MYRA MELFORD’S
FIRE & WATER QUINTET
Sat. March 30, 2024, 8PM
Tulane University, Dixon Recital Hall
Mary Halvorson Electric guitar
Ingrid Laubrock Tenor and soprano saxophones
Tomeka Reid Cello
Lesley Mok Drums
Myra Melford Piano, Melodica
Gifted pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator Myra Melford makes her New Orleans debut with her dynamic all-star, all-female ensemble, Fire and Water. It is hard to think of a quintet with more pure talent. Having performed for the first time at a Melford residence at The Stone, the group was given such an extraordinary reception that it was “obliged” to continue, eventually recording an album that catches the amazing sound of these five musicians on the RogueArt label. For The Love of Fire and Water is inspired by the American painter Cy Twombly’s drawings, Gaeta Set (for the Love of Fire & Water). The dynamic music uses provocation and cacophony aside quieter sounds and blank space. The resulting music aligns with Twombly’s organic, elemental ideas that he sought to portray in his artwork.
The New Quorum's presentation of Myra Melford's Fire & Water Quintet is supported through a Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz grant in collaboration with Epistrophy Arts and Nameless Sound
A component of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, Presenter Consortium for Jazz is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.
Former Residents LaTasha Bundy and Damon Locks
Wed, Feb 1 @ 730pm
A Meeting of Creative Minds— Multi-Hyphenate electronics mixmasters: New Orleans-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, and self-proclaimed “beep-boop maker” LaTasha Bundy and Damon Locks, Chicago-based visual artist, vocalist, composer, and musician who leads the Black Monument Ensemble – This pairing promises to remind you why live performance exists. If you can, from wherever you, try to listen without distraction.
In partnership with the 2023 Instigation Festival, Jan 30-Feb 3, 2023
The New Quorum proudly supports annual events including the Instigation Festival and Improv Conference New Orleans
PAST EVENTS
Instigation Festival in New Orleans
The now annual Instigation Festival features more than 20 Improvising Musicians and Dancers from New Orleans and Chicago
IMPROV conference New Orleans
November 3, 8-10, 2019
November 30-December 2, 2018
The New Quorum along with partners The Fertel Foundation, The New Orleans Jazz Museum, NOCCA and The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation presented IMPROV CONFERENCE NEW ORLEANS, a 3-day dynamic conference bringing together internationally known performers, artists and scholars in an exploration of improvisation across the arts – cuisine, music, literature, visual arts, politics and oral history.
Former speakers include Michael Pollan, Kristina Kay Robinson, Courtney Bryan, Shannon Powell, Mel Chin, Stephen Nachmanovitch, Davia Nelson, Gwen Thompkins, Alice Waters, among others
New Quorum Alum Lisa E. Harris
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Former resident Lisa E. Harris returns to New Orleans as part of her Sea Woods City Tour with the amazing Ben LaMar Gay and JayVe Montgomery
A Day Late and A Dollar Short
June 8 and 9, 2019
January 11 and 12, 2019
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!!!! After 2 sold-out shows in January 2019, we are back! Meet us at the cathouse for a night of raucous entertainment. MC Sweet Tea and The New Quorum present: “A Day Late and A Dollar Short,” an immersive and deconstructed musical set in a Storyville brothel. Written and Directed by MC Sweet Tea with Sarah Inman and the entire cast.
XAVIER CARDRICHE
SUNDAY, JUNE 10 @ 630pm
Singer/songwriter/guitar player Xavier Cardriche is a natural-born poet and storyteller. The coupling of his Alt-Country/Folk sound with visually detailed stories is accomplished with the spirit of early folk artists such as Donovan, Richie Havens, and Bill Withers. Come catch his soulful crooning and creative folk stylings at the close of his New Quorum residency. As alway, nourishing food served and cash bar.
