Caffe Lena – Week at a Glance

Greetings – Last weekend our Jazz Pebbles–aged 10,11, 13 and 13–welcomed the Saturday night audience with a swinging courtyard set. We watched a crowd gather as the kids ran through their repertoire of five songs. It was fun to see people stop to listen, and then exchange looks of surprise as they realized it was kids playing.

Jazz Pebbles is part of our School of Music, along with our folk band, the Rolling Pebbles.  We teach our students to play by ear. They listen, copy and watch their teachers and each other–not a sheet of music. It requires sensitivity and cooperation to do your bit to make the whole group sound good. There’s something about playing and singing your heart out that just never stops winning over converts to folk and roots music. We thank this community for enabling us to offer this unique program. If you’d like to observe a lesson or jam, please reach out.

Between our own monthly programs and Skidmore’s summer institutes, spoken word will dominate the weekend. Top tier poetry and stories, as well as jazz, take four nights. Saturday brings us back to our musical roots with one of our favorite folk duos, Kieran Kane and Rayna Gellert. They’re smart as heck, really cool, and superbly musical.

See you at the show,
Sarah