One of the trademarks of Karl Berger’s Stone Workshop Orchestra is Ingrid Sertso’s uncanny vocalization and poetry.Karl Berger conducts from the piano and occasionally picks up the melodica. The list of professional players participating in Karl Berger’s Stone Workshop Orchestra is growing.

2. Leni Stern Band

Date: Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Time: 10pm
Venue: The 55 Bar (55 Christopher St., (Sixth/Seventh Avenue), New York, ( 212 ) 929-9883)
Ticket: $10
Genre: West African music

Leni Stern’s music is inspired by Malian and Senegalese culture. Clearly the German-born, New York-based singer-songwriter-guitarist has found her roots in West Africa. She recorded at singer Salif Keita’s studio in Bamako, Malis. The lineup is: Leni Stern – guitar, n’goni, vocals, Harvey Wirht – percussion, Kofo – talking drum, vocals and Mamadou Ba – bass.

3. Asphalt Orchestra

Date: Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Time: 6:30pm
Venue: Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center (70 Lincoln Center Plaza & W 62nd St., New York, 10023, 212-875-5456)
Ticket: free
Genre:

Asphalt Orchestra is a radical new street band that brings ambitious processional music to the mobile masses.  Created by the founders of the “relentlessly inventive” new music presenter Bang on a Can (Justin Davidson, NY Magazine), Asphalt Orchestra unleashes innovative music from concert halls, rock clubs and jazz basements and takes it to the streets.

4. Hip Hop Kung Fu

Date: Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Time: 8pm & 9:30pm
Venue: Asia Society (725 Park Avenue, New York)
Ticket: free
Genre: Hip Hop/street dance & Asian culture fusion

Presented with Dancing in the Streets
Through a juxtaposition of Shaolin Wushu and Tai Chi, and Krumping, Vogueing, Waacking, Locking and Freestyle, this interdisciplinary work explores the reciprocal influences of Asian culture — particularly martial arts — on hip hop, and the influence of hip hop on Asian culture.
Featuring an international ensemble of dancers, drummers and martial artists, the work is choreographed by Emilio “Buddha Stretch” Austin Jr with Valerie “Ms. Vee” Ho and Michele Byrd McPhee.
Emilio “Buddha Stretch” Austin Jr. is a roving ambassador of hip hop dance who travels the world as a choreographer, dancer, teacher and competition judge. He has been a seminal influence on the development of hip hop dance in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Michele Bryd McPhee is a choreographer, dancer and Founding Artistic Director of Ladies of Hip Hop, an annual festival that is dedicated to preserving and redefining women’s role in hip hop.
Hip Hop Kung Fu is co-presented by Dancing in the Streets and Casita Maria Center for Arts in Education as part of HIP HOP GENERATION NEXT: From the South Bronx to East Asia. www.dancinginthestreets.org

5. Chico Trujillo w. DJ Rockass

Date: Thursday, August 4, 2011
Time: 10pm
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleeker Street, New York, NY, 212.505.3474)
Ticket: $15
Genre: Colombian cumbia

Chico Trujillo play cumbia with a twist. Cumbia is a Colombian rhythm based on the West African groove that gave birth to blue beat and ska in Jamaica. In Colombia it became cumbia, the country’s signature sound. In many parts of South America, particularly Chile, cumbia is more popular than salsa. Chico Trujillo use cumbia’s irresistible pulse as a jumping-off place for their own particular sound, a hybrid that includes salsa, soca, ska, surf music, jazz, chicha, and other Latin and Caribbean flavors. The band’s music is relentlessly upbeat!!!

6. The Trio

Date: Thursday, August 4, 2011
Time: 8:30 & 10:30pm
Venue: Bar Next Door (129 MacDougal St., New York, NY 10012, Tel: (212) 529-5945)
Ticket: $12
Genre: Jazz

Hendrik Meurkens, a virtuoso on both the chromatic harmonica and the vibraphone, is the most important jazz harmonica player since Toots Thielemans. German-born but now based in New York, Meurkens’ recordings and performances garner worldwide acclaim because the transcendent beauty of his music has universal appeal.

