Dr Julian’s Yes Yes at Stage 33 Live

The Julian Gerstin Sextet packed Stage 33 Live back in 2024, and now Gerstin has a new eclectic jazz project called Dr Julian’s Yes Yes — a fun, affirming name for a fun, affirming music experience. They take the songs in more unplanned directions than the Sextet, but still loaded with adventuresome, exciting rhythms and audience-friendly melodies.

The group is packed with powerhouse ringers in a lineup that varies depending on availability of the artists for a given date, including:

• saxophonist / clarinetist Jeff Lederer, who has been included in the Downbeat Critics’ and Readers’ poll every year since 2014;

• saxophonist Jason Robinson of the Janus Ensemble, also professor of music at Amherst College.

• reed player and ethnomusicologist Paul Austerlitz, specializing in bass and contrabass clarinets;

• pianist Andrew Wilcox, still young but already romping with all the big dogs;

• legendary bassist Wes Brown, who has toured the world with greats from three centuries including Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines, Anthony Davis, Anthony Braxton, and so many more;

• versatile trumpeter Haneef Nelson, a respected pillar of the jazz community as a composer / arranger, bandleader, sideman, musical curator, and educator;

• trumpeter Don Anderson, veteran of numerous groups including the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band, Zara Bode Little Big Band, Green Street Quintet, Dr. Burma, and New England Transcendental Brass Band.

• interdisciplinary percussionist, composer, and polyrhythmic force Brian Shankar Adler, whose drumkit often includes tabla, bombo legüero, and an array of found objects;

• drummer Ben James, who has worked with John Tchicai, Olatunji, Green Mountain Mambo, and others.

• and the ringleader, Julian Gerstin, ethnomusicologist / composer / master of the drum traditions of Ghana, Cuba, Martinique, Brazil and other African / Diasporic countries, as well popular styles of Nigeria, South Africa, Martinique, Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Mexico.

Dr Julian’s Yes Yes at Stage 33 Live, 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, VT, on Saturday, August 15, 2026, at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $20 in advance through stage33live.com or at the door. Only 40 tickets will be sold. Advance tickets guarantee entry. Advance sales will close at midnight the day before the show, or when the tickets are gone. The performance will be recorded and filmed.

Stage 33 Live is a casual and intimate industrial-rustic listening room in a former factory hosting local, regional, and national performances and presentations of original material. No bar or kitchen, the stage is the mission; coffee / soda / juice / water and weird snacks available by donation. More information about the nonprofit, all-volunteer project, and this and other upcoming events, online at stage33live.com

Stage 33 Live gratefully acknowledges the help of so many individuals without whom none of this would be able to happen, and institutional support this season from The Island Corporation, WOOL-FM, Guilford Sound, and the Rockingham Arts & Museum Project to help fund improvements and maintenance, and generally smooth out a lot of the rough edges. Stage 33 Live is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and all donations are deductible to the fullest extent. Volunteers run the thing from stem to stern.