by | Jul 25, 2022 9:17 am | Comments (2)
Olivia Gross Photo
The main stage at Seeing Sounds.
The concrete made the temperature seem twice as high at Edgewood Park’s skate park Saturday, but skateboards still flew through the crowd — and music filled the air at the first annual Seeing Sounds music festival.
Continue reading ‘Seeing Sounds Heats Up Edgewood Skate Park’
by | Jul 25, 2022 9:17 am | Comments (0)
Moore.
In the middle of his set to close out the day, musician Trey Moore took a moment to be thankful. “I just woke up one day and decided to do this, and here you are, in the flesh.”
He spoke with an air of gratitude, and just a hint of incredulity, that Seeing Sounds — a day-long festival of music, clothing, food, games, and skating that he organized at Edgewood Skate Park — had actually happened.
Continue reading ‘Bands Make Sound Visible In Edgewood Park’
by | Jul 25, 2022 8:49 am | Comments (0)
Colin Roberts Photos
The Cult.
On Sunday night The Cult, led by vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, took their We Own The Night Tour to College Street Music Hall in downtown New Haven. With a plethora of material to choose from, the group — who creatively fused hard rock, new wave and goth in the ’80s and ’90s — played a set of fan favorites, drawing mainly from their trio of late-’80s hit records Love, Electric and Sonic Temple.
Continue reading ‘The Cult & Co. Own Sunday Night At College Street Music Hall’
by | Jul 21, 2022 8:08 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photo
Oliveras.
Andrew Cohen, vocalist and guitarist of the band Oliveras, mopped a little perspiration from his brow. All the doors and windows in Neverending Books were open, but a heat wave was a heat wave.
“I guess we’ll just get started,” he said.
That drew a cheer from the audience right away.
“I haven’t even done anything yet!” he responded, to laughter.
But then he became genuine, mentioning that this was the first time he and drummer Ryan Tedesco had played out, the first time he’d played songs he’d written in front of people. “Thanks everyone. This is a dream come true.”
Continue reading ‘Three Newish Acts Sweat It Out At Neverending Proving Ground’
by | Jul 20, 2022 4:41 pm | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
Chicago Dawgs Mark Zaretsky and Tom Crivellone perform in the WNHH FM studio.
Mark Zaretsky had a choice to make.
by | Jul 18, 2022 9:26 am | Comments (3)
On Friday evening a group of percussionists gathered on the north end of the New Haven Green. They were mostly members of the bomba group Proyecto Cimarrón, and they were there to play for the community — and honor a musical luminary who, just before coming to the Green, gave them a lesson in the heritage of the music they were playing.
Continue reading ‘Bomba Master Jesus M. Cepeda Brenes Brings The Rhythm To The Green’
by | Jul 13, 2022 9:03 am | Comments (1)
“Blood on the Fitting Room Floor,” from the new album The Devil and the Deluge by New Haven-based hip-hop artists Kevlar Kohleone & DoSe, is a rumination on fashion that starts with a nod to the people who paved the way. Over a swinging, soulful beat, we hear from Harlem fashion icon Dapper Dan, who helped define the look that accompanied the sound of hip hop starting in the early 1980s. “Fresh is a word that spans generations,” Dan says. “That word is so suitable for hip hop, because hip hop has to stay fresh. And so fresh to me means that which is most hip and current to whatever’s going on at the moment.”
Continue reading ‘Rappers Swim In The Stream Of Consciousness’
by | Jul 11, 2022 12:25 pm | Comments (5)
Brian Slattery Photo
Julie Smith: "Fingers crossed" on open-air concerts resuming.
A new executive has taken over at Best Video — just in time to work with her former colleagues in Hamden city government to enable one of the town’s cultural gems to resume popular outdoor concerts.
Continue reading ‘New Best Video Chief Saving Outdoor Music’
by | Jul 10, 2022 11:57 am | Comments (0)
Sadie Besocke photos
Mikaela Davis and Southern Star performing at Space Ballroom.
