Tag Archives: New York

MFM Turns 10! Musicians For Musicians Celebrates its First Decade

Report by Dawoud Kringle

Photos by Kim Schmidt, Clara Aich, and Banning Eyre

On Friday, September 5th, 2025, the Cutting Room in New York City hosted MFM’s 10th Anniversary Celebration.

After a brief and impassioned introduction by Kim Schmidt, the MFM Unity Ensemble (featuring Joe Lovano, Arturo O’Farrill, Ron Wasserman, and Andy Weintraub) opened the show. Lovano and O’Farrill started a lively conversation performing “Giving Thanks.” O’Farrill’s piano work was magnificent, poetic, and unpredictable. Lovano’s saxophone worked its way in and out of the piano with wonderful melodies. This was perhaps the first time O’Farrill and Lovano had ever played together as a duo.

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CD Review: SoSaLa “1994 – Live at CBGB”

SoSaLa 1994Artist: SoSaLa
Title: 1994-Live at CBGB
Format: CD (Limited edition of 100) and digital
Record label: DooBeeDoo Rec
Genre: NO WAVE

(Note: the CD is numbered, autographed, and 24bit fidelity)

Digital and International Releases: January 3, 2025
Distributed Worldwide by CD Baby

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R.I.P.: James Chance of the Contortions Remembered

Text by Dawoud Kringle

James Chance Saxophonist, bandleader of The Contortions and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and No Wave pioneer James Chance passed away.

Born James Alan Siegfried in Milwaukee, Chance began studying piano in elementary school and in his teens began playing the alto saxophone. He attended Michigan State University and Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee where he formed the James Siegfried Quintet and Death, a Stooges-influenced group. He would later study with jazz saxophonist David Murray.

He moved to New York in 1975 and began using the stage name James Chance. A year later he formed Teenage Jesus and the Jerks with singer Lydia Lunch. In 1977 he formed the first version of the Contortions.

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