Eva Novoa & Vivienne Aerts - 8 pm
Eva Novoa - piano & Chinese gongs
Vivienne Aerts - vocals, Korg R3 synth & effects
Vivienne Aerts & Ratzo Harris - 9 pm
Vivienne Aerts - vocals, Korg R3 synth & effects,
Ratzo Harris - upright bass
$20
Vivienne Aerts presents two different duos for this evening at iBeam. Vivienne is joined first by Brooklyn based (Barcelona born) pianist Eva Novoa on piano and Chinese gongs. Vivienne and Eva met in New York in 2022. This will be Novoa-Aert’s first live performance. For the second set Vivienne presents another duo with bassist Ratzo Harris with whom she has a solid collaboration and many past performances together.
The staggeringly versatile skill-set of NYC-based Dutch Singer, Educator, Psychologist and Artist-preneur Vivienne Aerts busts myths around the ‘Jill of all trades’ paradigm with a nonchalance that leaves even the most skeptical purist taking a bow. A practicing clinical psychologist and choir conductor in Europe before she went on to be a Fulbright scholar and Suma Cum Laude Berklee graduate, her collaborators since have included some of the most iconic names in the world of jazz. Her eclectic ‘experience’ events in collaboration with her husband, renowned pastry chef Ted Steinebach was the root of her multi-disciplinary approach to the making of her new album, ‘Typuhthâng’, which not just features a 100 female musicians from around the globe, but also comes with a bar of bean-to-bar chocolate from Original Beans Chocolate, a company that pro-actively empowers female cacao farmers of Virunga State Park in Congo. Besides this, she is a faculty member at Berklee College of music where she has been instrumental in building a new generation of performers who are not only skilled musicians but also mentally and physically healthy individuals.
https://vivienneaerts.nl/
Ratzo B. Harris is considered an innovative bassist who has worked with some of the greatest musicians of our time. John Handy, Charles Lloyd, Joe Lovano, Jon Hendricks, Ted Curson, Tim Berne, Betty Carter, Helen Merrill, Les Paul, Joanne Brackeen, Joe Henderson, Jim Pepper and Betty Buckley are just a few of the artists who have collaborated with him. In 1995 he was a semi-finalist for the Thelonious Monk Competition and he has been a contributing columnist for Bass Player Magazine. He uses a 6 string upright bass and his playing is been called "muscular, a rebar of sonic foundation, yet sinuous and subtle.” Ratzo has also been active as an educator, and has taught at Purdue University, Indiana University, University of Massachusetts, Berklee College, New England Conservatory, Rotterdam Conservatory, University of Ludwigsburg, the Music High Schools of Wurztburg and Cologne, the New School for Social Research, the Manhattan School of Music and New York University.
"A vivid sense of drama and its intrinsic, minute shadings of light upon dark places animate pianist Eva Novoa's work. Barcelona bred and keening with Brooklyn bravura, Novoa swaps the fore and backgrounds with uncompromised glee. Expressionistic, Impressionistic, and forthright, she aligns and upsets the edges to her liking. (...) the whole of Novoa/Gress/Gray Trio, Vol. 1 is a distinctly engaging and fascinating listen". Mike Jurkovic, All About Jazz **** February 2024.