(From left to right) The New York based Christine Correa Ensemble features: Sam Newsome, Christine Correa, Andrew Boudreau, Kim Case and Michael Sarin. SUBMITTED IMAGE
FARMINGTON—The UMF Emery Community Arts Center is excited to present a stellar jazz concert by the New York based quintet, Christine Correa Ensemble. “Just You Stand and Listen with Me: Songs of Protest and Resistance,” will be performed in the Emery Performance Space on the University of Maine at Farmington campus on March 7 at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
This exceptional musical event features vocalist Christine Correa along with her collaborators Sam Newsome, Michael Sarin, Kim Cass and Andrew Boudreau as they revisit and re-imagine rarely performed compositions by renowned percussionist Max Roach.
Roach (1924-2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer, and a pioneer of bebop. He worked with many famous jazz musicians and is considered one of the most important drummers in history. He would have been celebrating his centennial in 2024.
This music, with lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr, is drawn from Roach’s “Freedom Now Suite” and “Percussion Bitter Sweet” recordings of the 1960’s from a period in Roach’s career when he was deeply engaged in the struggle for civil rights and freedoms.
These pieces were created at a specific time in the nation’s history and the music was a reflection of a movement. The musical content and the texts/poems speak truths to the present realities of race relations and politics in America as much as they did in the 1960s.
It is for this reason that Correa has decided to resurrect these pieces and believes that it is highly relevant to recognize and celebrate this music specifically and Max Roach’s contribution to the American cultural landscape and society in general.
Christine Correa, director of the Maine Jazz Camp at UMF since 1994, is a native of Bombay, India. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. After relocating to the U.S. in 1979, she soon became involved in a variety of improvisational contexts. Correa has performed and recorded with artists such as Ran Blake, Steve Lacy and John LaPorta and has appeared at numerous festivals and clubs in the U.S., Europe, South America, Africa, the Middle East and India.
She has also been featured on projects by composers Frank Carlberg, Steve Grover, Sam Sadigursky, Nicholas Urie, Guillaume Orti and Laurent Coq. Correa is currently on the faculty at Columbia University’s Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, Teacher’s College at Columbia University and the New School in New York City.
The Emery Community Arts Center is an innovative, experimental venue for the arts in Western Maine. It is located on Academy St. (between Main St. and High St.) in downtown Farmington. For more information contact Ann Bartges, director of UMF Emery Community Arts Center at ann.bartges@maine.edu or 207-778-7461.
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