NYC Based Band Jeremy Beck & The Heavy Duty Horns dropped their Take Me By The Hand EP on June 26th. The four song EP has a soulful, gospel, jazzy sound. Band leader Jeremy Beck has roots in rural Alabama and New Orleans. These roots influenced his music and sound greatly which can be heard throughout the EP.
The Eight piece band decided to release their EP amidst COVID-19 and the fight for racial justice and equality in the United States. They understood the implications of releasing this EP during a pivotal moment for civil rights in America with it’s soulful, gospelly, and jazzy roots. “In a musical context, Black music has created what we know as American music. Without the great Black musicians, artists and writers, plain and simple, American music would not exist.” Beck explains, “So much of the music I’ve played and produced throughout my career has been directly inspired by Black musicians and I will be forever grateful. Growing up in Alabama and during my time in New Orleans, Black music and culture molded me into the musician and person I am today.”
Jeremy Beck & The Heavy Duty Horns. Photo provided by Jeremy Beck & The Heavy Duty Horns press release.
The EP includes the title track, “Take me by the hand” and then the love song “Oh Baby!.” The EP wraps up with the upbeat, high tempo, song “Somebody Call Frank,” and ends with “Sing Hallelujah,”about a perfectly imperfect love. This Ep marks the first compilation of songs credited to a band composed of sidemen who have cut their teeth playing with big names like Bonnie Raitt, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and Missy Elliot.
Take Me By The Hand is out and available everywhere now. For more information on Jeremy Beck & The Heavy Duty Horns visit their website or their official Facebook page.
Swing Your Concerns features two new tracks along with three of her singles “Swim,” “WHATISTODAY?,” and “Deserve This.” “I believe that as humans we see the option of distracting ourselves from our current reality as a better route than to truly work on bettering who we are. Why feel and work through what’s wrong when you can be numb instead. With the combination of expectations and eyeballs tracking your every move, that’s what ‘Hilary Duff’ is about,” Maggie comments on “Hillary Duff.” This song, along with “Deserve This” and “Swim,” seem to come at a perfect time in this global pandemic when emotions are high.
Maggie grew up surrounded by music as her father was in a Celtic rock band. She did not perform solo in front of an audience until she was 18, but has quickly gained popularity after being discovered by Bruce Gates at Pearl Street Warehouse in Washington, D.C. Since then, she has gained over 60K monthly listeners on Spotify, and her song “WHATISTODAY?” has been featured on several of the app’s playlists, such as Indie Pop and Fresh Finds. She has gained attention from Billboard, Variance, and American Songwriter.
This new single and EP follow an endorsement deal with Yamaha Music along with the emerging artist program WAY Up. Maggie spoke at a panel at the Yamaha Ginza Hall in Tokyo along with several other acclaimed up and coming artists. They spoke about their experiences creating music and conveying their inner emotions through it.
Photo by Jimmy Fisco
Maggie Miles, much like other alt pop artists, shows authenticity in her music by showcasing her wit and personality. At only 21 years old, Maggie likes to use comic relief as a means to poke fun at the hilarity that is the coming-of-age time in life. She draws inspiration from 90s grunge artists but still produces a unique sound that’s personal to her. Maggie says: “I make music for the utter reason alone that I need to create something for myself that makes sense, when nothing else around me does.” She has notable vocal talent, but can also play the piano, drums, guitar, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, bass, and keytar.
Maggie’s first full-length album will be out later this Summer.
Kitchen Dwellers have released Reheated Vol. 2, their take on Pink Floyd with three covers – “Welcome to the Machine.” “Hey You,” and “Pigs (Three Different Ones).” This release marks the second installment of their Reheated series featuring covers interpreted by Kitchen Dwellers through their eclectic and expansive approach to Bluegrass music. Kitchen Dwellers launched their Reheated series in 2018 with Vol. 1, a four-song EP that reimagined songs from The Band.
Reheated started out as a way to play the music of some of our favorite bands while putting our own twist on it. We draw influences from all kinds of styles and types of genres, so diving into somebody else’s work is fun for us. It creates its own set of challenges and we tend to incorporate some of the things we learn along the way into our own songs and playing. For the first volume, we released songs from The Band. We love their approach to songwriting and singing so we really had a lot of fun with that one.
After many rounds of debate, we ultimately chose to do Pink Floyd for the second volume. Throughout their long career, they have been so inventive and experimental. As a kid, I used to think the band members of Pink Floyd wore lab coats and twisted nobs to make their music. Their songs also pose big questions about life and have the ability to make you think from different perspectives. We chose one song from three of their most influential albums; Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall. All songs were recorded and mixed with Colin Bricker at Mighty Fine Productions in Denver, CO. We tried to recreate some of the iconic sounds that Pink Floyd managed to produce in the studio, this time, with acoustic instruments. Every single instrument track was recorded on one of our four instruments except for one, so we really had to work on getting it right. This release has been highly anticipated for us and It’s with great excitement that we can put this out into the world.
