by | Mar 10, 2025 9:17 am | Comments (0)
Leigh Busby Photos
Ohlman performing Friday night with Rebel Montez.
Christine Ohlman is still at it.
Continue reading ‘Beehive Queen Buzzes Anew With "Alabama And Lonesome"’
by | Mar 6, 2025 2:40 pm | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
Operatic and concert soloist and recording artist Adriana Zabala at WNHH FM.
Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper-Chekhov never made it to a villa they dreamed of on Italy’s Lake Como. Adriana Zabala shed a tear about that the other day.
Zabala, a mezzo-soprano, also lifted her voice. You can argue that she helped make the Chekhovs’ dream come true.
by | Mar 6, 2025 10:41 am | Comments (0)
Using levers to get exactly the right note.
Jisu Sheen photos
Umut Yasmut brings the kanun to RAWA, all the way from New York.
As Umut Yasmut filled the dining area of Westville’s Mediterranean and Middle Eastern fusion restaurant RAWA with cascading melodies, the New York musician said that his instrument, an intricately carved stringed creation, did not exist.
by | Mar 5, 2025 5:34 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
At Wednesday's Toad's 50th anniversary event.
Decades after an aborted attempt by local officials to deliver an honorary certificate at Toad’s Place, New Haven’s mayor joined an alder onstage to officially express the city’s pride in the 50-year-old legendary York Street rock club.
Continue reading ‘City Cites Toad’s Place — For Making History’
by | Mar 3, 2025 9:22 am | Comments (0)
Jisu Sheen Photo
DJ Jentlemen spinning through the haze.
At an album release party Friday night at Cafe Nine, DJs from New Haven’s HEATSYNC all-vinyl collective dropped tracks from their new 4‑track techno dance EP Buddy City. The crowd pulsated as fog and humming beats pumped into the space. Every so often, a dancer would take over the floor for a moment, flowing alongside the distortion and sweet noise.
As DJ 7Ways played one of the original tracks from Buddy City, his voice floated over the crowd: “This record is for sale. And this is the first time a mic has ever been used at HEATSYNC. Goodbye.”
by | Mar 3, 2025 9:14 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos.
Jack Daniel and Brian Ember miming magic.
What do you do when your birthday is on Feb. 29 but it’s not a leap year? Jack Daniel of The Broken Robots threw himself and a raucously receptive crowd a Very Merry Un-Birthday Party at Best Video on Feb. 28 instead, complete with cake, improvised poetic jazz performance art, and the musical stylings of Brian Ember.
by | Feb 27, 2025 2:30 pm | Comments (0)
College Street Music Hall
Howard Jones takes College Street back, with ABC (below).
Howard Jones & ABC
College Street Music Hall
Feb. 26, 2025
On Wednesday night a vibrant crowd at College Street Music Hall rejoiced in their remembrance of the 1980s with two of its most successful and celebrated British New Wave synth pop acts: Howard Jones and ABC.
Both acts made their mark as equally for the memorable visuals in their videos played on near perpetual repeat on MTV throughout its first decade as well as for the string of radio hits each had that continue to get regular airplay on Sirius XM’s First Wave radio station devoted to purveyors of post punk and synth-soaked tunes.
by | Feb 24, 2025 12:55 pm | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Allie Burnet.
Midway through her set with her band, the Proven Winners, Allie Burnet asked to do one song by herself. In a break from her original material, she launched into a cover of Sinéad O’Connor’s “Black Boys on Mopeds,” a 1990 song about police brutality that has aged all too well.
To give the song a final twist, Burnet changed one line. In 1990, O’Connor sang, “These are dangerous days / to say what you feel is to dig your own grave.” Burnet altered the second half of that line: “To be who you are is to stand in your grave.”
by | Feb 24, 2025 10:03 am | Comments (0)
LÉA THE LEOX with guitarist Graham Bhuyan.
When asked to describe how he felt about the set he played at Hamden’s Space Ballroom Saturday night, LÉA THE LEOX’s guitarist, Graham Bhuyan, smiled and said, “It kind of felt like hugging your favorite color.” An up-and-coming soul, pop, and R&B act out of LA, LÉA THE LEOX and Bhuyan wasted no time stealing hearts on Hamden soil. It’s safe to say whatever the color was, it hugged back hard.
by | Feb 17, 2025 1:58 pm | Comments (0)
Moore performing at WNHH FM.
Fresh off an NYC premiere, Johnathan Moore picked up his bow, turned on his BOSS RC-600 Loop station, and transformed into a one-man orchestra.
by | Feb 17, 2025 10:21 am | Comments (0)
Chris Randall Photo
Guitarist and composer Hiroya Tsukamoto played an amazing show at Fair Haven Furniture, turning the cozy, intimately-lit space into a personal mini-concert hall. His mix of detailed fingerpicking and heartfelt storytelling made for a captivating night, with every note filling the unique setting with warmth and emotion.
Continue reading ‘Guitar Wizard Lights Furniture Haven On Fire’
by | Feb 14, 2025 12:40 pm | Comments (0)
Jisu Sheen Photo
I-SHEA on the Conga, Seny Camara on Jembe, and Douglas Wilson III on guitar.
“The telepathy up here is crazy.”
