We met him when he was working for Bang on a Can’s Cantaloupe record label. But we quickly discovered what a fantastic, versatile wind player and composer he is.

You might know him as the peripatetic sax-playing leader of Gutbucket, or a leader of the Bang-Lincoln Center Out of Doors marching band, Asphalt Orchestra.

No matter how you know him, you know he’s up to the challenge of filling Evan’s shoes and taking the All-Stars to the next level.

Congratulations to Ken. Well done.

Here’s the press release:

Bang on a Can All-Stars Welcome Ken Thomson

We are thrilled to welcome high voltage clarinetist Ken Thomson to the Bang on a Can All-Stars! This past year, during our national search, we played with stunning clarinetists from all over the country. We were honored to share the stage with so many great performers. After a search far and wide, in the end we came back home to one of our own. Ken has been a part of the Bang on a Can family for many years. As a founding member of Asphalt Orchestra (our rad street band) and as faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival at MASS MoCA, Ken has graced us with his dynamic and physical performances.

He has already jumped right in with a European tour taking place right now through Belgium, Sweden, the UK, and Iceland, to be followed by his first home-town performance as an official All-Stars at the Bang on a Can Marathon on Sunday June 16.

Welcome Ken!

Alarm Will Sound (Photo by Justin Bernhaut)

Famine isn’t a cheery topic. And when we’re talking about the Great Irish Famine of 1845-1852, it could seem like musty and old as well as unpleasant.

And, let’s face it, the Great Famine is not a happy subject.

Luckily, when the fantastic Irish composer and Crash Ensemble bandleader Donnacha Dennehy takes on the monumental subject, it assumes a magical, transcendent quality.

Dennehy and the awesome 20-member New Music ensemble Alarm Will Sound gave New York its first taste of The Hunger, a still in-progress theater piece that combines the ensemble with live singing by an Irish  sean nós singer and a mezzo-soprano, at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall on Saturday night, April 6.

We were mesmerized for all 45 minutes of urgent playing coupled with recordings of Irish sean nós singing and the keening of a mother for her dead child, along with and live singing by the extraordinary Rachel Calloway.

Calloway sang lyrics based on the first-hand accounts of the famine by the American nonconformist Asenath Nicholson, who spent two years in Ireland working with those dying of starvation. Her words in song are gripping, terrifying and urgent.

The piece is destined to be a full evening of performance by Alarm Will Sound, sean nós singer Iarla  Ó Lionáird and one of our very favorite mezzos, Dawn Upshaw. While Upshaw will likely put the finished work into an even higher category, we were mightily impressed with Calloway’s work on Saturday.

This taste leaves us starving to hear more.

While The Hunger was the marquee event of Saturday’s program, Alarm Will Sound got plenty of opportunity to show off its New Music chops in the first half, as well. The evening was intended to draw attention to the fact that the 12-year-old group, led by Alan Pierson (who also helms the Brooklyn Philharmonic), has amassed quite a bit of music written specifically for it.

One of its oldest commissions, David Lang‘s increase, composed in 2002, was the highlight of the first half. But the world premiere of the noisy, energetic Fly By Wire, by the suddenly ubiquitous Tyondai Braxton and New York premiere of Charles Wuorinen‘s Big Spinoff, were plenty of fun. Journeyman, composed by Alarm Will Sound’s pianist, John Orfe, also had its New York premiere Saturday.

Vital Vox was knocked down, but not out, by Superstorm Sandy.

If you like the sound of the human voice, but like it even better with a little extra oomph, the Fourth Annual Vital Vox Festival is for you.

The two-evening event, as always, features some of today’s most amazing vocal artists. But this year’s twist is called “Vox Electronics” and focuses on amazing artists who take their sound to a new level with electronic manipulation of all kinds.

It’s scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, March 25 and 26, at Roulette in Brooklyn.

The intriguing festival was scheduled for last October, but a little storm named Sandy had other plans. But organizers have regrouped and are ready to go with a slightly retooled lineup.

