“It is a hard and obvious truth that people of color are
under-represented in the environmental movement. It is
also a hard and obvious truth that violent crime and poor
education pose more of an imminent danger to most poor
neighborhoods than environmental crisis. I personally am
of the belief that the movement for social change and
environmental accountability are one and the same, that
focusing on steps to sustain the planet ultimately force us
to envision a pathway to sustaining humanity.”
– Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Tickets: http://atlasarts.org/events/2011/07/red-black-green-a-blues-rbgb/

Introducing

ArtsEngage
@
INTERSECTIONS 2014
Atlas Performing Arts Center

INTERSECTIONS offers a unique context for the development and presentation of your work. “Intersecting” with audiences, engaging with the community and collaborating with other festival performers is key to the spirit and success of our festival. We invite you to envision how you can best deepen the experience of your audiences while learning more about your work, your process and your impact.

Our three categories of ArtsEngage activities offer you three different levels of commitment to engagement activities. Note that each level builds upon the other, i.e. all artists participate in #1 (Meet the Artist). You can choose to add on #2 (Audience Engager). Then you can add on #3 (Community Connector). But you cannot do #3 without doing #2.

Note that your box office percentage is dependent upon your level of participation and the successful implementation of your plan.

ArtsEngage Categories:


1. Meet the Artist (60% of the box office)
All selected festival artists will participate in this category. You will be scheduled for 2 hours in the “Artist Intersection” – a designated place and time in the festival Lobby for casual interactions with audiences. One to three company / artist members will attend on a day other than your performance day.

2. Audience Engager (70% of the box office)
If you choose this category, in addition to your “Meet the Artist” date, you will do one of the following:
(Note: You are welcome to do more than one. But you must choose at least one activity from Audience Processing or from Audience Participation.)

Audience Processing

Present a pre- and/or post show audience conversation facilitated by a non-company member. Facilitator can be another festival artist (who is really great at creative group response) or be an invited facilitator (an exciting knowledgeable person about your show’s content or form.) For example, if your show explores environmental issues, your facilitator could be from Greenpeace. Think beyond the typical “talking-heads-talk-back.” Go for interactive. The minimum length is 15 minutes. Maximum time limit will be determined by festival scheduling. Please include desired time-length of conversation in your proposal.

Design a peer-to-peer post-show interaction. This is when audience members are talking to other audience members about your performance prompted by a simple activity. For example, each is given color-coded index card and told to find people with the same color in the lobby and talk about the question on the card. Or provide post-it notes before and after the show for audience members to write responses to the show in a “word collage” on a panel in the lobby. Other ideas welcome. Please note in your description if the interaction would work best in the performance space. Note that our opportunities for extended interactions are limited in the performance spaces.

Digital and/or social media pre- and post-show response: Harness the power and fun of new media. Enlist flip-camera and/or smart-phone partners (or your audience members themselves) to interview your audience pre and post show, responding to a specific prompt. (Pre-show: What do you think will be most surprising about the performance? Post-show: What surprised you the most?) Up-load to Atlas YouTube Channel on the day/night of your performance. Or, if you can interview ticket-holders in the week before the show, upload the content to help spark a conversation. Provide a simple edited collage of responses for your/our Facebook and other other social media platforms three-days post performance. Other forms of digital or social media response can be proposed, but the engagement must have depth – not just a pre- and post- show tweet. Note that the Atlas has limited capabilities to project live postings.

Audience Participation

Offer a Pre-show Workshop. In a workshop, participants learn a dance, music or other contribution to a performance and are included in your festival performance. Please include the space needed for your workshop and the desired time length. The Atlas will provide space for a pre-show workshop based on festival scheduling.

Design your performance to include Audience Participation. Can your performance end based on the audiences’ response? Can they shape the performance as it goes along? Can they come on stage and move, sing, dance, play an instrument? Can you include in your performance an open mic with MC, a jam session? This is beyond singing and clapping along. Think real, impactful participation.

