New Amsterdam Records recording artist and frequent Yellow Barn contributor Travis Laplante performs his composition Dissolving Mirror in SOLOs Episode 5. Filmed on the Hooker-Dunham stage, Laplante’s performance premieres simultaneously on BCTV and YouTube at 7:30 PM on Friday, Feb. 26.
Rolling Stone Magazine describes Laplante’s tenor saxophone artistry as “head-spinning” with “flights of circular breathing” combined with “prayerful lyricism” and cites his album Human among its selection of the “currents that shaped the jazz genre this past year and the must-hear releases that exemplified them.”
“Travis is an amazing performer. His improvisational saxophone ranges from sounding like the wind wafting through the forest to the haunting melody of a love song to the roar of a tempest. It’s hard to believe that all this music comes from a single instrument played live on stage,” says Jon Mack, director of the Hooker-Dunham Theater.
SOLOs is a collaborative production of the Hooker-Dunham and the Rock River Players designed to bring creativity to the fore in this challenging time for performing artists and audiences. “It’s a pleasure to see the talents of so many people combine to create authentic performances. The outpouring of talent and the ability to reach a wide audience both locally and internationally is deeply rewarding,” says Mack.
Coming up next for SOLOs is “Episode 6: Originals.” Bahman Mahdavi, who produced this episode, describes it as “our most ambitious undertaking yet with all original material and enhanced production values.”
SOLOs “Episode 7: Sense and Nonsense” follows. It combines “challenging the nonsense of narrow gender stereotypes with the delightful nonsense of Lewis Carroll’s poems,” says Mack.
Links to the Premiere will be posted on the Hooker-Dunham ( HookerDunham.org), Rock River Players (RockRiverPlayers.org) and BCTV (brattleborotv.org) websites.
All performances are free.
CONTACT: Jon Mack info@HookerDunham.org
Landline: 802-348-7159
Cell: 516-698-1069