Herb Eckert Auditorium in the Senior Center
South Brunswick Municipal Complex
540 Route 522, Monmouth Junction
Admission $6 at the door, (includes light refreshment)
Doors open 7:30pm, 732.329.4000 x7635 • arts@sbtnj.net
October 11 • Paul Plumeri BYOB
One part technician, one part poet and one part guitar craftsman, Plumeri has been playing his own style of blues in and around Trenton and eastern Pennsylvania clubs for more than three decades.
He’s been up and he’s been down, but like any good bluesman, Plumeri perseveres. He remains optimistic about the future, like any good bluesman. Plumeri, the third son of the well-known, longtime Trenton-area politician and civil servant Sam Plumeri, began playing guitar at age seven. “As a seventh grader, I found myself going into dark Philadelphia clubs opening for bands like The Cyrkle.” He recalls how thrilled he was to get up and play guitar alongside Hammond B-3 organist “Groove” Holmes as a young teen.
Plumeri got hooked on the blues about a year after he began playing guitar, when he discovered blues on the radio in Trenton. Longtime Trenton-area DJ George Bannister played a role in sparking Plumeri’s lifelong interest in blues and classic R&B.
Paul Plumeri
Through the early and mid-1970s, Plumeri founded and led a band called Hoochie Cooch and played in that band until 1976, when he joined keyboardist Duke Williams in his band, The Extremes. With Williams and the Extremes, he toured the East Coast and most of Canada from 1976 until the end of 1980.
The first incarnation of the Paul Plumeri Blues Band made its debut on a Sunday night in 1982 at a nightclub in Trenton, the night Plumeri’s son was born. With a new addition to his family, a mortgage to pay, and the need for health insurance, he decided to change gears. He worked as a housing inspector for the city of Trenton. He still played blues at night and on weekends, as he does today.
Plumeri has been associated with the blues in the Garden State and greater Philadelphia for more than three decades, and frankly, it’s an affiliation he’s not willing to let go of. “I wasn’t willing to leave my association of being a blues musician. I never became associated with some other trendy thing, I did not play top 40 music.”
November 1 • SHIKANTAZA takes pleasure in creating environments that quiet the mind and open the heart. The word shikantaza refers to a form of Japanese Zen Buddhist meditation. It translates literally as just sitting. Precise dynamic and rhythmic movements punctuate the group’s trademark flow; the music is saturated with meaning, melody, and haunting harmonies. The ensemble passionately explores the jazz canon, making familiar works uniquely their own, and offers original compositions developed improvisationally. Their eclectic repertoire also draws inspiration from folk, classical, gospel, rock, and even country western genres.
Browse audio, photos, and podcasts at http://www.shikantazamusic.
- Shikantaza
SHIKANTAZA is:
DOUG MILLER studied classical piano with F. Ming Chang, popular and jazz with Norman Schnell, gospel piano and organ with Lillette Jenkins-Weisner, and improvisation with Laurie Altman. Doug began Shikantaza and continues to be its creative leader.
BRANDON LEWIN aspires to use the drums with a soft palette in the Paul Motian/Jack DeJohnette approach. Mentors include his own musical family, the late Tony Denicola, beloved Trenton-based legend, Gerry Hemingway, the world-class composer now based in Switzerland.
BERNHARD GEIGER learned jazz from Johannes Schädlich and classical from Laura McCreery. Bernhard’s melodic and authoritative double bass lines have been heard in The Thilo Wagner Trio and Threebop (Germany), Swing Line (France), and the Eric Haltmeier Trio, Cranbury Jazz, Tom Hyland Trio, and Ponds Big Band (USA).
In high school, LORI PANTALEO sang with three choirs, in cabarets, and starred in “Anything Goes.” An alumna of Skidmore College, where she majored in Voice Performance, she has sung with various ensembles including the Princeton Singers, and is an active member of the Princeton United Methodist Church Choir. She also performs country western music with Bill Flemer’s Bare Root Band.
TANYA SAUNDERS studied piano and voice with Lily Dichupa-Alano, Ernie Scott, and the renowned Lillette Jenkins-Weisner. At fourteen, she won the Talented Teen of New Jersey competition, appearing at the Garden State Arts Center. She has performed in many community theater and summer stock productions, and in a European tour of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “West Side Story.” She is currently Director of Music for Ebenezer AME Church in Rahway.
A native of New Orleans, ROBERT BULLINGTON earned his Bachelor of Music from Loyola and a Masters of Music from Boston University. Robert toured with the Opera Company of Boston, and served in the Vienna-based United Nations Organizations. He is the owner of Front Row Seat Productions and host of Jazz Discoveries on WWFM.
No performance in December this year.
2014 performances will begin in February.
Herb Eckert Auditorium in the Senior Center
South Brunswick Municipal Complex
540 Route 522, Monmouth Junction
Admission $6 at the door, (includes light refreshment)
Doors open 7:30pm, 732.329.4000 x7635 • arts@sbtnj.net
No performance in December this year.
2014 performances will begin in February.