Lin-Manuel Miranda
Cynthia Nixon
Stay tuned for Broadway’s 63rd annual Tony Awards this morning, to be announced by Cynthia Nixon and Lin-Manuel Miranda at 8:30 a.m. from the New York Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
Check back at Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? for the full list shortly after 8:30.
Posted in Theater, Uncategorized
Looking for a way to supercharge your week with some great music tonight? Check out Lipbone Redding and the Lipbone Orchestra tonight at Bar Tabac in Brooklyn tonight.
I hate to admit that I haven’t seen Lipbone live yet, but I have listened to his albums over and over. I just can’t get enough. His sonic trademark is his ability to make his voice sound just like a trombone. But to leave it there would be to peg him as a mere novelty act. The former subway busker also has a warm, soulful voice. And his eye for quirky beauty — as in “Dogs of Santiago,” on his 2007 album Hop the Fence — a quirky lyrical sensibility and a funky Memphis-meets-New-Orleans-in-New-York-City musical sensibility and you’ve got a remarkable artist. (You can check out his recordings on BePop Records, a boutique label run by Jeff Eyrich, a talented producer and bass player who’s worked with the likes of The Plimsouls, Rank and File, The Blasters, T Bone Burnett and Dave’s True Story.)
Posted in Music, Pop and Rock, Uncategorized
Femi Kuti and Positive Force, Buckwheat Zydeco and the Holmes Brothers, and Robert Cray are among the fantastic acts rounding out this summer’s schedule at the Prospect Park Bandshell. But I’m just the vessel, folks, and it’s time get out of the way. After the jump, the whole blockbuster lineup for Celebrate Brooklyn! 2009: Continue reading
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Legendary Mexican rock band Cafe Tacuba rocked the Prospect Park Bandshell in the 2003 edition of Celebrate Brooklyn! (Photo by SPM. All rights reserved.)
Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Bandshell is a great place for a summer concert, and it looks like Celebrate Brooklyn! is offering a killer lineup this year.
David Byrne
Festivities kick off at 8 p.m. on Monday, June 8, with a FREE ($3 suggested donation) show featuring David Byrne. That’s just the first of many great free concerts.
The full schedule is out tomorrow, but here’s a taste of what’s to come.The listed times are when the gates open. Go early to claim a good spot and check out the great food. And don’t forget to donate at the gate, or better yet, become a member, and help keep this amazing free program alive:
Saturday, June 20, 6:30 p.m.: LA NAVE DE LOS MONSTRUOS, with live score by ETHEL and GUTBUCKET. In a special Celebrate Brooklyn! commission, the nation’s premier rock-infused, postclassical string quartet, the immensely acclaimed Ethel, teams up with the wild art-rock group Gutbucket to perform a new original score to the vintage Mexican science fiction classic La Nave De Los Monstruos (The Monsters’ Ship, 1959). In the film, the last male on Venus has died, and two Venusian hotties embark on a quest to find men on other planets. The bands premiere the new work this evening after developing the project at a BRIClab residency this spring. Gutbucket will also perform an opening set.
Friday, June 26, 6;30 p.m.: BLONDE REDHEAD. The vaunted NYC underground sensualists Blonde Redhead have shape-shifted from dissonant noise explorations to ethereal, dreamy pop over the course of their career, always inspiring intense devotion from their fans. PopMatters says of them, “It is as if they are pressing on piano keys and each key is a trigger that tugs a wire within the listener. There are keys for longing, possession, despair, and ecstasy—and Blonde Redhead travel fast and skillfully over the whole keyboard.”
Sunday, July 19, 1 p.m.: AFRICAN FESTIVAL with King Sunny Adé and many others! Celebrate Brooklyn!’s annual all-day festival of music, food and crafts features a lineup of music selected to keep dancers moving into the night. Tthe great King Sunny Adé of Nigeria is this year’s headliner, but the bill also includes a rare U.S. appearance by South Africa’s Freshly Ground; The Mandingo Ambassadors, from NYC by way of Guinea, whose music “has been structured to make you feel good” (The New York Times); the wild Senegalese drum troupe Cheikh M’Baye & Sing Sing; the powerful Brooklyn-born, Ghanaian vocalist Abena Koomson; and whirling traditional Egyptian dancer, Yasser Darwish.
