The Jazz Gallery Presents Zack Lober’s The Ancestry Project, June 6th 2015
A Jewish family’s history lovingly told through music, video, and words
“Engaging original compositions” Downbeat Magazine
“Brilliantly executed... A theatrical suite that is both funny and moving” About.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Jazz Gallery Presents the return of Zack Lober’s The Ancestry Project
Saturday, June 6th at 8:00pm and 10:00pm
Admission: $22.00 | $12.00 for Members
Featuring: Zack Lober – bass, turntables, and video projection
David Binney – alto saxophone
Dan Weiss – drums
Chet Doxas – tenor saxophone
John Escreet -piano
Please visit www.zacklober.com/the-ancestry-project for more info and to view the promotional video.
The Jazz Gallery is proud to present bassist, DJ, and composer Zack Lober’s work: The Ancestry Project. The 90-plus minute through-composed piece written for quintet, turntables, and video projection is based on the personal and musical history of Lober’s family as told to him by his Zaida (Yiddish for grandfather), Hyman Herman.
The music for The Ancestry Project was created based on a series of recorded interviews that Lober conducted with his Zaida, who was born in Poland 89 years ago to a Jewish musical family in a town known then as Borshov. As a young child, his family fled the climate of rising anti-Semitism to settle in the new world of North America where they ultimately ended up in Montreal, Canada. Both he and his brother Benny (a jazz bassist) followed in their father’s footsteps to pursue careers in music. Hyman raised his family by holding down a day job and leading commercial bands in the evenings and weekends. His love for music led him to seek out the best musicians he could find, including young up and coming players who would go on to become some of the world's greatest jazz figures like Oscar Peterson, Paul Bley, and Maynard Ferguson.
The show takes us through Hyman’s life by integrating his recorded narratives directly into the compositions which are also accompanied by visual projections directly related to the subject matter.
The Ancestry Project breaks new ground in the world of live music performance as the lines between composition, live improvisation, emotion, and human interest are blurred into an altogether new and engaging experience.
More on The Ancestry Project:
Since it’s inception in 2011 and successful underground performances at Brooklyn jazz venues iBeam and SEEDS, the Ancestry Project has fully developed into the unique performance piece that Lober envisioned it would be. With funding from a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013, the show had its Canadian premiere on February 21st 2013 at the acclaimed Segal Centre for the Performing Arts in Montreal, Quebec. The performance also yielded a review from Downbeat Magazine as well as featured press coverage from major Jewish news publications.
In August of 2013, Lober and his grandfather were the invited guest hosts for a lecture series held at the respected Jewish cultural workshop KlezKanada on the topic of the creation of The Ancestry Project and the life of Lober’s grandfather.
More on The Jazz Gallery:
Winner of the 2010 ASCAP/CMA Award for Adventurous Programming, The Jazz Gallery is a nonprofit organization that nurtures the youngest generation of professional jazz musicians by giving them an audience for their performances and a stage upon which to assemble their bands. The Gallery is open 3 to 5 nights per week, 50 weeks per year and produces more than 150 events per year. The Gallery is a hub of creativity, a home to jazz musicians/composers, many of them from all over the world but now permanently settled in the United States. The Jazz Gallery presented nine of the last 11 winners of the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition PRIOR to their winning this competition. In September 2011, drummer Dafnis Prieto, who has frequented the Gallery's stage since his arrival in NYC and who has been commissioned by the gallery twice, won a MacArthur Award; in 2010, Jason Moran, a formidable pianist who has frequented the stage of The Gallery for more than 10 years, also won a MacArthur Fellowship Award; and in 2008, 2010-11 Jazz Gallery Resident Artist Miguel Zenon, whose emergence began at The Jazz Gallery in 2001, was a MacArthur Fellowship recipient. The Jazz Gallery's Residency Commissions offer artists a commissioning and residency fee (up to $7,000 in 2011-12) that allows them to take a hiatus from the road as they create their new works. In addition, the Gallery provides them with a creative and convivial space in which to develop, rehearse and workshop the new music before it is made public. During each artist's four to six week residency period, The Jazz Gallery space is made available to the selected artists during "off hours," when they can collaborate with their ensemble members and utilize the month to realize artistic goals. The program is made possible by a major grant from The Jerome Foundation, with additional support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Support for this program has been renewed for 2011-12, and the second Residency Commissioning Series will focus on bassist/composers/bandleaders, with new works scheduled from Alexis Cuadrado, Joe Sanders, Linda Oh and Matt Brewer. In each case, The Jazz Gallery does not dictate the exact nature of each residency, but rather, allows each composer the freedom to create a residency that meets his/her individual needs. Through The Residency Commissions as well as other new projects such at "The Woodshed at The Jazz Gallery", which will provide free rehearsal space to jazz musicians beginning in January 2012, The Jazz Gallery seeks to provide a powerful creative environment for the musicians it supports and presents, and at the same time, to establish a replicable model for supportive relationships between jazz musicians and presenters in general.
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A native of Montreal, Canada, Zack Lober is a bassist, composer, DJ, and music producer based in New York City since 2005. He is a co-founder of the critically acclaimed jazz groups "The Story" and "Byproduct" and currently leads his own group called "The Ancestry Project". He is also active as an educator and clinician and holds a Masters degree from the Manhattan School of Music.
He has performed in NYC as a sideman in groups led by artists including David Binney, Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, Frank London, John Escreet, Greg Ward, Jamie Baum, Lars Dietrich and Samir Zarif and has also performed throughout Europe, India, Mexico, Canada, and the United States in bands led by Ingrid Jensen, Christine Jensen, Diederik Rijpstra, Chet Doxas, Christophe Schweizer, as well as with "The Story".
Zack is also active in the rock and pop world and has performed and/or recorded with artists including Caro Emerald, Zach Williams (of The Lone Bellow), Jessica Williams (Girls), The Swingle Singers, Adam Sullivan, Steve Stevens (Billy Idol), Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy (The Cult). For more information: www.zacklober.com
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Press enquiries: Alice Zulkarnain Tel 646 675 6711, Email press@zacklober.com For more information please visit: www.zacklober.com/the-ancestry-project, www.jazzgallery.org