Monday night’s program features Philip Hamilton, Loom Trio (an ensemble that includes Vital Vox co-artistic director Sasha Bogdanowitsch) and violinist-vocalist Sarah Bernstein‘s duo project Unearthish with  percussionist Satoshi Takeishi.

Pamela Z performs at the 2008 Bang on a Can Marathon in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center in Manhattan. (Photo © 2008, Steven P. Marsh)

Tuesday brings in Lisa Karrer and David Simons, Bogdanowitsch  with Loom Ensemble and Pamela Z.

For our part, Pamela Z was our entree into the world of manipulated voice, and remains among our top two or three favorites in this arena. The things she can do to her voice with a Mac laptop and an occasional piece of percussion is pretty awesome. And when she pulls out her full arsenal — especially her Body Synth gesture controller — look out!

The festival’s other co-artistic director, Sabrina Lastman, was scheduled to perform in October, but isn’t on the new program.

Every artist on this bill has serious vocal chops. One of them could make your top three. Why not give them a listen?

Fourth Annual Vital Vox Festival, 8 p.m. Monday, March 25 and Tuesday, March 26. Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue (at Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. Information at the Vital Vox website  or follow Vital Vox on Twitter. Tickets, $15/$10 for students, seniors and members available at the Roulette website.

First release from Brooklyn perennial in 15 years

We didn’t really know Babe the Blue OX in its 1990s heyday, when the band was a regular(-ish) feature on bills around New York City. We heard and appreciated some of its recordings, and were charmed by its Paul Bunyan-esque name and Barbra Streisand-ish album titles.

For whatever reason, we never saw Babe live until a couple of years ago, when the members decided to come out of accidental retirement and start playing on a semi-regular basis again.

(Full disclosure: We met and became friendly with singer-guitarist Tim Thomas through his day job as a fund-raiser for a nonprofit long before we even realized he was in Babe.)

Listen to Guilty and read more after the jump.

Listen to the album or buy it here: 

When we finally caught the band live, in September 2008 during the inaugural season of shows at The Bell House in Gowanus, Brooklyn, we were pleasantly surprised to see a tight, focused bunch of middle-age rockers giving their all,

Even more surprising was the fact that the live sound was so much more compelling than anything we’d heard on their albums — a couple of which were released on RCA. With all the effort and money that presumably went into the albums, the results don’t seem to do justice to the live sound we heard.

Guilty, Babe’s first album in 15 years, changes all that.

The sounds is crisp and the singing and playing are crystal clear when they should be, and noisy and dirty when intended.

The effect is magical. The thumping bass line and staccato vocal that kick off “N.O.W.” are classic Babe, with a tip of the hat to today’s lives (mentions of minivans and brunches, for instance). Another standout is “Estate Planning,” a look at the passing of time, lives have changed and what’s important that starts sedately and evolves into a glorious tsunami of sound.

The album won’t be released “officially” (whatever that means) until April 15. But it’s available for download at Bandcamp.com for a mere $10.

And there’s one show scheduled to celebrate the album release — a bill that includes Ida, VPN, Morning Glories and M Shanghai String Band, almost all of which are old friends of Babe’s: 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 25, at The Bell House. Tickets, $10, are available by clicking here.

See what a little cash from a lot of people can do

While we’re generally ecstatic about New Amsterdam Records’ Ecstatic Music Festival, we’re particularly psyched about the latest installment of Bang on a Can’s long-running Peoples Commissioning Fund concert series.

It’s slated for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 14, at Merkin Concert Hall in Manhattan.

The contemporary classical organization since 1997 has been collecting contributions, mostly small, from lots and lots of music lovers (that’s the “Peoples” part), aggregating them (the “Fund” part), and using them to commission (the Commissioning part) new work from composers new and established.

Bang on a Can calls this “a radical partnership between artists and audiences” that uses crowd-sourcing to fund new work. While the idea probably never was unique to Bang on a Can , it no doubt opened the door to other funding machines, such as Kickstarter and PledgeMusic.

