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Karen Ponzio |
Dec 4, 2023 8:33 am
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Tyshawn Sorey Trio.
Did you hear thunder Friday night or see lightning? Probably not, unless you were one of the lucky few to attend the sold-out Tyshawn Sorey Trio show at Firehouse 12. Part of the venue’s 2023 Fall Jazz Series, these three acclaimed musicians — Tyshawn Sorey on drums, Aaron Diehl on piano, and Matt Brewer on bass — presented a scintillating set of spontaneity and skill, coupled with unbridled joy, that became a master class on how live music can be downright magical.
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Karen Ponzio |
Nov 30, 2023 9:23 am
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The Nick Di Maria Quartet
Wednesday night’s luminous lunar display recalled the opening line of “That’s Amore”: “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie…” so it seemed apropos that I was on my way to see The Nick Di Maria Quartet at Nolo, the State Street purveyor of New Haven’s most well-known meal and so much more.
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 30, 2023 8:22 am
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Mizu.
Sweeping music from cello and electronics that sounded as huge as the tide. A man on stilts, playing guitar, his hair nearly touching the ceiling. Another man singlehandedly turning the club into a dark lounge. Thanks to Mizu, Tall Juan, and Kyle Avallone, all these moments and more happened at Cafe Nine, bringing big vibes to a rapt audience on Wednesday night.
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Karen Ponzio |
Nov 27, 2023 8:19 am
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Michael Slyne at Volume 2.
On the day after Thanksgiving, many scattered through stores to find the best prices on holiday presents. Others settled into couches to catch college football. A select few found themselves making their way to FiFac’s House, a monthly music series held on the last Friday of each month over the past year at Never Ending Books. Not unlike the multitude of series held at the State Street gathering space — both before and after its reimagination under the Volume Two collective — the night offered an array of performers that established a symbiotic relationship between creator and listener via dissonance, dreaminess, and experimentation.
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Nora Grace-Flood |
Nov 21, 2023 11:01 am
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F.A.M.E. Middle Schoolers from dance Cumbia with their senior citizen counterparts in Fair Haven.
Fair Haven school kids filed into the Atwater Senior Center to keep their senior counterparts company in advance of Thanksgiving — and to dance cumbia with New Haveners like 73-year-old Yvonne Sheppard, who said the celebration was less a loneliness intervention than it was a special occasion among a vibrant city full of friends.
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Adam Matlock |
Nov 21, 2023 8:58 am
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Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain.
The New Haven Symphony Orchestra, one of a few American orchestras working to address injustices in the past and present of professional classical music, made two important — and increasingly common — choices at their Sunday afternoon concert at SCSU’s Lyman Hall.
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Karen Ponzio |
Nov 20, 2023 8:50 am
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Them Airs.
Sunday night is not typically known for being festive, unless you are part of the local music scene. This Sunday at Best Video, three bands — New Haven’s own Big Iron and Them Airs, along with Bruiser and Bicycle from Albany — jammed out and turned the night into something reviving.
By day Steve Mednick has been helping cities rewrite their constitutions. By night he has been writing songs about the storms in our political universe.
Dr. Jonathan Q. Berryman isn’t lamenting how technology has changed our world. Instead he’s harnessing it to help young people find their voices in the choir.
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 7, 2023 9:29 am
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Head with Wings.
Seven precise strokes from a rhythm guitar don’t prepare the listener for the way “The Dream Broker” — the first song from Without Intervention, the latest release from New Haven-based progressive rock band Head with Wings — takes a sudden turn, into thick drums and bass, soaring guitars, and straight through the middle of it, strong yet plaintive vocals. “It’s not funny when you feel this way / You’re champing at the bit to make money then you feel ashamed / Yet you’re coming back for more and more and more,” the singer belts out. “Nobody wants to relive the beginning / Or walk away from a life they’ve built on borrowed time / The situation is so goddamn deflating / Just sign your name along the dotted line.” And then the song turns again, heating up, making the words sink in that much more.
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Karen Ponzio |
Oct 31, 2023 11:06 am
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Klein watches her video premiere.
Volume Two and a crew of three local acts amped up their audience for Halloween on Sunday night with a spooky video release celebration and a selection of songs that got everyone in the holiday spirit.
Musician Laura Klein started working on the video for “Faux Départ” while recovering from surgery. She happened upon unreleased tracks from her band Western Estates, deciding “this song deserves more than just an internet blast.” After working on the video for over two years, she gave it its premiere in front of an enthusiastic crowd, some dressed in apropos Halloween attire, and all surrounded in the appropriate art of the most recent Volume Two art exhibition, titled “Volume Boo!”
