Monday, December 27, 2010

Aoife O'Donovan on Friday, January 7


Singer Aoife O'Donovan will perform on Friday, January 7, at 7:30 PM, along with her acoustic trio- Jake Silver on bass, Ryan Scott on guitar and Robin McMillan on percussion. Aoife has been called the "voice of the new tradition" by Performer Magazine. Merging American, Irish, klezmer and jazz styles, Aoife's ethereal voice brings mature expression to traditional songs.

Aoife grew up in Newton, MA where she was surrounded by music from an early age. She spent all of her summers in Ireland immersed in the folk music tradition and studying Irish dance. In high school, Aoife became interested in the American folk tradition through artists such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, and began playing guitar and singing traditional songs. In 2003, Aoife graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music.

Aoife's main musical endeavor is her work with the alternative bluegrass band Crooked Still. In addition, Aoife has been member of the jazz-bluegrass super-group the Wayfaring Strangers and Sometymes Why, a Jenkins House Concert favorite. Aoife has also performed with Seamus Egan, Darol Anger, the Boston Pops and the Utah Symphony.

"Please go and see Aoife o Donovan, not only is she in possession of a rare and beautiful thing--her voice, but it is all underlined by her intelligent choice of song and her subtle and soulful singing style. Believe me you will be hooked." - Karan Casey

If you are in the NYC area, please email Sandilion49@gmail.com for more information.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Mike and Ruthy, Two in a Million

Mike and Ruthy, the folk-rock duo formerly of the Mammals, will appear at the Jenkins on Saturday, December 11 at 8:00 PM.

An Americana songwriting duo with a loyal and ever-growing following on the acoustic folk scene, Mike & Ruthy are writing, recording and touring clubs and festivals around the country. With a repertoire of old-timey, folk, and just plain love songs, their heartfelt vocal duets intertwine with lively fiddle, banjo and guitar.

Their most recent duo CD, Million to One, will be available for purchase at the concert.

For a reservation please contact Sandy at:Sandilion49@gmail.com. Concerts sell out quickly these days so please reserve your seats early. There is a voluntary $15 donation, all of which goes to the performer. And don't forget to bring something tasty for the food and byo drink buffet.
Directions for those of you in the NYC area and more information will be provided with your reservation.

All seats for this concert are now reserved as of 12/4/10. See you next time!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Hanneke Cassel, Mike Block & Christopher Lewis on Friday, November 12


Hanneke has performed at our house concert space many times, and each time we are impressed by her ability to capture the musical hearts and souls of her audience. We also welcome cellist, Mike Block and guitarist, Christopher Lewis. Together they will perform on Friday, Nov. 12th. The door will open at 7:00 and music will commence at 7:30. Please reserve a seat by contacting Sandy at Sandilion49@gmail.com

“One of the most talented and fun-loving young fiddlers you could ever hope to meet! This is fiddle music played with great stylistic integrity and personal flair – definitely a joy to listen to!“
- Alasdair Fraser

“Hanneke Cassel really knows what she wants musically, and on this record she lets us share in her vision of a beautiful world of the violin. Hanneke’s playing is always tremendously expressive, beautifully executed, with a wonderful sense of line and dynamics…”
-Matt Glaser

“She is already a rising star
in the Celtic skies…her musical ideas are savvy and sophisticated, but her throaty, gusting style is deeply banked in the Scottish and Cape Breton traditions.”
-Boston Globe

“…the rhapsodic quality of Cassel’s ballads or slow airs evinces a soul’s fully expressed quest …Cassel’s rhythms are tenacious, and they weave through a set of reels with serpentine grace.”
-Boston Herald

“…the sound of Cassel’s fiddle is mature, it also exudes spunk, which makes her music playful and dance-inducing.”
- Fiddler Magazine

“…[one of] the hottest young fiddlers in Boston…Cassel bases her robust, pulsing style on Scottish and Cape Breton strains.”
-Boston Globe

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Bruce Molsky, Saturday, October 16


Bruce Molsky is right around the corner. We have waited for years for Bruce to put a Jenkins' House Concert on his very busy tour schedule. He is one of the unique old-time musicians who is equally a scholar and consummate performer. Bruce performs his solo fiddle, banjo, guitar music all over the world. He is a cherished teacher at fiddle camps all over the country and taught all three of the Jenkins kids at the Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp.