Present a Post-show workshop: Invite audience members to stay to learn a dance or song, etc. from your show or explore the show’s content through an art form. For example, a movement-based workshop could invite the audience to create phrases in response to the show, a writing-based workshop could invite the audience to create poems or cartoons in response. Please include the space need for your workshop and the desired time length. The Atlas will provide space for a post-show workshop based on festival scheduling.

3. Community Connector (80% of the box office)

If you choose this category, in addition to your “Meet the Artist” date, and your one activity as an “Audience Engager,” you will do one of the following:

Co-Creator Partnership
Partner with a non-arts organization, business, community group, school or club (or more than one) for a sustained involvement in your festival project. Involve them in the development of your piece (they attend at least three rehearsals and provide response, provide input/research, provide on-line input, etc.). Involve the partner in an audience-processing event (as participants in peer-to-peer activity or facilitator(s) of post-show conversation or workshop). Examples: Your piece explores the intersection of bluegrass and tango– partner with both an Appalachian and an Argentinean cultural organization. Ask them what they might imagine the performance to be. Invite them to attend your rehearsals and give feedback, to create on-line content for your facebook page and/or to help lead the post-show conversation. Your play looks at immigration and inter-generational conflict– partner with an immigrants’ rights group and/or a social club for 20-something second-generation Americans. You piece explores ambition—partner with a young professionals group, a competitive volleyball team, and/or a youth empowerment group. Think creatively. The goal: create a conversation. See how your work is informed by your partner’s input. See how your work impacts their experience. For the proposal you do not need to have a partner(s) in place, but have a plan for the kind of partnership you envision.

Collaborative “Informances”
Present in collaboration with at least two other festival artists/companies two short (15 – 25 minute) pre-festival performance or open rehearsal in a gallery, restaurant, community center or other public venue. Include “spotlight” info-moments (when you give quick insights into the work being performed.) Include some interactive component (Guided response, a word collage, prompted peer-to-peer conversation.) For example, new music or alternative classical groups unite to create a window into their work and ask for “sketched” responses (yes, drawings!) to the music followed by informal interaction around the sketches between audience and artist; three dance companies take over a lobby in a large public space, perform, accompanied by a digital response/conversation from the audience via facebook-twitter; a poet, a dancer and a musician present an “intersection” of form and ideas at an H Street NE restaurant followed by conversation with audience.
*If selected, we will share the artist roster with you to form your collaborations prior to contracting. So base your idea on the kind of event you imagine. You will be responsible for securing the venue.

Collaborative Community Exchange
Host a class, event or forum, in collaboration with at least two other festival artists/companies, inspired by the content and/or form of your work. Examples: If all pieces include world-premiere text (new plays, new poems, new lyrics), host a writing workshop at a library, bookstore or coffee house; if all pieces embrace art as activism, host a forum on citizen artists/ the role of the arts in society at a local gallery or club; if all pieces have similar content (veterans, youth, new music), host a speaker with Q & A that probes that content. Think beyond “master class.” (This is not that.) Connect with participants outside your art form. Offer something intriguing/insightful/inspiring to a new community.
*If selected, we will share the artist roster with you to form your collaborations prior to contracting. So base your idea on the kind of event you imagine. You will be responsible for securing the venue.

To conclude:
For the proposal, we need you to describe as specifically as you can your engagement activity plans. You will update them prior to contracting and finalize them on your “engagement rider” by late fall. One you commit to the activity, you must complete it successfully, based on pre-agreed criteria established between the artist and the festival, to receive the contracted box office percentage.

Questions: Email Mary Hall Surface, Festival Artistic Director, at intersectionsdc@atlasarts.org.

Need in-person input?
Come to one of two sessions on the proposal process, highlighting “ArtsEngage” at the Atlas:
Monday, May 20th at 11:00am
Monday, June 3rd at 7:00pm

Please RSVP to intersectionsdc@atlasarts.org to let us know which meeting you plan to attend.