The concept shatters the longstanding model of big-bucks patrons fueling the production of new work. This crowd-sourcing concept, which predates the social media boom, has raised almost $300,000 since its inception and made it possible for Bang on a Can to help in create more than 50 new works.

What makes the Bang on a Can effort unique is the fact that all the commissions are written for the organization’s house band, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, a singular sextet comprising guitar, double bass, piano, cello, percussion and clarinet.

This year, the Peoples Commissioning Fund concert features four world premieres:

“A Wonderful Day,” by multimedia musician Anna Clyne, who crafted her piece using the spoken and sung words of Chicago street musician Wooly.

“Sago An Ya Rev,” by electronica wiz Dan Deacon, marking his third appearance on Ecstatic Music Festival’s calendar. The piece, which uses a transcription of a NASA Voyager transmission, will feature audience participation, a hallmark of Deacon’s work, via a smartphone app.

“ontology of an echo,” by electro-acoustic experimentalist and installation artist Paula Matthusen, built on sounds recorded at historic New York City locations.

“Hz,” by Jóhann Jóhannsson, inspired by a hydroelectric power plant in his native Iceland.

Two other pieces, not commissioned by Bang on a Can, will round out the program: the world premiere of “TREMS” by indie rocker and Bang on a Can favorite Tyondai Braxton and “Weltinsein” by composer/singer Fay Kueen Wang.

Support the effort with your contribution

Click here to make your own contribution to Bang on a Can’s Peoples Commissioning Fund. Your money will help create new music, and you’ll also be eligible to attend an open rehearsal the night before the concert. It’s a casual event with wine and snacks, where contributors get to hear the pieces in their final rehearsal form and chat with the composers and performers. It’s an exciting way to get to know the work and the performers.

Attend the show and hear the results

Bang on a Can People’s Commissioning Fund Concert. 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 14. Part of the Ecstatic Music Festival. Merkin Concert Hall,  Goodman House, 129 West 67th Street, New York, NY 10023. (212) 501-3330. Tickets, $25, available by clicking here.

You have less than a week to buy your weekend passes to this great festival before the price goes up

Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? has told you before, and is taking this opportunity to tell you again: Solid Sound, Wilco’s music and arts festival at MASS MoCA is one of the best music festivals ever. We’ve attended the first two editions and have no intention of missing V3 this year — on June 21-23 at the museum in North Adams, Mass.

In addition to Wilco, some of our favorites on this year’s lineup are Os Mutantes, the amazing Brazilian psychedelic rock group, Yo La Tengo, Neko Case and Foxygen.

We got our tickets way, way early. As an Early Worm (ugh!) buyer, we got them for $99. (You don’t think they’re going to comp us just because we give them a lot of free publicity, do you?)

Right now, they’re $124 for the three-day weekend — providing admission to all the fantastic music, arts and events. In less than a week, that price will jump by $25, to $149.

Now we’re not sayin’ that the festival isn’t worth that much. It’s still a bargain, given how much great stuff they pack into this super well run event.

But you know you’ll kick yourself if you don’t go. So why pay more? Get the Early Bird tickets now for $124 before they’re gone and regular price kicks in.

Click here now for tickets. (If you can’t spend the entire weekend there, a limited number of day passes are available at the ticket link, too, priced at $65 for Friday or Sunday and $84 for Saturday.

Don’t thank us now. Just bring the money you save when you come to Solid Sound and thank us with a beer.

Jamie Block

With the new album officially out, the long-MIA anti-folk artist is performing again, too

Nothing about Jamie Block suggests he’s a man of few words — just a man who doesn’t waste words.

For years, it even showed in his performance identity: Block. Not Jamie Block, just Block, thank you very much.

Jamie Block’s new Whitecaps on the Hudson

It seems that he was saving the words for his songs, which on his latest (and long-overdue) album, Whitecaps on the Hudson, are perfectly crafted stories of a man whose life has had some twists and turns.

