News
CAS presents summer concert series
Gypsy-jazz band Babik brings the sound of legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt to the North Campus on July 29.
The College of Arts and Sciences is hosting a free, six-part summer concert series that will bring such hometown groups and musicians as Babik, the Latin Jazz Project and Dee Adams to the North Campus for lunchtime shows.
The “Rock the CASbah: CAS Summer Concert Series” will be held from 12:05-1:05 p.m. from late June through early August outside the Student Union. The rain venue is the ground-floor lobby of Capen Hall.
The goal of the series is to enliven the university during the summer months, says Donald McGuire, undergraduate programs administrator in CAS who is coordinating the college’s summer programs. The series, which is new this year and which officials hope to make an annual event, supports local music while encouraging the community to visit UB.
“We’re trying to make summer a more active time of year,” McGuire says. “We would love to see the public enjoying our campus. And we would like to give the students who are participating in summer courses a fun diversion.”
“We tried to pick a cross section of acts that would appeal to students, faculty and the community,” adds Rob Falgiano, assistant director of the Center for the Arts, whose staff helped organize “Rock the CASbah.” “A lot of the groups we picked are the prominent groups for summer, outdoor concert activity–the up-tempo, audience-friendly groups.”
The lineup for “Rock the CASbah,” with band and musician biographies culled from their official websites:
- June 29, Babik. Pronounced Bah-Beek, this group is a progressive Gypsy jazz band inspired by the legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt. The group’s ability to connect is evident in the way crowds clamber to clap, dance and cheer along with nearly every performance. At concerts, it is not uncommon to see a white-haired 75-year-old grandmother dancing next to a purple-haired 20-something. Babik performs more than 150 shows a year at concert halls and festivals, and facilitates educational programs and improvisation workshops at high schools and colleges.
- July 6, Outer Circle Orchestra. This eight-person, African-Caribbean and world-beat band plays music on the bass, congas, drums, guitar, saxophone, timbales, trombone and trumpet. The group has performed at numerous concerts around Buffalo, including the Elmwood Village Association’s Bidwell Concert series and the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy’s Music at the Marcy series.
- July 13, The Waz-Davis Duo. This instrumental jam duo performs a unique style of acid jazz and improv groove. The on-stage chemistry between players is infectious and allows for audience and group to become one pulsating entity.
- July 20, Lazlo Hollyfeld.a> This four-man experimental instrumental rock band features a bassist, drummer, keyboardist and guitarist. Formed in 2003, the group’s first release, “Our Universe Is Feeding,” is a raw, one-take-recorded, instrumental journey spanning melodic happiness to lethargic, hypnotic rhythms. The group followed up on its initial success with additional albums and two U.S. tours.
- July 27, Dee Adams. Adams is a professionally-trained folk rock musician who writes and sings punchy, poetic and acoustically driven songs heavy with hooks and harmonies. Her voice is warm, rich and bluesy. Reviews have coined Dee’s style as “earthy” and “sweet to spunky,” and have said her lyrics “speak to the heart and mind.”
- August 3, Latin Jazz Project. This group has been entertaining Western New York for nearly a decade with a repertoire that has included the rhythms of salsa, meringue and the son montuno, and the sounds of the samba, bassa nova and cha-cha. The group is a mainstay of local restaurants, among them the Anchor Bar.
“Rock the CASbah” is just one of many public activities the university is hosting this summer. Other offerings include lectures by prominent researchers, youth sports camps, the UB Mini Medical School and workshops to engage high school students in topics that include computational science and physics and art.
The popular UBThisSummer Lecture Series is marking its fifth anniversary with a lineup that features Esther Takeuchi, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, who traveled to Washington, D.C., last fall to receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama.
For a full listing of summer events, click here.
Reader Comments