The Dark Knight Returns
Out on an ill-advised shopping trip to Georgetown one sweltering August afternoon some years ago, the two of us rounded the corner from Pennsylvania Ave. to M Street. In our path a junkie lay shirtless and spread-eagle, a pitted dark briquette smoldering on the new brick sidewalk. A factoid bubbles up as the sweat beads down: “Gil Scott-Heron’s playing at Blues Alley this week” just a few wavy-lined blocks away.
Glacial Thaw
Springtime’s burst of energy is always refreshing, but the churning unpredictability of recent weather (via climate change) saps some of the excitement about rising temperatures. As dead zones balloon in the oceans, the UN is grasping for direction and memories of the Copenhagen Summit now linger like the stench of thawing permafrost. All that being said, spring is still pretty frickin’ awesome.
Ode to the Whirring Eye
Until now, Charlotte Gainsbourg’s career has been sandwiched by two intriguing yet creepy performances. She entered the music world at thirteen singing on “Lemon Incest” for her father, the freaky French genius Serge Gainsbourg.
Africa is the Future((shock))
You know it’s true - it’s mad crazy right now for an African. Flee by boat from corruption and poverty only to get baseball batted by some Italian kids? The trip from Africa to Europe is ill. With a shock of hair and packing a little punch, singer Nneka hops between her mother’s Germany and her father’s Nigeria regularly. Everywhere in between she chants righteous frustration as if her name were Lauryn Marley. Let mixtape king J.
Q: Can Blanquitos Rock Topsiders and Rock African Polyrhythms?
A: Apparently so, and it makes people want to wipe that smirk off their faces. Vampire Weekend’s second LP Contra shot to the top of the charts while scripting pop tunes that are as polarizing as Obamacare. Either they’re the new best thing or the new culture bandits, unashamedly talented and privileged. Divisive music for divided times. WNYC’s John Schaefer pits the haters versus the lovers on the latest edition of the Soundcheck Smackdown.
Haiti, Fela, and the Superadobe
A woman groans over a pile of rubble in Port-Au-Prince, fighting a shattered building for the remains of her family. A saxophone wails over drums and percussion to a packed crowd on Broadway, building a syncopated call-and-response while bodies writhe in unison. Martin Perna connects the dots: Antibalas, the house band for Fela! on Broadway, was founded by a follower of architect Nader Khalili, whose superadobe building is Haiti’s best bet for rebuilding.
NYC Winter Jazzfest, Part 2
Jazz music has nothing in common with the grey spruce lying unwanted on the Bleecker Street sidewalk, its shreds of tinsel swaying upwards with cold winter gusts. The NYC Winter Jazzfest’s Saturday venues are, in fact, hot houses for a verdant field of talent. Rumors of jazz’s demise are greatly exaggerated with so many genre-bending improvisers sprouting up these days. For a little green ($25 for one night, $30 for two), a crush of 2,500 cultivated souls reaped the benefits of one of the year’s best fests.
NYC Winter Jazzfest, Part 1
So this is the Horn of Plenty. It’s the first night of the NYC Winter Jazzfest and one thing’s for certain: I can’t write in the dark. In its sixth year, the festival features a line-up of fifty smartly selected bands performing at five venues in the West Village.
