1. Asuka Kakitani Jazz Orchestra
Time: 7:15pm
Venue: Drom (85 Avenue A, NY, NY 10009, Ph: 212- 777-1157)
Ticket: $10
Genre: big band jazz
At the forefront of Brooklyn’s burgeoning big band scene, the Japanese-born composer Asuka Kakitani has attracted some of New York’s finest jazz artists with her adventurous, melodically charged charts. After several years of regular performances around New York City, the dynamically supple 18-piece Asuka Kakitani Jazz Orchestra makes a stunning debut with Bloom, due out January 26 on Nineteen-Eight Records.Asuka’s compositions are often inspired by art, literature, and nature. She tries to capture this inspiration in orchestrational color and melodic development via extended through-composed forms. Asuka attempts to balance her composed music with a palette for her incredibly creative soloists to express themselves. Asuka also interprets traditional Japanese children’s music, which she “re-composes” by utilizing many of their simple motives for thematic development filtered through the language of her distinct harmonic and melodic concept.
2. Frank London’s Shekhina Big Band
Date: Monday, February 11, 2013
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Stone (is located at the corner of Avenue C and 2nd Street)
Ticket: $10
Genre: klezmer and big band jazz
Only in New York can you find 21 musicians who are all fluent in modern Jazz, free improvisation, traditional Jewish wedding music, Afro-Cuban salsa, and latin jazz. All of these elements coexist in Frank London’s biggest and boldest project to date – the Shekhinah Big Band. Two great traditions, klezmer and big band jazz, come together in one huge project that promises ground breaking music of exquisite intensity and awesomely ecstatic fun.
London’s original klezmer jazz compositions have been re-interpreted and re-imagined by a coterie of writers, many of whom are in the band. The personnel – a who’s who of the radical jewish music world – promises to make the Shekhinah Big Band the hottest new band on this or any scene.
Line up: Greg Wall, Marty Ehrlich, Matt Darriau, Zach Mayer, Paul Shapiro, Doug Wieselman, Jessica Lurie (saxes) Justin Mullens, Steven Gluzband, Ronald Horton, Pam Fleming, Rob Henke (trumpets) Curtis Hasselbring, Jacob Garchik, Matt Haviland, Brian Drye (trombones) Yoshie Fruchter (guitar) Anthony Coleman (piano) Uri Sharlin (accordion) Brian Glassman (bass) Roberto Rodriguez (drums) Renato Thoms (percussion)
3. Dawoud
Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Time: 6pm
Venue: The Shrine (2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, NY)
Ticket: donation
Genre: nu sitar music
Dawoud began to play the guitar about half a year or so after Jimi Hendrix died. Shortly afterwards he expanded his listening tastes into jazz, fusion, classical, blues, and Indian raga. His teens were spent honing his guitar skills. On his 18th birthday, he bought his sitar and began teaching himself the rudiments of the instrument from books and recordings. Between 1979-83. Dawoud toured the Midwest US with Focal Poynt as multi-instrumentalist, composer. He also began teaching guitar and learning audio engineering. In 1983, he moved to New York City, and did work as a musician and musical director locally and toured with a number of local rock groups.
4. Manu Koch & Filtron M
Time: 10pm
Venue: Terraza 7 (4019 GLEANE Street, Elmhurst, New York 11373, 718-803-9602)
Ticket: $10
Genre: jazz/latin
Manu began honing his craft in Baar, Switzerland, where he spent his early years enmeshed in the European classical tradition. By age 16, with a solid technical background, he gravitated towards jazz and other contemporary music. Only a few years later he decided to take the leap to the US where he quickly became an in-demand keyboardist/pianist in the multicultural Boston area, performing and recording with a broad range of bands from Malian kora master/vocalist Balla Tounkara, the Caribbean jazz band Ron Reid & Sun Steel to the Wally’s Café funk house band and various Brazilian projects which featured well-known instrumentalists such as Adam Deitch, Charles Haynes, Anat Cohen and Bob Moses to name a few.
