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Anat Fort and Erik Lawrence in Concert – Canceled
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This performance has been canceled, and we invite you to join us on May 13 for Erik Lawrence and Ariacne Trujillo in concert.
Award-winning, internationally renowned musicians collaborate in a very special Quincy Hall appearance! Don’t miss the first in UAC’s newest series, Sound Suggestions: Intimate Duos Without Borders.
Anat Fort‘s album, Birdwatching, was named one of the 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2016 by the Observer. Having created a strong presence on the New York jazz scene, the Anat Fort Trio has traveled extensively in the US, Canada, Europe and Israel to play the most prestigious jazz venues and festivals such as the Montreal Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, The Opera House in Tel Aviv, Jazz at Lincoln Center among many others.
“Anat Fort is an Israeli jazz pianist with a Jarrett-inspired touch and phrasing, and a composer with a knack for deceptively simple-sounding tunes that are usually elegant and frequently exquisite.” -Guardian
Erik Lawrence has played, toured and recorded with legends including three-time Grammy award winner Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, Mavis Staples, Buddy Miles, Chico Hamilton, Sonny Sharrock, Aretha Franklin, Spin Doctors (platinum record), Glen Hansard, Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint, Dr John, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Joan Osborne (platinum record), Tibetan flute master Nawang Khechog, Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and countless others. He’s played on just about every major television show, stage and music festival in the world, and is a certified sound and vibrational healing practitioner.
Anat and Erik have played together for years in various band settings, most recently in an extended trio setting of mostly improvisations with vocalist and composer Ayelet Rose Gottlieb and her three small children in Vancouver, BC. This recording will soon be released and was inspired by “Inside An Hourglass,” a recording Erik participated on with his father Arnie Lawrence when Erik was just eight years old.
ABOUT THE SERIES: Rockland County native, Erik Lawrence, has traveled most of the world with his saxophones and flutes. Along the way he has joined with some of the most innovative and expressive musicians of his time, ranging from Louis Armstrong sidemen to futuristic madmen, from masters of rhythm to masters of tone. The healing power of music is a foremost intention as we all look to the arts for uplift, connection, empathy and rejuvenation. Union Arts is pleased to host Erik and some of the best musicians the world has to offer, creating each Sound Suggestions program specifically for this series, guaranteeing something new and innovative every time.
May 13: Ariacne Trujillo and Erik Lawrence
June 10: To be announced soon
Bio
For Anat Fort, music is a colorful mosaic of sounds. Having grown up in Israel where she studied classical piano, listened to 80s pop and soaked up the diverse sounds of the Middle East, it is no wonder that this rich kaleidoscope of sounds and influences would eventually become her stylistic signature. A natural improviser from a very young age, it was not until her late teens that she discovered the depth of jazz.
The next step was coming to the United States to study with people who were part of shaping up this music like Harold Mabern, Rufus Reid and Norman Simmons. It was then that Anat started writing music, developing that aspect of her creative talent through the study of classical and jazz composition.
In 1999, Anat self-produced her first CD, Peel, that features an all-original program. The CD received excellent reviews, giving her the impetus to form a working band. But little did she know that the collaboration she would form with drummer Roland Schneider and bassist Gary Wang would continue to be her main vehicle of expression over a decade later.
Having created a strong presence on the New York jazz scene, the Anat Fort Trio has traveled extensively in the US, Canada, Europe and Israel to play the most prestigious jazz venues and festivals such as the Montreal Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, The Opera House in Tel Aviv, Jazz at Lincoln Center among many others. Anat received two composition grants from the “Jerome Foundation” and one from “Meet the Composer.”
She has received commissions to compose pieces for orchestra and improvisational piano (Tzohar, 2000), chamber ensemble (Ketanot, 2002), choir and jazz trio (Mekayitz El Kayitz, 2007) and many more.
She has played with many jazz greats such as Paul Motian, Ed Schuller and Perry Robinson with whom she recorded her second CD, A Long Story in 2004. This collaboration brought her to the attention of ECM Records producer Manfred Eicher who decided to produce the recording without their having initially been in the studio; a rare occurrence.
The CD came out in 2007 and received outstanding reviews worldwide. The success of her first ECM CD resulted in a long-awaited project, the first recording of the Anat Fort Trio: And If. This recording came out in 2010 and like its predecessors, features all Anat’ s original compositions.
It was selected by Slate Magazine as one of the Ten Best Jazz CDs of 2010, an honor she shares with one of her most influential jazz heroes, the legendary Keith Jarrett. Her third recording for ECM, Birdwatching, was released earlier in 2016 and was picked as “one of the best jazz cds of 2016” by the New York Observer.
After 17 years of living in the United States, Anat returned to Israel in 2009 but continues to tour with her trio, which recently returned from Europe, Canada, the U.S. and China. In recent years she has taken on a few projects performing her favorite Israeli music in jazz settings, including a recent concert at the Tel-Aviv Opera House with one of her idols, Israeli icon Shalom Hanoch. She teaches improvisation and is currently pursuing a PhD in composition at the Bar-Ilan University.
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Erik Lawrence is a Saxophonist, Flutist, Sound and Vibrational Healing Practitioner Educator, Journalist, published Poet and Photographer. Beginning his saxophone and flute career playing at five, he performed on his first record at eight, taught in colleges since he was eighteen, including Williams College and Dartmouth.
He has played, toured and recorded with legends including three time Grammy award winner Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, Mavis Staples, Buddy Miles, Chico Hamilton, Sonny Sharrock, Aretha Franklin, Spin Doctors (platinum record), Glen Hansard, Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint, Dr John, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Joan Osborne (platinum record), Tibetan flute master Nawang Khechog, Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and countless others, many of whom he considers mentors and sound healers as performers.
He’s played on just about every major television show, stage and music festival in the world. He is currently a member of The Midnight Ramble Band (founding member of the Levon Helm Band), Butler, Bernstein & The Hot 9 (with Henry Butler and Steven Bernstein) and The Levin Brothers (with Tony Levin and Pete Levin).
He has been studying world music and has traveled the world performing, studying and collecting and learning to play flutes. Erik co-founded and named the Rockland County Jazz and Blues Society and was awarded their lifetime achievement award in 2011.
He sits on the steering committee of the Louis Armstrong Center for Music in Medicine (www.musicandmedicine.org) and is currently vice president of their charitable arm, Friends of What a Wonderful World. His albums: Merge; Erik Lawrence & Hipmotism; and Honey Ear Trio: Steampunk Serenade are available online everywhere.
