by | Jan 26, 2024 9:15 am | Comments (2)
Brian Slattery Photos
New Cardiff Giants.
A Thursday night of churning rhythms, big guitars, barked lyrics, and dancing feet at Cafe Nine made the case that New Haven’s rock ‘n’ roll scene is alive and well, and possibly growing, as four Elm City bands kept people moving for hours.
by | Jan 23, 2024 8:47 am | Comments (7)
Kimberly Wipfler Photo
Flake singing at Stetson Library with family and Monk Youth Jazz.
“Kind of surreal” is how Marcella Monk Flake described winning a Connecticut Arts Hero award this year. But in a sense, Flake’s award is the most natural thing in the world, another step in a life steeped in the arts, education, and community since before she was a child.
by | Jan 22, 2024 12:55 pm | Comments (2)
Brian Slattery Photo
Angel Piss.
Sounds like nature. Sounds like video games. Choirs of unearthly voices and raspy tones from a saxophone. And people listening hard to build sounds together. All of this awaited the healthy crowd that showed up at Never Ending Books on Friday evening for a triple bill of The Sawtelles, Human Flourishing, and Angel Piss.
by | Jan 22, 2024 9:44 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Jeff Fuller and Friends.
Jazz can be found practically every night of the week in New Haven: at cigar bars, alongside pizza, and amidst videos and DVDs, among other places. For a jazz fan who wishes to partake of live music even during the day, Elm City Market has brought back its popular weekly jazz brunch on Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., which means not only do you get tunes, but you can have a meal (or a muffin or a mug of coffee or both) as well.
by | Jan 18, 2024 11:23 am | Comments (1)
Don’t listen to the new single from the Afro-Semitic Experience if you wish to remain mired in despair over the state of the world or the harshness dividing groups of people.
Continue reading ‘Afro-Semitic Drops "Unity In The Community"’
by | Jan 18, 2024 9:05 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
A third of the way through the latest concert in the Kallos Chamber Music Series — held Wednesday evening at the New Haven Lawn Club — cellist Daniel Hamin Go had a little insider’s tip. “In order for this to be the best concert you’ve ever been to, this is what you have to do. During the intermission, which will begin in about 16 minutes, there is lots of wine!” The audience laughed. “And some good food. I highly recommend you either get drunk or you stuff yourself, because then we will sound amazing.” The audience laughed again. It was a fitting encapsulation of the tone of the evening, in which the music was serious but the mood informal and festive, making for a night of serious fun.
Continue reading ‘Kallos Brings Light Atmosphere, Heavy Talent’
by | Jan 17, 2024 9:00 am | Comments (0)
The Sacred Harp participants for the evening.
Do you like to sing? I do, but I haven’t done much formally or had any instruction in it. For 2024 one of my goals was to truly find my own voice without shame or judgment. Lucky for me, Volume Two at Never Ending Books has a gathering of the New Haven Sacred Harp every third Monday of the month, where new and inexperienced singers are always welcome.
by | Jan 17, 2024 9:00 am | Comments (2)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Allen Lowe performing at Best Video.
Allen Lowe, a man of multiple talents — musician, songwriter, author, historian — likes to argue. Luckily for jazz fans, those arguments fuel his creative output.
His life is being captured in a documentary as he works on an array of new projects as well as a monthly jazz series at Best Video that is seeing its audience grow with every show. Lowe is no stranger to crowded rooms, as he has been playing to them locally and elsewhere for years. He currently seems to be in a sort of renaissance era — though if you ask him, he may argue that point as well.
by | Jan 15, 2024 8:54 am | Comments (0)
The Almighty Yellow Star.
Guitar strings plucked with grace and care, voices keening in the air, and one of the most attentive audiences seen anywhere in months made for an intense and intimate evening of music Saturday at Best Video Film and Cultural Center in Hamden.
by | Jan 8, 2024 9:12 am | Comments (0)
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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 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 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 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 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)
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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 8:23 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.