The guitars go on the block at 1 pm at Cindy Smith Auctions in Hillsborough.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Weird Karma
In weird news: 3 vintage guitars of disbarred former Durham DA Mike Nifong will be auctioned off this Sunday (10/12), as ordered by an NC bankuptcy court.
The guitars go on the block at 1 pm at Cindy Smith Auctions in Hillsborough.
The guitars go on the block at 1 pm at Cindy Smith Auctions in Hillsborough.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Brasil 58
Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento & the Jobim Trio play at Duke's Page Auditorium this Thursday (10/9), kicking off a Duke Performances concert series in honor of the 50th birthday of bossa nova.Here's a mid-tour concert review just out today from the Wall Street Journal critic Jim Fusilli.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Cross Currents
More pics by clicking on...
I saw Al Strong Friday night in John Brown's Jazz Orchestra; here he is soloing with Orquesta GarDel at the Jordan Lake Arts and Music Festival.
JLAM was a nice set-up; the festival has room to grow but it was not a bad turnout for their first event ever. It has a Shakori vibe but the location is far more accessible to where most people in the Triangle live; it was just a straight shot down 751 from Durham for me, north of Apex on Jordan Lake, in a pretty area with horses and farms and country churches. Nice sounds, groovy vendors, hula folk, all the essentials were there for a funky good time. (Ran into HOBEX' Greg Humphreys, checking out the soundscape, on Sunday.) It will be interesting to watch this festival grow.
I went back Sunday to see Eric and Pete from Orquesta GarDel (pictured) in their live hiphop gig, The Beast, with Pierce Freelon. Among other tunes you can hear on YouTube and now, on their EP, they rolled out "Translation," a salsa-hiphop hybrid that brought the dancers back out from Carolina Ballroom of Cary.
Carolina Ballroom had a booth at the festival, and delivered their dance energy en masse at GarDel's set the day before. I did a little mingling and danced with one of their instructors, Robert Wright. That was a friendly meeting of the worlds (in the grassy, muddy terrain, "street rules" definitely applied). Robert and his wife Mitzi are Fred Astaire-schooled instructors who teach all types of ballroom dancing at their Cary studio.
Hear The Beast's recent interview on WUNC's The State of Things on their myspace player. Appearing soon at Shakori Hills (10/10) and Duke Coffeehouse (10/18).
I saw Al Strong Friday night in John Brown's Jazz Orchestra; here he is soloing with Orquesta GarDel at the Jordan Lake Arts and Music Festival.
JLAM was a nice set-up; the festival has room to grow but it was not a bad turnout for their first event ever. It has a Shakori vibe but the location is far more accessible to where most people in the Triangle live; it was just a straight shot down 751 from Durham for me, north of Apex on Jordan Lake, in a pretty area with horses and farms and country churches. Nice sounds, groovy vendors, hula folk, all the essentials were there for a funky good time. (Ran into HOBEX' Greg Humphreys, checking out the soundscape, on Sunday.) It will be interesting to watch this festival grow.
I went back Sunday to see Eric and Pete from Orquesta GarDel (pictured) in their live hiphop gig, The Beast, with Pierce Freelon. Among other tunes you can hear on YouTube and now, on their EP, they rolled out "Translation," a salsa-hiphop hybrid that brought the dancers back out from Carolina Ballroom of Cary.
Carolina Ballroom had a booth at the festival, and delivered their dance energy en masse at GarDel's set the day before. I did a little mingling and danced with one of their instructors, Robert Wright. That was a friendly meeting of the worlds (in the grassy, muddy terrain, "street rules" definitely applied). Robert and his wife Mitzi are Fred Astaire-schooled instructors who teach all types of ballroom dancing at their Cary studio.
Hear The Beast's recent interview on WUNC's The State of Things on their myspace player. Appearing soon at Shakori Hills (10/10) and Duke Coffeehouse (10/18).
