Masquerade Jazz and Funk Winter Music Carnival

BarnArts 11th Masquerade Jazz and Funk Winter Music Carnival

Saturday March 11th, 2023!

Barnard Town Hall

5:30-10pm

Featuring

Zili Misik

All female Zili performs an acoustic & electronic fusion of roots music of the African diaspora. With captivating sounds that evoke the African continent, Zili retraces routes of forced exile and cultural resistance through diasporic rhythm and song.

About Zili Misik

Zili Misik was founded in 2000 and operates out of Boston. Their music unites the sounds of Haitian mizik rasin, Jamaican roots reggae, Afro-Brazilian samba, Afro-Cuban son, and African-American spirituals, blues, jazz, and neo soul. Honoring their influences while doing something entirely their own, Zili consider themselves New World Soul. They have opened for M. Lauryn Hill, India.Arie, Shaggy, Boukman Eksperyans, Les Nubians, and Zap Mama among others.

Zili’s name emphasizes their connection to the African diaspora. The Haitian spiritual entity “Ezili” is a mother, lover, and warrior with a connection to other Afri-Atlantic entities. Zili’s music reflects this as their songs balance love and politics with a positive, self-reflective position.

The band began and is led by percussionist Kera Washington, who studied ethnomusicology at Wellesley College, Wesleyan University, and Brown University, and Interdisciplinary Studies at Tufts. Beyond the academy, she sought further education with master musicians from Haiti, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Brazil, and the United States, and has traveled to Cuba, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Cape Verde, Vietnam, and Greece to further her knowledge of percussion. She was a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Hand Drumming Competition. Washington is on the faculty in the Music Department of Wellesley College and is Artistic Director of Yanvalou Drum & Dance Ensemble there and teaches full-time at the Mather School in Dorchester, MA.

Zili Misik is currently made up of nine talented women, in addition to Washington, all with ties to Berklee College of Music, Wellesley College, and Brown University: Becky Bass (steel pan/vocals), Kana Dehara McCoy (keyboard), Ririka Tokushige (saxophone), Heron Russell (percussion), Ksenia Vasileva (bass), Ivanna Cuesta Gonzalez (drums), Soohee Moon (keyboard), Lexi Havlin (guitar), and Sharon Renold (guitar/vocals).

Check out Zili Misik’s website

And additional performances by:

The Speak Easy Prohibition Band

Bob Merrill (piano), Tim Gilmore (drums), Peter Concilio (bass), Dave Ellis (trumpet), Katie Runde Sanchez (saxophones), Grace Wallace (vocals)

About The Speak Easy Prohibition Band

The Speak Easy Prohibition band is the brain child of Stacy Capurso, proprietor, with her husband Jon, of the Windsor Station Restaurant. She asked her father-in-Law, Peter Concilio, if he would put together a band to play the dance music of the twenties, and opened one night after inviting her clientele to join the party and dress in jazz age outfits and dance.

The staff dressed in flapper outfits and contests were held for the most creative outfits.

The band has performed throughout the Upper Valley and is contemplating a tour this summer.

Bob Merrill has played and performed on piano for more than 50 years. He has been the composer and accompanist for the Dartmouth Film Society’s silent films, and in 1999 was presented with an award for playing his fiftieth film. He has produced music for both commercial video and film, and is featured on several albums.

Vocalist Grace Marie Wallace was born and raised in Worcestershire, England, and began studying classical piano and flute at 11 years old. After moving to the U.S., she became involved with the Interplay Jazz and Arts organization where she discovered her love for jazz vocals. She has studied with Madeline Kole and Natalie Bernal.

Bassist Peter Concilio studied with composer/arranger Don DeFala. He has produced concerts for Maynard Ferguson, The Heath Brothers, Dizzy Gillespie, and a variety of other artists, and was the artistic director of Hartland, Vermont’s Jazz Fest during its five year run. He is the creator of the Speak Easy Prohibition Band.

Drummer and Percussionist Tim Gilmore teaches at Plymouth State University, St. Paul School, and Interplay Jazz and Arts. An active clinician with Adventures in Jazz, his credits include performances at Blue Note in NYC and appearances with a number of artists including Shelia Jordan, Tower of Power, Richie Cole, Stanley Clarke, Pete Seeger, and Shawn Colvin.

Trumpeter Dave Ellis is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music. He has performed with the Oratorio Society of Washington D.C., Vermont Symphony, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, and Sam Rivers. He has conducted jazz festivals at Plymouth State and Hart Colleges and directed Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble at Dartmouth College. He is the president of Ellis Music.

Saxophonist Katie Runde is a woodwind player who has performed dance, funk, jazz combos, and pit orchestras. She plays with several groups, including the Party Crashers. Her playing spirit is contagious, and the Speak Easy musicians are ignited as are audiences by her fiery performances.

Michael Zsoldos & Ben Kogan

About Zsoldos & Kogan

Michael Zsoldos is a Senior Lecturer in jazz & classical saxophone and music theory and the Director of the Performance Lab in Jazz Improvisation at Dartmouth College. He has performed with Sheila Jordan, Kevin Mahogony, Houston Person, Bernadette Peters, and the Temptations. Michael’s album, Off the Cuff, is playing on streaming services and jazz radio stations worldwide.

Ben Kogan spent the majority of his adult life in New York City performing and teaching music. Kogan studied jazz bass at the University of Miami and since then has branched into all sorts of styles and instruments (guitar, piano and singing). He has played with such acts as David Wax Museum, Hey Mama, Jay Nash, and currently leads a roots rock outfit called Ben Kogan Band.

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