by | Apr 27, 2022 4:24 pm | Comments (10)
Update: The plan is off for John Hinckley Jr. to return to the area on July 16, this time with a guitar rather than a gun, 41 years after he tried to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan in an effort to impress actress (and then-Yale student) Jodie Foster.
Continue reading ‘Update: Reagan's Would-Be Assassin NOT Headed Back To Area To Play The Space’
by | Apr 27, 2022 8:14 am | Comments (0)
A piece exploring resonant frequencies; plucking a string makes a cymbal vibrate, and striking a cymbal makes a string vibrate.
The Earth vibrates at a frequency of 7.8 Hertz. Tuning forks can be used to tell time. A stretched-out Slinky can be used to produce a Star Wars-style laser-blast sound.
by | Apr 26, 2022 8:33 am | Comments (0)
Colombian neo-cumbia. Egyptian avant garde. Arabic surf guitar. And a baby boy. All this and more has been on the mind of musician and music promoter Rick Omonte as he rolls out a new series of shows for 2022 through his nom de booking, Shaki Presents.
Continue reading ‘Concert Promoter Brings The World Back To New Haven’
by | Apr 21, 2022 4:46 pm | Comments (3)
The boys in the band: Nolan Wazni, Jack Marchand, Ben Card at WNHH FM.
A rising band of New Haven pop-rockers had a new album to put out. But first they had to:
• Find a place they could practice and record.
• Factor in the fact that the lead vocalist’s voice was changing.
• In one case, get a ride from mom for the pre-release radio interview.
• In another case, get permission to leave school for an hour.
Such are the extra challenges of making your mark in music if you’re also a bunch of high-school juniors.
Continue reading ‘With Voices Changed, Midnight Strangers Drop "Odyssey"’
by | Apr 18, 2022 3:45 pm | Comments (0)
Kimberly Wipfler Photo
Yaira Matyakubova and Lyala Stowe at gathering on Peck Street.
The room was hushed when Lyala Stowe began to speak. Her voice was soft. She is from Ukraine, and she was about to recite poems by Ukrainian poets.
Stowe apologized that most audience members would not comprehend the words, spoken in her native tongue. Regardless, the room held onto every syllable.
Continue reading ‘Violin Strings, Heartstrings, Pulled For Ukraine’
by | Apr 14, 2022 7:56 am | Comments (0)
“Stunted,” the first song from Ghost Tones’ latest release Live at the Cellar, starts with a long flourish from an electric guitar, a horn winding its way through it. Then the drummer settles in on a pounding rhythm that, without any other instruments playing, could be a few different genres. Maybe it’s a pop song. Maybe it’s punk. Then someone in the band counts off a measure — one, two, three, four — and the sound, especially from the guitar, chopping out offbeats, becomes unmistakable. It’s ska. And ska of the third-wave variety at that.
by | Apr 13, 2022 9:07 am | Comments (0)
Bill Shea Photo
Fuller.
“7/16 Samba,” from Keep Hope Alive, the latest release from Jeff Fuller and Friends, starts with light yet complex chords from the piano. A couple hits from the drums, a couple notes from the bass, and the trio falls in together. The piano states the melody with unhurried precision while the bass surges below it. They open the tune up soon enough, though, taking their time working through the changes, giving each other plenty of time to let their solos breathe. It’s the sound of musicians who have played together for years, relaxing into the joy of being reunited and creating sounds together again — even in troubled times.
by | Apr 11, 2022 9:53 am | Comments (3)
Addys Castillo beamed as she looked at the crowd assembled Saturday evening for the inaugural show of bomba group Proyecto Cimarrón. To her, it was fitting that the show be held where it was, at the Citywide Youth Coalition on Chapel Street, which Castillo referred to as the Black and Brown Power Center. “This space is a space for liberation,” she said. “A place for people to laugh, have joy, and plan revolution.”
by | Apr 11, 2022 9:50 am | Comments (1)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Ceschi Ramos
Four artists rapped their way into the weekend at The State House this past Friday night, and whether on that stage for the first time or for the first time in a good long while, they brought the crowd forth and kept them there, hanging on every word and rhyme like a lifeline.
by | Apr 11, 2022 9:40 am | Comments (0)
Colin Roberts Photos
Buried Alive.
On Sunday afternoon, the State House brought back the iconic Sunday matinee show, a staple of the hardcore scene since the ’80s. Anchored by Buffalo, N.Y.’s Buried Alive — a highly influential late-’90s band — the show boasted a stacked lineup of unique bands, mostly newer and younger than the headliners.
by | Apr 7, 2022 8:53 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
Sounds and Scenarios.
At Stella Blues on Wednesday night, four bands — three of them based in Connecticut, supporting headliners Sounds and Scenarios from Boston — unleashed four sets of rock, ranging from heavy to thrashing to atmospheric, that all had one thing in common: a commitment to emotional directness and honesty.
by | Apr 6, 2022 1:03 pm | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photo
McDonald: Ready for the digital age.
With a new team and vision in place, Anthony McDonald begins his second year running New Haven’s historic Shubert Theatre with an eye fixed on the future as more people venture back out to public events.
by | Apr 5, 2022 8:58 am | Comments (1)
The colorful digital artwork on the walls brought sparks of light to the space at Never Ending Books. In one piece, swirls of darkness and fluorescence together ripped across an undulating landscape. In another, the dark forms of buildings, lit from within by explosions of brightness, melted into one another, suggesting vastness and a riotous amount of life. In still another, the forms of leaves and pale branches draped across the view of a passing stream. They and many others are part of visual artist and musician Shula Weinstein’s show “The Sun Rises on a Coastal Town,” running now at the State Street spot for the next few weeks.
