1. Les Rhinocéros
Date: Monday, June 8, 2015
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Stone (Ave C @ 2nd Street, New York, NY 10009, (212) 473-0043)
Ticket: $10
Genre: free style/noise/Jewish-nu world/electronics/improv
Les Rhinocéros: Michael Coltun (bass, effects) Amit Peled (guitar, effects) Jon Burrier (drums)
Together since 2010, Les Rhinocéros has brought their manic and zany mixture of heavy metal riffs, world music, noise, math rock, klezmer, reggae, minimalism, soundtracks and sick improvisation to appreciative audiences all over the world. Their long awaited third release Les Rhinocéros III ups the ante once again with a wide variety of manic compositions performed tighter than ever by this virtuosic trio. Featuring guests Gal Klein, Joe Herrera, Matt Rippetoe, Kamyar Arsani, Reese Higgins and David Coltun this is a passionate young band breaking new ground in instrumental music!
2. Michael Bates’ Northern Spy
Date: Monday, June 8, 2015
Time: 8pm
Venue: Quinn’s (330 Main Street, Beacon, New York 12508)
Tickets: donation
Genre: jazz
Michael Bates’ Northern Spy is a wink towards BC-born bassist/composer Michael Bates’ artful infiltration of the vibrant New York jazz scene, where he’s become a first-call player with the likes of Dave Douglas and Chris Speed. With Jeremy ‘Bean’ Clemons drums, and fellow ex-pat/“spy” Michael Blake saxophone, Northern Spy’s debut CD is lyrical, visceral, and cinematic.
3. Near East River Trio w. Kane Mathis & Adam Maalouf
Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Time: 9pm
Venue: Muchmore’s (2 Havemeyer St, Brooklyn, NY, Phone: 917-515-5444)
Ticket: donation
Genre: Arabic infuenced music/oriental music
Near East River Trio with Brian Prunka, Samer Ali, Vin Scialla performing modern Arabic-influenced music.
Performing on the 21-string Mandinka Harp and the Turkish Oud, Kane Mathis renders compelling interpretations of these traditional musics. Years of study with generous masters have given Kane a rare opportunity to share these traditions with other cultures.
Adam Maalouf is a Lebanese-American musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer. Through the influence of many of the world’s musical styles, Adam’s unique compositional and improvisational approach forms a common thread between the cultures of the East and West. Blurring the lines between World Music, Jazz, and Electronica, Adam composes and performs using an eclectic combination of instruments such as Hand Pan, Cello, Drum set, World Percussion and Electronics.
Modern Dance by Ashley Robicheaux & Artists
4. Brooklyn Raga Massive Presents Steve Gorn and Ehren Hanson
Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Time: 8pm to 11pm
Venue: Bluebird (504 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225)
Tickets: $10
Genre: Indian classical music/bansuri music
Brooklyn Raga Massive presents one of NY’s renowned Indian classical musicians Steve Gorn. Grammy winner, and five time Grammy nominee, Steve Gorn is creating a new idiom, a music that combines the essence of classical Indian tradition with a contemporary world music sensibility.
Steve Gorn’s bansuri is featured on the 2011 Grammy winning recording, “Miho – Journey to the Mountain,” with Dhruba Ghosh and the Paul Winter Consort, as well as the Academy Award winning Documentary film, “Born into Brothels.” He has performed Indian Classical Music and new American Music on the bansuri bamboo flute in concerts and festivals throughout the world.
He will be accompanied by Ehren Hanson on tabla. Ehren is a senior disciple of Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, the director of the Anindo Chatterjee School of Tabla, and a founding member of Brooklyn Raga Massive. The Times of India called his performance “enthralling.”
5. SILVIA NAKKACH & NACHO ARIMANY
Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Time: 7:30 – 9:30pm
Venue: Sacred Arts Research Foundation (107 Green St #G55, Brooklyn, New York 11222)
Ticket: $25
Genre: Indian ragas, mantras, icaros from the Amazon, and beyond
Join Grammy-Nominated recording artist SILVIA NAKKACH and percussionist NACHO ARIMANY for a special evening of healing sounds and singing along with divine melodies, Indian ragas, mantras, icaros from the Amazon, and beyond. Silvia is a “bridge maker” that embodies training from many sacred music traditions. Her interactive concerts are both lively and enchantingly engaging.
