San Jose Jazz 2023 WINTER FEST

Northern California’s renowned non-profit arts institution San Jose Jazz announces its 2023 WINTER FEST, February 16 – March 3, co-curated by Am I Jazz? Festival, the leading-edge jazz programmer in Kyiv, Ukraine, presented in downtown San Jose, Calif.

SAN JOSE JAZZ WINTER FEST: COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE explores our interconnected pasts and interdependent future as we collectively share in the humanity and well-being of all people. For this initiative, COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE, San Jose Jazz and Olga Bekenshtein (Founder, Am I Jazz? Festival) celebrate the rich Ukrainian culture that the Russian war on Ukraine seeks to eliminate with an arts festival unlike any other ever presented before. To mark the devastating one-year milestone of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine (February 24, 2023), the co-curators program for the first-time a true cross-cultural collaboration between Ukraine-based artists performing alongside many of today’s lauded American jazz artists for a multi-media festival shining the light on the best of improvisational music, Ukrainian fine art, independent films, and dance. COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE exposes the intimate stories of Ukrainian artists fighting to keep their cultural identity intact for generations to come while the Russian war in Ukraine seeks to erase their past 300 years of existence.

Through the power of the arts, the more than two-week SJZ WINTER FEST unveils the incredible artistry of musicians currently living in war-time Ukraine including Borys Mohylevskyi (saxophonist), Dennis Adu (trumpeter), and Yakiv Tsvietinskyi (trumpeter), as well as Ukrainian artists Alina Sokulska (dancer), Igor Osypov (guitarist), Olesya Zdorovetska (vocalist), DJs Karine and Shakolin, and U.S.-based Vadim Neselovsky (pianist). The American artists performing include Jazzmeia Horn with the Marcus Shelby Orchestra, Ambrose Akinmusire & Rafiq Bhatia, Madison McFerrin, GEORGE Featuring a solo by Dancer Alina Sokulska, the SJZ High School All-Stars playing arrangements of John Hollenbeck, Kassa Overall, Orrin Evans, Marcus Shelby Orchestra, Mark Guiliana, Vân-Ánh Võ, and the SJZ Collective.

Commissioned projects set for premiere at COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE include feature artists Ambrose Akinmusire & Rafiq Bhatia, Vân-Ánh Võ & Olesya Zdorovetska, Igor Osypov, SJZ High School All-Stars playing arrangements of John Hollenbeck, and SJZ Collective & Yakiv Tsvietinskyi Play the Music of Roy Hargrove.

COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE:
Spotlighting Ukrainian Resilience and Cultural Identity with First-Time Collaborations
Featuring Ukrainian Improvisational Artists and American Jazz Musicians at SJZ Winter Fest 2023
+ Commissioned Original Works for COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE from Five Headlining Acts

Experience Ukrainian Culture at a Stateside Multidisciplinary Jazz Festival
Through the Power of Music, Art, Film, and Dance
From February 16 – March 3, 2023

Initial Artist Lineup:
Jazzmeia Horn with the Marcus Shelby Orchestra, Ambrose Akinmusire & Rafiq Bhatia, Madison McFerrin, GEORGE Featuring Dancer Alina Sokulska, SJZ High School All Stars Play John Hollenbeck, Kassa Overall, Orrin Evans, Marcus Shelby Orchestra, Vadim Neselovskyi: Odesa, Dennis Adu Quintet, Mark Guiliana, Vân-Ánh Võ & Olesya Zdorovetska, SJZ Collective & Yakiv Tsvietinskyi Play the Music of Roy Hargrove, Karine (DJ Set), Shakolin (DJ Set), and More!

