Minerva at Spectrum tonight!

Minerva is playing at Spectrum in the Lower East Side tonight. I'm excited to play the Steinway grand!
This is the 2nd installment of the Canyons music series, here's tonight's lineup:

Tuesday, July 2

@ Spectrum (121 Rivington)
Admission: 10 bucks (suggested)

8pm, Minerva:
Carlo Costa
JP Schlegelmilch
Pascal Niggenkemper


9pm,
Ben Gerstein, trombone
Gian Luigi Diana, laptop/live electronics
Morgan O'Hara, pencils/live transmission drawing

Free-improvisation for trombone and live electronics with attention and performative drawing.

10pm,
Todd Neufeld
Eivind Opsvik
Flin van Hemmen

Flin will be premiering a brand new piece in which preconceived sound meditations and improvisations will be in close dialogue. Possibly these lines will be blurred until one is not sure which is which, for life is a composition. Eivind plays bass, Todd the acoustic guitar, and Flin will play piano as well as drums.

Minerva Midwest Tour!

Tomorrow I take to the road with the collaborative trio Minerva for seven straight nights of concerts, followed by a recording when we return to New York. It's the first time that this group has played outside of NYC, and we're excited to get to do so much consistent playing to develop the new music we're going to record.

The band is:

Carlo Costa - Drums
Pascal Niggenkemper - Bass
JP Schlegelmilch - Piano

Here are the dates!

May 16th: Minerva at Mahall's, 13200 Madison Ave, Lakewood, OH - 8pm
May 17th: Minerva at Trinosophes, 1464 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, MI - 8pm
May 18th: Minerva at Heaven Gallery, 1550 North Milwaukee, 2nd floor Chicago, IL - 8pm
May 19th: Minerva at Hungry Brain, 2319 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL - 8pm
May 20th: Minerva at Merriman’s Playhouse, 1211 Mishawaka Ave, South Bend, IN - 8pm
May 21st: Minerva at Black Sparrow, 223 Main Street, Lafayette, IN - 8pm
May 22nd: Minerva at the Garden Theater, 1187 North High St Columbus OH, 8pm

Minerva Brooklyn Tour!

Greetings fellow music lovers,

Tonight marks the beginning of Minerva's 3 day Brooklyn Tour! We'll be playing some new compositions and enjoying the opportunity to explore new directions in the music each night. I sincerely hope you can join us for one, two, or even all three shows!!

MINERVA

Carlo Costa - Drums
Pascal Niggenkemper - Bass
JP Schlegelmilch - Piano

The itinerary is as follows, please see the poster below for the full bill listings.....

Thursday Dec 13th at I Beam (168 7th st) @ 9:30pm
Saturday Dec 15th at Douglass St (295 Douglass St) @ 9pm
Sunday Dec 16th at Firehouse Space (246 Frost St) @ 8pm

Hope to see you out there in the non-virtual world!

jp

Firehouse Space

Minerva played a show on Sunday at a new performance space in Williamsburg called Firehouse Space. It's a very nice room in an old converted Firehouse and they've been having some really great concerts featuring New York-based improvisors and composers, check out their schedule here. I'm very excited about the fact that they have a piano, actually two pianos! And so close to my neighborhood, I'm planning on checking out more music there soon.
We shared the bill with Speaking Tube, featuring singer Elie Sorbsel, Frantz Loriot on viola, and Pascal Niggenkemper on bass.

Minerva at I Beam with Jonathan Moritz Trio

Minerva is playing at I Beam tomorrow night on a double bill with saxophonist Jonathan Moritz's trio. In our rehearsals lately we've been taking a break from playing compositions and focusing on improvisational concepts. We'll be doing an all-improvised set tomorrow.

Minerva and Tim Berne at Korzo

Minerva, a collaborative trio I play in with Carlo Costa and Pascal Niggenkemper, were honored to share a bill with Tim Berne's trio last night at Korzo in Brooklyn. Tim was playing with Ches Smith and John Hebert, and they sounded fantastic. Ches and John have a great rapport that's evidenced in their work with Mary Halvorson's groups, and they really tore into Tim's music with utter fearlessness. Here's a little clip:



We had the good fortune to have our set recorded by Randy Thaler, who has been most generously taping shows at Korzo and giving them to the musicians. People like Randy are such an important part of the music community, and we are very thankful!
Here's a clip of us playing Pascal's composition "Let's Go...I Don't Know"

Let's Go...I Don't Know by JPSchlegelmilch

Minerva CD release concert at Cornelia St Cafe

Last Tuesday Minerva celebrated the release of our first CD, "Saturnismo" at Cornelia St Cafe. The whole concert is now up on YouTube, so you can check it out at your leisure. The music has evolved a lot since we recorded these pieces last summer!
Here's our performance of a composition of mine called "The Valenti", named after an ugly painting.
Saturnismo is available for purchase through Carlo's website.

Minerva's debut CD coming out on Between the Lines Records this spring!

Minerva is a trio I play in with Carlo Costa (drums) and Pascal Niggenkemper (bass). We're very excited that the music we recorded in August will be released on Between the Lines Records sometime this spring. Between the Lines has a very impressive roster of artists and we're thrilled to be in such good company.
The CD will feature original compositions by each member of the band, as well as several improvisations. You can hear some excerpts from the CD on Carlo's website.