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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260221T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260221T150000
DTSTAMP:20260423T082646
CREATED:20251201T044930Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260123T020332Z
UID:46559-1771682400-1771686000@shapeshifterplus.org
SUMMARY:Show Up\, Kids!
DESCRIPTION:Interactive comic storytelling kids show! \n  \nThe main attraction didn’t show up! So Bebe gets the kids (and their grownups) to help her create a comedic storytelling show on the spot. This outrageous\, critically acclaimed\, interactive comedy for kids 3–10 returns to Brooklyn following raves from NYC to Hollywood to the UK. \nBebe Tabickman \nPeter Michael Marino \nhttps://www.facebook.com/showupkids \nhttps://www.instagram.com/showupkids \nwww.showup-theshow.com \nWatchhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJqtYiZg_i4
URL:https://shapeshifterplus.org/event/show-up-kids-3/
LOCATION:ShapeShifter Lab\, 837 Union Street\, Ground Floor\, Brooklyn\, NY\, 11215\, United States
CATEGORIES:Comedy,Kids Concert,Live Music,Open Call Program
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260221T193000
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CREATED:20260214T102009Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260214T102033Z
UID:46827-1771702200-1771702200@shapeshifterplus.org
SUMMARY:Black Bliss Krishnananda
DESCRIPTION:Black Bliss Krishnananda brings together an extraordinary intergenerational group—Georgia Anne Muldrow\, Laraaji\, Surya Botofasina\, Isaiah Collier\, Brandon Ross\, Tcheser Holmes and Melvin Gibbs—to celebrate the profound engagement of Black Americans with the ecstatic spiritual traditions of South Asia. \nBassist\, producer and Brooklyn native Melvin Gibbs brings this group together in the midst of the violence and turmoil of our present political moment to “make music that creates space for people to reflect.” \n“This [impulse] was there in the origins of free jazz\, [in the Coltranes’ explorations of the] inner self/cosmos unity point” at another turbulent time in American history\, he says. “Unity and bliss are the themes—and Krishna means black.” (Ananda is bliss.) He further writes: \n“Foundational in Black American spirituality is the idea of communion with God in the form of the Holy Ghost as blissful embodiment. So too is the idea that to be one with God is to be liberated. These concepts find resonance in South Asian traditions of the nature of ultimate reality—of SatChitAnanada as the inherently Blissful Self. \nA shared goal of divine blissful liberation provides the basis for a tradition of Black American exploration of South Asian spirituality and thought. \nIn 1981\, Swami Muktananda visited the Church of the Master in Harlem\, solidifying the bond between that congregation and his ashram. On the West Coast\, this commonality was embodied from the mid 1970’s onwards by Swamini Turiyasangitanada\, known affectionately to her congregation as Swamini\, and well known to the music world by her birth name: Alice Coltrane. The music she created for satsang (worship) at her Sai Anantam Ashram melded the ecstatic music created by African Americans with South Asian devotional bhajan. At that same time\, musical seekers were traveling to the Ananda Ashram in the Catskill Mountains of New York State to explore and create commonalities of their own.” \nBlack Bliss Krishnananda is a contemporary manifestation of this impetus. The group contains two members of the Sai Anantam Ashram family: singer/producer Georgia Anne Muldrow\, who joined the community as a child through her mother and aunt and was given the name Jyoti by Alice Coltrane; and keyboardist and percussionist Surya Botofasina\, who grew up inside the music and became the ashram’s musical director. They are joined by Ananda Ashram veteran\, laugh-master\, and ambient music icon Laraaji Nadabrahmananda; spiritual jazz saxophonist Isaiah Collier; Harriet Tubman/Henry Threadgill/Cassandra Wilson guitar wizard Brandon Ross; Irreversible Entanglements drummer Tcheser Holmes; and the project’s initiator\, bassist Melvin Gibbs. \nOn the significance of continuing this spiritual and musical lineage\, Surya Botofasina has said: “I think it can make the world a better place. I think it can make people see the best part of themselves and offer the best part of themselves to others\, not just the people they know but to complete strangers\, to open our hearts to the generosity of our own limitless possibilities that our kindness can bring. To find a strength and humility. That’s why I feel the bhajans are so important to me.” \nEvoking and invoking the bliss within is a process. Sometimes you eat ice cream\, sometimes you clean your apartment. The group will manifest a musical version of that process in real time\, joining the spontaneous spirit of Mingus’ Jazz Workshop to the concept of Swamini’s full spiritual name—the non-dual blissful song. \nTuriya Sangitananda \nFourOneOne’s programs are made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. \nPhoto credits from top left: Erik Carter; Laraaji; Ariella Villefranche; Grace Oh; Christian Stewart; Tcheser Holmes; Enid Farber. \n  \nTICKETS HERE
URL:https://shapeshifterplus.org/event/black-bliss-krishnananda/
LOCATION:ShapeShifter Lab\, 837 Union Street\, Ground Floor\, Brooklyn\, NY\, 11215\, United States
CATEGORIES:Live Music
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260221T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260221T220000
DTSTAMP:20260423T082646
CREATED:20251219T011858Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260203T080600Z
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SUMMARY:أحمد [Ahmed] in Residence