Tickets On Sale Now
(Tickets: $10 adv./$15 door – $35 adv/$40 door)

SAN JOSE JAZZ WINTER FEST: COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE unites jazz presenters worldwide with its urgent and unique programming that brings together a collective of artists who all eloquently speak through pervasive works of art. SJZ WINTER FEST encompasses the South First Street arts district in downtown San Jose with venues SJZ Break Room, The Continental, Tabard Theatre, and Mama Kin Bar & Restaurant, as well as the venerable South Bay performance venue the Mayer Theatre at Santa Clara University. Patrons will have the opportunity to support Ukraine through a special general admission ticket to most shows that includes a $10 donation. All donations received through the festival will benefit Nova Ukraine (LINK), a singular nonprofit providing humanitarian aid directly to Ukraine. All events will also provide information on text donations.

Olga Bekenshtein (Founder, Am I Jazz? Festival), says, “WINTER FEST: COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE is a multidisciplinary festival focusing on the interdependency and love of cultures and experiences. Highlights of the program includes new works and brand-new collaborations including a dance performance by Alina Sokulska, “Magura”; classics of Ukrainian magic realism cinema from Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors; and Lesia Khomenko’s unbelievable, Unidentified Figures. Through all of these mediums, we display sacred practices of ancient culture, fragile instants, love, dreams, aspirations — pieces of our lives worth fighting for. Men in pixel uniform, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ensure our safety.”

SJZ Executive Director Brendan Rawson, comments, “I was fortunate to witness one of our Fest’s guest musicians, Dennis Adu, perform in Bulgaria this past Summer and the experience can only be described as a clarion call for the world to pay attention to the Putin regime’s effort to erase Ukrainian culture. I don’t believe the West fully understands how deeply-rooted this conflict is in an effort to deny the distinctiveness and agency of the Ukrainian people. The necessity to make this project happen was immediately apparent to all of the partners involved. We are very honored to be working with our Ukrainian colleagues and our local San Jose partnering arts organizations and supporters of COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE.”

Ulrich Beckerhoff, Artistic director Jazzahead! Bremen (D) & Professor Emeritus Folgwang University of the Arts Essen (D), adds, “Since 2006, I have been the artistic director of Jazzahead!, the world’s largest jazz fair and showcase festival in Bremen (Germany). For over two decades, I’ve witnessed the incredible artistry on the Ukrainian improvised music scene. I am firmly convinced that Ukrainian artists — many of whom will perform at San Jose Jazz Winter Fest 2023 — prove to the world their indomitable will for freedom of art, thought and action with their impressive artistic statements: with music, dance and video art. Let us all stand together worldwide against all enemies of democracy and show the world what people can do with their art to oppose destruction and murder.”

Dmytro Kushneruk, Consul General of Ukraine in San Francisco, notes, “It is essential for the American people to learn about and be exposed to Ukrainian culture so they can see beyond the news headlines about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We are a country that have many similarities to the United States. Music and art is one of the most effective ways for the West to understand who we are as a people. I very much support San Jose Jazz and Olga Bekenshtein for putting together such an impressive festival to help raise awareness for Ukraine.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF ARTISTS @ SAN JOSE JAZZ WINTER FEST: COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE
A winner of both the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition and the Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition, Jazzmeia Horn is one of the premiere vocal talents in modern jazz. Horn will perform big band arrangements from her debut big-band album, Dear Love, accompanied by the Marcus Shelby Orchestra at the Mayer Theatre (Santa Clara University) to open SJZ WINTER FEST on Thursday, February 16, 2023 (7:30pm). The New York Times praises, “Horn is among the most exciting young vocalists in jazz, with a proud traditionalism that keeps her tightly linked to the sound of classic figures like Nancy Wilson and Betty Carter, but a vivacity of spirit and conviction that places her firmly in the present.” Shelby is a renowned composer, bassist, bandleader, and educator who focuses on the history, present, and future of African American lives, social movements and music education. The Marcus Shelby Orchestra has released five albums – The Lights Suite, Port Chicago, Harriet Tubman, Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Transitions.

