Date: February 5, 2013
Venue: Drom (NY)
Review by Dawoud Kringle
Synthesizers invoked a walk through idyllic forests. Verdant melodies floated above glacial harmonies. Then, a majestic piano ushered in shades of the mellower side of a Return to Forever-esque song. Thus began Manu Koch‘s set at Drom.
Date: January 13, 2013
Venue: Webster Hall (NY)
Text by Dawoud Kringle
On Sunday,. January 13, 2013, globalFest 2013, a non-profit organization presented a festival of 12 artists within one night at New York City’s famed Webster Hall. This Herculean effort brought an amazing variety of artists from around the world. It was, with the overlapping scheduled performances, impossible to catch everyone. But for the loyal readers of DooBeeDooBeeDoo, I put every effort in covering what I could.
Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan (photo by Dawoud Kringle)
Date: December 19, 2012
Venue: the STONE
Review by Dawoud Kringle
On a cold night close to Christmas, and close to December 21, bassist/composer/ bandleader Damon Banks appeared at The Stone.
Damon Banks is a well known bassist in New York who has worked with Miki Howard, Hassan Hakmoun, Karsh Kale, George Benson, SoSaLa, and many others. On this night, he was joined by Graham Haynes (trumpet), Manu Koch (keys), Bruce Cox (drums), and Brian Prunka (guitar and oud. Prunka also plays with Banks in SoSaLa and leads his own band Nashaz).
Text by Bill McKormick
On 12/21/12, the Mayan calendar came to an end. Many people thought the world would end on that day (and some made a pile of money from that fear). Some new age adherents interpreted the event (which was based on an actual astronomical phenomenon: the ancient Mayans were very good with observational astronomy) as signaling a shift in human consciousness; the beginning of an apotheosis.
In New York City, at the Hotel Pennsylvania, the Meta Center of New York, and New Life magazine and expo joined forces to present an event to celebrate this. They featured several people who offered a variety of presentations revolving around this theme / event.
However, there was, as I understand it, a last minute addition to the program. This was an impromptu duet between new age musician David Young, and multi-instrumentalist, iconoclast Dawoud.
Date: November 16, 2012
Venue: The New York Insight Meditation Center
Review by Dawoud Kringle
The New York Insight Meditation Center recently hosted a concert by sitar virtuoso Ikhlaq Hussain. Hussain is a musician of the Dehli gaharana (whose lineage dates back to Hazrat Amir Khousro), who plays in Gaykali Ang, a style wherein the instrument takes on the expressive qualities of vocal music. He was taught by his father Ustad Imdad Khan, and by Pandit Ravi Shankar. He performed in US, Europe, Middle East, UK, Pakistan, & India.
