Just a quick announcement to anybody who may find themselves in New
York City this Sat: ViperHouse will be headlining at The Elbow Room
(Bleeker Street NYC) this Sat. Feb. 22 1997.
ViperHouse has shared shows with ensembles such as The Screaming
Headless Torsos, Michael Ray and the Cosmic Krewe, and Groove
Collective.
We are a 10 piece acid jazz/avant funk ensemble from Burlington Vermont
consisting of trumpet, alto, soprano and bari saxes, trombone, violin,
hammond organ, upright and electric basses, guitar, percussion, drum kit
and vocals.
One of the premises of the group is to put the acid back into the acid
jazz (not to mention the jazz). The whole viper thing (in reference to
the name), goes back to the old jazz musicians from the 20's who played
in the spasm bands. Vipers were people of questionable means. . of ill
repute. So what are we doing? Re-empowering the name . . . maybe kind
of.
We do mostly originals but here are some of our covers: Virgin Jungle
(Duke Ellington), A call for all demons (Sun Ra), Am I the same girl
(Barbara Ackland), Stoned out of my mind (The Chilites), Pithycanthropus
Erectus (Charles Mingus), Is that all there is (Peggy Lee), Sunny (Bobby
Hebb).
Anyway this stuff is fresh and the folks down in New York seem to
be hip to it too -- We have been playing headlining gigs on a monthly
basis rotating between the Elbow Room and The New Music Cafe. We are
also scheduled to play at The Knitting Factory on Fri.April 18 and a
headlining show at The Iron Horse (a great northeast venue) on Mar. 28.
peace :)
brian boyes
ViperHouse