James Brandon Lewis
AT THE SIDEBAR, 611 S White Street
JUNE 5 - James Brandon Lewis-sax; Jesse Morrow-bass; Simon Lott-drums; Jonathan Freilich-guitar
JUNE 6 - James Brandon Lewis-sax; Nathan Lambertson-bass; Hamid Drake-percussion/drums; Jonathan Freilich-guitar
AT THE NEW QUORUM, 2435 Esplanade Avenue
JUNE 7 @ 730pm - A Gathering of Improvisition with the James Brandon Lewis, Jeff Albert, Jonathan Freilich, and Guests with GALLOP Trio (Alex de Grassi, Hamid Drake, Don Paul)
Wadada Leo Smith
TEN FREEDOM SUMMERS performed by Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quartet and RedKoral String Quartet with video images by Jesse Gilbert on Loyola University on October 13, 2018
Thanks to a generous grant from Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the New Orleans performance represented Part 3 in a 3-part Southern Tour of this Pulitzer Prize nominated work. Part 2 in Houston on Oct. 13 and Part 2 in Austin, TX on Oct. 12. The performance of Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet, presented in collaboration with Epistrophy Arts, Nameless Sound and the New Quorum, was supported by Presenter Consortium for Jazz, a program of Chamber Music America funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Nikki Glaspie
Master Class
Nikki Glaspie is among the premier drummers in music today. As a founding member of The Nth Power she's blazing a path of light, and rolling waves of love in her wake. A student of J Dilla, James Brown, Led Zepplin, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gospel traditions and all points between, Nikki Glaspie has traveled the world as the drummer in superstar Beyoncé's all-woman backup band, and trotted the globe behind the likes of Maceo Parker, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Martin Luther, and more. We were honored to host her Master Class in March 2017
BONESHAKER
January 29, 2017
Music Workshop/Performance with Saxophonist Mars Williams, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love - BONESHAKER. Sit in on an informal workshop before heading over to Siberia for their 10pm show with Death Posture and DJ Weird Steve.
Williams, who has played with an impossibly broad range of musicians, from Hal Russell to the Psychedelic Furs joins two prolific powerhouse musicians - carrying among them a Grammy nomination and decades of experience with the top ensembles in the world
january 2016 EVENTS/SALONS
NQ Resident Wadada Leo Smith is generously conducting workshops with musicians followed by informal “performances” for the public. Visiting guest musicians change nightly.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 5 with NQ Resident, composer and Flutist Nicole Mitchell
THURSDAY, JANUARY 7 with NQ Resident, composer and Flutist Nicole Mitchell
MONDAY, JANUARY 11
TUESDAY, JANUARY 12
House Performances Open to the Public with Wadada Leo Smith and Special Guests
Time: 8pm Performance
Location: 2435 Esplanade Avenue
Cost: Admission is Free
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13
“Looking Back, Moving Forward: Music and Advancing Cultural Equity”
Panel followed by a performance by Wadada Leo Smith
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Location: Woldenberg Art Center, Freeman Auditorium
Tulane’s New Orleans Center for the Gulf South and The New Quourm present a panel on music as an agent in the continuing Civil Rights Movement and advancing cultural equity. The discussion is led by Gianna Chachere, Founder of The New Quorum with Wall Street Journal Jazz Critic and writer Larry Blumenfeld, avant-garde jazz pioneer Wadada Leo Smith, and long time Civil rights pioneer/activist Roxy Wright.
Cost: Admission is Free
SUNDAY JANUARY 17
Texas-based composer/performer Lisa E. Harris presents Children of the Lost (2015) an opera film about youth and displacement during a time of gentrification in Third Ward, Texas. Recognized by the Huffington Post as “One of Fourteen Artists that are Transforming Opera,” Ms. Harris will accompany the film with a live performance. This is the sequel to Harris's 2011 opera film, "Cry of The Third Eye."
http://lisaeharris.tumblr.com/
Time: 8pm
Location: 2435 Esplanade Avenue
Cost: Admission is Free
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20
Improvised Music by Mars Williams, Helen Gillet, Jeff Albert, and Dave Cappello
Helen Gillet was invited by Ken Vandermark to play at the 2015 OkkaFest Festival in Milwaukee, WI and played with saxophonist Mars Williams, trombonist Johannes Bauer, and percussionist Tim Daisy. It was such a successful combination that Mars and Helen decided to revisit that instrumental grouping here in New Orleans with trombonist Jeff Albert and percussionist Dave Cappello.
Time: 8pm
Location: 2435 Esplanade Avenue
Cost: $10 Donation
SUNDAY, JANUARY 24
NQ Resident Damon Locks presents Sounds Like Now, a sound piece originally presented in conjunction with the exhibition "MAKING NIGGERS: Demonizing and Distorting Blackness Through Racist Postcards and Images.” Sounds Like Now utilizes records, samples, instruments, and voice in order to hear the past in present tense.
Time: 8pm
Location: 2435 Esplanade Avenue
Cost: Admission is Free