Click on logo image for schedule.
On Sunday, May 1st at Cornell Park in the Rondout, The Kingston WellSpring Festival will take place from 11:00am – 3:00pm. The day was created by the Kingston Land Trust in partnership with Shakti Yoga, MAC Fitness and the City of Kingston’s Park and Recreation Department to celebrate free yoga in Cornell Park this summer.
Participants who come can enjoy free yoga classes throughout the event for youth and adults, as well as visit over a dozen wellness practitioners who will be on hand to share their work and more.
Visit this LINK for the schedule and more information.
There is a call out to residents at 2:30pm when the festival will commence with a drum session to include all who wish to play, and families, schools, churches – all Kingston citizens who have something to play are invited to join. Light rain, or shine. Come and join in the fun.
On Tuesday, April 12th LVanHart Artist Productions and Stella May Productions Present Jazz with pianist/keyboardist Kevin Hays and his trio. The festivities begin with a Meet The Artist at 8pm. This is the time that the audience will get to ask questions of these musicians who are happy to share their insights and experiences with America’s Classical music – jazz.
Hays, an award winning jazz pianist will perform selections from his latest recordings ‘You’ve Got A Friend’ and ‘Live at Smalls’ which features music by such diverse artists as Charlie Parker, Bob Dorough, Paul Hindemith, and Lennon and McCartney. He will also include in the program several new original works by Hays including ‘Elegia’ from a newly recorded CD with pianist Brad Mehldau. The duo recently premiered this piece along with other material from their upcoming release at Carnegie Hall.
Kevin has had a long musical relationship with bassist Doug Weiss (a longtime member of Kevin’s Trio) and drummer Ben Perowsky, who has worked with Kevin over the years in his trio and in other groups, playing together with artists such as Chris Potter, Adam Rogers and others.
Jazz Pianist and composer Kevin Hays has now recorded over a dozen CD’s as a leader and has been featured on many recordings as a sideman. His recordings have been listed as among the ‘Top 40 Jazz Releases of the Year’ by Musician Magazine and praised by The New York Times. In the mid-nineties he began recording for Blue Note records and made several critically acclaimed CD’s for that label.
Over the past 15 years, Kevin has performed widely with his trio that includes bassist Doug Weiss and drummer Bill Stewart. The trio’s first CD in 2001, ‘What Survives’ (recently re-issued on Hays’s own NDS Records) included arrestingly beautiful arrangements of classical works by Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Anton Webern along with his own compositions.
In addition to recording and touring with the trio, Kevin has long been considered ‘first call’ by some of the most prominent and influential musicians in Jazz. These include Sonny Rollins, John Scofield, Benny Golson, Roy Haynes, Chris Potter, Al Foster, Joe Henderson and Joshua Redman.
After a 4-year hiatus from recording during which time he moved to the high desert of New Mexico, Kevin returned to NY and to the studio. The resulting 2006 recording ‘For Heaven’s Sake’, devoted entirely to The American Songbook, received widespread acclaim including being awarded the French ‘Coups de Coeur’ Prize and ‘Best of the Year’ by The New Yorker Magazine.
On his latest trio recording ‘You’ve Got A Friend’ (2009), Kevin brilliantly reworks both Jazz and Folk classics of Carole King, Paul McCartney, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Bob Dorough and others.
He has recently recorded a new Solo CD for the German label Pirouet that is scheduled for release in the fall of 2011.
Raised in Chicago, Illinois, Doug Weiss has lived and performed in the New York City jazz scene since graduating from the William Paterson College jazz studies program in1988.
In 1995 he recorded the first of two critically acclaimed Blue Note records under the leadership of pianist Kevin Hays. His relationship with Kevin, both intuitive and visceral, continues to the present with 10 cds recorded and many appearances in the United States and abroad. In 1996 began Doug Weiss’ association with legendary drummer Al Foster. Al’s band has toured the world, playing more than 1000 concerts and recording 2 cds to date. Their performances have been reviewed favorably by DownBeat, Jazz Times, and the New York Times.
In addition to these bands he performs with guitarist Peter Bernstien’s “Monk” project, with long-time friend and section mate Bill Stewart. Recently, Weiss was featured, along with Billy Drummond and John Scofield, on Eddie Henderson’s release “For All We Know” on furthermore records.
He has played the Village Vanguard and toured Europe with Brian Blade and the Fellowship band. In 2010 he began working with pianist Marc Copland, touring Europe in trio format and with the collective band “Contact”. He is also member of the band “Wayfarer”, a collective featuring Timothy Hill, Jeff Haynes, and Brandon Ross.
He continues to circulate in the New York club scene, with regular appearances at Smalls, Smoke, the Kitano and the Vanguard with the likes of Mike Moreno, Sam Yahel, Bruce Barth, Gerald Clayton, Chris Potter, and Jim Snidero. Doug Weiss has also accompanied such notable figures as Joe Williams, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Lee Konitz, Jacky Terrasson, Eddie Henderson, Lew Tabakin, Walt Weiskopf, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and Joshua Redman. He recorded 11 tracks on Lizz Wrights’ critically acclaimed debut album “Salt”, (2003) and toured extensively in support of that project.
Weiss currently resides in the Hudson River Valley, and is engaged in creating a new work by folk legend Pete Seeger, which is being produced by percussionist Jeff Haynes.
