1. Bravo Combo
Date: Monday, August 20, 2012
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10003, 212-967-7555)
Tickets: $20
Genre: pops/rock
Brave Combo’s catalog of recordings range from Japanese pop to Latin American dance tunes, to the orchestral classics to rock and roll at its finest. The band has recorded with the late Tiny Tim, and were the band Talking Head’s David Byrne chose for his wedding reception. From festivals and fairs of all varieties across the globe, rock clubs big and small, colleges, roadhouses, dances, cultural centers (including the annual Midsummer Night’s Swing at Lincoln Center in New York City) Brave Combo has charmed countless listeners and won avid devotees. The band has won two Grammy Awards and been nominated for their work 7 times.
2. Himalayas
Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Time: 10pm
Venue: Bamboo (1st Avenue b/t 1st and 2nd Streets under Lucky Cheng’s)
Ticket: t.b.a.
Genre: outer space marching band
HIMALAYAS is a marching band experience like no other. Preferring to play on the street and have its audience participate in the show, they play anywhere & anytime and have been known to play on bridges, mountain tops, beaches, in elevators, on grammy nominated records, on huge uptown stages & in dinky downtown clubs. With an ever-changing cast of characters, a songbook of todays freshest composers and a penchant for smashing genres–HIMALAYAS is a spontaneous, organic, ephemeral pleasure-filled situation!
3. Zozo Afrobeat
Date: Thursday, August 23, 2012
Time: 10pm
Venue: The Shrine (2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, NY)
Ticket: donation
Genre: Afrobeat
Zozo Afrobeat, a 13-piece ensemble from New York City, Zozo Afrobeat features musicians from around the world and is led by African music luminary Kaleta. Born in the Republic of Benin and raised in Nigeria, Kaleta grew up recording and performing with legendary Nigerian musicians Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade. After moving to the U.S., Kaleta toured with Femi Kuti and most recently with Lauryn Hill. With Zozo Afrobeat, Kaleta’s music pays homage to the greats, and yet has its own distinctive sound and energy. Like Fela Kuti, who used his music to challenge a corrupt Nigerian government, Kaleta has written songs that are socially and politically provocative. At the same time, his lyrics reflect a keen sense of humor and a message of hope. On Zozo Afrobeat’s 2007 release, Country of Guns, Kaleta scatters popculture references and marvels of a country with 250 million people and 250 billion guns.� On other songs, Kaleta sings in Yoruba, Goan, Fon, and French. On stage, Kaleta displays remarkable energy singing, dancing, and playing guitar and percussion. The band responds accordingly, delivering cascades of horns, hypnotic Benino-Nigerian rhythms, and captivating solos. Zozo Afrobeat has played at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival, the Brooklyn Museum, and various clubs in the New York area.
4. Krautrock Classics New York featuring Nite Jewel and Peanut Butter Wolf performing Kraftwerk’s Computer World w/ special guests Chrome Canyon and DJ Scott Mou
Date: Thursday, August 23, 2012
Time: 10pm
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, ph: 212- 505-3474)
Ticket: $18
Genre: Krautrock/electronics
Later teaming up with Cole M. Greif-Neill (formerly of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti), the Nite Jewel act became four piece live act, touring alongside the likes of Little Dragon, DaM FunK, and James Blake. The Nite Jewel sound has been likened to that of a warped, lo-fi version of Late-80’s Freestyle Electro sensation Debbie Deb and has also found appeal among not just the ‘indie rock’ & ‘experimental’ crowd but also among avid listeners of hip hop, funk, disco, & soul. While very fond of these aforementioned genres and artists, Nite Jewel gathers much of her inspiration from the likes of L.A. Free Music Society’s experimentalist Tom Recchion, obscure UK new age electro-acoustic duo Woo, and the sublime ambient electronic music of groups like Germany’s Cluster and Italy’s Sensations Fix. Nite Jewel never hesitates, however, to cite 90’s R&B pop groups such as TLC & SWV as influences who left an indelible mark on her music sensibilities as a teenager.
In summer of 2010, Nite Jewel received critical acclaim for a remix of Caribou’s “Odessa” and of “Die Slow” by noise rock band HEALTH.
In August 2010, Nite Jewel released a six song EP in August 2010 entitled Am I Real?, in collaboration with Cole M. Greif-Neill and Daniel and Andrew Aged from Teen Inc..
He took on the name Peanut Butter Wolf in the late-80s when he realized that, in an odd turn of events, a girlfriend’s youngest brother feared the “peanut butter wolf monster” more than death itself. Wolf and his more conventionally-named counterpart, Charizma, began recording in 1989 when the two were still teenagers. Within three years, the duo signed a contract with Hollywood Basic (Disney) alongside label mates Organized Konfusion and DJ Shadow. Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf were riding high, touring Europe, receiving press in magazines such as Billboard and (a then newspaper format) Urb, hanging with radio legends Sway & King Tech on Wake Up Show and performing live shows with groups like House of Pain, Nas and The Pharcyde. Then, in December of 1993, Charizma tragically lost his life. Stunned, Wolf temporarily gave up on music.
