by | Sep 10, 2019 12:08 pm | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Shana Falana
“This is our best show so far. You’re making our dreams come true,” said the New York State-based Shana Falana, who headlined last night’s Manic Monday show at Cafe Nine. She helped create a dreamy atmosphere on a triple bill along with local favorite Lys Guillorn and new-to-the-local-scene band Tall Trees.
by | Sep 10, 2019 12:06 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Gunsberg.
A burst of static. Silence. A sound like an engine sputtering to life. Paul Gunsberg, seated at a table full of sound gear, made some adjustments. Another sound rose through the rumble and the white noise like a foghorn. It escalated to a roar like a motorcycle. Then Gunsberg picked up a trumpet.
by | Sep 6, 2019 7:39 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Adam.
“Welcome to Cafe Nine,” Seth Adam said from the stage as he tuned his guitar. “You’re in a building with a lot of history, and this particular venue means a lot to me. I love playing here.”
The healthy-sized crowd gave a round of applause.
by | Aug 28, 2019 12:22 pm | Comments (5)
Allan Appel Photo
“Bomboloni” are so called because they’re shaped like little bombs (from which century’s war this reporter could not ascertain).
Yet they taste heavenly, light, and very un-warlike.
Continue reading ‘Little Bombs Land In 9th Square — For Breakfast’
by | Aug 26, 2019 7:46 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
From the stage at Cafe Nine on Sunday night, Mark Zaretsky deemed the crowd “intimate.”
“It’s the calm before the storm,” one audience member said. “Should we scream?”
by | Aug 23, 2019 12:27 pm | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen photos
ECA student paintings line vacant Church Street storefronts.
Vacant downtown storefronts are filling up —not with new businesses, but with temporary art installations designed to showcase local talent and encourage landlord maintenance in an increasingly gap-toothed retail landscape.
by | Aug 22, 2019 7:58 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Ortiz and Elliott.
The members of the Regicides, the improv comedy arm of A Broken Umbrella theater, were lined up like a firing squad on the stage of the State House on Wednesday evening. De facto MC Ruben Ortiz rubbed his hands together and smiled at the audience.
“We’re going to start off hot and fast,” he said. “What’s your favorite candy?”
by | Aug 15, 2019 2:41 pm | Comments (46)
Thomas Breen photo
City officials, developers, and local business boosters embarked on an “investment tour” of the Ninth Square Thursday to showcase a host of new and planned projects designed to revitalize the southeastern corner of downtown.
by | Aug 13, 2019 11:58 am | Comments (0)
Jason Lapierre and Dani Haims
“Chicken Waffles” starts with a chirp and a coo, and then the percussion lays down a slow, heavy groove. There’s talking in the background, but the rhythms persist. Then a guitar slithers in with a pulsing three-note figure that gives all the harmonic structure needed for a melodica to float a haunting, chord-based melody over the top of it all. The talking in the background seems to subside as the sound develops. The guitar fleshes out its line. The melodica disappears and a glockenspiel takes over. All the while the percussion never misses a beat. And that’s even before the chanting.
Continue reading ‘Klezmer Fusion Collective Takes It Easy On New Recording’
by | Aug 13, 2019 10:43 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Gentleman Brawlers
In between songs at Cafe Nine Monday night, New Haven-based musician Thabisa talked about her friend Becca Fox from the group Gentleman Brawlers, who would be coming up to the stage for the set after hers.
“I just met her tonight,” she added with a laugh, but as everyone was about to find out, this band and this crowd were all about to become much more familiar to one another.
by | Aug 7, 2019 7:32 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Fernanda and the Ephemeral.
On Tuesday night, the crowded house at Cafe Nine on State and Crown learned that Fernanda Franco was a driver’s education instructor and an art teacher at a school in Danbury. We learned, too, that fellow bandmember Alex Patrie was an ace songwriter.
Perhaps most of all, we learned that Franco and headliner Tameca Jones have voices more than powerful enough to fill the club, and we reveled in the results.
by and | Aug 5, 2019 7:51 am | Comments (1)
Allison Hadley Photo
How do you spread information without WhatsApp, Facebook, or Instagram? Tal National provided Cafe Nine’s Saturday night crowd with a most effective answer: a big drum. Crack, crack, crack, crack!
by | Aug 1, 2019 3:18 pm | Comments (2)
Laura Glesby Photo
Cynthia Beth Rubin with one of her recent artistic creations.
Giulia Gouge and Susanne Radke.
Cynthia Beth Rubin went to The Grove to make art out of hazy images of plankton. Susanne Radke to share her scientific expertise with biotech companies. John Hoda to write seven books, and to build his own missing heir-tracking company.
