Cyro Baptista Banquet of Spirits @ Joe’s Pub 5/29/08

That was an excellent show! It’s actually Cyro’s band, AthropoFagia with a new name. The New Yorker said the quartet “pays tribute to the global reach of the late jazz trumperter Don Cherry and his seventies trio Codona … “

Between the 4 musicians, they had 35-40 instruments on that stage. Brian Marsella had several different keyboards, that African vibe-looking thing, and a few other things, maybe 8-10 instruments. Shanir Blumenkranz had his electric bass, oud, and a sintar. The rest were the 2 percussionists, Cyro Baptista and Tim Keiper, who I think is in all of Cyro’s projects, at least the ones I’ve seen. I bet Don Cherry could play every instrument up there.

It was awesome world music. I also realize that Cyro is one performer who can add his performance pieces right in with the music in such a way that I love. Usually, I get turned off when they switch to humor or other types of performance because I just want the music. But Cyro just incoporates that stuff into the music and it makes it awesome and quite entertaining.

I saw AnthropoFagia at Tonic when this was super new. I think it’s evolved since then as my remembrance is it was more free back then. This was more worldish. It was awesome from start to finish.

I think one of the first times I saw Cyro and Tim was at The Stone during the Don Cherry festival, curated by Adam Rudolph. I think that was Oct 2005, yes it was:
October 1–23, 2005 at the Stone
A Don Cherry Celebration
curated by Adam Rudolph
On the tenth anniversary of the passing of this luminous being, colleagues, collaborators and torchbearers perform Don’s compositions and play new music inspired by his creative spirit.

I went to almost every one of those shows until about 10/15, when I went out of town. It was the first time I even heard of Don Cherry and every night was amazing. There were percussionists every night and people who used to play with Don or learned from people who played with Don. I got a lot of stories about Don in that time. Lot of percussion and it set me further down the path of exploring world music.

Anyway, I’m very happy this quartet exists. I got the CD, and I really like it. They did everything from the CD last night and I hope to get to it again. I do like it live a little more, but the CD is great.

North Sea Jazz Festival

Here's the Netherlands festival that guy I met at jazzfest was telling me about. It does look awesome. It's going on the list for the future. Maybe next year.

http://www.northseajazz.com/nl/schedule.aspx

The Latin Jazz Allstars @ Iridium 5/28/08

I was sick all day yesterday. After about 15 hours of sleep, I felt great and was completely over whatever it was. That of course meant I was well-rested with cabin fever and had to get out. I couldn't get to the early shows, so it was down to Iridium or Edmar Castenada at 55 Bar. Since I just saw that, I figured I was about due for Iridium. Also, I seem to be in a Latin pattern lately, so may as well hit it up.

It was great. It was $40, but there were a lot of people on the stage. Steve Turre seemed to be calling the songs, but I think Arturo O'Farrell might have been the leader. They were all excellent. It started with a sitin on bass clarinet. Ray Vega was on trumpet and flugelhorn, there were 2 trombones, piano, timbales, congas, and drum kit. Then, I lucked out that Kenny Garrett was in attendance and sat in for 1.

The drums were all awesome. Everyone was awesome. I loved having piano. I found myself being caught by the bass (Yunior Terry) quite a bit. It was excellent! Then, as good as it was, Kenny Garrett took it to a whole other level. He was definitely the highlight of an already great set.

I bet if I had gotten there for the 1st set, there was a good chance of staying for the 2nd for another minimum. It wasn't too full.

I do like that place, the only problem is location and price. It is nice to get there every now and then. I would like to try the jazz brunch sometime. It think it's a buffet and I do like whatever food I've had there.

Iridium's website is down, but I think this listing has some extra people that weren't there. I don't quite remember the names of everyone up there. I do know the other trombone was Jimmy Bosch and Phoniex Rivera was the trap drummer.

THE LATIN JAZZ ALL STARS: FOR MARIO & HILTON
FEATURING:
STEVE TURRE, CANDIDO, ARTURO O'FARRILL, RAY VEGA, DAVID VALENTIN,
YUNIOR TERRY, CLAUDIO RODITI, PETE ESCOVEDO, DAVID SANCHEZ, CHEMBO CORNIEL, PHONIEX RIVERA, JORGE CASTRO & JIMMY BOSCH

Tony Malaby @ Tea Lounge 5/26/08

I didn't get a lot of that show, but I liked what I saw. Tony Malaby, Angela Sanchez, and Tom Rainey. Tony had a gig there every Mon in May. I'm not sure if it was a residency or a regular thing. It's a big place where the music listeners can sit close to the band and there are lots of people on their laptops all over the place. I was there to hang out with some Brooklyn friends, mainly, but it was nice to get some music. That was definitely avant-garde and pretty out there. They only did 1 set and then they show a film later on Mondays. I thought it was going to be at 9, but it turned out the music started at 8ish.

