You don’t need to stay out of the Deep End of this pool if you can’t swim
The Deep End is a meeting place for music, dance, and improvisation. Three acts will bring their dynamic mix of brass, strings, woodwinds, body percussion, the African mbira, Yoruban chants, and freewheeling improvisation to the stage Oct. 29th at Drom Nightclub in New York.
Max Pollak & Rumbatap
Dancer and percussionist Max Pollak has performed for Fidel Castro one night and rural Cuban sugar workers the next. He has painstakingly transcribed a Mongo Santamaria timbales solo for six tap dancers and has traded moves (and shoes) with Cuba’s rumba masters. It all started when Pollak realized he not only wanted to play Afro-Cuban music, he wanted to dance it. Not dance to it; but audibly create the rhythms with his feet and hands. It’s as if Fred Astaire fell into perfect step with the Santería orishas. Rumbatap is the result: three saxophones, marimba, two vocalists and six dancers bring Max’s vision to life in expressing the transcendent beauty of Afro-Latin and World traditions.
check out Rumbatap’s video clip
Rumbatap website
Gentile/Romano
Michel Gentile (flute) and Tony Romano (acoustic guitar) bring an artistic collaboration of extraordinary maturity and depth to the Deep End. Through a commitment to regular rehearsals and performances,Tony and Michel have been probingly developing a style that invokes the ancient beauty of the sound of the flute and guitar. Dispensing with conventional roles, and taking their cue from the Bill Evans trio, the Paul Motian trio, Jimmy Giuffre, and Hermeto Pascoal, the Gentile/Romano duo has created a musical experience rich with interaction and nuance. The ten tracks on their debut CD Flesh and Steel (Deep Tone 003) navigate Brazilian and jazz standards, focusing on the bossa nova of Jobim, the choro of Pascoal and Pixinguinha, and pieces by Irving Berlin and Alec Wilder. The title track, the album’s lone original, hints at a fascination with the rhythmic expressiveness of Brazil as well as the sonic drama of the Flamenco guitar style.
listen to Gentile/Romano: A Felicidade
Gentile/Romano website
The Paul Carlon Octet
Imagine the soundtrack to a Fellini film starring Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn on a spiritual quest through Cuba, Brazil, Colombia and America, with funky bass, Yoruban chants and a killer horn section, and you’ll begin to get an idea of what this group sounds like. Featuring Saxophonist/Composer Paul Carlon’s original music, vocalist Christelle Durandy, and an array of stellar soloist/instrumentalists, the group ranges stylistically from Cuban rumba to Colombian cumbia to American gutbucket blues. The Octet has released two CDs on Deep Tone, 2006′s Other Tongues and 2008′s Roots Propaganda; they will be debuting some brand new material at the Deep End.
listen to the Paul Carlon Octet: Backstory
DJ Medina
DJ David Medina will be spinning his patented mix of Afro-Latin, salsa, and Brazilian soul classics in between sets at the Deep End.
Deep Tone Records
Established in 2006, Deep Tone Records is a NYC indie label specializing in an eclectic mix of jazz, afro-latin, blues and funk styles represented by some of New York’s finest musicians. Each act on the Deep Tone label has invested itself in putting a bold and distinct group sound over individual virtuosity, resulting in recordings that will entice the listener again and again.
The Deep End/Event Details
Thursday October 29th from 7 PM to 10 PM
Max Pollak & Rumbatap: 7PM
Gentile/Romano Duo: 8 PM
The Paul Carlon Octet: 9 PM
Drom
85 Avenue A btw. 5th & 6th Streets, New York NY
Phone: (212) 777-1157
Drom’s website
event page/ticket sales
