The show will still go on!
Due to inclement weather, Drom will not be open this evening…but the show must go on….Max Wild and Chiwoniso will be live in concert tonight at 9 pm!!!
Read the post below for full details on the show - but join us at:
Nublu
62 ave, between 4th and 5th Streets, NYC
WE BEAT THE SNOW!!!!
Add comment February 25th, 2010
We’ve been on a tear lately at ObliqSound and our newest upcoming tunes will be no exception! Tomorrow, Thursday, Feb 25th, we hope you’ll look into the future with us and checkout a special advance preview show from ObliqSound recording artist Max Wild at Manhattan’s DROM, located at 85 Avenue A.
Max will unite with vocalist and mbira star Chiwoniso to create a soundscape that transcends cultural divides with their unique fusion of jazz, funk, and ancient African melodies. Driven by the mesmerizing interlocking textures of the mbira and saxophone, the group is backed by the deep groove of an international all-star lineup from the United States and Zimbabwe. They’ll be playing music from Chiwoniso’s hit Rebel Woman (out now on Cumbancha) and previewing Max Wild’s upcoming album TAMBA featuring Chiwoniso - which will release on ObliqSound later this spring. Don’t forget to tell your friends and get your tickets early! Doors open at 7, show begins at 8 pm!
Tell your friends - spread the love on Twitter, invite them on Facebook or just shout it from the hilltops! More below (click to share online, too!)
Add comment February 24th, 2010
John Ellis is gearing up for a busy 2010. On February 23, ObliqSound will release Puppet Mischief, the Brooklyn saxophonist’s second album with his New Orleans-based band Double-Wide, which in addition to Ellis features Brian Coogan on organ, Matt Perrine on sousaphone and Jason Marsalis on drums, plus special guest Gregoire Maret on harmonica and Alan Ferber on trombone. The recording continues the former New Orleanian’s love affair with the Big Easy, drawing inspiration from the rich vein of music the city has given the world, while also taking cues, in Ellis’ own words, from “carnivals, state fairs, children laughing, clowns and dancing.”
Ellis, now 35 has never been an artist who stays in one artistic place very long. Born in North Carolina, he took piano lessons as a child, soon switched to clarinet, and first became seriously drawn to music when he heard the music of legendary ragtime composer Scott Joplin. After moving to New Orleans, Ellis’ jazz chops improved radically as he gigged with the likes of Ellis Marsalis and Walter Payton. After three years in the Big Easy, he went north to New York City, graduating from the New School and settling into the city’s thriving jazz scene. Along the way, Ellis spent six years as a member of jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter’s group, cutting four albums with them while also developing his own sound. He cut his debut as a leader, The Language of Love, in 1996, then didn’t record under his own name again until 2002, when he released the critically acclaimed Roots, Branches and Leaves. That was followed by One Foot in the Swamp (2005), By a Thread (2006), and 2008’s Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow, his first with Double-Wide.
Puppet Mischief’s highlights begin from its very first funky moments. The leadoff track, “Okra & Tomatoes,” takes its title from a phrase that represents life’s perfect pairings. That’s followed by “Fauxfessor,” a tightly synced, off-kilter New Orleans romp full of surprising twists. Among the album’s other standouts are the wild, teasing title track, featuring a stunning harmonica solo by Maret, and the back-to-back “Carousel” and “Dubinland Carnival.” The former, which Ellis calls a “wistful circus tune,” takes on a bluesy patina and incorporates several dramatic transitions, while its companion piece, which Ellis likens to the feel of a Fellini film, features an epic sax-trombone conversation and some of Marsalis’ most fired-up drumming of the set.
The release of Puppet Mischief follows up one of the busiest years in Ellis’ career, one that saw him accompanying a diverse array of musicians ranging from Sting to Mos Def to the Cuban drummer Ignacio Berroa, touring Europe with the John Patitucci Trio and other artists and, most significantly, the debut of The Ice Siren, Ellis’ hour-long through-composed narrative composition for string quartet, tuba, percussion, guitar, vibes, winds and two singers. The piece, a collaborative effort with playwright Andy Bragen, debuted at the Jazz Gallery in New York in May 2009.
