Honored to perform again July 22 at the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, Hill-Stead Museum, in Farmington, Mike Asetta was invited by founding poet, the late Hugh Ogden, to lead the music at the inaugurating event for the festival June 1992. In this performance, Mike and Hugh devised their program together to relate the music and poetry thematically and perform simultaneously, intensifying the improvisational feel of poetry with jazz. Specifically Ogden had authored the poem “Round Midnight” and he sought Asetta to perform Thelonious Monk’s best-known jazz composition “Round Midnight”. Ahead of Hugh’s reading at that first Poetry Festival, Mike Asetta’s duo performed.
On Wednesday the 22nd of July, the Hill-Stead Museum gates open at 4:30 pm; a prelude conversation with headlining poet Vijay Seshadri at 5 p.m., opening poet Ravi Shankar at 6 pm; Mike Asetta and Tony Lombardozi perform at 6:30 pm; and Vijay Seshadri’s returns at 7:15 pm.
Asetta/Lombardozzi have collaborated in dozens of performances at venues including the Greenwich Country Club, Dressing Room in Westport, and Scoozi’s in New Haven. Favorite events included accompanying the awesome jazz singer Lissy Newman, daughter of the late actor Paul.
The ambiance of the Hill-Stead and its remarkable grounds enhance events. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark as a nationally significant example of Colonial Revival architecture. A centerpiece of the property and site of the Poetry Festival is the restored “Sunken Garden” originally designed by Beatrix Farrand.
