Ken Selcer’s Breaking Glass with Jill Stein at All Asia tomorrow:

The Music is Back!

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

Ken Selcer will be back on the scene, along with longtime musical partner Jill Stein, on Nov. 22 at the All Asia, 334 Mass. Ave. in Central Square, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Now that the race is over, Cambridge resident, Selcer Sound proprietor and local music mainstay Selcer, who was a key aide in Stein’s campaign, returns to musical organizing (far safer, some would say). He’s assembled a lineup of eclectic musicians including himself on vocals and guitar, Dan Fox on bass, Felicia Brady on vocals and accordion, Elisa Hewitt on congas, Jill Stein on vocals and congas and Noah Rohrer, Jill's son, on guitar. Ken has recently released a CD called Breaking the Glass, and will perform material from it along with some new songs. Other musicians might show up as well. It’s cathartic, in a sense.

“After working on the Jill Stein for Governor Campaign for the past year as a staff member,” he observed, “going through the gamut of emotions from joy to sadness to frustration and back again, I've learned that politics is personal and I hope to take that purpose into my music when I perform.”

Selcer is well regarded as an exceedingly affable musical circuit fixture. A Brooklyn, New York native, he came to the area in the mid-1970s, earning a B.A. in Music from Berklee. A recording studio entrepreneur and sound engineer, he's backed up myriad artists on stage and on record. A club DJ, event promoter, producer and booker, he has recorded four CDs solo with Jill Stein, and with their group Somebody’s Sister. His Selcer Sound and Graphics has long catered to the duplication and graphics needs of musicians and other artists. He’s run open mike series at Cambridge's Ryles, Finnegan's Wake and Café Soho as well as at the Puppet Showplace Theatre in Brookline Village, and has produced events at the Somerville Theatre.

His rack of performances is multilateral: coffeehouses, clubs, bars, functions, libraries and political events have featured Selcer along with whatever his current act might be. He’s also played at Foxboro Stadium, Earth Day 1990 on the Esplanade, has won two Multi-Cultural Awards from the Mass. Dept. Of Education and two national semi-finalist Best Unsigned Band awards from Musician Magazine.

The All Asia show will be “a combination of folk, rock, blues, jazz and funk,” he said. “We'll be performing old songs, some covers, songs from my in the can CD, Breaking the Glass, and some new songs. And it will certainly have a twang of melancholy mixed in, given the recent emotional drainage. But he views it as part of the process, even necessary.

“You can combine politics and the personal,” he said. “Politics without community doesn't work, and music needs to have a purpose to work.”

What’s up next on the long road? “I hope to keep expanding,” he said. “With the year of campaigning experience under my belt, I now plan to perform all over the place and perform all genres of music while bringing community wherever I go. I also plan to continue with the Campaign and help change the face of politics in Massachusetts.”

But for now, a bit of fun on Friday evening. “It's a happening,” he said, “a thang, an event, an intro to a new era and so on! It's an early show, so for those of you who have other plans that evening, this gives you a chance to come and hear me and others play music: a show before a show.”

Ken Selcer, Jill Stein and company will perform Friday, Nov. 22 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the All Asia, 334 Mass. Ave., Central Square (near MIT). Food and drink will be available; all ages are admitted. For more information, call 617-497-8838