Noura Mint Seymali w/ Prince Royal 3/22/19 State House

Local roots reggae purveyor Prince Royal opened this evening of world beat. 24 year old Royal is from St. Catherine Jamaica and his vocal delivery bears this out. Fronting his band Souls of Zion, a mixed race bag of reggae acolytes who provided the backdrop for Royal's skank. Two keyboard players, sax, drums, and blue-eyed guitar and bass were deft in the craft. Royal's singing and stage movements reminded me of Winston Rodney, leader of Burning Spear. Every so often, Royal would say "dub-wise", and the crew would spin out some echo and reverb-laden " space" that called to mind the diddlings of Scientist or Lee Perry. It seems that the key to authentic reggae is how little the English speaker can discern from the Jamaican accent-drenched delivery of the toaster ( I got things like " me muddah and me faddah), with this in mind Prince Royal fits the bill. Jah.....Rastafari.
Mauritanian singer Noura Mint Seymali has been lighting up the world music charts in recent years. Raised in a musical griot tradition, Noura has a booming singing voice. With her husband on modified guitar, brother on bass (apparently the original bass player had visa problems getting to the US, natch), and drummer band wrangler from Philly, this group spun some traditional music steeped in desert blues, and psych. Singing in her native tongue, many of the tunes had a call and response nature, either with her husband or the crowd. It was fascinating to see the universal nature of music with Noura urging the crowd to mimic her vocals. The near capacity crowd was either comprised of Yale's Mauritanian Song and Dance Appreciation Society (sic), or fans eager to get a glimpse of this original artist from across the globe. Pretty sure the latter.

Tomas Fujiwara Triple Double 3/15/19 Firehouse 12

Caught the second set from these six regional improv tricksters. Truly a triple-double, with Fujiwara and Gerald Cleaver on drums, flanked by Mary Halvorsen and Brandon Seabrook on guitar, anchored by Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi on cornet and trumpet respectively. The interesting lineup was begging for like musicians to flow from complementary to competitive runs. Halvorsen and Seabrook traded barbs. Mary, seated , and nerdy as last review, had a pedal effect that made bent notes sound Asian, her solo stretching out like someone slipped some peyote into Wes Montgomery's tea. Seabrook was phenomenal, his herky-jerky movements made me think of Seinfeld's Kramer crossed with Elliot Sharp on skronk guitar. Bynum, oozing hipster cool, played multiple cornets, one of them was blue. He should write a jazz improv kids book entitled The Blue Cornet, it would sell. The drummers leaned on complimentary playing. The understated force of one drummer using brushes while the other struck with mallets was palpable. The headshot of this triple double has them wearing Boston Celtics jerseys. While they seem entirely school-able on the hardwood, I wouldn't want to face them on the court of jazz improv, where they are Allstars.

Joe Russo's Almost Dead 3/14/19 College Street Music Hall

The hippies descended on New Haven for a sold out JRAD session at College Street. Russo on drums, Marco Benevento on a Rick Wakeman-sized keyboard setup, two guitars and bass filled the hall with sound. Two sets of Grateful Dead and inspired improv from these torchbearers of jam. First set highlights: Feel Like A Stranger, Candyman, and Bertha. Ever the Cheshire Cat, Marco a musical omnivore, teases his way in and out of many songs. At times, it seemed hard for the support staff to keep up with his Robin Williams ricochet. The second set started with Neil Young's Vampire Blues, swooped into a Blues For Allah anchored set into Minglewood Blues. These guys revel in the segueway, at one point playing a rousing Beatles' Hey Bulldog that moved from some Allman's keyboard workout. Closed with the mighty Terrapin. At the risk of wearing my old fogey status on my sleeve, I do remember The Duo which was Benevento-Russo  in the early aughts at the birth of jam. At a ski lodge in Great Barrington, I sat on Marco's speaker with a handful of jam disciples watching these two develop their chops. They've come a long way baby.
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Dead Horses w/ Honeysuckle 3/5/19 Cafe 9

Note to promoters and concert venues, the way the show is billed should reflect the order of the evening's acts. This is the second time this year where I went to a show and missed the headliner because they went on first. Dead Horses is an Americana folk duo from Wisconsin. I only caught the tail end of their set, because they went on first.
Honeysuckle is a MA-based string band trio. Big fella on banjo and acoustic guitar, another guy on mandolin, and a young woman on acoustic guitar and lead vocals. The girl looked nerdy and unassuming, but when she sang a full throated alto like Norah Jones came out. Songs were mostly sad and folkie, but the band had a wry sense of humor. One song was about how the banjo player "loves his phone", another was about a "canary resuscitator". This band would be a pleasant acquisition to any folk festival lineup.