Since his relocation to New York in 2000 he has continued and expanded on his early work with groove-based and popular music artists. He recorded and shared the stage with prominent jazz contemporaries Lionel Loueke andAvishai E. Cohen, and performed with a wide range of the New York-based Brazilian pantheon. Manu has toured with afro-pop star Angélique Kidjo and also performed with the groups of Cape Verdean vocalist Fantcha and Miles Davis/Santana bassist Benny Rietveld. He is the regular keyboardist for Nigerian talking drum master Kofo The Wonderman, and frequently collaborates with urban folk and jazz vocalist/guitarist KJ Denhert and Moroccan jazz vocalist Malika Zarra. Since 2011 he has toured internationally with the New York Gypsy All-Stars and has become a vital element in singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer’s Tomas Donckér’s ‘Global Soul’movement with his participation in the critically acclaimed ‘Power Of The Trinity’ project.
The Line up: Manu Koch – piano, keyboards, compositions, Panagitois Andreou – bass, Mauricio Zottarelli – drums and Sebastian Nickoll – congas
5. Elysian Fields w/ Cassandra Jenkins and special guests JG Thirlwell (Foetus), Doveman, Joan As Police Woman, Kevin Corrigan, Kate Mattison, and more
Date: Thursday, February 14, 2013
Time: 7pm
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, ph: 212- 505-3474)
Ticket: $15
Genre: sounds of folk and jazz ballads, no wave and classical music
Legendary cult heroes Elysian Fields have always travelled in mysterious waters. Led by the enigmatic New York co-composers Jennifer Charles (vocals) and Oren Bloedow (guitar), the music born of their collaboration is impossible to categorize. They carry a torch for nature, sex, love, the cycle of death and rebirth, and the sounds of folk and jazz ballads, no wave and classical music, seamlessly interwoven into a style that is at once languorously romantic and tough.
Their colleagues and fans read as a virtual who’s who in the music world. It is no wonder the rest of the Downtown Indie community looks to them when assembling their own bands.
A band often overlooked, and yet highly significant, since their inception in 1995, Elysian Fields have always brought an unusual rigor and otherworldly sense of nature and feeling to their work, creating a sound that defies rock n roll convention, where Charles’ poetry is just as important as the delicious sounds that weave through the lyrics.
Oren Bloedow, a New York maverick, who grew up in the 70′s at 53rd and 3rd Avenue, no less, brings not only his masterly and unique command of the guitar to the stage, but his unparalled finesse of song craft. Co writer Jennifer Charles is possessed of unusual songsmithery, voice and spirit; she seems to be channeling the songs from a mysterious source. Along with Oren and Jennifer, this show will also feature the dynamic rhythm section of Tony Leone (drums) and Robert Jost (bass).
Cassandra Jenkins has a voice that is at once tragic and hopeful. Bedded in haunting arrangements of tremolo guitar and washy organ, she draws you into a world lying somewhere between Mazzy Star and Twin Peaks. It’s an arrestingly intimate place, where if you listen closely enough, you’ll find something as timeless as it is bittersweet. She’s joined by Malcolm Oliver Perkins (electric guitar), Michael Rosen (Wurlitzer & Rhodes bass), and Noah Hecht (drums).special guests JG Thirlwell, Doveman, Joan As Police Woman, Kevin Corrigan, Kate Mattison, and more
6. NY Gypsy All Stars & Hadar Noiberg Trio
Date: Friday, February 15, 2013
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Paper Box (17 Meadow St., Brooklyn, NY 11206)
Price: $10 -$12
Genre: Balkan funk & jazz
Since arriving in NYC at age 21, flutist, composer and arranger Hadar Noiberg has a major force in the Cuban, Jazz and World music scenes, with a language that transcends her Middle Eastern roots, she fuses styles seamlessly, making her voice one that is highly distinctive and innovative. Growing up in Israel which has an eclectic musical culture, Hadar was surrounded by various styles of music that are a part of the Israeli melting pot such as Middle Eastern music, Eastern European, Yemenite and Moroccan music to name a few. Now she is fusing those influences into her own compositions, sliding between jazz improvisation and Western harmony to Middle Eastern rhythms and semitones.
