Dobet Gnahore 6/28/24 New Haven Green

 Second to last day of this year’s International Arts and Ideas festival featured Ivory Coast singer, dancer, and percussionist Gnahore. A striking stage presence, she had an outfit that was adorned with shells, crimson dyed hair that flowed down to her calves, and a pirate hat made from purple feathers. She danced and played a variety of bangables: shoulder drum, floor tom, gourds, shakers, and congas. While dancing and flailing around the drums, it connoted a sense of African ritual. She sang in French and closed each tune with a “merci beaucoup”. As colorful as she was, her band seemed to be a motley collection of Caucasian basement stoners from East Haven ,complete with backward baseball hats. Gnahore was in some serious shape and I was worried that her outfit or hair could send her tumbling. Relatively sparse crowd for a cool Friday night.

Green River Festival 6/22/24 Greenfield MA

 Annual pilgrimage to central Mass for a lo-fi smorgasbord of music known as the GRF. Set on the Franklin County Fairgrounds,  this fest prides itself on the eclectic mix of artists.

Pachyman: LA-based Puerto Rican nerd PM was first up on the second stage. Legend has it he collects odd musical and recording gear to produce an Esquivel meets Prince Far I stew of old school reggae riddims. On stage with bass and drums, PM played guitar, melodica, and effects. Dub, echo, reverb, the reggae beat were all on display.

Bonny Light Horseman: Alt country trio consisting of Anais Mitchell, Eric Johnson, and  Josh Kaufman. I’ve seen Mitchell in her early solo years at this fest. A confident singer and playwright, Anais is responsible for the Broadway hit Hadestown. Johnson was part of the excellent indie outfit the Fruitbats, and a capable vocal foil to Mitchell. Kaufman was lead guitar but they all played guitars or banjos. These artists have collaborated with the likes of The Shins, The War on Drugs, Bob Weir, Taylor Swift, Hiss Golden Messenger, and The Hold Steady. In your face vocals and vocal harmonies coupled with excellent songwriting made this group compelling.

Hannah Mohan: Not to be confused with Hannah Montana, Mohan is a local artist who I see listed on the newly re-opened club listing for The  Iron Horse in nearby Northampton. Indie rocking quartet, HM had a good local contingent of fans to cheer her on.

Joy Oladokun: Nashville singer and guitarist Oladokun was next on the main stage. Well crafted folk tunes seemed to get lost on the crowd. She has a couple of hits that are recognizable, and the comparison to Tracy Chapman both in looks and sound were apt.

Mdou Moctar: Hendrix from Niger, Moctar has been positively reviewed here before. As a lefty guitar wizard, Moctar whirled the crowd dervishly with his desert assault. Singing in his native tongue, Moctar seems to have developed a confident stage presence since my viewing a few years back. The Greenfield crowd grooved and appreciated this exotic artist.

S.G. Goodman: Western Kentucky twanger had a powerful multi octave vocal range. She was supported by an expert crew of country musicians including a beautiful pedal steel sound. She told a hysterical story about a goodie bag she received playing a Willie Nelson fest (readers can do the math here), and played an excellent set including a Waylon Jennings cover.

Fleet Foxes: Seattle based indie folk outfit Fleet Foxes closed the day on the main stage. This group has some Grammy nods and had excellent vocal harmony flourishes reminiscent of The Beach Boys or The Zombies. There seemed to be at least six musicians onstage and they jumped around to various instruments. Guitars, brass, percussion augmented the vocal harmony piece. They pulled Mitchell and Johnson (from BLH) on stage for a ballsy cover of Joni Mitchell’s Hejira.

Given the current state of the climate, we were happy to wait out a 1.5 inch deluge that soaked a few opening acts. The food, the company, and the music will keep me coming back to this under the radar but expertly arranged regional showcase.

