Jazz Concert in the Garden @ Torrington Historical Society

On Saturday July 29^th  from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., the Torrington Historical Society will host a jazz concert and fundraiser with the Litchfield Jazz Camp Faculty All Stars on the grounds of the Hotchkiss-Fyler House Museum located on 192 Main Street. The  tickets are $20 and can be purchased in advance at the Torrington Historical Society, 192 Main Street or on-line at http://www.torringtonhistoricalsociety.org

In the event of inclement weather the concert will move indoors to the Carriage House gallery behind the Hotchkiss-Fyler House Museum. Although outdoor seating will be available, concert attendees are encouraged to bring a comfortable lawn chair and a picnic basket. 

The Concert

The jazz performed will be rhythmic, forward leaning and exciting. The musicians have shared the stage with many of the important figures of the jazz idiom in their long careers and this is an opportunity to hear these players performing some new compositions as well as some of their previous work.

This ensemble of well-known jazz artists includes:  Mario Pavone, bass; Peter McEachern, trombone; Dave Ballou, trumpet and Mike Sarin, drums will include special guest Oscar Noriega, on saxophone. Noriega has just won the rising star category in the 2017 Down Beat critics poll.  Oscar Noriega is also on Mario Pavone's recent CD "Vertical" along with Dave Ballou, Peter McEachern and Mike Sarin.

 The concert will feature music from Mario Pavone’s recent CD Vertical on Clean Feed Records and Peter McEachern’s upcoming CD Double Helix. The concert will be held in the garden of the Hotchkiss-Fyler House Museum 192 Main Street, Torrington.  Tickets are $20 and can be purchased in advance at the Torrington Historical Society, 192 Main Street or on-line at www.torringtonhistoricalsociety.org

Musician’s Bios   

Mario Pavone: Bass

Bassist/composer Mario Pavone has collaborated with both legendary innovators and today's most respected young musicians to consistently define the cutting edge of jazz for the past 40 years. He has anchored the trios of Paul Bley (1968-72), Bill Dixon (1980's), and the late Thomas Chapin (1990-97), and co-led a variety of notable ensembles with Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, and Marty Ehrlich. Unlike most artists whose careers span five decades, his most recent recordings are his most widely acclaimed, appearing on best-of-the-year lists from Slate.com, AllAboutJazz.com, All AboutJazz-New York, Coda, the Village Voice , and the New York Times among others.

Dave Ballou: Trumpet

 Trumpeter/Composer Dave Ballou has released nine internationally recognized CD’s as a leader or co-leader. He has performed or recorded with ensembles led by Rabih Abou-Kahlil, Steely Dan, Michael Formanek, Woody Herman, Andrew Hill, John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble, Sheila Jordan, Oliver Lake, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Dewey Redman, and Maria Schneider . Ballou has performed Bach's Brandenberg Concerto #2 with the Bella Musica Orchestra of New York, Larry Austin's Improvisations with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Gunther Schuller's Journey into Jazz with the Spokane Symphony and Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

Mike Sarin: Drums

Since moving to New York in 1989, Mike Sarin’s unique style and approach to the drum set has been highly sought after by NYC and European musicians looking to expand the definitions of jazz and improvised music. He has contributed to recordings of  Thomas Chapin, Frank Carlberg, Anthony Coleman, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Mark Helias, Denman Maroney, Simon Nabatov, Mario Pavone, Ned Rothenberg, and Fred Wesley--recordings found on numerous music critics’ Top Ten CD year-end lists. Sarin performs all over the world--in major and minor festivals.  He is currently on staff of the Count Basie Theatre Performing Arts Academy and is a member of the teaching faculty of the New York Jazz Workshop.

Peter McEachern: Trombone

Peter McEachern, has toured and recorded three CDs for Polygram with Blues legend Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown; has worked and recorded with minimalist composer Lamonte Young, and is featured on several important CDs: "Insomnia" with the Thomas Chapin Trio on Knitting Factory Works and "Song for Septet" with the Mario Pavone Septet on the New World Countercurrents label. Peter has been a teaching artist at the Litchfield Jazz Camp since 1998. He has released 3 CD's in the past year "No Chordtet" featuring Dave Santoro, George Sovak and Hamir Atwal,”Shockwave" featuring the late Thomas Chapin, Steve Johns, Mario Pavone and Jamie Finegan, and No Chordet’s 2nd CD “Subconscious Love” on Truth Revolution Records.

Oscar Noriega: Saxophone

Multi-instrumentalist and composer, Oscar Noriega has lived in Brooklyn since 1992.
He has worked with Lee Konitz, Anthony Braxton, Gerry Hemingway, Dewey Redman and Paul Motion. He is currently performing with Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, Endangered Blood (Chris Speed, Jim Black, Trevor Dunn) and is co-leader of the Mexico-inspired Banda De Los Muertos. He plays alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet and drums.