Friday, October 3, 2008
Two Matters Close at Hand
FRIDAY (10/3):
A great deal tonight, if you have a hankering for big band but not the pocketbook to match: The John Brown Jazz Orchestra plays in Baldwin Auditorium at Duke at 8 pm. Tickets are value-priced at $10 general admission or $5 for all students, seniors or Duke ID holders. This is John Brown's professional outfit, to be distinguished from the music department's student Jazz Ensemble (which will perform Oct 24 with guest Bobby Sanabria--more on that later).
SATURDAY-SUNDAY (10/4 - 10/5):
Jordan Lake Arts & Music holds its very FIRST Fall Festival this weekend. Kind of a Shakori-meets-Eno concept, Specs entrepreneur George Fage't started the festival to raise funds and awareness to clean up the Jordan Lake watershed. Day passes are $25, weekend passes $40, (seniors 66+ and kids under 12 free) and all proceeds will benefit local environmental causes.
The rain-or-shine event features 19 bands on 5 stages in a wide array of genres, from zydeco to hiphop to bluegrass, with salsa favorite Orquesta GarDel headlining Saturday at 4:30. Tent and RV camping is available on a first come, first served basis.
Location: Jordan Lake Farm at 1226 Martha's Chapel Road in Apex. See the festival website for full schedule and directions.
A great deal tonight, if you have a hankering for big band but not the pocketbook to match: The John Brown Jazz Orchestra plays in Baldwin Auditorium at Duke at 8 pm. Tickets are value-priced at $10 general admission or $5 for all students, seniors or Duke ID holders. This is John Brown's professional outfit, to be distinguished from the music department's student Jazz Ensemble (which will perform Oct 24 with guest Bobby Sanabria--more on that later).
SATURDAY-SUNDAY (10/4 - 10/5):
Jordan Lake Arts & Music holds its very FIRST Fall Festival this weekend. Kind of a Shakori-meets-Eno concept, Specs entrepreneur George Fage't started the festival to raise funds and awareness to clean up the Jordan Lake watershed. Day passes are $25, weekend passes $40, (seniors 66+ and kids under 12 free) and all proceeds will benefit local environmental causes.
The rain-or-shine event features 19 bands on 5 stages in a wide array of genres, from zydeco to hiphop to bluegrass, with salsa favorite Orquesta GarDel headlining Saturday at 4:30. Tent and RV camping is available on a first come, first served basis.
Location: Jordan Lake Farm at 1226 Martha's Chapel Road in Apex. See the festival website for full schedule and directions.
Que Orquesta!
It seems obvious in retrospect. But who would have thought, that by pooling the resources of our university, high school, and professional musicians, that we could end up with such a truly grand orquesta, such as David Garcia has fashioned out of Charanga Carolina?
Some scenes from last night's performance at Durham Academy:
(Click on photos to see more)
It's a beautiful experiment. I wish I could have played in a charanga when I was in high school! I wish I could have experienced the joy of Latin music when I was playing violin back then...I knew the intensity of Mahler, the ecstasy of Strauss, even the swing of Gershwin, but I didn't yet know clave, or danzon, or salsa. I envy these students!
An inspiration award goes to Bela Kussin, who had a leading hand in founding the Fiesta Latina at Durham Academy 3 years ago. Her invitation to Garcia and the Charanga to play there quickly led to collaboration, drawing DA student string players into the ensemble.
To see our local Latin musicians on stage with them is also a beautiful thing. Invited guests: Nelson Delgado and Ramon "Chino" Casiano, vocals, Andy Kleindienst (a Charanga alum), trombone, Alberto Carrasquillo, trumpet, Brevan Hampden, congas, Ramon Ortiz, timbales.
Coda:
As the crowd trailed out to catch the VP debate and stagehands wrapped electrical cords, Brevan and Ramon refused to give up the groove. I took a series of pictures of their impromptu descarga, this is the first:
Watch the rumba heat up at my flickr stream by clicking on the photo.
