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Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals / Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Sat, Jul 9, 7:00 PM - 12:00 AM
Brewery Ommegang - Cooperstown, NY
656 Co Hwy 33
Cooperstown, NY 13326

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals

with Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

will be performing at Brewery Ommegang on Saturday, July 9

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals

It had been seven years since Ben Harper last played a show with the Innocent Criminals, so when the time came to reunite for a live tour in 2015, the band—percussionist Leon Mobley, bassist Juan Nelson, drummer Oliver Charles, keyboardist Jason Yates, and guitarist Michael Ward— quickly discovered that Harper had more in mind than simply revisiting the group's prodigious collection of hits. In fact, Harper had been quietly amassing material for a new record, Call It What It Is, and the first recording sessions were scheduled to begin even before the rehearsals for their triumphant four-night sold-out reunion run at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

"I thought we would be more energized and revitalized by thinking outside the box and starting with new material in the studio before we dug into the old stuff," explains Harper. "It was meant to be a signpost that we're here to forge new ground musically and personally. Because of that, the older material started to sound brand new too.”

Beginning with his 1994 debut, Welcome To The Cruel World, Harper released a string of eight studio albums over a decade and a half. This extraordinary run, featuring contributions from the Innocent Criminals, established him as a singularly powerful songwriter and performer with range across multiple genres and an unmatched ability to blend the personal and political. The accolades poured in—Rolling Stone hailed his "jewels of unique and exquisitely tender rock & roll,” while Entertainment Weekly praised his "casual profundity," and Billboard said his music "reminds us of the power and beauty of simplicity." Massive, international sold-out tours, Top 10 debuts in the US, Gold and Platinum certifications overseas, and a slew of TV appearances cemented Harper and the band's status as genuine global stars.

"The process of working outside of my comfort zone is really important to my growth," explains Harper. "The situations I've put myself in have pushed me further than I could go in any familiar setting, and that's what's brought me back full circle to the Innocent Criminals now. Everybody went out and grew in their own ways during our time apart, and that's brought this heightened level of appreciation for each other and what we do."

“Each member brings a wealth of knowledge and different styles of music,” said Nelson. “What makes us unique is that we come from different places musically and we seem to complement each other because of the different styles that we play."

"Playing with the Innocent Criminals again is like riding a bike," adds Charles, "but that bike has gotten tons of upgrades and modifications since the last time. There was a feeling I had missed for so long that you can only get from playing together."

From the opening minutes of Call It What It Is, it's clear that that feeling has never been more powerful or exhilarating. The album kicks off with "When Sex Was Dirty," a song that Harper had earmarked for the Innocent Criminals from the moment he wrote it. It's all classic rock and roll bravado, full of electric guitar swagger, driving percussion, and seductive energy. Harper follows it up by demonstrating that his range is wider than ever with the utterly vulnerable "Deeper and Deeper," a near-whispered acoustic moment of introspection co-written with Ward, who says that despite the time apart, or perhaps because of it, the band is now "closer than ever as musicians and as human beings."

It's on the album's bluesy title track, though, that Harper cuts to the quick. "There's good cops and bad cops / White cops and black cops / Got to call it what it is / Murder," he sings before invoking the names of Trayvon Martin, Ezell Ford, and Michael Brown.

For the first time in his career, Harper split the recording of the album into four five-day sessions spread across an entire year, enabling him and the band to come back to the music with a deeper sense of objectivity. "It gave us a chance to live with the songs for a while and let them soak in," says Mobley, who worked with artists as diverse as Mick Jagger and Nas during his time away from the Innocent Criminals. "It gave us a chance to reflect, which was important to our satisfaction and allowed us to make good decisions.”

The new album is Harper’s second release for Stax Records. Perhaps most associated with icons like Booker T & The MGs, Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes, Stax is a seamless fit for Call It What It Is, due to its rich Civil Rightsera legacy and its dedication to spreading soul music in all its most powerful forms. Harper speaks reverently of the label, describing the honor and the privilege of calling it his home, and it's clear the history holds a special place in his heart as both a fan and an artist.

As serious and solemn as Call It What It Is can get, though, it's also one of Harper's most joyous records. "Shine" grooves with blissful passion, while "Pink Balloon" shows off a lyrical mischievousness that surprised even Harper himself. Like so many of the other tracks, it only fully revealed itself over time and through a free-flowing collaboration with those closest to him.

"There's a natural way we move together and flow through the recording of a song," explains Yates. "There's an unspoken dialogue that runs steady through this album like a river. The feelings evoked by these songs are coming from the very depths of our souls. It's a sacred sharing."

The result is perhaps the proudest accomplishment of Harper's prodigious career.

"The time we took with this record has let me look it straight in the eyes and say that I gave everything I could to it and that it's exactly the way we intended it to be. To be able to say that we've left no stone unturned just feels great."

For the legions of Ben Harper fans that have been waiting eight years for a new album with the Innocent Criminals, it feels even better


Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

New Orleans native Trombone Shorty is the bandleader and frontman of Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, a hard-edged funk band that employs hip-hop beats, rock dynamics and improvisation in a jazz tradition. Together, Trombone Shorty and his band have toured the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, Russia and Brazil. Trombone Shorty began his career as a bandleader at the tender age of six, and toured internationally for the first time at age 12 before joining Lenny Kravitz' horn section at the age of 19 for a 105-date world tour in 2005-2006. His third outing for Verve Records, "Say That To Say This," co-produced by Shorty and R&B titan Raphael Saadiq, was released in September 2013. In 2010, Trombone Shorty released the Grammy-nominated "Backatown," followed in 2011 by "For True," which topped Billboard Magazine's Contemporary Jazz Chart for 12 weeks. In January 2014 Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue performed on the 56th Annual Grammy Awards with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Mary Lambert, Madonna and Queen Latifah, and the band has made guest appearances on Conan, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Arsenio, and Austin City Limits. Shorty also played himself in a recurring role on the hit HBO series "Treme" In 2012, he performed at the White House in honor of Black History Month with music royalty such as B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Booker T. Jones, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, and Gary Clark Jr. Later that same year he received the President's Medal from Tulane University in recognition of his charitable work with his own Trombone Shorty Foundation. Good things continue to happen for Trombone Shorty, thanks to his virtuosity, his dedication, and his ability to move people. That he pursues his passion with such humility and unpretentiousness makes his still-unfolding story as compelling as the music he's making along the way.

There is a camping area on the Brewery grounds

Tickets and more info are available from Dan Smalls Presents