New Milford Village Fair Days turns 50 on July 28 & 29

The center of New Milford located in the scenic Litchfield Hills is noted for its long traditional village green laid out in 1872. Here you will find monuments from past wars as well as a bandstand, first built in 1891 that is a symbol of New Milford's sense of community.

You can also explore many exceptional galleries, boutiques, restaurants and antique shops that are clustered in the heart of this village. Many are located in beautifully restored 18th and 19th century homes and buildings. Town Hall, facing the Green, marks the home of one of New Milford's most illustrious citizens, Roger Sherman, the only Connecticut man whose signature is on all key documents of the founding of this nation.

On July 28 and July 29, 2017 the New Milford Green becomes a hive of activity with the many activities and family fun offered up at the 50th Annual New Milford Village Fair Days.

Organized by the Greater New Milford Chamber of Commerce, this is the largest annual event in New Milford. Hundreds of vendors including: local businesses, organizations, church groups and clubs exhibit their unique offerings. If you like crafts, you won't be disappointed as many skillful crafters offer their wares.

There are three new attractions making their debut at this 50th anniversary fair.

Touch a truck will be a highlight from 11 am - 3 pm on Bank Street where kids are invited to come out and actually touch a truck!  

The Wishing New Milford Well is an exciting way to celebrate the Fair's 50th anniversary with a give-back to the community. Fair organizers are offering all non-profit organizations that are Chamber members in good standing an opportunity to participate in the bandstand replica wishing well fundraiser – Wishing New Milford Well. The bandstand replica is being built by a local resident and will be located in the Food Court area. The wishing well will have slots that correspond with non-profit organizations. Fairgoers will have the opportunity to donate to whichever organizations are near and dear to their heart.

The final new feature is the Five Gets  You Plus Fifty contest. Try you luck at opening a locked box by guessing the five number digital combination. At no cost, eligible persons will be able to input a 5 digit code. If their code unlocks the combination, they will win the prizes inside. We will also offer a second chance to win. If no one guesses the correct combination, we will hold a "second chance to win" drawing. The contest will run from noon to 7 pm with the second chance drawing being held at 8 pm.

Food is a big element of any Fair and New Milford's food vendors won't disappoint. There is even a dining tent and two days of entertainment that add to the festivities. A wide variety of food vendors serve up delicious fare to satisfy every palate. 

Exploring the south Green you will find a variety of businesses, organizations, church groups and clubs, while the north Green hosts master crafters. Food vendors can be found in the mid-section of the Green where fair goers will find everything from tasty snacks to a wonderful meal that can be enjoyed in the large sit-down dining area.

The Fair opens on July 28 at 10:00 am and closes at 10:00 PM on both days. A highlight of Friday's event is the the Kid's Fun Run at 6:00 PM. On Saturday, July 29th the Fair opens at 10:00 am and closes at 10:00 PM. Highlights on the 30th include: the 50th Annual 8 Mile Road Race & 15th Annual Fair Days 5K at 8:30 am.

For further information, please contact the Chamber of Commerce at 860.354.6080 or visit http://www.newmilford-chamber.com for up to the minute information.

Salisbury Farmers Market Every Saturday Morning

This summer in Salisbury every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the  beautifully manicured lawn of the Scoville Memorial  Library (38 Main Street) there will be a farmers market.  The lawn bordered by towering maple trees  is the perfect backdrop for the market that will feature a large variety of vegetables, meats, cheeses, eggs, rustic breads and more.  There is plenty of on and off the street free parking making visiting this market a pleasure. The market was organized by the library to further its community mission beyond the borrowing of books and movies.  

Among participants, Crooked Oak farm from Lakeville and Mountain Falls Farm from Sheffield will be bringing an large variety of vegetables.  Meats including chicken, beef, pork and sausage will be provided by Skipp Hobbs of  Mountain Falls in Sheffield, MA and the Cockerlines from Whipporwill Farm in Lakeville. Savory baked goods are featured by Carol Bonci including breads, focaccia, sesame salt rolls, savory turnovers,  plus vegetarian pate.  

Jams and jellies will be provided by Adamah Farm from Falls Village and Averill Farm of Washington Depot, who will also feature apple butter, apple cider syrup, and honey in addition to apples and pears in season. The Adamah will offer their wonderful pickles and a variety of cheeses will available from Sprout Creek Farm from Poughkeepsie and vinegars from Brother Victor. 

Additionally there will be maple syrup, eggs, seedlings and eventually cut flowers and other plants.  On occasion there will be special guests and chef demonstrations. 

