a big oops and my newsletter

[David Chevan <chevan...>]

Sorry about just sending out a private message to everyone.  I keep
forgetting how that reply button works.  Here's my latest newsletter.  As
some of you know I consider myself an "openly jewish" performing artist.
Which means some of my work is secular and not related to this group.  But
much and these days most of it is.  I hope to see some of you at my events.
David

David Chevan's Fall-Winter 1999-2000 Music Update

SCSU CREATIVE MUSIC ORCHESTRA

The SCSU Creative Music Orchestra has been having one of our best seasons
ever. Our numbers are up. We have around 20 or so members and the
instrumentation is just the way I like it, eclectic. Just imagine, in our
midst we have three winds, three trumpets, an electric violin, and 7
electric guitars (now that's what I call a string section). We rehearse on
Monday evening in Room 158 of Earl Hall from 7:30 - about 10 p.m. If you're
ever in the neighborhood please feel free to stop by and give a listen. As
always there is no audition, anyone in the community (but especially SCSU or
prospective SCSU students) is welcome to join the Orchestra. We are
currently short on low brass (trombones and tubas), but we can always use
another of any instrument. If you're interested please give me a call at my
office at SCSU, the number is (203) 392-6630 and the voice mail is always on.

Our final concert of the Fall season will be on Monday, December 6 at 8 p.m.
in the Charles Garner Recital Hall (also known as Engleman Hall rm 115). The
program will consist of a number of shorter pieces I've written for the
orchestra, a work by Sun Ra, a piece by Moondog, and a larger,
multi-movement work that I've written for the orchestra entitled Teshuvah.
It promises to be an excellent end to the Fall season. I'll try to send out
a newsletter or at least a flyer before the Spring season begins, since we
always begin that season with our annual Fat Tuesday New Orleans Mardi Gras
extravaganza.



AVADIM HAYINU

Warren Byrd and I had the opportunity to perform "Once We Were Slaves," a
concert of works of Sacred and Spiritual Jazz at Siena College earlier in
the fall, but we don't have another performance scheduled until Sunday,
January 16, 2000. We should be performing that day at the Greater Hartford
JCC. Right after that concert we fly up to Hamilton College in Upstate New
York for concerts and workshops for two days. We have a number of other
concerts and events scheduled for February and the spring, we'll be listing
those early next year. We're also in the early stages of planning a second
CD of interpretations of sacred music.



BASSOLOGY

My work with BASSOLOGY also continues to move forward. We are just about to
release our second CD. The CD, IMAGINATION, is being released as Ron Braggs
with Bassology. It features Ron singing eight classic standards from the
American popular song tradition with the rest of the group accompanying him.
To make things even more challenging for us, we recorded the entire CD
"live" in the studio. Ron is sing and playing drums at the same time! The
album will be available just in time for the holidays and I think it would
make a great romantic present for just about anyone. It will be available
worldwide from amazon.com and locally at Cutler's Music and The Music Box.
For more information and updates on the CD and its release date, please
visit my web site, http://users.csu.cted.net/~chevan/. 

For the past couple of years BASSOLOGY has been performing primarily in a
trio format featuring the talents of Chris Casey on piano, Ron Braggs on
drums and singing, and I play the bass. We perform every Saturday evening up
in Avon in the tavern at the Avon Old Farms Inn. We play from 7 to 11 p.m.
and reservations are recommended. The Avon Old Farms Inn is one of the
oldest restaurants in America. The Inn is located at the corner of Routes 10
and 44 in Avon and the phone number is (860) 677-2818.

New Year's Eve? Well, I suppose by now everyone, certainly every musician,
has a New Year's story or plan, I'll get to mine in a minute, but first a
related story. About a month ago BASSOLOGY was approached by Penguins
Restaurant in Branford with a great proposal. They wanted to celebrate New
Years a little early so that they could be closed for New Years eve. I
agreed, after all, who'd want to be out and about on the last night of the
century. I was happy to create an opportunity to spend New Years eve with my
family. What we finally worked out was an opportunity to do an end of the
year David Chevan/BASSOLOGY retrospective. Now that's a considerable amount
of music so we will be at Penguins for two consecutive nights, December 29
and December 30. With the remote possibility of one or two mainstay works, I
am not planning to repeat a single piece between the two nights.
Incidentally, this appearance will be our first public club performance in
the Greater New Haven area in over a year. Penguins Restaurant is located at
1205 Main Street in Branford. Reservations are most definitely needed for
these two nights and the number at Penguins is (203) 483-9293.



