Syracuse/Siegel Duo Presents Special Guests David Lopato & Kenny Wessel!
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Bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff "Siege" Siegel welcome the amazing musicians David Lopato (piano) and Kenny Wessell (guitar) to their monthly jazz residency at Catskill Mountain Pizza Company (now in their 12th year!). There is no cover charge and just one set of music from 7:30 - 9:00 pm. Get there early for a seat and some of the best Italian Food and drink in the Hudson Valley!
DAVID LOPATO‘s music reflects an involvement with such diverse forms as modern jazz, stride piano, avant-garde classical music, blues, latin and various world musics, most notably those of Indonesia, where he has lived and studied Javanese gamelan. His love of these seemingly disparate traditions has resulted in a body of music that is both universal and personal. Although his main instrument is piano, his interest in other, more exotic timbres has led him to explore new techniques for “preparing” the piano, as well as incorporate other percussion instruments and electronics into his work. He has worked extensively with computers, MIDI, and related digital media to facilitate the creation and realization of his own music and that of other musicians. His performances include forays into the theatrical realm, including the full-length monologue “Small Matters of Life and Death”.
David Lopato was born in 1954 in Brooklyn, NY. His studies include a B.A. in music composition from Yale University, graduate work in composition and African drumming at California Institute of the Arts and Javanese gamelan at Akademie Seni Krawitan Indonesia in Surakarta, Java where he spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar. He has performed his own compositions throughout the world as a soloist, leader of his own trio, quintet and ten-piece ensembles. Major venues which have presented performances of his music include Westdeutsche Rundfunk, Netherlands National Radio, Radio France, National Public Radio, De Singel, Stedelijk Museum, The Kroller-Muller Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, The Kitchen Center, Symphony Space and The Vancouver Jazz Festival.
As a pianist he has worked with Ray Anderson, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Mark Helias, Jane Ira Bloom, Tyshawn Sorey, Gerry Hemingway, David Mott, Wadada Leo Smith, Steve Gorn, Marty Ehrlich and Steve Reich. He has received much recognition as a composer, having been awarded several grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for both jazz and classical music. In addition, he has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The Beards Fund and numerous grants from Meet The Composer. Recordings as a leader include Giant Mbira, Inside/Outside, The Standard Line (with David Mott), Many Moons, Gending For a Spirit Rising, and the recently released Short Stories, all, except for The Standard Line, released on the Global Coolant label.
Lopato has also written music for television, film and commercials, scores for dance and theatre companies, and collaborations with poet Ruth Danon and the Dutch artist Roland Schimmel. Their collaboration Blind Spot for computer-generated animation and audio was presented at the 2005 Kleurbeurs Exhibitiion at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam. His expertise in the realm of MIDI programming has enhanced recording projects for such clients as Sony Classical and Daichi Kosho Japan. From 1990-2010 he was the producer of the concert series at InHouse, a performance space in downtown Manhattan devoted to modern improvised music. Since 1991, he has been on the faculty of the Jazz and Contemporary Music Department of the The New School University in New York City where he has taught courses ranging from music theory, composition, and ear training to film scoring and the use of computer technology in music. He also taught on the faculty of Montclair State University from 2007-2013 where he lectured on world music history and jazz history.
In 2020, after 42 years of loft-living in downtown Manhattan, Lopato relocated to upstate NY. He currently lives in Bearsville, a stone’s throw from Woodstock, with his wife of 38 years, Barbara Freedgood and their aussiedoodle, Gracie.
Ken Wessel is a versatile, sensitive and soulful guitarist and composer. A vital and personal voice on the jazz guitar, Wessel has been involved in projects playing jazz, ranging from straight-ahead to free music. Ken is also very interested in creating and investigating points of intersection between jazz and Indian music and has performed and recorded with musicians from various parts of the globe. He has performed in 27 countries at major jazz festivals, concert halls and in radio and television appearances.
Wessel worked with revolutionary jazz artist Ornette Coleman for over 12 years (1988-2000), touring the world as a member of Prime Time, Ornette’s groundbreaking ensemble. Ken can be heard on Ornette Coleman’s critically acclaimed Polygram/Verve CD, Tone Dialing. Performing “Skies of America,” Ornette Coleman’s seminal work for symphony orchestra and jazz ensemble, Ken has appeared with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. Ken can also be heard on Steely Dan frontman, Donald Fagen’s album, Morph the Cat as a featured guitar soloist. He has worked with artists from different shades of the jazz spectrum, including John Abercrombie, David Liebman, Gloria Lynne, Arthur and Red Prysock, Karl Berger, Steve Gorn, Adam Rudolph, Hamid Drake, Steve Turre and Johnny Hartmann.