Peter Sampfel + Rob Brown @ The Stone 5/25/08

I went to The Stone by accident at 8, thinking that was the Peter Brown set. I was going to do that and then Will Bernard at the Blue Owl, but ended up doing The Stone for both sets.

It was kind of timely to get this folk music since I recently read an interesting article in The New Yorker about the preservation of American folk music. It was 4 people, even though 3 are listed below. They played various banjos, something they referred to as a "banjtar", which looked like a banjo with 6 strings, a guitar at times, and various percussion things. They were happy people. The woman mainly played percussion and sang. I don't think she played strings at all, so I'm not sure if it is the one in the listing.

They were kind of hammy. Peter Stampfel was hamming it up a lot with his singing. I enjoyed for the first half hour and then I thought I had enough. They played for a little over an hour, so I was kind of stuck there. Luckily there was one good instrumental and a blues tune I liked after I got sick of it. It wasn't painful to stay by any means, I just wasn't that into it. I kept wondering what these people were doing at The Stone. It seemed better suited to Banjo Jim's.

Everyone else was there to see this band, and they all enjoyed it immensely.

I looked up Peter Stampfel and see he's well-known and loved in the folk world. I found this interview that I just skimmed. OK, so maybe he is "Stone-worthy" and I just don't like hams. Also, my singer bias is definitely there. I think he should have left that to the girl. Everyone else didn't want them to go, so I was just at the wrong show for me. And, I do want to emphasize at I definitely enjoyed some of it and I would have left in the middle if it was terrible.

5/25 Sunday (MM)
8 pm
Peter Stampfel
Peter Stampfel (strings), Eli Smith (strings), Jeannie Scofield (strings)
The one and only Peter Stampfel holds forth with friends and stringed instruments for a wild set of swinging songs, mournful tunes and real toe-tappers.

I had to go back to see the show I was curious about. It turns out the cd release they were celebrating has William Parker, but he couldn't be there because he's in Europe. They got a good substitute with Todd Nicholson. I could tell the bass parts really were for Parker, though and I know it would have sounded a little different if he was there.

It was great. They were all great. It never got too out there, but it wasn't normal straight jazz, either. That was definitely more to my liking than the first show.

10 pm
Rob Brown Ensemble
Rob Brown (sax) Craig Taborn (piano) Gerald Cleaver (drums) Todd Nicholson
(bass)
A show to celebrate the CD release of CROWN TRUNK ROOT FUNK by the Rob Brown 4tet album out NOW on Aum Fidelity.

Outside Music Memorial Day Weekend 2008

It was such a great weekend to be outside! I like to wander around the parks for the street music. I'm looking forward to Washington Square Park getting done with that massive renovation. In the meantime, I have Tompkin Square Park at least. I tend to hang out by the latin guys that usually have drums and often other things. There was just drums whenever I went by, but since I love drums that was fine with me.

At one point, this woman came up and asked them to stop or turn it down or something. I felt a little bad for her because people jumped all over her. Someone finally pointed out a nice peaceful area nearby where she wouldn't be able to hear the music. I mean, those guys are out there all the time and I tend to think of them as part of the park.

On Sun there was the Losaida Festival over on Ave C. They had lots of latin bands at the end of the street, near 13th St. It was awesome.

Open Ears Music Series in NOLA

I am very glad to see this exists and when I go to NOLA on a random long weekend, I'm going to have to make sure I stay for this on a Tues night.

One thing that really came through at jazzfest is that they need visitors. It's something simple and fun that we can do to support them and bring their spirits up. I can't tell you how many people thanked us for coming and told us how nice it was to see us. From cab drivers to musicians and all over the place. They thrive on visitors and once you get off Bourbon St it's such a great place to visit.

Any way, I'm glad to see a creative music thing going on there. I know that The Big Top also has creative music and it's good to see there's more than just the same old, same old there. I of course like to see the same old, same old when I'm there, but if I lived there I would need more. I'm glad they have this for the people who live there. I always imagined them seeing the same bands week after week.

http://openearsmusic.org/