1. Avant Garde Invasion at The Mercury Lounge! W. John Wagner Group, Matagawa, Centipede and Earth People
Date: Monday, December 27, 2010
Time: 8pm
Venue: Mercury Lounge (217 East Houston St., New York, NY 10002)
Price: $7
Genre: free rock & Jazz/improve/electronics
Mata Gawa (Samuel T Lohman, dr & Edward J Ricart, gui.) is an improvising drums+guitar duo hailing from Washington DC. Building with time and texture, their music is deeply connected to the methods and spirit of jazz, while retaining the electric backbone of creative rock music. Loosely translated, MATTA GAWA means river of moments- an apt description for their spontaneously composed flow of singing guitars, free-form drumming, howling feedback, sub-blasting bass, stagger-stepped odd-time signatures, polyrhythmic beatrock + guitar solos.
2. ANNUAL END OF THE YEAR IMPROV BENEFIT FOR THE STONE
Date: Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Time: 8pm & 10pm
Venue: The Stone (is located at the corner of Avenue C and 2nd Street)
Ticket: $20 each set
Genre: improve
Three nights of exciting cutting edge improvisations featuring some of the best improvisers out of the downtown scene and many special guests. Please support The Stone!! John Zorn (sax), Billy Martin (percussion), Cyro Baptista (percussion), Dave Douglas (trumpet), Brandon Ross (guitar), Jim Staley (trombone), Peter Evans (trumpet), Raz Mesinai (electronics), Erik Friedlander (cello), Sylvie Courvoisier (piano), Matt Wilson (drums), Ned Rothenberg (sax), and many SPECIAL guests!!
3. Anders Nilsson & Juancho Herrera
Date: Tuesday through Thursday, December 28 through 30, 2010
Time: 10pm
Venue: Watty & Meg’s back room (248 Court Street at Kane Street, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn)
Ticket: $15 cover includes performance & glass of wine or draft beer
Genre: guitar duo/improve
4. ReBirth Brass Band with special guests w/ Rubblebucket
Date: Wednesday, Dcember 29, 2010
Time: 8pm
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, ph: 212- 505-3474)
Ticket: $30
Genre: New Orleans brass/pops
Rubblebucket sounds like a kaleidoscope looks — a continually changing pattern of ebullient drum beats, harmonies and horn exclamations, led by the buoyant vocals and saxophone of Kalmia Traver and the hyperkinetic energy of trumpet player Alex Toth. The musical couple formed Rubblebucket in 2007 after finding like-minded players at an art opening in a defunct milk bottling plant in Burlington, VT. Discontent with playing the typical accompanying roles so often assumed by horn players, the two built an eight-piece band with a vision to create pop-friendly music that embraces skill, complexity and atypical arrangements of their sound.
5. Tuelo Minah w/ guests
Date: Thursday, December 30, 2010
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Shrine (2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, NY)
Ticket: donation
Genre: African singer / songwriter
Tuelo Minah is a unique musician who brings her native South African sound to the pace of rock, and blues. She is accompanied by her guitar, and belts out songs that remind her of her childhood. She started her career as a backup singer for Hugh Masekela, in New York city , and she is now one of the voices heard in Angelique Kidjo’s current album OYO. She was also music director for Juxtapower S.A.Dance and Song and has recently undertaken the task as music director of our DUMA(Chant Series). Her main influences are from South African Choral and gospel music, and classic rock. Though she writes and sings primarily in English, a whole show cannot go without Tuelo singing in her native toungue the transic songs in Setswana.
6. A New Year’s Eve Felabration!
Date: Friday, December 31, 2010
Time: 10pm
Venue: The Knitting Factory (361 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211, Tel: 347-529-6696)
Ticket: $60-$70
Genre: Afrobeat
With the FELA! Band (featuring members of Antibalas), Sahr Ngaujah (FELA) and the FELA! Dancers.