“We have a couple of friends joining us on some tunes: multi-talented Russ Spiegel on guitar and Israeli singer Tammy Scheffer. Russ is a guitarist, arranger, band leader and actor. We just did a very nice gig with his big band, the Russ Spiegel Jazz Orchestra, in which Tammy Scheffer appears as a vocalist. This is going to be a little different from my usual Trio gigs, so stop by if you can.”

Hendrik Meurkens – harmonica
Misha Tsiganov – piano
Gustavo Amarante – bass

7. NEW YORK ARABIC ORCHESTRA w. ESPÍRITU GITANO AND FRIENDS

Date: Friday, August 5, 2011
Time: 7:30pm – 8:30pm
Venue: Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center (70 Lincoln Center Plaza & W 62nd St., New York, 10023, 212-875-5456)
Ticket: free
Genre: Arabic music

The New York Arabic Orchestra spotlights multi-instrumental virtuoso Bassam Saba’s extended work Fantasie for Oud and Orchestra, which picks up the Arab-Andalusian trail as vocalists Salma Habib and Naji Youssef make the music of Lebanese singer Fairouz the catalyst for an evening of emotive grace.

Compositions by Bassam Saba, Marcel Khalife, Mohammad Abdel Wahab, Rahbani Brothers, and more!
Also Featuring Latin percussion with Marcelo Woloski and a whole new rocking percussion set up with the NYAO percussionists, April Centrone and Hatshepsut Symister!

Check out Bassam Saba’s interview in DooBeeDoo!

8. Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood / Bachir Attar (Master Musicians of Jajouka)

Date: Friday, August 5, 2011
Time: 7:30pm – 8:30pm
Venue: Whitney Museum of American Art (945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, New York, NY 10021, General Information: 212-570-3600)
Ticket: Free with Museum admission, which is pay-what-you-wish on Fridays from 6–9pm; there are no special tickets or reservations.
Genre: post-rock/nu jazz/world

In celebration of their 20th anniversary, legendary band Medeski Martin & Wood will be in residence at the Whitney Museum of American Art on Friday nights in August as part of the Whitney Live performance series. Joined by guest artists each night, the performances will encompass older works and newer projects including several MMWside projects and a re-mounting of the acclaimed Turntable Sessions.

John Scofield:
John Scofield’s guitar work has influenced jazz since the late ’70s. Possessor of a distinctive sound and stylistic diversity, Scofield is a masterful jazz improviser whose music generally falls somewhere between post-bop, funk-edged jazz, and R&B.

Bachir Attar:
Master Musicians of Jajouka is a group led by Bachir Attar from the village of Jajouka in northern Morocco. Bachir and his brother Mustapha Attar are the last descendants of the Masters Musicians of Jajouka. The music and secrets of Jajouka have been passed down through generations from father to son, by some accounts for as long as 4000 years. Wholly unique to the village, sons are taught the complex music from a young age until they are deemed Malims, or Masters. Masters possess baraka, the blessing of Allah, which gives them the power to heal, and the endurance required to play some of the most intense and complex music around.

9. Percussivo Mundo Novo

Date: Saturday, August 6, 2011
Time: 12:00 noon
Venue: Lincoln Center Out of Doors/La Casita project (Lincoln Center North Plaza, NY, 212-875-5456)
Show: 12:00 noon
Ticket: free
Genre: Brazilian/Electronic muisc

Date: Sunday, August 7, 2011
Time: 7:25 pm
Venue: Lincoln Center Out of Doors/La Casita project (Teatro Pregones, 571 Walton Avenue, Bronx, NY, Ph: 212-875-5456)
Ticket: free
Genre: Brazilian/Electronic muisc

Touch-Screen Samba and Joystick Roots: Percussivo Mundo Novo Channels Cascading Brazilian Beats and Smiling Cyberfunk on North American Tour, July and August 2011

The first of the cyber-Mohicans hits the stage, shredding like a rock star on a touch-screen tablet melded with a Guitar Hero controller—and creating a huge chorus of Brazilian rhythm. With a three-foot tall Mohawk and the blessing of the spirits, he and his crew invent new instruments for ancient roots: the rumbling joys of Afro-Brazilian beats, the rolling pulse of samba, and the deep presence of candomble.