Archive | February, 2010
Bryce Dessner, Clogs and Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond
Ahmad Jamal @ The Dakota
February 21-23
Ahmad Jamal
7:00 and 9:30
A true American original: jazz piano legend Ahmad Jamal returns to the Dakota for six shows!
“…his playing is as sensitive, as passionate and as hypnotic as it’s ever been. –Marc Meyers, All About Jazz
Ahmad Jamal is one of the most distinctive and influential pianists in jazz history. His use of space and ability to create moments of tension and release through dynamics are trademarks of his style. Jamal’s elegant touch, muscular and lissome, is instantly recognizable, and his classic “Poinciana” has become a major landmark in the history of jazz and popular music.
Jamal was raised in Pittsburgh, a city revered for its rich musical heritage and home to such jazz luminaries as Errol Garner and Billy Eckstine. (As a boy, Jamal delivered papers to Billy Strayhorn’s family!) He got his first piano job with the George Hudson Orchestra at the age of 17, and began his recording career in 1951. Jamal’s early records had an impact on a young Miles Davis, who insisted that pianist Red Garland sound like him on his classic Quintet recordings from the 1950s. The Davis recordings also feature some early Jamal originals, “New Rhumba” and “Ahmad’s Blues.”
So much more than “the guy who influenced Miles,” Jamal has evolved the piano trio into a single telepathic entity with graceful synergy, and has done so without compromising or losing his musical identity. Jamal’s technique is dazzling, and few pianists can deliver a ballad with the same understated ease he has.
“Ahmad Jamal must be, to a listener unfamiliar with his music, a revelation. Even to those who know his music, each performance comes as a fresh and exciting discovery.” Simon Jay Harper, All About Jazz
“I can think of only one other artist in jazz music I could mention in the same category of awesomeness, Duke Ellington, and he needed sixteen people. Mr. Jamal does it with three guys.” Monty Alexander
Music critic Stanley Crouch consider’s Mr. Jamal’s distinctive style as having had an influence on the same level as “Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver and John Lewis, all thinkers whose wrestling with form and content influenced the shape and texture of the music, and whose ensembles were models of their music visions.”
What's going on Friday?
Hardcore Crayons, CokeWolf, HONDO, Oberamergau @ Turf Club
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
MoreCowbell Presents…Hardcore Crayons, CokeWolf, Hondo, Oberamergau
Doors 9:00pm | $5 cover
Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles are in Big Trouble
Lucy Michelle and The Velvet Lapelles and Big Trouble played @ The Cedar on 2/13. It was a great night, with Dave Campbell of The Current singing with Big Trouble and The Velvet Lapelles. Love songs were in the air, most notably (and to the delight of the crowd) cheesy 80s tunes.
JET LEGS (f. VAZ, SEAWHORES) – FOODTEAM – TART – ELECTROVIBE ORCHESTRA w/ POUTUMS TRIO & MONK IN MOTIAN @ TURF CLUB
Upstairs: An evening of ambient and minimal electronic music.
JET LEGS
PAUL (VAZ) & ADAM (ARCTIC UNIVERSE, SEAWHORES)
FOODTEAM
(Ryan Olcott)
TART
(Phil Khalar)
ELECTROVIBE ORCHESTRA
& Downstairs:
CLOWN LOUNGE JAZZ
A great tribute night to two of jazz’s most legendary composers…MONK & MINGUS.
Monk In Motian pays homage to the music of Thelonious Monk in the style and instrumentation of drummer Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band. This features two guitars, two saxophones, electric bass, and drums, and no piano.
Like MIM, Poutums Trio Mingus Tribute approaches the music of Charles Mingus in a unique way, as a trio…a format that is not typically associated with the composer more known for larger ensemble arrangements. Nonetheless, Linz, Thomson, and Ikeda know just how to capture the essence of these great tunes.
