Pausa Art House is celebrating its one year anniversary, and in true Pausa fashion, owner/musician/director Jon Nelson is preparing to unleash the sounds of a mind-blowing mix of artists.
To catch a show at Pausa is to connect with live music on an intimate level seldom experienced between the acts and the crowd. For the crowd, sitting a few feet from the performers, in a café setting, means that there is an intimacy with the musicians unlike anything that they have ever seen or heard, especially when they come face to face with the types of eclectic musicians that Pausa attracts. For the musicians, it’s a chance to connect with the audience in a way that moves the soul – to be able to read the expressions on the faces of the guests and feed off the emotional energy is nothing short of exhilarating.
It’s been a moving and magical year for Pausa. In order to pay tribute to the successes within that time, the art house is preparing to celebrate with a four-day mini-festival of jazz. Featuring musicians from Buffalo to Brooklyn, jazz-lovers and art house fans will be treated to sessions of traditional and experimental music, presented in a way that only Pausa can deliver. The festival is also the official kick-off of Pausa’s second year of being in the business of showcasing the incredible talents of our music and arts community.
PAUSA Art House announces “One Year Open” events for February 27 – March 2, 2014.
Thursday, February 27 Star People – The Miles Davis Project
Exclusive to Pausa, Star People will debut with music from Miles Davis’ albums A Kind of Blue and Milestones. This will be the first concert in a series of performances by the group at Pausa, which will present the music of Miles Davis as they were originally presented in their album form.
John Bacon Jr. – drums / curator
George Caldwell – piano
Bobby Millitello – alto saxophone
Tim Clarke – trumpet
Doug Stone – tenor sax
Danny Zieman – bass
This performance begins at 8pm (doors at 6). Admission is $10 / $7 (students)
Friday, February 28 Why Not? – Lead image
The newly formed “Pausa only” trio makes its second concert appearance, performing the music of Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman, and original compositions by ensemble members.
Kevin Doyle – piano
Mark Harris – bass
Dave Phillips – drums
This performance begins at 8pm (doors at 6). Admission is $7 / $5 (students)
Saturday, March 1 What Would Mingus Do?
After a brief hiatus, Kelly Bucheger’s tribe of jazz scholars returns to Pausa to perform new compositions by group members.
This performance begins at 8pm (doors at 6). Admission is $7 / $5 (students)
Sunday, March 2 Jonah Parzen-Johnson – saxophone
Austin Vaughn – drums
This matinee performance begins at 2pm (doors at 1). Admission is $7 / $5 (students).
Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY, Jonah Parzen-Johnson composes lofi music for solo saxophone and analog synthesizer. Jonah draws inspiration from the unadorned voices of Appalachian Music, Bill Callahan, and the incredible tradition of Chicago saxophonists who he experienced while growing up on Chicago’s South Side. He has meticulously constructed a world of warm memories remembered in a cold present, as he melds the evocative nature of folk music with the chilling power of experimentalism. In addition to relentlessly touring as a solo saxophonist, Jonah is a co-leader of the nationally touring afro-beat ensemble, Zongo Junction, a Buffalo favorite.
“A far-ranging solo performance” – The New York Times
“Parzen-Johnson’s plainspoken compositional vision impresses as much as his formidable command of circular breathing and other outre techniques.” – TimeOut NY
“His unaccompanied playing captures the sentiment of an old Polaroid, long-ago happiness fading into the melancholy of memory.” – Philadelphia City Paper
“Parzen-Johnson doesn’t use extended techniques to accent the stories he tells; these techniques are the stories he tells – tone poems for baritone sax.” – The Chicago Examiner
Austin Vaughn holds a BA from Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied new-fangled, old-fashioned, and timeless genres with Billy Hart, Jamey Haddad, Michael Rosen, Paul Samuels, and Wendell Logan. He has appeared on stage with Jandek, Aaron Dilloway, Robert Turman, Kassa Overall, Rafiq Bhatia, Alexander Overington, Miguel Frasconi, Tristan Perich, and De’Sean Jones. Four-Track / Solo, his first cassette release under his own name is out now on Tau Records.
This will be the final weekend of Laurie Tanner’s “Unravelment”, a solo visual art exhibit.