Filed under: shows | Tags: 11215, david griffin, giancarlo vulcano, hebrew school, joemca and the poets, julia barry, music, taylor bergren-chrisman, tim monaghan, union hall
Giancarlo Vulcano, Julia Barry, Tim Monaghan, David Griffin, Taylor Bergren-Chrisman.
Hebrew School had a really amazing show last Thursday. Thanks to all of you who came out and saw us. Here are some audiovisuals.
Check out more photos, including some really nice ones of Joemca & the Poets, on Hebrew School’s flickr.
Some videos:
Tout ce qu’on pense
Sara Sara
Filed under: shows | Tags: giancarlo vulcano, jesse schiffrin, joshua camp, le poisson rouge, ligeti, lightnin' hopkins, qashqai, taylor bergren-chrisman, vetro, yvonne troxler
Composer and guitarist Giancarlo Vulcano performed his 2008 release, Vetro, yesterday at Le Poisson Rouge. He was joined by Joshua Camp, Taylor Bergren-Chrisman, Jesse Schiffrin, and Yvonne Troxler.
Vetro was presented in its entirety on Sunday. Some observations:
a) The insistence yet lack of intrusion that brings a renewed meaning and a new life to (post-) minimalist spectres
b) Ostenatos stately and arpeggiated, delicately muted in Ligeti-esque chord clusters, or excavated from Lightnin’ Hopkins
c) These repeated phrases exquisitely pierced through with the sound of a reed or a bowed string
d) Infusions of narrative into a textural soundspace, perhaps aurally analogous to the representational picture rugs of Qashqai nomads
e) The enjoyment of being able to see music like this in a club setting as opposed to the concert hall, without failing to predict the latter full in a heartbeat
Buy the record here.
Filed under: Bands, shows | Tags: allyssa lamb, barbes, emily hurst, giancarlo vulcano, greg stare, las rubias del norte, olivier conan, taylor bergren-chrisman, timothy quigley
above: Emily Hurst, Allyssa Lamb, Taylor Bergren-Chrisman
There’s been a fairly long-running trend in the New York music scene of various admixtures of traditional and “world” musics. Often presented in venues where folks (most of whom happen to be, well, blond) might not otherwise see them, it’s useful to witness what can be done with traditional and modern forms in these contexts. But to be honest, a lot of times I find the phenomena to be reactionary or mockingly fetishistic of the cultures represented– a particularity of a social world bereft of meaning, thirstily knocking on doors, but not venturing too far. Obviously this an issue prevalent in “Jewish music” as well.
So, it was particularly nice this past Friday to go out and see a band that, without affectation or smugness, eschews all these real and imagined boundaries, playing the music they actually love with exuberance and soul, and giving tender care to the material they’re performing. Las Rubias del Norte are deeply and uncompromisingly rooted in the 20th-century music of the Americas, with particular emphasis on Tejano, Columbian, and Cuban music (though they really do span the continents). Yes, Castro may have stepped down, but his cigar still explodes.
Greg Stare, Timothy Quigley, Giancarlo Vulcano
And then there’s the musicianship of these folks as individuals and as a band. The female vocal harmonies are locked in; the rhythm section, with two percussionists and an upright bass player, feels like being inside an atomically accurate mechanical clockwork while on LSD. Meanwhile, Lamb effortlessly switches out on melodica and piano, Hurst on glockenspiel. It all gets you open with the incessant but solid dignity of Conan’s cuatro, and absurdly tasteful and magical harmonies and interweaving lines delivered by Vulcano on electric guitar.
in the shadows with his cuatro (at far right): Olivier Conan
“S/S/S (sorry so shakey)”
* * *
Hebrew School 