Dennis Adu is one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the Ukrainian improvised scene. Adu’s SJZ WINTER FEST performance with his quartet will be his first in front of an American audience, and features saxophonist Borys Mohylevskyi, as well as bassist and composer Marcus Shelby. Borys Mohylevskyi is a classically trained violinist who turned to sax due to a love of jazz music. He is a prominent representative of the Kyiv music scene.

Following its U.S. debut at Big Ears Festival 2022, renowned NYC drummer John Hollenbeck brings his project “GEORGE” to the Tabard Theatre at SJZ WINTER FEST on Friday, February 24. “GEORGE” includes Hollenbeck alongside Anna Webber (tenor sax/flute), Aurora Nealand (voice/sax/keyboards), and Chiquita Magic (keyboards/voice). Prior to the Russian war in Ukraine, Olga Bekenshtein approached Hollenbeck to develop big band arrangements of Ukrainian folk music in Kyiv. The war prevented the actualization of the arrangements being presented in Ukraine, but Hollenbeck insisted on working on a few pieces, which will be among his works presented at SJZ WINTER FEST along with their standard repertoire for “GEORGE.” The evening will include guitar work from Igor Osypov, guest vocals by Olesya Zdorovetska, trumpet by Yakiv Tvietinskyi, and a special appearance by dancer Alina Sokulska, who has created several solo pieces to his music.

Hollenbeck further worked directly with pianist Jeremy Darrow and guitarist Ryota Sato of the SJZ High School All Stars (SJZ HSAS). Over the course of several virtual sessions, Hollenbeck instructed the artists his Ukrainian folk music arrangements that will be performed by the SJZ HSAS as well as original student works, under the direction of conductor Oscar Pangilinan along with students in SJZ’s Progressions school-based youth music program to the open the February 24 concert.

Ambrose Akinmusire & Rafiq Bhatia perform an entirely improvised duo show of trumpet and guitar. The New York Times notes of Rafiq, “His transient approach, combined with his obsession of assiduously studying the past in order to break cleanly from it, makes him one of the most intriguing figures in music today.” His latest release, Standards Vol. 1, transforms cornerstone works by Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman and more into immersive, otherworldly realms of sound that are uniquely his own.

During his 15-year career, Ambrose Akinmusire has paradoxically situated himself in both the center and the periphery of jazz, most recently emerging in classical and hip hop circles. He’s on a perpetual quest for new paradigms, masterfully weaving inspiration from other genres, arts, and life in general into compositions that are as poetic and graceful as they are bold and unflinching. His unorthodox approach to sound and composition make him a regular on critics’ polls and have earned him earned him grants and commissions from the Doris Duke Foundation, the MAP Fund, the Kennedy Center, The Berlin Jazz Festival, and the Monterey Jazz Festival.

The New York Times states that Rafiq Bhatia “treats his guitar, synthesizers, drum machines, and electronic effects as architectural elements — sound becomes contour; music becomes something to step into rather than merely follow.” Since 2014, Rafiq has been a member of the post rock trio Son Lux; together, they have released several critically-acclaimed albums and given hundreds of performances internationally. Rafiq’s 2020 EP, Standards Vol. 1 (Anti-), renders repertoire from the American songbook “completely deconstructed, infused with brand new textures and electronic effects, dreamlike and beautiful,” says the BBC.

Vadim Neselovskyi creates music that is truly inspired, which explains why his work has been played by jazz greats like Randy Brecker, Antonio Sanchez, Julian Lage, and Gary Burton, as well as classical artists and symphony orchestras stateside and in Europe. His great musical breadth and deft touch will be showcased during an intimate solo performance of his 2022 album, Odesa. PBS NewsHour ran a feature on Neselovskyi to highlight the release of Odesa. PBS News Hour notes, “…we take a musical journey to Odesa, Ukraine’s historic port city on the Black Sea. It is a personal vision of a Ukrainian-born pianist, Vadim Neselovskyi, who teaches at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. But it is also a deeper look at the city’s past and present amid war.”