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Adam Matlock |
Oct 31, 2023 8:09 am
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Time for Three.
In introducing Thursday Night’s New Haven Symphony Orchestra program in Woolsey Hall, Music Director Alisdair Neale cut to the chase. “Both these works feature a lot of art — without artifice,” he said, referencing their emotional immediacy. The program, featuring Grammy-winning trio Time for Three as something along the lines of a group of concerto-grosso soloists, featured two works by American composers, both of which presented a more romantic vision of orchestral music.
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Karen Ponzio |
Oct 25, 2023 9:12 am
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Xiu Xiu at the Space Ballroom.
The Space Ballroom doubled up on the musical magic Monday night as the mind-blowing and meditative Mountain Movers shared a bill with longtime purveyors of passion and intensity Xiu Xiu. The crisp fall air held the promise of Halloween, only a week away, and this line up, whose music almost defies description, was so good it was almost scary.
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Babz Rawls-Ivy |
Oct 23, 2023 8:15 am
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Highly praised for her unique work, sonic artist Ash Fure is coming to New Haven and bringing a week-long interactive art installation with her, “ANIMAL: A Listening Gym.”
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Marisa Torrieri |
Oct 18, 2023 8:32 am
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Chaser Eight.
Saturday night’s Cafe Nine show — starring New Haven-area rock ‘n’ roll favorites Chaser Eight, pop-punk Gen X‑ers The Dollyrots, and Maryland-based newcomers Kings of The Wild Things — brought a much-needed serotonin boost to the week’s end. Concertgoers drove hours, from places as far away as Syracuse, N.Y. and parts of Wisconsin, to join New Haveners in packing the nightclub, leaving little room between the front door and the stage.
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Asher Joseph |
Oct 12, 2023 8:51 am
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The TV Girl All-Star Traveling Band.
A line snaked around Toad’s Place into the courtyard off of York Street on Monday evening as “Lonely Girls” and “boys who act their age” filed into the venue, headlined by TV Girl, a California-based indie pop band that took the internet by storm this year with a series of viral hits.
Wine Down CT’s end-of-summer event, Dear Summer, went down Sunday evening. If you get a chance to go to their next event, get your ticket early because they sell out fast, and I see why. Wine Down CT — which, according to Aislin Magazine, started hosting lusciously curated events as a riff on Wine Down Wednesdays, popularized by the TV show Insecure — throws fabulous day parties that draw hundreds of people to hang out, taste great food, vibe to good DJs and live music, imbibe scrumptious libations and generally have a good time.
The description online read: “In this ephemeral haven of sonic and poetic delights, the Afrogalactic Tea Party invites you to immerse yourself in a curated experience of taste and culture.”
The Sunday afternoon event at the flower and lifestyle shop Bloom on Central Avenue in Westville was part of the ongoing 6th Dimension Afrofuturism festival, a series of art exhibits, talks, screenings, and other gatherings running now through Oct. 25.
I love a tea party, and coupling one with Afrofuturism intrigued me, so I headed to the festival website to grab a ticket, which was pretty reasonable at $23. I wasn’t sure what to expect.
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Karen Ponzio |
Oct 2, 2023 8:33 am
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Westville Music Bowl said so long to the summer and another full season of outdoor concerts with their closing show Thursday night, headlined by none other than boygenius, a band with a name spelled in lowercase letters and stacked with uppercase talent. Singer-songwriters Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus have been touring the country in support of their first full-length album, the record, which was released in March 2023 with a variety of opening acts. On this night it was Palehound, who also released an album, Eye on the Bat, in July.
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Adam Matlock |
Oct 2, 2023 8:28 am
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Joyce Yang.
Towering C major chords from organ and orchestra in unison. Dazzling rhythmic interplay between soloist Joyce Yang and the orchestra. An energetic rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” resuming a tradition in Woolsey Hall. Thursday night’s debut of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 – 24 season was full of triumphant moments, even as it very meaningfully kicked off the orchestra’s final season under Music Director Alisdair Neale.
Saturday night was a great night for blues. As rain pattered on the windows of Cafe Nine on the corner of Crown and State Streets in New Haven, a small and diverse crowd of music lovers sipped beers and munched pretzels as they listened to Buffalo Nichols give a lesson in the music of musicians like Robert Johnson and B.B. King. That lesson, in time, made the joint jump, with a few couples two-stepping in front of the stage.
A leading East Coast concert promoter has signed up to help book shows at the Westville Music Bowl, after teaming up with the local group that runs the ex-tennis stadium-turned-music venue.
