Geoffrey Brady & Yid Vicious

Cellist/composer/arranger Fred Katz had a wide-ranging career, from pioneering “chamber jazz” with the 1950s Chico Hamilton Quintet to scoring various Roger Corman films to three decades as an ethnomusicologist at California universities. At this concert, Madison composer Geoffrey Brady pays tribute to Katz’ 1958 album Folk Songs for Far Out Folk by incorporating traditional and other music from around the world into extended frameworks for Yid Vicious to do their thing.

press release: Geoffrey Brady and Yid Vicious present Far Out Folk

Thursday, October 25, 2018, 7:30 pm, Gates of Heaven, James Madison Park

Free admission, donations accepted at the door

Composer Geoffrey Brady and Yid Vicious present an evening of new music exploring world folk music sources through improvisation-based composition. The concert pays tribute to Fred Katz (1919-2013) an American cellist/pianist/composer/arranger/ethnomusicologist widely considered the first important jazz cellist, owing to his work in the renowned Chico Hamilton Quintet in the 1950s. In 1958, Katz recorded “Folk Songs for Far Out Folk,” comprised of large-ensemble arrangements of African, Hebrew and American folk songs. The arrangements and performances on the album present rich sonic tapestries that mediate the old and the new, combining through-composition with jazz improvisation and reinforcing the durability of ancient melodies from around the world. 

Taking the Katz album as a jumping-off point, Yid Vicious will present a program of extended compositions by Brady that transmogrify folk materials into vehicles for improvisation by the members of Yid Vicious, Madison’s locally-grown klezmer ensemble. Traditional and less-traditional-but-really-good music from locales such as Egypt, Zanzibar, Ghana, the Americas and parts of the Roma diaspora will be represented in the style to which Yid Vicious listeners have become accustomed. 

Far Out Folk is supported by the Greater Madison Jazz Consortium and the Madison Arts Commission with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board. Promotional support provided by WORT 89.9 FM.