August 22, 2010: Virtuoso Stick Night - Steve Hahn and Rob Martino

DATE: SUNDAY AUGUST 22nd
TIME: 6:00p

LOCATION: Rockn Joe
3570 Rte 27
Kendall Park, NJ 08824
directions: http://tinyurl.com/rocknjoe

The NJ Proghouse is proud to present a very special evening of progressive music with two of the world's finest Chapman Stick players, Steve Hahn and Rob Martino. An alumnus of the NJ Proghouse (having performed an absolutely wonderful opening set for Advent in October of 2007), Steve Hahn is an extremely gifted player who specializes in music that straddles the boundaries between prog, jazz-rock fusion, and funk--and, as a point of trivia, has also covered more Gentle Giant music on record than any other Stick player to date. Having just released his first solo Stick album to rave reviews (including one from Stick-inventor Emmett Chapman himself), Rob Martino is also quickly becoming known as one of today's hottest players.

Please join us for dinner and a coffee (or two) and witness some of the most intensely beautiful progressive music to be performed on the Chapman Stick.

STEVE HAHN

Steve Hahn excels on four instruments: Chapman Stick, trumpet, bass, and guitar. Further, he is proficient in classical, jazz, rock, and fusion styles. Hahn has performed in such famous venues as Carnegie Hall, New York City; Royal Albert Hall, London, England; and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the White House, and Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C., among many others. In 1969 Hahn began performing in jazz-rock fusion groups as trumpet, guitar, and bass player. Among other bands, he performed with the East Coast band Whale, which played extensively along the Eastern seaboard, recorded original material, and backed up such well-known bands as Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

In 1989 Hahn took on a new challenge--mastering the relatively new instrument, The Chapman Stick. He studied Chapman Stick with the instrument's inventor, Emmett Chapman, and with other world-renowned Stick artists at the National Guitar Summer Workshop in 1991 and 1992.

In 1994 Hahn was one of just twelve musicians in the United States to receive a Jazz Fellowship-Individual Project Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which provided the opportunity for intensive private study on The Stick with world-renowned Stick/bass player Alphonso Johnson in 1995. This award was the first NEA grant ever given to a Chapman Stick player. Hahn received a grant from Tier III, Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, to present a concert of his music at Longmont High School (Colorado) in 1995. Hahn also received an Arts and Humanities Assembly of Boulder (AHAB)-Addison mini-grant that funded a concert of his original music in Boulder, Colorado, in 1997. In 1999 Hahn received another AHAB-Addison mini-grant to partially fund a concert of his original music at the Dickens Opera House in Longmont, Colorado, in 1999.

Hahn wrote and arranged compositions especially for The Chapman Stick and trumpet for his first CD project, Stickburst, released in 1994. In 1993 Hahn received a grant from the Neodata Endowment, administered by AHAB, for the project Native American Music Meets The Chapman Stick, which culminated in his second CD, released in 1998; the CD features music of five Native American tribes transcribed by Hahn for Chapman Stick and percussion. Hahn's third CD, sh, also released in 1998, contains original jazz Hahn composed for Chapman Stick, trumpet, and percussion. The CDs have been played on more than one hundred radio stations across the United States. Hahn has also contributed to the CD recordings Tappistry, Vol. 1, an international collection of work by Chapman Stick players, and Giant Tracks, a tribute to the music of Gentle Giant.

http://www.deepchocolate.com/

ROB MARTINO

Rob Martino performs original music and arrangements on the Chapman Stick, a unique stringed instrument that combines elements of guitar, bass, piano and percussion. Music listeners of widely different tastes have been attracted to different aspects of Rob's music--some find it pleasantly melodic and mellow, while others are also intrigued by the subtle complexities and artistry of the compositions.

Rob has drawn from progressive and art-rock influences such as Jethro Tull, Rush, Marillion, and Genesis (as well as folk, Celtic, and classical-music genres) to develop his particular playing style and musical approach. He also uses a custom "mirrored 4ths" tuning on the Stick to better realize some of his musical ideas, as opposed to the more standard "bass in inverted 5ths, melody in 4ths" tuning.

In addition to making a strong impression at live performances, Rob’s music has a popular online presence, gathering over a million views and thousands of subscribers worldwide on YouTube. In May 2010 he released his debut solo Stick album One Cloud.

Rob is currently based in Fredericksburg, Virginia (originally from the Boston area), and has had a lifelong interest in music and computers --he is a software engineer in the music technology industry (Wave Arts and Camel Audio), and also holds a master's degree in music from Northwestern University.

http://www.robmartino.com/
http://www.njproghouse.com