by | Jan 8, 2024 9:12 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photo
Zero Dollar.
Nicholas Serrambana on bass came on with a prowling, acrobatic line. Jeff Dragan on electronics countered with purrs and hisses, as though from a virtual snake. Nick Di Maria played his trumpet into a microphone to apply effects to the horn’s sound, from echoing reverb to electronically generated harmonies.
by | Jan 5, 2024 9:04 am | Comments (1)
The New Haven-based bomba group Proyecto Cimarrón was already laying down traditional Puerto Rican rhythms in Keefe Community Center on Pine Street in Hamden, when families streamed into the room, ready to take part in the town’s first official celebration of Three Kings Day on Thursday evening.
by | Jan 4, 2024 8:58 am | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photo
The Kevin Saint James Band on Wednesday night.
It was 9:30 on Wednesday evening at the Owl Shop on College Street and already the Kevin Saint James Band had relaxed into an easy swing. Plumes of smoke rose in the air, from fans sitting close by, cigars lit. Lou Ianello took a ride on sax across the song’s changes. Steve Donovan followed suit on keys. Victor Ramirez on bass and Derrick Tappin on drums held down the rhythm for the others, until it was Ramirez’s turn. Each had time to express themselves. Each made sure to keep the vibe right. Singer Kevin Saint James then got up on stage, took a seat in the back, and lit a cigarette, like he had all the time in the world.
by | Jan 3, 2024 8:57 am | Comments (0)
A squelching keyboard. A bleeping melody. Finger snaps holding down a backbeat. Then a voice raps, defiant, powerful. “Mask on / me and my bitches paint the city / Queer bitch gang, put ‘em up if you with it / Flags out the window, it’s the 203 / not a cis het bitch that be fucking with me,” Indigaux intones. They keep going, gender blending, but the devotion to place unwavering: “Bitch I’m from New Haven,” they rap. “Every winter is a bump.”
by | Jan 2, 2024 9:09 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Clare Byrne and Amy Larimer of The Celestials.
The penultimate night of the year can be a tricky one, especially if it falls on a weekend. Do you go out and do something fun, or do you stay in and get cozy? On Saturday, Best Video offered the best of both worlds as two bands brought a down-home celebratory atmosphere to the Whitney Avenue performance space with friends, family, and fans gathered together to both hunker down and jazz it up as the year said its final goodbyes.
by | Dec 21, 2023 4:00 pm | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photos
Artists preparing for Citywide Open Studios in September.
Organizational chaos. Art spaces closing their doors. And new collectives of artists forming to take matters into their own hands.
For many in the New Haven arts scene, the year 2023 was a time of transformation — some of it painful, but much of it promising. The roots of that pain reached back into the past few years, into the pandemic shutdown, but beyond it as well. In artists healing, the chance has opened up to build something better, that lasts well into the future.
by | Dec 21, 2023 8:55 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Mezzi.
Gary Mezzi, a.k.a. Buzz Gordo, beamed from behind a 12-string guitar on the stage of Cafe Nine Tuesday night. “This is a song about the demise of a dog track,” he said, to introduce the song “White City,” by Shane MacGowan. “And even if there were another song about the demise of a dog track, this would still be the best.”
by | Dec 19, 2023 9:45 am | Comments (0)
Harder with J Topog Rivulets 231.
After decades of printmaking, Barbara Harder revels in embracing the accidents. “I’m trying to make things the way I’m making them,” she said, but “sometimes I almost like tripping up,” because sometimes she likes the images she creates better. “You don’t have to beat yourself up more than you need to,” she continued. “It’s really nice to have the space as an artist to do that exploration, and wrestle with yourself, and the paper, and the ink.… It’s the hope that at times in the studio, I can have this spark… whether it’s done, or whether it’s perfect, or whatever it is, it just makes me happy. It’s something to keep after.”
by | Dec 18, 2023 2:58 pm | Comments (0)
Asher Joseph photo
Students sing loud and proud at Elm City Montessori's eighth annual Winter Sing.
Students, families, and teachers bundled together in the subfreezing temperature at Elm City Montessori School (ECMS) to lift their voices in song during the school’s eighth annual Winter Sing — which played out as candles flickered, under the silhouette of West Rock.
