2024 Improv Spaces Music Festival - Day 2

About this event

FESTIVAL DATES: MAY 29-June 2

IMPROV SPACES MUSIC FESTIVAL presents five days of live music, art, and dance, showcasing a range of Saratoga County and Capital Region musicians as well as bringing musicians and artists from New York City/New Jersey upstate!

Day 2 PROGRAM:

5PM: Bomba Drums and Dance with Christopher Rodriguez, Saiya Forty, and Julio Evans

7-9PM: Beeside Cassettes presents apostrophebeats. An apostrophebeats improvisation orchestra’s live film scoring event

Day 2 of the IMPROV SPACES MUSIC FESTIVAL will feature New Jersey-based Boricua and Cuban percussionist Christopher Rodriguez collaborating with dancer Saiya Forty along with drummer Julio Evans. Rodriguez co-organizes the monthly bateys de bomba a collective of New Jersey-based bomberos. In contrast to staged performances, these bateys have been organic, fluid spaces of community, cultural education, mentorship, storytelling, and healing.

In addition, Day 2 will feature an evening program presented by Bee Side Cassettes of the apostrophebeats orchestra, a gathering of local upstate and regional New York improvisational musicians, performing a live film score.

PERFORMER BIOS:

Christopher Rodriguez

Chris Rodriguez is a New Jersey-based Boricua and Cuban percussionist, bassist, writer, and educator. He has served as a public high school English teacher for eight years, advocating for racial equity and culturally-responsive education. In collaboration with his students, he has created poetry and music clubs that served as spaces of care, exploration, self-expression, and community. Outside of the public school system, Chris explores decolonized education within grassroots, communal spaces, focusing on a few key questions. What are the psychological legacies of colonial education that still affect adults today and which get passed down to youth? How can we teach music, writing, and history from a decolonized perspective without getting caught up in Euro-American constructs of knowledge? And finally, how can we imagine intergenerational educational spaces where youth, adults, and elders are connected to each other, to their minds, to their hearts, to their bodies, and to their spirits? Through his diverse musical and educational work, Chris seeks to remember and recreate these essential connections.

Saiya Forty

Born in Manhattan, and raised in Bayonne, NJ, Saiya Forty has always been passionately in touch with her artistic expression. From dancing, to percussion, to creating art, Saiya embodies her spiritual connection to nature and all of her cultural pursuits. With her multi-diverse cultural background, Indian, Italian, and Puerto Rican, she is dedicated to the preservation of their traditional values. 

Saiya is trained in hip hop, ballet, modern, Bomba, and Plena. She has been dancing hip hop and ballet at local studios since she could remember. She also attended Bayonne High School Academy of Fine and Performing Arts where she majored in dance, studying modern and ballet. She choreographed her first modern dance piece her senior year there.

Saiya started taking dance classes with Segunda Quimbamba at the age of 8 and started taking drum classes at the age of 10. She has been a member of the organization since the age of 14 and is a principal Bomba and Plena dance instructor and choreographer in Jersey City at the Segunda Quimbamba Folkloric Center inc. Saiya has danced Bomba on stages in New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and Barbados. Currently, Ms. Forty is working as admin support and assists with the SQFC archival project.

Julio Evans

Julio Evans, hailing from a diverse background of Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian descent was born and raised in Bushwick, New York. An educator by profession and a passionate political activist at heart, Julio has delved into spoken-word, dancing, music, and teaching. His tireless efforts with various grassroots organizations have fueled his passion toward advocating for Puerto Rican independence and fighting against gentrification. As the eldest of six siblings, Julio holds family and spirituality in high regard, drawing strength and inspiration from his roots. Through his immersion in bomba, Julio has gained a profound appreciation for the power of music, culture, and ancestral connections to unite communities and preserve traditions. Julio’s overarching goal is to promote self awareness and engagement through the vibrant rhythms of bomba. His unyielding dedication to social and political justice is fueled by his deep love for his community, driving him to fight for equity and empowerment in all spheres of life. Julio Evans’ passion for family, community, and the pursuit of a more just society is a testament to his unwavering commitment to creating a better world for all.

apostrophebeats

apostrophebeats orchestra is the live ensemble version of the continuing apostrophebeats electronic music project. In some iterations, the band plays along to pre-recorded tracks composed by group leader apostrophebeats; in their capacity as an improvising ensemble, members (a rotating cast of saxophones, violins, guitars, and drum sets) take cues from the live electronic manipulations performed by apostrophebeats to add shimmering, expansive washes of sound on top of a chaotic bed of noisy digital information. The group draws upon genre influences from jazz fusion, post-rock, classical minimalism, and free improvisation to create a hazy, jaggedly psychedelic sound experience.

Bee Side Cassettes

Bee Side Cassettes is a “micro-label” by local musician and recording engineer Dan Paoletti (aka apostrophebeats). Since 2015 the label has been issuing cassettes from across a variety of genres, highlighting local (or formerly local) artists such as Belle-Skinner, Another Michael, they are gutting a body of water, and Bruiser & Bicycle, as well as eclectic releases from artists from around the North Eastern US and as far afield as Arizona, Washington, and Illinois. Their physical merchandise is available at local record stores as well as on their Bandcamp page.

Thanks to our sponsors!

Saratoga Arts made this program possible through the Community Arts Regrant Program, funded by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

More Information improvspaces.org