In 2015 Silvia Nakkach and David Darling were nominated for the Best New Age Album Grammy Award for “In Love And Longing” on the Sounds True label. Visit Silvia’s website at http://
SILVIA NAKKACH, MA, MMT, is an internationally known pioneer in the field of sound and transformation of consciousness, and has cultivated a voice that transports listeners into the heart of devotion and wonder. Her vocal work ranges from traditional chants to contemporary vocal improvisations. She is also an award-winning composer, former music psychotherapist, teacher, and recording artist. She is the founder and artistic director of the International Vox Mundi, Mystery School of the Voice, and she is in the faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. She is the author of Free Your Voice, Awaken to Life through Singing. Silvia studied Indian classical music under the direction of the late great master Ali Akbar Khan for 29 years, and she is devoted to the mastery of the art of Naad yoga and Dhrupad singing. Visit Silvia’s website at http://
NACHO ARIMANY was chiefly known as one of Spain’s most sought after Flamenco percussionists before moving to New York in 2009, His unique style and diverse capabilities steered him into the broader scopes of world music and Jazz, where he has performed and recorded with many top artists in these genres. Visit Nacho at http://nachoarimany.com/
6. The John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble CD Release Party
Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Roulette (509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217)
Ticket: $20
Genre: jazz
[recorded with Theo Bleckmann, Kate McGarry, Uri Caine and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band]
Live with the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble featuring Theo Bleckmann and Kate McGarry
Ben Kono – sop/alto sax, flute
Jeremy Viner – clarinet/tenor sax
Tony Malaby – ten/sop sax
Dan Willis – ten/sop sax, english horn, flute
Bohdan Hilash – contra-alto clar, bass sax, clar
Mark Patterson – trombone
Mike Christianson – trombone
Jacob Garchik – trombone
Alan Ferber – trombone
Tony Kadleck – trumpet, flugelhorn
Jon Owens – trumpet, flugelhorn
Dave Ballou – trumpet, flugelhorn
Matt Holman – trumpet, flugelhorn
Chris Tordini – acoustic/electric bass
Matt Mitchell – piano, organ, keyboard
Patricia Franceschy – mallet percussion
John Hollenbeck – drums, composition
Theo Bleckmann – voice
Kate McGarry – voice
JC Sanford – conductor
Special Guest: Ben Monder – guitar
The John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble will be celebrating the release on Sunnyside Records of Songs We Like a Lot, the sequel to the Grammy-nominated album “Songs I Like a Lot”. “SWLAL” consists of works commissioned and recorded by the Frankfurt Radio Big Band with Theo Bleckmann, Kate McGarry, and Uri Caine.
John Hollenbeck is one of the rare artists who have mastered the tradition of big band composition while crossing aesthetic boundaries and speaking directly to the time we live in today. His music is a daring mix of pure, heart-on-sleeve lyricism and robust rhythmic propulsion, and an audacious example of the power of big band jazz to express emotions well beyond swing-era clichés. His music for the two-time Grammy nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble has earned acclaim for its rich, panoramic orchestral textures that retain the power of its members’ individual voices.
This performance is made possible in part with support from the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards program.
7. Innove Gnawa Band
Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Time: 10pm
Venue: The Way Station (683 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11238)
Tickets: $5
Genre: Gnawa music/Americana/one man band
Gnawa music is a rich repertoire of spiritual healing songs and rhythms. Its well preserved heritage combines ritual poetry with traditional music and dancing. Gnawa music is performed in a “Lila,” an entire night of celebration, dedicated to healing and trance guided by the Maalem and his group. Maalem Hassan Ben Jaafer, who is a one of a kind master, inherited Gnawa Music from his father Sidi Abdullah Ben Jaafer Sultan Gnawa, and will be playing alongside the young generation master Samir LanGus who learned Gnawa music in the streets of Agadir, Morocco.
Concert review: InnoVe Gnawa Band & Faith at Mercury Lounge (NY)
8. Either/Or 10th Annual Spring Festival 1/2
Date: Wednesday, June 10 & Saturday, June 13, 2015
Time: 8pm
Venue: University Settlement Society of New York (184 Eldridge St, New York, New York 10002)
Ticket: $15
Genre: chamber music
Either/Or will present two nights of new and recent chamber music from “an aesthetic space that no one else inhabits,” featuring guest artist composer/pianist Anthony Coleman.