Those erstwhile neighbors at the former Ninth Square co-working space gathered one more time Wednesday afternoon to celebrate and reminisce on the role that The Grove, subsequently rebranded Agora, played in their lives and careers before it closes for good later this week.
by | Jul 25, 2019 6:01 pm | Comments (14)
Paul Bass Photos
It hasn’t fully sunk in yet for Giulia Gouge that the coworking community where she grew her online business is closing its doors next week, leaving 16 entrepreneurs to find shared space elsewhere in town.
by | Jul 24, 2019 7:44 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Salwa — full name, Salwa Abdussabur — shot a smile from Cafe Nine’s stage Tuesday night. “I’ve always wanted to do the music thing — so I’m doing it,” they said, to laughter from the gathering crowd. “But words are very important to me.”
On the eve of a trip to Los Angeles, Abdussabur explained how they started off as a spoken-word poet in seventh grade, winning their first slam by taking down classmates who had teased them for wearing a hijab. Now, with musical compatriots Tyler on guitar and Gritz on keyboard, Abdussabur was heading off the written word and into freestyle.
“When I perform, I tune into a vibe,” they said.
Continue reading ‘R&B Triple Bill: Slow, Simmering Jams, Full-On Bangers’
by | Jul 22, 2019 7:29 am | Comments (1)
Daniel Shoemaker Photos
On Friday, as New Haveners sought reprieve from the first day of yet another heatwave, some fortunate city denizens found relief in the (well-air-conditioned) musical bastion, the State House. Within the cool, sublime atmosphere of the venue, audience members traded the heat of the sun’s fusion for another essential process of fusion, as Mali’s BKO Quintet and Hartford’s Klezmer Fusion Collective took the stage to display their unique pastiches of disparate sounds.
by | Jul 12, 2019 5:59 pm | Comments (13)
New Haveners will finally be able to drink beer and throw axes at wooden targets thanks to a new business slated for Chapel Street.
by | Jul 11, 2019 3:48 pm | Comments (20)
Paul Bass Photos
Developer Fowler at City Hall; Coliseum lot (below).
It’s official: LiveWorkLearnPlay is gone. Spinnaker is in. And the long-delayed plan to build a new urbanist mini-city on the grave of the New Haven Coliseum has new life.
by | Jul 8, 2019 7:41 am | Comments (0)
Daniel Shoemaker Photos
Sessa.
At the State House on Friday night, Brazilian musician Sessa did his country proud just hours before the passing of Brazilian music titan Joao Gilberto.
Continue reading ‘Sessa Moves Brazilian Music Into The Future’
by | Jun 26, 2019 7:34 am | Comments (0)
Ariel Smith Photos
Bombadil.
On Monday night, Daphne Lee Martin, Ohmme, and Bombadil brought their collective talents downtown to Cafe Nine on State and Crown streets.
Continue reading ‘Bombadil Brings Southern Heat To Crown Street’
by | Jun 24, 2019 7:26 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
The Proud Flesh
“I love playing music” said Quinn Harley right before she began her set on Friday night at Three Sheets. She also mentioned that it was her birthday, so it was apropos for her to be doing what she loved on such a day. Her set was the first of three as part of the Make Music New Haven After Party, part of the city’s celebration of Make Music Day, an international event held on June 21 each year held in numerous cities all over the world. New Haven enthusiastically happens to be one of them. In a variety of locations all over Greater New Haven from Best Video in Hamden to the Ely Center of Contemporary Art (see our coverage there) to Lotta Studios in Westville, musicians were scheduled to play from morning to night.
by | Jun 24, 2019 7:24 am | Comments (0)
On Sunday night, Paul Flaherty, on alto saxophone, began with nervous, fluttering arpeggios. Chris Corsano on drums and Zach Rowden on double bass fell in with a slow, purposeful beat. Mette Rasmussen, also on alto saxophone, bided her time, and then entered. Together, she and Flaherty held a melody, building energy that all four musicians then unleashed. Flaherty, Corsano, and Rowden took off, grinding out a fleet, chaotic rhythm. Rasmussen’s sax soared over the top.
by | Jun 18, 2019 8:30 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Pentagram.
“Man, it doesn’t feel like a Monday,” said vocalist Jack Rune of Bone Church, the opening act of a three-band bill at The State House. Legendary metal band Pentagram made a stop in the city along with local heroes Bone Church and Lord Fowl. The room was packed and abuzz from moment one. Even the people standing outside waiting to get in were as hyped up as if it was a Friday instead.
by | Jun 17, 2019 7:51 am | Comments (1)
Daniel Shoemaker Photos
“I told New York last night, ‘I am going to my favorite place tomorrow.’” An early intimation of love from Cheick Hamala Diabate to his rapt audience Friday evening at the State House. “I love Connecticut. We had so much fun last time. This time we have more instruments to make it more fun for you.”
by | Jun 14, 2019 7:34 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Puma Simone.
At the beginning of Puma Simone’s set during a three-act bill at Cafe Nine on Thursday night, she and the club’s sound engineer carefully worked out how to properly amplify one of the club’s tables, which she had brought on stage. In just a few minutes, Simone would play it like a drum. Very soon after that, someone from the audience would take over for her.