It’s a memorable work that reminds us why the music world has been much poorer during Block’s overlong absence.

The singer-songwriter, who grew up on Long Island, honed his craft in college in Chapel Hill, N.C., and earned — really earned — his musical chops by busking in New York’s subways, is now settled north of the Big Apple, near the tip of Rockland County.

He’s been making records, or CDs, or albums, or whatever you want to call them, since 1996, when he self-released the amusingly titled Lead Me Not Into Penn Station. Despite its joky title, it’s a great record — full of great hooks, a little Dylanesque swagger, lots of down-and-dirty beats and the nervous energy of a man looking to make his mark.

The artist on display in Whitecaps is not just Block, but Jamie Block. Even his website URL has changed, from blocknyc.com to jamieblock.com.

But this album makes it clear that he’s the same guy — transformed.

He’s they guy who’s seemingly been trying to walk away from the music since 1998. That’s when his second album, Timing Is Everything,  was released by Capitol subsidiary Java. It landed with critical acclaim, but apparently didn’t sell well enough for the big label execs.

He pretty much dropped out of the music scene after that, and became an investment banker.

It took eight years — and significant arm-twisting, by most accounts, from WFUV-FM host Claudia Marshall (who’s now spinning music from Vermont) — to get him back in the game with his 1996 release, The Last Single Guy.

While he’s still making his living in finance, Block just can’t stop making music. He did a slow rollout of Whitecaps starting late last year.  We’ve been listening to his new tracks for several months, entranced. Virtually ever track is a perfect little musical play, so well crafted that we’ve had trouble finding appropriate words to describe them.

But the soft release is over. The album officially was released — whatever that means these days  — this month.

Listen to and buy to Block’s new album, and all his previous releases, except Penn Station, by clicking here.

The song topics run the gamut, from Ayn Rand and the first atomic bomb, to lawn-mowing, the Tappan Zee Bridge, and, yes, whitecaps on the Hudson. It’s pretty obvious that he has a view of the river from his home.

Many of the songs have a conventional folk feel to them. Take “I’ll Keep it With Mine,” which starts off with a very conventionally “folkie” guitar ostinato. But Block’s rough-hewn voice serves the material well, bringing the tune alive.

There’s Something about his voice evokes the confidential, personal storytelling of post-VU Lou Reed, though with a lot less obvious bad attitude.

Other ostensibly folk tunes, such as the title track, take some twists and turns, starting out conventionally in a boy-with-a-guitar mode, breaking out into noise-rock before withdrawing in guitar mode.

Another the standout track is “Sam Patch,” which focuses on the 19th Century historical figure Sam Patch, a falls-jumping daredevil.  The focus, here, is local, looking at his jump of the Paterson, N.J., falls on the Passaic River. There’s nothing historical, or historicist, about Block’s setting for Patch’s story. The nervous energy and rhythmic drive of a younger Block comes through unmistakably here.

While the album, which was recorded live in a Brooklyn studio,  is quite personal, Block managed to get a goodly bunch of talented artists to help him make it. Producer/engineer Dean Sharenow brought in a band that included Erik Della Penna (Natalie Merchant, Joan Baez) on guitars, Mick Rossi (Paul Simon, Phillip Glass) on keyboards, and Byron Isaacs (Olabelle) and Jeff Hill (Rufus Wainwright) sharing bass duties.

Now that the album is out, Block is starting to book some gigs. There are a scant three shows listed on his website at the moment, and one of them already is out of date. While the two upcoming shows aren’t in Rockland County, they’re close enough that they’ll be worth catching:

7 pm, March 14, Rockwood Music Hall,  196 Allen Street, New York City. (212) 477-4155. Admission free, but there’s one-drink minimum and they pass the hat for donations. Sets are short and relatively on time, so don’t arrive late.

9 pm, April 11, Northern Soul, 557 First Street, Hoboken, N.J. (201) 963-9122. We don’t know this place, but it looks like Thursday nights here offer something similar to Rockwood, with multiple short sets by various artists.