Either/Or is a NYC based nontraditional chamber music ensemble that presents a repertoire of new and recent work informed by American Experimentalism and the European avant-garde.
June 10, 2015, 8pm
Gio Janiashvili – Muffling Fog: after Martin Heidegger (2014), for pianist, video and electronic sounds, US Premiere
Anthony Coleman – Suite of recent works (2012-2015), featuring the composer on piano
The Festival continues Saturday June 13, with late 20th Century gems by Morton Feldman and Horatiu Radulescu.
Either/Or is:
Jennifer Choi, violin
Richard Carrick, piano
Taka Kigawa, piano
David Shively, percussion
with guests:
Anthony Coleman, piano
Gio Janiashvili, video projection
9. LUKAS LIGETI’S 50TH BIRTHDAY & FAREWELL NYC FESTIVAL
Date: Thursday, June 11and Sunday, June 14, 2015
Times: see below
Venue: Austrian Cultural Forum New York & Roulette (adresses below)
Tickets: see below
Genre: Lukas Legeti composed music
“I’m delighted to invite you to a festival of my classical compositions on the occasion of my 50th birthday as well as to mark the end of my 17+ years of living in New York City. This fall, I will join the faculty of the University of California, Irvine, where I will teach in a new, innovative PhD program, Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology (ICIT). I will continue ongoing NYC-based projects and will return as often as I can, but still: If you ever wanted to attend any of my concerts and/or support me in my activities, don’t miss this festival!
Presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY) and consisting of two concerts, on June 11 at the ACFNY’s own concert hall in Midtown Manhattan and on June 14 at Roulette in Brooklyn (note early start time – see below), this is an unprecedented overview of my work as a classical composer, focusing especially on recent works. I hope to see you there – let’s celebrate together!
Here’s an overview of the program:
THURSDAY, JUNE 11th at 7:30 pm at the Austrian Cultural Forum NY (11 East 52nd St. (between 5th & Madison Aves., New York)
Fifth Avenue/53rd Street stop on the E & M
47-50 Street/Rockefeller Center stop on the B, D, F & M
51st Street/Lexington Avenue stop on the E, M & 6
http://www.acfny.org/
Hamburg-based pianist Jennifer Hymer (with support from the Goethe Institute) will give the NYC premiere of DUST for solo kalimba (a modern African thumb piano), written for her in 2009, and will also perform PLAY ADDICT for toy piano and electronics (2013).
Ben Reimer and David Cossin will perform LAKONI IN KAZONNDE for two drum sets, written for them in 2013.
Thomas Bergeron and Candy Chiu will perform the extremely demanding trumpet-and=percussion duo TANGLE, from 2006/08.
And my band NOTEBOOK will perform music combining composition and improvisation in unusual ways. I’ll play drums and will be joined by greats such as Todd Reynolds, Grey McMurray, Eyal Maoz, Dan Blake, Ricardo Gallo, and Rick Parker.
The festival will culminate on June 14 in a concert packed with world premieres:
SUNDAY, JUNE 14th at 5:30 pm at the Roulette (509 Atlantic Ave., @ 3rd Ave., Brooklyn)
Atlantic/Barclays stop on the B, D, N, Q, R, 2, 3, 4 & 5
Hoyt/Schermerhorn stop on the A, C & G
http://roulette.org/
Vicky Chow will give the world premieres of two short solo piano pieces, TRINITY (2003) and CHAMPAIGN FOR URBANA (2006).
Next up will be the world premiere of THINKING SONGS, a large, five-movement piece for marimba solo. It was commissioned by a consortium of 16 of the America’s leading marimba soloists, four of whom will be on hand to participate in the premiere: Eric Beach, Laura Jordan, Ji Hye Jung, and Ayano Kataoka.
Finally, ensemble mise-en and conductor Oliver Hagen will take the stage to perform four of my chamber orchestra works. ZAMBEZI was composed in 1999 for the London ensemble Icebreaker; this will be the world premiere of a new version. CASTLE OF TURNS, commissioned in 2007 by the Tonhalle Düsseldorf (Germany) will see its NYC premiere, while SURROUNDEDNESS, written in 2012 for the 50th anniversary of the seminal ensemble “die reihe” from Vienna, Austria, will be performed for the first time in the U.S.