INTERSECTIONS is proud to partner with the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project as part of presenting Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project created by Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd with Maurice Decaul, directed by Patricia McGregor. The Veterans History Project collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. The director of VHP, U.S. Army Colonel Retired Bob Patrick will attend the Friday, March 8th, 8pm performance of Holding it Down at INTERSECTIONS to receive the memoir of poet, veteran and Holding it Down performer Maurice Decaul on stage. Col Patrick is eager to receive the memoirs of other veterans that evening as well. INTERSECTIONS invites veterans of all wars, but most especially from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, to visit http://www.loc.gov/vets/kit.html to learn how to submit their memories to the project (written memoir, video or audio.) We welcome any veterans who would like to personally present their memories along side Marine SGT Decaul to attend the Mar 8th performance. Ticket information: https://www.vendini.com/ticket-software.html?t=tix&e=acc0cddc615c896c8964a6a5716fb8f9.

Pushing the Boundaries:
Helanius Wilkins
Theo Beckman
Holding it Down
Great Noise Ensemble

Probing Connection:
Rebellar Dance
DancEthos
SpeakeasyDC

Celebrating Heritage:
Heritage Signature Choral
Northeast Senior Singers
Orquesta La Leyenda

Straight-up Jazz Fans:
Nasar and Kush Abadey
Imani
Heidi Martin

Indian-American/South Asia:
Samia Ahmad
Spilling Ink and Kirov
Bollywood Fever
Nistha Raj

Dance as Legacy (exploring the impact on the present of forms from the past)
Xuejuan Feng: Glimpse of China
Dissonance Dance: Drum
MOVEiUS Dance: Legacy
Spilling Ink and Kirov

Singer Songwriting Gals:
The Sweater Set
Heidi Martin: The Race Card
Rachel Ann Cross and the Sparks

Turn a Hipster onto Art:
All Points West
SpeakeasyDC
Theo Blackman

Pop Dance:
Bowen McCauley
DCypher
Sole Defined

Community Connection/Social Change:
Cara Gabriel
Ron Litman
Allie Villerreal
DC Area Playwright’s Group
Split this Rock
Our City Film Festival
DC University Theatre Collaborative
All the free Youth Summit Shows

Contemporary Classical/New Music:
Atlantic Reed Consort
Capital City Symphony
Great Noise Ensemble

World Music
Elikeh
Sissoko and Segal
Tosin

Musical Intersections:
John Kocur + Herb and Hansen
Furia Flamenca: Jazz meets Flamenco
Nistha Raj, Christlyez et all.

GLBT
The Pushovers (with guest drag stars)
Allie Villerreal
Not What You Think

Film Fans:
Hesperus: The General
DC Shorts
Great Noise Ensemble (film by Bill Morrison)

In the January 7th edition of New Yorker Magazine writer Alex Ross discusses new pieces from the new music powerhouse.
Click here for the complete article.

Just don’t get jazz?
Still wondering what is new music?

Atlas Curators Brad Linde and Armando Bayolo join featured panel guests to talk about why jazz and new music are perfect for Washington.

Featured Panelists include:
Amy K. Bormet
Director, Washington Women
in Jazz Festival

Luke Stewart
Co-founder, CapitalBop.com

and more.

The event is free, but reservations are required. Please call 202.399.7993 ext. 2.

The Atlas Performing Arts Center was awarded the Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Service to the Arts last night. The award was shared with the Washington Performing Arts Society.

Atlas Executive Director Sam Sweet shared the following thoughts when accepting the award:

I’m Sam Sweet, Executive Director.

On behalf of our founder Jane Lang, the Board of Directors, terrific staff and great artists at the Atlas, thank you very much.

We’re honored to have been included in this distinguished group, so congratulations to our fellow nominees.

A lot has changed on H Street and we’re proud to have played a part in the revitalization. But our lasting goal is to strengthen the cultural revitalization of the community.
The Atlas is home to adventurous artists, audiences and ideas and we believe that the arts can bring people together to share these ideas. So we provide subsidized spaces to enable artists to do their work. We provide affordable tickets to audiences to enable them to see the work.