Once he has these under his belt, it’ll be time for Block to favor the Rockland crowd with a hometown gig. Where’s it going to be, Jamie?

Alice Smith was all about the casual vibe on Jan. 29, 2013, Night 1 of her three-Tuesday residency at Rockwood Music Hall in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. (Photos © 2013, Steven P. Marsh)

The powerful young R&B-inflected singer reminds us that Nina Simone is most definitely not Motown

It could have happened to anyone. Someone who wrote about Alice Smith‘s first night of a three-Tuesday residency at New York City’s Rockwood Music Hall made a mistake. In describing Alice’s set at the tiny Lower East Side venue, the writer said “she did a few covers of a few classic Motown tracks.” (We won’t name the blog or link to the post, but if you really want to see the whole thing, we’re sure you know how to find it.)

Sure, it’s a big mistake. But who knew that Alice read her notices? And who would have expected a critique?

But critique she did this week at the second night of her residency. Out of the blue, before launching into her Nina Simone-style version of the Oscar Brown Jr./Nat Adderly tune “Work Song (Chain Gang), Alice mentioned that the North Carolina-born Simone was not a Motown singer. Then she let on, in a good-natured but serious way, that someone had written about the previous week’s show and put Simone in a Motown context.

“If you don’t know, just don’t mention it,” she said, before launching into her nuanced version of  “Work Song” once again.

You can hear a bit of her commentary, followed by “Work Song” and “She,” the title track of her upcoming album, on SoundCloud.

Alice Smith goes for the slinky, sexy look in the $30 dress (Alice: Isn’t that how much you said it cost when you premiered this dress at Joe’s Pub?) on Night 2 at Rockwood, Feb. 5, 2013.

She clearly wasn’t mad, just a little annoyed, because she just wants to get it right.

So maybe we should worry as we write this. (Alice, are you reading? Thanks for the reminder about accuracy.)

But enough about that.

If you haven’t seen Alice before, you have one more chance to catch her in the intimate setting of Rockwood’s “big” Stage 2. We don’t know the official capacity offhand, and the Rockwood website doesn’t shed any light, but we’ve seen listings that say it can hold 300, which seems like a stretch.

She’s got a powerful voice, great song styling, and good taste in covers, whether they’re CeeLo Green or Nat Adderly-via-Nina-Simone. (She’s also got good connections; she married, and still opens for, Clarence Greenwood, aka Citizen Cope.)

If you don’t catch her next Tuesday at Rockwood, you’ll probably have to wait until April 11, when she says she’s headlining at The Bowery Ballroom. No ticket information is available yet.

DETAILS: 7:30 p.m.(doors at 6:30 p.m.), Tuesday, Feb. 12. Alice Smith. Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 2. $20. Advance tickets here.

]]> http://willyoumissme.com/2013/02/07/gotta-get-it-right-with-alice-smith/feed/ 0 reginaldmarsh Alice Smith was all about the casual vibe on Jan. 29, 2013, Night 1 of her three-Tuesday residency at Rockwood Music Hall in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. (Photos © 2013, Steven P. Marsh) Alice Smith goes for the slinky, sexy look in the $30 dress (Alice: Isn't that how much you said it cost when you premiered the dress at Joe's Pub?) on Night 2 at Rockwood, Feb. 5, 2013. http://willyoumissme.com/2013/02/07/stew-the-negro-problem-at-barbes-a-refuge-from-the-storm-and-a-special-surprise/ http://willyoumissme.com/2013/02/07/stew-the-negro-problem-at-barbes-a-refuge-from-the-storm-and-a-special-surprise/#comments Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:57:35 +0000 Steven http://willyoumissme.com/?p=8707 Continue reading →]]> Blizzard? Who cares, when there’s a chance to see Stew, Heidi and the gang in an intimate Brooklyn boîte

Stew and Heidi Rodewald perform with a version of their band, The Negro Problem, at Barbès in Park Slope, Brooklyn in March 2011. And yes, that’s Joe McGinty in the foreground. (Photo © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)

If the predicted nightmare blizzard doesn’t bring New York City to a screeching halt on Friday, you should be at  Barbès in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood to catch a surprisingly un-publicized gig by Stew & The Negro Problem.

