Past Events › The Green Room

Saxophonist, multi-reedist, and composer Gregory Tardy is one of the most versatile jazz musicians of his generation, equally comfortable in a variety of musical and improvisational situations. He has recorded fourteen CDs under his own name, blending his love of traditional jazz with a more modern seeking style. His latest project, If Time Could Stand Still, was released in the fall of 2020 on WJ3 Records.

With guitar, fiddle, button-box, banjo, harmonicas, rhythm-bones, and Willi’s booming baritone, this is bonafide populist folk music in the tradition of cowboys, frontier fiddlers, and tall-tale tellers. Carlisle recognizes that the only thing holding us back from greatness is each other. With a quick wit and big sing-alongs, these folksongs bring us a step closer to breaking down our divides.

Amrita “Ami” Kaur Dang is a South Asian-American vocalist, sitarist, composer and producer from Baltimore. Her sound blends elements of North Indian classical, noise/ambient electronics, beat-driven psych and experimental dance pop. The work references her hybrid identity as a first-generation South Asian-American, Sikh upbringing, musical education, as well as the chaos and spirituality of the landscapes of both Baltimore and urban India.

Tarta Relena was born in 2016 as a project of two singers to explore a cappella the sonorities of different styles of vocal music. Far from wanting to create a stamp of the traditional and to define the Mediterranean, Tarta Relena wants to make its own a repertoire that goes from music of oral tradition to songs of author that in one way or another are related to the geographical area of the Mediterranean.

SHEENA, a show curated and performed by Nubia Yasin, begs the question “What would make the pain of transformation desirable?” With a blend of original poetry and music, Yasin tells the story of her own transition from girlhood to womanhood against a backdrop of deep rooted shame. By walking through her own shame, she aims to allow the audience a chance to shine a light into their darkest corners, and say to what lives there “I see you. I don’t hate you.”

SpiralPhonics isn’t burdened by the long-cast shadows of guitar/sax/drum trios that have contributed to the lineage of creative music. In fact, with each twist and turn, these guys challenge your own lens of expectation.

The Crosstown Strictly Jazz Series, presented by Strictly Jazz Entertainment in collaboration with Crosstown Arts, is designed to salute classic jazz music as contemporary musicians perform the work of the legends.