No word on a dunk tank or jumping castle, but the Brooklyn Academy of Music sure knows how to throw a party. And they have asked Sufjan Stevens to curate the music component for an evening that will also include DJs, video art, and horseplay.  The event, entitled TAKEOVER, takes place Saturday September 27th, 2008 from 9PM to 4AM. 

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House will house the musical selections, which features St. Vincent, The Budos Band, Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens and Brooklyn Youth Chorus singing Nico Muhly and other works.  Our good friend Deborah Johnson is providing a video installation.  For more details on the event, including a list of films and other activities please visit the TAKEOVER website here. Click more to read about the musicians performing.
About the artists

St. Vincent is the band of 25-year-old singer-multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark, whose debut record, Marry Me, was released on Beggars Banquet in 2007. Clark has toured as a member of Sufjan Stevens’ band, recorded for the Polyphonic Spree, and performed with Glenn Branca’s 100 Guitar Orchestra. Her music is a smartly crafted blend of guitar, bass, and beats pulsing forward with warmth and immediacy alongside Clark’s soprano and poignant lyrics. Horns and strings cry out brassy and full-bodied over digital keyboards. Songs rock out vigorously, break down into squiggling post-noise-rock deconstructions, and flow out as mellow and slow as a river.

The Budos Band is the quintessence of Staten Island Soul and has released two albums on Daptone Records. Their afro-influenced take on instrumental music has been captivating listeners at gigs across the Tri-State area. Eleven pieces in all, their group consists of drums, bass, guitar, electric organ, two trumpets, baritone saxophone, and a percussion section employing bongos, congas, tambourine, guiro, clave, shekere and cowbell. The core of the band met as youths while all participating in an after school jazz ensemble at the Richmond Ave. Community Center, in Staten Island, New York.

Like most great soul singers, Naomi Shelton is first and foremost a Gospel singer and has spent her life singing in churches from Alabama to Brooklyn. Under her maiden name, Naomi Davis, she recorded "Forty First Street Breakdown," which is one of the most sampled snippets for DJs looking for real soul. She later fronted Sugarman and Co. delivering 2001’s "Promised Land." Under the musical direction of the legendary Cliff Driver, Naomi Shelton and The Gospel Queens’ weekly Friday night gigs at New York’s The Fat Cat are legendary. Daptone Records is releasing a forthcoming album in early 2009.

The Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus is the advanced performing ensemble of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy, which was founded in 1992 as the only voice-based after-school music academy in New York City. One of the country’s leading children’s choruses, it is a leading ensemble of choice for collaborations with internationally renowned orchestras and artists. The Brooklyn Youth Chorus has performed in the North American premiere of Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 5 with the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Dennis Russell Davies in 2002, the 2003 New York premiere of John Adams’ El Niño with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the New York premiere of Lorin Maazel’s The Empty Pot with the maestro conducting. In 2004 the Chorus recorded Philip Glass’ music for the film Undertow and performed five shows with Elton John and his band at Radio City Music Hall. In recent years the ensemble has also performed with renowned artists such as Judy Collins, Andrea Bocelli, Lara Fabian, Monica, Debra Cox, Ray Davies, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. For TAKEOVER, the ensemble will perform Nico Muhly’s The Sweets of Life (which it commissioned in 2006) along with a selection of other works.

Born in 1981, Nico Muhly (composer) is a graduate of Columbia University and The Juilliard School where he studied under John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse. He has worked extensively with Philip Glass as an editor, keyboardist, and conductor as well as with Björk, Rufus Wainwright, Will Oldham, Anthony, and The National. His most recent record, Mothertongue, was released in 2008 to critical acclaim.

All-access tickets are $20/advance, $25/door
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY
TAKEOVERBAM.org
718.636.4100

For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.