Vân-Ánh Võ is a fearless musical explorer who takes her Vietnamese traditional 16-String dàn tranh (zither) to dazzling heights with a distinctly jazz sensibility along with vocalist Olesya Zdorovetska. As an international soloist and collaborator, Olesya works in the fields of improvised music, Afro-Caribbean, contemporary classical, traditional Ukrainian and Sephardic music, as well as theatre and film. She is the founder of the Ukrainian-Irish Cultural Platform and co-curator and producer of Phonica, a platform for new music and poetry in Dublin.

Throughout her independent career, spanning three EPs and multiple collaborations, Madison McFerrin has earned accolades from The New York Times, NPR, The FADER, andPitchfork, who named her a Rising Artist in 2018. Her genre-bending work has led to Questlove dubbing her early sound “soul-appella.” She has appeared Lincoln Center, Central Park SummerStage and in 2021, McFerrin co-curated programming for the BRIC Jazz Festival. Most recently, Madison has performed at the Saint Joseph’s Art Society in San Francisco and Joe’s Pub in New York City to support fundraisers benefiting the National Network of Abortion Funds.

Following Madison McFerrin’s solo performance at The Continental Bar on Thursday, March 2, Ukrainian DJs Karine and Shakolin will spin special sets on the back patio starting at 10:30pm. Karine is a rising star on the dance scene and is a resident DJ at Closer, the most celebrated nightclub in Eastern Europe. She doubles as the venue’s booker, and locates talent for festivals such as Strichka and Brave! Factory in Kyiv. Shakolin is one of the most respected young DJs in Ukraine and also spins at Closer. Currently based in Berlin, he plays sets around the globe, from ReSolute parties in New York to Berlin’s Club Der Visionaere and underground spots in Seoul, South Korea.

Kassa Overall is a jazz musician, emcee, singer, producer and drummer, a product of New York City’s jazz scene who melds avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to tilt the nexus of jazz and hip-hop in unmapped directions. He’s been working at the forefront of jazz for two decades, touring and recording as a sideman drummer with artists as varied as Geri Allen, Steve Coleman, Francis and the Lights, and Yoko Ono. His work as a producer can be heard on albums by Theo Croker (Escape Velocity), Arto Lindsay (Cuidado Madame), and Das Racist (Sit Down, Man). He’s also featured as an emcee and DJ on drummer Terri Lyne Carrington’s Social Science. At SJZ WINTER FEST, he brings his fiery quartet for some of the best future-jazz on the scene.

Hammer4 concludes its Black Cab Jazz series curated by San Jose Jazz on a high note with pianist Orrin Evans on February 22. Across 20 albums as bandleader, pianist Orrin Evans is a deft tune deconstructor, he traverses a broad timeline of the vocabularies of swinging, blues-infused hardcore jazz and spiritual jazz/avant-garde jazz traditions, as well as the Euro-canon, with the intuitive spontaneity of an ear player. Luques Curtis and drummer Mark Whitfield, Jr. — who played on #knowingishalfthebattle and The Intangible Between — are Evans’ partners in his working trio.

Drummer, composer, and band leader Mark Guiliana is admired and in demand across the musical spectrum for his rhythmic sophistication, creative impulse and individual sound. JazzTimes raves “Guiliana, a technical master with a rare sense of musicality, has over the past decade become one of the most influential drummers of his generation.” The acoustic Mark Guiliana Jazz Quartet will be featured at SJZ WINTER FEST. Guiliana’s unique soundprint led Modern Drummer to declare him “at the forefront of an exciting new style of drummer,” while The New York Times pointed out how he has become “a drummer around whom a cult of admiration has formed.”