Reserved seats are nearly sold out so please RSVP as soon as possible to Sandilion49@gmail.com and we will respond with the details. Some standing room is available for late reservations. This house concert is located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Linkhttp://www.brucemolsky.com/

Friday, August 20, 2010

Jazz Violinist, Christian Howes, Friday, September 17th

The Jenkins House Concert series is thrilled to announce that jazz violinist, Christian Howes, accepted our invitation to open our 8th season next month. Reid recently met Chris at the MOC-NYC String Camp where this concert opportunity fell into place. August 10th marked the release of Christian's latest album, “Out of the Blue” on Resonance Records featuring the legendary jazz and blues guitarist, Robben Ford. He has officially begun his ambitious tour of performances and clinics, including over 20 U.S. cities, assorted European dates, concluding with several engagements in Asia by the end of the fall. We welcome Chris to New York's Upper West Side.

Christian grew up in Columbus, Ohio and received a degree in Philosophy from the Ohio State University. After spending 8 years based here in New York City and touring the world, he recently returned to Columbus to reclaim his roots. As an educator, performer and composer, Christian Howes has gained great notoriety and respect from critics and players alike. Christian was a favorite of the late Les Paul, with whom he worked for 11 years. Says Christian of his mentor, ”Les defied categorization in terms of age or genre. His character, approach to life, and musicianship taught me many valuable lessons which I hope never to forget”. In recent years, Howes has become an in-demand violinist on the New York scene, performing and recording with a bevy of jazz artists, including alto saxophonist Greg Osby, pianist D.D. Jackson, guitarists Les Paul , Frank Vignola, and Joel Harrison, drummer Dafnis Prieto, vibraphonist Dave Samuels’s Caribbean Jazz Project, crossover pioneers Spyro Gyra, and a 4-yr chair in Bill Evans Soulgrass. On his recent cd, Heartfelt, the violinist collaborates with pianist-arranger Roger Kellaway, a legendary figure in his own right.

In August, 2009, Christian was ranked (for the third time) as the #2 violinist in the Downbeat Critics Poll “Rising Stars”. Says All About Jazz ,”as a jazz violinist he has no peer”. The Minneapolis Tribune called Christian ”arguably the most intriguing young violinist in jazz”. According to the Chicago Reader, “Not since Jean Luc Ponty has a violinist ranged from pure classical to fuzz-tone rock to convincing jazz with such authority”. An Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music, he is also the founder of the Creative Strings Workshop and Festival, which convenes during the first week of July every year at Otterbein College.

Chris will appear net Friday night with his trio: David Grossman, bass, Donald Vega, piano, and Jordan Perlson drums. For details and reservations please contact Sandy at; Sandilion49@gmail.com

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

VOCO and The Jenkins Family at Joe's Pub on July 29th


On Thursday, July 29th, VOCO and The Jenkins Family Band will join musical forces at Joe's Pub located at 425 Lafayette Street in Manhattan. (212) 539-8777 The Jenkinses will open with 30 minutes of some of their favorite tunes including some originals written by our daughter, Cassandra and our son Reid. The set will begin with the trio of Cass, Steph and Reid playing and singing some old-time songs and commence with Richard and Sandy coming to the stage to present some arrangements of some hum-along standards. Then, our friends in VOCO take to the stage to present their mostly a capella numbers with waves of body percussion and vocal harmonies sometimes supported by cello, banjo or accordion. Mark your calendars, call for reservations or get a ticket at the door. Admission is $15, and food is available.
Hope to see you there!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Last House Concert of the Season on June 12th

Welcoming for the first time musicians Eric Frey and Chas Justus and to welcome back Kristin Andreassen.