Ken has a strong interest in world music, particularly with North Indian music, and he has performed with Debashish Bhattacharya, Karaikudi Mani, V.M. Bhatt, Samir Chatterjee and others. Wessel co-leads a trio with jazz tabla master Badal Roy and bassist Stomu Takeishi. Their CD, Daybreak, was included in JAZZIZ magazine’s Top 10 Critic’s Picks of 1998. They have performed together extensively throughout North America. In 1995, Ken and Badal toured India and the U.S. with their composition, “Testimony,” which was commissioned by the Battery Dance Company. As a U.S. Jazz Ambassador, Ken has toured South Asia and South America, visiting India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bengladesh and Venezuela in 2002-03.
He is an active composer (he has received numerous “Meet the Composer” grants) and his original music has an organic and evocative quality. Wessel recently released Unstrung on Nonotes Records, which features Lisa Parrott and Adam Kolker on saxophones, Matt Pavolka on bass and Russ Meissner on drums. His earlier release, Weights & Measures on Nonotes Records, which features Joel Frahm (sax), Brad Jones (bass) and Kenny Wollesen (drums), got 4 stars in Downbeat magazine. Jawboning (CIMP), with bassist, Ken Filiano and drummer, Lou Grassi, investigates the boundaries between freedom and structure.
A dedicated jazz educator, Ken currently teaches at Western Connecticut State University (in Danbury) and at CCNY, in addition to the New York Jazz Workshop. He has given clinics and Master classes at numerous institutions in the U.S. and overseas, including Yale University, Manhattan School of Music, ISCMS Festival, Istanbul, Turkey, the Jazz Education Network Conference, Atlanta, GA, Mahaidol University in Thailand, the Music Academy in Oslo, Norway, and Columbia University.
Bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff “Siege” Siegel are a rhythm teach that has accompanied countless artists over the past 30 years including Kurt Elling, Sheila Jordan, Mose Allison, Dave Stryker, Vic Juris, Karl Berger, Lee Shaw, Nick Brignola, Ali Ryerson, Peter Levin and more. Individually Rich’s credits include Joey Calderazzo, Dave Liebman, Michael Musilami, Jeff “Tain” Watts and many more. Siegel has performed with Kenny Burrell, Dave Douglas, Stefon Harris, Sir Roland Hanna, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Joanne Brackeen and several others. Their teaching credits currently include Skidmore College, SUNY New Paltz, The New School, Western Connecticut State University, Vassar College, Bard College and The Hotchkiss School
DAVID LOPATO‘s music reflects an involvement with such diverse forms as modern jazz, stride piano, avant-garde classical music, blues, latin and various world musics, most notably those of Indonesia, where he has lived and studied Javanese gamelan. His love of these seemingly disparate traditions has resulted in a body of music that is both universal and personal. Although his main instrument is piano, his interest in other, more exotic timbres has led him to explore new techniques for “preparing” the piano, as well as incorporate other percussion instruments and electronics into his work. He has worked extensively with computers, MIDI, and related digital media to facilitate the creation and realization of his own music and that of other musicians. His performances include forays into the theatrical realm, including the full-length monologue “Small Matters of Life and Death”.
David Lopato was born in 1954 in Brooklyn, NY. His studies include a B.A. in music composition from Yale University, graduate work in composition and African drumming at California Institute of the Arts and Javanese gamelan at Akademie Seni Krawitan Indonesia in Surakarta, Java where he spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar. He has performed his own compositions throughout the world as a soloist, leader of his own trio, quintet and ten-piece ensembles. Major venues which have presented performances of his music include Westdeutsche Rundfunk, Netherlands National Radio, Radio France, National Public Radio, De Singel, Stedelijk Museum, The Kroller-Muller Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, The Kitchen Center, Symphony Space and The Vancouver Jazz Festival.
As a pianist he has worked with Ray Anderson, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Mark Helias, Jane Ira Bloom, Tyshawn Sorey, Gerry Hemingway, David Mott, Wadada Leo Smith, Steve Gorn, Marty Ehrlich and Steve Reich. He has received much recognition as a composer, having been awarded several grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for both jazz and classical music. In addition, he has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The Beards Fund and numerous grants from Meet The Composer. Recordings as a leader include Giant Mbira, Inside/Outside, The Standard Line (with David Mott), Many Moons, Gending For a Spirit Rising, and the recently released Short Stories, all, except for The Standard Line, released on the Global Coolant label.