One of the most accomplished drummers of his generation, Ben Perowsky’s notable career has placed him among a small vanguard of players able to move between jazz, experimental music and cutting edge pop and rock. Ben began his early performing life with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, pop songstress Rickie Lee Jones and R&B star Roy Ayers. He went on to tour and record with Miles Davis’ collaborators The Gil Evans Orchestra, Bob Berg, Mike Stern and later John Scofield. Ben has worked closely with numerous artists since then including Elysian Fields, Joan as Policewoman, Uri Caine, Steven Bernstein, Wood Brothers, John Zorn, Ronnie Cuber, Michael Brecker, Don Byron, Dave Douglas, Walter Becker and John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards.
Amidst his busy sideman/recording career, Ben created and co-led the band Lost Tribe who released three critically acclaimed records released in 1992, 1994 and 1998. He released Ben Perowsky Trio in 1999 from which the title Segment was used in the Will Farrel movie “Talladega Nights”. In 2003 he released Camp Songs for John Zorn’s Tzadik label, which was voted in JAZZTIMES TOP 50 Cds of 2003. In 2006 Ben created his own label, El Destructo Records with two releases to date: El Destructo: Volume I, a blending of dark ambient dub improv and then released through Sony/Red distribution September, 2009 “Moodswing Orchestra” which expands on this idea, adding 4 more instrumentalists and 5 well-known vocalists. Ben also formed the band RedCred with Chris Speed, John Medeski and Larry Grenadier. They meet regularly in the Catskill mountains to play concerts. In 2007 Ben played on the disco hit song “Blind” by Hercules and Love Affair. In August 2009 The Ben Perowsky Quartet: with Chris Speed, Ted Reichman and Drew Gress released a CD entitled Esopus Opus featuring Ben’s latest compositions and arrangements for Speed’s label, Skirl records.
In 2010 Ben appeared on the Grammy award winning CD Loudon Wainwright III “High Wide & Handsome – The Charlie Poole Project. He also performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver with Lou Reed, James Blood Ulmer, Elvis Costello, and recorded for French pop star Sioban Wilson as well as the solo ep from Indie rocker’s “ The Honorary Title, Jarrod Gorbell.
Kingston, NY Neighborhood Watch Group Ups the Ante.
Since February of 2010, Michael and Claudia D’Arcy have provided a resource for the entire Kingston community by developing a citywide Neighborhood Watch Group. The two of them as dynamic leaders have helped to support the City of Kingston by putting a face on resident safety with social media, blogs, searches, events….and busts.
Putting a face on resident safety you ask? Indeed. In some cases, it helps to make it all the more real and immediate for the residents that it serves and here is an instance where this is truly the case. The D’Arcy’s have come to this work organically by turning a tragedy into something productive and good and the city of Kingston is better for it.
After over a little more than a year of hitting it hard and using their own resources to do so, they are now looking to turn our citywide Neighborhood Watch Group into a 501c3. In doing so, it will allow for grant opportunities and donations for more grass root initiatives to help secure Kingston’s safety.
Help them to help us by making a contribution to OUR cause – and thanks you two for your dedication and service.
Help the Queens Galley gain the attention of ABC’s Extreme Makeover.
Today, I had the pleasure to eat at the Queens Galley for lunch while meeting with Diane Reeder and Farmer Jesica Clark. The place was packed at noontime, so we found some open seats and shared our table with others while waiting to be served.
Waiting to be served? At a soup kitchen?
We were greeted promptly by a volunteer who brought us soup, salad and a main course of home made falafel, hummus and a tofu dish. It was “meatless” Monday after all – and it was really good thanks to their dedicated volunteers.
The Queens Galley has applied for ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition.
One of the selection criteria is to show we have a broad base of community support. While WE know how many of you are there for us every day now we need to show the casting company that Queens Galley is truly ‘owned’ by a community of people that care. Some of you have eaten here, some of you have gotten shelter here, some of you have sliced, diced and chopped others have written checks and reposted/retweeted when we have a need, event or concern.
The building we are in is literally crumbling around us. This past Winter we met with challenges so severe we came through only by the grace of God and the generosity of people like YOU.
Tell them of your experience with us, have you been here? Have you been inspired by us? Do you know someone who has been helped by us?
On behalf of all of us here who are crossing our fingers, lighting candles, burning sage and looking for lucky charms; we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your help in keeping us open and able to be here every day for anyone in need, no questions asked. We’re helping to feed the Hudson Valley…one meal at a time.
The Kingston WellSpring Festival. FREE Yoga in Cornell Park May-September, 2011.
Come and celebrate FREE “Yoga in the Park!” with The Kingston WellSpring Festival on May 1st, 2011 from 11:00am – 3:00pm at Cornell Park.
The Kingston Land Trust in partnership with Shakti Yoga Studios, MAC Fitness and the City of Kingston’s Park and Recreation department hosts festival to launch a free ‘Yoga in the Park’ series from May – September of 2011.
The Kingston Land Trust in partnership with Shakti Yoga Studios, MAC Fitness and the City of Kingston’s Park and Recreation Department will host the first annual “Kingston WellSpring Festival” in Cornell Park off of Wurts Street in the Rondout in Kingston on Sunday, May 1st 2011 from 11:00am – 3:00pm.The event will feature free adult and youth yoga each hour by Shakti Yoga Studio instructors, over a dozen different health practitioners on site to discuss their work that will include Acupuncture, Feldenkrais, Kinesiology, Naturopaths and other specialties and a drum circle to begin at 2:30pm.
Visit dozens of alternative and conventional local health practitioners throughout the event.