Music Listings – 7/14 through 7/20/2014

1. Evolving Music: Ras Moshe Residency

Date: Monday, July 14, 2014
Time: 7:30pm to 11pm
Venue: Clemente Soto Velez Center (107 Suffolk St, New York, NY 10002)
Tickets: $11 per set
Genre: jazz/improv

7:30pm – Music Now! July Music.
with
Kyoko Kitamura-Voice
Ras Moshe-Reeds
John Pietaro-Vibes
Lester St.louis-Cello
Anders Nilsson-Guitar

9:00pm – Katie Bull Ensemble!
with
Katie Bull-Voice
Jeff Lederer-Tenor Sax
Landon Knoblock-Keyboards
Ratzo Harris-Bass
George Schuller-Drums

10pm – Matt Lavelle’s 12 Houses
with
matt Lavelle
Tim Stocker
Anais Maviel
Lee Odom
Charlie Waters
Laura Ortman
Mary Cherney
Claire de Brunner
Ryan Sawyer
François Grillot
Anders Nilsson
John Pietaro
Christopher Gordon Forbes

2. THE STONE Presents Weeklong Residency With Progressive Jazz Artist Eyal Maoz

Date:  Tuesday, July 15 through Sunday, July 20, 2014
Time: 8pm & 10pm
Venue: The Stone (is located at the corner of Avenue C and 2nd Street)
Ticket: $15 each set
Genre: jazz/improv

TUE 7.15 @ 8pm | THE X – MODERN CLASSICAL WORKS
Esther Noh – violin
Melissa Tong – violin
Stephanie Griffin – viola
Jeremy Herman – cello
Brian Marsella – piano
Eyal Maoz (guitar)

The X is a unique electric guitar extravaganza with a traditional string quartet sonic. Eyal’s string quartet composition Boded has won the Orchestra of Our Time Open Score Project in New York. Brian Marsella will debut two piano pieces by Maoz. One is inspired by the movie The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; the other inspired by a circle.

TUE 7.15 @ 10pm | EYAL MAOZ’S CRAZY SLAVIC BAND
Jay Rozen (tuba)
Chris Stromquist (drums)
Eyal Maoz (guitar)
Frank London (trumpet and horn)
Rob Henke (trumpet and horn)
John Carlson (trumpet and horn)
Briggan Krauss (saxophone)

Original music inspired by the newest contemporary Slavic composers.

WED 7.16 @ 8pm + 10pm | EYAL MAOZ DIMYON
Tanya Kalmanovich (viola)
Meaghan Burke (cello)
Eyal Maoz (acoustic guitar)
Shanir Blumenkranz (acoustic bass)
Mathias Kunzli (percussion)
Satoshi Takeishi (percussion)

Wonderfully realized, Dimyon is an exciting fuse of Maoz’s unique musical voice with an array of genres such as modern Jewish-Middle Eastern, classical, jazz and avant-garde music. A Jewish acoustic project, Dimyon has earned critical acclaim in Israel. If one has to define influential figures for Dimyon, John Zorn’s Acoustic Masada and Frank Zappa would make the list.

THU 7.17 @ 8:00pm | THE COLLAPSE GUITAR QUARTET
Yoshie Fruchter (guitar)
Ty Citerman (guitar)
Jonathan Goldberger (guitar)
Eyal Maoz (guitars)

The Collapse Guitar Quartet offers first-rate repertoire ranging from jazz, ethnic and pop style compositions to highly imaginative contemporary works. This dynamic and wide-ranging synthesis features music arranged and composed by the CGQ members.

THU 7.17 @ 10:00pm | 9 VOLT WITH TIM BERNE
Rick Parker (trombone, effects)
Tim Berne (saxophone)
Eyal Maoz (guitar, effects)
Yoni Halevi (drums)

An avant-garde, jazz-based trio (joined by the iconic saxophonist Tim Berne who is featured as a guest in their debut album as well), 9 Volt is comprised of New York’s brightest underground jazz players. 9 Volt derives its unique sound from Parkerʼs use of electronics with the trombone combined with Maozʼs unique approach to guitar and effects.

Their compositions are born from a synthesis of electronic experimental, rock, jazz and neoclassical minimalism. The band is held together by Israeli born drummer Yonadav Halevy who is highly regarded in both funk/hip hop as well as jazz circles. According to the New York Times, “9 Volt thrashes toward an expressive new-breed fusion, informed by a few generations of downtown experimentation.”

