Akiko Tsuruga Quartet – Grant’s Tomb – July 27, 2016
Sometimes a seeming anomaly works out to be totally charming, and that is Tsuruga. She fell in love with jazz organ, came to NYC from Japan, studied with the masters, and boom, there it is, worthy of a Jazzmobile gig (the latter is saying a lot).
Akiko Tsuruga
Joe Magnarelli
Jerry Weldon
Joel Spencer
Cavatina Quartet – Museum of Modern Art, Summergarden – July 24, 2016
A new venue for me, MOMA’s outdoor sculpture garden. And of course, for a program assembled by Juilliard’s Joel Sachs, “new music” aplenty for the student players.
Joel Sachs
Randall Goosby
Jameel Martin
Mariella Haubs
Jia Kim
Folklore Urbano Quintet – Pierson Park – July 22, 2016
Ringleader Mayor leads the combo through various genres of Columbian music, folk and otherwise. There are various conformations of the group, here a quintet; in other settings, up to twelve with horns, which must be stunning.
Pablo Mayor
Nestor Gomez
Maria Alejandra Jiminez
David Hertzberg
Franco Pina
Ta Pethia Orchestra – St. George Greek Orthodox Church – July 16, 2016
I spent some family time out on Cape Cod, and looked up the Grecian Festival, where Ta Pethia had the gig. I was hoping for grilled octopus, but settled for lamb shank – mmmm! Plus the rice approximated the stuff my grandmother used to make. Clarinetist Kafasis spent a fair amount of time out in the middle of the festive circular dancing audience members.
Chuck Koustas
Demitri Varetimos
Jim Kafasis
John Papadonis
Ross Richardson
Fat Joe – Crotona Park – July 6, 2016
Circumstances put me out in Crotona Park waaaay early for this gig, so I had the best view in the house, up against the barrier. DJ Tony Touch on for a bit (no, make that waaay) longer than I needed, and of course much too loud, stalling for the tardy Fat Joe. When the big man came on he was accompanied by a cohort of other rappers, including Remy Ma, immensely popular with the crowd of homies. There was a mad rush of mostly young chicks, some insisting on getting in front of me. Closest I’ve been to a mosh pit, with the bigass chick in front of me twerking her butt into me big time. Sketching became impossible, making me nearly the only person not recording the event, as everyone else’s I-phone was in the air. Amongst all the gangsta trappings and posings, there were several inspirational songs promoting unity, hope, and such.
Fat Joe
Tony Touch
DJ for Fat Joe
Grandmaster Caz
Rapper w Fat Joe
NY Philharmonic – Van Cortlandt Park – June 21, 2016
The orchestra, under the baton of Alan Gilbert, does the summer tour of free outdoor concerts in the boroughs; I try to get the the Bronx version as often as possible, but this was the first time sketching. McGill was featured in the Mozart clarinet concerto.
Anthony McGill
NYP Violin
Frank Huang
BombaYo – Van Cortlandt Park – June 21, 2016
BombaYo is an expression of Afro-Puerto Rican culture led by “Dr. Drum”, distinct from the more typical salsa style. Dancing was featured, much more difficult for me to capture, but I gave it a try with Cuchie Ortiz. The group was originally scheduled to open for the NY Phil last summer but got rained out, so they rescheduled this year, to my benefit. BombaYo not only performs, but runs outreach, school workshops, etc. One more case of keeping alive a fading culture, a “learn your roots” opportunity for urban kids who might not otherwise be aware.
Cuchie Ortiz
Dr. Drum
Nelon Seda
Jorge Vazquez
Sun Ra Arkestra – Greenpoint Terminal – May 8, 2016
How’s this for a birthday present? From my son to my wife, down to Brooklyn, which is like a foreign country when this chauffeur is driving. The converted old terminal market, no seats, pretty darn loud. I was happy to be in time for the piano tuner. How someone playing the piano during the actual concert could actually hear it amongst the cacophony, well… SRA was part of a triple-bill; we (the fogeys) stayed for only about 20 minutes of Pharaoh Sanders, and missed headliner Kamali Washington.
Marshall Allen
Mike Watson
Tyler Mitchell
Tara Middleton
SRA Piano
SRA Sax 1
SRA Sax 2
Angela DeRosa, Piano Tuner
In the interval between sketch creation and this posting, Charles Davis, sax player in the band, has passed from us. I’m unable to tell if any of the unidentified sketches might be of him; if so, I am glad to have captured Charles one last time. The man played around, and I have previously seen him in two other excellent combos, of Jimmy Heath and Barry Harris. A positively identified sketch is also included here in memoriam.
Charles Davis
Fatoumata Diawara – Schomburg Center – May 4, 2016
Diawara is from Mali, migrated to France, originally to follow an actress career path. Along the way, she got encouraged and mentored by fellow Malian Oumou Sangaré to express her native culture with music. Halfway through the performance, the traditional headdress came off, facilitating wild gyrating animation. Sangaré made a brief appearance as well.
Fatoumata Diawara
John Lee
Tosin Aribisala
John Bashengezi
Will Calhoun
Martha Redbone – Rubenstein Atrium – April 28, 2016
The context for this event is the presentation of a work (“Bone Hill”) in development, to eventually become a full scale theatrical production; so it was bascially a “reading” through, fortunately including the live band. The book is based on Redbone’s personal historical geneaology and geography. Can’t say she ain’t into roots, no way!
Martha Redbone
Jason Walker & Jonathan David
Soni Moreno
Charlie Burnham
Alan Burroughs
