We’re delighted to continue this 2024 Monthly Series BAAMS PRESENTS: LIVE AT Studio 9 at the Porches’ Inn. Join us for a special evening of music, a benefit performance for BAAMS — the Berkshires’ Academy for Advanced Musical Studies — lead by Richard Boulger, trumpet and flugelhorn, Dario Boente, piano and keyboards, Tony Lewis, drums and percussion, and Alex Blake on bass, along with featured guests Randy Brecker and Ada Rovatti.

RANDY BRECKER
Seven-time Grammy award winning and World-Renowned Jazz trumpeter and composer Randy Brecker has helped shape the sounds of Jazz, R&B, and Rock for six decades. His trumpet and flugelhorn performances have graced hundreds of albums by a wide range of artists from James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Parliament/Funkadelic to Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan, Jaco Pastorious, and Frank Zappa.

ADA ROVATTI
Italian native Ada Rovatti started playing saxophone in high school after years of classical piano training. After winning a scholarship from Berklee College of Music in Italy she divided herself between Boston where she studied with Joe Viola, George Garzone and Italy where she was working in Big Bands with guest artists such as Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Bob Mintzer and Randy Brecker. After spending one year in Paris touring Europe and Africa she moved to New York City.
Ada has performed in numerous festivals including: JVC in NYC, Rochester Jazz Festival, IAJE, Detroit Jazz Fest, Montreal Jazz Fest appearing and performing with an impressive and diverse list of artists and bands such as Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Miroslav Vitous, John McLaughlin, Anne Ducros, Bob Mintzer, Victor Bailey, Rodney Holmes, Joanne Brackeen, Tony Levin and many others. In addition to her musical expertise Ada appeared in the movie “Mona Lisa Smile” featuring Julia Roberts.

North Adams native Richard Boulger, the BAAMS’ Founder and Executive Director, spent 20 years teaching and working as a recording artist in New York City where he also worked with many of New York’s underserved communities’ schools before returning home in 2020. In 2022, BAAMS established its academy building in the Heritage State Park, North Adams. Boulger was a longtime private student and protégé of Trumpet legends Freddie Hubbard and Donald Byrd, and has recorded with such luminaries as The Allman Brothers Band, Randy Brecker, John Hicks, Trombonist Steve Davis, R&B legend “Joe”, and has produced three highly-acclaimed recording projects as a leader.

Grammy and Latin-Grammy winner Argentinian born pianist and composer Dario Boente, is equally at home performing romantic Argentine and jazz compositions on a grand piano, as he is programming world-beat electronica. In 1999, Dario moved to New York City and has since released ten albums and compilations as a leader, featuring well-known Jazz musicians such as five-time Grammy Award winner Antonio Sanchez on drums, guitarist Ronny Jordan, Latin Grammy winner composer and pianist Fernando Otero, harmonica player Gregoire Maret, flutist Jorge Pardo, and saxophonist Miguel Zenon, among others.

For Tony Lewis, music is all about family. As a child growing up in the Bronx, New York’s Co-Op City, Tony’s early influences being around family and friends would prove to be a launching pad that led him to attend New York’s prestigious LaGuardia High School of the Arts.

While a student at LaGuardia High School of the Arts Jazz program, under the directorship of Justin DiCioccio, Tony auditioned for and won a spot with The McDonald’s Jazz Band where at the age of 16, Tony was featured and performed on “The Merv Griffin Show” with jazz titan, Dizzy Gillespie.

Shortly after attending New Jersey City University, Tony began his professional career as a drummer, recording artist, producer, and educator. Tony has toured, performed, and recorded with such music luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Sting, Little Richard, Sam & Dave, Cindy Lauper, The Temptations, Craig Harris, and many more.
Alex Blake’s revolutionary playing style and technique combines his unique, innovative strumming, rapid, lyrical notations and percussive slaps on his bass to create a unique and compelling sound. Some have called Blake “an entire rhythm section”. His work with Sun Ra Arkestra, Randy Weston, Freddie Hubbard, Celia Cruz, McCoy Tyner, Billy Cobham, and hundreds more, is the stuff of legend.

Studio 9 is the perfect setting for this intimate concert, a gorgeous Meyer-Labs Built performance and recording space Richard Boulger describes as “a musical instrument unto itself.” With gorgeous, pure acoustics competing only with the lovely views of the now expanded campus of the Porches’ Inn in North Adams, directly across the river from Mass MoCA, audience members are always awed by the atmosphere.
Doors open: 6:30pm.

All proceeds will help support music education at BAAMS, which provides after-school and Saturday music study, working to bring our faculty into area schools, as well as presenting our annual summer jazz-band day camp for students ages 10-18, of all experience levels. BAAMS also contributes to the region’s cultural richness in celebration of music and the arts through its various events presented year round.

Click here to purchase tickets to the event.
For more information, contact: 413-663-4424 or message to: info@berkshiresacademyams.org.