Saturday, Aug. 1, 6:30 p.m.: DEAN & BRITTA: 13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests with CRYSTAL STILTS. Dean & Britta, who are beloved as one of the sexiest duo’s in rock, in addition to being alumni of the groundbreaking alt-rock band Luna, perform original scores to Warhol’s rarely seen short silent film portraits, which captured Factory superstars, celebrities, and anonymous teenagers in mesmerizing four-minute shots. The New York Times says, “The music unabashedly translates the ominous drone of early Velvet Underground songs like I’m Waiting for the Man and Venus in Furs into a more modern electronic mode reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder’s chic torture-chamber disco.” Commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum, the project is like an archeological dig unearthing NYC’s 1960s art scene, complete with an unforgettable soundtrack. Brooklyn’s Crystal Stilts, whom Pitchfork describes as “moody-sounding fuckers who make fabulous stripped-down garage-pop,” will set the tone for the night.
Friday, Aug. 7, 6 p.m.: GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS with DEER TICK. Fronted by the Joplin-like vocals and the Hammond B-3 playing of the group’s fearless frontwoman, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals play “blues-based rock with glorious passion.” The music of Deer Tick is hard to categorize—folk? indie rock? alt-country? Americana?—but easy to love. They “write and play some of the most soulful, inspired music around, littered with lyrics as sharp as a shot of whiskey and rapid-fire guitar solos strong enough to blow the dust off your boots.” (Brooklyn Vegan)
Posted in Music, Pop and Rock, Uncategorized
Spike Lee's crew filming the very last performance of Passing Strange on Broadway. (All photos by SPM. All rights reserved.)
Stew outside the Belasco Theater after Passing Strange's final curtain.
In just hours, Passing Strange will launch almost 450 fans on a cinematic journey at the Directors Guild Theater just down the block from Carnegie Hall in Midtown Manhattan. After the trip, director Spike Lee and co-creators Stew and Heidi Rodewald will talk with the audience about the show. Although not scheduled to be onstage, most of the members of the cast will be at the theater.
Stew's Chuck Taylors.
This Tribeca Film Festival event is sold out. But if you don’t have tickets and want to go, you can gamble on picking up a spare ticket from somebody at the theater. I know there are a few extras around, so if you are really desperate for a ticket, leave a message on my contact page, with your name and mobile number or email address, and I’ll see
Colman Domingo, who grabbed some video of his own at the last show,says he'll be at tonight's screening.
what I can do. There will be a standby line at the theater, as well, so one way or another, it’s probably worth the gamble.
If you can’t get into tonight’s show, don’t worry. There’s another screening — albeit without the Q&A — at 10 p.m. tomorrow at the AMC Loews Village VII in the East Village. The movie is also expected to have a limited theatrical release later this year. And, as Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? reported yesterday, the movie has been picked up by PBS for broadcast next year.
7 p.m. today. At Directors Guild Theater, 110 West 57th Street (between Sixth and Seventh avenues); sold out, some rush tickets available at the theater. (Also 10 p.m. Suday, May 3. AMC Village VII, 66 Third Ave.; rush tickets available.)
Posted in Music, Pop and Rock, Theater, Uncategorized
Great news: Variety reports one of the best pieces of news to come out of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival: Spike Lee‘s film of Passing Strange, the Tony Award-winning Broadway rock musical, has been picked up by PBS. (Read more here and here.)
This fantastic news, plus the prospect of a limited theatrical run, will give Strange Freaks plenty of opportunity to recuit more people to their ranks.
It’s an awesome testament to the talents of the show’s creators, Stew and Heidi Rodewald, the amazing cast, and to Spike and his 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks team. Congratulations!
The Bang on a Can All Stars in the eerie late-night lighting at the Winter Garden during the 2008 Marathon. (Photo by SPM.)
Bang on a Can, the genre-spanning musical organization, is staging its annual Music Marathon in the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden atrium for the third year. It runs from noon to midnight (maybe a little later) on Sunday, May 31, and it is FREE!
While the space is essentially an urban mall, with a few acoustic drawbacks, it’s a great place for an eclectic program. And it’s a beautiful spot on the water and it’s an easy place to duck out of when you need a break.
If you expect to be there for the long haul, though, come prepared. Seating is provided, but the folding chairs are flimsy and can be a bit uncomfortable. It’s a good idea to bring a pad or stadium cushion. And because the show is free thanks to the generosity of the World Financial people, it’s only right to patronize the eateries and shops in the Winter Garden. But be prepared for long queues for food and drink during set changes and don’t be surprised if eateries run out of provisions and close early. It’s tough for the businesses to predict demand, so be patient.