Hera @ Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum located on 258 Main Street in Ridgefield  is pleased to present Tony Matelli’s Hera, a monumental sculpture, as part of the Main Street Sculpture series, which offers an opportunity for artists to create site-specific work for The Aldrich’s most public site, the front lawn.

Matelli  singular, larger-than-life-size outdoor figurative sculpture will be on display through October 21, 2017. This work is an extension of Matelli’s Garden Sculptures series, initiated in 2015, in which he defaces garden statuary of classical or religious icons and subverts material expectation. Based on an ancient Greek statue of Hera and poised atop a pedestal, the statue, fabricated out of cast stone, is painstakingly aged to mimic a centuries old patina. 

An imposing nine-feet tall and sited on a three-foot tall pedestal, the neo-classical figure will be juxtaposed with flawlessly hand-painted cast bronze watermelons, whole, halved, and quartered, that balance upon her head, within the creases and folds of her drapery, and at her feet. These faux-perishables, poised upon the intentionally eroded and debased figure, are presented in an eternal state of freshness. In doing so, Matelli stages opposing entropic forces, the synthetically preserved, and the forcibly decayed.

Spanning sculpture and painting, Matelli’s hyperreal practice embodies the human condition. Suspended in changing physical states or transformative stages of existence, his work concerns the very circumstance of actuality, joining the ordinary with the speculative in order to assess cultural worth: what people keep or abandon, what appears to be in or out of place, and what seems pleasing or distasteful. Often provocative and hallucinatory, Matelli’s work expresses excess, neglect, decomposition, and regeneration, the upturned and the adrift, the romantic and the surreal. 

At The Aldrich, Matelli’s colossal sculpture of a familiar mythological figure may read as a modern memento mori, or as a devotional offering to a saccharine present, cast against a corrosive past. Ridgefield, a Revolutionary-era Colonial town with a landmarked Main Street, is a befitting location for this tragicomic siting, as Matelli’s ancient giant testifies to history as theatrical backdrop.

Tony Matelli (b. 1971, Chicago) received his BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 1993 and his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1995. Recent solo exhibitions include the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; the Davis Museum, MA; Künsterlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. A mid-career survey, Tony Matelli: A Human Echo, premiered at the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark in 2012 and traveled to the Bergen Kunstmuseum, Norway in 2013. His work is in numerous public collections including the FLAG Art Foundation, NY; ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark; and the National Centre of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia, among others. He lives and works in New York City.

Spend a Day at the Mattatuck Museum

The Mattatuck Museum located on the Green (144 West Main Street) in Waterbury has announced the opening of two new exhibitions. Winslow Homer: American Life 1857-1875 and Passing By: Laure Dunne will be celebrated with an opening reception on Sunday, July 30 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Docent-led tours of both exhibits will be available beginning at noon.

On-the-Bluff-At...: Winslow Homer, On the Bluff at Long Branch, at the Bathing Hour, Harper's Weekly, August 6, 1870, Gift of David and Ann Jones

About Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer: American Life 1857-1875 features approximately 100 prints from illustrated weeklies and journals by American Master, Winslow Homer. The works were selected from a gift of engravings recently donated to the Mattatuck Museum by Fairfield collector David Jones and his wife Ann. This group of engravings will be complemented by several paintings on loan from Connecticut institutions including Yale University Art Gallery, Wadsworth Atheneum and New Britain Museum of American Art. This overview of Homer's rich career as an illustrator will be presented thematically. It will reflect the concerns of a nation during a period of significant social and political change. Subjects addressed include the Civil War, domestic and daily life in the 19th century, the changing role of women, popular entertainments and the outdoors.

Winslow Homer will be complemented by several public programs during the run of the exhibition, including a Lunch & Learn – "An American Icon: Winslow Homer – A Personal Interpretation" - with Professor Dorothy Keller and an evening reception entitled "Homer in Nature" with David Davison.

Trains-Returning-2016…: Laure Dunne, Train Returning, 2016, Digital print

About Laure Dunne

MIXMASTER winner Laure Dunne will also open her new exhibition of photography, Passing By, on July 30. This exhibition of 25 photos includes shots from Oregon, Maine, New York and Connecticut. Thematically organized between two subjects, trains and trees, Dunne's clear, clean aesthetic is evident in these compositionally strong and dramatic images.

About the Mattatuck Museum of Art

Located in the heart of downtown Waterbury's architectural district, the Mattatuck Museum is a vibrant destination, known locally and regionally as a community-centered institution of American art and history. For more information on all of the Museum's programs, events, and exhibits visit the website at mattmuseum.org or call (203) 753-0381.