Events

MuseArt offers opportunities for artists of all skill levels and mediums to draw local musicians while they perform. An amazing multi-media art event!

Musicians of all ages are gearing up to spotlight their skills starting March 31^st through April 17^th at Whirled Pies in Eugene for their share of thousands of dollars in prizes and the opportunity to collaborate with other musicians, local producers and music advocates.

Musicians are asked to show their skills in front of a live audience and local producers during the spotlight events.

During these events, producers will pick musicians to come together to form bands.

The bands will then have 6 weeks to prepare for their performance at the Make-A-Band Showcase on Sunday June 2nd, 2019 at the McDonald Theatre.

Thousands of dollars in prizes, including studio time, gear, goods and more will be awarded to musicians who participate in Make-A-Band while 20% of ticket proceeds will benefit MEPAA, Music Education and Performing Artist Association.

Musicians interested in details on how to get involved or to sign up to perform can go online to nrq.com.

2019 Eugene OR- Make-A-Band Spotlight Schedule

·         Sunday, March 31 – Vocalists

·         Wednesday, April 3 – Guitars

·         Wednesday, April 10 – Keyboards, Turntables, and Sound Design

·         Sunday, April 14 – Drums/Percussion

·         Wednesday, April 17 – Last Call

Sponsored in part by Hyland Auto Sales

Jessaiah Zure began bellydancing in 1997, studying primarily with Katarina Burda, and later Jamila Salimpour. 2004 began her 10 year journey of living and studying on and off in Istanbul, Turkey where she studied Turkish Roman Dance primarily with Reyhan Tusuz. Jessaiah was Reyhan’s second ever “student” and now her recognition has grown worldwide as she now teaches international travelers in her home. As the years progressed she met more people and danced and studied with many more dancers: professionals, women in the kitchen, Anadolu Atesi dancers and more. The locals in Istanbul were amazed at Jessaiah’s natural familiarity with the music and dance. While  she was there, Jessaiah was a featured dancer at many local events, weddings, shows, written about in newspapers and asked to be in movies as a dancer. Her presence there garnered much attention, as she danced “like a real Roman.” With this she became a well known Roman dancer in Istanbul, and now here in the States as well. She has continued to gain respect for  this form Internationally by dancers and academics alike. Through her years of study, investigation and discovery in this dance style. She has come to see the value of teaching dancers  how to differentiate the “Roman” style from the “Karslima” style. Jessaiah has become aware of the various influences that have shaped dance styles over time. The customs that bloom out of a regions climate, the era, social constructs, and beliefs; the availabilities and scarcities of  spices, materials, dyes, water, sun, food, animals, human rights -all seem to define the cultures of our humanity. This is what she strives to communicate and impart to every student in her path- all of these influences find expression in the pulse, movement , gestures and regional dress. WEBSITE:  https://jessaiah-zure.squarespace.com/jessaiah-zures-mahalle-dance

Mike Clark – Drums and Vocals

Anthony Forcellini – Guitar and Vocals

Ryan Galas – Bass and Vocals

Dylan Shock – Guitar and Vocals

Contact us at booking @ unclestumbles.com

Since their beginnings in 2003, Eugene’s Uncle Stumbles have grown beyond the “first impression” of their name… over ten years later, the name Uncle Stumbles reminds us that each of us stumbles and trips every once and a while-and your friends cover your back. Uncle Stumbles plays late ’60’s style rock and roll with an Americana tinge. An honest exploratory music that draws from influences as broad as Frank Zappa, to Stravinsky to the Grateful Dead, Uncle Stumbles continues to impress and win over crowds wherever they play. Uncle Stumbles plays to the moment, whatever that may be, often surprising themselves in the process.

Drummer Mike Clark cut his teeth playing in Eugene back in the 90’s. Clark is one of those rare drummers that plays to the front of the music ala Elvin Jones and the Meters’ Joseph Modeleste.
Drums are a solo instrument in Mike’s playing, the beat and groove are trusted and implied in this unique style.

Anthony Forcellini has written the lion’s share of original material for Uncle Stumbles. Forcellini studied saxophone for 13 years including studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston before switching to guitar for the Detroit area band Resurgency in the late 1980’s. Anthony is also the lead guitar player in the Garcia tribute band Cap’n Trips.

Ryan Galas studied music at LCC as well as playing in Figure It Out and Innerstate. Ryan’s bass playing is heavy on “linear” line playing in the style of Phil Lesh. He also plays upright bass in the roots group the Wainwright Brothers.

Dylan Shock’s first word was guitar. He has been playing for over half his life, approaching a musical intuition and vocabulary of one much older than his years. He started performing publicly with Anthony Forcellini in the Americana duo Dylan and Anthony.

