Amalia Umeda and Stephan Crump at Rizzoli Music Aperitivo

Rizzoli Bookstore is delighted to partner with the celebrated Jazztopad Festival to present a world premiere: the Amalia Umeda – Stephan Crump duo, a collaboration between two forward-looking and lyrical composers and improvisers.

Tickets include a 15% store discount which can be used the day of the concert, and a complimentary glass of wine from Field Blend Selections.

PLEASE NOTE: Doors open at 4:45 pm. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served.

AMALIA UMEDA – violin
When creating music, what she values the most is the possibility of manipulating space, reflecting various emotional states, building tensions, and illustrating even the most abstract ideas. Amalia is one of 6 artists selected for the international program Footprints Europe 2021. In August 2022, as a result of that program, the quartet started the Nowoświt Footprints tour. The tour included concerts at the Oslo Jazz Festival (Oslo, Norway), Umea Jazz Festival (Umea, Sweden), Cologne Jazzweek/NICA Exchange (Cologne, Germany), Nasjonal Jazzscene (Oslo, Norway), NOSPR (Katowice, Poland), Periscope (Lyon, France), Bimhuis (Amsterdam, Netherlands), and Jazzahead! European Showcase (Bremen, Germany).

Amalia is the winner of the 3rd prize at the Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition 2022, a special prize at the Young Crocus Jazz Contest 2021 (Amalia Umeda Quartet), and the 2nd prize at the Blue Note Poznań Competition 2020 (solo category).

STEPHAN CRUMP – bass
Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated, Echo Award-winning bassist/composer Stephan Crump is an active bandleader with fourteen critically-acclaimed album releases in addition to numerous film scoring contributions.

Known for transforming his instrument into a speaking entity of magnetic pull, his focus on creative instrumental music has led to collaborations with many leading lights of his generation.

JAZZTOPAD

(for the full program see: www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/en/festivals/jazztopad-festival)

For the past twenty years, Jazztopad Festival has commissioned music from major American and European artists including Wayne Shorter, Charles Lloyd, Jason Moran, Joelle Leandre, Vincent Courtois, William Parker, Vijay Iyer and Terence Blanchard. Jazztopad's international creative partnerships have included such prestigious organizations as the Monterey Jazz Festival, Kennedy Center, London Jazz Festival and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Live recordings from the festival have been released by ECM and Blue Note Records.

The American edition of Jazztopad is first and foremost an opportunity to get to know the most important artists of the Polish contemporary jazz scene, which is a strongly recognized brand in the world both in terms of the quality of the festivals and the artistry of the featured musicians.

The project is organized by the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

"The Jazztopad Festival, a leading event of its kind in Poland...”

– NATE CHINEN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“(…) Jazztopad stands as an internationally renowned festival with a clearly defined ethos, one that combines a strong respect for the traditions and roots of the music with a progressive vision that provides a platform for the contemporary and innovative.”

IAN PATTERSON, ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM

“A model for what a jazz festival can be, Jazztopad is fertile soil for commissioned works and adventure-minded programming.”

JOSEF WOODARD, Downbeat

RIZZOLI MUSIC APERITIVO

From Francis Scott Fitzgerald to Jack Kerouac, from Toni Morrison to James Baldwin, from Philip Michael Ondaatje to Geoff Dyer, from Julio Cortazar to Boris Vian, from Amiri Baraka and Ishmael Reed to Jayne Cortez, the list of international writers and poets inspired or intrigued by jazz and other musical genres goes on. Since New York City’s Rizzoli Bookstore has a long tradition of building bridges between arts genres, international scenes, and creative people, we wanted to turn our gorgeous space in NoMad into an experimental living room where live jazz and other music can be enjoyed. The Rizzoli Music Aperitivo is sponsored by Field Blend Selections and is curated by Mondo Jazz, the weekly Radio Free Brooklyn show dedicated to international jazz

MONDO JAZZ

Mondo Jazz is a weekly program on Radio Free Brooklyn dedicated to the proposition that jazz is an international language. It is hosted every Wednesday night from 10 PM to midnight and Thursday morning from 8 to 10 AM, by Ludovico Granvassu, the founder and editor in chief of All About Jazz Italia. All archived episodes are available here.

FIELD BLEND SELECTIONS

Founded in January 2017, Field Blend Selections is a new wine importing and distribution company based in New York City, serving the New York and New Jersey markets.

In both name and practice, Field Blend Selections celebrates agricultural traditions and diversity. The name is an homage to the nineteenth-century immigrants who co-planted an assortment of grape varieties in vineyards throughout the United States, many of which survive today. Alongside their vines, they often co-planted other crops, including fruits, grains, and legumes. This approach of co-mingling various plantings to achieve balance in the vineyards is now referred to as polyculture, and it is widely recognized as one of the best methods for naturally enriching soils and reducing disease. Polyculture, by replicating nature’s diverse ecosystems, produces healthier fruit without the necessity of artificial herbicides or pesticides.