Project by Natasha Blank + Sascha LewisGet Your Dance On is global movement that is changing the way the planet parties. We host monthly parties in NYC, LA, and at festivals across the country.
Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
A new video by Sven Kacirek! The video for ” Paper Flowers ” (from his recent released album SVEN KACIREC, THE KENYA SESSIONS) with images of the Ali Khamed Orchestra in Kenya and Sven playing at his studio in Hamburg (Germany). Cool video: sound and images match very well!
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Sven’s album is nominated for this years prestigous German “Prize of the German Record Critics’ Award“!!
Date: March 5, 2011
Venue: Bell House (Brooklyn, NY)
Concert review and photos by Stephanie Keith
Khaira Arby’s set at the Bell House in Brooklyn started as a praise song to Allah. The first line to the Koran “Bismillalla Allah il Rahman il Rahim”…..reverberated up to the rafters. Arby is paying homage to the female singers of Mali who were historically only allowed to sing religious songs.
Date: March 31, 2011
Venue: Highline Ballroom (NY)
Concert review by Jim Hoey
The Residents still baffle and riddle their audience with questions of identity: Who are these freaks? Where did they come from? How do they turn out such twisted songs? What their fans DO know for sure is that they’ve been around almost as long as the Rolling Stones or Black Sabbath, have put out over 60 albums, and they came out of some swamp or dark lair of Louisiana, before heading to San Fran in the late 60′s. The rest is just hearsay. Although they did release Meet The Residents in 1972, (a parody of Meet the Beatles more in line with Zappa or Captain Beefheart), since that time they have been popping up in different incarnations, with consistently demanding and challenging punk, gothic, and noise releases over the past 3 decades.
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Concert review by Augusta Palmer
Every Friday night between 8 and 11 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, you can be part of a musical tradition that’s almost 1000 years old. That’s the time that Sulieu Suso plays kora every week at Le Grand Dakar, Chef Pierre Thiam’s elegant restaurant.
A native of Senegambia, Mr. Suso has been playing the kora, an instrument made from a hollow gourd fitted with a rosewood neck and with 21 strings, since he began studying with his father at age 8. Sulieu Suso is a descendent of JaliMady Walyn Suso, who is often credited with inventing the instrument, and he’s a serious practitioner of an art that dates back to the earliest days of the Malian empire.
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Date: Monday, April 25, 2011
Time: 9pm & 11pm
Venue: Zebulon (258 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211)
Ticket: donation
Genre: post-rock/experimental/improve
Elliott Sharp – 8 string guitarbass, soprano saxophone, electronics, Shelley Burgon – electric harp, Marc Sloan – electric bass and Joseph Trump – drums & percussion. – A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City since the late 1970s, Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from blues, jazz, and orchestral music to noise, no wave rock, and techno music. Read more.
CD reviews by William Harvey
Artist: The Brian Landrus Quartet
Title:Traverse
Label: Blueland Records
Genre: Jazz
Brian Landrus’s latest studio recording, Traverse, displays his talents as a bandleader, composer, and improviser on both baritone sax and bass clarinet. For this project Landrus assembled an all star band including Billy Hart on drums, Michael Cain on piano, and Lonnie Plaxico on bass. The album consists of one standard and seven originals, three of which were co-written with Cain. Each composition has it’s own distinct character yet fit well together in the context of the album as a whole. Landrus’s melodies and solos are fresh, lyrical, and without clichés.
Like many great jazz quartet leaders before him, Landrus often steps back and lets his rhythm section groove and react to the music that has happened or set a mood for the coming melody and solo of the leader. Landrus displays a great level of musical maturity in his use of space, a quality rarely found in a saxophonist as technically gifted as he is. Although he is playing bari and bass clarinet, Landrus is clearly influenced by great tenor players such a Charles Lloyd or Joe Henderson, most apparent in his sense of phrasing and warm tone in addition to interactive playing with his quartet.
Overall the album is tastefully balanced. Most of the tracks are under five minutes long with nice variation of tempos and styles between them. Landrus even knows when not to use the band. On one track “Soul and Body,” he stands alone playing a heartfelt solo improvisation which functions as an intro to the standard “Body and Soul”, in which the band rejoins. Also, on “Lone” and “Soundwave”, Michael Cain proves to be a most ideal accompanist for Landrus in two intimate duets. Sonically the mix and production quality are top notch as no corners were cut to make this album sound as clear as any jazz album in its category. In 2011 Traverse will surely hold it’s own in the midst of notable modern jazz albums.
Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Last week the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS)T, the organization that overlooks the GRAMMY Awards has announced a consolidation of categories resulting in deleting the Latin Jazz Category. NARAS decided to reduce the number of Grammy prizes from 109 to 78. Why? “…that the Grammy remains a rare and distinct honor, and continues to be music’s most prestigious and only peer-recognized award,” said NARAS president Neil Portnow. Watch video below which shows you the New York Chapter meeting of NARAS on April 11, 2011 and how NY Latin Jazz fans and musicians reacted to this decision.
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Date: Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Time: 6:30
Venue: Aaron Davis Hall (133rd and Convent Avenue, on the campus of The City College of New York)
Ticket: suggested donation is $25.00 Or donate what you can. All donations are appreciated.
Checks should be made payable to any one of these three organizations: The Japan Society, The Consulate General of Japan and The Japan Chamber of Commerce (J.C.C.). Call 212 926 2550 to RSVP
Genre: music and dance
The City College of New York, Community Works, The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, The Harlem Arts Alliance, Voza Rivers/New Heritage Theatre Group and Katsuya Abe invite you to HARLEM FOR JAPAN BENEFIT CONCERT. oin Rhythm and Blues legend and Grammy nominee Chuck Jackson, International Japanese artists: Toya, Yuichiro Oda, and Yuko Darjeeling, National Jazz Museum in Harlem All Star Band, Oscar and Grammy nominated IMPACT Repertory Theatre, Harlem vocalists: Janice Marie Robinson, Claude Jay, Lady Cantrese, and Lee Olive Tucker; Pianists Matthew Whitaker, Choreographer Obediah Wright and the Balance Dance Company, Keith “The Captain” Gamble, Lonnie “The Prince of Harlem” Youngblood, Jazzmobile and Manhattan School of Music Musicians and others…
Artist: BANCO DE GAIA