We have been trying to coax Eric and Chas’s band The Red Stick Ramblers, a smokin’ Cajun/Western-Swing quintet from Lafayette, La., into doing a house concert for years now, which is why we are so excited for Eric and Chas to finally share some of their original songs with us. You can read about Chas and Eric on The Red Stick Ramblers’ website: http://www.redstickramblers.com/
Kristin has been performing at our house ever since she first clogged on our floor at our very first concert six years ago. Since then she has graced our stage in groups such as old-time trio The Jolly Bankers, and female singer trio Sometymes Why. You can read more about Kristin and her numerous projects on her website:
http://www.yellowcarmusic.com/

For more information or a seat please rsvp:Sandilion49@gmail.com

Monday, April 19, 2010

Lisa Redfern and Randall Williams on May 15th



Lisa Redfern is an award winning singer-songwriter who recently moved back to Maine from the San Francisco Bay area. She was raised in Maine and first performed with her father, Bob, who taught her to play guitar at age 14. Bob was a folksinger who had his musical beginnings at the legendary Seeger family hootenannies in Washington, DC in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Throughout her high school and college years she honed her talents in a variety of settings such as musical theatre, forming her own folk trios as well as an Andrews Sisters tribute group.

With eight solo recordings to her credit so far (including, “Hushabye, Lullaby” which has sold more than 50,000 copies) she is a singer-songwriter who blends her roots in folk, bluegrass, country, gospel, blues, and swing to create something unmistakably her own. Lisa’s seven recordings have garnered positive critical review, extensive radio play and she has also made several TV appearances. She has added her clear, beautiful voice to dozens of other artists’ projects and song compilations and has performed with many notables including Pete Seeger, Dave Mallett and The Roches.

A versatile vocalist comfortable in many styles, Lisa is also an experienced wedding/church soloist and children’s concert performer. As a voice-over artist she can be heard speaking and singing on several toys for Fisher Price and Play Along Toys. For the past twenty summers Lisa has appeared at the much beloved Sweet Chariot Music Festival on Swan’s Island, Maine and she continues to perform and record. She now produces and performs in the local monthly songwriter series: Songwriters in the Round in Brunswick, Maine.

Two hours after informing his voice teacher that he was leaving the world of classical music, Randall Williams graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Mons, Belgium at the head of his class.
He felt that classical music lacked the inclusiveness of folk music, and that the inevitable division between performer and audience was unbearable. And so Randall returned to the world of traveling with his guitar, writing songs in train stations and sleeping on couches, then singing and playing on street corners, cafés, and pubs. For a time he lived aboard a 20' sailboat that he bought for $800, teaching himself how to sail by single-handing through the Baltic and North Seas with his guitar sleeping in the berth beside him at night. He wrote a book about the trip, which begins with the story of almost getting squashed by a tanker before dawn one morning in the North Sea. 

He moved to North Africa, then set off across the Sahara by hitching with locals - bouncing through a minefield on the way that made his mother have bad dreams. He loved the adventure, but he missed the music.



In 2005, Randall returned stateside to scrounge up a career as a performing songwriter, hoping it wasn't too late. So far, it hasn't been. As the "Partial Capo Guy," Randall has written two books for Hal Leonard, recorded a DVD for Kyser Musical Products, and given workshops at some of the biggest festivals in United States. As a performer, Randall has been a finalist in the Founder's Title and Mid-Atlantic Song Contests, A regional finalist at Kerrville, a showcase artist at Northeast and Midwest Folk Alliance, and at the International Folk Alliance in Memphis, and an Audience Favorite at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. His 2007 live release, "One Night in Louisiana" made a respectable dent in the folk DJ charts (One single, "Lebanon," was #8 in May,) and he's generally a nice guy to have around, capos or not.