John Ellis & Double-Wide will perform throughout 2010. Upcoming winter dates include:
March 1 | 8X10 | Baltimore, MD
March 2 | World Cafe Live | Philadelphia, PA
March 3 | Beehive | Boston, MA
March 4 | Red Square | Albany, NY
March 5 | Jazz Gallery | New York, NY
March 6 | Jazz Gallery | New York, NY
For full artist biography, photos, audio clips from Puppet Mischief and more, check out these handy websites:
www.obliqsound.com
www.facebook.com/johnellisband
Add comment February 5th, 2010
Feast your eyes and ears on NPR’s Song of the Day to read John Murph’s excellent song-scoping write-up of Gretchen Parlato’s rendition of SWV’s “Weak,” from her upcoming album In a Dream.
Click below to read the full review and hear the track - Weak can’t be heard anyplace else in full until the album’s release on August 25th, so enjoy and spread the word! Read, listen, and pre-order now on Amazon.com.
Add comment July 21st, 2009
With her third full-length album, Israeli-born Ayelet Rose Gottlieb has elevated to a rarefied level of artistry. On the new album, Upto Here | From Here, releasing August 11 on her own Arogole Records imprint and distributed through ObliqSound, Gottlieb pulls the art of jazz singing out of its safety zone and infuses it with new possibilities, exploring the human voice in a way that few contemporary singers can or will. And Gottlieb does so seemingly nonchalantly, with the panache and authority of an artist who has been making records for decades, not a mere handful of years.
“Unlike so many singers around her, she explores the textures and styles that her voice can produce. She is an instrumentalist on par with any other and a fully integrated member of her band,” notes Andrey Henkin, editor of All About Jazz, in the album’s liner notes. Upto Here | From Here features a cast of musicians with whom Gottlieb has worked since 2002, some of the most skilled and visionary players the New York jazz scene has to offer: Loren Stillman (saxophone), fellow Israelis Avishai Cohen (trumpet) and Anat Fort (piano), Ed Schuller (bass) and the late Take Toriyama (drums), who passed away in 2007. Gottlieb’s earlier recordings—the avant-garde-oriented debut InTernal ExTernal (Genevieve, 2004) and Mayim Rabim (Tzadik, 2006), an original song cycle based on the erotic biblical love poem “Song of Songs” and sung entirely in Hebrew—established Gottlieb as an adventurous, even audacious performer. Upto Here | From Here, co-produced by Gottlieb and her husband Shahar Levavi, makes it even clearer that Gottlieb is a commanding artist who thrives on the unexpected: Her improvisational acumen is second to none, her confidence as a leader and her range defy description, and her artistic inquisitiveness spurs her to outdo herself each time out.
From the album’s opening track, “Pomegranate Man,” Gottlieb proclaims her independent streak with a freewheeling flurry of exhilarating words that tease the mind: “My pomegranate man/he’s my antioxidant/his juices are so bittersweet/eat him in scoops or grain by grain/we’ll see, depending on the moment’s beat.” On the following track, “Life Is a Structure That Is (Accept It!),” she makes the most of the simplest of sentiments, all the while ignoring the title’s own advice: Her voice swooping and swirling in waves of surprise, Gottlieb and crew (particularly Fort and the reeds) ultimately refuse to accept any limitations that structure might impose on the song’s direction.
In addition to her original compositions, Gottlieb turns to an intriguing array of outside sources for lyrical inspiration for some of the highlights of Upto Here | From Here. Both the ballad “The Most Alive Moment,” and the airy, quasi-Baroque “Some Kiss” are based on writings of the 13th Century Persian poet and mystic Rumi, while the minimalist “Letter” and the first section of the title track come from the contemporary Israeli poet Agi Mishol, with translations by Gottlieb (the second section is adapted from composer John Cage’s book Silence). “Sweep Streets” finds Gottlieb and her quintet giving musical voice to a famous speech on self-fulfillment by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the album’s only standard, “The Nearness of You,” penned by Hoagy Carmichael and Ned Washington, is rendered softly and sweetly, nearly devoid of drums and bass.
On Gottlieb’s “Wrong Rain (bird thoughts)” and “Hidden Forbidden,” Schuller provides the driving force. The latter is a jaunty, whimsical romp that features Cohen navigating a whistle and Gottlieb coaxing music out of a balloon. Rounding out the set are two more Gottlieb originals: “And In the End,” whose brief lyrics pay homage to a famous Beatles tune, and “Venezia,” not only dedicated to Ayelet’s grandmother but featuring the matriarch’s spoken words superimposed over the band’s improvisations.
For Gottlieb, the album marks a pronounced giant step in an ever-evolving musical journey. “There is something very personal about this record,” she says. “All of the tunes leave a lot of space for interpretation and improvisation, and were written specifically for the individuals you hear playing them on this recording. The album is about family. It starts with a song I wrote for my husband for our wedding; it ends with a song about my grandmother, and in between is a document of my musical family in New York, these five people who have interpreted my music more than anyone else in recent years.
