Date: Decemeber 12th & 13th, 2010
Venue: Epistrophy Cafe (NY)
Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
I had no idea about the E SE Festival. This year was the 6th time?! The last two years since coming to NY I haven’t heard anything about this festival. Every week when I work on the DooBeeDoo music listings I’m kind of informed about what’s happening in this city. When I found out about it I decided to check out this festival because I felt nobody was interested in covering this event.
Martin Bisi was the first person to mention this festival because the drummer he used in Germany in November, Sven Kacirek, was invited by the festival to play their two shows. I contacted him and he emailed me the dates and the contact address of the festival. Surprisingly I knew one of the organizers: Jason Candler. What a surprise?! I just met him before at a show introduced to him by Billy Ficca of Television. Both are members of the Gary Lucas band. So another reason to cover this festival.
Jason emailed me the concept: “The festival this year is quite a whammy with artists from Germany, Kenya, Italy, Israel, and Mississippi. The concept of the festival is simple. Take some amazing artists who don’t ordinarily perform together, and ask them to perform together. Many of the artists that have met at the E se Festival go on to work together on future projects. It is a joy to see the seeds of discovery blossom into such beautiful projects. This year’s main artist is Sven Kacirek…”
Unfortunately I couldn’t see all bands, so I decided for this report to concentrate on Sven Kacirek and the Epistrophy Swing Orchestra led by the organizers Jason Candler on alto sax & clarinet and Luca Fadda on trumpet. Unfortunately Sven’s two Kenyan vocalists couldn’t come because their visas were denied by the US embassy in Kenya. This was shocking news for the organizers and Sven. What could Sven do alone?
The first night he showed a video of his African project and afterwards he was joined by Jason on alto sax and Kenny Wolleson on toy drums and percussion. Music style: mninmal jazzzy-worldy fusion. They played songs from the new CD.
And the second night he played solo: percussion, marimba and electronics. Music style: electronica.
I had also the chance to interview Jason Candler and Luca Fadda after the Sunday show.
I don’t know whether there will be another festival next year, the seventh one. But hopefully they promote it better next year. It’s a shame when people only come to dine instead of dining AND listening to the music.
Clarinet Marmalade from Jack Rusher on Vimeo.