FRI 7.18 @ 8:00pm + 10:00pm | EYAL MAOZ’S EDOM
Brian Marsella (keyboards)
Shanir Blumenkranz (bass)
Yuval Lion (drums)
Eyal Maoz (guitar)

Featuring Eyal Maoz’s notorious one-of-a-kind approach to composition, and produced by the magic ears of Shanir Blumenkranz, Edom brings us into the much-too-rarely visited junction of instrumental pop, jazz and avant-garde. A unique synthesis of Jewish music, New Wave, electronic, and disco, “Maoz’s fearsome foursome wallows in Middle Eastern modes and melodies…and then, just as naturally, melds into sweet melodic wistfulness and exhilarating and blood-curdling Downtown noise…Terrific.” (The Buffalo News) According to John Zorn, it’s “ecstatic music for a new generation.”

SAT 7.19 @ 8:00pm | 1895
Kermit Driscoll – bass
Shawn Baltazor – drums
Eyal Maoz – guitar

Eyal Maoz’s film project, 1895 (the year the first movie was ever projected in the world), is presenting music composed for Yoram Porath’s documentary Keepers of Eden (winner of the Avignon / New York Film Festival), and music inspired by video art works by Deborah Johnson, Benton C Bainbridge, Graeme Patterson and Tracey McGuirl.

SAT 7.19 @ 10:00pm | JOHN ZORN ABRAXAS
Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (gimbri)
Yoshie Fruchter (guitar)
Kenny Grohowski (drums)
Eyal Maoz (guitar)

Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz steps out on his own to make one of the most primal and tribal installments in the Book of Angels series. Drawing on his Sephardic roots, Shanir plays gimbri throughout, giving the music a primeval Moroccan edge. Featuring the intense guitar pyrotechnics of Eyal Maoz and Yoshie Fruchter and the atavistic drumming of Kenny Grohowski, this is Ritualistic Jewish Rock for the 21st century by a brilliant young lion from the East Village via Brooklyn/Israel!

SUN 7.20 @ 8:00pm | LMN TRIO
Shoko Nagai (keyboards)
Lukas Ligeti (drums, electronics)
Eyal Maoz (guitar)

Improvised music and sounds by three of the best improvisers of the downtown scene.

SUN 7.20 @ 10:00pm | HYPERCOLOR
Lukas Ligeti (drums)
James Ilgenfritz (bass)
Eyal Maoz (guitar)

Previewing their upcoming debut CD on Tzadik (TBR 09/14), this strangely marvelous rock-spastic-jazz band features composition by all three members. NYC-based Hypercolor’s ridiculous artsong craftsmanship alternately revels in complexity or brazen simplicity, favoring entropy and near-disaster over order or tidiness. Like experimental grafting surgery gone horribly awry, Hypercolor bears limbs borrowed from 80s NYC No-Wave, and early jazz/rock, and orchestral rock textures

3. Alana Amram & Rough Gems & The Chapin Sister

Date: Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Time: 9pm
Venue: Union Pool (484 Union Avenue, corner of Union & Meeker, Brooklyn, NY, 718-609-0484)
Ticket: $8
Genre: indie rock/country/folk

Born in upstate New York, Amram toured around the country with her musical family, napping in guitar cases at the foot of the stage. As a teenager she collected LP’s, penned zines and retreated to the clubs and D.I.Y. venues in New York City. After attending SUNY Purchase College to study filmmaking she left to pursue music as a bassist with various bands.

Recorded live in 2 days, her third full length, Spring River,was released in early 2014, featuring the ROUGH GEMS’ pedal steel virtuoso Philip Sterk, drummer Taylor Floreth, bassist James Preston and guest guitar player Scott Metzger. Amram relocated to Los Angeles, where she has started a West Coast band. She will be touring the USA, EUROPE and the U.K. in support of the record.

The Chapin Sisters are an American folk pop musical group consisting of sisters Abigail Chapin and Lily Chapin, and formerly their half-sister Jessica Craven. Abigail and Lily are daughters of folk singer Tom Chapin and nieces of singer-songwriter Harry Chapin. Jessica Craven’s father is director Wes Craven. The sisters grew up in New York, but by 2004 all three had relocated to Los Angeles.

4. Film Screening: “Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio”

Date: Thursday, July 17, 2014
Time: 7pm & 9pm
Venue: Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue (@2nd Street), New York, New York 10003, 212-505-5181)
Tickets: $5 ?
Genre: film and music

2 screenings of the documentary on Martin Bisi’s studio in Gowanus Bklyn -7 and 9pm -The after-party with performances (FREE) is 2 blocks away at Bowery Electric w/ these sp. guests: Bob Bert, Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls), Algis Kizys, Ivan Lipp (Pop 1280), Dan Kaufman (Barbez), Alyse Lamb (EULA), Laura Ortman, Ernest Anderson, and Martin Bisi.

