Musician in NY Feature: Hendrik Meurkens “My mission is simple…I want to create music of great beauty.”

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Caricature by Felix Wagner of the old, old Samba Jazz Group back in Berlin in the late 80s, with Felix Wagner, piano; Guilherme Castro, bass: and Zito Ferreira, drums.

Today I would like to introduce you to Hendrik Meurkens who is from my hometown Hamburg, Germany but now based in New York. I met him in spring at MICHIKO STUDIOS’ when I was the studio manager there. Because we had a cat in the studio and Meurkens was allergic to cats, I  always gave him the “cat free” studio upstairs.

Meurkens was first a two-mallet player in the tradition of Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson, but when he heard Toots Thielemans’ harmonica, he changed to this instrument which he taught himself. He’s also a composer whose compositions have been recorded by other artists and featured in the Hollywood movie “Dolores Claiborne”.

Continue reading →

Special women around us: Meditations on Meshell Ndegeocello

Text by by Dawoud Kringle

Last night (as if this writing, on November 17th, 2011), I attended a performance by Meshell Ndegeocello at Highline Ballroom in New York City. If memory serves me, this is the fifth time I have heard her live. The group played mostly music from her newest release Weather. Meshell almost never plays her old catalog. The night’s exception was when she offered a ballad – like reworking of her classic “Shooting Up and Getting High.”

 

Continue reading →

Music listings – 11/20 through 11/27

Will be updated every day!

1. Azam Ali

Date: Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Time: 7pm
Venue: The Graduate Center The Graduate Center Elebash Hall  (365 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10016, Ph: 212.817.8215)
Ticket: $25
Genre: oriental music

The Iranian-born, Indian-raised Azam Ali has one of the most seductive and effortlessly disciplined contemporary voices. Sublimely interpreted through ultra-modern beats and ambient drones, the traditional and contemporary songs of this unique vocalist smolder with dreamy longing and express the grief of exiles. They also soar with a keen edge of hope. She has already recorded three solo albums. Her new CD, From Night to the Edge of Day (released by Six Degrees Records), explores Iranian, Turkish, Lebanese, and Kurdish lullabies. As lead singer with Niyaz, an Iranian musical trio, she collaborates in creating acoustic electronic music for the 21st century. She has also worked with, among others, the percussionist Mickey Hart, and the rock bands System of a Down, Nine Inch Nails, and King Crimson. For the Live@365 concert, she is accompanied by Ramin Loga Torkian on lafta, a Turkish lute, and kamaan, a bowed lute; Nasser Musa Janinion on the oud, a plucked lute; MISSING NAME on percussion; and Sheila Hanigin on cello. This event is part of the new world music series Live@365.

2. DAWOUD

Continue reading →