Cousin Oven, Calendula, Sotto Voce 9/6/26 Best Video

 Difficult to discern from the website, this Sunday matinee triple bill had three regional acts appearing in no particular order. I enter to Brooklyn trio Sotto Voce. It is the brainchild of Pittsburgh native Ryan Gabos. Ryan played guitar and sang, joined by bass and drums. Homespun bedroom pop had a good edge. Ryan sent one out to “the public domain” as they played a syrupy Freres Jacques melody with lo-fi lyrics.

Next up was Calendula. Single female Abigail Golec on open tuned acoustic guitar and vocals. Introspective singer songwriter fare was nicely delivered. She’s from Stafford Springs and reminded me of Sharon Van Etten. She explained that Calendula is a flower in the marigold family.

Headliner was Cousin Oven, another trio from Brooklyn. Guitar with vocals, bass, and drums picked up the pace. Good pop hooks and the bass was active. All three of these acts have available material on Spotify and are worth doing a deeper dive.

Gamelatron 9/5/26 The Dome at Woolsey Hall

 A sonic immersion “sculpture” was assembled in the Dome at Woolsey Hall. Artist Aaron Taylor Kuffner uses the gongs and bells of the Indonesian gamelan to create sonic sculptures specific to unusual spaces. The Dome at Woolsey is one such place. Up three flights of stairs, I happen upon two coeds. They welcome me to the installation and tell me to cover my shoes with these flimsy one pass booties. After a brief struggle, I ask if I can ditch my shoes and the booties. The purpose is to not track sand or dirt into the Dome, I was happy to comply in my socks. I enter the Dome, an inner circle with comfy chairs and high pile carpet housed a few sonic travellers. Around the perimeter, banks of gongs, percussive bells, were mathematically struck to create the immersive sound. A player piano gamelan, the sculpture was connected in series so the electromagnetic pulses forced the sound. The echo and sustain were meditative and forced me into a deep listening mode for about a half hour. I circled the Dome to get a feel for the frequency of striking the individual pans. Some were struck every few seconds while others took minutes as intervals. A guidebook accompanying the sculpture showed other spaces that housed Kuffner’s work. When an electromagnetic gamelatron comes to your town, get off the couch and check it out.

John Zorn’s Flatlands 9/4/26 Firehouse 12

 Billed as a “special event” and not the premiere of the Fall series, Zorn’s current project Flatlands takes the stage. A power trio in the true sense had Matt Hollenberg on electric guitar, Simon Hanes on electric bass, and Ches Smith on drums. John Zorn, an avant renaissance man, observed the proceedings from a stool near the sound board. A pillar of the downtown music scene of the late 80s and 90s, John Zorn was a sax wailer in the vein of Pharoah Sanders or Albert Ayler. His restless spirit provided early recordings paying homage to the likes of Mickey Spillane and Ennio Morricone. He founded Tzadik records dedicated to “radical Jewish music” which, in today’s world, sounds like a “defund the police” level misnomer blunder. The label has provided him a cadre of talented young free thinkers jumping at the chance to be conducted. Ditching the sax, Zorn has taken the route of conducting the next generation to carry out his wide ranging musical ideas. One of my favorites from John’s early canon is the Naked City record, a whiplash of ideas that runs the gamut from slinky lounge music to head banging hardcore. He even hung out with the hardcore stalwarts Napalm Death to sponge ideas. It is with this mindset that Flatlands takes shape. The trio march through a series of blasts that threaten the eardrums of the sold out crew of listeners. Let’s start with Ches Smith, a firehouse regular, I’ve described him as a used car lot ballon man on drums and my assessment holds. In this setting, he is prodded to unleash behind the kit. I’m not familiar with Hollenberg or Hanes, but they both seem to be rooted in metal. The music is a barrage of calculated racket that is fascinating to view. The trio’s ability to start and stop on a dime was miraculous. You can’t be in Zorn’s stable without ability to play all styles. These guys easily shifted from shards of metal to choogling funk for a face melting experience. Hanes cajoled Zorn to come up front to “conduct” a piece. His conducting included non-traditional hand gestures like roller coaster or thumbs up or downing the trio. Their wide-eyed attention emphasized their virtuosity and shone a light on just how difficult this music is to play. The Firehouse may need to install seatbelts, this ride made the Cyclone blush.

