Beacon concerts showcase five innovators
James Keepnews always wanted to curate a solo piano festival and now the wish comes to fruition. On each of the five Saturdays in March, his production company, Elysium Furnace Works, will present an eclectic collection of performers at St. Andrew and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Beacon.
On Saturday (March 1), the first concert will feature Dave Burrell, 84, a pioneer with Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and David Murray, who steered jazz in new directions from the 1960s to the ’80s.
After bouncing around the Hudson Valley over the decades, Keepnews landed in Hyde Park. But he lived in Cold Spring for a spell and served on the board of The Chapel Restoration and was in Beacon for six years until 2018, where he founded the Monday jazz series at Quinn’s. “People think of me as a jazz person but put me in a box and I’ll try to break out,” he says.
Drawn to the avant-garde, Keepnews helped establish Elysium Furnace Works eight years ago with Mike Falloon and Steve Ventura, a former co-owner of Quinn’s, who moved west last year.
Over time, Keepnews and his partners promoted shows at the Howland Cultural Center, worked with Story Screen before it moved to Catskill and rented a Main Street yoga studio because of its great acoustics. “DIY ’til I die!” he says.
The church sanctuary is another beautiful space with a nice piano, he says. “We tune it before every show and that’s it, there’s no other equipment necessary.”
The performers booked for the March series are associated with jazz and its improvisational, free-form underpinnings.
Kris Davis (March 8) won a Grammy in 2023 for best jazz instrumental album. After transitioning from classical to jazz, she recorded 24 albums as a leader or co-leader, some of which draw from rock, R&B, electronica, spoken word and free improvisation, returning to her classical roots as a composer.
Also veering from classical to jazz (and African music), Bronx-based Alexis Marcelo (March 15) has collaborated with GZA, a member of rap group Wu-Tang Clan.
Another pianist who switched from classical training to jazz studies, Eri Yamamoto (March 22) toured the world and earned praise from Herbie Hancock. Jamie Saft (March 29) played with rocker Iggy Pop and experimenters John Zorn and Marc Ribot.
Pursuing his offbeat bent, Keepnews knows that “non-commercial music suffers in today’s marketplace. The culture on our screens comes in bubbles: social media bubbles, ideological bubbles and musical bubbles because Spotify and other delivery systems are too curated,” he says. “We’re dedicated to popping as many bubbles as possible.”
The Beacon festival will be followed by six concerts produced by Elysium Furnace Works at the Cunneen-Hacket Arts Center in Poughkeepsie between May and December.
St. Andrew & St. Luke is located at 15 South Ave. in Beacon. Each show begins at 8 p.m.; tickets are $20 at dub.sh/efw-beacon.
