Monthly Archives: June 2011

Ai Weiwei: New York Photographs 1983–1993

Asia Society presents more than 200 photographs taken by Ai Weiwei that capture the culture of 1980s New York and the lives of expatriate Chinese artists in the East Village. The exhibition, curated by Asia Society Museum Director Melissa Chiu, is the first U.S. presentation of this previously unknown archive. It will be on view from now until August 14. (Learn more about Weiwei.)

NEW YORK, June 27, 2011 — Asia Society Museum Director Melissa Chiu offers background on the exhibition Ai Weiwei: New York Photographs 1983-1993 and reflects on Ai’s recent release by the Chinese authorities.

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The exhibition marks the first time Ai Weiwei’s New York Photographs series is being shown outside of China.
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Music listings – 6/27 through 7/3/2011

Will be updated during the week!

1. Hot & Cold

Date: June 27, 2011
Time: 10pm
Venue: Freddys Bar (627 5th Ave at 17th Street – one block from the Prospect Avenue R-stop, Brklyn, N.Y. 1215)
Ticket: $10
Genre: guitar music

Hot & Cold will premier a few works they’ve been co-writing over the last year on their electric guitars. Fusing their common love of improvisation and composition, guitarists Anders Nilsson and Aaron Dugan create musical layers that transgress denominations and -isms and embrace the universe’s constant mandate to create anew.

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Message From Gonzalo Rubalcaba to Japan!!!

Gonzalo Rubalcaba (born May 27, 1963 in Havana, Cuba) is a Grammy Award-winning Cuban jazz pianist and composer. He has received 14 Grammy nominations (wining 2 Grammys for Nocturne and Land of the Sun, and 2 Latin Grammys for Solo and Supernova) including four for Jazz Album of the Year (Rapsodia in 1995, Antiguo and Inner Voyage in 1999, and Supernova in 2002), the Palme d’Or from the Music Academy in Paris in 1991 and two “Best Performer” awards for “Suite 4y20” and “Rapsodia” in 1992 and 1993 respectively. In 2008, Gonzalo was awarded the “Vanguard Award” by The ASCAP Foundation for “charting new directions in Jazz”.

In 1986 he had a chance meeting in Havana with bassist Charlie Haden. Through Charlie Haden he came to the attention of Bruce Lundvall president of Blue Note Records, and thus began an association, first with Toshiba/EMI of Japan, and later with Blue Note in the US, which has resulted in the release of eleven albums. Due to his record releases and popularity with the Japanese ctizens he has had countless performances in Japan. When he heard about the earthquakes and the tsunami he along with other musicans became concerned about his Japanese friends and fans.  Through his concern he sends the above message in Spanish (read the English translation below).

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Underground Comedy: Strange Talk In the Basement with Jerry Haas (At Donny Vulture’s)!

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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Interview – Remi Alvarez: ” I started the opposite of Coltrane…!”

Interview by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi, June 16, 2011

Remi Alvarez, a Mexican saxophonist and flutist, stopped in at Roberto’s Winds in mid June to see his old friend and owner Roberto Romeo. Just the week prior to his visit he played two gigs at the VISION FESTIVAL, here in NYC. After a short conversation, in which we discussed his musical approach of free style I decided to do a video interview with him. What follows is the summery of this interview in which I discovered a Mexico native who’s primary focus is not the typical Latin or English influences one might expect.

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