Category: Concerts
It was hot and still in Berlin. Even sitting outside Radialsystem V, alongside the Spree river there was little relief. This was about a half hour before the doors opened to the big event hall where the festival was about to kick off with a solo set by Norwegian vocalist and sound artist Maja S.K. Ratkje and Bill Laswell’s ‘doom raggae’ out…
Early(ish) on an unseasonable warm and bright Saturday morning in Norway, the final day of the Kongsberg Jazz Festival, I was at a kiosk poking at the festival T-Shirts. I was looking at the colorful wheel logo of the main festival shirts, but was also intrigued by the more suggestive line drawing of a person with a cigarette on a different o…
By Martin Schray and Paul Acquaro
The final evening of the Vision Festival arrived. It was a bittersweet moment – memories of the past week of shows still lingered sweetly in the mind, but expectations were high for the stellar line up which included the highly anticipated New World Pygmies with Jemeel Moondoc, William Parker, and Hamid Drake …
The general consensus, as far as I could tell, is that this is a Vision to remember. So far, on this penultimate evening, the sets have been above average to stellar and a glance at the line-up for this evening suggested no radical departures.
The change of venue, from the past few years at Judson Hall in Manhattan’s West Village has been mos…
and Martin Schray
The line up of Friday night, squarely in the middle of the festival, seemed to showcase musicians at the top of their game – from the young (Irreversible Entanglements) to the established (Daniel Carter).
Irreversible Entanglements
And so, it was the young whippersnappers who began the evening. Philadelphia’s Irreversib…
Last year, the Haus der Kunst in Munich presented FMP: The Living Music, an exhibition detailing the work of the renowned German record label from its establishment in the late 1960’s to its end in 2010. The imposing three room floor of the building was filled with posters, videos, display cases of letters, record covers, the famous Cecil Ta…
This year’s 14th annual Winter Jazzfest – now a sprawling eight day affair featuring over 600 musicians – was themed “Social Justice Engagement,” and indeed, there was a sense of urgency in the air. The message was carried by the musicians in projects like Marc Ribot’s Songs of Resistance, captured in talks like “The Long March” with Archie …
ByPaul Acquaro
The weekend’s festivities kicked off out on the Race St. Pier, which juts out into the Delaware River at the foot of the Ben Franklin bridge. The performance was the work of composer John Luther Adams entitled “Across the Distance”, specifically written for a couple dozen french horns.
Saturday afternoon, Race St Pier and Fr…
The October Revolution concert festival held Oct 5th through 8th in Philadelphia hinged its name on the seminal summit from October of 1964, organized by trumpeter Bill Dixon at an uptown Manhattan space, back when rents were low and revolution was in the air. That festival is considered one of the galvanizing moments for Free Jazz. Cecil T…
About two weeks ago I had an unexpected opportunity to see In Order to Survive perform at Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn. The concert was a celebration of bassist and band leader William Parker’s new double album just released on AUM Fidelity, featuring the formidable quartet of pianist Cooper-Moore, bassist and leader Parker, drummer Hamid Dra…
Projected image by Bill Mazza
“We wish you peace and love,” said percussionist Kahil El’Zabar during saxophonist David Murray’s set, espousing the power of humanity globally to overcome difficult times. It’s an old refrain for sure, cliché perhaps, but in the depths of Judson Memorial Church’s great hall, a landmark of social activism and…
Michael Zerang, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Gebhard Ullman, and Steve Swell
I contemplated a midnight coffee to keep me up to write this review as I walked past McDougal and eyed the green faded elegance of Cafe Reggio’s awning. It had been a long evening, and well into the night, at Judson Church. I had heard a lot of music, ate a couple of dumpli…