Through the arts we create connections to bring people together – and build community.

If you’ve been, than you know. If you haven’t, please come visit, experience it and be a part.

Thank you again for your support and thank you again for this recognition.

The Atlas is once again participating in the H Street Festival!

With a stage and cafe set up under the historic marquee the Atlas will be a perfect spot to stop and enjoy a drink, a snack and some performances during the city’s most exciting street festival.

In our theatres there will be additional opportunities to engage with our arts partners and friends.

The Atlas schedule for the day is:

Marquee Stage
12:00pm – Boogie Babes with Bridgette Michaels
1:00pm – Tosin
2:00pm – American Youth Chorus
3:00 – Washington Savoyards present selections from The Rocky Horror Show
3:30pm – Alpha Dog Blues
4:15pm -Congressional Chorus
4:30pm – Just Tap
5:30pm – Jazz jam session with Brad Linde

Lobby
Capitol Hill Arts Workshop
Children’s Art Activities
12:00pm – 5:00pm

Joy of Motion Dance Floor
12:00 p.m. Hip Hop Performance
12:30 p.m. World Dance Class Demonstration/Performance
1:00 p.m. AfroBeat Class Demonstration with Sylvana Christopher
1:30 p.m. Hip Hop Class Demonstration with Namaad Jackson
2:00 p.m. Tap Dancing with Tamara Henry
2:30 p.m. Zumba with Treenan Wynter
3 p.m. Dance with JOMDC’s resident adult hip hop company DCypher Dance
3:30 p.m. Contemporary African Class Demonstration with Taurus Broadhurst
4:00 p.m. Jazz Class Demonstration with Vincent Williams
4:30 p.m. Zumba Party with Tanya Nuchols

Lang Theatre
DC Shorts Film Festival

Lab Theatre 2
2:00 pm Step Afrika Workshop
4:15 pm “The President’s Own” Marine String Quartet Performance and Q and A

Sprenger Theatre
1:00pm Zip Zap Circus USA
3:00pm Zip Zap Circus USA

schedule subject to change

Tonight the inaugural season of Jazz at the Atlas comes to an end with a performance by the legendary drummer Joe Chambers playing with an impressive line up of musicians otherwise known as the Moving Pictures Orchestra. While we are sad to see it come to an end for a bit we have much to look forward to because next season is even more exciting.

We asked the Jazz at the Atlas curator Brad Linde to reflect on his top ten favorite moments from this first season. It was tough to whittle an entire season to just ten moments but he managed.
This is what he shared.

1. Teddy Charles having us play “Showtime” again at “Maximum Speed”.
2. Lee Konitz eating Key Lime Pie in the Lobby before the show.
3. Mike Moreno dropping his guitar as I gave the curtain speech for Will Vinson’s Quartet.
4. Matt Wilson discovering that the ATLAS had a timpani – and using it in his performance.
5. Grachan Moncur III reciting the lyrics to his composition “Monk In Wonderland” – first time we heard it in performance.
6. Andrew Cyrille’s amazing open drum solo during the second selection.
7. Allison Miller’s performance with the WWJF All-stars and the creativity she brought to the music.
8. Having Darcy James Argue’s 18-piece Secret Society perform music from “Brooklyn Babylon”.
9. Ambrose Akinmusire’s quintet giving a stellar performance – and not bringing any CDs to sell.
10. Brian Settles and Central Union’s riveting performance.

What about you? Do you have any favorite jazz at the Atlas moments to share? Let us know!

The Rodney Richardson Trio performs tomorrow night with vocalist Lena Seikaly. The performance is a part of the DC Jazz Festival’s Jazz in the ‘Hoods series.

