Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber
9/8 & 9/9/16
MOTR Pub, 1345 Main St, Cincinnati, OH
Free, 21+, 10pm
Founded by Village Voice icon Greg “Ionman” Tate and co-led with monster groove bassist Jared Michael Nickerson since 1999, New York City’s Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber is a territory band, a neo-tribal thang, a community hang, a society music guild aspiring to the condition of all that is molten, glacial, racial, spacial, oceanic, mythic, antiphonal and telepathic. Rolling Stone calls them “a multiracial jam army that freestyles with cool telekinesis between the lustrous menace of Miles Davis’ On The Corner, the slash-and-om of 1970s King Crimson, and Jimi Hendrix’ moonwalk across side three of Electric Ladyland.”
With an alumni that includes Matana Roberts, Vijay Iyer, Julia Kent, Graham Hayes, DJ Mutamassik, Okkyung Lee and Qasim Naqvi, Burnt Sugar’s prestigious personnel have released fourteen recordings on their labels Tru Groidd & Avant Groidd Musica defining the art of creating scripted-sounding improvisational acid-funk/rock & jazz with the use of Butch Morris’s Conduction System for Orchestral Improvisation in order to “keep it real, surreal, arboreal, aquatic, incendiary.” This very accomplished crew has playing credits that range from Melvin Van Peebles, TV On The Radio, Toshi Reagon, DJ Logic, Gary Lucas, Tamar Kali, Phish, William Parker, Liz Wright, The Holmes Brothers, Wadada Leo Smith, The The, David Murray, Billy Ocean and Living Colour’s Vernon Reid.
Gripping the sum of Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber demands one apprehend these factions: the two-part super-fly vocal frontline of Shelley Nicole & Mikel Banks; those ace riddim section companeras, The Buckeye Bass Mack Jared Michael Nickerson & Cave Girl Banger LaFrae Sci; Billy Ocean Tenor Sax Hooksmith V. Jeffery Smith & William Parker Trumpeter of Choice Lewis ‘Flip’ Barnes and Vernon Reid Keyboard Liberator, Leon Gruenbaum; along with conductor, guitarist and main songwriter Greg Tate they burst forth with a profusion of exotic trace elements–warped soul harmonies, freedom-swing horn play, maggot-brained guitar implosions and arkestral loopadelics in the dark.
For their second visit to Cincinnati the Arkestra Chamber is excited to feature, special guest Napoleon Maddox of the Queen City”s own IS WHAT?! Two sets of Sugar and Spice and everything Krunk!