The after party at The Bowery Electric is at 327 Bowery, b/w 2nd and 3rd Streets, with music starting at 10:45

Screening info at Anthology Film Archives: http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/calendar?view=list&month=7&year=2014#showing-42844

BC Studio in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood has a rich history, starting with it’s founding in the early ‘80s with Bill Laswell, and with money from Brian Eno who worked on the album On Land there.

Working with Bill Laswell and the band Material, Bisi recorded Herbie Hancock’s hit “Rockit” in this underground space. This was the first mainstream song to feature a DJ ‘scratching’ with a turntable. Following that success, Bisi worked with many other influential musicians there, including Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Africa Bambaataa, Material/Bill Laswell, Boredoms, Dresden Dolls, Cop Shoot Cop, White Zombie, Foetus, Unsane, Serena Maneesh, US Maple, Jon Spencer’s Boss Hog, among others.. He has recorded across many genres, from experimental music, to hip hop and indie rock in the old factory building by the contaminated Gowanus Canal.

On a serious note, the documentary also contemplates the future of the recording studio as it is squeezed in by the encroaching gentrification of the neighborhood and Bisi’s fears that increasing property values will push out long-time renters and artists like himself.

The documentary includes interviews with musicians such as Michael Gira of Swans, Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls, Bob Bert, who played on Sonic Youth’s Bad Moon Rising, Bill Laswell of Material, JG Thirlwell aka Foetus, DXT who did the turntablism on “Rockit”, Michael Holman of Gray (with Jean-Michel Basquiat) and creator of famed 1984 hip-hop TV pilot ‘Graffiti Rock.
————————–

The Directors:

Brooklyn-based Sara Leavitt, who graduated from NYU with a degree in Film and Television, and works as a staff editor at Pilot, a television production company, and Austin native Ryan Douglass, who is a video editor in LA, started working on the documentary in April 2013. According to Sara, “We met Martin through a mutual acquaintance and were blown away by the wide variety of bands he’d recorded and important moments in music history that took place at his studio. At first we were going to make a short film about him, but everyone we interviewed had so many good stories to tell, that we realized that it would need to be a feature film to contain the scope of everything that has happened there.” She continues, “”It was important for us to make this film because we wanted to bring attention to how many groundbreaking albums and important moments in music that happened at this studio.”

As the home of the creation of countless records, and most recently innovative artists such as White Hills, EULA, Cinema Cinema, Pop. 1280, WOMAN and Psalm Zero, the film’s directors felt it was important to document the story of the studio that gives musicians a place to go where they can be creative. “People love these artists and albums but have no idea about the history of where they were recorded. We wanted to give people a behind-the-scenes look at the studio where it’s all come together,” says Douglass. “The fact that it’s been a haven for artists for over 30 years is amazing. Martin and the studio are inseparable – you can’t tell the story of one without the other.”

5. Karsh Kale

Date: Thursday, July 17, 2014
Time: 8pm
Venue: BROOKLYN BOWL (61 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211, 718-963-3369)
Ticket: $10 – $12
Genre: Indian tabla electronica

Electric Tabla Nights Karsh Kale w. Dj Zakhm, DJ Questlove w Bowl Train, Roopa Mahadevan and ETN regulars Max ZT and Shanti

Described by Billboard Magazine as a “visionary composer and producer”, Karsh Kale is one of global music’s brightest stars. In the past 12 years as a solo recording artist, producer, composer, live performer and DJ, Karsh has set the world of electronic fusion on fire and has helped to create a genre of new music and culture that continues to influence an entire generation. His body of work has been cause for fans and critics alike to claim Kale as a pioneer and a trail blazer, not only opening doors for his own career but for an entire scene to emerge in the world of electronica and fusion music. Karsh Kale has also developed a reputation as a genre bending collaborator and a world renowned tabla player and musician, exploring the worlds of electronica, Indian classical music, rock, jazz fusion and hip hop which has led him to work with some of the most renowned artists from around the globe. Kale continues to reinvent his ever-evolving sound and has established himself as one of the worlds most sought after fusion artists.

