Nov 29, 2021 | Uncategorized
We are happy to report that THANKS TO YOU, Outpost’s Year End Fundraising Appeal ~Season’s Pleadings is going great! We have a little ways to go to reach our goal yet though, so please keep those donations coming so that we can continue to bring you the best in jazz, folk & roots, global and experimental music, educational opportunities, art exhibits and more throughout the year! Season’s Pleadings is our most important fundraising appeal each year, when your 100% tax deductible donations make all the difference! Help us start 2022 (such a nice round number!) stronger than ever! MAKE A DONATION ONLINE TODAY ! OR Send in a check to Outpost Productions, PO Box 4543, ABQ, NM 87196. ANY time you are able to give is greatly appreciated! TOGETHER we can KEEP OUTPOST SWINGIN’!
Meanwhile, we are putting together an exciting Spring 2022 Season, including five-time Grammy nominee, master jazz organist, Joey DeFrancesco, Friday, February 25 & Saturday, Feb 26 at Outpost; Omar Sosa w. Seckou Keita, April 21; Dave Grusin-Lee Ritenour Group at the Lensic, April 23 (A New Mexico Jazz festival event), and Dave Grusin at Outpost, April 24; and much more! Plus our Jazz & Latin Music classes will start up again on January 17! Stay tuned for more details on everything!
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Good Health To All!
Oct 7, 2021 | Uncategorized
Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy and enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend! And just a reminder that the Django Festival Allstars, George Cables Trio and Bob Fox Sextet livestreams are all available on the Outpost website through this Friday, November 26! Don’t miss out! Donations for the livestreams are truly appreciated! It’s your support that helps make them possible!
Coming in December: Outpost is happy to be a supporter of the 3x-time Grammy Award winning salsa and Latin jazz band, Spanish Harlem Orchestra at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on December 5! Last heard at the 2018 New Mexico Jazz Festival, this exciting ensemble sets the gold standard for excellence in authentic, New York style salsa and Latin jazz! Get your tickets here! Then, it’s a special holiday concert with jazz, R&B, hip hop crooner, José James: Merry Christmas from José James, December 9!
Looking forward to sharing all the great music with you live and on the stream!
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OUTPOST COVID SAFETY REQUIREMENTS: Beginning October 1, Outpost will require proof of full vaccination (completed 14 days before concert) for everyone (audience, staff) over the age of 12 for entry to Outpost. For those not vaccinated, a negative test result from a rapid Covid test taken within 6 hours of showtime or a PCR Covid test taken within 48 hours of showtime will be accepted. Masks are required. Please make sure to bring your proof of vaccination card or proof of negative test to show at the door when you arrive. Please also take note of special Covid Safety regulations for other venues when purchasing tickets for concerts at those venues.
STAY SAFE, STAY HEALTHY, AND LET’S ENJOY SOME GREAT LIVE MUSIC TOGETHER!
Sep 1, 2021 | Uncategorized
We are excited to be presenting Pat Metheny Side-Eye at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, tonight, Wednesday, October 6, 7:30pm! (A NM Jazz Festival event). Please note that this concert requires proof of full vaccination (at least two weeks after final dose) or proof of a negative Covid test within 48 hours of the concert.
Then, coming up at the Outpost next week, it’s another New Mexico Jazz Festival event – Jamie Baum Septet+ (10/14); followed byEntourage Jazz CD Release (10/16 & 17); Jane Bunnett & Maqueque (10/21); and Cleo Trio + Dogbone (10/28); Then, November kicks off with An Evening with Branford Marsalis at the Lensic, Nov. 1 (a New Mexico Jazz Festival event); & more! Tickets and info on our Schedule Page!
PLEASE NOTE: ALL ACTS ARE VERY MUCH SUBJECT TO CHANGE DUE TO HEALTH AND SAFETY CONCERNS AND MORE. Stay Tuned to our Schedule Page for changes and additions and more info coming soon.
