MUSIC

This is a benefit concert and performance to save the Silver Maple Forest.

Features: Composer, guitarist Jim Scott with Ensemble Jose Pienasola, bass; Mark Kahler, percussion

Special Guests: Stan Strickland, Saxophone, flute; Rev. Fred Small, Songwriter, guitarist; Elke Jahns, Native American flautist; Maya Apfelbaum, Eco-stilt dancer

Jim Scott

Composes and strums in behalf of the environment everywhere, and sings of peace in the land. bringing rich repertoire from the Paul Winter Consort, and co-composer of the haunting Missa Gaia, an earth mass performed across the country for nearly thirty years. “The Tree and Me” is Jim’s stage musical about saving ancient northwest forests. “The Earth and Spirit Songbook.” Is about peace and ecology. He performed with Tracy Chapman, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchel, Jackson Brown, John Denver, Tom Chapin, Dan Fogelberg, Odetta, and jazz flautist, Paul Horn, and with Holly Near in Nicaragua, and also in Australia, performing at the Institute for Earth Education. A published poet, writer and a teacher, he’s also produced instruction books on guitar techniques. A “world music” group he organized, explored the convergence of jazz, classical, folk and ethnic influences producing “Instruments of Peace”.


Stan Strickland

World renowned saxophonist, flautist, singer and actor has performed in Symphony Halls of Boston, New York, D.C, with many jazz notables such as Herbie Mann, Marlene Shaw, Bob, Moses, Webster Lewis, opening in an earlier era with Miles Davis, and Sonny Rollins. His repertoire develops from his many passions, which shine in his films and stage. He took the lead in “Harlem Renaissance”, and was featured in “Black Man Up”. And performed at the recent Sundance Festival for academy award, “Born Into Brothels”. Stan has taught at Tufts, Lesley, Longy and Berklee Schools of Music and is on the staff. He cares deeply about youth, and works with adolescents in art as Director of “Express Yourself” for improvement of health and welfare of youth.


The invaluable Silver Maple Forest, also known as the “Belmont Uplands, is the ecological core buffer of the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) Alewife Reservation with its river, streams and ponds. These features benefit the area with natural storm water storage which mitigates flooding and will be needed as a “climate adaptation center” in the future, say its protectors. The 7 acre Silver Maple forested area is also a rich and unique habitat for rare animals and birds including otter, deer, coyote, fox and nearly a hundred bird species, many nesting, and some of which require uplands and wetlands to sustain their life cycles. The concert will celebrate these resources and our efforts to protect them for local communities and for future generations.

Sponsors : the Coalition to Preserve the Belmont Uplands, the Friends of Alewife Reservation, Green Cambridge, Cambridge Climate Emergency Group, Coalition to Preserve Belmont Uplands, Arlington Land Trust, Belmont Land Trust, Sustainable Arlington, Green Port Neighborhood Association, Mass. Chapter of Sierra Club- Greater Boston, Belmont Citizen Forum, Mass. Peace Action, Mystic River Watershed Association