The Benson Ridge Project, a relative newcomer in the Hoboken music scene, has organized a schedule of local talent to perform for the 2010 Hoboken Artist’s Studio Tour this coming weekend.
Joining the annual Studio Tour for the first time, Benson Ridge (aka Al Festa) has organized two jam-packed days of live performances and workshops featuring jazz, rock, blues, country folk, tango dance demonstrations and a visual art exhibition featuring the paintings of Santiago Cohen and Anthony Dinallo at Green Mountain Coffee, 302 Monroe St. in Hoboken.
All performances are free. Refreshments will be donated by their sponsors.
Performance schedule
On Saturday, Nov. 6 from 12 to 3 p.m. jazz saxophone master Oscar Feldman presents a showcase of performances by his students. From 3 to 3:30 p.m., Sandra Antognazzi Tango presents a free tango lesson. Until 5 p.m. you can observe an intermediate tango dance class in action.
On Sunday, Nov. 7, at 1 p.m., grassroots music will be performed by Benson Ridge, followed at 2:30 p.m. by The Locals. At 4 p.m. Zone, a musical quartet, plays creative original material and standards. At 5 p.m., Tango Performance, and at 5:30 p.m., The Benson Ridge Project
The players
Al Festa began the Benson Ridge Project in January 2010 to provide opportunities for musicians to “get out there and do what they love – perform in front of an appreciative and well fed, well behaved crowd.” The Project’s mission is to share good feelings with friends, give musicians a showcase to perform and to eat good Italian meatballs (from his grandma’s secret recipe).
According to Al, key words that define the Benson Ridge Project are inclusion, tolerance, instincts (listen) and innovation. Learn more at www.bensonridge.com.
Oscar Feldman created quite an uproar by the end of the ‘90s with his impressive recording debut as a leader, “El Angel.” Known for his splendid tonalities and melodically outstanding charts, the Argentinean native demonstrates his superb skills on alto, tenor and soprano saxes, while employing a wide range of Pan-American references, from straight ahead to tango to candombe to samba to mambo.
Sandra Antognazzi Tango was recently featured on the cover of Reporttango / The New York Tango Magazine and the German tango magazine Tangodanza. Jennifer Dunning from the New York Times highlighted her artistry by mentioning Sandra Antognazzi’s “strikingly quiet, powerful presence, which made each stretched calligraphic pose count…”
The Locals recorded a terrific little record in the ‘80s that lives on today as a cult hit in Japan. Lou Selmi, the drummer says, “We put this record out with the help of friends and never made another record, but we still have an album’s worth of studio stuff on half inch master tape.”
Zone is a musical quartet including multi-instrumentalist Michael Moss on tenor sax, flute, soprano sax, and bass clarinet; Mel Nusbaum on keyboard; Lou Selmi on drums; and Robert Edwards on bass. Playing creative original material and standards, and featuring intense improvisations, hypnotic rhythms, free jazz, blues, and imaginative sound vibrations, ZONE is ready to take listeners on a journey into their own inner and outer sonic realms.
Santiago Cohen started his career as a designer when he studied Communication Design in Mexico. He continued his education at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where he earned his MA. He has made many illustrations for major newspapers and magazines like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Boston Globe, and Washington Post. His latest work is an epic autobiographic series of paintings, which are posted at Ex-Vida project: http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=2410
Anthony Dinallo attended Fordham University where he studied psychology and art. Through his studies, Dinallo was exposed to Surrealism, which would later become a strong influence in his work. His current work is defined by his growing interest in the changing American political consciousness. Dinallo resides in Hoboken and exhibits at Paula at Rigoletto in Weehawken.
For more information, Contact: Al Festa at (201) 798-1919 or at afesta@msn.com.