BLOUNTVILLE — An evening of pure fun and music making will be had Monday at 7 as Michael Bellar and the AS-IS Ensemble bring their ecstatic, improvisational groove style to Northeast State’s Wellmont Regional Center for the Performing Arts.
The free and public performance is part of the College’s Summer Concert Series. The performing arts center is located at 2425 Highway 75, adjacent to the Tri-Cities Regional Airport.
Since the release of the band’s CD “Turned On Turned Up” in 2009, the group has played more than 160 shows. The group’s latest CD “Oh No Oh Wow” draws from more than two hours of newly recorded music and includes both originals by Bellar and completely reworked covers from artists as varied as Fleet Foxes, Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen and Bob Marley.
The alt-jazz group has opened for John Scofield, Oliver Wood (of the Wood Brothers), Medeski Martin and Wood and Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. The band has performed at such venues as Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the NYC Winter Jam, and the JVC and Bell Atlantic jazz festivals. The ensemble was formerly the house band at the world-famous Blue Note jazz club in New York City.
In addition, the band has toured or recorded with Amos Lee, Art Garfunkel, Howie Day, Wheatus, Teddy Geiger, Jump Little Children, Jay Clifford’s Rosebud and Euro pop star, Giorgia. National TV appearances include Late Night with David Letterman, the Conan O’Brien Show, the Ellen Degeneres Show, Total Request Live, Good Morning America, Regis and Kathy Lee and the CBS Morning Show.
For more information, visit www.michaelbellar.com or contact Jim Kelly at jpkelly@NortheastState.edu or 279-7669.