Rodney: The upcoming show at the Atlas Performing Arts Center of the Rodney Richardson Trio featuring vocalist Lena Seikaly, is an event I’ve been really looking forward to. First, the band is sounding better than ever. We’ve put together a lot of new material–jazz arrangements of popular classic rock tunes, indie rock tunes, new interpretations of jazz standards and now that Lena is singing with us I think we’ve achieved the sound we’ve been after since we started performing as a group. We did a show this past Tuesday in Philadelphia at Chris’ Jazz Cafe and it was a blast. I can’t wait to lead this group on the big stage of the Lang Theatre on Wednesday!

The addition of the authentic Hammond B3 organ for this performance is also really exciting. Todd Simon will be holding down the organ as well as bass sounds from behind the giant B3. We are used to a much more compact substitute in the form of a Nord keyboard which gets the job done, but there really is no substitute for the authentic sound of a B3 when it comes to an organ trio.

Finally, this performance marks a big turning point for me in that I will be leaving DC the following week to join my wife in Chicago. I’ve lived in DC for my entire life and I have been very lucky to be a part of the ever-growing jazz scene here. It will be a bittersweet departure for me because I will of course miss all of my friends and family as well as all of the incredible musicians I’ve met and performed with over the years. However, I am very excited about the prospect of exploring the jazz scene in a brand new town, with an equally established jazz legacy, and hopefully be a link between these two great jazz cities. I will certainly be back in DC whenever possible.

I am honored that this show is a part of the DC Jazz Festival. This festival has been growing every year and has contributed greatly to the advancement of jazz in DC. I hope to see all of my DC people at this show!

- Rodney Richardson

On Sunday, June 3rd, the ATLAS hosts performances by the Ted Brown Quartet and the Mark Turner Quartet, featuring two saxophonists from different generations and styles, but who both share common threads, the foremost being an unheralded tenor saxophonist from the heyday of modern jazz: Warne Marsh.

Warne Marsh (1927-1987) was raised in Los Angeles and, along with Lee Konitz, came to prominence as part of Lennie Tristano’s “cool school” in the late 1940s. Marsh’s style was the ideal expression of the Tristano philosophies, complete with long lines of pure improvisation – avoiding patterns, clichés, licks, and emotional and technical grand-standing. Marsh’s improvisations were organically constructed over a relatively small repertoire of standards. His subtle rhythmic and harmonic complexity was a unique feature of his style and inspired musicians such as Anthony Braxton and Mark Turner.

Warne was a direct extension of the innovations made by Lester Young and Charlie Parker, and he committed himself to pursuing his art without the pressures of the commercial music market. In the 1970s, he received recognition as a founding member of “Supersax”, an ensemble devoted to performing harmonized versions of Charlie Parker solos. Marsh died in 1987 while playing at Donte’s in Los Angeles.

In 2002, two books were published about Marsh. “An Unsung Cat” by Safford Chamberlin is the definitive biography, while “Out Of Nowhere” by Marcus M. Cornelius is a narrative story about Warne, inspired by his life and music. There is a comprehensive website devoted to Marsh and currently, Warne’s son K.C. Marsh is now completing a documentary on his father called “An Improvised Life”. The film includes performances and interviews with musicians that studied with and performed with Warne, as well as discussions with those that are inspired by his artistry.

Ted Brown (b. 1927), a student and contemporary of Warne’s, was part of the “First Class” of students of Lennie Tristano, even helping to physically assemble the studio at 317 E. 32nd Street where sessions were held. Ted made his first recordings with fellow classmates including trombonist Willie Dennis and pianist Ronnie Ball, he appeared with Warne on the album “Jazz of Two Cities” that included several of Ted’s original lines, and he led a date in Los Angeles with a sextet including Warne and alto saxophonist Art Pepper.

Ted’s career weaved in and out of full-time music, but he continued to perform and record with musicians like Lee Konitz, Jimmy Rainey, Hod O’Brien, Buster Williams, and Ben Riley. Most recently, Ted has released two albums on Steeplechase, “Preservation” (2002) and “Shades of Brown” (2007), and three recordings on the Japanese Marshmallow label, including the first commercial release of a 1957 live performance with Marsh and Ronnie Ball.

