BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – The Julian Gerstin Sextet packed Stage 33 Live back in 2024, and now Gerstin has a new eclectic jazz project called Dr Julian’s Yes Yes – a fun, affirming name for a fun, affirming music experience. They take the songs in more unplanned directions than the sextet, but they are still loaded with adventuresome, exciting rhythms and audience-friendly melodies.
The group is packed with powerhouse ringers. The lineup varies slightly depending on availability of the artists for a given date, but may include saxophonist and clarinetist Jeff Lederer, who has been included in the Downbeat Critics’ and Readers’ poll every year since 2014; reed player and ethnomusicologist Paul Austerlitz, specializing in bass and contrabass clarinets; saxophonist Jason Robinson, of the Janus Ensemble, a professor of music at Amherst College; pianist Andrew Wilcox, still young but already romping with all the big dogs; legendary bassist Wes Brown, who has toured the world with greats from three centuries including Earl “Fatha” Hines, Anthony Davis, Anthony Braxton, and so many more; versatile trumpeter Haneef Nelson, a respected pillar of the jazz community as a composer, arranger, band leader, sideman, musical curator, and educator; trumpeter Don Anderson, veteran of numerous groups including the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band, Zara Bode Little Big Band, Green Street Quintet, Dr. Burma, and New England Transcendental Brass Band; interdisciplinary percussionist, composer, and polyrhythmic force Brian Shankar Adler, whose drum kit often includes tabla, bombo leguero, and an array of found objects; drummer Ben James, who has worked with John Tchicai, Olatunji, Green Mountain Mambo, and others; and the ringleader, Julian Gerstin, ethnomusicologist, composer, master of the drum traditions of Ghana, Cuba, Martinique, Brazil and other African and diasporic countries, as well popular styles of Nigeria, South Africa, Martinique, Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Mexico.
Dr Julian’s Yes Yes will perform at Stage 33 Live, 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, Vt., on Saturday, Aug. 15, at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance through www.stage33live.com or at the door. Only 40 tickets will be sold. Advance tickets guarantee entry. Advance sales will close at midnight the day before the show, or when the tickets are sold out. The performance will be recorded and filmed.