Category Archives: Reviews

Event review: 1st Annual African Dance Concert (Sabar Dancing at Symphony Space)

Date: August 13, 2011
Venue: Symphony Space (NY)

Concert review by Jim Hoey

It was another one of those nights in NYC when I left my place with no expectations, I was simply heading off to hear some African music on the recommendation of a friend. So off to the Symphony Space on the Upper West Side I went. To my surprise, this concert of Sabar music and dancing kicked off with drummers coming in from the back of the theater, and the dancers and singers chanting from backstage until they joined forces at the fore and started to get into their Sabar thing, which is a call and response type dance from Senegal, with drummers beating hard on their skins and interacting and pushing the dancers on and on, improvisationally. From the very start, the drummers cleared the air, prepped the crowd by announcing that this night requires audience energy to be authentic, and then jumped into the opening invocation, getting the crowd to clap in tune with the drum pulse.

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CD recommendation: Jose Conde and his nu Latin groove!

Artist: José Cónde
Title: José Cónde
Label: PiPiKi Records
Release date: September 6, 2011
CD release party: at 92nd Street Y Tribeca on September 9, 2011
Genre: singer-song writer/latin groove

José Cónde lives his lyrics. He gets grooves from the names of trees. He leaves melody lines on his own answering machine. He can turn a playful refrain to his dog into a dance anthem. His songs are odes to hot dresses, Brazilian muses, discombobulated elephants, and life-giving springs.

Cónde brings a new focus and maturity to this whimsical world on Jose Conde. He turns highly personal songs into new global grooves and reflective, dynamic ballads. As a songwriter and bandleader, Cónde developed a striking instinct for merging his Miami upbringing, Cuban roots, and the sizzle of New York’s Latin underground. But the new self-titled album is distinguished by a universality; catchy melodies and danceable rhythms likely to draw listeners of all stripes.
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Concert Review: Gauri Guha the Indian music traveller

Date: August 13, 2011
Venue: Chhandayan Center for Indian Music (NY)
Concert review and video by Sarah Rihani

As you take off your shoes and walk into the Chhandayan room, located on 43rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenue, it is immediately evident you have entered an oasis in the middle of the city. Incense is burning, and everything is serenely quiet. There is a cozy and well lit room that has an oriental rug – a humble home to all visiting Indian musicians who come to play at Chhandayan on a weekly basis – and then about 20 small, but unbelievably comfortable, floor cushions facing the performer’s rug, which is where the audience sits.

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Concert review: Spoek Mathambo – hitting the world hard with his take on Afro-futurism

Venue:  Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park (NY)
Date: August 7, 2011
Concert reviewed by Ravish Momin

“Where’s Spoek?”, my cousin Alap asked.  Nobody knew.  We’ve tracked back a few years to when Spoek’s band Playdoe was providing tour-support for Dalek in Europe.  It was Playdoe’s first European tour, and apparently the boys had gone a bit wild!  “We’d almost considered asking the tour manager to replace them!” Alap joked outside Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park.
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Asphalt Orchestra – the avant-garde “street” jazz group at Lincoln Center (NY)

Date: Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Venue: Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center
Concert review by Sarah Rayani

On a very rainy evening, under an awning at Lincoln Center’s Alice  Tully Hall, the Asphalt Orchestra delighted and surprised a group of  about 100 soggy New Yorkers. I came to hear about the avant-garde “street” jazz group through Sunny  Jain, one of their 3 percussionists. Jain is a Punjabi American-born  drummer, dhol player and composer who seamlessly fuses the two styles  he grew up listening to — Jazz and Indian music. In addition to being  a member of the Asphalt Orchestra and his own Sunnay Jain Quartet, he  plays in a Baraat group – traditionally a North Indian wedding  processional band – called Red Baraat.

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