Common Ground Coffeehouse, 2008-2009

The Rivertowns Jazz and Blues Festival

Common Ground is thrilled to announce that we will be co-producing —and expanding—the Rivertowns Jazz and Blues Festival again this year. In June 2008, we hosted the stellar Hastings Jazz Collective, with Tim Armacost, David Janeway, Jay Azzolina, Ugonna Okegwo, and Tony Jefferson, followed the very next night by a concert by reknowned bluesman Guy Davis. In addition, the festival also included a performance by the Hastings Blues Mothers at the Hastings Farmers Market, a performance by flautist Jan Leder, and a multimedia presentation on R&B history.

This year’s festival has been expanded from two to 10 days (!), with plans calling for events running at venues from Yonkers to Tarrytown. To pull this off, we’ll be partnering with a number of other wonderful Rivertowns organizations, such as 12 Miles North, and venues, such as Studio 530 in Yonkers, Antoinette’s in Hastings, Bo Cafe in Dobbs Ferry, and others.

Full details on the whole festival will be posted as they develop, but here are the events that Common Ground can announce now:

On Saturday, June 13th, we’re taking the the music to the Hudson River waterfront in Hastings, for a concert by vocalist Bethany Yarrow and Rufus Cappadoccia, among others. (click here for more info)

Common Ground featured on Bumpershine

Dave Caplan runs a great music and pop culture blog out of his Brooklyn home called Bumpershine. I highly recommend you check it out for the best of what’s happening in town. And I’m not just a Bumpershine fan because Dave ran this nice piece on Common Ground either.

Great Lake Swimmers in Paste Magazine

Check this out…our season opening artists, Great Lake Swimmers, have gotten a nice feature in Paste Magazine. Click here to read all about it

Falcon Ridge 2008 Tornado Fund

As many of you know, for the past five years at Common Ground, one of the annual highlights of our musical calendar has been a visit from the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Preview Tour. The Preview Tour is a roughly three-week tour of the Northeast by the 3 or 4 artists who performed in the previous year’s “Emerging Artist Showcase” at the previous year’s festival who were selected by the audience as “Most Wanted to Return”. Since Common Ground has been a stop on the Preview Tour, our audiences have been lucky enough to hear many amazing artists, including among many others, Alastair Moock, Jeffrey Faucault, Meg Hutchinson, Joe Crookston, Terence Martin, Red Molly, Pat Wictor, Ellis, Jason Spooner, Anthony da Costa, Chris Pureka, Randall Williams, Lindsay Mac, and so many more.

And then there’s the festival itself, at beautiful Dodds Farm in Hillsdale NY. In addition to regulars like Dar Williams, John Gorka, Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, Nerissa and Katryna Nields, The Kennedys, and others, regular Falcon Ridge attendees have also seen the likes of Ani DiFranco, Arlo Guthrie, Richard Shindell, Lucy Kaplansky, Greg Brown, and others amazing artists.

But Falcon Ridge is more than great music. And it’s more than one of the best run, best planned music festivals in the world — it’s also a very special community. This year, when I woke up knowing I would be hopping in the car to head up the the Festival, I said to my wife, “Right now I feel like I used to feel when I was a little kid waking up on Christmas morning.”

As you may know, on Sunday July 27th, the final day of this year’s festival, a small but fierce tornado swept through the festival grounds, forcing the cancellation of the afternoon’s music, causing both physical and economic damage. Most important, no one was hurt, but the storm has put the future of the festival in doubt.

Common Ground is incredibly grateful to Anne Saunders and everyone at Falcon Ridge for all they have done for us, and for the growing community of Falcon Ridge fans. We therefore wish to encourage all those who wish to to contribute to the Falcon Ridge 2008 Tornado Fund. You can mail in donations by check made to “Falcon Ridge Folk Festival” and mailed to:

Falcon Ridge Folk Festival
POB 144
Sharon, CT 06069

Donations made through PayPal are also accepted. To make a donation in this way, simply click the Falcon Ridge link button below and then select the “Donate” button on the Falcon Ridge website. If you have a PayPal account, the e-mail address to use for donations is donate@FalconRidgeFolk.com.”

Thanks.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
It’s 1:06 am on Sunday June 15th. Earlier tonight, half an hour before the finale concert of our sixth season at Common Ground was set to begin, Interstate 287, one of the main east-west highway routes across Westchester County was flooded under FOUR FEET OF WATER. Four feet of water on the highway! Meanwhile, Jackson Avenue, the main local road — actually the ONLY local road that takes you to our little venue — was completely closed heading eastward.

Guy Davis at Common Ground, 6/14/08

And you know what? We had a nearly full house. We had a room full of people, ranging from toddler-age to seniors, show up on a night that was one of the rainiest, nastiest nights in memory. And Guy Davis, the magnificent, warm, generous, bluesman Guy Davis, played a SPECTACULAR, joyous, life-affirming, powerful, show. Click here to visit our photo and video archive for more pictures and a video clip from the show.

The night before, the Hastings Jazz Collective, a superstar band of internationally accomplished jazz artists, four of whom live right here in the Westchester Rivertowns, played a magical, collaborative show for an equally appreciative, and much dryer, audience.

And so Season 6 at Common Ground comes to an end. We’ve raised several thousand more dollars for charitable and social justice causes, we’ve supported some incredible artists, and we’ve raised the spirits of some happy audience members. There are too many people – whether volunteers, musicians, (or in the case of our Improv Night last January, comics) to thank by name. If you read this, you know who you are, and thank you.