Continue reading ‘Shula Weinstein Brings A Coastal Town To Life’
by | Apr 4, 2022 9:15 am | Comments (5)
Maya McFadden Photos
Monty Alexander performs alongside T.K Blue.
Arriving at the show with my folks.
My dad leaned over from the left and pointed to the stage, where Jamaican Jazz pianist Monty Alexander was holding down his piano keys on particular notes and chords to emphasize them.
“Jazz is made up of accents,” my dad informed me.
To my right side my I heard my stepmother hum the words to a Bob Marley tune.
by | Apr 4, 2022 9:04 am | Comments (1)
Courtesy Pure Noise Records
With two sold-out shows at Space Ballroom on May 20 and 21, and a new album on the way, Connecticut hardcore stalwarts With Honor might be entering a new era.
Continue reading ‘For Hardcore Band "With Honor," A New Era Dawns’
by | Apr 1, 2022 9:03 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Wolf.
Laura Wolf, surrounded by a cello, a mixer, an interface, and an array of pedals, eyed the crowd who had come to Best Video Thursday night. “I’m not much of a stage talker, but you can ask me questions after the show.”
At the end of her set, a few musicians in the audience did just that, asking for a tour of her setup and swapping information about gear, because in the world of making music with acoustic instruments and effects, Wolf — who opened for Dave Scanlon — had figured a few things out.
Continue reading ‘At Best Video, Cello Mixer Layers Live Composition’
by | Mar 30, 2022 9:06 am | Comments (0)
Jonathan Milberger, Michael Larocca, Kaelen Ghandi.
“Eighteen years of doing it and we’re still doing it,” Bob Gorry, founder of the New Haven Improvisers Collective, said from the stage of Cafe Nine. “The pandemic stopped us for a bit, but we’re back.”
He was referring not only to the NHIC workshops that have begun again at Never Ending Books, but to the fact that, on Tuesday night, he was again hosting musicians, and performing himself, for a night of improvised music at the music-scene anchor on State and Crown.
Continue reading ‘18 Years In, Improvisers Collective Returns To The Stage After Pandemic Pause’
by | Mar 28, 2022 4:34 pm | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden Photo
New Haveners gathered to “Connect Da Love” through fashion and music Saturday night.
by | Mar 28, 2022 11:53 am | Comments (1)
Kimberly Wipfler Photo
Nisaa Monk Williams performs at Stetson.
Old-school jazz brought audience members of all ages to their feet dancing at the new Stetson Library Branch, during “A Celebration of Jazz,” put on in collaboration by the Shubert Theatre, Monk Youth Jazz, the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation, and the New Haven Free Public Library.
The event, held Saturday, showcased performances by the band Chill, featuring members of Thelonius Monk’s family and Monk Youth Jazz students.
Continue reading ‘Thelonious Monk's Legacy Jazzes Up Stetson’
by | Mar 28, 2022 9:24 am | Comments (3)
Photo courtesy of Fernando Pinto
Nirvana performing at The Moon on Whalley 1991, a show promoted by Pinto.
Karen Ostrom Photo
Fernando Pinto: From the Moon and Tune Inn to Cafe 9.
Music promoter Fernando Pinto entered Blue State Coffee on a sunny morning with a bag of flyers under his arm as he finished up his walk around the city to hang them up at his usual spots.
“I know all of them,” he said — though he is still finding more spots, even after 40 years of booking and promoting shows throughout New Haven. As he celebrates that anniversary, two shows in particular are on Pinto’s mind, and on those flyers he is posting.
by | Mar 28, 2022 9:14 am | Comments (2)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Nick Di Maria Quartet.
New Haven has always been hungry for jazz, and as the city continues to open back up to more opportunities to hear it live, musician Nick Di Maria has added yet another night to his already busy roster for music lovers to enjoy jazz while having dinner and drinks. Friday Night at Jack’s debuted this past weekend on the corner of College and Crown at Jack’s Bar and Steakhouse from 7 to 9 p.m. Di Maria was there with his quartet to play the first show, though this is far from his first time playing there.
by | Mar 22, 2022 9:02 am | Comments (1)
Sands.
“I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” begins with a cascading flourish from bass, drums, and guitar, and then is off like a skittering shot, the three instruments spiraling around one another at breakneck, and breathtaking, speed. Then “Faith” sinks into a lazy, easy swing, all sweet, smoky atmosphere. They’re two sides of the same coin, but also part of drummer Ryan Sands’s larger mission: to make music in which the technical accomplishment is apparent, but the emotional content is what really matters — expressions of joy, or wistfulness, that everyone can feel.
by | Mar 18, 2022 9:15 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photo
Kaleta and Super Yamba Band brought the legendary West African sound of Afrobeat to Cafe Nine on Thursday night, proving that the message of the revolutionary music lives on, and connects to the present moment, as much as ever.
Continue reading ‘Kaleta And Super Yamba Band Make The Music The Message’
by | Mar 16, 2022 9:06 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photo
Minus Points.
Minus Points had just finished another blistering song, an assault of distorted strings, drums, and emotions, when there was a request from the audience: “Can you do something laid back and chill right now?”
It was a joke; no one at Cafe Nine on Tuesday night was there to play or hear laid-back or chill. Instead, three new New Haven-based bands had come to turn it up loud, and they did.
by | Mar 15, 2022 8:53 am | Comments (1)
Margaret Milano Photo
The Ratz
“I’m slowly easing my way into a full-blown political record,” said vocalist/guitarist Jeffrey Thunders of The Ratz, who will be celebrating the release of the band’s latest, Found Dead, this Sunday afternoon at Cafe Nine with Cry Havoc, Midnight Creeps, and Murdervan.
Continue reading ‘The Ratz Are Ready To Release "Found Dead" Live At Cafe Nine’