Music Listings – 8/27 through 9/2

1. Curtis Bahn/Steve Gorn

Date: Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Stone (is located at the corner of Avenue C and 2nd Street)
Ticket: $10
Genre: Raga electronica

Curtis Bahn (computer-extended sitar, dilruba) and Steve Gorn (bansuri flute) “Laajawab”—music crossing all borders, raga-electronica-sound collage and live interactive performance.

2. Oran Etkin

Date: Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Time: 9:30pm
Venue: ShapeShifter Lab (18 Whitwell Pl, between Carroll St & 1st St, Brooklyn, NY 11215, 646-820-9452)
Ticket: $10
Genre: Jazz

Oran Etkin is an internationally acclaimed artist whose work has been recognized with a GRAMMY award, another GRAMMY nomination and two Independent Music Awards. He has been described as a “Great clarinetist, excellent improviser” by New York Times critic Ben Ratliff and “composer of eminent individuality” by his mentor and teacher the legendary Yusef Lateef.  Etkin’s CD “Kelenia” features his band with musicians from Mali, Israel and US Bridging Bamako and Brooklyn, Bass-Clarinet and Balafon. The CD won “Best World Music Album” at the Independent Music Awards and was hailed as setting “a new standard for world music in the decade of the 2000s” by All Music Guide.
 

3. Mandingo Ambassadors

Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Time: 8pm
Venue: Barbes (376 9th Street, Brooklyn, NY)
Ticket: $10
Genre: Guinean music

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the government of Guinea engaged in a campaign known as Authenticité. It was a drive to create a new musical movement that would be specifically Guinean, but would include the modern wonders that were the electric guitar, the electric bass and the drumset. Musicians were given instruments and orchestras were formed. Surprisingly, the results proved mesmerizing and a myriad new bands were born. Many of them would go on to have a profound and lasting impact on African music. Mamady Kouyate was one of those pioneers. He played in various bands – his own band, Les Ambassadeurs du Mandingue, being one of them – but is probably best known as the guitarist in the classic Bembeya Jazz National. Kouyate, who now lives in NY, has reformed the Mandingo Ambassadors, updating the sound of his youth, but keeping it very close to the standard of Authenticité. The new All-Star band includes Mamady “Djelike” Kouyate, guitar, leader; Bebe Camara, vocal; Eudy Fernandez, trumpet; Oran Etkin, tenor sax, clarinet; Sylvain Leroux, flute, Fula flute, alto sax; Sam Dickey, guitar; Nick Cudahy, bass; Andy Algire, drums; Foluso Mimy, percussion.  “dazzling vocal and guitar patterns over a rhythm section that is like a perfect system” Ben Ratliff, NY Times.

4. SEFIRA

Date: Thursday, August 30, 2012
Time: 10pm
Venue: The Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia St., NY, NY 10014)
Ticket: $10
Genre: vocal/percussion ensemble/jazz, middle eastern music, latin

Sefira is a new vocal/percussion ensemble comprised of Sofia Rei, Malika Zarra, Sachal Vasandani, Mathias Kunzli, and Keita Ogawa. Each of the members lead a successful career of their own, and are very inspired to lend their diverse backgrounds to Sefira. Malika’s blend with Moroccan traditional music, Sofia’s fusion with South American rhythms, and Sachal’s deep connection to the American song book provide a very colorful and rich melodic and harmonic base. The three vocalists are supported by percussionists Mathias Kunzli and Paulo Stagnaro who provide not only a solid and groovy rhythmic foundation but also add infinite colors and moods in order to make Sefira a unique and very intimate experience for listeners of all corners of this world.