Strawberry Hands w/ The Regal Drug 8/26/26 Best Video

 Local ambient act The Regal Drug was playing when I enter. The brain child of Scott Amore, it was a trio on this evening. Scott played laptop and synths, another musician played guitar and sax, while another played guitar and trumpet. The music was ambient drone, Scott’s table was a tangle of patch cords that looked like a George Clinton wig. The sax guitarist played an electric 12 string with an unusual hand held object that looked like a cordless Norelco. I was told the item was an E-bow, it sends a magnetic pulse to the strings to force the sound. The trumpet too had a Mark Isham feel, almost cinematic. Safe to assume any show with RD will take you on a sonic excursion.

Strawberry Hands is a psychedelic quartet from the Philly area.  Lead guitar, drums,  bass, and front man on acoustic and vocals. The singer was a big fella with poorly constructed pigtails who explained they almost missed the gig. His car was smashed the previous evening, his dog sitter was awol, and he popped a crown off his tooth. They did seem genuinely happy to play. Often, when we think of psychedelic music, it’s virtuosic noodling punctuated with obtuse lyrics. Pink Floyd had the perfect mix of noodlyrics, while someone like Robyn Hitchcock leans heavier on wordplay. SH followed that lead, with lines like “ogre patina” and “obsidian ax” ( and those were just the ones that started with O). The trap is keeping the listener focused and not checking vocabulary. Strawberry Hands achieves the focus with shock lines like “don’t fucking tell me that the future is good”. Strawberry Hands occupy an interesting niche in the world of psychedelic music.

Derek Piotr 8/21/26 Ely Center

 New Ely center welcomes regional knob twiddler Piotr for a dj set. Light crowd of about ten occupy the darkened modern art gallery. Derek is a folklorist, researcher and performer whose work focuses on the human voice. He is the lead archivist and creative director of something called Fieldwork Archive. Armed with a laptop on one pedestal and a synth box with a tangle of patch cords on another, Derek goes to work. First piece has some bird samples mixed with some metallic backdrop drones, Derek too supplied some wordless vocal cooing. Next piece had some early political banter, slightly obscured stretched out over some mechanical whooshes. Next up, was a recording of a friends mom’s recollection of southern gospel tunes. Another piece had Derek splicing voice mail messages he received from his grandmother during the last ten years of her life. The material was fascinating, a modern day Alan Lomax. Spotify Derek and you’ll see he has recordings dating back to 2010. He also takes part in some fringe festivals that showcase modern field recordings. He has collaborated with the likes of avant Appalachian banjo picker Nathan Salsburg. Happy to be one of ten for this highly original music,

Mariposa Galacticos 8/12/26 Cafe 9

 Lesbian fronted klezmer cumbia from Philly had a riot going on at the 9. Note to the concert going public, if there are more than six people in the band at Cafe 9, you probably want to see what’s happening. Lovely mashup of two distinctive styles was expertly delivered by three female musicians backed by male accordionist, bass, drums, and guitar. Seven musicians were in constant motion. Were the ladies gay? Who cares, I will say the crowd was homophilic. The show was in support of local nonprofit Red Sin Fronteras, an organization that supports migrant women and survivors of violence of indigenous origin. Mariposa Galacticos blends punkified ancient Jewish melodies with Andean cumbia for a stew that spans different languages, cultures, and genres. All three women sang, one played clarinet, one played sax, and the other strummed a rhythm guitar. The show started with a cool warmup exercise that had all band members making a variety of bird or animal sounds. Played an excellent rendition of Cumbia Nagila which showcased the ease at which the styles could be melded. The ladies were jacked, with dancer bodies, they had the crowd moving. At one point, the clarinetist hops off stage and snakes through the crowd pied pipering a dance line that was all smiles. Being from Philly, they felt obliged to play the Rocky theme in a dubbed out cumbia. One song was described as a traditional Jewish tune of mindfulness where “ yesterday is gone, tomorrow has yet to happen, so be in the present”. This band was unapologetically political and their message of community emphasized the unity.