Highlights of this year’s marathon for me include Signal performing Michael Gordon‘s Trance, my friend Todd Reynolds with the Todd Reynolds String Quartet doing Stringsongs by Meredith Monk, the fantastic Lionheart (with Ethel, the string quartet), performing excerpts of Phil Kline‘s John the Revelator, and a performance by Ryuichi Sakamoto. There are some other artists, such as closing act Tortoise, that are unfamiliar to me, so my list could change as I dig more deeply into this list.
The full schedule is below, or click here to go to Bang on a Can’s site, where you’ll find everything you need to know about the Marathon, from inception to today:
12pm Andy Akiho‘s Steel Pan Nonette performing new work by Andy Akiho
Signal performing Trance by Michael Gordon
Solo tabla performance by Sandeep Das
DITHER & Friends performing Eric km Clark‘s exPAT: Deprivation Music No. 42pm Todd Reynolds String Quartet performing Stringsongs by Meredith Monk
Solo performance by Bill Frisell
Your Bad Self performing We Didn’t Know, Snowball, and Blacktop by Ted Hearne
Smith Quartet performing White Man Sleeps by Kevin Volans
Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen performing Ground, vol. 3 by Jeppe Just Christensen4pm Lionheart & Ethel performing excerpts from John the Revelator by Phil Kline
Build performing Imagining Winter and In the Backyard by Matthew McBane
Bassist Henry Grimes performing with drummer Andrew Cyrille
Smith Quartet performing The Sinking of the Titanic by Gavin Bryars
Bang on a Can All-Stars & Bill Frisell performing new work by Bill Frisell6pm Ars Nova Copenhagen conducted by Paul Hillier performing Three Stages by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen and Rise Up, my love by Howard Skempton
Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen performing Braun KSM 2 by Jeppe Just Christensen
Ars Nova Copenhagen performing For love is strong by David Lang
Smith Quartet performing Folk Music (Daithi’s Dumka) by Joe Cutler
Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen performing excerpts from On This Planet by Anders Nordentoft8pm Wu Man performing 12th Century Pipa piece Night Thoughts
Ken Thomson‘s 9-headed Saxophone Monster performing Rut by Ken Thomson
Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen & Ars Nova Copenhagen performing Thirst by Julia Wolfe
Shiau-uen Ding performing Haemmerklavier III: One Man Band by Moritz Eggert
Victoire performing Like a Miracle, I am coming for my things by Victoire10pm Wu Man, Sandeep Das, and Brooklyn Rider performing Sulvasutra by Evan Ziporyn
Solo performance by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Bang on a Can All-Stars & Ryuichi Sakamoto performing new work by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Bang on a Can All-Stars performing Houses of Instruction by Steve Martland
Performance by Tortoise
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Nick Katzman
Terri Thal, a friend with impeccable musical taste — and who knows the Greenwich Village folk and blues scene of the Sixties through her personal involvement with some of the giants of the era — says there’s another show tomorrow night that’s not to be missed.
The artist in question is New York City-born country bluesman Nick Katzman. And judging from what I’ve read and heard, Terri is on the money.
Decisions, decisions! I can’t be in two places at once. But if I could be, I’d be in Piermont for Jon Pousette-Dart and at Brooklyn’s Good Coffee House to hear Katzman.
I’ll get out of the way and let Terri tell you the rest:
Nick Katzman is fantastic! A few years ago, friends said I had to hear him, so I went to his annual Brooklyn performance, figuring I would mumble nice phrases about him. I didn’t have to mumble anything — the guy was wonderful!
He’s gotten even better. His music has texture and depth. He studied with Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Mance Lipscomb and some younger musicians, and became a virtuoso guitarist and master of a lot of styles. Now, his mix of traditional blues, ragtime and his own songs takes me back to when folksingers played because they loved the music and listeners listened because we loved where the music took us.
Nick lives in Germany, where he plays concerts, festivals, clubs. Just completed a new CD. He’s in the US for a short while. When he performs, he’s joined by Thomasina Winslow, a young, also wonderful blues singer who lives in Albany and is building a large following there — for good reason.
If you miss this performance, you’ll have another chance to hear Nick when he comes back to the U.S. late in June or sometime in September for a special appearance in Rockland County.
