Alon Nechushtan’s latest project, Moving Voices, is coming to the U.S. through the month of November! The New York based jazz pianist will be joined by his international quartet, comprised of François and Louis Moutin, two brothers from France, and Lisbon-born vocalist Sara Serpa. Moving Voices, which consists of original compositions from Nechushtan, is aimed to amplify immigrant voices and other inspirational stories centered around ordinary people who make extraordinary voyages, moving to and from new homes. Juxtapositions between perspectives present the promise of hope and idealization of journeys to the US with the terror-inspiring survival stories of the French migrant camp known as “the Jungle” to serve as the impetus in this movingly ambitious project. The compositions utilize excerpts from Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz, African poet Lenrie Peters, Italian Jewish Primo Levi’s emotional poem ‘Voices’, and Ethiopian-born writer Alemayehu Gebrehiwot, to tell stories about emigrating, migrating, immigrating, seeking asylum, shelter, political refuge and a bit of love and compassion. For more info about the project, visit: https://www.movingvoicesnyc.com. The U.S. tour of Moving Voices was made possible through FACE America/French Cultural grant for touring and the Brooklyn Music School, whose executive director, Brian Adamczyk, is a co-producer of this project. Following the U.S. tour, the ensemble will make its way to Paris in mid-November. For more info about FACE grants, visit: https://face-foundation.org/artistic-funds/jazz-new-music/current-grantees/. Tour Schedule Thursday, November 9, 2023 at 10pm Saturday, November 11, 2023 at 10pm Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 5pm Monday, November 13, 2023 at 7pm Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 9pm About the Artists Three years later, as a member of the legendary Martial Solal’s Trio, François was recognized as one of the finest young bass players in Europe. At 29, he began co-leading the Quintet Moutin with his twin brother Louis, a top echelon Jazz drummer. This project has evolved into the Moutin Reunion Quartet. With this band, the brothers have toured extensively around Europe and the United States, working with the greatest musicians of this age: Martial Solal, Michel Portal, Antoine Herve, Daniel Humair, André Ceccarelli, Eric Lelann, Jean-Michel Pilc, Christian Escoude. He has also performed with Peter Erskine, Randy Brecker, Niels Lan Doky, Mino Cinelu, Dave Liebman, John Abercrombie, Toots Thielemans, Didier Lockwood, Larry Schneider, Aldo Romano, James Moody, Terry Lyne Carrington, Richard Galliano, Bernard Lubat, Aaron Scott, George Brown, Sunny Murray, Michel Legrand, Archie Shepp, Claude Nougaro, Trilok Gurtu, Bob Berg, Birelli Lagrene, Wladimir Kosma, Marius Constant, Markus Stockhausen, L’ensemble Inter Contemporain. François has performed in every important European Jazz Festival, and he has toured in over 30 countries around the world. In November 1997, François moved his base to New York where he has found steady work in live performance and studio sessions with the premier artists on the New York Jazz Scene. A partial list of their names reads like the yellow pages of Jazz: Franck Wess, Jimmy Heath, Monty Alexander, Benny Powell, Don Alias, Mike Stern, Lew Soloff, Steve Kuhn, Joe Locke, Billy Hart, Jeff Tain Watts, Victor Lewis, Billy Drummond, Richie Beirach, Dave Liebman, Oliver Lake, Harry Belafonte, Odean Pope, James Hurt, Ari Hoenig, Jean-Michel Pilc, Rick Margitza, Franck Kimbrough, Joel Frahm, Greg Tardy, Gene Jackson, Dave Binney, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer, Adam Rogers, David Gilmore, Ben Monder, John Hart, Billy Drews, Jamie Haddad, Steve Hass, and Bob James. He is a familiar presence on the stages of such establishments as Sweet Rhythm, Jazz Standard, Birdland, Village Vanguard, Blue Note, Knitting Factory, Zinc Bar, Jazz Gallery, Tonic, Smoke, Lincoln Center, Town Hall, New York Symphony Space, Museum of Modern Art. François has also appeared in some major Jazz Festivals around the country like Newport JVC Jazz Festival, Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival in New York, Freihoffer Jazz Festival in Saratoga Spring, Detroit Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, San Francisco Jazz Series, or Kansas City Jazz Festival. https://moutin.com/ Born in Paris on Christmas Eve 1961, Louis Moutin developed an early passion for music, particularly jazz, in which he became immersed thanks to the family’s record collection. When he was seven years old, Louis began teaching himself to play piano. At age 20, he chose to become a jazz drummer. At 24, after completing training as an engineer at the prestigious Ecole Centrale de Lyon and receiving a Masters Degree in Mathematics, Louis decided to abandon a career in technology and to pursue his musical interests. Within three years, he was a member of the very successful Machado Trio, and was already regarded as one of the best European Jazz drummers, performing frequently in the international Jazz Festival network. At 29, Louis teamed with his twin brother François, a highly regarded upright bass player, to form their first group. This collaboration by the Moutin brothers drew praise from Jazz audiences and music professionals alike. In 1998, the Moutin brothers have created the Moutin Reunion Quartet. This quartet has released 5 albums and performed more than 450 concerts. In 2013 they come with a new band, the Moutin Factory Quintet, that gives its first concert at Jazz in Marciac and release a new album “Lucky People”. Meanwhile Louis has pursued a steady career as sideman with such renowned artists as: Martial Solal, Jean Michel Pilc, Michel Legrand, Antoine Herve, Tigran Hamasyan, Michel Portal, Giovanni Mirabassi, François Jeanneau, Manuel Rocheman, Christian Escoude, Albert Mangelsdorff, Andy Emler, N’guyen Le, Eric Lelann, Laurent Dehors, Simon-Spang-Hanssen. A native from Lisboa, Portuguese Sara Serpa is a singer, composer, improviser, who through her practice and performance, explores the use of the