Kevin Harris: Roots, Water, & Sunlight 6/17/24 Beinecke Library

 Another Arts and Ideas event billed as a “contemporary wind octet expedition through the expressions of James Baldwin”.  Kevin Harris seems to be a modern classical composer who conducted and played piano and synths. I couldn’t really see the octet, but I could hear French horn, trombone, trumpet, and sax and could see standup bass and drums. For those who have never been in this building, I’ll break it down. You enter across a courtyard behind Woolsey (now Schwarzman) Hall. The library houses Yale’s collection of rare books and manuscripts and current Juneteenth exhibition had a wealthy patrons collection of the writings of Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin, and the political cartoons of Oliver Harrington. When you enter the building, you see the permanent collection housed in a glassed-in inner sanctum that stretches from floor to ceiling. A glass silo allows one to see the spines of these ancient texts in a bibliobelisk of sorts. There are only ground floor windows, the mezzanine and upper floors are walled with opaque marble. Yes you read right, marble that allows diffuse light to enter based on the strength of the sun. I assume the marble adds a layer of protection against tome killing UV rays. The musicians were awkwardly placed on the mezzanine and 75 chairs were set nearby obscuring the view. Fortunately the sound was not obscured. The three movements had passages from Baldwin and others, some taped gospel numbers that stretched the music of the octet. It reminded me of the jazzy Blood On The Fields production by Wynton Marsalis back in the 90s. Standing room only for this unusual and challenging music.

The Ebony Hillbillies w/Cecilia 6/16/24 New Haven Green

 First Sunday of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas Started with Québécois trio Cecilia. Accordion, fiddle, and a young woman on organ. Celtic fusion with a French twist, these three were built for speed. The instrumentation allowed for fluid segues among ethnicities. They played an Edith Piaf tune at breakneck speed.

The Ebony Hillbillies are an NYC group of  pickers that appeared to be in their 70s. They started with a Native American invocation to “honor their elders”. Two female singers and a motley crew of guitar, banjo, bass, washboard gave an authentic string band sound. Good version of the Howling Wolf classic, Spoonful.

Will Bernard’s Pond Life 6/7/24 Firehouse 12

 Final offering of the Firehouse spring schedule did not disappoint. Pond Life is a trio with Bernard on guitar, Chris Lightcap on bass, and the omnipresent Ches Smith on drums. The original incarnation of this group included Tim Berne on sax. Bernard’s C.V. has him appearing on releases by Don Cherry and Galactic. In the 90s he formed the Bay Area guitar supergroup T.J.Kirk with Charlie Hunter. Playing the music of Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and Roland Kirk, T.J. embodied Will and Charlie’s reverence for the masters in a groove setting. Lightcap is a stalwart downtown presence and seemed unfazed by the pyrotechnics of the guitar and drum interplay. Ches Smith is the best drummer you’ve never heard of. He is tireless, appearing in countless groups spanning free improv to jammy groove settings. His Haitian percussion group, positively reviewed here last year, had him driving the train behind 10 musicians. Happy then, to be sitting right in front of the kit for a close view of this amazing drummer. They played some cuts from the Pond Life release and some older tunes from a Bernard/Smith collab from 2004. Smith seems to be in his 30s which would make him a teenager in 04. The beauty of this group is their telepathic ability to shift from hard driving groove to free jazz at the drop of a hat. Speaking of hats, Will’s star-studded Medicine Hat release from the late 90s still brings me joy. Can’t wait for the fall lineup to come out.

Adam Rudolph’s Sunrise Quartet 5/24/24 Firehouse 12

 Made it to the second set of Adam’s group at the Firehouse. Rudolph on handrumset, electronic processing, thumb pianos, mouth bow, gongs, and percussion; Alexis Marcelo- piano, electric keyboards, kudu horn, percussion; Kaoru Watanabe- taiko, Japanese percussion, noh kan and fue flutes, electric koto and processing; Stephen Haynes- cornets, flugelhorns, trumpet, conch shells, didgeridoos, percussion. Yes, that is certainly a percussive army, but Rudolph and company have a way of weaving these disparate instruments into a sonic tapestry that is best viewed live. The songs ebbed and flowed with the instruments. Arriving early, I listened to Rudolph and Haynes chatting with local DJ and world music aficionado Richard Hill. They were speaking of their schooling and experiences as globetrotting students of trance percussion, Gnawa, Morocco, the Master musicians of Joujouka, I was getting dizzy trying to keep up. Rudolph looks like a beatnik Al Pacino , easily moving from percussion to laptop. Marcelo was the glue, providing the backdrop for the others to work. Watanabe’s instruments were so unusual, at one point he raised a metal pole with three rings dangling from the top and thumped the ground with it sounding like some demented Asian Jacob Marley. Haynes has been positively reviewed in this blog before, usually as a leader, he takes a team player approach in the Sunrise quartet. The trumpet and flugel are augmented with a cigar box didg that sounded like insect buzzing. The music on view was strange and beautiful, the bonus of seeing it live capped a wonderful set.