Ted was the subject of a New York Times feature in 2011, citing the influence and presence of the Tristano School in today’s jazz scene. His latest recording is with cornetist Kirk Knuffke and drummer Matt Wilson and will be released on Steeplechase in Fall 2012.

Mark Turner (b.1965) arrived on the scene in the early 1990s, alongside other tenormen Chris Potter, Joshua Redman, and Seamus Blake. Mark’s secret ingredient to his original style was his admiration of the underground, cool improviser Warne Marsh. Through his study of Marsh, Turner assimilated the language of the Tristano School into the post-Coltrane approach that most saxophonists had developed and maintained. What Turner shares with Marsh and Brown is the concept of organic improvisation – solos constructed as spontaneously as possible, free of licks and patterns. He works effortlessly in the altissimo range of the tenor saxophone, an extension of the basic range that Marsh was known for using. (Marsh wrote an exercise on that register and recorded it with Brown under the title “Dixie’s Dilemma.”) In addition, Turner has adopted and evolved the phrasing typical of the Tristano School – long lines with unusual shape and complex rhythmic displacement. Like Marsh, Brown, and Tristano, Turner is also an uncompromising artist dedicated to developing and maintaining his personal voice.

Mark Turner has contributed much to the bands of Kurt Rosenwinkel, the Billy Hart Quartet, and the FLY trio with Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard, among many others. He has several albums as a leader on the Criss Cross and Warner Brothers labels and several recent sideman appearances on ECM, including “All Our Reasons” by the Billy Hart Quartet, and a new FLY album due out this month, entitled “Year of the Snake”.

Mark’s new as-yet-unrecorded quartet features bassist Joe Martin, drummer Marcus Gilmore and the trumpet of Avishai Cohen (Ambrose Akinmusire is filling in for the touring Cohen on Sunday). NPR has broadcast Mark Turner’s Village Vanguard appearances, including this one, with Paul Motian.

–
Brad Linde
Saxophonist, Educator, Bandleader
Curator, “Jazz At the ATLAS”

Jazz at the Atlas curator Brad Linde recently spoke with pianist and pianist Dan Tepfer. He is performing Wednesday May 30 at the Atlas with drummer Ted Poor and bassist Ben Street.

Here are Brad and Dan performing at Caffe Vivaldi in New York City.

Brad: How does your approach to improvising/accompanying/etc change based on the different contexts you encounter?

Dan: The essence of improvisation is context. That’s what’s special about it. Since it’s happening in real time, since we’re actually making music up on the spot, at its deepest level it should reflect everything about the current moment. I’m not only talking about the note choices that my bandmates make, and that I respond to; I’m also talking about subtle things like the sound of the room we’re playing in, what we’ve eaten that day, how we’ve slept, and what the weather is like outside. In improvisation, we have the opportunity to take all this into account at an intuitive level. It’s exactly like having a conversation with a group of people: depending on how noisy the room is, how well you know the people, the general vibe, you’ll participate in a unique way — if you’re really listening, that is (we all know people who seem oblivious to context, interrupting and forcing their point across). So I see the challenge of improvisation as listening to the current context in as sensitive and authentic a way as possible, and letting myself respond. The other side of this challenge is to be able to find yourself in that context: not to give in to it completely but to find the balance between it and who you are.

Brad: Your compositions are very lyrical, but they have a theoretical underpinning. What is your process behind composing?