Over the years, members of Uncle Stumbles have opened for the Cast of Clowns, Clinton Fearon, George Porter, The Zen Tricksters, The Bridge, Jefferson Starship, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. They have also been involved in fundraising for community radio stations KRVM and KSOW-LP. Come on down and visit everyone’s favorite uncle sometime. You never know what might happen.

Oregon Has Two Dinosaurs

With Gregory J. Retallack, PhD, Professor of Geology at the University of Oregon

Doors open @ 5PM | $5 Suggested Donation
 

For many years there have been rumors and informal accounts of Oregon dinosaurs, but until October 2018 no formal account of them in the scientific literature. First to be announced in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology was a toe bone of an ornithopod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous shales near Mitchell in central Oregon. Ornithopods are herbivorous dinosaurs including duckbill dinosaurs, and this one was large at about 17 feet long, but not quite a duckbill. University of Oregon fans will be pleased by the report in the Bulletin of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science of a genuine duckbill, an lambeosaurine from Late Cretaceous sandstone at Cape Sebastian on the southern Oregon coast. In one month Oregon went from zero to two dinosaur finds. Join Dr. Retallack for a compelling story of serendipidity for one team and persistence for the other team.

Greg Retallack is a professor in the department of geological sciences at the University of Oregon. His doctoral degree was from the University of New England in Australia, and he completed a post-doc at Indiana University before coming to Oregon. His research is dedicated to the study of paleosols: ancient soils buried with fossils in sedimentary and volcanic sequences of the geological past. Paleosols provide new insights into major events in the history of life on land, such as early human evolution in East Africa, major extinctions of life, and evolution of the first forests. In recent years he has found evidence of life in many paleosols predating the Cambrian explosion of life, especially in very ancient rocks of South Africa and Western Australia.

Science Pub Eugene is a monthly event that is open to anyone and everyone. No RSVP or scientific background required. Just bring your curiosity, sense of humor, and appetite for food, drinks, and knowledge! For more information or to sign up for our mailing list, email: sciencepub@omsi.edu.

Musicians of all ages are gearing up to spotlight their skills starting March 31^st through April 17^th at Whirled Pies in Eugene for their share of thousands of dollars in prizes and the opportunity to collaborate with other musicians, local producers and music advocates.

Musicians are asked to show their skills in front of a live audience and local producers during the spotlight events.

During these events, producers will pick musicians to come together to form bands.

The bands will then have 6 weeks to prepare for their performance at the Make-A-Band Showcase on Sunday June 2nd, 2019 at the McDonald Theatre.

Thousands of dollars in prizes, including studio time, gear, goods and more will be awarded to musicians who participate in Make-A-Band while 20% of ticket proceeds will benefit MEPAA, Music Education and Performing Artist Association.

Musicians interested in details on how to get involved or to sign up to perform can go online to nrq.com.

2019 Eugene OR- Make-A-Band Spotlight Schedule

All ages -$5.00 at the door

·         Sunday, March 31 – Vocalists

·         Wednesday, April 3 – Guitars

·         Wednesday, April 10 – Keyboards, Turntables, and Sound Design

·         Sunday, April 14 – Drums/Percussion

·         Wednesday, April 17 – Last Call

Sponsored in part by Hyland Auto Sales

This jam is open to all acoustic instruments. We play a mix of bluegrass, folk, blues, and all around acoustic Jam tunes. Come enjoy!

Natalie Cressman

Possessing a voice as cool and crystalline as an Alpine stream, Natalie Cressman is a rising singer/songwriter and trombonist who draws inspiration from a vast array of deep and powerful musical currents. She is releasing her 5th album in April 2019, this time in collaboration with Brazilian  composer, guitarist and vocalist Ian Faquini. Drawing from impressionism, jazz, and the great Brazilian songwriting tradition, Setting Rays of Summer is a ten-track collection of original material featuring compositions in three different languages: Portuguese, English and French. With the warm instrumentation of acoustic guitar and trombone alongside two-part vocal harmonies hugging the Brazilian-accented Portuguese, Cressman & Faquini weave their musical voices together to create a fully orchestrated sound befitting a much larger ensemble. 

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Steadily evolving in many directions, the 27-year-old Cressman has already put down deep roots in several overlapping scenes. A prodigiously talented New York City-based trombonist, she’s spent the past nine years touring the jam band circuit as a horn player and vocalist with Phish’s Trey Anastasio. Deeply versed in Latin jazz, post-bop, pop, and Brazilian music, she tapped the interlaced traditions on her first two solo albums, 2012’s Unfolding and 2014’s Turn the Sea. 
 

