Concert Follows Paxton’s Signing to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and Brown’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert
Kupferberg Center for the Arts in Flushing, Queens will present An Evening of Roots Music with Jalopy Records in concert March 30, with newly-signed Smithsonian Folkways artist Jerron Paxton, “rising star” (NPR) Nora Brown, multi-instrumentalist and singer Jackson Lynch, and the powerful Ukranian Village Voices. All are favorites of the Brooklyn Folk Fest with releases on Jalopy Records, who have appeared in concert at the nonprofit Jalopy Theater in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
WHO: Jerron Paxton, Nora Brown, Jackson Lynch, and Ukranian Village Voices
WHAT: An Evening of Roots Music with Jalopy Records
WHERE: LeFrak Concert Hall at Queens College, 153-49 Reeves Ave., Flushing, NY
WHEN: Saturday, March 30, 2024, 8 PM
TICKETS: $25, via Ticketmaster or call (718) 793-8080
MORE INFO: https://kupferbergcenter.org/event/jalopy/
Paxton is a skilled interpreter of Black traditional music, having spent his life learning the multifaceted musical dialects of blues, old-time, ragtime, and Cajun music and playfully dressing them up in their brightest hues. He is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, banjo, piano, fiddle and other instruments with deep histories and ties to Black American music — each with a master’s touch. According to Will Friedwald in The Wall Street Journal, Paxton is “virtually the only music-maker of his generation — playing guitar, banjo, piano and violin, among other implements — to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and ’30s, the blues of Bessie Smith and Lonnie Johnson.”
Born in South Central Los Angeles into a family steeped in Southern music and culture, Paxton has been based in New York City for nearly his entire adult life. He has appeared on the covers of The Village Voice and Living Blues. The Bluegrass Situation captures Paxton’s holistic approach to his craft: “He is not merely a preservationist mining bygone decades for esoteric material or works that fit a certain aesthetic or brand. He simply takes music that is significant to his identity, his culture, and his experience and showcases it for a broader audience.” Paxton’s edition on the Jalopy Records 7-inch series, featuring “Alabama Bound” (best known by Lead Belly), and three other songs.
Nora Brown—Brooklyn, NY’s eighteen-year-old banjoist/vocalist who has appeared at Brooklyn Folk Festival, Newport Folk Festival, The Kennedy Center, Trans-Pecos Festival, globalFEST, and more—performed an NPR Tiny Desk Concert with fiddle player Stephanie Coleman that ran in October.
Nora plays traditional music with a focus on Southern Appalachian banjo and guitar playing. Along with mentors in the northeast like the late John Cohen she also has traveled and learned directly from master musicians including Alice Gerrard, George Gibson and the late Lee Sexton and Art Rosenbaum.
Brown also appeared on Amanpour & Company last month (PBS / CNN) and has confirmed a set at the Cambridge Folk Festival (UK). She has performed at Roskilde Fest in Denmark and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and has toured Japan. In addition to the ‘Lady of the Lake’ EP with Coleman, Brown’s Jalopy Records releases include 2021’s ‘Sidetrack My Engine,’ 2022’s ‘Long Time To Be Gone,’ and her debut album ‘Cinnamon Tree,’ among others.
Ukrainian Village Voices sing in the polyphonic village style. Its repertoire is constantly evolving, frequently focusing on seasonal celebrations, ritual songs, as well as lyrical songs. The group often sings songs recorded by ethnomusicologists from the oldest dwellers of villages in Ukraine. As of 2018, these songs include those group members heard ourselves while on expeditions to various villages in the following oblasts in Ukraine: Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk. The album ‘Ukrainian Village Voices’ came out in 2018 on Jalopy Records.
Recognized as one of the NYC folk scene’s best singers, Jackson Lynch performs regularly at the Brooklyn Folk Festival as well as appearing at the Brooklyn Americana Festival, Oldtone Roots Music Festival and at City Winery. As a former New Orleanian, Lynch plays solo, with his rhythm and blues band The Janks and with his string band The Down Hill Strugglers, hailed by Amanda Petrusich in the New Yorker as, “the very best interpreters of traditional material presently going.” Lynch has performed a video session for Paste Magazine.
Born in Ireland, Jackson Lynch moved to New York City’s East Village at a young age. His grandfather was a traditional Irish fiddler and farmer in County Mayo and his father is also a guitarist. He now lives in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Lynch’s debut album ‘All By My Ownsome’ came out on Jalopy Records in 2021. It was recorded live to tape at Jalopy Theater. Of the album, Vintage Guitar Magazine said, “Jackson Lynch is a traditionalist in the best sense of the term. He doesn’t treat old material like museum pieces, but, in places, his interpretations are so convincing they sound like a 78 record without the surface noise.”
About Jalopy Records
“Tradition & Creation”
• New and Archival
• Studio and field recordings
Jalopy Records is the record label of the Jalopy Theatre & School of Music, located in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY.
Ancient tradition fosters artistic creation: Folk music is simultaneously historic, timeless, and modern – evolving and responding to the changing world. Jalopy Records is an outlet for the best contemporary artists in the fields of folk, traditional and vernacular music to record, reinterpret and advance their music. We also offer high quality reissue recordings; historic, archival treasures, deep cuts, and more.
Jalopy Records is a part of the non-profit Jalopy Theatre & School of Music, which holds as its central mission to support artists and educate the public by preserving, promoting and perpetuating diverse musical traditions.
https://www.jalopyrecords.org/
About Kupferberg Center for the Arts (KCA)
The mission of KCA is to provide high quality accessible and affordable cultural attractions to the Queens College community and the borough’s 2.4 million residents. The largest indoor year-round multi-disciplinary arts entity in the borough, KCA features world class artists and performances at its main stage campus venues and showcases the talents of emerging and regional artists in off-site, neighborhood settings. A leader in the cultural landscape of Queens, KCA connects residents of the most ethnically diverse region of the nation to their unique cultural heritages, showcasing these arts to a broader audience and highlighting the contributions each makes to the distinct nature of our campus and community. Learn more at https://kupferbergcenter.org
