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Brian Slattery |
May 18, 2023 9:02 am
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Brian Slattery Photos
Halfway through the first number from the Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere Quintet at Cafe Nine Wednesday night, the band already sounded like they’d be playing for hours. A first, highly energetic section of solos was winding down, and there was a brief pause in the music. As the others in the ensemble held a chord, drummer Ryan Sands stood up for a few seconds, just long enough to take off his coat, then hit the next beat without a hitch. It was a signal both that the music was getting hot, but also that the musicians were getting comfortable — as well they should.
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Karen Ponzio |
May 16, 2023 11:29 am
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Peter Omalyev Photos
NHV Noise magazine
Are you one of those people wishing there was an events calendar listing local shows and helping you navigate what’s going on in New Haven and beyond? Well, a new zine by the name of NHV Noise is coming to a performance space near you, full of writing, art, and yes, that calendar.
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Adam Matlock |
May 16, 2023 8:29 am
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MIchelle Cann and Alisdair Neale.
An historic premiere. Significant anniversaries and, in some cases, a final concert for several members of the orchestra. An orchestra program featuring works entirely by Black American composers, not presented in February, when one of those composers was in the audience. Another work performed by a Grammy-winning classical pianist.
Friday night’s final concert for the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s 2022 – 23 Classics season at the John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts was loaded with significance.
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Brian Slattery |
May 15, 2023 8:36 am
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Luxuriating in a warm spring day, ArtWalk — organized by the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance — brought out a crowd on Saturday for a full afternoon of art, craft, music, theater, food, and community.
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Karen Ponzio |
May 12, 2023 8:56 am
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Brian Slattery Photo
The State House Co-Owner Carlos Wells.
The closing of The State House has brought forth a wealth of emotions from the New Haven music community as it prepares for the end of the State Street venue’s five-year run as a Ninth Square powerhouse of productions, showcasing everything from heavy metal multiple band bills and R&B jam sessions to sequin-studded cabarets, puppet theater, and DJ-driven dance parties. With the last show currently scheduled for May 28, co-owner Carlos Wells hopes to concentrate on the next two weeks of shows that will take the venue to its end in a celebratory fashion.
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Karen Ponzio |
May 8, 2023 8:35 am
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Karen Ponzio Photos.
Anonymous Inc.
On Friday night under a full moon the New Haven-based record label Fake Four, Inc. brought a four-act bill to the State House built on friendships and a familial music community that also whipped the crowd into a frenzy.
Indigaux, Chris Conde, Myles Bullen, and the return of Ceschi and Anonymous Inc. was a homecoming of sorts, as Ceschi (a.k.a. Julio Ramos) has been on tour as of late with his newest band, The Codefendants. Anonymous Inc. — featuring brothers Julio and David Ramos and Max Heath — had not played live in four years. It was also their last time playing at the State House, which plans to close at the end of the month.
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Karen Ponzio |
May 4, 2023 8:49 am
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Karen Ponzio Photos.
The official ribbon cutting commences.
Neighborhood Music School launched a new recording studio and debuted its own record label, Equitone Records, with a press conference, ribbon cutting, and, of course, live music.
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Brian Slattery |
May 1, 2023 8:56 am
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“Mr. Dynamite,” the first song off Killer Kin’s latest (and self-titled) album, starts with a churning two-note riff that acts as a distillation of the band’s whole approach to making music — raw, propulsive, and sexy. When the rest of the band slams in to kick up the energy a few more notches, it feels like a promised fulfilled. The singer’s barked vocals culminate in a bare-bones, ruthlessly effective chorus: “dynamite’s coming, you better run / dynamite’s coming, you better hide / dynamite coming, you better run.” It’s a warning that you don’t want to listen to, because the explosion of the rest of the album is worth sticking around for.
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Karen Ponzio |
Apr 25, 2023 8:22 am
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Tom Stio Photo
Joe Walsh Band show on 1/18/23 at Café Amici.
If someone said that one of the best places to hear the latest and greatest in bluegrass was based in Hamden, you might not believe them. And yet it’s the case.
GuitartownCT Productions has been bringing storied bluegrass veterans and up-and-coming stars to this area since 2008. On May 5, the series — now operating out of Cafe Amici at 1640 Whitney Ave. — will celebrate its 15th anniversary and its 120th show. It’s a milestone that Chris Wuerth, head and founder of GuitartownCT, never saw coming. In 2008, he was just a fan who wanted to bring his “bluegrass hero,” the legendary Tony Rice, to town for a show.
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Lisa Reisman |
Apr 17, 2023 3:33 pm
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Lisa Reisman photos
A shower of pink, for 50th straight year.
Valentina Simon doing her thing at Sunday's fest.
Amid a riot of pink blossoms, the scent of spring in the air, and the sounds of Airborne’s “Groovin’ on a Sunday Afternoon,” Valentina Simon leapt and spun and twirled in front of the bandstand, prompting others to join her.
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Adam Matlock |
Apr 17, 2023 9:01 am
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New Haven Symphony Orchestra music director candidate James Blachly went out of his way during Sunday’s concert at Southern Connecticut State University to invite the audience closer: to himself, to the performers, and to the music.
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Adam Matlock |
Apr 14, 2023 8:24 am
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Allison Stock Photo
Symphony director hopeful James Blachly.