Some scenes from last night's performance at Durham Academy:
(Click on photos to see more)
It's a beautiful experiment. I wish I could have played in a charanga when I was in high school! I wish I could have experienced the joy of Latin music when I was playing violin back then...I knew the intensity of Mahler, the ecstasy of Strauss, even the swing of Gershwin, but I didn't yet know clave, or danzon, or salsa. I envy these students!
An inspiration award goes to Bela Kussin, who had a leading hand in founding the Fiesta Latina at Durham Academy 3 years ago. Her invitation to Garcia and the Charanga to play there quickly led to collaboration, drawing DA student string players into the ensemble.
To see our local Latin musicians on stage with them is also a beautiful thing. Invited guests: Nelson Delgado and Ramon "Chino" Casiano, vocals, Andy Kleindienst (a Charanga alum), trombone, Alberto Carrasquillo, trumpet, Brevan Hampden, congas, Ramon Ortiz, timbales.
Coda:
As the crowd trailed out to catch the VP debate and stagehands wrapped electrical cords, Brevan and Ramon refused to give up the groove. I took a series of pictures of their impromptu descarga, this is the first:
Watch the rumba heat up at my flickr stream by clicking on the photo.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Cuban Culture Thursday (10/2)
Charanga Carolina, UNC's Cuban rhythm and string orchestra, will perform at Durham Academy (Ridge Road Campus) this Thursday (10/2), as part of a school cultural event that is open to the public.
Durham Academy's 3rd annual "Fiesta Latina" celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with music and dance performances, and a dinner of Latin American food. Food will be for sale starting at 5:30 pm. The free cultural program begins at 7:00 pm. Charanga Carolina will play the second hour of the program, from 8:00-9:00 pm.
Charanga Carolina is made up of a combination of UNC-Chapel Hill students and Latin musicians from the local community; some Durham Academy students will also sit in. Musical director David Garcia has won accolades for the project; read more about it in this story I wrote for the Independent Weekly.
Also Thursday: anthropologist, author and documentary filmmaker Ruth Behar speaks at Duke at 7:00 pm. A Sephardic Jew from Cuba, Behar has written a book about the Jewish community there and is a former MacArthur grant winner.
Might I suggest a soundtrack? Benjamin Lapidus' recent Herencia Judia.
See our calendar for more info on both of Thursday's events.
Durham Academy's 3rd annual "Fiesta Latina" celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with music and dance performances, and a dinner of Latin American food. Food will be for sale starting at 5:30 pm. The free cultural program begins at 7:00 pm. Charanga Carolina will play the second hour of the program, from 8:00-9:00 pm.
Charanga Carolina is made up of a combination of UNC-Chapel Hill students and Latin musicians from the local community; some Durham Academy students will also sit in. Musical director David Garcia has won accolades for the project; read more about it in this story I wrote for the Independent Weekly.
Also Thursday: anthropologist, author and documentary filmmaker Ruth Behar speaks at Duke at 7:00 pm. A Sephardic Jew from Cuba, Behar has written a book about the Jewish community there and is a former MacArthur grant winner.
Might I suggest a soundtrack? Benjamin Lapidus' recent Herencia Judia.
See our calendar for more info on both of Thursday's events.
Boricua Jazz Genius
This just in: Puerto Rican jazz saxophonist Miguel Zenón has just won a MacArthur "genius" grant, to the tune of $500,000.
Can't get the embed link to work, but here's the link to the interview on CNN today where Zenón plays a sample.
I will play some of his music today on Azucar y Candela, 5:30-7:30 pm, on WXDU 88.7 FM or listen with iTunes via www.wxdu.org. I was going to feature some "next generation" Latin jazz anyway, inspired by Dafnis Prieto's visit. Zenón and his contemporaries are, to paraphrase the foundation, reinventing a new (Latin) jazz language for the 21st century.
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