Randall is as much at home in a Bangkok slum or a Senegalese village, at the Kennedy Center in D.C. or the Fine Arts Palace in Brussels sandwiched between a twitchy orchestra and a full house, or shoeless on the floor of your living room. Randall has sung in a dozen languages in over 35 countries.



Lynne Andrews: "When Randall left the confines of classical music largely behind, they lost a great talent, but the world gained a good friend - a friend who will tell its stories with grace, compassion, humility and humor."

Please contact Sandilion49@gmail.com and RSVP for directions and details about this May 15th concert.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Reid Jenkins' Senior Recital, April 25th

I'll be playing and singing music from many styles--Jazz, Classical & Americana Fiddle, featuring 5 original compositions (i.e. a four minute string quartet, three fiddle tunes, and a song), and a bunch of other stuff. I have a killing band and a killing string quartet, and my family members (all of whom are musicians) will be joining me on a few. It's also in the comfort of my home! Please RSVPASAP cause it's in my living room and it can fill up quickly. HOPE YOU CAN MAKE IT!

Sunday, April 25th
3:00 PM

Thanks,
Reid
RSVP: Sandilion49@gmail.com for directions and details

Sunday, March 7, 2010

The Evil City String Band to perform on Friday, March 19th

The Evil City String Band grew out of the vibrant old time music scene that is alive and well, in and around the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, more specifically, Ithaca and Trumansburg. Richie Stearns, singer-songwriter and banjo player, together with Steve Selin on fiddle, Paddy Burke on guitar, and our daughter, Stephanie Jenkins, on bass will perform on March 19th starting at 8:00. Please RSVP Sandilion49@gmail.com if you would like a seat and details will follow.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Rafe and Clelia Stefanini on Sat. February 27th

RAFE STEFANINI needs no introduction to old-time audiences and musicians. He was born in Italy, and has lived in the US since 1983. His love for Old Time music brought him here first as a visitor in the late 70s, then as a permanent resident. Since then he has established himself as one of the finest interpreters of fiddle music from the South. His dynamic and elegant fiddle and banjo playing was featured in some of the best bands to appear on the scene. Rafe is on the teaching staff at the Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp, where The Jenkins met him many summers ago.

CLELIA STEFANINI is following in her father’s footsteps with skills on the fiddle and guitar far exceeding her age of 17, with a style solidly grounded in the older tradition.

Together, the duo presents an entertaining show that includes rousing fiddle duets, old time ballads, songs and banjo tunes. Their new CD “ NEVER SEEN THE LIKE...” will be available at the house concert.

Directions and details will follow your reply to Sandilion49@gmail.com

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Sara Caswell Trio Returns Feb. 6th as a Quartet

Sara Caswell, jazz violinist, will return February 6th, 2010 with Ike Sturm, bass, Jesse Lewis, guitar and Jared Schonig, drums. Since Sara last performed in our living room two years ago, she has continued to live here in NYC, and has been performing in many jazz venues around the city as well as teaching both at the Manhattan School of Music and the Mark O'Connor string camps.

On July 4th, she was a featured soloist with The New York Pops on NBC-TV as part of the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, taped live on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. She performed “Sparks and Smoke: The Clermont,” the third movement from American River Suite, a new orchestral work by composer Stephen Flaherty commissioned in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s historic voyage. Sara's segment begins at 1:10.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJeHkjZDDlA&feature=PlayList&p=4512E198CB822BC8&index=2

Scattered in between these events have been performances and/or recording sessions with some of her favorite musicians, including guitarist Gene Bertoncini, bassist Ike Sturm, saxophonist Jon Gordon, and (of course) her sister Rachel. Speaking of which… Rachel and she have been hard at work on their new CD project with the amazing pianist Fred Hersch. After many hours of mixing and mastering the tracks, the CD will be released soon. Stay tuned!