Date: Saturday, January 11, 2013
Venue: Highline Ballroom (NY)
Review by Dawoud Kringle
Date: Friday, February 1, 2013
Time: 7 p.m.
Venue: St. Peter’s Church (619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street, NYC)
Ticket: free
The National Endowment for the Arts ( NEA ) – the nation’s highest honor in jazz – announced Lou Donaldson to one of the four 2013 NEA Jazz Masters. He’s recognized for “his lifetime achievements and significant contributions to the development and performance of jazz. His distinctive blues-drenched alto saxophone has been a bopping force in jazz for more than six decades.” And he will receive a one-time award of $25,000.
This concert will open up with a special guest appearance by the vocalist Keisha St. Joan ! It will also include a panel discussion: “Coming Together as One: Fighting for Your Rights on the NYC Club Scene,” featuring a distinguished group of players, writers and activists.
Reviewed by Matt Cole
Eclectic cellist Helen Gillet came to the attention of DooBeeDooBeeDoo when she joined SoSaLa onstage on electric cello in New Orleans a few months ago. While the music is certainly not the same as the free jazz-Iranian-smorgasbord of SoSaLa, it certainly measures up in terms of musicianship and creativity. We have here two recent CDs of hers to review.
Artist: Helen Gillet
Title: Running of the Bell
Label: self released
Genre: jazz/contemporary music/improvised music
The first one I listened to was her trio CD Running of the Bells, on which she is joined by Doug Garrison on drums and percussion, and Tim Green on tenor sax, conn o sax, and occasional percussion. While the CD might wind up being filed in the jazz (and in particular ‘free jazz’) section of a record store due to the overall sound and strong group improvisations to be found within, there’s definitely more than jazz on this album. The opening track “Waking Milo” begins with solo cello arpeggios, almost reminiscent of Bach’s solo cello suites, before the percussion and then tenor sax join in, adding to what becomes a somewhat dissonant conversation. The second track, “Lilly,” starts with a bluesy, smoky, back alley film noir saxophone sound, with answering brushed drums, before joined by pizzicato strings. There are very free moments, such as “Flemish,” with its 3-way conversation which includes some incredible use of cello overtones, and yet the very next track (“Red”) draws on the sounds of metal and funk. Celtic sounds (“Talk to Ruff,” “Tourdion”) also make appearances, and after all the different influences; and at one point Green’s sax playing reminded me of Jessica Lurie (“Gulmar”). The CD ends on an almost avant classical vibe with “Hillcrest Python.” All three musicians are outstanding, but the best part of the CD is the way that they interact together; always listening and conversing, but never totally dominating the conversation, even when one is taking the lead. Even when playing in totally free space, the music is always going somewhere, not noodling for the sake of noodling, and the musicians are always making something together, not playing past or over each other. This is a very challenging CD to be sure, but very rewarding for those who like eclectic improvisations that have a lot of substance.
Artist: Mazz Swift, Tomeka Reid, and Silvia Bolognesi
Title: Hear In Now
Label: Rudi Records
Genre: nu chamber music/jazz
Review by Matt Cole
Date: January 13, 2013
Venue: Webster Hall (NY)
Text by Dawoud Kringle
On Sunday,. January 13, 2013, globalFest 2013, a non-profit organization presented a festival of 12 artists within one night at New York City’s famed Webster Hall. This Herculean effort brought an amazing variety of artists from around the world. It was, with the overlapping scheduled performances, impossible to catch everyone. But for the loyal readers of DooBeeDooBeeDoo, I put every effort in covering what I could.
Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan (photo by Dawoud Kringle)