Sachal Vasandani, vocals;  Sofia Rei, vocals;  Malika Zarra, vocals;  Mathias Kunzli, percussion;  Paulo Stagnaro, percussion

5. Maximum CarameliZation: Burnt Sugar Freaks Every Other Song In The Book – a JB, Steely, Ra, Jimi, Bowie, Miles, Van Peebles and BS Monsta-Mosh  w/ Burnt Sugar Repertory Arkestra , Vernon Reid , Greg Tate, Maya Azucena , Vinia Mojica , The Dustbin Brothers ,members of Brown Girls Burlesque and more

Date: Friday, August 31, 2012
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, ph: 212- 505-3474)
Ticket: $18
Genre: funk, jazz, soul, blues

After two years spent performing the music of Melvin Van Peebles, Miles Davis, David Bowie, James Brown, Sun Ra, and Steely Dan in venues as disparate as Lincoln Center, The Stone, The Apollo Theatre, Sons d’hiver Festival in Paris France, and Rikers Island Prison; Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber, conducted by Greg Tate & Vernon Reid, and featuring Maya Azucena, returns for the third time this year to (Le) Poisson Rouge debuting their “Maximum CarameliZation” show for two sets on Friday, August 31st at 7:30pm.

A JB, Steely, Ra, Jimi, Bowie, Miles, Van Peebles, BS Monsta-Mosh

Featured Guest Sirens: Maya Azucena & Vinia Mojica
Creative Direction/MDs Greg Tate & Vernon Reid
Before & After DJ Sets: The Dustbin Brothers
Executive Producer: Jared Michael Nickerson

VOCALS Lisala, Maya Azucena,Mikel Banks,Micah Gaugh, Karma Mayet Johnson, Shelley Nicole, Vinia Mojica, Luqman Brown

HORNS V. Jeffrey Smith (Arranger) Lewis ‘Flip’ Barnes, Micah Gaugh, ‘Moist’ Paula Henderson, David ‘Smoota’ Smith

GUITARS Andre Lassalle, Ben Tyree, Vernon Reid

KEYS Leon Gruenbaum, Bruce Mack

BASS Jared Michael Nickerson

DRUMS Trevor Holder

& featuring
Chicava Honeychild, Jazabel Jade, & Sister Selva Brown of Brown Girls Burlesque

 

6. Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet w/ Special Guests

Date: Friday, August 31, 2012
Time:  7;30pm
Venue: Drom (85 Avenue A, NY, NY 10009, 212- 777-1157)
Ticket: $30
Genre: Afro-Peruvian jazz music

One of the most influential figures on the current jazz scene in Perú, Gabriel Alegria was born into an artistic family in Lima in 1970.  Alegria’s grandfather Ciro was Peru’s most famous novelist and his father Alonso is Perú’s most acclaimed playwright.
Alegria combines his experience playing jazz as it developed in the U.S. with a passionate interest and careful study of the black music of coastal Perú. By incorporating and exploring the common African roots found in both styles, he has developed a uniquely Afro-Peruvian jazz music concept. The rich legacy of the black music of coastal Perú can be heard in a contemporary jazz context. In all of Alegria’s work, a cross-cultural exchange between the Americas is always present, carefully defining Afro-Peruvian jazz music as the newest voice to come from Latin America.

7. NASS GNAWA

Date: Friday, August 31, 2012
Time: 9pm
Venue: Zebulon (258 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211)
Ticket: donation
Genre: Gnawa music from Morocco

Nass Gnawa is the Moroccan trio Brahim Fribgane, Hassan Ben Jafar and Said Damir. They play music of the Gnawa people who are Afro-Moroccan descendants of slaves from the south. Their mystical brotherhoods and their music combine North and Black African elements.

8. JANE IRA BLOOM QUARTET/WINGWALKER

Date: Sunday, September 2, 2012
Time: 8:30pm
Venue: The Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia St., NY, NY 10014)
Ticket: $15
Genre:  jazz

2012 Jazz Journalists Association Award winner for Soprano Saxophone, Jane Ira Bloom returns to Cornelia Café with her quartet featuring long-time bandmates Dawn Clement – piano, Mark Helias – bass, and Bobby Previte -drums. This is a band of seasoned composer/ performers who have a lot of history together walking the wings. They’ll reprise selections from their critically acclaimed Wingwalker CD and venture forth into new airspace where no woman or man has gone before.