Hamden’s Space Ballroom ascended into a rainbow-splashed, psychedelic heaven Friday night after upstate New Yorker Mikaela Davis set the scene for a fourth-dimensional funk-folk-country-rock set list — with the help of a golden harp and angelic voice.
by | Jul 8, 2022 9:25 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
The Roots.
A packed College Street Music Hall on Thursday night was treated to a three-act evening of deeply soulful music that encompassed New Haven music heroes Phat Astronaut and culminated in the now-seminal Philadephia hip hop act the Roots.
Continue reading ‘College Street Takes New Haven Back To The Roots’
by | Jul 5, 2022 8:30 am | Comments (1)
Critelli.
A strummed guitar. An organ’s warm, held guitar. A bent note from a guitar like an invitation. Then Frank Critelli’s declarative voice: “I didn’t know what it was called, but I was glad when you called,” he sings. “I called you back / No one could predict / one drink would lead to that kiss on your neck / And I almost didn’t recognize / A familiar look in faraway eyes / But I knew you were someone else in disguise / And there was no turning back.”
Continue reading ‘Frank Critelli's "Muse" Spans Generations’
by | Jul 1, 2022 10:06 am | Comments (4)
Olivia Charis Photo
Adae and his father next to the portrait of his late grandmother, at ConnCAT opening of the artist's first solo show.
Adae describes his portrait of his friend Kimberly Cherubin.
New Haveners are likely to know Kwadwo Adae’s work from his murals like the one of Dr. Edward Bouchet on the corner of Henry Street and Dixwell Avenue. Thursday evening, Adae brought his vibrant artwork and personage indoors — and a distinctive approach to connecting with community and nature along with him.
by | Jul 1, 2022 9:20 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Dr. Martino was halfway through its set at the State House on Thursday night when Simone Puleo and Amy Shaw, who had been playing guitar and bass, respectively, suddenly switched instruments. Shaw then shot a smile toward the crowd.
“Any questions?” she said. “I’m taking questions. No? Good.”
The trio then ripped into another joyously raucous song, celebrating not only the band’s return to the State House stage, but a 10-day tour it was about to embark on with fellow Connecticut rockers Big Fang. There was thus a sense of things coming full circle, as the two bands had toured together before the pandemic, in 2019, but also starting new.
Continue reading ‘Big Fang & Dr. Martino Kick Off Tour From State House’
by | Jun 30, 2022 12:59 pm | Comments (0)
Cobalt Rhythm Kings kick off summer concert series
A soft summer sunset hit a crowd full of lawn chairs and to-go dinners nestled under rustling trees — as the wail of a harmonica harmonized with a bass guitar line and deep tenor vocals left a smooth blues echo down Lighthouse Road.
Continue reading ‘Twilight Blues Kicks Off Pardee House Summer Series’
by | Jun 30, 2022 9:15 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Lighthouse.
Positive energy flowed through Cafe Nine Wednesday night as three bands — Lighthouse, Lumot, and The Fivers — brought music that was filled with ups and downs, quiet and loud, and at the same time, conveyed a sense of equilibrium.
Continue reading ‘Three Bands Get Loud And Quiet At Cafe Nine’
by | Jun 30, 2022 9:00 am | Comments (0)
Courtney Brown Photo
Album art for How To Be Alone
In the first single “run” from Evelyn Gray’s new album How To Be Alone, the singer/songwriter/musician explores a multitude of sounds as well as her mind, body, and soul. As Gray sings of fear and sleeplessness, the song eventually builds to a powerful guitar-laden climax that ends with Gray singing the lines “how many times must I say no? Now I’m done letting you run me.” But that is only the beginning.
by | Jun 29, 2022 9:16 am | Comments (0)
“Heartbreak Sounds,” the first track from Deep Meats I — the latest release from Ponybird, a.k.a. Jennifer Dauphinais — starts with a sound that is impossible to identify, buzzy and menacing, slowly unfurling a long, moody melody. Drums and electronic blips then conspire to create a rhythm, a harmonic structure, and Dauphinais steps to the mic, crooning with a sense of louche urgency.
