Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
Keeping the Flame at Van Gelder Studio
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
Brooklyn-based cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum will usher in the spring concert season with two concert events in New York that will feature him performing new original works with his bands.
On March 30 at Roulette, Bynum will lead his improvising chamber ensemble SpiderMonkey Strings and guest vocalist Kyoko Kitamura in the premier performance of his secular oratorio, “Madeleine Dreams.”
Bynum’s new 10-piece ensemble, Positive Catastrophe, co-led by percussionist Abraham Gomez-Delgado, will be in residence at Brooklyn’s Tea Lounge all five Mondays of the month.
“Madeleine Dreams” is inspired by the novel Madeleine Is Sleeping (Harcourt), a 2004 National Book Award finalist written by his sister, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum. The music was written specifically for Kitamura and SpiderMonkey Strings, a combination of brass, strings and drums featuring Joseph Daley, Jason Kao Hwang, Jessica Pavone, Tomas Ulrich, Pete Fitzpatrick and Luther Gray. The group will also perform “Madeleine Dreams” in Belgium and the Netherlands in early April.
Bynum describes Positive Catastrophe, the largest ensemble currently working under his leadership, as “a free-wheeling ensemble that connects the dots between Sun Ra and Willie Colón.”
More info: taylorhobynum.com
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
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On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
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