Category Archives: Musicians

KICKSTARTER Campaign Recommendation: JOANIE LEEDS & THE NIGHTLIGHTS Are Making A New Kids Album!

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

I have been knowing the singer-song writer Joanie Leeds for a while. She was my neighbor in my previous apartment building. And her husband Dan who’s a very talented drummer and playing in Joanie’s band became my friend later. In fact we have been sharing a studio in Williamsburg. Anyway…I think Joanie does a great job creating music for children and teaching them the essence of music. I think educating children about music is one of the few ways to create human beings for the future.

A child who really loves music and becomes a musician later can’t become inhuman. So we need young musicians like Joanie around us and I think we should support them emotionally and financially. So please check out her KICKSTARTER campaign and see whether you would like to be involved in this campaign.

Joanie’s message: “Hey Everyone! My name is Joanie Leeds and I am a nationally touring singer/songwriter from Brooklyn, NY specializing in Kindie-Rock (that’s kids music for y’all not hip with the lingo…yet)…My band Joanie Leeds & The Nightlights are putting out a new kids album called BANDWAGON. Get up on it and help make it a reality…”

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DooBeeDoo Recommends: BreakThru Radio’s BTR Live Studio Featuring EMEFE

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

I would like to introduce you to BreakThru Radio in NYC. BTR Live Studio produces a number of music-based web programs and features a mix of breaking and established musicians. All music is played exclusively by the bands.

This time New York City’s afro-beat 10-piece group EMEFE stops by in their studio performing “Good Future”, and chat with the host Maia Macdonald – who’s a musician and DJ and has been involved with the music scene for a number of years – about their band name and the positive philosophy behind the project.

Remembering Butch Morris best known for his conductions

Text by Matt Cole

The world lost an outstanding and original musician yesterday when conductor, composer, cornetist, educator, and writer Lawrence “Butch” Morris passed away a few weeks shy of his 66th birthday. Morris got his start as a cornetist in the ’70s, playing with saxophonist David Murray, and others, but is best known for his conductions, live conducted improvisations of often large ensembles, in which he created compositions in real time by directing musicians (and/or poets) with a set of several dozen hand signs and gestures. Morris developed this system (which he has described as an exploration of the overlapping space between improvisation and composition) as an outgrowth of an attempt to devise a more flexible musical notation.

Over a 25+ year span, Morris taught and conducted over 5,000 musicians in 200 or so conductions in New York, Europe, South America, and Asia; often the concerts followed intensive workshops. Morris also wrote about his conduction and musical philosophy in a complex, information-rich style that reminds me of none other than R. Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome. In addition, Morris had, from time to time, some ongoing projects which included the Chorus of Poets, the Lucky Cheng Orchestra, and the Nublu Orchestra.

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