Go: Organic Orchestra @ Roulette, Brooklyn, 04.09.12

Two days ago we went to see a concert by Go: Organic Orchestra at Roulette in Brooklyn. The orchestra is a project conducted by composer Adam Rudolph. The music sounded a bit like a mix of improvised world music/Jazz and modern classical music, which makes sense considering that Rudolph calls himself an improvisation conductor: Rather than using a score as a set of instructions of what, how and when to play, he says, the music is "organic" in the sense that the compositions and conducting serve as inspiration and context for the musicians to express themselves in the moment by using their instruments as an amplifier for their inner voice. “I conduct the musicians in a spontaneous way by using a variety of hand signals to cue and orchestrate the score and direct the improvisations,” Rudolph says. The result was quite fascinating, and the percussion section was great.

Bettis/Yeh/Bauder/Hufnagel @ The Stone NYC, 03.16.12

This concert was at the monthly John Zorn Improv night to benefit The Stone in NYC. John Zorn is the artistic director of this not-for-profit performance space, which specializes in experimental and avantgarde music.

The musicians were: Chuck Bettis (electronics); C. Spencer Yeh (violin); Matt Bauder (clarinet); Kevin Hufnagel (guitar)

Day 2 of the 2012 Winter Jazzfest in NYC, 01.07.12

We finally got around to posting the second set of videos with five more groups from this year's Winter Jazzfest in NYC.

The first is Grammy award winning pianist Laurence Hobgood and his sextet at Le Poisson Rouge. Hobgood played with Joel Frahm on tenor sax; Todd Bashore on alto sax; Brandon Lee on trumpet; Jared Schonig on drums, and Matthew Rybicki on bass:

Next at LPR was the very funky Bernie Worrell Orchestra with Bernie Worrell on keyboards; Kyle Cadena and Andrew Kimball on guitar; Scott Hogan, bass; Glen Fittin, percussion; Shlomi Cohen, alto sax; Ofer Assaf, tenor sax; Justin Mullens, trumpet; Karl Latham, drums; and Evan Taylor, drums:

One of the highlights was Ravi Coltrane, one of John and Alice Coltrane's sons, on saxophone, with the equally phenomenal Matt Garrison on bass and Nikki Glaspie on drums:

Then pianist Vijay Iyer played with Stephan Crump, who has a very interesting style on bass, and Marcus Gilmore on drums. Grammy-nominated Crump also played at the WJF with his Rosetta Trio:

Finally, we went to Sullivan Hall to see Jesse Fischer & Soul Cycle with Casey Benjamin on sax (first half of the video) and vocoder (second half of the video) as a special guest. They sound a bit similar to the Jazz Fusion band the Head Hunters (which we actually saw last year), and we loved the sound of the vocoder! They are: Jesse Fischer on piano and keyboard / Jerome Jennings, drums / David Linaburg, guitar / Shawn banks, percussion / Josh David, bass and special guest Casey Benjamin on vocoder and sax:

Day 1 of the 2012 Winter Jazzfest in NYC, 01.06.12

Finally we are ready to post our videos from the first day of one of our favorite musical events of the year in NYC: The Winter Jazzfest. This post features video of four groups.

The first two videos show Rudresh Mahanthappa's WJF Quartet at Kenny's Castaways.  This year, he played with Rez Abbasi on electric guitar, Rich Brown on electric bass and Rudy Royston on drums:

Mahanthappa already was a favorite of ours at last year's WJF, when we were lucky enough to see him at Zinc Bar with Nguyen Le on guitar, Chris Jennings on bass and Mark Guiliana on drums. 

Guiliana is also featured in another one of our videos this year, where he played a late night set at Kenny's Castaways with Zach Danziger on drums and electronics:

Then there were the New York Gypsy All-Stars at Sullivan Hall with one of our favorite bass players, Panagiotis Andreou (who is also featured on one of our videos from last year's WJF when he was playing in Jason Lindner's NOW vs. NOW):

Finally, we saw an incredible set at Kenny's Castaways with Ches Smith and John Hollenbeck on drums, Pete Robbins and Oscar Noriega on alto saxophone and Simon Jermyn on bass guitar:

Stay tuned for our videos of the second day, which we will post very soon!

Some of our favorite vinyl covers (and packaging)

The great thing about vinyl records is that they don't just come with the music, but also with a cover, which is often beautiful. Below are a few of our favorite vinyl covers. Oh, and we love the way Jazzanova packaged their Remixes series (see below). What are your favorites? Let us know!

Fania All Stars: Delicate and Jumpy

João Gilberto: João Gilberto 

Santana: Santana 

Jazzanova: The Remixes 1997-2000