COOPERSTOWN — The Cooperstown Concert Series will welcome Brooklyn-based brass fusion quintet Dingonek Street Band at 7 p.m. Friday Feb. 9, at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown.
According to a media release, built on the celebratory energy and raw spontaneity of the second-line brass band tradition, Dingonek has created a funky, high-energy party music all its own by absorbing and reworking elements of Afrobeat, Ethno jazz, punk rock, free jazz, and Balkan brass music.
“We are thrilled to be bringing a brass street band from Brooklyn to our stage this season,” Cooperstown Concert Series Board President Arthur Weinstock noted in the release, adding, “The raw energy of Dingonek is exhilarating! Our mission is to present live music events that promote cultural growth, while intriguing and entertaining the audience. Dingonek Street Band exemplifies our mission and we’re eager to bring their sound to Cooperstown.”
The band began in Boston in 2013 as trumpeter Bobby Spellman’s Underground Society Band. A Monday night residency at the Middle East Nightclub allowed the gang of musicians to work out new material and hone the unique sound of the group. Over time, the brass-based jazz band began incorporating more sounds from around the world, and they gravitated toward the funkier side of their unconventional repertoire.
“We’re excited to be returning to upstate New York to perform for the Cooperstown Concert Series, and to be featured in such a long-standing, eclectic performing arts program,” Bobby Spellman, trumpeter and band leader for Dingonek Street Band commented in the release, adding, “Our band strives to find new paths to the roots of human jubilation through musical exploration and unbridled improvisation and we’re ready to bring our high-energy brass fusion and funky party music to the Cooperstown audience.”
Primal Economics is Dingonek’s dynamic debut album featuring eight original compositions penned by Spellman. Each track is a wild blending of worlds, mixing African rhythms with jazz improvisation, Romani scales with second-line grooves, brass and reeds with drums, gongs, bells, and broken glass. The fast-paced instrumental adventure finds the band taking creative risks without losing hold of the earthy grooves that form the foundation for party music the world over.
Tickets are available online and at the door at $20 for adults, $10
for students with college ID and youths ages 6 to 18. Children younger than 6 may attend for free.
For more information and tickets, visit cooperstownconcertseries.org/dingonek-street-band-feb-9/ .