Saturday November 21, 7:30pm
SongSpace at First Unitarian
605 Morewood Avenue in Shadyside
Tickets at uusongspace.eventbee.com, and at the door.
Kelsey Jumper and Colter Harper are two shining lights on the Pittsburgh music scene.
First Unitarian and SongSpace regulars may recognize Kelsey as an occasional member of the UU Community Singers, Ames Harding & the Mirage or the Afro Yaqui Music Collective. But you can also find Kelsey driving the beat with Timbeleza, singing jazz, global music or country at City of Asylum, Con Alma, or the Pittsburgh Honky Tonk Jukebox, or in theatre ensembles ranging from Squonk Opera to Quantum Theater.
Colter Harper is a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Buffalo, and a former resident of and frequent visitor to Pittsburgh. He has performed extensively including touring as a guitarist, percussionist, and vocalist with the multi-platinum selling, world music influenced rock band Rusted Root. In 2020, Colter completed a Fulbright Scholar position in the University of Ghana’s Department of Music where his work bridged music production, audio archiving, and modern musical practice in Accra.
Kelsey and Colter have worked in tandem since ‘22 building musical sets that celebrate American jazz, American folk and country music, Brazilian jazz and a junk drawer bursting with other things they like. They’ve been commissioned by The Carnegie Museum of Art to explore the intersection of country and soul music, and have developed two bodies of work (‘Opposites Abstract’ and ‘Planes, Trains, Automobiles, Busses, Bikes, and Inclines too!’) which include concerts, storytelling, video and physical installation in residency with The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum under the collective moniker ‘the cookie table’. They’ve presented at The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh’s Honky Tonk, Con Alma, The Kelly Strayhorn Theater and The Duquesne Club.
At SongSpace they will perform music of Brazil – bossa, samba, MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) and a little mixed bag of other goodies – featuring the music of Caetano Veloso, a Brazilian singer-songwriter, musician, writer, and anti-authoritarian political activist.
More information: uusongspace.com