Continue reading ‘Elm City Montessori Welcomes Winter Through Song’
by | Dec 18, 2023 8:55 am | Comments (0)
The show of artist Amira Brown’s work, up now at the Mitchell Branch Library in Westville through the end of the month, doesn’t have a title, nor do any of the individual pieces. That gesture alone seems to be part of the point, as is the elliptical, border-melting nature of the work itself. It’s a show to find your way into; one possible starting point is a piece that shows, in outline, a person in a classic pose of pondering, but the pondering itself is dissolving the person. The person contains other people. The person contains stars. But Brown’s sly humor is on full display as well. “Meh,” is one complete thought. “Shrug,” another. And then: “rodeo.” The rodeo of making art? Of showing it? Something bigger? Whatever the case, it isn’t Brown’s first.
by | Dec 15, 2023 9:07 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Ceschi Ramos.
“It’s a good night for rap music,” said Pink Navel at the beginning of their set Thursday night at Space Ballroom. Anyone who was at the show would probably call that an understatement as four acts — Old Self, Pink Navel, Ceschi, and Open Mike Eagle — gave a master class in how to command an audience while also performing with friends and having a fantastic time themselves.
Continue reading ‘Four Acts Rap And Reminisce At Space Ballroom’
by | Dec 15, 2023 8:47 am | Comments (0)
Matthew Murphy Photo
Composer Valerie Coleman.
An oboe and a bass, traveling the American landscape. A brass band inverting and celebrating the musical language of the street. Two pianists sweating side by side. On Wednesday afternoon, all this and more was part of the latest installment — and last of the year — in the Yale School of Music’s Lunchtime Chamber Music series, in which students at Yale’s conservatory give far-ranging programs of classical music past and present at Morse Hall, inside Sprague Hall at 470 College St.
Continue reading ‘Lunchtime Concert Explores The Canon Of Reinvention’
by | Dec 14, 2023 8:56 am | Comments (3)
Setting up for a meeting of the Album Club at Never Ending Books on State Street, organizer and host Dean Andrade said that “I think this album will be kind of a revelation for our regulars.” On Monday night, the club assembled for the 16th time since starting in 2022 to discuss Alice Coltrane’s 1971 album Journey in Satchidananda — the first time, according to Andrade, the group had discussed a jazz album, or anything without lyrics.
Continue reading ‘Album Club Dives Into Spiritual Jazz Classic’
by | Dec 14, 2023 8:54 am | Comments (0)
T. Charles Erickson Photo
Samuel Douglas as Uncle Vanya and Rebeca Robles as Sonya.
The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale’s production of Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece Uncle Vanya — running now at the Iseman Theater on Chapel St. through Dec. 15 — is played before the theater’s usual stadium seating, but the viewers positioned on risers in the wings of the stage will feel themselves more pointedly in the midst of the action. The play, directed by fourth-year directing MFA candidate Sammy Zeisel, was adapted by the much-awarded playwright Annie Baker and experimental director Sam Gold to be staged, at Soho Rep in 2012, with a “you are there in the midst of the action” arrangement, where some spectators sat on the floor or makeshift seats, and the cast was surrounded by the audience.
Continue reading ‘School Of Drama Stages An Energetic Classic’
by | Dec 13, 2023 8:20 am | Comments (1)
Cover of Nu Haven Style.
“Turetskaya,” the opening number on the Nu Haven Kapelye’s new album, Nu Haven Style — to be officially released the day of the klezmer orchestra’s annual concert at Congregation Mishkan Israel on Ridge Road in Hamden — gallops out of the gate, with horns, strings, and winds belting out the melody in unison while the rhythm section surges beneath them, an irresistible force, exploding with emotions, carrying, as so much klezmer does, simultaneous senses of deep happiness and sadness together.
by | Dec 12, 2023 8:59 am | Comments (2)
Brian Slattery Photos
Elm Shakespeare Teen Troupe's production of Henry V.
Cast members of Elm Shakespeare Teen Troupe’s production of Henry V burst onto the stage in a rush of sound and energy. “O, for a muse of fire that would ascend / The brightest heaven of invention! / A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, / And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!” they cried out together.
