Unruly Neighbors is an improvisational duo based in Brooklyn, NY composed of guitarist Ben Tyree and drummer/percussionist Sameer Gupta. In 2020, the duo heard the increasingly urgent call for co-creating new visions for what the world could look like post-pandemic. They answered with their joint debut recording project, Unruly Neighbors (Sonic Architectures) – a largely improvisational sculpture of electric and acoustic sound that is, at once, emotive, gritty, and transcendent. Experience their eclectic and supernatural improv duets in this special show celebrating their latest release, Catalytic. The album weaves a contrast of Tyree’s searching, dark and, at times, piercing tone with the tickling, trance-inducing drive of Gupta’s hybrid tabla/drum kit, creating dream-like washes of sound that play out to the many tensions and uncertainties of these times. Expect the unexpected.
Schedule: 7pm Doors Open | 7:30 - 9:00pm Concert | 9:00-11:00pm Jam Session
About the Artists
Sameer Gupta is known as one of the few percussionists simultaneously representing the traditions of American jazz on drumset, and Indian classical music on tabla. After graduating with a music performance BA, Gupta worked and taught in the Bay Area for 10 years as a jazz drummer, and later also as a classical Indian tabla player. Today he lives in Brooklyn, NYC and is actively involved in performing and teaching through various institutions including Brooklyn Raga Massive, Carnegie Hall’s Global Encounters and Ragas Live Festival. Gupta has held workshops on Indian music and cross over drumming styles, at The Jazzschool in Berkeley, California and Berklee College of Music in Boston. His influences range from Elvin Jones and Tony Williams to Ustad Allah Rakha. He has had the pleasure to play with many great musicians including Falu Shah, Rez Abbasi, Marc Cary, Wallace Roney, Karsh Kale, Pandit Krishna Bhatt, Ravi Chandra Kulur, Mysore Manjunath, Prasant Radhakrishnan, Pandit Chitresh Das, Jason Samuels Smith, Pandit Ramesh Mishra, and numerous other luminaries.Gupta continues to build his career by combining traditional and modern improvisational styles drawing from his dual Indian and American heritage, and has already established himself as an original musical voice in jazz, world, and fusion music. From his early percussion studies in Tokyo, Japan in the mid 80s, he has consistently placed himself in many challenging musical environments. From bebop to avant-garde jazz, and European classical percussion to North Indian classical tabla, Gupta continues to compose and perform music from a true multi-cultural perspective that now bridges several continents.Guitarist
Ben Tyree is a performer and composer of virtuosic ability, infectious groove, and eclectic tastes. All of those elements are placed on stunning display on albums released by his own Sonic Architectures label (re:Vision - 2010, Thoughtform Variations - 2012, Burn It! LIVE - 2014, Lifelines - 2020, and Sameer Gupta + Ben Tyree = Unruly Neighbors - 2020). Originally from Washington, DC, having attended the prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts and subsequently majored in Jazz Studies at Howard University, Tyree has been NYC-based since 2002. His versatility has additionally led to work with artists as diverse as Vernon Reid, Valerie June, Elliott Sharp, Brooklyn Raga Massive, and the mainstay Burnt Sugar: The Arkestra Chamber to name a few.