“You used to feel important / And I used to dance all night / You could read with me with a glance / Til we’d stop to fuss and fight,” Dauphanais sings. “There’s what the world feels like to me / And what it feels like to you / And somewhere in between is the mess we got into.”
by | Jun 27, 2022 2:22 pm | Comments (1)
Kimberly Wipfler Photos
Don Randi, Christine Ohlman, Leah and Justin Randi, and Daniel Mizrahi.
So one day, I’m told about a young Motown act coming into the studio. I get there, and it’s a group called the Jackson Five. And a young man by the name of Michael comes and sits next to me at the piano and says, ‘Mr. Randi, could you show me what you just played?’ And this is what I played…
As keyboardist Don Randi told that story, the band, which had been vamping alongside, swung into the opening bars of the Jackson Five’s hit single, “ABC.” Randi plunked the familiar chords, as he did over 50 years ago on the original recording.
by | Jun 27, 2022 9:45 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
For its concluding day on Sunday, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas hosted or facilitated a slew of activities on the New Haven Green that kept people there from morning to night, beginning with circuses and magicians, continuing through jerk chicken and dancing, and ending with a drag show about the need to reconnect with a sense of pride.
by | Jun 23, 2022 8:54 am | Comments (2)
Halfway through his set on the New Haven Green as part of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas on Wednesday night, Ghanian-born musician and dancer Okaidja taught the small but stalwart audience assembled to see him a typical Ghanian greeting. Ago? he explained, was a way of asking if anyone was home when approaching a house. Amen, he continued, was the response from the person inside the house, indicating they were home. He explained then that he would sometimes use it to check in with the audience, to make sure they were still connected. It wasn’t necessary; though rain and unseasonable cold kept away many, those that showed up on the Green had come to listen.
Continue reading ‘Ghanian, New Haven Musicians Rep Their Roots On A&I Stage’
by | Jun 20, 2022 8:47 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
TJ and the Campers.
Chris Depot, singer and trombonist for TJ and the Campers, eyed the large crowd assembled at Cafe Nine on Saturday night. “Hello, Connecticut!” he said. “Is everyone ready for an evening of ska?” Over a three-band bill full of driving rhythms and sweaty dancing, the answer was a resounding yes, as New Haven showed that its roots in third-wave ska continue to bear fruit.
by | Jun 16, 2022 10:31 am | Comments (1)
Greg Scranton Photos
Kraftwerk at work Wednesday night at College Street Music Hall.
Another lonely night… stare at the TV screen…I don’t know what to do… I need a rendezvous.
Over a bass line you could feel in your chest, embellished with an array of colorful synths, the seminal techno German music group Kraftwerk played their 1970-track “Computer Love” to an audience at College Street Music Hall Wednesday, filled with fans who may have related more strongly to the lyrics than half a century ago when the song was first released.
The lyrics evoked an experience all too familiar: an unrelenting sense of alienation, that is unsolved by modern technologies, especially those that promise to connect us.
Continue reading ‘Kraftwerk Unleashes Timeless Tech Tension To CSMH’
by | Jun 15, 2022 1:34 pm | Comments (3)
Laura Glesby Photo
Rebecca Patterson, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra's principal cellist and a Neighborhood Music School instructor, plays "Sicilenne" by Maria Theresia von Paradis at Wednesday's announcement.
Four local non-profits will stand on stronger financial footing as they steward New Haven’s history, culture, and mental health care, thanks to a record $35 million donation to the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven.
Continue reading ‘Record $35M Community Foundation Donation Flows To Music, Museum, Mental Health’
by | Jun 10, 2022 12:48 pm | Comments (0)
Kristina Kolosova Photo
This is what it looked like when Chicago blues guitarist Lurrie Bell blew through town and played a set at Cafe Nine Thursday night.
by | Jun 10, 2022 9:41 am | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photo
Returning home: 2019's fest on the Green, which drew over 10,000 people.
The crowds will return to New Haven this year for the full-scale revival of the Puerto Rican Festival with a focus on women.