Clogs / My Brightest Diamond @ Southern Theater Contest
photo: Alec Hanley Bemis
Thanks to the Southern Theater, More Cowbell are honored give away a pair of tickets to see Clogs (feat. Bryce Dessner & Padma Newsome of The National) along w/ Bryce’s brother Aaron (also from The National) and special guest Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond / The Decemberists) this Friday AND Saturday night at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. Even if you don’t win, these shows are going to be very special and are not to be missed. Clogs have a fantastic brand new album entitled ‘The Creatures In The Garden of Lady Walton’ due out March 2nd that features guest vocals from Sufjan Stevens, Aaron Dessner & Matt Berninger (The National), and Shara Worden.
Clogs – ‘On The Edge’ (from the upcoming ‘The Creatures In The Garden of Lady Walton’ out March 2nd)
Clogs – ‘On The Edge’
Clogs – ‘Three-Two’ (from the recently released ‘Veil Waltz’ EP)
Clogs – ‘Three-Two’
The Southern Theater in partnership with the Weisman Art Museum present
Bryce Dessner, Clogs and Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond
With special guest Lorne Watson
Two unique programs: February 19 & 20, 2010
“It might be better to forgo any genre distinctions and head straight for the thesaurus so you can find fresh and exciting ways to say ‘sublime’.” – Pitchforkmedia.com (on Clogs)
“Ms. Worden lets the personal reverberate across the cosmos…There are delicacy, passion and spiraling intensity in her openhearted songs.” —New York Times
Clogs’ powerful and nuanced chamber compositions leave “no question that the classical and indie realms can share a border where music turns pensive, knotty, and otherworldly” —New York Times
Bryce Dessner of international indie rock acclaim The National has a penchant for bringing together disparate musicians, musical styles, and artistic genres. This February he presents two uniquely programmed evenings of music featuring work from various side- and not-so-side-projects.
The first night will feature selections from Clogs’ repertoire and individual works and collaborations among group members and special guests Shara Worden and Lorne Watson. Ms Worden will also perform a solo set of selections from the My Brightest Diamond repertoire. Night two brings a sneak preview of Clogs’ soon to be released The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton along with selections from the recently released Veil Waltz, with support from Worden and Watson.
Clogs is Bryce Dessner (guitar), Rachael Elliott (bassoon), Thomas Kozumplik (percussion) and Padma Newsome (violin, viola, voice).
Performance dates: February 19 & 20, 2010
Fri. & Sat. at 8pm
Pre-show reception each night sponsored by The Red Stag Supperclub
Tickets: $22
Southern Theater box office: 612.340.1725
1420 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55454
www.southerntheater.org
Auxiliary events at Weisman Art Museum
Sat. February 20, 5:30-6:30pm –
A discussion with Bryce Dessner of The National/Clogs, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, Padma Newsome of Clogs, Weisman Art Museum curator Diane Mullin and 89.3 The Current’s Steve Seel
Free. Advance RSVP to rsvp@southerntheater.org or 612.340.0155 ext.310.
This discussion with members of The National and Clogs, along with My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden, explores parallels between the musicians’ work and the Weisman exhibition Common Sense: Art and the Quotidian. The problem of “the everyday” is central to much of the most enduring and challenging twentieth century art, design, and craft. The exhibition features works from the Weisman collection that reveal how this period engaged, celebrated, and investigated ideas of the everyday and the common. In a conversation with the musicians about their philosophies, practices, and resulting music, the discussion will examine connections between the rarified and the everyday and between high and low culture in both music and art.
Saturday Feb. 20, following the performance –
Meet the artists at a casual post-show reception at the Weisman Art Museum. View the exhibition Common Sense: Art and the Quotidian, and enjoy complimentary refreshments while listening to tunes from musicians’ self-selected playlist.
To enter to win a pair of tickets, please send an email to: contests@morecowbell.net with the SUBJECT: ‘Clogs Tickets’. In the body of the email, please include your FULL NAME, PHONE NUMBER, and which show you’d prefer to win tickets for (if no preference just state EITHER NIGHT).
The contest ends on Thursday at 9pm and you will be notified shortly thereafter on Thursday evening, so get your entries in ASAP.
GOOD LUCK
What's going on Monday?
| Today | |
| All Day Event | Jazz Implosion @ Clown Lounge w/ DAVE KARR & FAT KID WEDNESDAYS |
| 9:30 PM | Dreamland Faces @ Kitty Cat Klub |
What's going on Saturday?