(Click through to the jump for all the details.)This show is so under the radar that it’s not even on TNP’s gig list on the internet. But trust us, it’s happening. Stew made an  even more-under-the-radar cameo with woodwind giant Mike McGinnis‘ band The Four Bags at the tiny Park Slope boîte on Jan 14. While traipsing through three songs (two in rough German: Barry Manilow‘s “Could It Be Magic” and “Edelweiss”) he let slip the TNP date slip even before it was on the club schedule.

Stew, Heidi Rodewald and whoever’s available to fill out the TNP lineup (mostly, but not necessarily all, of them from the McGinnis-Joe McGinty Loser’s Lounge circle) will pack into the music room. That’ll leave maybe 60 spots for fans to elbow their way in, enjoy some of the place’s fine libations and feast on the magic that is The Negro Problem.

If you’ve been living under a rock, or are having memory problems, Stew and Heidi are also the folks who wrote the fantastic Broadway musical Passing Strange, the musical that tells a fictionalized version of Stew’s coming of age in Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Berlin — a work that grew out of his song repertoire. It also won Stew the 2008 Tony Award for best book of a musical.

Our advice to you is don’t be a minute late. Barbès is, after all, tiny. And the sets are short. TNP is scheduled to start at 10 p.m. In the set, according to the club site,  “The Negro Problem will interpret (some) songs from Passing Strange and more unreleased material.”

Although TNP’s set is on the calendar for just an hour, fans should plan to stick around for the 11 p.m. act, too, The Chez Ocean Corrective.

Never heard of it? Maybe not, but its members are mighty familiar. The Barbès site describes the Corrective as  “a songwriter collective featuring Stew, Chris Rael of Church of Betty, members of The Four Bags, and more.”

Stew said last month that The Four Bags would be involved in this show. That’s no surprise, since McGinnis plays regularly in the TNP lineup, and at least one other member of his band has appeared with Stew at some point.

So, how about that. Two hours of Stew — or maybe more, since the Corrective is the last band scheduled for the night.

So forget about the snow. Even if NYC does come to a screeching halt, you should make it to Barbès. Walk if you have to.  It’ll certainly be worth the effort.

We won’t have the option of walking. We’ll be stuck somewhere north of the city, unable to make it anywhere near Brooklyn if the snow is as bad as predicted. So we won’t make it, sadly. Please take notes for us!

DETAILS: Stew & The Negro Problem, The Chez Ocean Corrective. Show starts at 10 p.m., Friday, Feb. 8, 2013.  TNP performs first. At Barbès, 376 9th St. (corner of 6th Ave.) Park Slope, Brooklyn. (347) 422-0248. No tickets required, but $10 donation strongly suggested.

Peter Stampfel torturing a banjo and assaulting our ears at the Gerdes Folk City 50th Reunion in 2010. (Photo © 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

Speaking of the Greenwich Village folk music scene, here’s somebody you won’t see at the IFC Center tonight: Peter Stampfel, one of the singular characters of that musical generation. He’s still making music, though not with his original, and best-known band, the Holy Modal Rounders.

He should be there tonight. But you won’t see him at IFC tonight because he’s going to be very bust in Red Hook, Brooklyn, while the film is showing.

Peter and his latest band, The Ether Frolic Mob (a band with a constantly shifting cast of characters, as far as we can tell), are scheduled to play at the Jalopy Theatre and School of Music, 315 Columbia St., Red Hook, Brooklyn, tonight. Peter’s band is slated to play at 9 p.m., following the Bushwick Gospel  Singers’ 8 p.m. set.

Tickets are $10, available in advance by clicking here and at the door — as long as you don’t get there too late!