Dan: It really depends. I’ve written tunes by coming up with a theoretical idea and more or less filling in the blanks; I’ve written tunes that came to me in a dream; I’ve written tunes that seemed like a joke at the time but that I came to like later. What’s interesting to me is that no matter what my approach is, they always seem to have a common vibe of some sort. I wrote a piano concerto in early 2010, and I didn’t feel like writing much else for the rest of the year. When I started writing tunes again, I was surprised by what came out — a lot of what I was writing didn’t seem to fit the mold of what I thought I should be writing. It took me a little while to realize that I had evolved as a composer, and that my previous ideas about what a tune should be didn’t apply anymore. The fact that one can surprise oneself as a composer is what’s fascinating to me: you are, in a way, divided in two when you write, and one part of you can sneak up on the other without it knowing it. Those kinds of moments remind me that our creativity essentially comes from the same place as our dreams — a place we just don’t control. Or, if we do control it, it goes stale, fast.

Brad: 3. Can you describe your approach to reharmonizing or recreating harmony when improvising?

Dan: I think improvisation gets deep when, instead of being merely a rendition of a tune, it’s a commentary on it: instead of a reading of the text, it’s the artist telling you how he or she feels about the text. Then the music starts to get layered and multidimensional — there’s a frame and freedom inside the frame. Like hearing a story second hand from a particularly inventive storyteller. That informs my approach to reharmonization: I see the tune going from chord A to chord B, and I think, well, the composer liked to go from A to B this way, but how do I feel about that? Well, I like to go there this way! So in the end, there’s a distillation of the will of the composer, since I’m still following the broad strokes of his or her roadmap, and there’s also my own personal taste running havoc inside the map. My commentary on the original, in other words. Thinking about it this way, I think the harmonic possibilities are endless. I’ve also spent a lot of time over the years training my ear to hear new harmonies, and that really helps widen the field for me. There aren’t too many combinations of notes out there that don’t have a harmonic identity, however dense and impenetrable they may sound at first.

Brad: Your piano playing often breaks from the standard texture of “comping”. Can you talk about how you conceive of different textures when you are playing?

Dan: I remember being explained, in my teens, that Bach wrote music based on the popular dance forms of his time. Right away, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to write a series of extended pieces for piano based on the popular dance forms of my time? One for rap, another for drum n’ bass, another for rock, techno, funk, hip hop… I never got around to really carrying that out — although I still might someday — but in the mean time, I’ve used this idea in my playing a lot. One of the trio tunes on my latest record, Peal Repeal, is a transcription of a drum n’ bass groove for piano, with dark harmony. Another, All I Heard Was Nothing, is based on the texture of early Steve Reich-esque minimalist music. So I get a lot of mileage out of checking textures out that are outside of the jazz world and seeing if I can find a place for them in my music.

Brad: You’ve played in the DC area often in the past few years, most recently at the Kennedy Center with Allison Miller. Do you have any thoughts on the DC Jazz Scene? Is there something that attracts you to the District?

Dan: Well, I have some very good friends there, so I love visiting them, and there are also some great local musicians that I enjoy playing with. This may just be an outsider’s impression, but it feels like there’s a lot of jazz going on in DC these days, with new venues opening up right and left. It’s great to come play in a city where there’s excitement for what you’re doing.

Dan Tepfer performs at the Atlas Wednesday may 30 at 8pm.

Long before the Atlas opened we knew that transportation parking could be an issue for some patrons. With the neighborhood’s increased popularity it has indeed proven to be a tricky situation for the Atlas. Being embedded in a community means we have neighbors who, before H Street’s renaissance, were used to parking close to their homes and now find it difficult to park on their own streets in the evenings. Atlas is also home to many large performing organizations, such as the Congressional Chorus and the Capital City Symphony, which rehearse on a weekly basis. And of course many of the patrons who attend performances live far away from the Atlas and often prefer to drive here.

Quite a pickle this.

The District’s Department of Transportation recently implemented a performance plan in the area surrounding the Atlas. The H Street Performance Parking zone will run from 3rd to 15th St NE and from G to I NE. Meters on H Street will be active from 7am-6:30pm Monday through Saturday for 75 cents per hour for a maximum of 4 hours. From 6:30pm-10pm Monday through Saturday meter rates will be $2 per hour without a maximum number of hours, which is helpful for our patrons who want to have dinner before their performance. The residential streets between G and I NE (from 3rd to 15th) all have zone 6-only signs, these are sometimes referred to as resident-only sign, on one side of their block (usually the north and west sides of the street) for Monday-Friday from 7am-8:30pm. The other side has a two hour limit for non zone-6 cars which can be a challenge for those attending a performance.