Check out some mp3s of Nick and Thomasina here. Or watch them on video:
7 p.m. meet-the-artist, 8 p.m. peformance, Friday, May 1. At Good Coffee House, Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, 53 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn; (718) 768-2972. $15 for adults, $6 for children.
Posted in Music
Tagged Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, Country-blues, Nick Katzman, Terri Thal
Jon Pousette-Dart (Photo by talisman.com)
It’s nice to meet a rock musician like Jon Pousette-Dart who’s really in it for the long haul. He’s been playing music since he was a young boy in Suffern, N.Y.
Jon, who continued to tour and play even when the major-label spotlight shifted away from him in the early Eighties, tells Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? what keeps him going:
“I do it because him have to do it. It’s kind of who I am,” Jon. And while Jon is clearly a smart guy, who no doubt would be successful at almost anything he might tackle, he modestly suggests he has little choice of vocation because “I don’t know if there’s anything else I could do.”
Evidence from Jon's scrapbook shows he was playing music in 1962, when he was about 10 years old.
Jon, the son of Abstract Expressionist painter Richard Pousette-Dart, began playing musici with friends when he was quite young, even forming a band called Tony and the Tigers with Tony and Hunt Sales, sons of TV comedian (and neighbor) Soupy Sales. (The Sales boys later comprised the rhythm section on Iggy Pop‘s classic album Lust for Life, before becoming part of David Bowie‘s Tin Machine.)
“I knew even when I was a kid that this was what I was going to be doing,” says Jon, a self-taught guitarist who learned most of his chops from his older sister’s record collection. “It’s always been about being in music for the long run.”
In 1973, Jon formed the Pousette-Dart Band (PDB for short), and quickly was signed to Capitol Records. PDB brought bring Jon’s warm voice to bear on a string of countryish folk-rock tunes like “Amnesia” and a cover of the 1961 rock standard, “Stand By Me.” PDB’s sound was cheeful, bright and overall a little less polished than similar work by the Eagles, James Taylor or even Orleans, another band with New York roots. PDB was perfectly positioned as an alternative to the over-hyped sound of some of the big artists of the day.
The band broke up in 1981, but Jon has continued to perform, as a solo artist and with bands, ever since. He’s managed to stay afloat while dealing with huge changes in the music business. All while, Jon says, his approach to making music remains pretty steadfast. “It really hasn’t consciously changed, it has organically evolved. Over time, you become open and receptive to other things. But I was kind of rooted in roots, blues and rock-and-roll.” And even though he’s a Northerner (born in New York City in 1952, and a resident of its northwestern suburbs on and off for much of his life), he has a deep affinity for the South. “Almost everything I’ve drawn from, musically, is from down South. There’s a real layer of depth in the South.”
The one thing that has changed is Jon’s writing habits. “When I was starting out, I wrote everything on my own. But then in the early Nineties, my manager brought me to Nashville and got me started collaborating. I really enjoyed that. It opened up a whole new perspective.”
Jon is still actively recording (a new album is due later this year) and playing shows. “Live performance is invaluable to a songwriter. It’s part of the process. You start to play a song out and it shifts and changes.” But finding places to play is the tough part in a market that Jon calls “oversaturated” with bands. So he’s thrilled to be bringing his sound back home to Rockland County with a gig in Piermont tomorrow and in Nyack next month.
The Jon Pousette-Dart Band plays at 9 p.m., Friday, May 1. At The Turning Point, 468 Piermont Ave., Piermont, N.Y.; (845) 359-1089. $25. (Also June 13 at Riverspace in Nyack, N.Y.)
Posted in Music, Pop and Rock
Tagged Jon Pousette-Dart, Nyack, Piermont, Pousette-Dart Band, Richard Pousette-Dart, Suffern, The Turning Point
Eisa Davis in Passing Strange.
Eisa Davis (who’s also an accomplished actor and singer, who made waves as the mother in Passing Strange). Davis’ music-driven autobiographical show is an affectionate look at her compliated relationship with her namesake aunt, Seventies radical Angela Davis. (The actress’ full name is Angela Eisa Davis.) 8 p.m. daily, through Saturday, May 2. (Thursday and Friday are already sold out, so hurry!) At the Ohio Theater, 66 Wooster Street, Manhattan; (212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com. $20-$35.
Posted in Music, Pop and Rock, Theater
Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? 