Jazz

Mix of Jazz, reggae and rock

Jazz and the American Songbook
Raynel Shepard, vocals
Patrice Monahan, keyboard and vocals
Dave Shrake, bass
Doug Toland, guitar

The VDSO is a world renowned and critically acclaimed creative music and jazz ensemble led by guitarist and Somerville resident Garrison Fewell. For Porchfest, we will be playing in a smaller format, featuring music from our recent third CD release: VDSO — Evolving Strategies, on Not Two Records. The VDSO is an annual highlight of Somerville's Porchfest and you'll enjoy relaxing, or dancing in our garden. Garrison Fewell, guitar, Jacob William, bass and Curt Newton on drums. Others TBA. . .

Good Harbor, the musical project of Aparna Lakshmi and John Shakespear, offers up landscapes of people and place, stories of tenderness and loss, to call forth joy, movement and resonance. Their songs criss-cross jazz, funk, folk, blues and country to create a sound that is full and clean. They are joined at PorchFest by the talented John Massie, performing on cajon and keys.

Jazz Echo (http://jazzecho.bandcamp.com/) performs original compositions, along with jazz standards by Billy Strayhorn, Thelonius Monk, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, and many others. The Brad Ellenberg Quintet (http://www.bradellenberg.com) is composed of many of the same members and will also be sharing the porch, playing original material as well as music from many of greats in jazz.

Cybernetic jazz ensemble, playing swing, latin, bop, and ballads, with expert assistance from ChordEase, our home-brewed real-time artificial intelligence software. We let the computer sweat the music theory, so we can concentrate on the groove. ChordEase lets you play music with difficult chords easily on any MIDI instrument. Though it's intended for jazz, it could be useful for any type of music that modulates frequently. If you struggle with improvising, try ChordEase. It's free open-source software, and it runs on Windows XP, 7 or 8.

<strong>The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band</strong> is a 12-20 piece &ldquo;raucous, stomp-your-foot-and-belt-out-the-choruses&rdquo; New Orleans-style street band based in Somerville &amp; Cambridge, Massachusetts. We are regular Joes and Janes with day jobs who combine music with social action; slamming out the sounds of the legendary Crescent City for peace rallies, street festivals, parades, and benefits.We are also a part of the organizing force behind <a href="http://honkfest.org">HONK!</a> a festival of activist street bands that takes place every October in Somerville&rsquo;s Davis Square.