June 3, 2000

Rhythm & Blues Dance Party Heats up MASS MoCA in June

(June 3, 2000 -- North Adams, MA) MASS MoCA's Courtyard D will be transformed into an outdoor dance club as the Uptown Horns romp from rollicking blues to smooth R & B soul on Saturday, June 17 at 7:30 pm. For novice dancers, instructor Felicia Swoope arranged by Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival will make learning the steps easy.

"MASS MoCA's dance parties were among our most popular events last summer, and we're excited to kick off this series for 2000 with a great band like the Uptown Horns," commented Jonathan Secor, Director of Performing Arts at MASS MoCA.

The Uptown Horns established their solid reputation as one of America's foremost horn sections through almost twenty years of recording, touring and TV appearances with a virtual who's who of the pop music world. Emerging from the primal music scene of New York City in the early 1980s, the Uptown Horns - Crispin Cioe on alto and baritone saxes, Arno Hecht on tenor sax, trombonist Bob Funk and Larry Etkin on trumpet - have received global recognition for the breadth and depth of their musical collaborations.

The 1989-90 Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle World Tour, the Live at the Max movie and Flashpoint Live album put the Uptown Horns in the history books. Many have also heard the quartet's original sound on the Grammy-winning Living in America with James Brown, Buster Poindexter's Hot, Hot, Hot, Joe Cocker's Unchain My Heart, the B-52s Love Shack, Tom Waits' Rain Dogs, The J.Geils Band's Showtime, and The Honeydrippers with Robert Plant.

They have also collaborated on album tracts for countless artists including REM, Fuggees, Keith Richards, Lucky Peterson, Iggy Pop, Gram Parker, Hiram Bullock, Billy Joel, Bronski Beat, Badlees, Bernie Worrell, Delbert McClinton, Cyndi Lauper, Taylor Dayne and Buckwheat Zydeco. They have appeared on a wide variety of TV shows including The Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Today Show, and the Grammy Awards, backing stars like Aretha Franklin, Michael Bolton, and Buster Poindexter.

Their first album Uptown Horns Revue has been praised by critics. According to Living Blues Magazine, "One of the best horn sections in the business, the four-piece Uptown Horns have a hot, fat sound that many other working groups can only approach."

Felicia A. Swoope is on the teaching staff of the Millennium Dance Company under the direction of Denise Perry. She has produced and co-curated for the Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn and Aaron Davis Hall's "E-Moves" Emerging Choreographers series. She is currently studying under the jazz legend, Frank Hatchett. Swoope's choreography has appeared in the Film Breeze directed by Barbara Sanon, which was featured at the Harlem Film Festival at Sundance in 1998 and the New York Film Festival in 1997. Swoope has performed with Andrea E. Woods, Courtney Ffrench, Jubilation!, Ronald Alexander, Mary Suk, Gabri Christa, Art Bridgmen and Myrna Packer, Li-Chuan Wang, M'Zawa Danz and most recently with the recording artist Shannon. Swoope holds an MFA in dance from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Soul food provided by Lickety Split under the supervision of Sylvia Woods of the world-famous Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem will be available starting at 6:30 pm.

The Rhythm & Blues Dance Party is sponsored by South Adams Savings Bank.

Tickets to the Rhythm & Blues Dance Party are $12 adults and $6 for kids. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office at 87 Marshall St. in North Adams from 10 am until 6 pm daily. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during box office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org