The As Yet Quintet joins five forces in New England music for a creative medley of Mideastern, Caribbean, and jazz sounds. In As Yet’s music you’ll hear sounds from Latin grooves to Turkish modes, Balkan rhythms played on Cuban wooden boxes, and blues in 11/8 time with a touch of Bulgarian choral style.

As Yet celebrates the release of its new CD, “Strange but True,” on February 6 with a concert at the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro. Tickets are $10, or $20 for the concert plus the CD (which normally sells for $15). The CD’s eleven original compositions range from subtle to fiery, East to West, tradition-based to as-yet-unheard, and highlight the bandmembers’ improvisational artistry.

As Yet’s members are Anna Patton, clarinet; Miamon Miller, violin and viola; Eugene Uman, piano; Todd Roach, dumbek and frame drums; and Julian Gerstin, congas and Latin percussion. Anna Patton has blazed a path as an in-demand folk/jazz/world music clarinetist, traveling throughout the United States, Canada and Europe with innovative dance bands such as Elixir and swing quartet Housetop. Violinist Miamon Miller has lived and studied in Romania, performed with numerous Balkan and Mideastern groups in California and New England, and composed for both film and television. Eugene Uman is well known to New England audiences as Artistic and Educational Director of the Vermont Jazz Center. Eugene has appeared with acts ranging from rocker Bo Diddley, to straight-ahead jazz with Sonny Fortune and Sheila Jordan, to the avant-garde.

As Yet’s two percussionists tap expertly into the infinite world of folk percussion. Todd Roach, on Middle Eastern and North African percussion, works with multi-instrumentalist Beth Cohen and the group 35th Parallel, and has twice appeared at the international frame drum festival Tamburi Mundi in Freiburg, Germany. Julian Gerstin, on Caribbean and African percussion, is a member of Afrocuban folkloric troupe Grupo Palo Santo and recently appeared in composer Paul Dedell’s “Songs of Divine Chemistry,” staged by the Brattleboro Music Center.

For further information, please contact As Yet at www.asyetquintet.com, where you can also hear samples of “Strange but True.”

As Yet Quintet: Mideastern Caribbean Jazz
CD RELEASE CONCERT
Saturday February 6, 2010
8 p.m.
Vermont Jazz Center
72 Cotton Mill Hill Road, Brattleboro VT
$10, or $20 for concert + CD
Reservations: (802) 387-8505 or www.asyetquintet.com