“This is also a record about love,” she adds, “but, not just the peak points of it—the joy or despair. Mostly, it looks at the loneliness and yearning that are within love… at the moments when you are with yourself, with your innermost thoughts. Hopefully this record takes you on a ride through those various emotional fields, and brings you back home at the end.”
Gottlieb’s own ride has taken her to far-flung geographical locales and musical touch points. Born in Jerusalem in 1979 to a European-born father and a mother with Sephardic roots, Gottlieb has absorbed as much music as she’s had the opportunity to: her influences run the gamut from Middle Eastern music to American folk, classical music, Israeli punk, blues, early electronica, experimental rock, Spanish guitar, French Chanson, and, of course, jazz, particularly inspirational figures being Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman and Betty Carter.
Ayelet played classical flute during her early childhood and into her years at the Arts High School in Jerusalem. She continued her musical education at Rimon School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in Tel Aviv, while holding a steady gig in Jerusalem with Saxophone legend Arnie Lawrence, who was her mentor and collaborator until his death in ’05. She came to the States in 2000 to complete her BM at the New England Conservatory, where she studied with vocalist Dominique Eade, and with visionaries such as Ran Blake and George Russell.
Gottlieb moved to New York in 2002, where she was quickly absorbed into the city’s vibrant downtown scene. She has played in clubs including the Jazz Standard, BB Kings and The Stone, and performed at some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including a recent performance at Carnegie Hall with vocal master Bobby McFerrin, and a guest performance at the Israeli Opera House, with Joe Lovano and John Abercrombie. She currently collaborates with Macarthur Genius Award winner John Zorn on two of his projects. On his “Shir Hashirim” composition, she narrates in Hebrew, while an alternate version is narrated in English by living legends Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. Additionally, she works with “Mycale,” an all female vocal ensemble commissioned by Zorn to create collaborative arrangements to music from his Book of Angels.
Ayelet currently splits her time between New York, Jerusalem and Wellington, New Zealand, a puzzle-life that has inspired her to start a new bi-continental band called Pangaea, with one leg in Israel and another in New York. The new project features long-time collaborator pianist Anat Fort as well as bass, percussion, oud and violin.
“When a performance is ‘on’ and all the elements are aligned, there isn’t a more invigorating experience,” she says. “When sound flows through your body and outwards and you feel both grounded and flying in it, when you listen to the musicians around you on the bandstand and feel every note they play as though you are playing it yourself, when you have a direct line to the ears and hearts of your audience, and you know that you are exchanging ‘gifts’ with them, those moments are the ones that are the most precious to me.”
Upto Here | From Here is filled with exactly such precious moments. It heralds the true blossoming of an artist whose gifts are undeniable.
For more info:
www.ayeletrose.com www.myspace.com/ayeletrosegottlieb www.obliqsound.com
Online press kit is available HERE
Interested in posting MP3s from Upto Here | From Here on your blog, website or in your podcast?
Tracks are available for download and posting through Promonet, a free service, operated by digital distributor IODA, with pre-cleared ready-to-post MP3s. Visit www.iodapromonet.com to sign up for access.
Add comment July 21st, 2009
Backdrop/ObliqSound has just started its first remix contest with Sony ACIDPlanet, the premier loop-based software platform, featuring Michael Olatuja’s music. Entrants who wish to demonstrate their remix talents are able to download a fully-functional trial version of the software, a wide assortment of free loops and sounds to incorporate into their mixes, and the parts to “Ma Foya,” the first single from the artist’s debut album “Speak,” out July 28th on Backdrop/ObliqSound.
Winning remixer(s) will receive an assortment of Backdrop CDs and merchandise, as well as ACID Pro software (MSRP $399), Vegas Pro software (MSRP $699), Five Standard Collection Libraries (MSRP $299), and a chance to have their remix released on Backdrop. Entries must be posted no later than Thursday, August 6th. To enter, go to www.acidplanet.com/michaelolatuja
Add comment June 26th, 2009
Massimo Biolcati’s debut album, Persona, is the Vox Populi winner for Best Jazz Album of the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards! We couldn’t be more ecstatic, considering the Vox Populi award is an honor bestowed purely by you, the listeners. Fans of Persona fell in love with Massimo’s unique style and so should you!