And a new piece for 15 musicians, commissioned by ACFNY, will receive its world premiere. The piece is so new that I don’t even have a title yet – stay tuned!
Related Posts
CD Review: The duo Lukas Ligeti and Thollem McDonas…prepare yourself for a peregrination into a vast spectrum of musical revelation
Concert Review: Lukas Ligeti solo and duo with Gary Lucas at The Stone (NY)
10. The Orchestra of the League of Composers
Date: Thursday, June 11, 2015
Times: 8pm
Venue: Miller Theatre/Columbia University (2960 Broadway, New York, NY 10027)
Tickets: $20; $10 Students & Seniors
Genre: modern/classical music
The League of Composers/ISCM presents The Orchestra of the League of Composers’ Season Finale concert on Thursday, June 11th at 8pm at Miller Theater. Featured on this program will be the world premiere of a commissioned work, A League of Notions, by Morris Rosenzweig and the U.S. premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Leino Songs, her 2008 settings of Eino Leino’s poetry, with soprano Heather Buck as soloist.
A wide-ranging and spirited sampling from David Felder’s monumental Les Quatre Temps Cardinaux will be presented for the first time in New York with Ms. Buck and bass Ethan Herschenfeld.
Honoring Irving Fine’s centennial (1914-15), The Orchestra of the League of Composers will perform Notturno for Strings and Harp.
WNYC’s John Schaefer will host the concert and present interviews with the composers. A video interview with Ms. Saariaho will be showcased. Conductors Louis Karchin and Scott Voyles will share the baton for this evening’s performances.
Program:
Irving Fine Notturno for Strings and Harp (in honor of the composer’s centennial) (1951)
David Felder Les Quatre Temps Cardinaux (Excerpts) (2013)
Heather Buck, soprano & Ethan Herschenfeld, bass
Morris Rosenzweig A League of Notions (2015) World Premiere, League-ISCM Commission
Kaija Saariaho Leino Songs (2008) U.S. Premiere
Heather Buck, soprano
Conductors: Louis Karchin & Scott Voyles
Host: John Schaefer, WNYC
11. Aashish Khan, Anupam Shobhakar, Anindo Chatterjee & Manik Munde
Date: Friday, June 12, 2015
Time: 8pm – 10pm
Venue: St. Peter’s Episcopal Church – Chelsea (346 West 20 Street, New York, NY 10011)
General admission: $30 – $20 (Students/Seniors) – $100 (VIP) – Online Tickets: buy here
Genre: Indian Classical music
HarmoNYom, in association with Brooklyn Raga Massive, present A Divine Dance of North Indian Ragas and Talas!
This special evening will present the listeners with a rare confluence of among the realms of both Indian raga and rhythm. The living legend Ustad Aashish Khan and his stellar disciple Sri Anupam Shobhakar present their mastery of the sarode, drawn from the both the ancient dhrupad style as well as the more contemporary khayal style.
12. MONO w. Holly Hunt
Date: Friday, June 12, 2015
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, Phone: 212- 505-3474)
Ticket: $20
Genre: progressive rock/ambient
MONO: Takaakira “Taka” Goto (guitar) / Tamaki (bass, piano) / Yoda (guitar) / Yasunori Takada (drums)
MONO was formed in the winter of 1999 in Tokyo, Japan. Since then, MONO has quickly piqued interests in both audience and critics alike by staging overwhelming, emotionally splendid, atmospheric performances. In September of 2000, MONO released a 4-song EP called Hey, You. EP, released on Forty-4 Records, which received exceptional reviews in both Japan and the US. In March 2001, MONO performed at SXSW, broadening their fan base. In December 2001, the band’s long-awaited debut full-length album, Under the Pipal Tree, was released on John Zorn’s TZADIK imprint. The album was well received by a variety of influential underground media outlets.
Drummer Beatriz Monteavaro and guitarist Gavin Perry capture the meditative power of repetition; the ecstatic joy of tempered variation; infinitely undulating riffage; psychedelic drone paired with rock n’ roll rhythm in full splendor.
Though stripped down to the most bare essentials, Holly Hunt produces a sound and style far beyond rudimentary tags like “heavy,” “hard,” or “brutal.”