Newport Jazz Festival 7/31/26 Fort Adams Park

 Recent years have me picking a day to attend this storied festival. First year organizer, the drummer Nate Smith, has taken the reins from the tireless bass phenom Christian McBride and like any good rhythm section, hasn’t skipped a beat. The emphasis on contrasting the old guard with new directions was on full display for this year’s Friday lineup. A Thursday deluge made the concert field a little spongey with a whiff of wet hay but did not deter the audience or performers.

Chicago Underground Duo: While this name could describe any pair from the Windy City’s current fertile scenes, I was happy to learn that it is Rob Mazurek on trumpet and electronics with drum wunderkind Chad Taylor. I’m familiar with Rob’s work with his Exploding Star Orchestra, kind of a trumpet fueled Henry Threadgill affair. Taylor is an in-demand session drummer. The music had blasts of trumpet alternating with the electronics backed by the constant motion drumming. Good start of the day on the main stage.

Angine de Poitrine: One of the reasons to pick the Friday was to get a glimpse of viral sensation ADP. An anonymous duo from Quebec, they consist of Khn de Poitrine on custom double neck guitar-bass and cohort Klek de Poitrine on drums. Khn is dressed in white with black polka dots, masked with long blonde hair, a long tubular “nose” and a large upside down triangular hat. Klek’s garb is black with white polka dots. His (her, their?) mask looks like the “none shall pass” knight from Monty Python’s Holy Grail affixed with a swinging phallic proboscis. They emerge from a polka dot curtain at the back of the stage just as a tsunami of hipsters rushes the stage. The mystique and viral nature of their popularity has them instantly selling out venues in Europe and both coasts of the US. The music is loud, frenetic, and microtonal. Khn’s double fret boards are tricked out to allow notes between notes, microtonal. Klek is in constant motion giving a crazy view of the swinging dongschnozz. They don’t sing, but had some alien robotic chatter between songs. Khn can totally shred, making full use of a wide array of effects pedals in addition to the custom guitar. The music leaned in a decidedly prog direction invoking a communal crowd bounce that I haven’t witnessed since the punk or early grunge days. It was fun to watch the crowd, some ran for cover, some were resigned to the square peg ethos of the jazz evolution all while the rabid hipsters were hoping that Khn and Klek could liberate them from the current dumpster fire state of affairs, if only for an hour on a Friday, at Newport. My descriptions seem inadequate, so please google this duo for an accurate representation of their otherworldliness.

Anoushka Shankar: Skipped the end of ADP to make it to the fort stage for renaissance woman Anoushka Shankar. Daughter of master sitarist Ravi and half sister to smooth crooner Norah Jones, to say Anoushka grew up around musical greatness is an understatement. Ravi was vital to George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh, arguably the first assemblage to use rock music as a vehicle for societal change. Anoushka grew up in London and assumed her father’s place as in-demand sitarist. Absorbing the traditional music and fusing it with modern electronic beats she forged a new path. Film scores, under the radar dance and techno appearances ensued. Her playing was all over the recent Gorillaz release, The Mountain. Her Newport set was a nice mixture of old and new. Happy to see the sitar up close.

Charles Lloyd and the Sky Quartet: The veteran sax and flute master is joined by pianist Jason Moran, Larry Grenadier bass, and Kweku Sumbry on drums. Lloyd has had a long an industrious career. At 88 years young, he is one of the last connections to the likes of Chico Hamilton, Gabor Szabo, and Cannonball Adderly. His 1966 crossover hit Forest Flower drew praise from the rock world and landed him on stages with Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, and The Grateful Dead. Tax troubles forced him to Europe where he cemented his greatness with an amazing string of releases on Manfred Eicher’s  ECM label. His set was beautiful as he toggled from sax to flute. This man does not appear to be 88, his social media postings are lessons in positivity, he seems to be living his best life.

Leon Thomas: Soul rocker Leon Thomas has his hands in many things. Production, collaboration with many current pop stars. On this day, his birthday, he decided to shred on guitar. Nice set on the fort stage. We ducked out before the final sets for the day which made us miss a dusk rain squall. Once again a wide and varied day of music, thanks to new organizer Nate Smith.