The album features Biolcati, Jeff Ballard, Peter Rende and Lionel Loueke in quartet, with vocal guests Lizz Wright and Gretchen Parlato. Persona is also an homage to the classic Ingmar Bergman film of the same name. Give it a listen on our site, or learn more about this glorious display of democracy at the Independent Music Awards’ website and online jukebox.
Add comment June 23rd, 2009
Celebrate the 3rd Annual Make Music New York Festival this Sunday, June 21st in Madison Square Park and Washington Square Park, with Freedom Love-Fest and ObliqSound! We volunteered to help celebrate the 3rd Annual Make Music New York festival; ‘the largest music event ever to grace Metro New York’ and host a line-up of great indie-artists in beautiful and tranquil Madison Square Park and the lively hub of the city, Washington Square Park. Won’t you join us?
8 Bands, 2 Parks, 1 Day of Free Live Music
Come down at the right time, and get free t-shirts and free MP3 giveaways, too!
Co-hosted by Freedom Love-Fest and ObliqSound, with Production Sponsors: The Professionals NYC and Lollipop Productions
MADISON SQUARE PARK
Location: Broadway and East 23rd Street, NYC
1:00 - 2:00 pm: Dapp Theory - http://www.myspace.com/dapptheory
2:30 - 3:30 pm: Sarah Lemieux - http://www.myspace.com/supersuperblue
4:00 - 5:00 pm: Michael Olatuja - http://www.myspace.com/olatuja
WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK’S TEEN PLAZA
Location: Washington Square South and LaGuardia Place
5:00 pm: Matt Jones - http://www.myspace.com/mattjonesnyc
5:30 pm: John Shannon - http://www.myspace.com/johnshannonmusic
6:15 pm: Pimps of Joytime – http://www.myspace.com/pimpsofjoytime
7:00 pm: DJ MoFunk and AllCeein of I Power – http://www.myspace.com/djmofunk
7:30 pm: The Smyrk – http://www.myspace.com/thesmyrk
Spread the word with your friends on Facebook - event details HERE.
Read and learn more about each band on Freedomlovefest.com:
http://freedomlovefest.typepad.com/freedom_lovefest/a_word_from_flf/
Add comment June 19th, 2009
British/Nigerian bassist presents uplifting musical vision as composer and producer
NEW YORK - Speak, the title of bassist Michael Olatuja’s debut album, holds deep personal meaning for its creator, exemplifying in a single word the album’s underlying themes of hope, encouragement, inspiration and positivity. The album, which will be released on July 28 on Backdrop, ObliqSound’s sub-label focusing on modern electronic and groove-based music, tells the story of the British/Nigerian artist’s musical and personal journey. “The language of music is one that we all speak,” Olatuja explains. “It unites diverse cultures.”
The ten songs on Speak find Olatuja stepping out of his role as sideman and finally presenting his personal vision as producer and composer. With musical influences and guests from around the world, the album touches on each spot Olatuja has hit around the globe, including his childhood in London and Lagos, Nigeria, and his professional years in London and New York. Speak is clearly the album Olatuja has been working toward his entire career and points to a strong future.
Chances are you’ve already heard Olatuja’s extraordinarily creative musicianship. His work has enlivened the performances of Terence Blanchard, Patti Austin, Lisa Stansfield, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Gretchen Parlato and many others.
Olatuja, 28, began crafting the music that would become Speak as long ago as 2003. From the genesis of the project he knew what he wanted to accomplish. From there, the music took shape organically as the pieces fell into place, Olatuja calling upon a large cast of musicians to assist him in realizing the self-produced project, including several singers who alternate on lead vocals: Eska Mtungwazi, Andrew Roachford, Terri Walker, Onaje Jefferson, Michael’s wife Alicia Olatuja and the late neo-soul artist Lynden David Hall.
On Speak, Olatuja finds commonalities among the various genres that have shaped his artistry, beginning with the indigenous, traditional sounds that formed his roots during his youth in Nigeria. “I grew up in a church that sang Yoruba Christian songs and played Yoruba style music,” he recalls. “I honed my skills playing in many Yoruba music bands. So when it came to songwriting this influence came out naturally.”
At age 11, Olatuja picked up a bass guitar for the first time, and within five years, he was playing professionally, absorbing everything he heard along the way, including soul, jazz, R&B, gospel and more. Influences such as guitarist George Benson and jazz bassists John Patitucci and Richard Bona, who Olatuja calls his “teacher and mentor,” helped shape his musical world. Additional schooling in both the U.K. at Middlesex University and in the U.S. at Manhattan School of Music sharpened Olatuja’s chops and allowed him to mix it up with world-class artists who quickly came to appreciate his gifts.