For New Haven Symphony Orchestra Music Director candidate James Blachly, conducting was partly about finding a listener’s perspective. “What drew me to this field in the first place was a magical experience as a listener, and I spend my career trying to continue that experience for other listeners and musicians, in every hall I enter.”
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Brian Slattery |
Apr 12, 2023 8:38 am
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Showrocka.
It’s fitting that “peace, peace,” are the first words on the album Dear Aires, the latest release from the New Haven-based Showrocka and Ansolu. They set the tone for an album about getting older that is jubilant and nostalgic, energetic and laid-back, and always guided by two MCs who are old enough to know who they are, be at home in their style, and at the same time, ready to see where it takes them. Dear Aires is one of a few new releases from New Haven-based artists that shows the music scene as vibrant and diverse as ever, in genre and feeling.
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Karen Ponzio |
Apr 11, 2023 8:16 am
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Karen Ponzio Photos.
Townwide Tyler and DJ B to the T Jr. strike a pose.
Jazz floated in the air between whispers and animated conversations as people sipped wine and coffee and munched on pita chips and popcorn this past Thursday at Best Video. It was another installment of Lounge Night — a monthly event at the film and cultural center where, over the course of four hours, patrons are treated to movies, music, and conversations about both. On this night, the crowd was treated to three short films from the New Haven 48 Hour Film Project as well as music from DJs Townwide Tyler and B to the T Jr.
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Brian Slattery |
Apr 5, 2023 8:52 am
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The cover of Fire Illuminations.
Even before trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith enters the musical room of “Ntozake Shange” — the first cut off Fire Illuminations, which Smith released last week — the music has left little doubt as to what’s going on. The beat is slow and dripping with grease, strong and powerful. The first phrase from Smith’s trumpet feel like a call to arms and a call to prayer at the same time. One by one, the rest of the instruments, guitars and basses, electronics, are gathered. They take their time, and at the same time have the feel of gorgeous inevitability. They’re moving in the same direction, toward a common destination. Even if that place is out of sight, they know it’s there.
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Brian Slattery |
Apr 4, 2023 8:46 am
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It was Saturday morning and the technical crew was setting up lights, cameras, and microphones. The musicians in the band at Hamden Plains United Methodist Church, on the corner of Dixwell Avenue and Church Street in Hamden, had rehearsed their parts. In the pews in front of the altar, the Rev. Jeremiah Paul, pastor of Hamden Plains UMC, was running parts with the choir — in preparation to document a collaboration, and perhaps the beginning of a beautiful friendship, between Hamden Plains UMC and Yale Gospel Choir.
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Brian Slattery |
Mar 31, 2023 9:01 am
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Corpse Flower
Kelly Kancyr of Corpse Flower was just doing her mic check from behind the drum kit Thursday night, but she had a message for the audience. “What’s up Cafe Nine?” she said. “New owner, still the same vibe. We love you, Cafe Nine!” So it seemed in the final days of club owner Paul Mayer’s run of the place. The club may be changing hands this weekend, when new owners Patrick Meyer, Jesse Burke, and Chris Meyer take the wheel. But it felt like just another good night of music for the live-music institution on State and Crown.
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Brian Slattery |
Mar 30, 2023 8:32 am
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Brian Slattery Photos
Sooyun Kim, Kate Arndt, Tanner Menees, Christine J. Lee, and Bridget Kibbey (l. to r.)
Min Young Kang, founder and artistic director of Kallos Chamber Music Series, smiled at the full house in the ballroom of the New Haven Lawn Club before Wednesday night’s concert began. “It always feels so great to come back here to share music with such a welcoming and warm audience like you,” she said. “Every single one of you plays a huge role in our performance, because we feed off our audiences.”
To the pawn shop customer who now has Robert Picagli’s early ‘60s-vintage Gibson B‑25 hollow body guitar: We’d like to introduce you to a little girl and her late grandfather.
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Brian Slattery |
Mar 27, 2023 8:37 am
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Ezra Furman.
Beloved indie rocker Ezra Furman — rounding out a national tour and soon to embark on an international one — prowled the Space Ballroom stage Sunday evening even before her set started. “Joy and resolve,” she said, setting the tone for her set and providing a fulcrum for an evening of music that tapped, in time, into all the emotions.
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Adam Matlock |
Mar 24, 2023 8:51 am
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Perry So.
Conductor and New Haven Symphony Orchestra music director candidate Perry So offered a concise answer to the question of what an orchestra can provide in response to the needs of current or potential classical music audiences: “A sense of engagement with the past. And a sense of optimism for the future.”
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Marisa Torrieri |
Mar 20, 2023 8:43 am
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Daniel Eurysm Photo
Zombii.
On Saturday, punk musician Jeremy Zombii and friends from nine local pop, rock and ska bands came together to honor the memory of Zombii’s sister, Rebecca Lorch, and celebrate her incredible, odds-defying life — which included her rise to the level of “America’s Strongest Woman” just a few years after a bad motorcycle accident threatened her ability to ever walk again — at a nine-hour concert at The Cellar on Treadwell.
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Brian Slattery |
Mar 15, 2023 8:55 am
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Amelia Maurer
Maeve and the Monsoons.
Amelia Maurer’s surreal image evokes power and magic, a sense of fearlessness. The viewer is the intruder in this scenario; the subject is a guardian, and she’s holding all the cards. The piece is striking enough on its own. Presenting it as the cover art for an imaginary album only magnifies its allure. It suggests that the associated music is strange and visionary. You haven’t heard anything like it, but you want to.
