The PPH Museum Presents: The Pangeans!

The Wednesday Folk Traditions concert series at The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum continues  its 42nd season on June 28th  at 6:30 pm with The Pangeans, a seven-member world music ensemble performing music based on traditional rhythms from around the world. The concert will be held on the grounds of the museum at 130 River Drive in Hadley. Admission is $12, $2 for children 16 and under. Cash or check only! Picnickers are welcome starting at 5:00 pm. In the event of rain, performances will be held at Wesley United Methodist Church in Hadley. For further information please call (413) 584-4699, or visit our website and Facebook page.

The Pangeans – named after the ancient supercontinent of Pangaea – perform Latin jazz, samba, Calypso, soca, reggae, and funk and Afrobeats music. Expansive instrumentation and diverse musical inspiration characterize this world music ensemble. Based in New England, The Pangeans perform throughout the Pioneer Valley.

The Pangeans consist of seven members encompassing a wide range of instrumental talents, musical styles, and affiliations with other ensembles. When combined, these musicians create a powerful and immersive world music experience. Brian Bender is a composer who plays the trombone, trumpet, melodica, keyboards, and percussion. Bender has performed at Carnegie Hall as well as President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Jim Vogel is a tenor and soprano saxophonist, percussionist, and composer who helped found the critically acclaimed funk band, Who’s Kidding Who? and leads his own jazz ensemble. Don Anderson plays the trumpet and flugelhorn, and performs with many groups across the region. Currently, Anderson performs in Julian Gerstin Sextet, the Green Street Quintet, the Jazz Marauders and the Bok Choy Trio. Steve Crow is an electric guitarist and Berklee College of Music graduate who performs with The Pangeans as well as his own band, Crow’s Rebellion. Julian Gerstin, Ph.D plays the congas and djembe. A percussionist, composer, and ethnomusicologist, Gerstin has taught at several colleges and currently teaches Latin jazz and samba at the Vermont Jazz Center. Rudi Weeks, an electric bassist, has performed with legends such as Tom Paxton and Tony Trischka. Weeks has taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, and Holyoke Community College. Jeff Hinrichs is a drummer with talents on both the drum set and hand percussion. Hinrichs earned his B.A. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Wednesday Folk Traditions continues on July 5th with The Wholesale Klezmer Band. Their performances express Jewish values of justice and peace and introduce Jewish music and culture to all audiences.

Wednesday Folk Traditions is funded, in part, by grants from: the Marion I. And Otto C. Kohler Memorial Fund at the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts;  Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, through its Festivals and Programs Grants; the Amherst and Hadley Cultural Councils; local agencies funded by Massachusetts Cultural Council;  Robinson and Cole; The Adams Foundation; Easthampton Savings Bank; Gage-Wiley and Company, and with generous support from many local businesses.

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation acknowledges that it occupies the unceded lands of the Nonotuck people. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum contains a collection of the belongings of several generations of one extended Hadley family, dating back to the house’s establishment in 1752 by Moses and Elizabeth Porter. The farmstead, known as “Forty Acres and its Skirts,” was a year-round home for generations before becoming a rural retreat for the family in the 19th century. The house and its activities include the labor and livelihood of many artisans, servants, and enslaved people. Their lived experiences are being brought to the forefront at the museum in the form of a new tour and reinterpretation initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The new tour foregrounds the lives of six enslaved men and women at the house: Zebulon Prutt, Cesar, Peg, Phillis, Rose, and Phillis. Additionally, the tour highlights the role of “pastkeeping” by exploring the home’s transition into a museum in the twentieth century. Recently, the museum was designated the “Forty Acres and its Skirts National Historic District” by the Massachusetts Historical Commission. Open June 3rd through October 15, Saturday through Wednesday. For more information, go to www.pphmuseum.org.