Lionel Loueke \/ Edmar Castaneda\u00a0 –\u00a0 Madison Square Park\u00a0 –\u00a0 July 6, 2011<\/p>\n
A double bill of two worthy trio acts (not enough time to do percussionists for either).\u00a0 Castaneda is (to my knowledge) the NYC go-to jazz harp man these days – we’ve seen him in this context before.\u00a0 That said, he brings much more, as the instrument drives the music in its own direction, unique to the harpist’s inclination, often hard to describe in words.\u00a0 I’m not sure if there is a standard jazz harp canon.\u00a0 Here, the influence of South America was strong; his wife, the lovely Andrea Tierra, joined in to provide impassioned vocals on a few tunes.<\/p>\n
The journey that headliner Loueke took us on was yet more astounding.\u00a0 He’s got the straight & straight ahead jazz chops down and we heard that early on.\u00a0 But his African\u00a0 background (Benin) took prominence after a while, a whole other concept of guitar playing.\u00a0 First off, the instrument itself, not really like anything else I’ve seen.\u00a0 Or heard, as on one tune he got going with an extreme string popping technique, turning the ax into a tuned percussion instrument, it being unclear to me how those sounds were emanating from it.\u00a0 And that was not the only thing that he did that I couldn’t figure out what was happening.\u00a0 Truly ear-opening.\u00a0 By the way, I have no idea what his inscription says, or even if it is in English.<\/p>\n
On a different pleasure scale, it is true that I am working with a small overall sample size, but I got my best ever street Halal ($5 mix plate special) from a vendor across Broadway from the park.\u00a0 Scarf therapy, total satiation.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/parkergambino.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Lionel-Loueke-v2-signed-jpg.jpg\" "\\"Lionel-Loueke-v2-signed-jpg\\"")
<\/a>Lionel Loueke<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Massimo Biolcati<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Edmar Castaneda<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Shlomi Cohen<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lionel Loueke \/ Edmar Castaneda\u00a0 –\u00a0 Madison Square Park\u00a0 –\u00a0 July 6, 2011 A double bill of two worthy trio acts (not enough time to do percussionists for either).\u00a0 Castaneda is (to my knowledge) the NYC go-to jazz harp man … Continue reading