13. 26th Annual Tribute to the Ancestors of the Middle Passage
Date: Saturday, June 13, 2015
Time: from noon to sunset
Venue: Coney Island Boardwalk (Boardwalk W, 16th St., Brooklyn, New York 11224)
Buy ticket: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/26th-annual-tribute-to-the-ancestors-of-the-middle-passage-tickets-15978878255?ref=ecal
Genre: coming together and celebrating
The National Black United Front will sponsor a trip from Washington DC to the 26th Annual Tribute to the Ancestors of the Middle Passage to be held on the boardwalk at West 16th St. (Ancestors Circle) in Coney Island, Brooklyn, the site where some of the earliest slave ships once docked. The tribute will take place Saturday June 13, 2015, from noon to sunset.
Sponsored by Akeem Productions and the People of the Sun Middle Passage Collective in conjunction with Medgar Evers College Student Government Association, this annual tribute is in remembrance of the tens of millions of Africans who, after being kidnapped from their homeland, died during the Middle Passage – the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean and North and South America.
Prayers for all ancestors will start precisely at noon, rain or shine, in coordination with other gatherings around the world.
Transportation will leave Anacostia Metro Station at 7:00 am returning at 11:00 pm.
A change of clothes to include socks and shoes, a bag to put clothes in that may have been soiled by sand and a couple of towels should be brought.
Lunch is not included.
You are highly encouraged to wear white.
14. Joanie Leeds
Date: Saturday, June 13, 2015
Time: 11am & 12pm
Venue: Children’s Museum of Manhattan (212 W 83rd St, New York, New York 10024)
Ticket: $t.b.a.
Genre: kindie-rock
Joanie Leeds is the multi-award winning principal performer of nationally-touring kindie-rock band Joanie Leeds & the Night Lights. Her latest CD, Good Egg, was named among the best CDs of 2014 by Parents Magazine, The Washington Post, and People Magazine.
15. Noise Love Minifest – Unofficial Northside Party
Date: Saturday, June 13, 2015
Time: 6pm
Venue: The Rookery Bar (425 Troutman St, Brooklyn, New York 11237)
Ticket: free
Genre: noise music/electronics/indie rock
We’re mixing up SO MANY of our favorite bands, from across the whole noise love spectrum, and whiskey specials like all the hours are happy.
+tasty burgers by Duncan’s Burgers
Featuring dope vibes from:
a place both wonderful and strange
LODRO
Veda Rays
The Wendigo
Quitzow
Bodega Bay
Hellbirds
Sun Abduction
KidAudra
Listening Center
16. Second Sundays w. InnoVe Gnawa Band
Date: Sunday, June 14, 2015
Time: 4pm – 10pm
Venue: Pioneer Works (159 Pioneer St, Brooklyn, New York 11231)
Ticket: $t.b.a.
Genre: open studios, live music, and site-specific interventions
SECOND SUNDAYS is a monthly series of open studios, live music, and site-specific interventions presented by Pioneer Works the second Sunday of every month. The series showcases artists in residence along with musical performances and DJs, curated by Olivier Conan.
Can’t make it to Second Sundays this month? Stream the entire event live on Clocktower Radio at clocktower.org/listen !
ON VIEW
Z
Robyn Renee Hasty presents a new series of glass plate portraits created during her year long residency at Pioneer Works. Working with transgender, cisgender and a spectrum of genderqueer and gender non-confirming individuals, Z is collection of images that challenges our expectations of how gender is expressed, embodied and perceived.
BIOMORPHIC WALL
Biomorphic Wall by Chico MacMurtrie/ARW will make its second physical intervention at Pioneer Works’ Second Sundays, in a new site-specific configuration. MacMurtrie will also premier a prototype of a series of six Border Crossers, ARW’s newest development and work in progress.
FROM WALDEN TO SPACE
Chapter II/ The hut, 2015 by Stéphane Thidet
This project stages the collision between the book Walden or life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau (1854) and the mission Mercury Seven (1958) sending men to space. It is a polymorphic work, with several chapters, evoking the questions of autonomy, isolation, solitude, but also contemplation and enlarged perspectives through music and live performance with modular synthesizers ( Ciat-Lombarde, Grendel Drone Commander…).
