Puerto Rican community of western Massachusetts and Connecticut. Julian, an afficionado of numerous Caribbean and African traditions, joined the group as a drummer. It was only a matter of time before he began adapting Bomba de Aquí’s traditional songs to a jazz setting. Julian has also composed new instrumental pieces, based on the many different bomba rhythms and giving space to the dancers. Rounding out Bombajazzeando are Bomba de Aquí’s dancers, drummers, and singers, all steeped in the tradition. The jazz musicians are among New England’s finest creative, the three horns anchored by pianist Eugene Uman and bassist Wes Brown.
In Bombajazzeando, the group’s Puerto Rican members display their pride in their heritage. The band innovates on a base of tradition; it brings new rhythms and ideas to jazz; it connects Latino and non-Latino worlds. In their daily life Brendalíz and Saúl teach bomba in school workshops and bring their tradition to weddings, parades, block parties, festivals, markets, and clubs. In Bombajazzeando they combine the power and community of tradition with the intensity and beauty of jazz. It is another connection.
CONTACT
Julian Gerstin
julian@juliangerstin.com
802-246-1313
WORKSHOPS
Bombajazzeando is available for university and high school residencies and workshops. Workshops include dance, drumming, songs, Puerto Rican culture and history. We also offer classroom presentations on African and Diasporic music, rhythm theory and training, and ethnomusicology. Julian Gerstin has a PhD in Anthropology, MFA in Composition, researches and publishes in ethnomusicology, and has taught extensively in both university and community settings. Brendalíz Cepeda has a BA in Education, MA in Special Education, and many years’ teaching experience in the Massachusetts school system and the community. She is the granddaughter of Rafael Cepeda, the most important bomba musician of the late 20th century, and began appearing on stage with him at the age of five. Eugene Uman (MFA, Performance) is the Director of the Vermont Jazz Center and an instructor at Amherst College, Wes Brown is a retired instructor at Central Connecticut University, and Anna Patton (MFA, Improvisation) a choral arranger and leader of contradance workshops.
Workshops have a minimum of three instructors at $150 each, locally. Longer residencies start at $300/instructor/day. We gladly accept other offers for schools in low-income or minority communities.
CALENDAR
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In addition to composing all the music for the Julian Gerstin Sextet and some of the music for the Trio Mambo collective, I write for percussion ensembles, theater and dance companies, and other instrumental combinations. I am proud to have recently earned an MFA in Music Composition from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2020.
A partial list of performed and recorded work includes:
Sandglass Theater “Rock the Boat” (2020)
Mobius Percussion “Sisters, Sons, Seas, Sins, Dwarves, Heavens, Wonders” (2020)
“Hexaplex” for percussion quintet (2020)
Hub New Music “Suite: I Started Looking” for flute, clarinet, violin and cello (2019)
Sandglass Theater “Babylon: Stories of Refugees” (2017)
“Wind Carries the Raft” (2017) for tenor saxophone and marimba
“The Real Dr. Love Shark” for Keene State College Percussion Ensemble (2017)
“Cycle of Leaves” for Western Kentucky University Percussion Ensemble (2014)
Video & Audio
Julian Gerstin Sextet
I Remember It Differently
Rosemary and the Taxi Driver
Get Along
Iroko Hop
Old City
The King Dreams of Flying
Madeleine’s Mazurka
Jugo de Mambo
Kaiman ka Modé
The One Who Makes You Happy
Dig It Deeper
I Remember It Differently – Wendy’s
Child Left Behind
Iroko Hop
Polar Bear Meltdown
I Remember It Differently
The One Who Makes You Happy
Kalman Ka Mode
Child Left Behind
Apprendiendo Como Amar
The King Dreams of Flying
Dig It Deeper
Mongo’s Lament
Love That Stumbles Across the Earth in Ecstasy