OUTPOST COVID SAFETY REQUIREMENTS:
Beginning October 1, Outpost will require proof of full vaccination (completed 14 days before concert) for everyone (audience, staff) over the age of 12 for entry to Outpost. For those not vaccinated, a negative test result from a rapid Covid test taken within 6 hours of showtime or a PCR Covid test taken within 48 hours of showtime will be accepted. Masks are required.
Please also take note of special Covid Safety regulations at The Lensic Performing Arts Center and NHCC when purchasing tickets for concerts at those venues.
STAY SAFE, STAY HEALTHY, AND LET’S ENJOY SOME GREAT LIVE MUSIC TOGETHER!
Jul 19, 2021 | Uncategorized
We are excited to continue our LIVE music events in August – many at outdoor venues! First up, the New Mexico Jazz Festival, in partnership with AMP Concerts, is pleased to present the return of the exciting New Orleans band, Cha Wa, both at Santa Fe Plaza (August 3) and at Casa Flamenca in Albuquerque (August 4)!
Then, it’s another great Summer Thursday Jazz Night with the Greg Abate Group featuring Pete Amahl, Thursday, August 5 at Outpost (almost sold out!)! followed by the return of Summerfest in Nob Hill on Saturday, August 7 from 5-8pm with three stages, including the New Mexico Jazz Festival Stage located at Carlisle & Central in the Fan Tang parking lot. The NMJF Stage will focus on Black Music in New Mexico and features three terrific bands: Citizens of Tape City with Josef Scott and Artha Meadors; Toni Morgan and Just Us; and Michael Herndon & Jubal’s Children! Then, the New Mexico Jazz Festival in partnership with AMP Concerts, presents another great concert at the Santa Fe Plaza: Son Como Son and ReVóZo A Dos (Vicente Griego & Gabriel Osuna) on August 17, 6pm!
Lots of great music to look forward to! And, as we re-open SAFELY, and slowly-but-surely over the course of Summer 2021, we have made a few adjustments for shows at the Space. Audience sizes will be limited to approximately 50 people in our intimate indoor space and face masks will be required. Bands (one per evening) will perform one 75 minute set with no intermission. Doors will be left open and our new UV-emitting ceiling fans with evaporative coolers bringing fresh air in from the outside will maximize air flow. Safety for our bands, patrons, volunteers, technical staff and all remains first and foremost in our minds as we see how things develop as the world opens up. Our new sound system, video capabilities and other improvements achieved during the shutdown, will all be in place.
We look forward to seeing you in person soon and to sharing all the great music with you!
Jul 14, 2021 | Uncategorized
Bumble Bee Bob Weil (May 4, 1934-July 2, 2021)
~ A Personal Remembrance
from Outpost Director, Tom Guralnick ~
On July 2, 2021, after a month-long fight with COVID-19, and 2 months after his 87th birthday, Bumble Bee Bob Weil passed away. BJ called me in the morning to tell me that we had lost Bob. That is the perfect way to put it. We lost him and what a loss it is! We will miss him terribly. For me personally, Bumble Bee was somewhere between a brother and a father (Frother? Brather?). He was a mentor, an advisor, a collaborator, a supporter… but most of all a friend. We had a great time and I will miss him.
If it weren’t for Bumble Bee (and BJ and the rest of the family) Outpost would not be what it is today. In fact, a case could be made that were it not for Bumble Bee, Outpost might not be, AT ALL!
Thanks to a meeting arranged by saxophonist Doug Lawrence, I met Bumble Bee over lunch in the mid to late 1990’s. Although, to say the least, we had very different personal musical tastes, we began working together, block booking concerts at the old Outpost and Bumble Bee’s “hive”—a concert hall in his home in La Tierra. And in doing so, I believe we expanded each others’ horizons and at the same time, had a lot of fun. We worked closely from then on— booking concerts— and in 2006, along with Bob Martin at the Lensic, we founded the New Mexico Jazz Festival which followed on the work of Bruce Dunlap and his Santa Fe Jazz and International Music Festival. We had a great run. Bumble Bee was the guy who tried (sometimes he succeeded) to rein in my wilder and more expensive music production impulses. More than once, always with love, he told me “Stop losing money… don’t be a schmuck!” If that’s not fatherly advice, I don’t know what is. His support of Outpost was deep. He donated extremely generously year after year, leading up to the donations by him and his generous children (Linda, Betsie, and Rob) which allowed us to buy the Outpost Performance Space building, leading to the naming of the auditorium as “Weil Hall.”
