Category Archives: Reviews

Concert Review: Lauren Lee Jazz Project – a boundary-pushing ensemble led by Lauren Lee, a highly skilled and very imaginative pianist and singer

Venue: Silvana (Harlem, NY)
Date: November 13, 2013

Review by Dawoud Kringle

avatars-000046321890-hsrjob-t200x200Silvana has been bringing in some interesting musical groups. On a cold mid-November night, Lauren Lee (piano/vocals), Jimmy Lopez (electronic percussion), and Charley Sabatino (bass) hit the stage.

Lee set the tone with a vocal melody of jazzy, mellow feel, which was answered on piano by a reharmonized chord melody. The song started to take on a bossa nova jazz; but insisted upon inverting itself like a Möbius strip. What was interesting was how the two diametrically opposed structures, classic jazz and free jazz existed side by side; distinct and separate, yet fitting comfortably with each other.

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CD Review: Magnetic Ear – a pocket brass band from New Orleans led by Martin Krusche (Germany)

albumArtist: Magnetic Ear
Title: Alien of Extraordinary Ability
Label: self released
Genre: New Orleans style second line and funk, Eastern European brass band music and African music

CD Review by Dawoud Kringle

Magnetic Ear is part of the new scene of music coming from New Orleans. An ensemble led by Martin Krusche. Born in Germany, and currently living in New Orleans, Krusche is in addition to being an accomplished musician/composer/band leader, he is also respected saxophone repair man.

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Concert review: The Kominas – Taqwacore Invades The Lower East Side!

kominas 2013Venue: Pianos (NY)
Date: December, 2013

Review by Dawoud Kringle

One December night, people jammed into the main room of the Lower East Side’s music venues Pianos NYC.  The Kominas, a Pakistani/American/Muslim Taqwacore Punk group who’d come to national attention after the publication of Michael Muhammad Knight’s groundbreaking novel The Taqwacores were playing as part of South Asian Film Festival.

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Concert Review: Renegade Sufi & Truculently Audacious…both bands are definitely worth seeking out and enjoying for fans of creatively eclectic music.

Venue: Drom (NY)
Date: November 24, 2013

Concert review and photos by Matt Cole and Linda Boney

On Sunday, the 24th of November, I caught an enjoyable double bill of Dawoud Kringle‘s eclectic ensemble Renegade Sufi and Holly Cordero‘s jazzy project Truculently Audacious at Alphabet City’s Drom. Though different stylistically on the surface, these two bands nonetheless went quite well together.

Truculently Audacious (Photo by Matt Cole)

Truculently Audacious
(Photo by Matt Cole)

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