DooBeeDooBeeDoo is a cross-cultural on-line magazine, based on the view that music and community are indivisible, and that musicians, consumers and record companies are all part of one community. The basic thrust of the editorial content is that a social awareness can be fostered through music.
Where: Lafayette, Louisana Date: April 25 – 29, 2012
The Festival International de Louisiane is an annual free to the public music and arts festival held in Lafayette, Louisiana celebrating the French heritage of the region. Drawing about 300,000 attendees. The festival was first held in 1987 and has become very popular, attracting musicians, artists, and craftsmen from around the world.
Location: CUNY Graduate Center/ Live@365 World Music Series, presented by Elebash, curated by Isabel Soffer
Reviewed by Brian Prunka
Simon Shaheenis well-known among Arabic music enthusiasts as one of the most gifted living performers on the oud, the fretless near-eastern antecedent to the lute and as a superb violinist. For several decades he has worked tirelessly to increase awareness and understanding among Western musicians and audiences of the rich Arabic musical tradition, and encouraged Arab musicians to embrace their musical heritage. I became aware of Simon in the late 1990s when I first began learning the oud, and learned of the annual Arabic Music Retreat that he directs each summer. Simon and his colleagues, such as Ali Jihad Racy and Bassam Saba, introduced to me and countless others the remarkable depth and richness of the Arabic Tradition. While my opinions on this performance may not be wholly objective, I hope that my intimate familiarity with the playing styles of the musicians will compensate to some degree for that deficiency.
1. The New York Arabic Orchestra – Spring Concert And Fund Raiser
Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 Time: 8:00pm Venue: Florence Gould Hall (of the French Institute Alliance Française, 55 E 59th St, NY, NY 10022) Tickets:Ticketmaster.com Genre: Arabic Classical music
The New York Arabic Orchestra is the home of contemporary and classical Arabic music in America. The orchestra, based in the New York metropolitan area, is an Arabic music institution of performance and education co-founded in 2007 by Bassam Saba, a world renowned multi-instrumentalist virtuoso, conductor and teacher of Arabic music; and April Centrone, the orchestra’s lead percussionist. The orchestra brings together a culturally diverse group of musicians around a common passion: Arabic Music.
The 35-piece New York Arabic Orchestra presents contemporary instrumental compositions by Bassam Saba, along with selections of Arabic vocal and instrumental music of Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. The NYAO is comprised of the oud (Arabic lute), nay (Arabic reed flute), qanun (Arabic zither), Arabic percussion, strings, woodwinds, lead vocalists and chorus. Known throughout the U.S. and abroad as one of Arabic music’s finest conductors, Bassam Saba has led the NYAO to prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and has developed an authentic sound that is regarded around the world.
Thirty years in Japan didn’t teach me what Samurai culture is about. After studying, practising Kendo and becoming a high rank Kendo-ka I found out that there is no Samurai culture in Japanese everyday life. A couple of days ago I heard that Kendo is taught again as a school subject at Japanese public schools. Why I don’t know. Maybe there are some people there who still believe that Kendo could be taught in a democratic fashion and could be an educational tool to make (young) Japanese aware of their roots. Maybe this video could be helpful as well.
Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 Time: 7pm Venue: The Graduate Center The Graduate Center Elebash Hall (365 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10016, Ph: 212.817.8215)
Ticket: $25 Genre: Arabic music
Marking the First Anniversary of the Arab Spring, the impeccably creative Palsetinian-American oud and violin virtuoso and composer Simon Shaheen will perform an evening of songs and freedom anthems of the 1950s that have found new resonance in the recent Middle Eastern and North African revolutions. He will also perform the New York premiere of his composition “The Call” with a guest dancer. Simon will be joined by Nidal Ibourk, vocals; Najib Shaheen: oud; Bassam Saba: ney; Peter Slavov: bass; Ali Amr: qanun and vocal; Tareq Rantisi, Percussion and guest dancer Elena Lantini.
Date: Sunday, April 15, 2012 Time: 7 pm Venue:Peter Jay Sharp Theatre /Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street, New York, NY 10025-6990) Tickets: $35, $45, $60 Genre: Persian classical music
Ostad Mohammad-Rezā Lotfi, one of the greatest living masters of the tar and setar lutes, has been a major figure in the past 40 years in revolutionizing Persian traditional music. His innovative approach of combining the classical with folk elements in his compositions and performances has revitalized an ancient tradition. A prolific musician, he has made numerous recordings as a soloist and with such renowned Iranian musicians as Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Shahram Nazeri, and Hossein Alizadeh. In this program, Lotfi is joined by Mohammad Ghavihelm on tombak (goblet drum). This is Lotfi’s first New York appearance since 1993, when he performed in a concert presented by World Music Institute.
Date: March 27th, 2012 Venue: Zebulon (Brooklyn, NY) Concert review by Jim Hoey
Zebulon, on Saturday night, was jumping with the sounds of Moroccan Gnawa music, a mix of Arabic, Sufi, and Sub-Saharan Berber mysticism. The band, Nass Gwana, performed three sets for the night, featuring the 3-stringed sintar (desert bass/guitar), which was shared by two of their players, and lots of droning kalabash (castanets), and vocals by almost all of their members.
Artist: Kmang Kmang Title: Drifting Label: self release Genre: classical guitar music with a good dose of jazz and instrumental fusion
“The most important thing is that it’s viscerally powerful,” states Barmey Ung, the classically trained guitarist and composer behind Chicago’s avant acoustic rock collective, Kmang Kmang.“I don’t like to intellectualize things too much, and don’t like to attach meanings where there doesn’t have to be meanings. I just want the music to be aesthetically powerful.”
Since beginning of this year I have been very busy with the production and promotion of my CD. So I was more concerned about myself than others and this movement. Soryyyyyyyyyyy! As you know I was interested and supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement from the beginning and featured it a couple of times in DooBeeDoo.
How do I feel about this movement now? Still very good and I’m very happy that I hear more about them recently in everyday conversations or in the media, such as The Village Voice which is announcing OCCUPY SPRING is coming soon in this week’s issue. Or my subway paper am NEW YORK Sign of the times: Occupy Wall Street pranks MTA. So some OWC actions are already happening. And I really hope that OWC will become a big and loud voice during the presidential election this year.
Here is a video made by Al-Jazeera Occupy Wall Street: Surviving the Winter,” Part Two of the documentary produced by Jordan Flaherty and Sweta Vorha for Al-Jazeera. Might be worthwile watching it.
Search And Restore: New Orleans is a 3 day festival (April 30th-May 2) celebrating the incredible new jazz musicians, creative composers and improvisers operating in New Orleans today, organized by Adam Schatz (founder of Search & Restore), Justin Peake (founder of the Merged series @ the Dragon’s Den) and Jeff Albert, (founder of the Open Ears series @ the Blue Nile).
FEATURING: James Singleton // Simon Lott // Mike Dillon // Justin Peake // Jeff Albert // Brad Walker // Steven Bernstein // Helen Gillet // Mike Gamble // Rex Gregory // Aurora Nealand // AfricaBrass // Brian Coogan // Scott Amendola // Mark Southerland // Marcello Benetti // Dan Ostreicher // Todd Sickafoose // Will Thompson // Tate Carson Quintet // Chris Alford + more TBA!