5. Scissormen
Date: Friday, August 24, 2012
Time: 10pm
Venue: The Shrine (2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, NY)
Ticket: donation
Genre: blues
Nashville-based blues band Scissormen are back in town! Since they list blues legends R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough alongside avant-rockers Sonic Youth as their prominent influences, it won’t surprise you to hear that they’ve fully harnessed the power of noise and the trance rhythms of the Mississippi Delta.
6. Jean Rohe
Date: Saturday, August 25, 2012
Time: 9pm & 10:30pm
Venue: The Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia St., NY, NY 10014)
Ticket: $10
Genre: jazz, American folk music, Brazilian and Afro-Peruvian traditional music
Jean Rohe is a multi-lingual singer, composer, and writer of wide-ranging interests. Together with her own genre-bending ensemble, Jean brings the full breadth of her stylistic attractions to bear, exploring the intersections of jazz, American folk music, Brazilian and Afro-Peruvian traditions in an engaging, participatory performance. Her refreshingly candid singing won her the audience prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2006 and she holds awards for her writing from the New York Songwriters Circle and the ASCAP Foundation, among others. Currently, she is at work on a concert-length performance memoir about her grandmother and namesake, as well as a new record of original music with her full band, due to be released this winter. Tonight, she will perform pieces from these projects, sprinkled with stories and poems from her trove of tales.
Jean Rohe, voice, mandolin, percussion; Ilusha Tsinadze, guitar, voice; Liam Robinson, accordion, voice; James Shipp, percussion; Chris Tordini, bass; Skye Steele, violin
7. Andrew Deutsch / Peer Bode Carrier Band
Date: Sunday, August 26, 2012
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Stone (is located at the corner of Avenue C and 2nd Street)
Ticket: $10
Genre: electronics/modern music
Andrew Deutsch and Peer Bode, founding members of Carrier Band will perform an invisible sculpture using the Bode Vocoder, shortwave radio, hand made electronic instruments and archival recordings from the Harald Bode Archive and unpublished recordings by Pauline Oliveros. Andrew Deutsch will also be performing shortwave radio, modified television, and live data set mixing comprised of early electronic compositions by Pauline Oliveros, and GRM software produced sounds.
Andrew Deutsch is a visual and sonic artist who’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Tampa Contemporary Museum of Art, the Robert Rauschenberg Gallery and the Central Academy of Art Beijing, China. His sound works have been published by Deep Listening Publications, SIRR, Lucky Kitchen, Elevator Bath, AND/Oar, IEA, and Anomalous Records. Andrew Deutsch is the owner of Magic If Recordings which is distributed world wide by Art Into Life, Japan. The term “electro-dynamic drawing” has been developed by Deutsch to describe his work in video and he describes his sonic art as “invisible sculpture”.
Peer Bode, is Co-founder of the Institute for Electronic Arts, Alfred University, Alfred, NY. His work has been exhibited at the Anthology Film Archives, The Kitchen, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Everson Museum, MOMA, the Whitney Biennial, Techno Bop, V-Tape and Trinity Square Media, the European Media Arts Festival and the Viper Festival as well as new media exhibitions in China, Japan and New Zealand, with recent exhibitions at the Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery and the New York Electronic Arts Festival, NY. Collaborations and projects include, Movements for Video, Dance and Music with Meryl Blackman, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, guest editor of Tellus#17 audio magazine, the films‚ “We Can’t Go Home Again”, by Nicholas Ray (1973 Cannes premiere) and the Susan Ray documentary‚ “Don’t Expect Too Much” (2011 Venice Film Festival, 2011 New York Film Festival, 2012 Turner Classic Movies). Bode’s other collaborators include Ralph Hocking, David Jones, Kjell Bjorgengen, Andrew Deutsch, Caspar Abocab, Rebekkah Palov, Don Metz and Pauline Oliveros.
8. SoSaLa w. Nick Gianni’s Evolution
Date: Monday, August 27, 2012
Time: 9pm
Venue: Nublu (62 Ave C, between 4th and 5th Street in the Lower East Side)
Ticket: $10
Genre: nu world trash/improve
Since the CD release party for “Nu World Trash” at Nublu (March 6th) five months have passed by. On August 27th SoSaLa is returning to Nublu in the Lower East Side to play songs from the new CD Nu World Trash and two new songs, with Sohrab on sax and vocals, Damon Banks on bass, Michael Wimberly on drums, djembe & back vocals and Brian Prunka on guitar and oud.
SoSaLa fuses free jazz with world music, with a particular emphasis on the Persian influences that come from Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi’s native Iran. On sax, Sohrab draws from his time playing with legends like Salif Keita and Ornette Coleman (whom he currently plays with on a regular basis in master classes), and Bachir Attar of the Master Musicians of JaJouka, as well as his time spent living in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, and now New York City. His bold original sound ranges from the soulful and melodic to the brash and contemplative, with swells of Middle-Eastern infused blowing tangled throughout.
NICK GIANNI’S EVOLUTION is a band comprised of seasoned musicians driven by the vision of saxophone player Nick Gianni. The band formed in 2005 out of downtown NYC’s vibrant music scene, honing its sound at NUBLU, Ave C’s late night hot spot. Its musicians are not only versed in jazz but also electronica, funk, dub and world beat. The band came together organically, as all its members had been playing together over the years in different projects. they combined their musical talents and experiences together to form a unique sound all their own.