Max Davies (guitar/vocals)
The Montana-based bluegrass band has performed for thousands at Red Rocks, shared bills with the likes of Railroad Earth, The Infamous Stringdusters and Twiddle, graced festival stages from Northwest String Summit to WinterWonderGrass, and transcended traditional genre boundaries.
Camp Circle Jam creator Ostin Gold has announced a virtual music festival taking place July 2 at 12 p.m. A collective streaming event for music, art and wellness, the grassroots festival will showcase over 30 creators ranging from live music to mindfulness workshops and more.
Live performances will include Brooklyn based DODONGO, Jeremy Kraus (Space Carnival), Danny Littler (Autonomix) and Josh Nermon (Autonomix), Vaporeyes, Gallons Of Pork, Chameleonize and a set of Phish from Nectar.
Performing solo will be Pat Tato (of Vaporeyes/Baked Potatoes) Ron Solo (Of Space Carnival), Smurfy, Khalil Jade, Marliii, Josh Nermon (of Autonomix) and more. Unique DJ sets will feature names like Fuzzy Bunny Slippers, APROTU, Waves, and more.
Available to stream on Twitch, there is no cost to watch the event but donations will be accepted which will directly benefit artists and creators that have found themselves out of work due to the pandemic.
Find more information about the festival on Instagram and Facebook.
Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s music label, has released Black, Brown, and Beige, their first release dedicated entirely to famous jazz composer Duke Ellington.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s in-house recording label, Blue Engine records’ Black Brown and Beige is a recording of a live Rose Theater performance in 2018 by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Wynton Marsalis, the center’s managing and artistic director, says: “Black, Brown and Beige sits alone in the history of jazz. It covers a mosaic of not just Afro-American but of American styles of music.”
Born in 1899, Duke Ellington was a master jazz composer and musician for several decades and was an important figure during the Harlem Renaissance. He thought of his music not only as jazz but also “beyond category,” and he wrote pieces that influenced American music for the greater part of a century. He led the best-known orchestral jazz group of all time. Composer Percy Grainger even wrote that “The three greatest composers who ever lived are Bach, Delius and Duke Ellington.”
Black, Brown, and Beige, which includes nine tracks in total, originally debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1943 while Ellington was still alive. Elliot called it “a parallel to the history of the Negro in America.” It is a notable work in both African-American history as well as that of all American orchestral compositions.
Jazz at Lincoln Center is happy to release a present-day recording of the piece that does Elliot’s greatest work justice and makes it digitally available to countless people today. Blue Engine Records’ mission is to feature both past and present works that make up an entire canon of music to bring old and new fans of jazz together.
The Daniel Hersog O Canada Jazz Orchestra has released their first digital music video, featuring the Canadian National Anthem “O Canada.” The video’s release comes just in time for Canada‘s July 1 Independence Day.
Daniel Hersog‘s 17-piece ensemble formed in response to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The group is comprised of Juno Award winners, Canadian jazz stars and a recipient of the Order of Canada. All 10 Canadian Providences are represented among these musicians that have come together to support each other during trying times.
Daniel Hersog, hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, has quickly become a vital Jazz player as a trumpeter, composer and arranger. Hersog is currently receiving significant airplay, and international media attention for his newly released album Night Devoid of Stars released through Cellar Music Label.
Curbside Concerts, who bring the live music experience to you, will have a pair of shows in the Hamilton, NY area thanks to the Arts at the Palace and the Hamilton Movie Theater. Bringing back live music with proper precautions for COVID-19 in place, Curbside Concerts was recently launched in an Uber Eats style, with users able to use their phones to find local artists who will perform a live set at your address.
The partnership between Hamilton Movie Theater and Arts at the Palace is a strong effort to resume live music in a controlled setting. Artists will perform for four 30 minutes time slots each evening.
As they move about town we encourage the folks that booked them to sit on their porch or yard in a socially-distanced manor. “Free delivery” and a fun night interacting and listening to these local and regional musicians is our mission. After the first one last week, the artist Seth Becker of The Old Main said, “I’d like to keep doing this!” Sounds good to us. We encourage all communities to do this safely!
Sean Nevison, General Manager, Hamilton Movie Theater
On July 1 you’ll find Chris Eves and Johnny Jones, followed by Jes Sheldon and Mike Davis on July 8. In the event of rain, shows will be held on the following Thursday. For more information visit the Arts at The Palace website.
