Courtesy of The Fan House
CHOP SHOP
Saturday, March 7 at 6 p.m. — BARNARD — From Pittsburgh to Barnard via Manhattan comes Chop Shop, a funk band that will headline an evening of New Orleans-style revelry, from 6 – 11 p.m. on Saturday, March 7 at Barnard’s Town Hall as BarnArts Center for the Arts presents the third annual Masquerade Jazz and Funk Winter Music Carnival.
Sharing the stage will be original modern jazz arrangements with Sonny Saul and friends from Woodstock, Vt. and environs; contemporary classics with ArtisTrio and the energetic Woodstock Union High School Jazz Funk Band performing their New Orleans-style brass band funk. This high school group recently participated in the Berklee High School Jazz Festival, an annual event hosted by Berklee College of Music in Boston. The local group joined over 125 bands in performance evaluations.
Chop Shop’s style of future funk has been called raw, experimental, low down and dirty, but still polished, with “energy high enough to power a grid.” (Pittsburgh City Paper).
Under the leadership of baritone sax wizard Ben Barson, Chop Shop,a Pittsburgh-based funk band representing some of Pittsburgh’s best musical talent, performs regularly in clubs in New York City. With Barson are guitarist Glenn Strother, trumpeter Joe Badaczewski, Keyboardist Nick Decesevare, bassist Benni Rossman and drummer Julez Powell.
Singer Gizelxanath Rodriquez joins the band as she and vocalist Kyle Lawson promise to move the audience musically from the future funk to the golden era of 1960s and 1907s soul and R & B classics.
Five hours music plus an expansive taco bar, mask-making, and fun come with the price of a ticket: $20 adults, $10 students, free ages 6 and under. Tickets may be purchased on line at www.barnarts.org or at the door.
