David Lopato Trio Plays to Benefit Woodstock Chruch

“With guidance and counsel,” says the website of St. John’s Church in Woodstock, “[church pastor] Father John Hommel encourages everyone to fulfill the missions of feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, and serving the poor”—always an admirable cause, and one that’s certainly been on the minds of many as the topic of economic equality has been the focus of increased discussion lately. Long a pillar of the Woodstock area, St. John’s Church itself has been struggling financially lately, and this month the church is launching a series of benefit concerts to help preserve its place in the community. The first of these features jazz outfit the David Lopato Trio and will take place on March 23.

Lopato, a pianist, is Manhattan based but spends much of his time in Woodstock. After earning a B.A. in music from Yale, he studied African drumming at the California Institute of the Arts and Javanese gamelan in Java as a Fulbright Scholar. His album Gendhing For a Spirit Rising made Down Beat magazine’s Best of 2017 list. Rounding out his trio are two of the region’s top players: drummer Harvey Sorgen (Hot Tuna, Ahmed Jamal, Paul Simon) and bassist Jay Anderson (Randy and Michael Brecker, Tom Waits, Woody Herman).

Here’s an earlier edition of the trio featuring Ratzo Harris on bass with a wonderfully abstract version of the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein standard “All the Things You Are”:

The David Lopato Trio and will perform at St. John’s Church in Woodstock on March 23 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $15 each or $25 for two (seniors $10; children under 12 free). For more information, call (845) 679-7696.

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This article appears in March 2019.