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Brian Slattery |
Jan 26, 2023 8:53 am
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The improvisational jam duo P(x3) was on the stage of the State House Wednesday creating great grooves to dance to. But the figures leaping and spinning on the screen behind him weren’t dancing; they were fighting, in kinetic and ludicrous ways — as is the style of Super Smash Bros., the hit fighting video game from Nintendo that’s now almost a quarter-century old and still going strong. The audience members gathered to watch were in rapt attention. On a couch pulled up close to the stage, two players, their eyes glued to the screen, were in mortal combat, though one that would end with a smile.
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Adam Matlock |
Jan 23, 2023 8:51 am
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Courtesy KSO
Cabrera.
With something like a gambit, New Haven Symphony Orchestra music director candidate Donato Cabrera scored a pedagogical victory, showing the audience a wide range of sounds with a selection of pieces designed to show off different sections of the orchestra before bringing a full symphony orchestra at the close.
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Brian Slattery |
Jan 23, 2023 8:47 am
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PULSR.
Four bands — two based in New Haven, two based in Philadelphia and New York City — rocked the crowded floor of the State House on Friday night. It was an indication of how both New Haven-based and touring acts are starting to find their footing again after the pandemic, making the connections among one another to bring the music scene back for live audiences.
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Brian Slattery |
Jan 19, 2023 8:40 am
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185668232.
At the beginning of his set, 185668232 asked everyone in the audience to say their names while he held out a microphone. “One, two, three,” he said, and everyone in the audience said their names. The syllables blended in the air. 185668232 looped the sound. “Do you like your name? Can you say it with some energy?” he asked. We did, and he mixed the two samples together. Now it was a surging mass of noise, swelling and subsiding, creating a rhythm. Now 185668232 was ready to begin.
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Adam Matlock |
Jan 18, 2023 8:46 am
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Courtesy KSO
Cabrera.
“If I were to describe my aesthetic as a conductor, it would be about trying to find the narrative first,” said New Haven Symphony Orchestra guest conductor and candidate for NHSO music director Donato Cabrera in a phone interview last week. “It’s a reflection of how I believe music can be connected to the community.”
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Brian Slattery |
Jan 18, 2023 8:36 am
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Larry Bellorín and Joe Troop, of Larry & Joe, positioned themselves close to one another on the Cafe Nine stage Tuesday night, surrounded by instruments.
The two musicians were delighted to bring to New Haven “the best of our music — the best of Venezuela and the best of Appalachia.” Also, “as you’ll notice, we’re twins.”
That last line drew laughter from the healthy-sized crowd, but it was the right encapsulation of what the duo were about, in the sincerity and depth of their mission, the virtuosity and emotion they brought to their playing, and the humor and big-heartedness with which they delivered it all.
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Brian Slattery |
Jan 16, 2023 12:42 pm
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Hanan Hameen of Dance and Beyond Sunday at New Haven Museum.
Through words, music, and movement, storytellers, drummers, and dancers offered dozens of families a chance to find their place in the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., the broader causes of social justice he dedicated his life to, and the rich culture he came out of.
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Karen Ponzio |
Jan 16, 2023 8:40 am
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FaTE on Friday.
Three bands filled The State House with a multitude of sounds on Friday the 13th in another of Elm Underground’s lucky streak of shows that have been making New Haven music fans happy for almost exactly one year now.
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Brian Slattery |
Jan 13, 2023 8:18 am
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O.K. Company and Jessy Griz brought down the house and soothed the soul at Cafe Nine on Thursday night, with an evening of strong voices, deep grooves, and big emotions.
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Karen Ponzio |
Jan 9, 2023 8:40 am
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The Furors.
As the first full moon of 2023 hung high in the January sky above Best Video, another first was happening inside: beloved New Haven band The Furors had returned, playing its first live show since February 2020. This welcoming back filled every chair of the performance space with the smiling faces of longtime fans and friends who were ecstatic to hear the legendary local duo tear through their extensive catalogue of catchy and memorable music.
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Brian Slattery |
Jan 6, 2023 9:58 am
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Movimiento Cultural drummers and dancers liven up Wilson Library.
Kids making crowns for themselves, with and without parental aid.
As Movimiento Cultural Afro-Continental’s drummers played driving rhythms and singers instructed families in the traditions of bomba, one young dancer learned fast about the ways that she could converse with lead drummer Kevin Diaz during the ongoing library-hosted Three Kings Day fest.
She made a gesture, and Diaz, fully attentive, responded with a crack from his drum. She gestured again, and he responded in kind on his instrument. The smiles that passed between them needed no words to convey their meaning.
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Karen Ponzio |
Jan 2, 2023 8:39 am
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Lys Guillorn & The Void Kittens
Friends gathered, greeting each other with wishes for a happy new year while music swelled all around them. A New Year’s Eve gathering, perhaps? Actually, it was the night before, as Best Video was the setting for the penultimate night of 2022 — and who better to bring it through than local favorites The Sawtelles and Lys Guillorn & The Void Kittens?
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Karen Ponzio |
Dec 19, 2022 9:44 am
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The Jam
Four horn mics, three drum sets, two keyboards, and one massive stage set up was ready Friday night to present The Holiday Jam, the season friendly version of The Jam, a now iconic New Haven music series and staple of The State House where it has found its home since 2019.