Jocelyn Pleasant, leader of Connecticut’s well-loved Afro-funk fusion ensemble The Lost Tribe, might have been talking about communication between band members, but she also set the stage for an intimate connection between the band and the audience at a performance Thursday night at NXTHVN in Dixwell.
by | Feb 10, 2025 4:20 pm | Comments (0)
Killer Kin, Intercourse, Dissolve, Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean
Space Ballroom
Hamden
Feb. 9, 2025
On Super Bowl Sunday, thousands of viewers across the United States tuned in to Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans to share the wonder and excitement of the biggest sports evening of the year.
by | Feb 10, 2025 12:09 pm | Comments (0)
Matt Fried Photo
Matt Fried Photo
Music’s ability to offer hope or resilience, to soothe or to bolster, is often a feature of the conversation around public performance of classical music. In Woolsey Hall on Sunday afternoon, washed entirely in natural light, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra amplified that message.
by | Feb 10, 2025 9:40 am | Comments (0)
Leigh Busby Photo
Vance Gilbert performing at Jazzy's.
Vance Gilbert
Jazzy’s Cabaret
4 Orange St.
New Haven
Feb. 8, 2025
Vance Gilbert was talking about John Prine before a full house at Jazzy’s Cabaret Saturday night when he saw flashing lights outside on Orange Street.
by | Feb 6, 2025 2:31 pm | Comments (0)
Matt Esposito Photo
Rachel Goswell of Slowdive at CSMH.
Slowdive
College Street Music Hall
New Haven
Feb. 4, 2025
There was a slow, two-minute build. The drums began to accelerate and subdivide. The bass switched its pattern, following the drums’ rhythm. The sung melody soared over it all, an angelic wordless wail. Other lines moved in and out, from guitars and electronics, somehow both floating and gathering energy. The lights around the crowd and stage slowly multiplied and became more colorful.
Finally, it erupted. The lights started flashing, impossibly fast. The music consumed itself, becoming an onslaught of noise that pummeled bobbing heads and waving arms in the audience. All the while, the line of musicians at the front of the stage — Slowdive members Rachel Goswell (vocal, guitar, synth), Neil Halstead (vocal, guitar), Christian Savill (guitar), Nick Chaplin (bass), and Simon Scott (drums) — were motionless, staring out at the crowd or down at the row of pedals and flashing lights by their feet.
by | Jan 31, 2025 11:00 am | Comments (0)
Leigh Busby Photo
Edward Beverly (above) and Killian Dobroth (below) performing Thursday night at Musical Intervention Studios.
“You gotta be who you are,” Edward Beverly sang Thursday night in an alcove retail space beneath the suspended concrete planet known as the Temple Street Garage, “because that’s who you are.”
Continue reading ‘Musical Healing Home Needs An Intervention’
by | Jan 31, 2025 10:05 am | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
Joshua Roman performs in the WNHH FM studio.
Cindy told a story about having life as you know it taken from you, about wrestling with how to adjust to a new life, then accepting and moving on.
The story had no words.
by | Jan 30, 2025 10:28 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Chris Brunetti of Trench CT.
Rage found an outlet in voices and beats as three Connecticut bands — Remedies, Trench CT, and Psycho Brat — took to the stage at Cafe Nine on Wednesday night. With newspaper headlines full of political tension, the bands’ sets of hardcore and punk made a place for release.
by | Jan 27, 2025 1:30 pm | Comments (0)
From an Askew album cover.
Ed Askew, a Yale-educated painter who achieved wider renown as a singer-songwriter, died in New York City on Jan. 4 at age 84. The venerable music publication NME described him as a “psychedelic folk musician.” People magazine called him a cult figure.
by | Jan 27, 2025 10:46 am | Comments (0)
Chris Randall photo
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Yale Schwarzman Center
New Haven
Jan. 25, 2025
Cécile McLorin Salvant, perhaps the jazz vocalist of the last decade, performed in New Haven Saturday in what she described as an evening of “pure fantasy.”
by | Jan 27, 2025 10:32 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Old Milk Mooney harmonize with Ashly from Figurine.
I am officially declaring 2025 the year of the Cozy Musical Get Together after Sunday night’s Old Milk Mooney Birthday Show at Never Ending Books.
by | Jan 27, 2025 9:28 am | Comments (0)
Leigh Busby Photo
Legacy Girls -- Jasmine Johnson, Sonetta Lynn, and Kayla Morton -- perform at the second monthly edition of Tempo.
“When I say ‘word,’” Frank E. Brady told the crowd, “say the first word that comes the top of your head.”
by | Jan 24, 2025 3:05 pm | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photos
Focus trio's Mathew Munzner and Israel Corona-Galan (above) and Brendan Castro (below) crammed into the WNHH FM studio.
Fourteen years after Israel Corona-Galan started building guitars, he’s building original floral-themed tunes for his jazz trio.
by | Jan 24, 2025 11:09 am | Comments (0)
Chris Randall Photos
Destroy Lonely & lil88
Toad’s Place
New Haven
Jan. 24, 2025
Atlanta rapper Destroy Lonely stood elevated on the Toad’s stage Thursday night, illuminated by dramatic beams of light that cut through the haze, creating a cinematic atmosphere. From the audience, the experience was an all-encompassing sensory overload — the pounding bass, the vivid flashes of light, and the unrelenting energy of the crowd.