| Vincent Chancey (French horn, pandeiro, composition) and Newman Taylor Baker(washboard and composition) announce their first multi-arts collaboration, “2/4/THREE,” to be presented by Roulette Intermedium, Inc., 509 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, NY, on Saturday, February 3, 2018, at 8:00 p.m. For tickets, contact www.roulette.org. To learn more about the project, please visit @2.4.THREE. At the heart of “2/4/THREE” are two musicians in deep exploration of their instruments of choice—the French horn and the washboard. Their music drives this six-part, 90-minute work-in-progress featuring solo, duo, and ensemble pieces, punctuated by the choreography, spoken text, and media. Their creative team includes Tomeka Reid, cello;Keith Johnston, guitar, spoken word; Cleo Francine Wilson, narration; Maria Mitchell, choreography, dance, spoken word and Bill Toles, audio visuals. The project is organized by Jeanette Vuocolo. “2/4/THREE” is a story about two musicians, but at the start there were three all born onFebruary 4th—Vincent, Newman and saxophonist John Stubblefield. John passed in 2005 of prostate cancer. Newman credits Stubbs for alerting the jazz community to prostate cancer of which Newman is a survivor. Vincent and Newman dedicate this evening to Stubbs and that joint birthday concert they had planned to do. “2/4/THREE” tells family stories too—ones rooted in genealogical research and DNA testing that Vincent and Newman have undertaken with the help of family and friends. From Madagascar to Nicodemus, Kansas, the first all-black settlement in the Great Plains, Vincent journeys with his sister and family genealogist Cleo F. Wilson through a family largely unknown having been raised in foster care. We will meet Maggie and George DePrad, a seamstress and barber who raised themselves up from slavery. And through one of Uncle James’ letters we join an annual homecoming of the Giles Bluford Page clan who descended from the first African American guides of the Mammoth Cave. It is the washboard that draws Newman to the published writings of his grandfather, the Reverend Dr. T. Nelson Baker, who went from the plantation on Assateague Island, VA, to becoming the only former slave to receive a PhD from Yale University in 1903. Newman will excerpt from such essays of the Reverend’s as “The Negro Woman” (1908) and “A Negros View of the Race Problem” (1908). “He is talking about the way I feel today,” explains Newman. Native Chicagoan, Vincent Chancey moved to New York after completion of a B. A. in Music from the Southern Illinois University School of Music. His classical private horn teacher was with Dale Clevenger, principal French horn of the Chicago Symphony. Chancey has performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Pan American Symphony, the Harlem Symphony, the One World Symphony, the Zephyr Woodwind Quintet, and the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. He received a NEA grant to study jazz French Horn with Julius Watkins. He was awarded a Meet the Composer Grant, and a CMA/FACE French American Jazz Exchange Grant for a project with Serge Pesce. His has worked with Charlie Haden, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Lionel Hampton, Tom Harrell, Cassandra Wilson, Shirley Horn, Sun Ra, Lester Bowie, David Murray, and Carla Bley in jazz; Aretha Franklin, Patty Labelle, Elvis Costello, Brandy, David Byrne, Ashford and Simpson, and Maxwell. He appears on over 350 albums and CDs. He has also served as composer and player on a number of film scores. Vincent has toured with his groups at the Verona Festival in Italy, the Asilah Festival in Morocco, the Deer Isle Jazz Festival in Maine, and the Wind Festival in Greece. His three releases include LEGenDES Imaginaires, Next Mode, and Welcome Mr. Chancey. He is a member of the History Makers. Newman Taylor Baker is known for his solo drum set project, Singin’ Drums, andWashboard XT, his pursuit of 21st century music for the washboard. He started on the washboard in 2010 when working with the Ebony Hillbillies. His hands “just knew what to do.” Baker’s band, Washboard XT, has performed in New York, Ohio, Scotland, Poland and Japan. Supported by a NYFA Music Fellowship Newman’s Singin’ Drums can be heard on Drum Suite Life and The NYFA Collection (Innova). He currently plays with the Matthew Shipp Trio, Vienna Carroll, Jemeel Moondoc, Andrew Lamb, the Deborah Brown Quartet and Sylwester Ostrowski with the NFM Leopoldinum Project, and The Lance Hayward Singers. Baker has toured with Billy Harper, Billy Bang, Sam Rivers, Henry Threadgill, Henry Grimes, Abdullah Ibrahim, Craig Harris, and Monnette Sudler. He has performed with McCoy Tyner, Ahmad Jamal, Joe Henderson, Lou Donaldson, Charlie Rouse, and as part of the Richmond Symphony and the Delaware Symphony. Newman has played in the musical theater works of Leroy Jenkins, Diedre Murray, Henry Threadgill and Jeanne Lee. His 21 year associations with Mickey D. & Friends Dance Company and Avodah Dance Ensemble fostered his teaching in schools and correctional facilities. Newman was raised on the Virginia State College campus (now University). Photos and video available upon request. |
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