OPEN STUDIOS: 4-6:30pm
Carmen Bouyer, Clocktower Radio, Clara Claus, Hyon Gyon, Robyn Hasty, Tommy Martinez, Azikiwe Mohammed, Nanotronics Imaging, Joséphine Kaeppelin, Paul Korzan, Ido Michaeli, Sascha Pohflepp & Chris Woebken, and Phillip Stearns
INTERVENTIONS
ARPANAJEWELS 4-8PM
Arpana Rayamajhi is painter/ sculptor/ jeweler based in NYC. Currently a student of Cooper Union Arpana is also the founder of ARPANAJEWELS. Each piece is one of a kind, handmade in NYC. Materials are sourced from around the world, mainly from her hometown, Kathmandu and NYC, including travels.
ARPANAJEWELS is setting up a booth for at Pioneer Works for Second Sunday to not only showcase the pieces but also to raise fund for Nepal Earthquake 2015. 20% of the proceeds goes to those directly affected by the earthquake.
TAROT CARD READINGS 4-10PM
With Birdie Lawson and Elisia Guerena
CITIES ARE NATURAL 6-6:30, 7:30-8PM
In collaboration with Clocktower Productions, Melissa F. Clarke presents field recordings from the Red Hook area and two experimental, techno-house performances, curated by She was Freaks (Mike Sheffield), featuring Plebeian (Andrew Nerviano) and CienFuegos (Alex Suárez).
Plebeian: Brooklyn-based Andrew Nerviano combines electronics, pedals, and fuzz, to create a complex and psychedelic brand of techno.
CienFuegos: Miami ex-patriate Alex Suárez works with sample manipulation, computer production, and sound texturing for divinity-tinged club techno.
LA NEWYORKINA
La Newyorkina will be selling paletas, Mexican ice pops, in the garden throughout the evening. All products are handmade from scratch in small batches, using the locally sourced ingredients. La Newyorkina donates a portion of their sales to Crea, an organization that helps generate employment opportunities in Mexico for low-income women.
Clocktower Livestream:
PATRIOT GAMES BY #TRASHDAY 4-5PM
June 14th is Flag Day, and in celebration of The Read, Right and True, Radio Rossi presents this edition for your #trashDAY listening pleasure. No one is safe from the gleeful trash talk of visual artists Kenya (Robinson) and Doreen Garner — not President Obama, not Uncle Sam, not Sallie Mae, not even Lady Liberty herself. And with performance artist Kanene Holder on deck as American Justice, shit is bound to get unreal. Tune in at clocktower.org/listen!
DELPHINE BLUE 5-6PM
A live set from the DJ extrodanaire Delphine Blue of WBAI 99.5 FM. Expect to hear music from many lands and many genres across many decades from one of the great American radio voices and good souls. Tune in at clocktower.org/listen!
LIVE MUSIC:
INNOVE GNAWA 6:30pm
The New York-based group of Moroccan musicians plays Gnawa music – the southern Moroccan trance music with roots in pre-islamic animist traditions. Led by master Maalem Hassan BenJaafer, InnoVe Gnawa uses traditional instrumentation such as the lute-like Sintir and the large castanet type Krakebs to accompany its ancient chants. Their approach is resolutely innovative though – an hypnotic, take on this ecstatic, trance-inducing tradition which has enthralled and inspired generations of musicians from around the world. Can’t make it? Tune in at clocktower.org/listen to hear INNOVE GNAWA.
Rob Curto’s PE DE SERRA ALL-STARS 8:00pm
Forró, from northeastern Brazil, may have surpassed even samba as the country’s most popular dance genre. Accordionist Rob Curto is widely regarded as Forro’s foremost ambassador in the US. He has studied and performed in Brazil with forró’s greatest names—Dominguinhos, Arlindo dos Oito Baixos, and Camarão. His Pé de Serra All-Stars mixes raw energy with virtuosity. Drawing on the classic repertoire of Luis Gonzaga, it adds new elements gleaned from collaborations with artists as varied as Willie Nelson and the singer Lila Downs, who has written, “Rob Curto is a musician playing in our time the voices of time past—of smiling faces, of moving bodies, of shoes stirring the dust beneath them to celebrate this gentle existence.” With Rob Curto – accordion; Adriano Santos – drums; Mike LaValle – bass, Davi Vieira and Zé Mauricio – percussion. Can’t make it? Tune in at clocktower.org/listen to hear PE DE SERRA ALL-STARS.
