BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro’s annual Nu Mu Festival of Music and Art celebrates its fifth year at 118 Elliot and is scheduled from Aug. 7 through 21.
The “Minding A New Way” art show, with paintings by Liza Cassidy and John Loggia, opens Friday, Aug. 7, during Gallery Walk at 5:30 p.m., followed by an evening of music featuring bassist and storyteller Hilliard Greene with his musical project: “Milestone Negro Spirituals Until the Civil War: When Folksongs Bring Freedom.”
Greene will begin at 8 p.m. and share bass lines and the stories behind the spirituals associated with the Underground Railroad as well as coded messages that runaway slaves used to elude capture. Some of the tracks include, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” “Wade In the Water,” “Deep River,” and “Go Down Moses.”
After Greene’s performance, saxophonist Jeff Lederer and other local musicians, including Pete Simoneaux, will explore the echoes of the spirituals in contemporary Jazz.
Subsequent days of the festival will feature acts such as southern Vermont’s Anarchoharmonia musicians along with visiting students from Long Island University’s Post Modern Ensemble, percussionist Julian Gerstin and his original jazz compositions, NYC-based shoegaze band Cannon Fodder, The Turbulence Orchestra with their large format improvisation ensemble, and a Sunday morning open-to-all meditation session. The festival will culminate in a finale designed to help audiences and players revel in “Sonic Liberation,” as organizers put it.
Nu Mu is a community-oriented, intergenerational, new, experimental, and improvised music and art festival that brings together recognized jazz musicians and sound artists with local talent and students, creating singular opportunities for collaboration and experimentation. “These events have been shaping Brattleboro up to be a regional hub for ‘fringe’ music and sonic exploration,” wrote organizers in a news release.
The Nu Mu festival is directed by 118 Elliot’s Loggia, a painter and musician, and Lederer, a saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, and educator whose work crosses the genres of jazz, Latin, and improvised music. Lederer has been featured in Downbeat and JazzTimes magazine and spends his summers in Guilford.
“‘Nu Mu 5: Minding a New Way’ highlights the struggle for a more inclusive society and how improvised music reflects the democratic struggle of balancing individual expression with group dynamics,” Loggia said in the news release.
This is the third year Lederer’s students from Long Island University will participate in the Nu Mu Festival.
“Participating in the Nu Mu festival is an incredible opportunity [...] to collaborate with diverse musicians while learning all aspects of what it takes to put on a festival,” Lederer said. “They are excited to work and play together with the many talented and passionate individuals the festival gathers.”
More background on performers and the Nu Mu Fest’s schedule can be found on 118elliot.com.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.