Live at the Archway: Ghost Train Orchestra

THE BAND:
Founded in 2006 by composer/arranger Brian Carpenter, the Ghost Train Orchestra explores music from a transitional time and place in America ­­ the late 1920s in Chicago and Harlem, when the jazz orchestra was being developed by trailblazing bandleaders. The group made its debut at the 90th anniversary celebration of the historic Regent Theater in Boston, and has since performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival, NY Winter JazzFest, Mass MoCA, Museum of Modern Art, John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The Ghost Train Orchestra’s initial recording, Hothouse Stomp, achieved widespread critical acclaim and reached the top 10 of the Billboard Jazz charts; follow-up recordings include Book of Rhapsodies (2013), and Hot Town (2015).

THE SWING DANCER:
Paolo Pasta Lana is a 20 year veteran of Swing Dance specializing in the Balboa, Boogie Woogie, Collegiate Shag, Charleston, Lindy Hop, and The Madison Time. Paolo and his original partner Janice Wilson were the first Dance Couple to TOUR with Wynton Marsalis & The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and in 1998 they won the American Swing Dance Championships. They performed with shows “Swing Dance America” and “Forever Swing” The Musical Revue featuring Michael Buble. Paolo co-founded & presented The 1st Summer Jamboree Dance Camp in Italy, The Shake, Rhythm & Roll Festival in Asbury Park, and he’s the creative director of the Swing Remix dance spectacular in NYC.

THE ARTIST:
Dale Kaplan has been designing objects of beauty at 68 Jay Street since 1993. She is a well-known figure in the Dumbo neighborhood where she works in her studio overlooking the Manhattan Bridge. Armed with scissors, glue, heat transfer paper, and a vintage copier she has combined these mediums to create her own signature textile art form. She is known for her home furnishings, accessories, and mono-prints. Her sources of inspiration include spools of thread, tin foil, Brooklyn, knit patterns, French vintage textiles, nature, human nature, urban construction graphics, robots, bunnies, the alphabet, and the imaginary love lives of fruits and vegetables. Her clients have included The Brooklyn Museum, Garnet Hill, The Queens Museum, ABC Carpet and Home, Canvas Home as well as fine boutiques in the U.S.A. and Japan. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Pattern Pulp, Bric Arts TV and Food and Wine Magazine among others.

THE GALLERY:
The Space Station, by This Friday or Next Friday, premieres at this year’s Live at the Archway. Tfnf is likely the tiniest, most inconsequential art gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn, probably in NYC, and maybe on the face of the earth. It was founded by Nathan Sinai Rayman, and he runs it with Zach Seeger, his Director of Programs.