Most of all though, I thank our supportive, passionate, engaged, curious, and GROWING audience. We live in a time that puts a lot of demands on each of us, for our time, for our money, for our attention. And while we live on the outskirts of the greatest entertainment city in the world, sometimes it can be all we can do to make it to the weekend and just cocoon with our families and closest circle of friends. So to those of you who have chosen to spend some of your precious time with us at Common Ground, I thank each and every one of you. I really and truly do. Life is a beautiful, precious thing. Thanks for sharing some of yours with us.

And Father’s Day! Have a great summer and be sure to go hear some local music. We’ll see you in September.

P.S. Have we got a ‘08-09 lineup in store for you . . . check it out below.

Much love,

Carter Smith, Producer
Common Ground Coffeehouse
commongroundfusw@aol.com

On the horizon! Take a look at the exciting shows we have coming up in our ‘08-’09 Season

September 27, 2008: Great Lake Swimmers

“Ambient Zen Americana” – Mojo Magazine

October 25, 2008: Sweet Plantain

“Blending jazz, Latin and classical styles, this virtuoso quartet brings a freshness and inventiveness to every note they play.” – Stuart Malina, 2007 Tony Award winning conductor

November 22, 2008: Chris Smither in Concert

“Chris Smither delivers one of the most riveting live shows you’re ever likely to see.” – Rolling Stone

December 27, 2008: Rock and Run Benefit Concert for Midnight Run, with Kimya Dawson, Griffin and the True Believers, Dave End, Anthony da Costa and more.

January 24, 2009: TBA

February 28, 2009: Sloan Wainwright, with special guest Sam McTavey

March 28, 2009: The Grateful Dead Revival Show

April 25, 2009: The Woes

“Down ‘n funky with enough grit to choke a dust-trail mule . . . [bandleader] Osei Essed rumblingly warbles through scratchy pipes to conjure a soul caught halfway ‘twixt Leon Redbone, Tom Waits [and] David Johansson.” - Acoustic Music.com

May, 2009: Date and Artists TBA

June 6, 2009: First U Rock & Soul Revue

MORE DETAILS, AND ADVANCE SALES ON EACH OF THESE CONCERTS COMING SOON! In the meantime, check out these great sources of info on what’s happening on the local music and arts scenes:

HASTINGS JAZZ COLLECTIVE TO OPEN RIVERTOWNS JAZZ AND BLUES FESTIVAL ON JUNE 13TH

With the phenomenal blues guitarist Guy Davis already set to play at Common Ground on Saturday, June 14th, the weekend of June 14-15th is already an exciting one for us. But it just got better. The newly formed Hastings Jazz Collective, featuring Jay Azzolina on guitar, Tim Armacost on tenor sax, David Janeway on piano, Ugonna Okegwo on bass, and Tony Jefferson on drums, will make their premiere performance at Common Ground the night before. With the Jazz Collective performing Friday night and Guy Davis Saturday night, we’ve got bookend performances at Common Ground for the first-ever Hastings Jazz and Blues Heritage Festival. Details are still being developed, but through a collaboration with Sandra de Novellis of Evolve Marketing, the weekend will also include a a free program with noted jazz flutist Jan Leder on Saturday and a free multimedia forum on American jazz and blues musicians and social change in the 20th century, both to be held at the Hastings Public Library. We’ll be posting the full schedule of events in the coming weeks. Advance tickets for the Hastings Jazz Collective concert will be available though this website shortly.

COMMON GROUND APPEARS ON HUDSON VALLEY MUSIC CHANNEL

We’re thrilled to be able to present the entire first set of this incredible group’s performance at Common Ground, thanks to Simon Feldman of Hudson Valley Music Channel (HVMC.TV). Simon is creating a really invaluable record of the best live performances in the Hudson Valley. Deep gratitude, Simon from all of us at Common Ground. Look for Part 2, coming soon, as well as some photos. Click here to view the first half of Luminescent Orchestrii’s Concert. Enjoy!

APRIL, MAY AND JUNE CONCERTS TO BENEFIT AFYA FOUNDATION

One of the guiding philosophies behind Common Ground Coffeehouse is that each of us has the power to make positive change every day in the actions we take and the choices we make. In our small way, we at Common Ground try to provide an intimate neighborhood setting in which to hear world-class live music, often for less than the cost a movie, popcorn and soda at the local megaplex. And since we give all our profits away through our Common Ground Microcredit Fund, that means that when you attend a Common Ground concert, you’re also helping bring clothes to homeless men and women in New York, or helping rebuild a home in Louisiana, or assisting a small business person in Africa or Latin America grow a sustainable business. And we’re succeeding: with our December concert alone, we raised and additional $1,000 for Midnight Run, the Dobbs Ferry organization that delivers food, clothing and human connection to our homeless brothers and sisters.

That idea that one person’s action can lead to ripples of change in other people’s lives is why we’re so proud to be partnering with Afya Foundation of America for our March, April, May, and June concerts. A recent trip to Tanzania, paired with her experience in the health care field, convinced Danielle Butin of Hastings-on-Hudson that there had to be a way to slow the stream of medical waste while also getting much needed supplies to clinics in Africa and the Caribbean. Out of this belief, Afya Foundation was born. Afya, (which means “health” in Swahili) connects the local with the global by to procuring and sending supplies necessary to support medical and surgical initiatives in Africa. In order to accomplish this mission, supplies are donated and gathered from hospitals, surgical centers and corporations. The goal is to serve as a donation-based clearinghouse of vital supplies that are made available to the international health community. Click here to read a recent New York Times profile on the incredible work Afya is doing. And then join us on March 29th, April 26th, May 17th or June 14th (or all of them!), to help us support this extraordinary new organization. Profits from each of these concerts will be donated to Afya at the end of our season in June. For more info on Common Ground and to see who’s coming in the next new months, click on one of the links at the top of the page.