Date: July 25, 2012
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (NY)
Review by Eulas Pizarro
Melvin Gibbs Elevated Entity at Le Poisson Rouge was nothing short of amazing. As I got there a few minutes late and entered the room the band was already laying down a seething web of polyrhythms and tangled vocal call and responses enveloping the audience.
Date: July 29, 2012
Venue: Damrosh Park Bandshell/Lincoln Center
Review by Jim Hoey
For the fourth year in a row a hardworking Turkish group of promoters and musicians have succeeded in bringing the sounds of their country right here to NYC where a large group of Turkish emigres are eager to hear music from home, and locals can hear something exotic and new. In past years, it’s happened at Central Park SummerStage, but this year they moved it to Lincoln Center’s 62nd street bandshell space. Despite a raging thunderstorm just hours before the start time, with bolts of lightning ripping through the darkened skies, the 3 groups on the bill from Turkey were able to take the stage after the storm died down when it was safe for the musicians to play.
Date: Saturday, July ,21, 2012
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (NY)
Concert review by Chris Arnold
Thanks to the Le Poisson Rouge we were treated to 21 non-stop, infectious songs by Madagascar’s top stars and showcasing distinct musical traditions not found anywhere else. For fans of guitar music it was an extra special treat with 3 very different styles on display.
Guitar virtuoso Charles Kely kicked of the concert with 4 songs of mesmerizing fretwork on a classical guitar that would put most jazz guitarists to shame. Without bending any notes and playing without a pick, Kely created a sound that perfectly blends traditional and modern. Built on his regional ba gasy music with jazzy phrasing up and down the neck and classical guitar finger picking mixed in, Kely synthesizes rhythm, melody and harmony taking an African approach to the guitar to a master’s level. His musicianship and unique musical voice make Western “world music” critics’ discussions of authenticity irrelevant
Date: July 22, 2012
Venue: house concert in the Upper West Side
Next show: August 1, at 8pm. Details here.
Review by Dawoud Kringle and photos by Marcus Simpson
Indian classical music is based essentially on vocal music. It is a widely held belief among the genre’s masters that without an understanding of vocal music, one cannot ever properly perform a raga. Arabic music, African, and some jazz (such as Dexter Gordon, who refused to play a song unless he knew the lyrics) all hold this to be true. So, when one is listening to a raga sung by a master, one is assured one is getting the real thing.
Venue: Highline Ballroom (NY)
Date: June 27, 2012.
Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Is jazz “really” dead? In 1975, when an angry, bitter and maybe exaggerating Miles Davis declared “Jazz is dead (it’s) the music of a museum,” I felt the same — especially when Fusion jazz and later Smooth jazz became very popular and very commercial, thus changing jazz into elevator and background music. Jazz became music that was “easy” to listen to and very accessible. Bored of that kind of music my interest went to American free jazz and to international jazz, such as European, Asian, African and Latin jazz.
As a jazz lover, I can say that this music has become stagnant, especially over the last twenty years. There’s no shortage of talented musicians out there, but jazz in America has gone decades without producing an artist capable of reinventing the genre the way Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, my mentor Ornette Coleman and many others did.
