Liveblogging from Think Café near NYU. Blurboxer is sitar and upright bass. I think (ha) this is their first gig and it works great as coffee and soup music. The clean improvisation pieces sound wonderful but the electronic effects sound overmodulated. Yet again, I blame the nonexistent sound guy.
Update: I was informed the speakers are blown. Don’t get me started.
I saw a number of friends’ bands over the last couple of weeks and thought I’d give them all reviews and plugs.
Spanglish Fly, Feb 19, Rose, Brooklyn — I’ve known the leader of Spanglish Fly, trumpeter Jonathan Goldman, for about eight years as he played on the corporate softball team I coached. He led a New Orleans style jazz band for a few years, then lived in New Orleans for a few years and came back and formed this band. These guys are bringing back the boogaloo sounds of Spanish Harlem in the 1960s and 70s mixing mambo, soul, latin jazz, and funk typified by supergroups like the Fania All-Stars. They’re playing live a lot and are highly recommended! See link above for schedule.
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I’ve been spending more evenings at the Manhattan School of Music. I can’t say enough great things about this institution. They have a whole other level of performance instruction Juilliard doesn’t touch!
‘Tis the season! I just got back from a concert by TACTUS at the Manhattan School of Music at Broadway and 122nd. That’s the new music group. It’s the end of the semester and MSM is putting on a string of great free concerts and recitals almost every night through December 19th so check the calendar and get uptown! There’s something for everyone: chamber, opera, holiday music, chorus, and jazz. (The Fauré opera has an admission charge.)
Also, the Bloomingdale House of Music on 108th Street near Broadway is having a handful of holiday concerts.
I’m selling a lot of my CDs over at Amazon. Check em out if you want some new music! Most are pretty cheap and I’ll be listing about 200 more very soon. Thanks.
I really like this photo. Even though the composition is completely split in half, both halves are satisfying and normally, you’d see the top half with a sunset over it. Hmmm.
I got booked to DJ a party at SiP for a bunch of jazz musicians this Saturday night. DJing for musicians is sort of like compiling a slide show for photographers. It’s curating a museum show for artists! I’m flattered and nervous.
This flagpole should be about 20 feet higher unless it’s really a lightning rod.
I was looking at other Wordpress themes so watch out! We could have a new look pretty soon although I’m fond of the water. I might just figure out the coding tricks and incorporate it.
Contortionists are from Mars:
Rockers are from Venus:
Alexis of Sleigh Bells
Sundelles
It’s really hard to take good concert photos with a crappy camera (duh) but I tried. Last night I saw Sleigh Bells, the Sundelles, and Orphan at Le Poisson Rouge based on a tipoff from This Recording. I’d seen Orphan open for Nebula at the Knitting Factory around a year ago so I was curious to see if they’ve evolved…. more abrasive than ever if that’s your thing. The drummer, Speck Brown, is hypnotic while the bass dude is still turning it up way past 11. The Sundelles are pleasant indie rock while Sleigh Bells were completely amazing. A band to watch out for!
I uploaded this to Youtube today. I shot it during “Punk Rock Island” around a month ago and it’s funny that you can’t hear any punk rock in the background. Since I uploaded it, I researched and found another post about them and also that FIGMENT* is related. Rock on kids.
Update: My bad. You can hear punk rock in the background.
This is a pile of CDs for which I will be entering a UPC code and putting up for sale online. Most are fetching $3-7 but a few are fetching a whopping 15¢ and I sold a few rarities for $29 and $40. I’m impressed some people still pay for this little package of music.
I’ll add more to this post tomorrow. Sizing and uploading all these pictures took a while. Click on a thumbnail to see full-size.
