Live Music with Lee Mixashawn Rozie & Nina Gross [summer@lava]

Lee Mixashawn Rozie has been a practicing multi-disciplinary and internationally acclaimed Jazz artist for the past four decades. Mr. Rozie holds a degree in History and Ethnomusicology from Trinity College and is equally at home in academic and cultural settings. Beginning from the point of Indigenous artist, using ancient cultural principles, maritime arts and historical data, both written and oral, he has developed a system of “Hemispheric Principles” to inform and guide his artform, more directly referred to as “Wave Art”: sonic, aquatic percussive and harmonic. Mixashawn offers musical performance and educational workshops on Indigenous music traditional and contemporary, as well as original, workshops that utilize his extensive experience as performer, Indigenous artist and educator to inspire creativity and natural expression for all ages. www.mixashawn.com

Joining Mixashawn is musical artist and poet, Nina Gross. Nina grew up in the Hudson Valley in a musical home and community that valued the arts. As a child, Nina was drawn to the viola for its depth, finding it to be an expressive instrument that can sing to the soul, much as the human voice. Nina teaches classical music locally and you may see her performing poetry at open mics. Nina especially enjoys the immediacy of improvisation. “If I center myself at the core of the music and the lyric, breathing in that space, I can engage with my heart and ear, allowing it to move through me in an open exploration.” In decades past, Nina was a member Mixashawn’s band, Afro Algonquin.

Nina and Mixashawn will perform a combination of traditional Native vocal music and jazz fusion.

This is a free concert, funded by the Crossroads Cultural District and Mass Cultural Council (MCC). Donations are appreciated.