Outpost wasn’t the first or the last to be buoyed by Bumble Bee’s generosity. In the 1980’s he produced the Santa Fe Jazz Festival at La Fonda Hotel, hiring John Clayton as Music Director. He was the first to present Wynton Marsalis in the pre-renovation Lensic Theater. He supported John Trentacosta’s Santa Fe Music Collective until the end. He had a big heart and many was the time when we shared a stage with tears flowing, making announcements and thanking each other for our work together. He booked music at his restaurants for years. His Santa Fe Jazz Foundation helped countless musicians in times of need, giving them funds to pay their medical bills. He loved the musicians and loved being friends with them— James Moody, Milt Hinton, Ray Brown, Joe Williams, and so many more. He produced several albums by these friends. It was all about love and friendship for Bumble Bee. He loved the music and the people who made it!
But jazz wasn’t the entire story by any means. In the 1950’s, he left St Louis where he grew up after being clear that he was not interested in going into his father’s shoe manufacturing business. He headed west and became a rancher in Bumble Bee Arizona— thus his name, “Bumble Bee Bob”— and also on the Santa Fe ranch that later became the Las Campanas development. He flew his own plane between the two. I seldom saw Bumble Bee anything less than ebullient—not until he “retired,” that is. He just couldn’t stand not working. So at age 70, for his “retirement” he opened the famed Bumble Bee’s Baja Grill— 4 of them in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. And he was a constant presence behind the counter becoming friends with the clientele. Again, it was all about the people.
We will miss Bumble Bee deeply. But at the same time, he had a long, fun-filled, and meaningful life. His last several years in Merida, Mexico with his beautiful, kind, and loving wife, BJ, were a joy for them both. In addition to BJ, he is survived by six children, 13 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren all of whom he loved. Bumble Bee was loved and he loved in return.
Tom Guralnick, Founder & Executive Director
Outpost Performance Space
Mar 9, 2021 | Uncategorized
Have you checked out our currently running Live From The Outpost Stage virtual event yet? Vocalist Tracey Whitney & The Art of Jazz runs through this Thursday, April 15! In February 2021, Whitney’s ensemble, The Art of Jazz, was invited to perform as part of Mayor Tim Keller’s State of the City Pre-Party virtual experience, which also featured performances by Severo y Grupo Fuego, Le Chat Lunatique, and Reviva. Outpost donated the Space, along with sound and video production, for Tracey’s performance, which was recorded live with no audience at the Outpost Performance Space on Friday, February 12. Tune In and Click Here For Full Details and Tickets!
And coming in May, Outpost is pleased to present the Arlen Asher Virtual Birthday Tribute, a special event honoring New Mexico jazz luminary, longtime Outpost friend and multi-woodwind maestro and educator Arlen Asher, who passed away last year at the age of 91. Featuring footage from Arlen’s 90th Birthday Celebration Concert at Outpost in May of 2019, the event will also feature footage from the NM Music Commission’s 2017 Platinum Music Awards video presentation which honored Arlen for his lifetime achievement in music and his significant contributions to music in New Mexico, and a live from the Outpost Stage concert by the Santa Fe Music Collective Legacy Band featuring Arlen’s longtime friend and musical collaborator, drummer John Trentacosta; Alex Murzyn, woodwinds; Terry Burns, bass; and Bob Fox, piano. Stay tuned for more details coming soon!
PLUS . . . Spring Online Classes Have Begun!
Newly added: Improvising the Blues on Guitar (for Guitarists!) with Dimi Disanti, starting April 29!
Click here for all the details!