The SJZ Collective is the brainchild of drummer/composer Wally Schnalle, and his bandmates each contribute arrangements of compositions by jazz luminaries. In previous years they have reimagined the music of Monk, Mingus, Weather Report, and Chick Corea. For SJZ WINTER FEST 2023, they collaborate with Lviv, Ukraine-based trumpeter Yakiv Tsvietinskyi to play the music of Roy Hargrove. After receiving a Fulbright grant to study at Western Michigan University, Yakiv returned to his hometown of Dnipro, Ukraine and reformed the jazz education program at the M. Glinka Academy of Music, released his latest record, Minimalist, debuted new music at the Am I Jazz? Festival, and was accepted into the Focusyear program led by Wolfgang Muthspiel in Basel, Switzerland. Despite the war, he teaches at music academies in Dnipro, Lviv, and Kyiv, and performs charity concerts.

Yakiv’s project “Mykola” is dedicated to his cousin Mykola, who protected Ukraine in the war with Russia since 2014. He was killed in action on May 8, 2022. It’s also dedicated “to all the soldiers who have given their lives for the freedom of Ukraine during all its history.”

“I cannot express how grateful I am to have this opportunity to represent my country at SAN JOSE JAZZ WINTER FEST: COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE,” says Yakiv Tsvietinskyi. “Despite the horrific experience that Ukrainians are going through, we never felt so supported, and so connected with the whole world. For me, playing at the festival is an opportunity to spread the message about the value of freedom and to express gratitude to the people of the country that has played a key role in supporting Ukraine.”

Lesia Khomenko (b. 1980 in Kyiv, LINK) is a multidisciplinary artist who reconsiders the role of painting — she deconstructs narrative images and transforms paintings into objects, installations, performances, or videos. Her interest lies in revealing tools of visual manipulation in the context of history-making and myth-making.

For her exhibition, Unidentified Figures, Khomenko collects photographs depicting soldiers with their faces and backgrounds digitally obscured by means of glitching, pixelization, blurring or hatching. Ukraine’s martial law prohibits taking photos of military facilities, soldiers and equipment on security grounds. Photography ceases to be an instrument and becomes a dangerous weapon. By turning found photos into paintings, the artist references the historical tradition of depicting war, as well as translates the language of digital imagery into that of painting. Her way of treating the images includes fitting the pixelized fragments in the figures of her characters to dehumanize and deconstruct them.

“Contemplating the original photos, I see that retouching doesn’t remove strategic information from them; on the contrary, it adds new information that layers up just like characters’ skins in video games. Thus, pixels represent a kind of a ‘superpower’ owned by these ‘superheroes.’ In the digitalized world of information warfare, pop culture exists side by side with a real war, and I, being an evacuated civilian living in Miami, tend to mix up the images. I want my characters to look scary, I want them to make any ‘brainimical’ (i.e. brainwashed) Russian looking at my works drown in dehumanizing agony.”

Barbara Goldstein, Founder of Art Builds Community & Exhibition Coordinator, says, “Art Builds Community, a women-led cultural planning firm, is honored to support an exhibit that probes the erasure of personal and cultural identity caused by the brutal invasion of Ukraine. Lesia Khomenko’s exhibit uses larger than life, pixilated images to confront viewers with dehumanizing impact of the war on the individuals fighting it and those living through it.”

Olga Bekenshtein (Founder, Am I Jazz? Festival) sees the soldiers as guardians of the art spaces where lively concerts, films and dance performances will celebrate (and keep alive) culture through the lens of Ukrainian and American artists.

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A Ukrainian Film Festival also takes place at 3Below Theaters (288 S Second Street, San Jose) throughout SJZ WINTER FEST with six evenings of film including special screenings of the 1965 classic, Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, by Ukrainian film by the filmmaker Sergei Parajanov; the award-winning 2021 Ukrainian coming-of-age film, Stop-Zemila; and B&W silent shorts by Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker Maya Deren with live accompaniment by Olesya Zdorovetska; among other films.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is considered to be the most internationally heralded Ukrainian film in history, and a classic of Ukrainian magical realist cinema. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a 1965 Ukrainian film by the filmmaker Sergei Parajanov based on the novel Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Ukrainian writer Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky that tells a “Romeo and Juliet tale” of young Ukrainian Hutsul lovers trapped on opposite sides of a Carpathian family blood feud.