The famous introduction to probably Shakespeare’s most famous war play, the players reminded those seated in the risers at Educational Center for Arts’ theater, isn’t about war; it’s about imagination, creativity, and the collective act of actors, crew, and audience creating a world together inside a theater.
Continue reading ‘First Youth Shakespeare Fest Marks Dramatic Success’
by | Dec 11, 2023 4:25 pm | Comments (2)
Lary Bloom Photo
Battell on Sunday.
I kept my eyes on the timpanist, my ears open to astonishing sounds, and, because I didn’t know the lyrics and couldn’t sight-read the baritone part on the score, kept my big mouth shut.
Continue reading ‘Joy to the Elm City: 499 Voices and 1 Silent Baritone’
by | Dec 11, 2023 2:41 pm | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Punchlove.
John Zaccaria of the Knife Kickers spoke for many — including other musicians later in the evening — when he asked a vital question: “Why am I sweating in December?” It was warm with torrential rain outside, but the question was more about the temperature inside, as four bands blazed their way through sets of indie rock to an enthusiastic audience that arrived early and stayed late to bob their heads and hang at Best Video in Hamden.
by | Dec 10, 2023 9:43 pm | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Christine Ohlman and Jim Chapdelaine.
There are three things you can count on in December: stores jammed with holiday shoppers, roads jammed with holiday travelers, and Christine Ohlman jamming though The Beehive Holiday Blowout at Cafe Nine. The 10th annual event happened Sunday during the Sunday Buzz with the legendary Beehive Queen, her sweet as honey band, and a hive full of fans that sang and danced along nearly nonstop as the rain poured down outside.
by | Dec 8, 2023 8:48 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Barrett, Deupree, Morris.
In between sets of improvised music at Never Ending Books on State Street, the band joked with each other with the ease of old friends. Ringleader Joe Morris introduced the band to newcomers. Horn player Taylor Ho Bynum used to live in New Haven, Morris said, but relocated to Vermont; shortly after his arrival, he got 40 inches of snow.
“And I stayed!” Bynum interjected, to laughter. Morris then introduced bassist Brad Barrett. “I don’t have any good snow stories about Brad,” Morris said. He was killing time. Seeing that most of the audience had settled in, he then turned to his fellow musicians.
“All right,” he said, “Enough reality.” And began to play.
by | Dec 7, 2023 1:16 pm | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos.
Cherrie Cherrie through the eyes of Andres Madariaga
Music and visual art both went live Wednesday night at Cafe Nine when Color in Sound, an event organized and curated by local artist Andres Madariaga, brought together three musical acts and a number of visual artists, some who displayed their work, some who created art while the bands played, and some who did both.
Continue reading ‘Artists Create Sound And Vision At Cafe Nine’
by | Dec 7, 2023 8:30 am | Comments (12)
Laura Glesby photo
The Palestinian sunbird up for auction to raise humanitarian funds.
In Emmeline Kaiser’s painting, a vibrant blue Palestinian sunbird perches in a blooming meadow, a picture of peace.
That bird has raised $75 and counting in a fundraising effort organized by local artists of color for humanitarian aid to Palestinian communities now facing bombs and evacuation orders.
Continue reading ‘Local Artists Auction For Palestinian Aid’
by | Dec 7, 2023 8:23 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
As the temperature outside dropped to feeling downright wintery, Space Ballroom in Hamden on Wednesday was filled with warmth, as indie-folk favorites Darlingside, with Field Guide opening, created a night of hope and good cheer for a packed house of fans ready to receive it.
by | Dec 6, 2023 8:59 am | Comments (2)
Ann Lehman
Friends on Bench.
The two friends in Ann Lehman’s sculpture — we only know they’re friends because the title tells us so — appear as though they’re deep in the middle of a long conversation, one that started long before we arrived and will continue after we’ve gone. One is perhaps trying to convince the other of something. He’s pressing his point. The other isn’t convinced, but he’s hearing the argument out. It’s happening on a bench that could be in any public park. In short, it’s a definition of community: people coming together in an open space, exchanging ideas, listening and speaking, challenging one another knowing that the friendship is stronger than any argument, that the bonds between people matter the most.
Continue reading ‘Exhibition Shows How Ann Lehman Struck A Spark’
by | Dec 6, 2023 8:00 am | Comments (0)
