Archive for January, 2009
DIONYZA: Newcomer Bridges R&B Generations
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
DIONYZA
“Quite like Me”
Little Dizzy Records
DIONYZA has a polished sophistication to her skilled, soulful, modern R&B styled music. The daughter of Motown singer/songwriters Michael and Brenda Sutton is a welcomed newcomer to counterbalance the dime-a-dozen-divabots that are taking over the music scene. Her lyrical content and style heralds back to Chante Moore and Maysa Leak.
read comments (0)New R&B chanteuse DIONYZA bridges the generations
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
DIONYZA
“Quite like Me”
Little Dizzy Records
DIONYZA has a polished sophistication to her skilled, soulful, modern R&B styled music. The daughter of Motown singer/songwriters Michael and Brenda Sutton is a welcomed newcomer to counterbalance the dime-a-dozen-divabots that are taking over the music scene. Her lyrical content and style heralds back to Chante Moore and Maysa Leak.
Read the rest of this entry »
To paraphrase the sappy, mushy title theme from the equally sappy movie Love Story of the `70’s, “Where do I begin, to tell the story of how great a night can be?” No minor exaggeration, this was one of those once-in-a-lifetime events that everyone who attended will not soon forget. The evening had everything every average Todd Rundgren fan would run a Ponzi scheme to get to.
Stray Thoughts of a Stray Mind
Author: Anthony Medici
Strange Interlude: no live jazz this weekend. Looking forward to some good shows the next couple of weeks and will report on them of course. In the meantime, some stray thoughts for your edification.
The recession has hit our friends at Downbeat. The February 2009 issue has so little content it ought to come with a rebate coupon. The cover story, “75 Great Guitarists” offers thumbnail (pinky nail?) sketches of, well, 75 guitarists. This exercise in cloying nostalgia serves no valid purpose except to, once again, exploit the legends of Wes Montgomery and others to cover the lack of serious thinking and reporting that so depressingly characterizes our mainstream jazz magazines. Let’s have a good wallow in nostalgia, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »
Free Jazz in Fortress America
Author: Anthony Medici
On a frigid Friday, I set out from Our Nation’s Capital to the City of Brotherly Love to attend the Marshall Allen-Han Bennink concert, part of the Ars Nova Workshop series. Leaving the DC area took on the trappings of departing from one of those doomed cities one finds in sci-fi movies, like “Escape from New York.” Massive security procedures for the Inauguration have turned DC into a bunker complex: bridges and roads closed; transit system overwhelmed and confused; people warned to stay away. I needed a change of scene. Read the rest of this entry »
SHERAZADA UPDATE!!!!
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
$herazada is going into the studio on Feb 2nd to record their second EP with Chris Badami who also produced:
-The Dillinger Escape Plan
-Trophy Scars
-Midtown
-The Early November
-Fenix TX
The online merchandise store is up: .<br style=”display:none” gauntlet_tokenizer_reserved=”"/> Just click on the nifty image below, shirts are real cheap! With each purchase you will recieve a FREE EP (extremely loud and incredibly close)
(signed if you please) !
ALSO
Round 1 of The Break Contest to play Bamboozle is THIS SUNDAY at the Cedar Grove VFW. For tickets contact the band.
-leigh Silbernagel
Bill Graham Presents
Author: Anthony Medici
Took a bit of a detour from my jazz reading to dip into “Bill Graham Presents,” a memoir in interview form by Graham and Robert Greenfield, who conducted interviews of Graham and the many individuals whose paths he crossed. I never met Graham, but, as owner and producer of the Fillmore East, he played a vital role in my life at one time, as he did for others as well. As the promoter of the original Fillmore Auditorium and Winterland in San Francisco, follwed by the Fillmore West, also in San Francisco, then the Fillmore East, in the East Village of New York City, Graham was a major force on the rock scene of the 1960s. As a dazed and confused 15 and 16 year old, I made regular pilgrimages to the Fillmore East, no small task at that time, given the very raw nature of the neighborhood and its denizens. There, I saw many of the great acts of rock’s classic era, often before the “broke” big on the scene. Read the rest of this entry »
Chick Corea: Artist of the Year? Is This Really 2009?
Author: Anthony Medici
Time to get back to work. The holidays are mercifully over. I was able to use a lot of my unused leave at my real job (and just to repeat, I do not work in a record store, nor do I work for Princeton Record Exchange alas). I took last week off from blogging and just kicked back to listen to music and read, so far as I could in between all the usual holiday hoopla. During that time, I managed to listen to 54 CDs and LPs (rather uncharacteristically, I decided to keep track) and read several interesting jazz books. I’ve been wondering: is this too much, or not enough? A vague feeling of guilt hovers about me (probably due to my parochial school upbringing): was this time well-spent?
Let me review briefly what I listened to and read, and you can form your own response to the question I’ve asked myself.
Top Ten Musician’s List for 2008
Author: Jeff Boule
Happy New Year to all! On my recent visit to the Princeton Record Exchange, the sheer volume of inventory overwhelmed me. The things that were available were equally astounding. Yes, I have been blogging about PREX site unseen until now. I can only further recommend getting down there and checking things out. That is, if you have a ton of time to peruse the massive inventory.
All those artists and genres, it would take hours upon hours to examine everything they have that one might have an interest in. The scope of the variety that the Exchange contained has inspired and reminded me that it is time for my picks of this past year and overall.