Next Stage Arts Project

Next Stage Arts is very excited to present Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, a multicultural, multidimensional, and improvisational 75-member collective of musicians hailing from New York, in partnership with Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares (Northampton, MA) and Real Art Ways (Hartford, CT). Founded by Village Voice icon Greg Tate and co-led with Dayton Ohio monster bassist Jared Michael Nickerson since 1999, Burnt Sugar is a sprawling band of musicians whose prodigious personnel allows them to freely juggle a wide swath of the experimental soul-jazz-hip hop spectrum. In addition to the concerts, the tour partners are planning an additional engagement tour with the artists that would take place a few weeks before their performances at each venue. Community engagement activities would include a Conduction workshop (“conducted improvisation” for all ages and levels) at each site, and a radio tour, to create a foundation, access, and build audiences for their performances in each community.