Details for jaimie branch memorial monday september 26th 2022 at pioneer works in red hook, brooklyn, nYC

jaimie branch

6/17/83 - 8/22/22

celebration of life

monday, september 26th, 2022

pioneer works, red hook, brooklyn

<<< RSVP >>>

It's been one month since we lost our beloved sister, friend, inspiration, and pillar of our label’s artistic ethos, jaimie branch. It’s difficult to find the right words to capture this devasting loss for our community. We will come together through music, poetry and art to heal, share some light and celebrate the gifts of such a rare individual.

jaimie's official New York memorial begins at 5 pm EST on Monday, September 26 at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

In addition to selected art work by jaimie, memories, and eulogies from family and friends, there will be live musical dedications from: The Branch Family; Fly or Die’s Chad Taylor, Jason Ajemian, and Lester St. Louis; Anteloper’s Jason Nazary; Arts for Art comrades Chris Williams, William Parker, Patricia Parker, Cooper-Moore, and Hamid Drake; as well as her multi-faceted friends and collaborators in Irreversible Entanglements, Keir Neuringer, Aquiles Navarro, Luke Stewart, and Tcheser Holmes.

For those who cannot join in person, Arts for Art will be hosting a live stream of the event on their website. Follow @artsforart for up-to-date information.

For those who can join in person, we ask that you please RSVP via this link.

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A Big, Beautiful Fucking Ruckus

For those who plan to attend, you’re going to want to arrive early: Bene Coopersmith, of the legendary Record Shop in Red Hook, along with friends and family, are organizing a second line march through the neighborhood. The community will meet at 3 pm at The Record Shop, begin marching at 4 pm, and end at 5 pm at Pioneer Works.

All are welcome to participate; as the flyer says, “bring your horn, your mom, your pots, your pans." We’ll be shutting down traffic and making a big, beautiful fucking ruckus.

Thanks to the inspired work of jaimie's family and close friends, a foundation in her name has already begun to materialize. Additional details about the organization are forthcoming and its mission is to preserve the legacy, archive, energy and inspiration of jaimie branch.

Attendees of the memorial will be given the opportunity to directly contribute to the foundation. For those who cannot attend, you can contribute at this Donor Box link, which was set up by our friends at Experimental Sound Studio.

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THERE WILL BE A CHICAGO MEMORIAL EVENT IN LATE OCTOBER

Please stay tuned for more details.

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early reflections on jaimie

The tremendous outpour of love for jaimie has been incredible to witness, an act that has brought us many tears, smiles — but also strength. Here, a handful of thoughts about jaimie in the press:

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"branch was a sensational musician who brought a punk-rock sensibility to the free-jazz tradition and maintained a fierce commitment to racial and gender equality throughout her career." – Raphael Helfand for The Fader obituary

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“You could hear her all-encompassing sound just by looking her straight in the eyes." – Rob Mazurek

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“Jaimie Breezy Branch could conjure a world of personal expression with her trumpet, sounding brash and conflagratory one moment, bleary and contemplative the next. What she always conveyed with her horn, in any setting, was an absolute whole-body conviction. One reason she became a beloved linchpin of the creative music community over the last decade was this spirit of gutsy intensity.” – Nate Chinen for NPR obituary

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“She was a true collaborator, and that’s why she was so damn good at playing this music. She could listen, give and receive in equal measure with an unparalleled generosity. She had so many extremely close friends who also were collaborators, and because of that she wanted each individual to be really strong and strengthen the community as a whole.” – Amirtha Kidambi

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“[branch’s] strong decisions made for stronger songs, which made for stronger shows, which made for a stronger sense of communion, which made for a stronger jazz community writ large. Her playing bound her music — and her listeners — together. Like her blazing comet-sound, branch leaves us dazzled, but also improved.” – Chris Richards for The Washington Post obituary

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“Things were always more exciting when Jaimie was around, but also somehow tender – more real and down to earth, but also more grand and epic and noble.” – Alabaster DePlume

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"Throughout her career, branch’s casual attitude and ebullient onstage presence helped her audience shake some of their pretensions. Traversing the stage, likely with a White Sox hat sitting askew atop her head, a trumpet in one hand, a beverage in the other and, of late, a microphone slung around her neck, she’d goad the audience into having a good time — even sometimes getting them to sing along. It allowed her work to be felt within the community rather than above it." — Natalie Weiner for Tidal's obitatuary

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“She brought us so many insights into how the trumpet could engage in the music differently. She had a vision for synthesizing the voices of her inspirations and taking them to new levels no one had thought possible. It's a tragic loss for our community." – Dave Douglas

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"Ms. Branch forged a direct emotional, and even spiritual, connection with listeners. Her energy could barely be constrained by the stage, filling a room not just with the sound of her trumpet but also with the force of her presence." – Mike Rubin for The New York Times obituary

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“Jaimie was such an amazing trumpet player. Obliqueness, abstraction: That type of approach was very natural to her. She would dance around the melody instead of brashly stating it.” – Keefe Jackson

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"She folded punk sensibilities into her work, approaching her instrument with an intense curiosity about every possible sound it could make—whether or not it sounded how a trumpet “should” sound." – Allison Hussey for Pitchfork's remembrance piece

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“I don’t know why this is making me think of it right now, but she played like that Springsteen line from ‘Badlands. 'For the ones who had a notion deep inside/That it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive.’ She played like she was glad to be alive, and alongside people who cared as much as she did.” – Piotr Orlov

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“You have to just keep pushing people to see things into the future. If not, that’s how this stuff stays so stagnant. That’s what was so beautiful about Jaimie: She was a renegade. We need people like her because there’s not enough women in that space.” – Terri Lyne Carrington

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“Jaimie Branch was insanely funny. Like my brain is pink slime choking on air dying of laughter funny. Great memories. Jaimie ruled so fucking hard. Insane confidence on stage and delivered on it. Legend. Hurts a lot.” – Ryley Walker

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"I wrote about branch seven times in two years, right here for 48hills. All that coverage would make anyone think that I knew her personally, like I was a day-one dude, preaching ‘bout this genre-busting phenom on some back-in-the-day type expanse. But actually, I never met the artist nor caught her live in concert—and I deeply regret it. I came to j breezy late, but once i heard her—that fire—I knew that essentially, she was the future. That intensity made so many think that she was about to take her music to realms undefined.” — John Paul Shiver for 48 Hills obituary

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“Of all the people jaimie touched, I'm luckiest of all, because I've only ever known life with jaimie and her music. She was my older sister, my first teacher, my first friend, my first fight, my last fight. She was my everything. She was the bravest person I knew, on and off the stage. And life just seems too quiet now." – Kate Branch, jaimie's sister

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