voice as an instrument. Serpa has been working in the field of jazz, improvised and experimental music, since moving to New York in 2008. Literature, film, visual arts, nature and history inspire Serpa in the creative process and development of her music. Described by the New York Times as “a singer of silvery poise and cosmopolitan outlook,” and by the JazzTimes magazine as “a master of wordless landscapes,” Serpa started her recording and performing career with jazz luminaries such as Grammy-nominated pianist, Danilo Perez, Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow pianist, Ran Blake, and Greg Osby. Serpa was voted 2020 NPR Jazz Vocalist, Rising Star-Female Vocalist 2019 by the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll, and teaches at The New School and New Jersey City University. Currently Serpa is Artist-In-Residence at Park Avenue Armory, in New York and a recipient of New York City Women’s Fund 2020, Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Grant 2019, New Music USA 2019 Grant, 2021 USArtists Grant from Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts, and 2021 Herb Alpert/Ragdale Prize in Composition. Serpa has been active in gender equity in music and is the co-founder (along with fellow musician Jen Shyu) of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³), an organization created to empower and elevate women and non-binary musicians. Serpa has collaborated with an extensive array of musicians including Ingrid Laubrock, Erik Friedlander, John Zorn, Nicole Mitchell, André Matos, Okkyung Lee, Guillermo Klein, Linda May Han Oh, Kris Davis, Okkyung Lee, Sofía Rei, Chris Tordini, Caroline Davis, Angelica Sanchez, Thomas Morgan, Dan Weiss, Jacob Sacks, Malika Zarra, Erica Lindsay, Matt Mitchell, Zeena Parkins, Mark Turner, David Virelles, Tyshawn Sorey, Leo Genovese, Ben Street, Adam Cruz, Demian Cabaud, Fabian Almazan, Aya Nishina, Ashley Fure, Andreia Pinto Correia, Derek Bermel, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., among many others. She has performed her own music in Europe, Australia, North and South America, singing at international festivals such as Bergamo Jazz Festival, Festa do Jazz, the Panama Jazz Festival, Festival de Jazz de Montevideo, Wangaratta Jazz Festival, Adelaide Festival, Sopot Jazz Festival or venues like Bimhuis, Casa da Música, Village Vanguard, Jazz Standard, The Stone, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, the Met Breuer, and the Kennedy Center for the Arts, among others. https://www.saraserpa.com/ About Alon Nechushtan About the Brooklyn Music SchoolEvent Calendar
Alon Nechushtan Quartet presents Moving Voices 2023 East Coast Tour – November 2023
November 8, 2023 - November 15, 2023
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 8pm
Brooklyn Music School, 126 St Felix St, Brooklyn, NY 11217
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/moving-voices-voix-emouvantes-new-york-city-premiere-tickets-705546808497?aff=oddtdtcreator
Lilypad Boston, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02139
https://www.lilypadinman.com/home/2023/11/9/alon-nechushtan-quartet-moving-voices-with-sara-serpa-and-moutin-brothers
Jersey City Theater Center, 165 Newark Avenue (enter from Barrow St), Jersey City, NJ 07302
https://wl.seetickets.us/event/Global-MusicAlonNechushtanQuartetUS-Portugal-Israel-France/568852?afflky=JerseyCityTheaterCenter
Charlottesville Jazz Society, 2027 Woodbrook Ct, Charlottesville, VA 22901
Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007
https://www.instantseats.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.artist&VenueID=3&artistid=25566
Baiser Salé, 58 Rue des Lombards, 75001 Paris, France
https://www.parisjazzclub.net/en/85128/concert/2023/11/15/alon-nechushtan-quartet-
François Moutin was born in Paris. At age 5, François began studying guitar, then piano by age 11. The acoustic bass became his most lasting passion as a teenager. Also studying mathematics and physics, François received a college degree in engineering and earned a doctorate in physics at the age of 24. Then he elected to become a professional musician.
On various occasions, he has also performed with : Danilo Perez, Lew Soloff, John Abercrombie, Joe Locke, Lee Konitz, Flavio Boltro, Larry Schneider, Toots Thielemans, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Didier Lockwood, Markus Stockhausen, l’Ensemble Inter Contemporain, and Johnny Griffin. https://moutin.com/
Described by DownBeat Magazine as “a talent to watch, with a surfeit of ideas, an unbridled spirit and bold, two-fisted sense of architecture,” composer and jazz pianist Alon Nechushtan’s musical adventures have brought him all over the world. Over the course of career, Nechushtan’s contemporary compositions have brought him to far corners such as the Yokohama Festival Japan, The Sao-Paolo Brazil Jewish Music Festival with his quintet, Talat, Toronto, Manila with his concerto for the Philippine Symphony Orchestra, and the Tel Aviv New Music Biennale. The Tel Aviv-born musician is a proud resident of New York City, and has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Central Park Summer Stage, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Blue Note Jazz Club and Joe’s Pub. All About Jazz Magazine has called him “a fantastic pianist-composer with abundant chemistry and boundless eclecticism.” He has released solo recordings on various leading recording labels, including Enja (Germany), MGN (Netherlands), Tzadik (USA), BuckyBall (USA), Creative Sources (Portugal), Between the Lines (Netherland), and Ayler (Sweden). www.musicalon.com
The Brooklyn Music School (BMS) is a community school for the performing arts, founded in 1909 as the Brooklyn Music School Settlement. As a part of the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District, BMS is a long- standing member of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. Today, BMS is committed to serving the community by providing high quality music and dance instruction without regard to income, age, previous experience or professional aspirations. Learn more at brooklynmusicschool.org.