Artist: José Cónde
Title: José Cónde
Label: PiPiKi Records
Release date: September 6, 2011
CD release party: at 92nd Street Y Tribeca on September 9, 2011
Genre: singer-song writer/latin groove

José Cónde lives his lyrics. He gets grooves from the names of trees. He leaves melody lines on his own answering machine. He can turn a playful refrain to his dog into a dance anthem. His songs are odes to hot dresses, Brazilian muses, discombobulated elephants, and life-giving springs.

Cónde brings a new focus and maturity to this whimsical world on Jose Conde. He turns highly personal songs into new global grooves and reflective, dynamic ballads. As a songwriter and bandleader, Cónde developed a striking instinct for merging his Miami upbringing, Cuban roots, and the sizzle of New York’s Latin underground. But the new self-titled album is distinguished by a universality; catchy melodies and danceable rhythms likely to draw listeners of all stripes.

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Guarco was born to Uruguayan and Italian parents in Elizabeth, NJ. Growing up in both that immigrant-rich industrial city, and the small beach town of San Luis, Uruguay, he acquired an eclectic taste in music.

Guarco spent years experimenting with a 4-track tape machine creating a vast collection of sonic collages, dense reggae loops, wild drum-machine drones, and flowing psychedelic delayscapes. At 21, Guarco decided to go back to Montevideo, Uruguay to study folklore guitar, and to write new material for what would be his debut release.

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Text and interview by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi August 3, 2011 at the Lincoln Center (NY)

Drummer, composer, educator and band leader (Asphalt Orchestra, Red Baraat and Sunny Jain Collective) Sunny Jain, a native of Rochester, New York, now living and working in New York City, is one of the South Asian-American jazz musicians who brings Jazz and the ancient sounds of India together. His Punjabi roots and appreciation for Bollywood classics and Indian dance rhythms can be heard in his work. In general his music is very eclectic fusing Jazz with Indian music integrating drum & bass, progressive rock, Brazilian and West African rhythms.

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

A month ago I went to the Summer Stage in Central Park to check out Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. After short I felt that Yo-Yo wasn’t my thing for the night. So I left and decided to take a walk in the park. While walking I heard some drum sounds which sounded like Korean traditional drums. I followed the drum sounds to find out who was playing. After two, three minutes I found three young men playing two tenor saxophones and a simple drum set.

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From the moment I walked towards them I knew it was going to be an exciting outdoor concert… Blasting their drums and saxes, Moon Hooch, which was the name of the band, thrilled the people around them.They were playing energy music. It was fun watching three young enthuastic musicians who played so passionate. They proved that music is still essential in our lifes. Hope they don’t lose this positive energy and keep going.

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Text by Jim Hoey

Underground, (literally underground) comedy, is alive in a Brooklyn basement known as Donny Vulture’s. To get there for some laughs and to hear probing interviews with local stars, and questions beamed in from a microwave (huh? what!?), you have to hop on the L train, hightail it to Montrose, and step out past the Dominican barbershop, the Vortex thrift store, and the Danbro music studios, to where it all takes place.

It’s by invite only (Shhhhh…), so if you are lucky enough to be on the list, or know someone who might bring you around, you’re in for a few hours of homespun laughs and giddy shenanigans orchestrated by one Jerry Haas, a mysterious personality who, judging by his accent, may have made his way to New York by way of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, or the Colonel Sanders
school for young lost reprobates. Thankfully this guy knows his way around a small, cramped stage and if you’ve ever been over to the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, or a corner by a bodega in Bushwick, you might have an idea of what level of repartee you’ll be in for. Check out the video below, where you’ll see one curious saxophone player in the spotlight at Donny Vulture’s.

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One of New York’s original bands, HAZMAT MODINE delivers a rustic, deliriously Dionysian blend of whorehouse Blues, Reggae, Klezmer, Country and Gypsy-tinged music. In the video below  Hazmat Modine are performing live “The Tide” at the BBC.

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HAZMAT MODINE’S new CD CICADA is out (13 Tracks, 24 page booklet with special guests on the CD)
Two years in the making, this epic CD is the result of five years or worldwide touring and countless collaborations which makes Hazmat the most global of all American bands. With special guests The Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant and Benin’s extraordinary Gangbe Brass Band. Out May 17.

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( About the video: a new video of FULA FLUTE featuring Bailo Bah and Sylvain Leroux. Performing the song “Ndougouse Baobara” in an environment of works by French sculptor Alain Kirili.)

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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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Text from: 
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2011/04/13/135351553/billy-bang-jazz-violinist-and-vietnam-veteran-dies-at-63?ps=cprs

Billy Bang, a violinist known for intense performances and a wide-ranging sensibility, died Monday night, his agent Jean-Pierre Leduc confirmed. Bang, who had been suffering from lung cancer, was 63.

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Born William Walker in 1947, Bang was an important figure on the experimental jazz scene that blossomed in New York in the 1970s. But he gained wider recognition in the last decade for a series of recordings which drew on his military service during the Vietnam War.

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