Photo by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Date: August 28, 2010
Venue: Joe’s Pub August 28, 2010
Text by Jim Hoey
Elikeh performing a set of strong, politically-tinged dance tunes at Joe’s Pub (NY)!!
Category Archives: Concert And Event Reviews
The Yoshida Brothers challenging the boundaries of Tsugaru Shamisen music!
Date: August 3, 2010
Venue: Highline Ballroom, NY
By Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi and Jim Hoey
The Japanese shamisen in the west has a number of images associated with it: the delicately robed geisha entering a quiet chamber, seating herself before the patron, and setting the instrument gently on her body, plucking strings with the bachi (plectrum, or pick) and singing before moving on to other diversions; there’s also the image of the blind shamisen player in black and white films playing for money on a doorstep or in a Yakitori-ya (a tiny Japanese restaurant specializing in yakitori, or skewered grilled chicken meat) with yakuza nearby harassing them or while the manic, soft, or melodic strains of the instrument ring out as background music and the patrons grow wild with drink, passion and despondency before succumbing to oblivion.
M.I.A. – Pumping Out Power!
Date: September 27th, 2010
Venue: Terminal 5
Text and photos by Jim Hoey
At Terminal 5 on Sept. 27th, M.I.A., aka Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, came on to the stage draped in dark robes, glasses over her eyes, dancers at her side, namely Cisco and White Boi, and a trio of shuffling burka-clad crew attendants over on the right, like maddened under sharia law, popping off lines from the new album, singing “The Message” before rolling into “Galang”.
“Blaze a blaze (galang a lang a lang lang)
Purple haze (galang a lang a lang lang)
London calling
speak the slang now
boys say wha
come on girls say what, say wha “
Nu Highlife performed by The Occidental Brothers Dance Band International with Congolese legend singer Samba Mapangala!
Date: July 22, 2010
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge
Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi & Jim Hoey
Although the Occidental Brothers have been making a name for themselves for their revival of the African Highlife style of music that they play based out of Chicago, at this NYC show at Le Poisson Rouge, they featured Congolese legend Samba Mapangala. This mix allows the band to pay tribute to the classics of Ghana and West Africa while at the same time adding their own stamp on the genre with originals and instrumentals. Whichever they do, the African pulse and the Highlife guitar runs are all there and it’s hard to sit still or resist the urge to dance once they get started.
Rachid Taha led the crowd at the Highline Ballroom (NY) in a timely chant of ” Fuck BP”!!!
Date: June 13, 2010
Venue: Highline Ballroom (NY)
Text by Sohrab Saadt Ladjevardi and Jim Hoey
Rachid Taha rolls his rrrrrrr’s, and lets his husky sound build song after song, crescendoing to climax, and the effect of him and his band recently at the Highline Ballroom show was one of exultation, celebration, rebelliousness, and ultimately, exchange. He’s an Algerian from a small village in North Africa, but was raised in his adolescence in France under discriminatory conditions, influenced by Arabic traditions and the best of Western music like Zeppelin and the Clash that floated in and out of Paris in the early ’80’s, when he was trudging away in a factory and first forming his own band and running a nightclub called “Les Refoules” (The Rejects).
