Friday, July 20, 2007
Washington Post Express articles
[Updated July 20, 2007]
Planet of the Drums
Hugh Masekela
Richard Pinhas
African Underground
The Mooney Suzuki
Bullets
Brian Coleman, "Check the Technique"
Bunji Garlin
"From the Hips"
Forro in the Dark
Bebel Gilberto
In the Country
Per Zanussi
Dubfire
"Higher Meditation" tour
Novembers Doom
Balkan Beat Box
Trans Am
Sondre Lerche & Thomas Dybdahl
Field Music
1349
Afterhours
Robert Glasper
Mariza
Haale
Ane Brun
Tobias Froberg
Beppe Gambetta
Dalek
The Eternals
Richie Spice
Vandermark 5
Vashti Bunyan
Atomic
Millennium Stage
Aquarium
Sara Tavares
Thursday
Varttina
Mina Agossi
Emily Haines
Dark Funeral
The Wailers
Folger Consort
Aimee Mann
Morgan Heritage
Maja Ratkje
Owen
Bambu Station
Four Good Men
The Hold Steady
Califone
Spank RockLabels: Music, Music Writing, Washington Post Express, Writing Posted by CP | Link |
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Jamaica Day Outdoor Reggae Festival
Washington Post, Tuesday, July 17, 2007; Page C05
The first Jamaica Day Outdoor Reggae Festival already has its second fest scheduled for July 13, 2008. But at times on Sunday, it seemed as if the event would barely survive its debut.
The family-friendly event was held at the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds, which is between Baltimore and the District, but not really close enough to either to attract the areas' sizable West Indian communities. Turnout for the festival was a fraction of what it could have been. On the vast expanse of green in front of the concert pavilion there was plenty of room to have a picnic, stretch your legs -- heck, play a game of tackle football, as some kids did.
Another problem was the day's length: doors opened at 11 a.m. and were scheduled to close at 11 p.m. The live music was slated to begin at 4 p.m., but it was 7:50 p.m. when "Reggae Idol" winner Kimberly Gregory finally took the stage. People were irritated by the late start, not to mention the heat and, later, the Heineken disappearing from concessions.
Plus, there were no lights onstage for much of the show; the sound cut out at times; the Positive Vibrations backing band didn't really know all the songs; and artist sets were cut painfully short to make the curfew that was suddenly 10 p.m., not 11.
Still, slowly, if unsurely, the event began to groove -- simply because the music was so irresistible. Classic reggae artists Alton Ellis (resplendent in a full suit and hat) and Leroy Sibbles (from the Heptones) and venerable dancehall stars Admiral Bailey and Professor Nuts simply did what they do, with good humor and grace, considering the obstacles they had to overcome.
-- Christopher Porter
 Labels: Live Reviews, Music, Music Writing, Photography, Washington Post, Writing Posted by CP | Link |
Friday, July 13, 2007
Nomo
Washington Post, Friday, July 13, 2007; Page C11
Nomo could have been a school project gone wrong:
A University of Michigan jazz studies grad falls head over saxophone for West African music, particularly that of Fela, the Nigerian superstar who spearheaded the Afrobeat music of the 1970s. The grad then starts his own Midwestern edition of an Afrobeat band to explore sounds far removed from his own upbringing.
But rather than coming across as a pale cultural appropriation, Elliot Bergman's Nomo is one of the tightest, swingingest Afrobeat world-jazz bands on the planet. The nine-member-strong group -- three percussionists plus three saxophones, trumpet, guitar and bass -- checked into the Rock & Roll Hotel on Wednesday and proceeded to wreck the room with irresistible grooves, punchy horn-ensemble blasts and a likability factor that's off the charts.
"Nomo is the word for music that keeps bad spirits away," Bergman told Detroit's Metro Times in 2005. There were no evil ghosts in the hotel, just the good guiding spirits of Fela and Sun Ra (especially the latter on the rackety groover "Rocket #9").
From the opening distorted kalimba sounds of "Better Than That," which recalled the Congolese group Konono No. 1, to the meditative closing tune, which was played in the middle of the audience for an intimate chant-along, Nomo brought a variety of influences to color in its Afrobeat template, from Balinese gamelan percussion to blaxploitation film funk.
Playing a 70-minute set that easily could have gone on for three hours, Nomo worked the half-full club into a dancing frenzy. While nothing got out of hand -- if it had, the parade of police cars circling the block outside would have nipped it in the bud -- the crowd did whip up into a hands-in-the-air fever that momentarily dispelled the District's arms-folded music-scene reputation.
-- Christopher PorterLabels: Live Reviews, Music, Music Writing, Washington Post, Writing Posted by CP | Link |
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