Recently the Atlas struck up a deal with the United House of Prayer for All Peoples Church at 1314 H Street NE to rent spaces in their lot. Now patrons can purchase a parking spot when they purchase their tickets and print out the receipt to display on their dashboard during the performance. The lot can be accessed via 13th Street NE. If you are going north, the parking lot/alley entrance is the first right once you have crossed H Street NE.
If you are going south, the parking lot/alley entrance is the last left before crossing H Street NE. To purchase parking for an upcoming event go here.

How has the parking situation affected your Atlas experience?

Kara Morrissey and Amanda Clarke are the two genius-moms behind the popular Boogie Babes music series at the Atlas and Eastern Market. The Atlas staff has enjoyed the weekly visits from toddlers jamming in the lobby.

We wanted to know how they have been enjoying the Atlas as a venue and their thoughts on H Street in general. Here is what they had to say.

Amanda:

We certainly do love Atlas! I remember the first time I walked into the Kogod Lobby for one of Kara’s Washington Chorus performances. I could not believe how beautifully open and contemporary the space was hidden behind such a historic facade AND sadly, that I’d never been there before! Then to hear the Chorus sing in the Lang Theater was truly breathtaking. I then made it my mission to tell everyone abut Atlas, this amazing hidden gem on H Street that was a performing arts powerhouse!

It has been since that first visit that Boogie Babes now has weekly performances in the Lobby and more recently the Sprenger Auditorium. There are so many fabulous things about both spaces it’s difficult to pick a favorite. I know that our Boogie Babes kids love both experiences!

The space and amazing Atlas staff makes any performance feel like a true performing arts event rather than just a kid show. I think that this experience allows children to feel comfortable and learn to appreciate the arts in a whole new way, very early on. There are “new” things like a stage, bright lights, instruments, darkness (as in the case of the Sprenger), and fun things like music, dancing and laughing. The Atlas makes all of this very cool and approachable for children to experience in their own individual way. Moms and dads feel comfortable at Atlas too with the roll in stroller parking, super sized and ultra clean bathrooms and the convenience of a snack bar serving adult drinks for when the mood hits!

Not too long ago I took my kids to see “Drumming with Dishes” – my 1, 4 & 5 year old were all captivated by the play. Not a word was spoken by the performers but my children were fascinated by the storyline. We sat on the floor on a brightly colored parachute, only a few feet from the performers. It felt very much like we were a part of what was going on and we all had a fabulous time.

Like my first day at the Atlas, I couldn’t believe we were having such a rich performing arts experience right here in our very own neighborhood. We are so lucky to have the Atlas! Which reminds me, I still need to get my tickets to Aquarium, also produced by Imagination Stage .

What is really fabulous, as the Atlas District continues to grow, is the multitude of lunch options that are nearby. Back in the day, when Frank gave us our BIG start at SOVA, there was no where to eat nearby. Then SOVA introduced their delicious paninis which was such a great addition to their already amazing pastries. Now there are several lunch options up and down the block. It truly is becoming a destination where you can enjoy a show, grab lunch anywhere from Shawafel to Taylor, SOVA to Sadimo, and still get home before nap time.

On the rare occasion my husband and I sneak out and get to H Street, we’ve enjoyed Smith Common, Granville Moore’s and we recently had a great brunch at The Big Board, with kids in tow.

Kara: I’d only add that we love Boundary Road or Granville Moore’s for evenings and Argo with kiddos.
Also, for the future…I am really enjoying the theatre for the very young series. As my kids get older, more musical theatre or music for kids (Peter and the Wolf, etc) or other musical genre concerts geared for kids (jazz for kids, world music for kids, etc)