DESCRIPTION:Organizer’s message:\nWe’re sorry to share disappointing news with the many fans of أحمد [Ahmed]: due to unexpected circumstances\, the band members are unable to travel to the U.S. this February. \nAll tickets purchased for these performances will be fully refunded. \nWe and the band are deeply grateful for the enthusiasm and support shown for these shows\, and we share in your disappointment. We hope you’ll join us for other upcoming programs in 2026\, and we look forward to welcoming you then.\n\n\nFourOneOne is proud to present the UK\, Sweden\, and France-based أحمد [Ahmed] for a three-day residency in New York\, at ShapeShifter\, on February 19\, 20\, and 21\, 2026. \nأحمد [Ahmed] is a jazz quartet conceptually grounded in the life of Ahmed Abdul-Malik\, the visionary 20th-century New York City bassist\, oudist\, composer\, educator and philosopher. While their approach does include playing compositions written by Abdul-Malik\, أحمد [Ahmed] is no repertory band. The group—pianist Pat Thomas and saxophonist Seymour Wright\, both from the UK\, Swedish double bassist Joel Grip and French drummer Antonin Gerbal—consider themselves improvisers first\, using Abdul-Malik’s thematic material as jumping off points for radical extrapolations. Together they explore\, in Wright’s words\, the “aggregate awkward wealth” of Ahmed’s traces\, including his recordings\, teachings\, writings\, ethics\, and practices of experimentation. \nAs evidenced by albums like Giant Beauty\, the 5-CD concert recording that won them WIRE album of the year in 2024\,  أحمد [Ahmed] is very much a live act. The intensity and physicality of their sets characterizes a sound that is completely their own. Their performances frequently feature the relentless\, high energy repetition of short phrases that change almost imperceptibly over time\, creating vast sonic matrices out of minimal musical material. There are traces of Roscoe Mitchell’s Nonaah here\, and influences of European “free improvisation\,” but also the intervallic invention of Monk (a 2-CD collection of Monk tunes is forthcoming)\, and the irrepressible dance of the calypso of Thomas’ and Abdul-Malik’s shared Caribbean roots. Each member of the band has their own relationship to their namesakes’ music. Wright and Thomas discussed Abdul-Malik for years before the founding of the group. Grip absorbed his bass playing “unconsciously” as a teenager via classic Monk quartet records. An impressionable young Gerbal marvelled at the rhythm section of Abdul-Malik and drummer Roy Haynes on those same albums. \nEmerging from the bebop era of the 1940s\, Ahmed Abdul-Malik developed a vital\, forward-looking body of music fusing Arabic\, East African\, and Caribbean music with then-current developments in American jazz. Despite his presence as a notable sideman on records by Thelonius Monk\, Art Blakey\, Randy Weston\, and John Coltrane\, and influence on subsequent generations of jazz artists’ engagement with traditions from around the globe\, Abdul-Malik’s visionary work remains underrecognized. Through their own improvisatory practices\, and inspired by him\, أحمد [Ahmed] inhabit\, question\, and evolve the transatlantic resonances between his time and place and theirs\, and bring forth a physical\, rooted\, ecstatic music. \nConsidering their FourOneOne residency’s place in أحمد [Ahmed]’s ongoing conversation with Abdul-Malik’s music and alternative histories of American jazz\, Wright writes: \nThe idea of a residency\, of playing night-after-night\, in the same space\, in the same city\, re-imagining resources\, re-visiting ideas\, with (potentially) the same\, returning\, regular\, or evolving audience is an important idea to [Ahmed]. It’s something we’ve been fortunate to do several times previously in London (four consecutive nights) and Stockholm (five consecutive nights)\, and Knoxville (two nights back-to-back). To do this in New York is special\, given that our group formed in 2014\, experimentally and in humility\, with excavating\, exploring\, imagining and re-imagining of Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s open\, radical musical ideas\, philosophy\, and work specifically in mind. A Brooklynite\, “the beginning of a wide vision was perhaps almost forced” on bassist\, oudist\, composer\, collaborator\, educator\, philosopher Abdul-Malik\, by his early environment. Born in Brooklyn\, N.Y. on Jan 30\, 1927\, he grew up on Atlantic Ave.\, where “there were 10 different nationalities just in the neighborhood. Your ears just had to open up.”  \nIn March 2025\, on the afternoon of our first visit to New York for a single Rouletteconcert\, we walked from the venue the length of Atlantic Avenue in search of the address we had read to be Abdul-Malik’s family home. The building where he grew up is no longer there—it’s now a car mechanic’s workshop. But the inclusive\, opening-up synthesis of ideas\, views\, cultures\, and approaches together in one shared environment feels important still. \n“If you could get out of economic problems\,” Ahmed Abdul-Malik told Bill Coss in a 1963 Down Beat interview\, “You could find the time\, the energy to create. You have to have some peace of mind to create. The lack of this has brought about a serious problem. As the environment has changed a great deal in the last 10 years\, many musicians have begun to believe that they will not be accepted if they venture. They are wrong to let that stop them\, but I can understand that because there really is no place for them to show development.” \n“Very few record companies will allow you the opportunity\, and no clubs are available where you can work and develop. Clubs used to allow you that – and time to build an audience. How can they expect jazz to develop if they only book established groups\, or only give experimenting musicians an occasional two-week booking?”¹  \nWell\, the ideas Abdul-Malik raises here feel important\, still\, also. Thoughts and problems of time\, resources and opportunities\, limiting and limited creative venture\, exploration and learning\, are all deeply relevant now. In 2025\, a three-night booking to explore\, improvise\, imagine and re-imagine\, in situ\, in Brooklyn\, feels like a remarkable and unique opportunity in which to work\, develop and share. It will be an opportunity and space for us to reflect on\, and look deeply into\, all of these ideas\, as we make something new\, with you. \n—Seymour Wright\, London\, 2025 \n¹The Philosophy of Ahmed Abdul-Malik\, Bill Coss\, Downbeat (Vol. 30\, No. 15) p14\, 1963. \nTravel support for this program was provided by the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation.
URL:https://shapeshifterplus.org/event/%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-ahmed-in-residence-3/
CATEGORIES:Live Music
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