She released The Traces EP in 2017, revealing her latest evolution, as she expands her creative reach into post-production with meticulously crafted soundscaped tracks inspired by R&B singer/songwriter Emily King, the Prince-championed vocal trio KING, and particularly Australian avant-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote. The Traces EP follows on the heels of 2016’s Etchings in Amber, a gorgeous duo album with guitarist Mike Bono that introduced Cressman as a formidable musical force without her horn. While the project focuses on songs featuring lyrics she wrote for several Bono compositions, Cressman also wrote words and music for three of her songs, contributing to the atmospheric suite of jazz-inflected, genre-bending tunes.

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When she’s not performing her own music, Cressman can be found collaborating with some of the most illustrious figures in rock, funk, jazz and beyond, which have included Carlos Santana, Aaron Neville, Dave Matthews, Phish, Big Gigantic, Escort, Wycliffe Gordon, Nicholas Payton, Anat Cohen, The Motet, and Umphrey’s McGee. Her passion for groove music hasn’t diluted her love of jazz. In 2016 SFJAZZ commissioned her to develop music for a concert celebrating the legacy of jazz trombonist/arranger Melba Liston. She also continues her long-standing musical relationship with world jazz innovator Peter Apfelbaum, performing with his band Sparkler. A fellow Bay Area native, Apfelbaum has hired Cressman since she was a young teen, a relationship that exemplifies the creative hothouse in which she was raised.

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Her mother, Sandy Cressman, is a jazz vocalist who immersed herself deeply into the traditions of Brazilian music, collaborating with many of Brazil’s most respected musicians. Her father, Jeff Cressman, is a recording engineer and trombonist who recently concluded a two-decade run with Santana. Natalie quite naturally began studying trombone with her father, but set out to be a dancer rather than a musician. An aspiring ballet dancer until her junior year of high school, she changed courses when an injury sidelined her dance aspirations. Her parents provided entrée to a number of enviable opportunities, but Cressman’s own prodigious gifts continued to merit her presence in any number of high-profile settings. She soon found herself playing salsa with Uruguayan percussionist Edgardo Cambon e Orquesta Candela, Latin jazz with Pete Escovedo’s Latin Jazz Orchestra, world music with Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, and globally-inspired avant-garde jazz with multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum, a close family friend.

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Cressman traveled east in 2009 to study at the Manhattan School of Music, and the following year jam band pioneer Trey Anastasio recruited her for his touring band. He met Cressman at 18, and “was instantly floored by how melodically and naturally she played and sang,” Anastasio says. “Natalie is the rarest of musicians. Born into a musical family and raised in a home filled with the sounds of Brazilian music, jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms, musicality is in her DNA.” Her far flung musical passions continue to bear new fruit, as her identity as a horn player and a singer/songwriter evolve in different directions. Playing funk trombone in arenas and cavernous theaters has required developing an aggressive new vocabulary of shouts, growls, smears and yelps, a la the JB Horns’ Fred Wesley. Her vocal work in increasingly intimate and rhythmically insinuating settings has revealed an artist who can thrive in any setting, from raucous, reverberant halls to packed and pulsing lofts and nightclubs. In an epoch marked by infinite musical possibilities, Natalie Cressman is a singular force who draws from an improbable breadth of sonic realms. 

Ian Faquini

Ian Faquini is a Brazilian composer, guitarist, and vocalist who was born in Brasília and has lived in Berkeley, California since the age of eight. He was a member of the renowned Berkeley High School Jazz program, and at the age of 15, Ian met the legendary Brazilian composer Guinga, who became his mentor and inspired him to pursue a career in music, drawing on the rich musical traditions of his Brazilian heritage. Ian went on to study at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley and immediately after graduating joined the faculty there. He is also on the faculty at California Brazil Camp, alongside musical legends including Ivan Lins, Guinga, Chico Pinheiro, and Spok. Ian has become one of the most unique and respected guitar players in the San Francisco Bay Area, with his distinct compositional style and harmonic sense. He is also a brilliant accompanist, which has made him an in-demand collaborator with vocalists in the Bay Area and beyond.

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In 2014, he released his debut album with flautist Rebecca Kleinmann, entitled Brasiliense, which features all original compositions by Faquini and draws from a wide range of musical sources from the 20th century, from impressionism and jazz to the great Brazilian songwriting tradition.

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Faquini released his second album, Metal na Madeira, in 2016, this time in collaboration with acclaimed vocalist Paula Santoro, who hails from Minas Gerais. The image that ultimately emerges from Metal na Madeira is more than a portrait of two artists creating together. It also conjures the timeless landscape of the Brazilian Northeast, from which both artists draw immense inspiration. Into that space, Faquini and Santoro invite an all-star cast of collaborators, including Brazilian saxophone great Spok, leader of Recife’s Spok Frevo Orquestra; Bay Area multi-reedist Harvey Wainapel; trombonist Jeff Cressman; keyboardist and accordion player Vitor Gonçalves; bassist Scott Thompson; drummer/percussionist Rafael Barata; and pandeiro player Sergio Krakowski.

