MUSIC

 Hee Hawk is a jazz, folk, and new music ensemble. The group has been performing across New England for the past year and is a rising force in the world of acoustic music. Hee Hawk performs the original compositions of pianist Adam Lipsky. With strong roots in the jazz tradition, the players in Hee Hawk apply their harmonic awareness and improvisation technique to the original pieces. While some of the pieces have open melodies reminiscent of Appalachian string music, others have dark, more intricate harmonic content that shows influence from such luminaries as Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus. With the highly emotive sensibilities of Appalachian and Depression-era folk music, the group weaves between consonance and dissonance bringing out all the soul of the blues. The sound of Hee Hawk is raw, elegant, and urgently vital.

Nina Violet hails from the island of Martha’s Vineyard where she was classically trained from childhood on viola. Nina started touring with island favorites Kahoots while still in her teens. Her early twenties saw Nina collaborating, touring and recording with Willy Mason, whose hit song “Oxygen” both launched his career and enabled Nina and himself to crisscross the Atlantic and US on numerous headline tours and with Radiohead, Beth Orton and Elvis Perkins. Nina performs on and arranges for the entire family of string instruments and plays guitar, banjo, mandolin and keyboards. Her voice, melody and lyric writing have taken center stage on her albums and live shows. She appears solo and with her sister Marciana Jones. Nina’s music organically blends poetic lyrics, lush orchestration and even some punk sensibility into something truly timeless & original.