October 19, 2019 In NY Artist Q&A

NY Artist Q&A with Mariel Roberts

For this series of bloggy interviews – NY Artist Q&A – I’ve shared questions with young artists and musicians living in New York. This time: Cellist Mariel Roberts. She actually lives next door to me in Brooklyn and we will play a couple of shows in the Netherlands in November. (Nov 13, 2019, at Pom Eindhoven and November 15th at Museum de Lakenhal Leiden with ChocoJazz Vervool).

I’m excited that she wanted to be part of this little Q&A – couch session. In addition to the questions, I love to share a 2-minute video of a jam that we did in my place in Brooklyn together.

NY Artist Q&A with Mariel Roberts

* WHERE ARE YOU FROM, WHAT DO YOU MISS ABOUT HOME?

I’m from Denver, Colorado. I miss the sky there… its enormous and the smell of the pine trees. I also miss my family!

* FAVORITE PLACE IN THE CITY

The Met Museum. I wish I could live there.

* FAVORITE NEW MUSIC

Tim Hecker is always a huge favorite of mine- he has two recent albums which are great.

* FAVORITE OLD MUSIC

Been revisiting Schubert piano trios! And slightly less old, I’ve been listening to Alèmayèhu Eshèté.

* WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE NON-MUSIC THING TO DO

Pretty much anything outside, running, walking, hiking, exploring any new city on foot.

* WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON MUSICALLY

I’m trying to integrate improvisation more firmly into my life as a performer, so I’m trying to think about different ways I can approach that which could bring together a lot of the different musical backgrounds and interests I have.

* WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST FANBOY MOMENT?

Definitely meeting and playing with Bjork- I don’t know if I said anything to her that didn’t just come out as a squeak..! Or meeting the composer Helmut Lachenmann for the first time, he’s a giant both literally and figuratively.

* CRAZIEST GIG EXPERIENCE

My favorite gig story is always a wedding I played in high school. It was on a mountaintop in Colorado, I played the theme to “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” on solo cello in the middle of a field while the bride and groom rode up on horseback. They also did their vows from horseback if I remember…

* WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 10 YEARS?

Hopefully having a happy and healthy life playing music with people I love and respect!

* YOUR WEBSITE

www.marielroberts.com

* LINK TO A VIDEO OF YOU

If you like this series of bloggy interviews, check also the one with Louis Alexander Gasser Londoño. Also, if you want to support me, follow me on Patreon.

November 2, 2017 In ChocoJazz

ChocoJazz Meets De Stijl – Live at the Netherlands Club of New York

Coming back from Zutphen to New York felt a bit like coming home. But no time to sit down and relax, because we had another ChocoJazz show coming up! Since this year is the year of De Stijl – the art group De Stijl was founded in Leiden 100 years ago – The Netherlands Club of New York wanted to celebrate this by throwing a party. And since the mayor of The Hague, Pauline Krikke, was in town they wanted to commemorate the influence of Mondrian and De Stijl by giving the owner of the building where Mondrian found the ‘Boogie Woogie’ a memorial plaque. Since we are talking about Jazz and art anyways, it would only be appropriate to perform at the The Netherlands Club with our ‘ChocoJazz Meets De Stijl’ show, which we performed earlier this year in Leiden.

Sold out!

And… the tickets were sold out within an hour! A hundred people came that night to The Warwick Hotel to celebrate De Stijl, meet the mayor and of course see what ChocoJazz is all about. I asked my longtime Berklee friend and bass player Max Ridley to come join us at this show, and having played lots of free jazz with him at the Lilypad in Boston before, I knew he would be a natural. We performed four paintings with the colors Yellow, Blue, Red and Black & White and played to these colors. Max’ bass filled up the room as my sounds inspired Teddy to create his edible paintings, which everybody -kinda hesitant at first- got to eat afterwards. It was a great night we got to inspire a lot of people and of course met the mayor!

Thank you Mayor of The Hague Pauline Krikke for attending our show and thank you Netherland Club of New York for hosting. I would also like to thank Koppert Cress USA at Long Island for arranging the beautiful edible flowers and cresses, Le Nouveau Chef for Teddy’s Chefs clothing and Original Beans for providing the most stunning chocolate were everybody got crazy over! And of course my dear friend Max Ridley for coming over to New York, blowing everybody including me away, having a few laughs and then grabbing a 4AM bus back to Boston..Musicians life..

Oh, and you can read Pauline Krikke’s Blog here.

Photo credit by Colin Faber.