Stop-Zemila
Stop-Zemlia is a 2021 Ukrainian romance and drama film directed and written by Ukrainian director Kateryna Gornostai, and starring Maria Fedorchenko, Arsenii Markov, Yana Isaienko and Oleksandr Ivanov. Released on May 3, 2021 in Berlin International Film Festival, Stop-Zemila received the Crystal Bear for the “Best Film in the Generation 14plus” competition. Later the film appeared at the 12th Odesa International Film Festival (OIFF) and won the main award – the Grand Prix. Kateryna Gornostai also became the winner of Duke in the nomination of “Best Full-Length Film.” The film also went on to be awarded the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine.

Maya Deren — B&W Silent Shorts
Maya Deren was a Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker and important promoter of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. The function of film, Deren believed, was to create an experience. She combined her expertise in dance and choreography, ethnography, the African spirit religion of Haitian Vodou, symbolist poetry and gestalt psychology (she was a student of Kurt Koffka) in a series of perceptual, black-and-white short films. Using editing, multiple exposures, jump-cutting, superimposition, slow-motion, and other camera techniques to her advantage, Deren abandoned established notions of physical space and time, in carefully planned films with specific conceptual aims. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), her collaboration with Alexander Hammid, has been one of the most influential experimental films in American cinema history. She went on to make several films of her own, including At Land (1944), A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945), and Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946).

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For detailed ticket information as well as updates on the artists and performance schedule for SAN JOSE JAZZ WINTER FEST: COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE, please visit:
sanjosejazz.org/winterfest.

SJZ WINTER FEST presenting partners include: Mayer Theatre at Santa Clara University, Hammer Theatre Center, Universal Grammar, 3Below Theaters, and The Continental Bar. Sponsors include: City of San José, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, California Arts Council, Westbank, ICA San Jose, Nova Ukraine, and Consulate General of Ukraine in San Francisco. Media Sponsors: KCSM, Metro, and DownBeat.

Nova Ukraine is a 501(c)3 registered nonprofit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine and raising awareness about Ukraine in the United States as well as in the rest of the world. Through generous donations, Nova Ukraine funds a variety of efforts to help the people of Ukraine and to strengthen Ukraine’s democratic society. Nova Ukraine organizes fundraisers, cultural events, meetings with Ukrainian celebrities, and roundtable discussions dedicated to Ukraine, among other initiatives. Nova Ukraine also collaborate with nonprofits and volunteers on the ground to further their mission. Since 2014, Nova Ukraine has collected over $55.5 million in donations.

In 2022, Nova Ukraine funded a variety of medical, energy, evacuation, food, and infrastructure projects in Ukraine, trying to improve the plight of ordinary people affected by fighting and harsh weather conditions.

SAN JOSE JAZZ WINTER FEST: COUNTERPOINT WITH UKRAINE
When: Thursday, February 16 – Friday, March 3, 2023
Where: Downtown San Jose, CA and Throughout the South Bay
Admission: Concert tickets range from $10 – $40
More Info: sanjosejazz.org/winterfest; (408) 288-7557
Ticket Info: Cash and credit accepted at door

About San Jose Jazz
Founded in 1986, San Jose Jazz is a public benefit organization celebrating jazz as a dynamic, evolving art form and is producer of the annual San Jose Jazz Summer Fest and Winter Fest. San Jose Jazz innovates trend-setting initiatives to foster artistic ingenuity and preserve the jazz tradition as a forward-thinking movement. Through diverse music and educational programming, San Jose Jazz offers singular content and events by investing in the SF Bay Area ecosystem of exceptional talent for local and national audiences to enjoy.