His 2004 move to New York gave him the impetus he needed to put it all together. “As a writer, New York encouraged me to be original, because there are so many artists out there,” he says. “Jazz encouraged the freedom to improvise, soul encouraged me to do it from the heart, R&B encouraged an undeniable deep groove and world music encouraged me not to forget my roots. Gospel gives it all a sense of purpose; it inspires and uplifts.”
All of those musical characteristics are well represented and interwoven ingeniously on Speak. Olatuja incorporates such hallmarks of traditional African music as the talking drum and hand drums (conga and djembe), call-and-response vocals and the Yoruba language, while working comfortably with musical vocabularies more familiar to Western ears: neo-soul balladry, hip-hop, modern jazz and deep groove.
The opening track, “Ma Foya” (Yoruba for “don’t fear”), is built upon a propulsive West African hi-life rhythmic pattern and classic Philly soul vocals. It features a lead vocal by Lynden David Hall, who intones, “Don’t be afraid in times of trouble/it’s all in the way you rise above,” over a battery of grooving hand drums, massed background vocals and guitar. “Ma Foya” will be released later in 2009 as a single with remixes.
On the silky ballad “Unconditional,” Olatuja boldly plucks his bass strings in tandem with smooth guitar licks and evocative keyboard lines as wife Alicia (who co-wrote the song) pays tribute to the value of a lover who remains true and steadfast. “Yi Yipada,” Olatuja says, reminds us that “change is the only permanent thing in life.” One of the most exhilarating tracks on the album, “Yi Yipada” is highlighted by a deep, odd-metered bassline, intricate keyboard work and precision drumming all in tight interplay with Mtungwazi’s scatted vocal improvisation.
Lyrically, the music on Speak is also infused with Olatuja’s strong Christian roots. On the lightly funky “Hold On,” over a soulful organ, Hall sings Olatuja’s words: “If you’re one of those who think there’s nowhere left to fall, perhaps you should remember to get up and walk tall.” The ballad “Altar Call” speaks about someone who realizes that God is calling them to a better life, to have the freedom to choose what is right.
“Walk With Me,” a traditional gospel number—and the only tune on Speak not written or co-written by Olatuja—glides along on a ¾ syncopated bass ostinato, reminiscent of McCoy Tyner and Kenny Kirkland, and develops into a ¾ straight-ahead groove, leading to an exploratory, nuanced conversation between all the instrumentalists.
The nine-minute “Mama Ola,” which features saxophonist Jean Toussaint and pianist Jason Rebello, is a poetic jazz tribute to Olatuja’s late mother, Comfort Bola Olatuja, and hosts the most complex musical interaction on the album. “Le Jardin” (The Garden), with vocal by Onaje Jefferson, is pure R&B in the mode of classic Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway. The title track, infused with a hip-hop sensibility, features rapper TY inspiring the listener to “Speak! Speak up!”
Olatuja is already taking what he’s learned and helping other artists realize their own dreams. In addition to planning his own busy touring schedule, just this year, in fact, he co-produced ObliqSound artist Somi’s forthcoming album, which includes a track featuring the legendary Hugh Masekela.
Olatuja’s deep spirituality and unshaken belief in the power of the positive lies at the heart of every track on Speak. It makes perfect sense that Michael Olatuja titled the album what he did: Speak speaks volumes, and it speaks to everyone.
For more info: Michael Olatuja on MySpace and Backdrop
Add comment May 19th, 2009
ObliqSound artist Gretchen Parlato is featured in Documentary Channel’s new 4-part series “Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense”. The series premieres Monday April 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Watch Gretchen in Mon, April 27th’s episode, at 9pm - “Icons Among Us - 12 Notes In Real Time”
Telecasts are Mondays at 9pm, on April 20 & 27, May 4 & 11.
Other familiar faces in the series include ObliqSound’s Gilfema leader and Blue Note recording artist Lionel Loueke, and recent ObliqSound guest artists Aaron Parks (on Parlato’s upcoming In A Dream), Anat Cohen (on Gilfema + 2), Jeff Ballard (on Persona), and Herbie Hancock (Lionel Loueke’s Virgin Forest).
Missed it? The full series will repeat and re-run many times. Check telecast times at IconsAmongUs.com
Documentary Channel is on Dish Network channel 197 & NYC TV channel 25. More info on the series at The Documentary Channel
Watch the trailer here:
Add comment April 20th, 2009
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Feb | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 | ||||