BELLOWS FALLS-The Julian Gerstin Sextet will perform at Stage 33 Live, 33 Bridge St., on Sunday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m.
Gerstin has spent a lifetime playing music of the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and the U.S. - funk, R&B, and jazz. He's 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 his heel to change the pitch.
Gerstin founded the Sextet to bring his range of instruments and influences to a jazz setting, where they serve as a platform for his fellow musicians' creativity. The group includes some of New England's most creative talents: clarinetist Anna Patton; trumpeter Don Anderson; pianist Eugene Uman, whose influences, like Julian's, range from funky grooves to experimentalism; bassist Wes Brown, whose career spans gigs with early jazz master Earl "Fatha" Hines to avant-gardes like Wadada Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton; and Ben James, who was John Tchicai's drummer for several years.
"This is global jazz," say organizers, "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."
Tickets are $20 in advance through stage33live.com or at the door. Advance tickets guarantee entry. Limited seating; the performance will be recorded and filmed.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.