“Jamaaladeen Tacuma: The Pioneer of Free Funk Bass" — Bass Musician Magazine “Jamaaladeen Tacuma is the hardest-grooving bass player I've ever worked with or heard.” — Guitarist Marc Ribot “Jamaaladeen Tacuma is the rare bass guitarist to have found a unique voice as a jazz musician. His style has been referred to as 'free funk', and that’s true as far as it goes: he plays with the hard groove of a funk player but is rarely confined to a single chord or a simple tonality. But, since his first major gig was with Ornette Coleman in the Prime Time band starting at 19, it is equally true that Tacuma is a searching creator of interesting melodies. He can play with ruminative daring or a nervous hunt for home.” — Will Layman, PopMatters “James Brandon Lewis, a jazz saxophonist in his 30s, raw-toned but measured, doesn’t sound steeped in current jazz-academy values and isn’t really coming from a free-improvising perspective. There’s an independence about him, and on “Days of FreeMan” (Okeh), he makes it sound natural to play roaming, experimental funk, with only the electric bassist Jamaladeen Tacuma and the drummer Rudy Royston, and without much sonic enhancement. The record sounds a little reminiscent of what James Blood Ulmer and Ornette Coleman were doing in the late ’70s and early ’80s — on records that included Mr. Tacuma — but it’s not clearly evoking a particular past. Maybe it’s an improvised take on early ’90s hip-hop, as Mr. Lewis has suggested, but it sounds less clinical than that. It sounds like three melodic improvisers going for it.” — Nate Chinen, New York Times Elysium Furnace Works is proud to present a formidable, acclaimed new project featuring two renowned musicians: bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, performing as “On Your Shoulders”. This historic collaboration between the legendary harmolodic bass pioneer from Ornette Coleman's innovative electric ensemble Prime Time Tacuma with the DownBeat Magazine Rising Star on tenor saxophone Lewis is a multi-generational celebration honoring past trailblazers and offering, in Mr. Tacuma's words, "a special thank you to all the mentors and elders in music sharing their knowledge and creativity with the next generation.” For this performance, Tacuma and Lewis will be joined for a few pieces by drummer Dave Berger. “On Your Shoulders” will perform at the VBI Theatre of Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, located at 12 Vassar St. in Poughkeepsie, NY, on Saturday, June 22 at 8 PM. Tickets are $30 in advance and $40 at the door — advance tickets are on sale now at: https://jtjbl.eventbrite.co

Soulful expression and hellacious grooves were the order of of the night when the remarkable duo of bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis brought their outstanding "On Your Shoulders" project to the VBI Theatre last night. Ancestor worship grounded delirious flights into the unknown, and once special guest drummer Dave Berger joined these artists for the second half of the concert, matters became simultaneously more abstract and rooted — the boisterous audience loved it all from beginning to end. Massive thanks once more to these great musicians, to Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center for their continued support of EFW and to everyone who came out last night. We return to Beacon for our next concert, and specifically to St. Andrew & St. Luke Episcopal Church, Beacon where the astonishing Matthew Shipp Trio — Shipp, Michael Bisio and Newman Taylor Baker — performs again following the ensemble last concert there in 2016. Advance tickets are on sales now at https://mstrio.eventbrite.com/ .

Elysium Furnace Works is a cooperative project co-led by Mike Faloon and James Keepnews. EFW seeks to present the work of vanguard artists in settings as dedicated and uncompromising as the art itself, focusing primarily although not exclusively on live music performances in and around New York's vibrant Hudson Valley. Follow