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The album consists of nine original compositions by Faquini and presents a fresh take on traditional Northeastern rhythms such as Maracatu, Frevo, Baião, Xote, and Toada. Faquini’s music keeps one foot firmly planted in the past while stepping briskly towards the future with modern harmonic and melodic structures. The duo captivated audiences in Brazil and across the United States on their first tour together in the fall of 2016, receiving critical acclaim from the Seattle Times, Berkleyside, UK Vibe, and others, including The Mercury News’ “Best of 2016” list.

Ku’uipo is the 5th generation living on Hawaiian land granted by the royal patent of Kamehameha III. Her father was a manaleo (native Hawaiian speaker). From childhood, Kuuipo was exposed to a fusion of Hawaiian and contemporary life. Inspired by family parties, and the music of The Halekulani Girls, Marlene Sai, Genoa Keawe and Haunani Kahalewai, Ku’uipo decided to sing and play Hawaiian music. She taught herself to play the ‘ukulele at the age of 8, then the guitar and bass, and the Hawaiian slack-key style of guitar playing. Formal music training occurred later when she privately studied voice lessons. Her musical education also continued in college. Ku’uipo is now considered one of Hawai’i’s finest slack-key players.

Ku’uipo’s first effort as a musical artist earned her a single nomination in the annual Na Hoku Hanohano Awards (the “Grammy’s” of Hawaiian music) and named her the most promising new artist. Her solo premiere recording gave her 9 nominations and an astounding five awards which included the Female Vocalist of the Year and Traditional Hawaiian Album of the Year. Her second album, after a four-year rest, earned her 3 nominations and an award for the excellence use of the Hawaiian language in a musical composition. In 1999, the Hawai’i Academy of Recording Arts nominated Ku’uipo as Female Vocalist of the Year. That year, Ku’uipo obtained the Traditional Hawaiian Album of the Year by the Hawaii Music Awards.

In 2008 Ku’uipo’s album, Na Lani ‘Eha with the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame Serenaders, garnered the Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Album of the Year and graphics award. 2010 would also bring Ku’uipo another Hoku, this one for Island Music Album for her latest CD, E Hula Mai Me A’u.

In 1995, Ku’uipo decided to pursue her college degree. With the completion of music minor credits, Hawaiian language credits and education credits, Ku’uipo received her Associates of Arts degree from Kapi‘olani Community College and her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Chaminade University. She intends to continue her studies in pursuit of a Master’s Degree.

Ku’uipo has premiered in notable concerts and special events across the state, the nation and abroad. Ku’uipo has appeared in special performances such as: the Aloha Festivals; the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival; the Mokihana Festival and the Waiki’i Music Festival. Other prestigious concerts include the Na Wahine O Hawai’i Concert featuring select female artists, the Bank of Hawai’i Ki Ho’alu (slack key) Concert featuring select slack key players, the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame Concert, and the Honolulu Festival.

Ku’uipo has been featured at the finest hotels and show places in the State of Hawai’i and has premiered in quality concerts and special events across the state, the nation and abroad. Among her credits are regular appearances on Fridays at The Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikiki. Other performances have taken Ku’uipo to the private homes of some of Hawai’i’s high profile socialites, businessmen and women as well as Washington Place, the home Hawai’i’s governor and ‘Iolani Palace.

Aside from performing Hawaiian music, Ku’uipo works with persons with mental illness as well as persons with mental retardation, managing the Diamond Head Center for the Association for Retarded Citizens of Hawai’i.

As an entrepreneur, Ku’uipo, along with two business partners, created a new Hawaiian Heritage and Culture learning center. In addition, she has created her own recording label and production and performance company.

She is a hula student of Kumu Hula Karen Ka’ohulani Aiu, in ho’opa’a training (chant and drumming to accompany dancers). This delights Kuuipo because it is the ancient form of what she already does as a musician and singer.

Besides being a student and performer of Hawaiian music, Ku’uipo has been chosen to do lectures for select groups of administrators of the Department of Education focusing on the values of a Hawaiian family. She has also been chosen to be a special guest lecturer for the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estates post-high scholarship recipients for the state of Hawaii focusing on the value of Ho’omakaukau (to be prepared).

Ku’uipo currently serves as the president of the Hawai’i Academy of Recording Arts and is the director of the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame Serenaders. She is a co-founder of the Maiki Aiu Foundation, a teacher in Hālau Hawai’i, and is a record producer for the label Ke’aloha, Ululani Records & Ululani Media, and produces the biennial Mali’o Concerts. She has judged various music competitions, including as the overall judge for the Kamehameha Schools Song Contest. Fluent in Hawaiian, she narrated the Hawaiian language version of Hawai’i Public Television`s noted Biography Series documentary on Princess Ruth Ke’elikolani.