The Art of the Trio

On Friday, November 19 at 7:30 p.m. I will be performing with Rex
Cadwallader for the series The Art of the Trio, at the Milford Center for
the Arts. Our featured guest is on this evening is the critically acclaimed
New York alto saxophonist, Jeff Newell. The Milford Center for the Arts is
located at 40 Railroad Avenue South and the phone number for tickets and
further info is (203) 878-6647. On December 17, our guest artist will be the
vocalist, Montenia. Rex and I recently recorded a CD of piano and bass
duets. I believe it will be released on his Stanza Music label sometime this
month. When I know more information about it I'll post it on my web site.



DECEMBER 25 JEWISH FAMILY CONCERT

I suppose everyone has what they call their Christmas tradition. Well, in
spite of my being Jewish it looks like I have one, too. Once again, I have
put together a Family Concert of Jewish music featuring Klezmer music and
Jewish and Yiddish song for Saturday, December 25 at 5:30 p.m. at
Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden. Tickets for the concert (which I'm
hoping will include dancing and singing by everyone) are $1 for children and
$4 for adults. I've already put together a pretty interesting group of local
Jewish musicians including Stacey Phillips, Richard Gans, Dorothy Goldberg,
Michael Ross, Dalton King and Stan Friedman. We'll begin with a Havdalah
service and then its right into the freylakh. Congregation Mishkan Israel is
located at 785 Ridge Road in Hamden. The phone number is (203) 288-3877.

MY NEW YEARS EVE PLANS

Oh, so what about New Years Eve? Well, after working out a great opportunity
to perform locally around New Years with my band that would allow me to be
with my family I got this phone call . . . from Rabbi Brockman at
Congregation Mishkan Israel. And thus was the start of ONEG 2000 an event
that's being planned at my synagogue, the aforementioned Congregation
Mishkan Israel. You see, New Year's eve falls on a Friday night, which is
the Sabbath eve and after services we always have a get together. The Rabbi
suggested that we make it a big party, a place in the community where people
can get together. I realized this was an event that I would be happy to be a
part of AND that I could be with my family. The Oneg will begin right after
services end which is sometime around 9:30 p.m. For this celebration I've
put together a band that will play a wide variety of celebratory music from
Klezmer to Swing. The group which is tentatively called the Afro-Semitic
Experience will include my longtime piano partner, Warren Byrd, Bassology's
drummer and vocalist, Ron Braggs, the international fiddler and dobro
master, Stacy Phillips and a number of extra-special guest artists. With
musicians of this caliber its going to be an great event. So, in the end its
a good story because I do get to play on New Year's eve and be with my
family which makes it the best of all possible worlds. If you're not with me
on December 31 I hope you are somewhere that is as special for you as this
night is going to be for me.

I guess what I'm saying here is that there are quite a few opportunities to
come out and hear some live music. I hope to see all of you at least one of
these events. Happy New Year to everyone and I look forward to seeing you in
the not too distant. If you haven't visited my web site, take a peek, my
friend and fellow Bassology trumpet master, Ben Proctor, has done an amazing
job tidying it up. The address is http://users.csu.cted.net/~chevan/ (for
some reason there is NO www in my web address). Okay, that's enough, my
fingers are cramping from all this typing. Happy New Year.

shalom aleichem,



David Chevan

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* * *
David Chevan
Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent St.
New Haven, CT 06517
(203) 392-6630

email: chevan (at) scsu(dot)ctstateu(dot)edu or chevan (at) csu(dot)cted(dot)net
or check out my website by clicking here
http://users.csu.cted.net/~chevan/

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