A musical mélange of friends and fellow musicians that come together to improvise and inspire, The Jam is the brainchild of musicians Paul Bryant Hudson and Jeremiah Fuller, who, along with a core group of musicians, typically play one set as a full band, and then a second set where they invite other musicians and vocalists to come up and have a turn at being part of the magic. The entire time, they intertwine their respective skills and sounds of jazz, R&B, soul, and just about everything and anything else, uplifting each other to reach the highest of heights.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 19, 2022 8:51 am
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Kevin Saint James at Cafe Nine.
Sunday allowed music lovers to take in live music from the afternoon through the evening at Cafe Nine and the State House, in offerings that encompassed jazz to rock to hip hop, all within the space of a block.
With a look of defeat, Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School (BRAMS) eighth grader Dakarai Langley lifted his left foot and dangled it over the edge of an auditorium stage as a song shook the dark room with the lyrics: “Would anyone cry if I finally stepped off of this ledge tonight?”
And then Langley kept dancing, proving to everyone in the room before him just how lucky this city is to have this young artist call New Haven his home.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 15, 2022 8:55 am
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Leonard Cohen: celebrated songwriter, poetic dreamboat, ladies’ man, writer of “Hallelujah,” a song so ubiquitous and covered so many times that even Cohen, by the end of his life, felt maybe people should give it a rest. Diving into the details of all that, for some, would be enough.
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Karen Ponzio |
Dec 13, 2022 9:14 am
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Myles Bullen.
Strange Ways was the place on Monday night not just for your holiday shopping needs, but for your live music needs. The Pitkin Plaza storefront hosted four acts that started the festive season off right with plenty of fun, friendship, sharing, and caring. It is all part of owner Alex Dakoulas’s goal of making his downtown location, with its open side room, into a hub for shopping and gathering.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 12, 2022 9:07 am
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New Haven-based ska band The Simulators had finished the second song of its skank-filled set at College Street Music Hall on Saturday afternoon when bassist Zachary Yost had a question: “Who’s enjoying spending all their money on all these lovely local vendors?” He meant the dozens of artists and artisans who had jammed into the place for the College Street Punk Rock Holiday Flea, which, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., changed the College Street performance space into a bazaar for original art, thrift clothing, instruments, records, and much more.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 7, 2022 8:44 am
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Ferrer.
Early in his set, Fernandito Ferrer issued a humble apology; he believed he was a little out of practice. “I haven’t had too many gigs lately, and it’s cold,” he said. There was no need to apologize, no evidence that he was out of practice, as his hands nimbly worked the fingerboard and strings of his guitar and his voice wafted through a room full of people at Cafe Nine on Tuesday night.
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Karen Ponzio |
Dec 5, 2022 1:49 pm
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Sarah Dunn and Kelly Kancyr.
On Saturday evening, four singer-songwriters — Sarah Dunn, Kelly Kancyr, Lisa Roberts, and Lys Guillorn — made Gather, the cozy coffee shop on State Street where just about anything and everything can happen, even cozier. They filled the eclectic space with their songs, stories, and a heavy dose of camaraderie and joy, each bringing their own unique sound and occasionally getting a little help from a friend.
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Karen Ponzio |
Nov 29, 2022 10:30 am
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Mike Marques Photo
Joey Batts.
“Year nine, can you believe it?” said Joey Batts, creator and organizer of Hip Hop for The Homeless, expressing his excitement about the annual live event, which begins on Thursday this week at The State House. It will go on to include seven shows at seven different venues throughout Connecticut, spanning the next two weeks. The event will focus on its yearly goal of raising money and collecting food, clothing, and personal hygiene items for specific organizations in each city where it is held, but it’s also focused on the local hip hop community.
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Karen Ponzio |
Nov 28, 2022 8:36 am
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The Lost Tribe with Tang Sauce and Ghazi Omair.
The Lost Tribe’s Jocelyn Pleasant greeted audience members as she made her way through the crowd at Best Video on Saturday night to gather up her bandmates and ready them for the evening ahead. Her love of community became the theme of the night, as the band convened with friends and fellow artists to celebrate connections and conversations through words, music, and film.
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Lindsay Skedgell |
Nov 21, 2022 8:50 am
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Asher Kai.
Along the walls of Cafe Nine, two trans pride flags framed the stage as a crowd began to gather inside from the cold. The room quickly filled, with art vendors and band merch tables lined along the wall closest to the front door. Crowd members walked around in clear earrings with black lettering, the name ’T4T’ dangling from their ears. It was the beginning of New Haven’s Trans 4 Trans music festival, and performers had come from all over the Elm City, and as far away as Oregon, Philadelphia, and Boston, to be there.
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 21, 2022 8:35 am
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Marmol-Gagne.
Puppeteer and host Anatar Marmol-Gagne was trying to start the Pinned and Sewtered Puppet Cabaret at the State House on Sunday night. The problem: fellow puppeteer Madison J. Cripps, who attempted to hijack the audience’s interest with puppets, dance routine, and blazing harmonica. It seemed like chaos might reign for a moment, until he was dragged away by a giant red cane wielded by a silent stagehand. Marmol-Gagne smiled.
“Who invited you?” she said to Cripps, now offstage. “Oh, right. I did.”