Lopato has also written music for television, film and commercials, scores for dance and theatre companies, and collaborations with poet Ruth Danon and the Dutch artist Roland Schimmel. Their collaboration Blind Spot for computer-generated animation and audio was presented at the 2005 Kleurbeurs Exhibitiion at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam. His expertise in the realm of MIDI programming has enhanced recording projects for such clients as Sony Classical and Daichi Kosho Japan. From 1990-2010 he was the producer of the concert series at InHouse, a performance space in downtown Manhattan devoted to modern improvised music. Since 1991, he has been on the faculty of the Jazz and Contemporary Music Department of the The New School University in New York City where he has taught courses ranging from music theory, composition, and ear training to film scoring and the use of computer technology in music. He also taught on the faculty of Montclair State University from 2007-2013 where he lectured on world music history and jazz history.
In 2020, after 42 years of loft-living in downtown Manhattan, Lopato relocated to upstate NY. He currently lives in Bearsville, a stone’s throw from Woodstock, with his wife of 38 years, Barbara Freedgood and their aussiedoodle, Gracie.
Ken Wessel is a versatile, sensitive and soulful guitarist and composer. A vital and personal voice on the jazz guitar, Wessel has been involved in projects playing jazz, ranging from straight-ahead to free music. Ken is also very interested in creating and investigating points of intersection between jazz and Indian music and has performed and recorded with musicians from various parts of the globe. He has performed in 27 countries at major jazz festivals, concert halls and in radio and television appearances.
Wessel worked with revolutionary jazz artist Ornette Coleman for over 12 years (1988-2000), touring the world as a member of Prime Time, Ornette’s groundbreaking ensemble. Ken can be heard on Ornette Coleman’s critically acclaimed Polygram/Verve CD, Tone Dialing. Performing “Skies of America,” Ornette Coleman’s seminal work for symphony orchestra and jazz ensemble, Ken has appeared with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. Ken can also be heard on Steely Dan frontman, Donald Fagen’s album, Morph the Cat as a featured guitar soloist. He has worked with artists from different shades of the jazz spectrum, including John Abercrombie, David Liebman, Gloria Lynne, Arthur and Red Prysock, Karl Berger, Steve Gorn, Adam Rudolph, Hamid Drake, Steve Turre and Johnny Hartmann.
Ken has a strong interest in world music, particularly with North Indian music, and he has performed with Debashish Bhattacharya, Karaikudi Mani, V.M. Bhatt, Samir Chatterjee and others. Wessel co-leads a trio with jazz tabla master Badal Roy and bassist Stomu Takeishi. Their CD, Daybreak, was included in JAZZIZ magazine’s Top 10 Critic’s Picks of 1998. They have performed together extensively throughout North America. In 1995, Ken and Badal toured India and the U.S. with their composition, “Testimony,” which was commissioned by the Battery Dance Company. As a U.S. Jazz Ambassador, Ken has toured South Asia and South America, visiting India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bengladesh and Venezuela in 2002-03.
He is an active composer (he has received numerous “Meet the Composer” grants) and his original music has an organic and evocative quality. Wessel recently released Unstrung on Nonotes Records, which features Lisa Parrott and Adam Kolker on saxophones, Matt Pavolka on bass and Russ Meissner on drums. His earlier release, Weights & Measures on Nonotes Records, which features Joel Frahm (sax), Brad Jones (bass) and Kenny Wollesen (drums), got 4 stars in Downbeat magazine. Jawboning (CIMP), with bassist, Ken Filiano and drummer, Lou Grassi, investigates the boundaries between freedom and structure.
A dedicated jazz educator, Ken currently teaches at Western Connecticut State University (in Danbury) and at CCNY, in addition to the New York Jazz Workshop. He has given clinics and Master classes at numerous institutions in the U.S. and overseas, including Yale University, Manhattan School of Music, ISCMS Festival, Istanbul, Turkey, the Jazz Education Network Conference, Atlanta, GA, Mahaidol University in Thailand, the Music Academy in Oslo, Norway, and Columbia University.
Bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff “Siege” Siegel are a rhythm teach that has accompanied countless artists over the past 30 years including Kurt Elling, Sheila Jordan, Mose Allison, Dave Stryker, Vic Juris, Karl Berger, Lee Shaw, Nick Brignola, Ali Ryerson, Peter Levin and more. Individually Rich’s credits include Joey Calderazzo, Dave Liebman, Michael Musilami, Jeff “Tain” Watts and many more. Siegel has performed with Kenny Burrell, Dave Douglas, Stefon Harris, Sir Roland Hanna, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Joanne Brackeen and several others. Their teaching credits currently include Skidmore College, SUNY New Paltz, The New School, Western Connecticut State University, Vassar College, Bard College and The Hotchkiss School
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Where is it happening?
Catskill Mountain Pizza Company, 51 Mill Hill Rd, Woodstock, NY 12498-1309, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherJeff 'Siege' Siegel