New York Gypsy All-Stars jump the turnstiles of Balkanalia, Turkish Roots, and Gypsy Soul with funky refinement
Ismail Lumanovski / Clarinet
Tamer Pinarbasi / Kanun
Panagiotis Andreou / Bass
Jason Lindner/ Keys
Engin Kaan Gunaydin / Drums
“Frontman clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski is an extraordinary player in his own right, leading the group through a blistering series of haunting dance numbers and a couple of one or two-chord jams that the players used to show off their sizzling chops.” – Alan Young, Lucid Culture Blog
7. The DISSIDENT ARTS ORCHESTRA plays ‘BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN”
Date: Saturday, February 16, 2013
Time: 8pm
Venue: 17 Frost Theatre of the Arts (17 Frost Street, Williamsburg, between Lorimer and Union)
Price: $10
Genre: nu big band jazz/improve
THE DISSIDENT ARTS ORCHESTRA, improvisational music repertory ensemble that focuses on silent film scores returns to 17 Frost in 2013. Please expect another large ensemble of exemplary musicians under the leadership of John Pietaro to bring new life to old classics again this year. Join us for a screening of the of the classic revolutionary film by Sergei Eisenstein, ‘BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN’ up on three large screens with the band down at front and center. Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi (SoSaLa) is joining this orchestra for the first time.
John Pietaro- vibes, percussion, musical direction
Nora McCarthy- vocals
Cheryl Pyle- flute
Quincy Saul- clarinet
Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi – tenor sax
Rocco John Iacovone- soprano and alto saxophones
Patrick Brennan – alto saxophone
Ras Moshe- tenor and soprano saxophones, flutes
Alon Nechustan – accordion
Javier Hernandez-Miyares- electric guitar and effects
Laurie Towers- electric bass
Nicolas Letman-Burtinovic- double bass
Hollis Headrick- drumkit, percussion
7. JACK DEJOHNETTE TRIO with Ravi Coletrane & Matt Garrison
Date: Saturday, February 16, 2013
Time: 8pm & 9:30
Venue: ShapeShifter Lab (18 Whitwell Pl, between Carroll St & 1st St,Brooklyn, NY 11215, ph: 646-820-9452)
Ticket: $25 each set
Genre: nu jazz
This gathering of musicians will be the celebration of an original event curated by Jack DeJohnette nearly 20 years ago. Jack brought Ravi and Matthew together for the first time to play the music of John Coltrane and the performance took place at The Brooklyn Museum.20 years on, the idea is reborn and will be presented at ShapeShifter Lab, a new venue owned and operated by Matthew Garrison and his business partner Fortuna Sung.
Jack, Ravi and Matthew will explore open improvisation territory as well as their own compositions. Power, elegance, and wide open creativity are words that come to mind when defining this presentation.
8. Mazz Swift
Date: Sunday, February 17, 2013
Time: 8pm & 10pm
Venue: The Stone (is located at the corner of Avenue C and 2nd Street)
Ticket: $10 each set
Genre: electric violin/string trio music
8pm – Violin Works by Mazz Swift (electric violin, electronics)
New works for solo electric violin and electronics, including a tribute to recently transitioned Butch Morris as well as her new work “The Desert Can Be Lush” (recently commissioned by Neues Kabarett at the Brecht Forum). Violin/Vox/Freestyle Composition artist Mazz Swift, often performing under the name MazzMuse, combines elements of classical, folk, rock, jazz, free improvisational music and electronica to create a rich, unique and diverse musical experience. She is a singer and Juilliard-trained violinist (electric and acoustic) who has, over the years, performed and recorded with a diverse accumulation of artists including Whitney Houston, Perry Farrell, Dee Snider, James “Blood” Ulmer, Vernon Reid, DJ Logic, William Parker, Butch Morris, Jason Lindner, Kanye West, Common and Jay-Z. As a solo artist her performance highlights include a performance at the National Action Network’s 20th Annual Keepers of the Dream awards ceremony where President Barack Obama was the keynote speaker; a TODAY Show appearance; and a TEDx appearance during the TEDWomen Conference. Mazz sits on the Artistic and Executive Boards of Con Vivo, a chamber music organization that brings free chamber music to Jersey City, and is also a proud performing member of that organization.
10pm – Home by Mazz Swift (violin) Tanya Kalmanovitch (viola) Marika Hughes (cello)
Home is a collective trio with violinist Mazz Swift (Matana Roberts’ Coin Coin, Burnt Sugar, MazzMuse), violist Tanya Kalmanovitch (Myra Melford, Turtle Island String Quartet) and cellist Marika Hughes (Charming Hostess, 2 Foot Yard). The three string players first met as students at the Juilliard School in the early 1990s, but each followed a very different path to their reunion in New York City some 15 years later. Tonight’s performance will trace some of those pathways, while blurring old lines between chamber music, experimental music, pop and jazz. Performing original songs, works by Charles Mingus and Anthony Braxton, Art Songs, folk songs, and African American spirituals.
