SHAFT
Live with Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber

originally presented by The Apollo

Motion Picture Copyright: Warner Bros. Pictures

Original Score Performed Live with Film
SYMPHONIC CINEMA, ORCHESTRAL PROGRAMS

Manager: Jean-Jacques Cesbron
Territory: North America

ABOUT

This unique musical-cinematic experience breathes new life into the 1971 the classic film, Shaft, with a live performance that showcases the funk and sensuality of Isaac Hayes’ Academy Award-winning score.

The title song, "Theme from Shaft,” easily ranks among the most memorable feature film themes of our time. It shot to #1 on the Billboard Top 40, and also won a Grammy Award for “Best Original Song.”

Shaft marked a milestone in Hollywood with a Black American director at the film’s helm, and the main character acting as a heroic Black detective taking on the mob and corrupt police force.

Fifty years later, Shaft – the film and soundtrack— continue to serve as cultural touchstones.

Shaft Live made its debut at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem on February 29, 2020. It was a sold-out event in true Harlem style-- the audience came dressed to impress in their best 1970s Black-inspired fashion.

About Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber  

Founded by Village Voice icon Greg "Ionman" Tate and co-led with Dayton Ohio monster groove bassist Jared Michael Nickerson, Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber is a sprawling band of musicians whose prodigious output spans a wide swath of genres from the experimental to soul, jazz, rock and hip hop.

Their musical excursions have taken them to venues and festivals such as The Royal Festival Hall, The Marquee Club and The Brighton Music Festival in England, Musique de Nuits, Banlieues Bleues and the Sons d’hiver Festivals in France, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Sardegna e Jazz Festival in Sardinia Italy, Los Angeles's Hammer Museum and San Francisco Jazz Center in California, Serralves Em Festa in Porto Portugal, The Concert of Colors in Detroit, Michigan, The Museum of Contemporary Art and The Empty Bottle in Chicago, Illinois, Club Paradox in Tilburg, Netherlands, Temple University, The University of Pennsylvania and The Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jazz Al Dia in San Sebastian, Spain, The Walker Art Center and Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario and The Guelph Jazz Festival in Canada, New Jersey Performance Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey, Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut, AFRO PUNK Festival,The Brooklyn Museum,The Apollo Theater, Central Park Summerstage and Lincoln Center in New York City, New York. 

Pino Saulo of Italian National Radio Rai Radio 3 says  "Listening/watching Burnt Sugar playing live is an intense, amazing experience.  The passionate, playful, committed way each artist interacts with the others, their deep respect both for the music and for the other members of the band is a show in itself.  A band of equals, where every single unique note is part of the game.  If there existed a place where Sun Ra’s Arkestra would meet George Clinton’s Funkadelic/Parliament it's there you will find Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber.”

Described by Rolling Stone as "a fleet-footed big band, sliding and swaggering through galactic R&B, brawny jazz, and electric funk like a Sun Ra–sized spin on Miles Davis’s On the Corner band," 

David Fricke of Rolling Stone calls them “a multiracial jam army that freestyles with cool telekinesis between the lustrous menace of Miles Davis’ On The Corner, the slash-and-om of 1970s King Crimson, and Jimi Hendrix’ moonwalk across side three of Electric Ladyland.”


Robert Christgau says “Its electric Miles with soul, Maggot Brain with a PHD, the Hendrix Evans band of dreams, the underwater funk some hear in A.R. Kane.

Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber Personnel
Shaft Edition (19 Players)

Conductor
Greg Tate

Vocals
Shelley Nicole
Abby Dobson
Julie Brown
Mikel Banks
Bruce Mack

Horns
Lewis ‘Flip’ Barnes, Trumpet
V. Jeffrey Smith, Alto & Tenor Saxes
‘Moist’ Paula Henderson, Bari Sax
J.S. Williams, Trombone

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LINKS

Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber
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