8:00 – 9:30 – Dj Zakhm
9:30 -11:30 – Karsh Kale DJ/tabla set w guests
11:30 – DJ Questlove w Bowl Train

Come join us for another installment of Karsh Kale’s Electric Tabla Nights at Brooklyn Bowl. The last installment was packed to the brim with an inspiring and sweaty NYC crowd and featured the likes of Monica Dogra and others. This July installment will feature the amazing talents of vocalist Roopa Mahadevan and ETN regulars Max ZT (master dulcimer artist) and Brooklyn Shanti (MC /producer) and resident fusionist DJ Zakhm. Its a perfect way to spend your summer nights and to top it all off, DJ Questlove of the Roots takes over the room for Bowl Train and keeps us dancing through the night.

6. The Mast & Grumby

Date: Thursday, July 17, 2014
Time: 9:30pm
Venue: Baby’s All Right (146 Broadway, Brooklyn, New York 11211)
Tickets: $10 – $12
Genre: electronic/experimental/pop

The Mast is vocalist and instrumentalist Haleh Gafori and percussionist and beatsmith Matt Kilmer. Merging live electronics, vocals, and percussion, The Mast creates a full-spectrum sonic experience that features “Haleh’s phenomenally powerful, nuanced, and hypnotic voice and Matt’s gorgeous deft beats (both sequenced and live)” (Wompblog). Influenced by early IDM, post dubstep, and experimental beat music as well as acts like Mount Kimbie and Bonobo, The Mast delivers a warm and inviting sound that booms through the subwoofers, propels the body to dance, and soaks the mind in a bath of endorphins.

“Brooklyn-based duo GRUMBY has the uncanny ability to produce tracks that draw you in from the start and take you on intricate journeys of sound. With three meticulously produced singles and two videos out in the past few months, 2014 is sure to be a breakout year for the duo.” – EARMILK.COM

7. WALT WHITMAN OPERA

Date: Thursday, July 17, through Saturday, July 19, 2014
Time: 7pm & 9pm
Venue: Clemente Soto Velez Center/Abrazo Interno Gallery (107 Suffolk St, New York, NY 10002)
Tickets: BUY TICKETS
Genre: spoken word and music

Howard Pflanzer (writer/adapter/director), Constance Cooper (composer), Beth Griffith (singer), Tomoko Sugawara (harp), George Tynan Crowley, (actor, as Walt Whitman)

Downtown poet and playwright Howard Pflanzer (On the Border, Cocaine Dreams) and composer Constance Cooper conjure Walt Whitman through his poems and the operas that inspired and influenced his poetry in WALT WHITMAN OPERA an evening of spoken word and music. Walt Whitman loved opera, and he often haunted the long vanished Park, Bowery, and Chatham Square theatres where he exalted in the operas of Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi. Part recitation, part sung, and part remix, this hybrid performance celebrates New York City’s most famous poet and the 19th Century opera superstars who inspired him.

8. Rossi’s Outliers Series w/Eric Friedlander, CJ Camerieri and Jeff Davis

Date: Friday, July 18, 2014

Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Spectrum (121 Ludlow, Second Floor, New York, NY, 650-400-5100)
Ticket: $10
Genre: modern music/free jazz-improv/

Brooklyn pianist, composer, percussionist, conductor, leader and arranger Mick Rossi — currently on tour with Philip Glass — is known for his diverse work in the New York Downtown scene and beyond.  He has performed and recorded with artists Alex Acuña, Steven Bernstein, Mark Dresser, Billy Drewes, Dave Douglas, Mark Egan, Peter Erskine, Eric Friedlander, Philip Glass, Eddie Gomez, Gerry Hemingway, Ron Horton, Andy Laster, Pat Martino, Michael Pedicin, Jr., Michael Sarin and Cuong Vu, to name a few.

Rossi is a regular as leader and sideman on several different ensembles, including, among others, his “They Have A Word” Quintet, the Anti-Matter Band (Featuring Drewes, Horton, Sarin and Davilla), and the Kermit Driscoll Quartet.

9. Johnny Arco

Date: Friday, July 18, 2014
Time:  10pm
Venue: Drom (85 Avenue A, NY, NY 10009, 212- 777-1157)
Ticket: $10
Genre: pop/alternative rock

The Cardinal Agency presents an evening of dinner and entertainment at DROM in Manhattan’s Alphabet City featuring Bushwick based Alternative Rock musician Johnny Arco during his birthday weekend. This is Arco’s first show in New York since completing a 6-city tour this spring, and his last before beginning his west coast, European and Asian tours this fall. He will be backed by master musicians, Bob Edinger; drums, and Ray Cetta; sousaphone, both known for their high energy and dynamic live performances. The set will include the tracks from his self-titled EP, new tracks from his upcoming full length album, improvised new compositions and original arrangements of popular covers for this unique ensemble.