Few bands have a relationship with the state of New York like the Grateful Dead. Performing over 300 shows throughout the Empire State in a span of 28 years, the Grateful Dead made their mark starting with their first New York performance in Tompkins Square Park on June 1, 1967
In some ways, the Grateful Dead’s maiden trip to the East Coast via New York City mirrors the ongoing circumstances we see there and across the country today. The year was 1967, right in the heart of the Civil Rights Era. And, locally, tribal tensions were beginning to boil over as well, stirred by the wrestling of control over the communal jukebox that had become Tompkins Square Park, a public space in the Alphabet City section of the East Village.
Tompkins Square Park 6/1/67
This being the “Summer of Love,” San Francisco was not the only place towards which hippies were flocking. Those that had descended upon Manhattan’s Lower East Side grew fond of playing their congas and bongos at the park. Puerto Ricans, the neighborhood majority, wanted their music to be prevalent and the Black community also fought for control of the musical output. Over the last few weekends, fighting at the park had become rampant.
Most recently, 38 people were arrested at Tompkins Square Park on Memorial Day after being confronted by police for sitting on the grass where they were playing music, both park violations. Per a Village Voice article from June 8, 1967, “A couple of cops went over to the park and told the hippies to shut up and get off the grass. The kids laughed, and kept singing. The cops ordered them to leave. ‘They laughed at us,’ patrolman John Rodd explained. ‘That’s when the trouble began.’”
Throw in all the other issues that the summer of 1967 undoubtedly brought and it becomes clear that local police were in danger of losing their city, as far as popular opinion went, and needed to rethink their tactics. Maybe it was someone on the force who somehow had an early copy of the Grateful Dead’s eponymous first album, released just months earlier. Or maybe it was “Cream Puff War,” the album’s second single that was slowly beginning to garner some radio airplay, that had somehow made it to a patrolman’s ear. Whatever the root cause may have been, the Grateful Dead were about to be met with an interesting quid pro quo from the city in the effort of keeping the peace.
Grateful Dead playing Golden Gate Park, just a few months prior to their first East Coast trip
Although the band was still in its nascent stage, they were definitely on the local radar. This was made evident when they were greeted by two separate welcoming committees upon their arrival to the Big Apple, each with a distinct agenda. According to Rock Scully, one of the band’s early managers, they had drama as soon as they arrived at their hotel. According to his book, Living with the Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus with Garcia and the Grateful Dead, Scully and the band were greeted upon their arrival with one of the oldest tricks in the book.
“I put the briefcase down on the front desk right next to me – it had all of our expense money in it – and the next thing I know somebody comes up and asks a question. I turn around and when I turn back, bang! the money’s gone. ” ~ Rock Scully
After returning to the hotel later that day, the band is greeted by the NYPD and Thomas Hoving, head of the Parks Department. Unsurprisingly, this was not a follow up for details to the heist from earlier in the day but, rather, a business proposal that would seem to benefit both sides. The Dead is presented with an offer to do the city “an honor” by playing an additional show at the bandshell in Central Park. As it stood, their only planned shows were a series of gigs slated to go down at the Village’s Cafe Au Go Go.
Who would say no to an extra show at such an esteemed locale in the most populated city in America? Surely, there had to be a catch. Well, there was. Now that the band had been buttered up, so to speak, the police then politely asked if they could give them “a hand with this little problem we’ve been having in Tompkins Square Park.”
The Grateful Dead may not have been a worldwide attraction yet, but they were known as a band that had no problems playing outdoors, and to great numbers at that. Word of the “Human Be-In,” a large outdoor show at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in January which the Dead were prominently involved in, had clearly reached New York City. A band with mass appeal that played outside and catered to hippies would be just what the doctor ordered. Although, understandably, the band had their concerns about jumping into the local fray.
“We can’t even hang on to our per diems and they want us to sort out a gang war in Alphabet City? They must be desperate.”
Rock Scully, Living with the Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus with Garcia and The Grateful Dead
It became clear to the band that the caveat for being allowed to play Central Park was their assistance in this local matter. After some initial reluctance, they were nudged to accept after lead guitarist Jerry Garcia spoke up, seeing it as a chance for outsiders like them to bring another community together via music. In the name of harmony, the Dead encouraged all local bands and musicians to attend and share the stage with them.
So on June 1, the day after the Memorial Day skirmish, the Grateful Dead went down to Greenwich Village where they were given the royal treatment, hailed as foreign troubadours here to deliver peace. Per a Village Voice article from the following week, “A happy, scruffy parade of 80 marched down St. Mark’s Place, complete with police escort, to present the Dead with a white carnation key to the East Village, graciously accepted by Pigpen. And the Tompkins Square bandshell rocked with San Francisco glory until a noise complaint was lodged in the late afternoon.”
But true to the band’s initial vision, they were only a part of the festivities that drew some 3,000 people to the park over the course of the day. They played from 2 – 5 p.m. and delivered their signature sound of amplified rhythm and blues meshed with psychedelic rock that was being consumed by an East Coast audience for the very first time. A Newsday review claimed the music could be “heard for blocks in every direction.”
