Tickets
General: $30
Members: $25
Student/Youth (18 and under): $15
CONCERT: 7 PM
DOORS OPEN: 6:30 PM
For Living Lovers, the acoustic duo of guitarist/composer Brandon Ross and acoustic bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi comes to the East End! The stringed duo, primarily based out of New York City, has gained international success performing and recording in Japan, U.S., and Europe receiving rave reviews for their uniquely adventurous musical “sound-world”. The music of For Living Lovers, developed from the worlds of Jazz and Creative Music, will carry you into the gestures and rhythms of sound and silence, as they reveal hidden depths in Ross’s compositions and layer each moment with keen intentionality and poise.
Join us for a concert of post-fusion contemporary music and learn why Brad Farberman of JAZZ TIMES Magazine says “…For Living Lovers is an intimate project. The conversations are quiet and deep. Not everything is said out loud, and there is mystery present; often when you think you’ve got a hold on the music, it slips away from you…”
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Founded in 2002, the duo developed while Ross and Takeishi were band members in visionary composer, Pulitzer Prize winner and NEA Jazz Master, Henry Threadgill’s quintet, “Make A Move”. Realization of a shared musical sensibility and the subsequent influence of playing string instruments designed by legendary luthier Steve Klein, Ross and Takeishi premiered their collaboration in 2002 at the cutting edge, “mashup” venue, Tonic on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. After the tenure with Threadgill, Ross featured the duo in his compositions on two of his solo records, for the Japanese label, Intoxicate, Costume in 2004 and Puppet, 2006. Those recordings led to unique collaborations, concerts, recordings and tours of Japan. Ross and Takeishi worked with Classical guitarist, Daisuke Suzuki and Maki Takemitsu (daughter of composer Toru Takemitsu) to produce, record/interpret, and tour the film music of the composer, For the Love and Soul of Toru Takemitsu (2006, Intoxicate Records) playing the prestigious Saito-Kinen Festival in Nagano, Japan, and bringing Creative Music and improvisation into some of Japan’s renowned contemporary music concert halls. For living lovers continued performing as an acoustic duo in the US and Japan and engaged another cross-cultural collaboration with Swedish vocalist/composer, Maria Winther, under the banner, “OuTLINE”, featuring Winther’s and Ross’s vocal compositions with arrangements by the collective. In 2014 the duo released their debut full length document “Revealing Essence” on Sunnyside Records, USA to superlative reviews. Cited as “… another masterpiece…” – Jon Garrat, Pop Matters; “… (the duo’s) music felt expansive and spacious, setting the stage for an immersive sort of listening.” – Nate Chinen, Jazz Blues News; “Ross and Takeishi played a set eschewing bebop conventions for a more flexible approach to melodic and harmonic variation…” TG, New York City Jazz Record; “… he (Ross) and Takeishi create tandem waves of sound that mimic a sitar one moment and a Tibetan singing bowl the next.” – Jennifer Odell, Downbeat Magazine. In 2014, Ross/For Living Lovers received a Chamber Music America, New Jazz Works Grant, for which Ross composed a 10-part song cycle, “Immortal Obsolescence” with an extended edition of the duo, to include cornet and drum set, paired with the photographic images of Venezuelan photographer Carolina Muñoz. The work premiered in October 2017 at Roulette Intermedium, NYC. In 2019 For Living Lovers was invited to perform in the Progressive Chamber Music Festival in NYC, and the WBGO Jazz RADIO concert series at the YAMAHA MUSIC SALON, NYC. Since the return to activities post-pandemic, the duo has performed at NYC venues, The Jazz Gallery; Roulette Intermedium and Coffey Street Studio.
The duo has performed in multiple editions of The New York Guitar Festival and in The Noguchi Museum Concert Series produced and curated by Bang On A Can. Following a Summer residency stay at Avaloch Music Institute in New Hampshire, Ross and Takeishi were invited to perform in The Viljandi International Guitar Festival in Estonia in 2023. For Living Lovers is presently curating a new recording of live performances for a 2025 release.
Brandon Ross is an ASCAP writer/publisher member; a guitar faculty member at the School for Jazz & Contemporary Music at The New School, NYC, and leads the ensembles, Brandon Ross PENDULUM; Brandon Ross’ “Phantom Station”; co-leads, Breath Of Air with Charles Burnham and Warren Benbow and the Avant power trio, HARRIET TUBMAN with Melvin Gibbs and JT Lewis.