10. Ali and the Need

Date: Saturday, July 19, 2014
Time:  7:15pm
Venue: Drom (85 Avenue A, NY, NY 10009, 212- 777-1157)
Ticket: $25
Genre: Persian pop/alternative rock

Ali and the Need were formed at the end of 2012 following the success of frontman Ali Azimi’s previous band Radio Tehran. The wealth of musical experience from these British and Persian musicians easily moves them through energetic Rock to delicate Middle Eastern melody, with nods toward Latin and Jazz; their eclectic fusion of sound has rapidly established them as a leading force within the Persian music scene.
Their debut album Aghaye Past (Mr.Mean), released in 2013, was extremely well received and was described as “one of the best Iranian albums of 2013”. Included on this was the hit song/video and now live favourite “Pishdaramad”. 2013 and 2014 have seen the band tour round their native UK, Europe and North America, as well as numerous TV appearances on Manato TV and BBC Persia. The band are now working on a follow-up to Aghaye Past as well as planning more concerts for the coming months. Stay tuned!”

11.  75 Dollar Bill

Date: Sunday, July 20, 2014
Time: 7:30pm – 10pm
Venue: Spectacle Theater (124 South 3rd St, Brooklyn, NY, 11211)
Ticket: $5
Genre: guitar and  percussion music and film

75 Dollar Bill, which is percussionist Rick Brown and electric guitarist Che Chen, will perform with MUSICA ETNICA VIVA, an “expanded film work” composed by Chen. M.E.V. is “an amateur nature film which also attempts to posit connections between the development of capitalist, industrialized societies and the loss of both cultural and biological diversity. The film finds much of it’s philosophical basis in Jacques Attali’s Noise, a book in which he wrote that the mass production of music ‘is a powerful factor in consumer integration, interclass leveling, cultural homogenization…and the disappearance of distinct cultures.’ The sound and image [will] function as two distinct structures that are super-imposed.”

MUSICA ETNICA VIVA will be projected on dual Super-8 projectors and digital video. 75 Dollar Bill will play throughout the evening, and audience members are encouraged to join or leave the room at their leisure. 75 Dollar Bill will be providing home-made gazpacho! Please bring a bowl if you want some.

“INFINITY MARACAS”: 75 DOLLAR BILL SCORES “MUSICA ETNICA VIVA” from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

12. OOIOO & Man Forever

Date: Sunday, July 20, 2014
Time: 8:30pm
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, Phone: 212- 505-3474)
Ticket: $20
Genre: guitar music and sounds/ jazz

OOIOO has always created a musical language all its own. Under the leadership of Yoshimi P-We, also a founding member of Boredoms, the group has recorded six albums that have subverted expectations and warped perceptions of what constitutes pop and experimental music. Four years of work went into to making GAMEL, their bold new album inspired by the Javanese style of gamelan and the first new music from Yoshimi in over five years. Gamelan is an ancient form that has inspired a great many composers and musicians over the past century, from Erik Satie and Claude Debussy to Mouse on Mars and Sun City Girls. The introduction of this traditional form transformed the group into a super tribe, side-stepping the road between the past and the future. Their focus is not to replicate these ancient styles, but to incorporate them into their consistently inventive, constantly shifting musical frameworks. They take their love of indigenous music into an entirely new dimension by freely weaving organic and electric tones into a vivid tapestry, employing their keen sense of color and texture.
John Colpitts (aka Kid Millions) is a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer who is perhaps best known as the drummer for Oneida. Man Forever, his vehicle for exploring the outer limits of drum performance, was created to overwhelm, to investigate the nuances that bloom in the midst of repetitive music, and to act as a pure sound experience.

Originally based on the idea of creating a sort of punk-infused Metal Machine Music for drums, Man Forever has evolved from a five or six full drum set ensemble to something a lot more stripped down. Based on two drummers playing single stroke rolls on a single drum and the patterns that emerge from that, Pansophical Cataract is propulsive
without a pulse. Patterns evolve and burst through the static surface of the material, much of which was produced by electric instruments, though “Ur Eternity” remains mostly drums with only a few bass tracks making an appearance. The sounds created by these instruments were based on the drones that Colpitts hears when he is practicing (the not fully conscious singing or humming that arises when one practices alone), and then augmented and enhanced by the other musicians on the record. The repetitive rolls create a phasing effect, a music in and of itself, and the dynamic shifts that occur when the other instruments enter become not mere notes, but grand events.