Tompkins Square Park video footage from 6/1/67 (no audio first two minutes)
Throughout the course of the day, music of all kinds filled the air in what had to be one of the largest, free musical gatherings in New York to date. The gathering, dubbed a “real-in,” was a successful mass protest of sorts, in response to the events from Memorial Day, signaling to the local authorities that the local community was capable of policing itself.
It was certainly highlighted by the Dead’s first East Coast gig, but they willingly shared the stage with The Fugs, a much more well known local act, as well as local Puerto Rican and Black musicians who had also assembled – a true “pop-up” festival with some San Francisco flair. The Grateful Dead’s collective mindset, especially Garcia’s, is perhaps best summed up by Scully and his take on the day’s proceedings. “ Then other musicians come up with their congas and marimbas and bongos and cowbells, and they see this isn’t a turf thing at all. Music is music as far as the Dead go. African music or Puerto Rican salsa, it don’t make no difference to Garcia.”
And so, the band’s long, strange relationship with the State of New York had begun – dropped into the middle of civil unrest in return for an unexpected show at Central Park. Both those shows and the following string of dates at Cafe Au Go Go went off without a hitch and the Dead had officially stamped New York City as its first East Coast mainstay. They would return many times and wind up playing shows in almost every region of the state – which we look forward to writing about and covering here in New York State Music’s “Golden Road” series.
Setlist: June 1, 1967, Tompkins Square Park – Manhattan, NY (setlist is incomplete and approximate)
The Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion), Dancin’ in the Streets, In the Midnight Hour, Beat it on Down the Line, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Cold Rain and Snow, Morning Dew, Viola Lee Blues
Bonus footage from the band’s performance at the “Human Be-In” in Golden Gate Park 1/14/67
The comedy world lost a giant today, as Carl Reiner passed away at age 98. Known for creating The Dick Van Dyke Show and directing comedies including Oh God! and The Jerk, few know that Reiner also dabbled in singing, notably opera music, part of two television performances that bookend his career.
Born in The Bronx to Jewish immigrant parents in 1920, Carl Reiner would go on to serve in the Army Air Force in World War II, before performing in Broadway musicals Inside U.S.A. and Alive and Kicking, among others, as well as the lead role in Call Me Mister. In 1950, he joined the cast of Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, appearing on air in skits while also working alongside writers Mel Brooks and Neil Simon in the early years of their careers.
At 33 years of age, Reiner joined Caesar’s Hour in October 1955, Reiner would perform a selection from Pagliacci, with Sid Caesar in the role of Gallipacci (Canio in the original opera). Gallipacci and wife Rosa (Nedda), played by Nanette Fabray, are traveling in an art troupe, when Rosa falls in love with Emilio (Silvio), played by Reiner. The two make plans to elope, but a jealous Gallipacci discovers their plan. Watch below and listen for a young Don Pardo introducing the sketch.
Now compare a young Reiner, whose career was just getting started, to a 91 year old Reiner on Conan promoting his book “I Remember Me.” The two discussed how he was never able to perform opera for a career choice, and Conan offered him a chance to perform on the show that night. Reiner took the chance and sang from Pagliacci.
Rest in peace Carl Reiner, thanks for the laughs and for shining a light on your potential operatic career.
The latest release from the GarciaLive series brings bassist John Kahn together with Jerry Garcia on the duo’s winter tour stop at The Ritz in New York City on January 27, 1986. The collection includes a liner note essay by bluegrass virtuoso Billy Strings.
This performance at The Ritz was during the midpoint of their East Coast run, with Garcia and Kahn delighting the audience with a mix of Grateful Dead favorites, folk standards, and other staples from Garcia’s songbook. A laid-back yet passionate performance, Garcia’s mastery as a storyteller is on full display. As Billy Strings describes in the liner notes, Garcia “sings through the verses and picks through the melodies as if he is the man in the story. Delicate and deliberate.”
A sultry version of “Friend of the Devil” showcases Garcia’s soulful singing and his deep musical connection with Kahn. A pair of nods to Dylan are included in the show — “When I Paint My Masterpiece” and “Simple Twist of Fate.” Additional highlights include an upbeat “Bird Song” which Garcia & Kahn stretch out for the longest jam of the evening and a joyous “Ripple,” heard below.
Pre-order Vol.14 of GarciaLive here, and while supplies last, every CD pre-order via Garcia Family Provisions will receive a bonus CD featuring the duo’s show the next night, January 28, 1986 at The Ritz.
Set One: Deep Elem Blues, Little Sadie, Friend of the Devil, Oh Babe, It Ain’t No Lie, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Run for the Roses
Set Two: Dire Wolf, Simple Twist of Fate, Spike Driver Blues, Bird Song, Ripple
