City of Asylum
Giving Voice.
In support of his project “Four for Mingus,'' AJ Johnson presents the last in a series of four concerts dedicated to visionary musician Charles Mingus. This final concert will spotlight Charles Mingus’ tributes to Duke Ellington, creating a unique homage to both of these major figures in the history of jazz.
This program presents a combination reading and musical performance with author and ethnomusicologist, Shalini R. Ayyagari. In Shalani’s book, Musical Resilience: Performing Patronage in the Indian Thar Desert, she shows how professional low-caste musicians from the Thar Desert borderland of Rajasthan, India have skillfully reinvented their cultural and economic value in postcolonial India
Fan favorite jazz series Off Minor returns this September with an ode to Buddy DeFranco.
Utilizing a unique blend of global folk traditions and contemporary jazz, Kinetic’s performance efforts celebrate multiculturalism, wisdom, and unity.
Mathew Tembo returns this fall as part of his U.S. tour! Themed "Reggae-Afro," this tour is aimed at highlighting the impact that reggae has had on his Afropop style from Zambia.
In an exciting return to the Alphabet City stage, Thumbscrew (Tomas Fujiwara, Michael Formanek, and Mary Halvorson) debut a program of original compositions, developed and rehearsed over the course of their 5th biennial residency at City of Asylum.
This special program presents a jazz concert featuring Mat Maneri (performing with the ASH Quartet). The jazz set is followed by a jazz and poetry collaboration with poet Denver Butson and four poets from our partnership with the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, Busisiwe Mahlangu, Saba Hamzah, Yashika Graham, and Tammy Lai-Ming Ho.
This unique collaboration is a mixture of avant garde jazz and ethno music from Hungary, like a cultural bridge between the USA and Eastern-Europe.
In this concert we welcome Oscar Peñas and his quartet as they share Oscar’s new album, Chicken or Pasta. This is Oscar’s sixth self-produced album as a leader and features Sara Caswell, Motohito Fukushima, and Richie Barshay, as well as special guests Mike Stern and Greg Leisz.
Our Off Minor series continues with an ode to Thelonious Monk.
For this combination concert and reading, author Nicole Mitchell shares with us her new book, "The Mandorla Letters: for the hopeful."
We welcome back the HarmoniZing Ensemble, directed by Yang Jin, for a performance featuring musicians from different cultures, all with the mission of “nurturing cross-cultural understanding through the arts.”
