Northampton Jazz Festival to Present Civil Disobedience on April 12

NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Jazz Festival will co-present the New York-based quintet Civil Disobedience: Blue Note Records in the Progressive ’60s in a one-night-only concert at the Iron Horse on Sunday, April 12 at 7 p.m.

The Northampton Jazz Festival has expanded its live jazz offerings beyond its signature two-day festival in late September. It now co-presents visiting jazz artists in one-night-only concerts by partnering with area performance venues. In doing so, the Jazz Festival is able to bring more world-class jazz musicians to the region year-round.

Civil Disobedience, created by New York bassist David Ambrosio, is a project that has been carefully crafted to showcase the compositions of progressive jazz maestros from the late-’60s Blue Note Era, such as Bobby Hutcherson, Jackie McLean, Stanley Cowell, Harold Land, Joe Chambers, Duke Pearson, and James Spaulding. Aside from leader Ambrosio, members of the band include Donny McCaslin on tenor and soprano saxophones, Jason Palmer on trumpet, Bruce Barth on piano, and Rudy Royston on drums.

In a reflection of a past era marked by social upheaval and civil unrest, the compositions that form the core of Civil Disobedience’s playlist lay dormant for decades, unheard and unappreciated at the time of their creation. More than 50 years later, America is at a crossroads again, witnessing significant parallels in social movements reminiscent of that transformative era. It is against this backdrop that the once-overlooked music of the late-’60s Blue Note Era gains a newfound relevance.

“David Ambrosio is going to bring a band of some of the best musicians on the New York scene today — Donny McCaslin, Bruce Barth, Rudy Royston, and Jason Palmer — who will play their hearts out in sharing this music of protest and civil unrest on the Iron Horse stage,” said Ruth Griggs, president of the Northampton Jazz Festival. “Musicians are poets, and I’m grateful that these fine musicians are coming to Northampton to play this poetry of protest during such an unsettling time in our nation’s history.”

Ambrosio is bringing his band to Western Mass. on a mini-tour, which includes a teaching workshop at Amherst College on Sunday afternoon, April 12, and with Ambrosio as a sideman in a Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares concert in Holyoke on Saturday, April 11.

The April 12 concert at the Iron Horse will preview the first album produced by the group, titled Civil Disobedience, with a release date of May 16.