Over the past month, illegal raves have continued to spark anger throughout Brooklyn as rave organizers claim they’re not doing anything wrong.
The event on Aug. 15 lead to testers and tracers being dispatched.
According to Gothamist, Brooklyn had a reported 200 positive cases from the last two weeks. In response, test and trace teams were dispatched to the Sunset Park area.
Regardless of the positive cases, rave organizers continued to hold two parties in the same area on Aug. 8. Being illegal, the Sheriff’s Office broke the two raves up the early morning after.
One rave took place on 47th street in a warehouse with 200 people. There was alcohol, even though the event didn’t have a liquor license. Police arrested and charged multiple people.
8/16/2020: Deputy Sheriffs investigate illegal rave @ 266 47th Street, Brooklyn: over 180 gathered inside. Organizers were arrested & charged with multiple alcohol beverage control law offenses, narcotics possession & violation of local emergency law. Alcohol stock was seized. pic.twitter.com/oRraL0iWxl
In a statement made to reporters the following Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said no one should be putting others’ lives at risk.
“I want to be abundantly clear: you cannot organize a large gathering that’s going to put people’s lives in danger or you will suffer the consequences,” said de Blasio.
The other rave happened only a few blocks away and also had alcohol without a liquor license. Police busted the event shortly after the 47th Street rave at 2 a.m.
8/16/2020: Deputy Sheriffs investigate illegal rave @ 214 51st Street, Brooklyn: over 100 gathered inside. Organizer was arrested & charged with multiple alcohol beverage control law offenses and violation of local emergency law. Alcohol stock was seized. pic.twitter.com/lWehv5Gttw
According to sources, the events had different organizers, but they coordinated the timing together.
Nocturnal Radio Live hosted the 47th Street rave, but it wasn’t their first. On July 4, multiple raves throughout the city popped up, including one thrown by them.
Although the events were highly illegal, the group had no problem promoting them on their social media pages.
Nocturnal Radio Live posted this on their Instagram page, but took it down along with their whole page.
From a Chainsmokers concert in July to a secret rave under Kosciuszco Bridge a few weeks ago, rave organizers don’t seem to want to back down from hosting these events.
Ulitsky and Simms, the head of Nocturnal Radio, said they provided “unity.”
“Everything we’ve done and plan to do in the future is out of unity, not about separation and depression,” said Simms.
Ulitsky added, “As far as people attending, we’re getting a lot of positive feedback. As long as that’s happening, we don’t feel like we’re doing anything wrong.”
Jam Master Jay, best known as the DJ for Run DMC, was murdered in 2002 and his murders have finally been arrested after 18 years. Two men who had long been suspects in the case were arrested and charged on August 17.
Run-DMC
Jam Master Jay’s (legal name Jason Mizell) was murdered in his studio in Queens. His murder became notorious in the rap community as being one of the world’s coldest cases. One of the main questions asked by his fans was why this happened, to Jay of all people. Jam Master Jay was known for being a peaceful, old-school DJ whose group rapped mostly about sneakers, girls, basketball and their hometown of Hollis. His murder was baffling to the rap community and finally, after 18 years, there are some answers from New York City and Federal authorities.
According to The New York Times’ article, New York City and Federal authorities blamed the fatal shooting of Jam Master Jay on a cocaine deal gone wrong. The suspects charged with the murder are Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr., who were also charged with engaging in drug trafficking in a 10-count indictment unsealed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Jordan had his arraignment on August 17 and pleaded not guilty. Washington is expected to be arraigned later in the week. Both Jordan and Washington face minimum sentences of 20 years in prison if convicted. Washington is currently serving a federal prison sentence for six robberies. Mr. Jordan was taken into custody on August 16, 2020.
Seth D. DuCharme, the acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn spoke on the matter saying,
“This is a case about a murder that for nearly two decades has gone unanswered. Today we begin to answer that question of who killed Jason Mizell and why.”
According to court papers, Mr. Washington and Mr. Jordan are both suspected of breaking into Jam Master Jay’s studio on Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens, at about 7:30 p.m on Oct. 30, 2002. Both were armed. Mr. Washington forced someone inside the studio to the ground at gunpoint, the papers say, Mr. Jordan fired a bullet into Mr. Mizell’s head, killing him almost instantly, according to The New York Times.
Brooklyn’s “nuke wave” dark synthpop band Monograms has come out with new single “Lines” to go along with their newest album, Only a Ceiling Can Stay Inside Forever.
Monograms started a Brooklyn bedroom recording experiment that evolved into a full band. The band features frontman Ian Jacobs (multiple instruments), Ali Yildiz (drums), Michelle Feliciano (synth), and Devan Davies-Wood (bass). The dark and moody tone to their music sets Monograms apart from other mainstream pop. Their sound manages to remain ambient and musically interesting without becoming chaotic or unharmonious. The combination of Jacobs’ songwriting talent–his artful and poignant lyrics, clear beats, and angular riffs–allows him to truly make each song its own unique world with a notable landscape.
The newest LP, Only a Ceiling Can Stay Inside Forever, was recorded in Jacobs’ home studio during these past months of the COVID-19 quarantine. The album is a culmination of his feelings towards the social justice issues which plague America today. “Everyone I know just feels really frustrated about the situation,” says Jacobs. “The politics, the sacrifices everyone is making, and the reality has been a very twilight zone-like kind of time for the entire world and the country.”
Jacobs expressed that in the midst of uncertainty and fear, he “just needed to do something creative to bob and weave with all these things, so [he] just started writing some words down and recording some ideas and experimenting.” Even though the songs were different, “after a few weeks, it all started to spiral into what felt like a cohesive thought” for Jacobs.
“Lines,” featuring Kat E., is a perfect representation of Monograms’ dark and brooding synth. Jacobs colors the song with what feels like melodic distortion that reminds the listener of the fear and uncertainty that has troubled all during these past few months. “Lines” is thoughtful and modern and showcases Monograms’ truly unique sound.
Only a Ceiling Can Stay Inside Forever is available on all streaming platforms, and can be purchased on Bandcamp. 50% of all Bandcamp sales will be donated to Know Your Rights Camp, an organization whose “mission is to advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.”
Brooklyn band Turkuaz refuse to not give fans new content during the COVID pandemic. On August 4 they returned with the second episode of the new series from Turkuaz, “Hey You, Stay Tuned.” The recurring variety show included an arrangement of segments and a slew of special guests.
Opening with a “pop-up-video” of the band’s official 2015 music video for ‘Doktor Jazz,’ viewers were also treated to another round of the Hollywood Squares parody that the band has appropriately dubbed “Turkuaz Squares.” This round of “Turkuaz Squares” featured special guest contestants including Ivan Neville and Robert Randolph. Eddie Roberts and Alan Evans were also on the scene, revisiting performances from Turkuaz’s 2016-2017 co-headlining tour with The New Mastersounds.
Episode two also featured a comically unconventional makeup tutorial, a never before comedy scene from the vault and much more. Brett Siddell returned as the announcer and Ari Fink from Sirius XM remained the host.
Turkuaz has also released a performance of Beatles songs “Rain” and “Here Comes the Sun,” paying homage to a major influence for the nine-piece ensemble. “Rain” is part of a larger unreleased Beatles cover set that the band originally performed at Live From Out There. Turkuaz plans on releasing other covers from this set in the future.
According to the band’s press release “Rain” seemed appropriate to start of with during the confusing and unknown times we currently live in. Turkuaz adds, “But don’t worry, the sun will be coming out soon.”
Don’t miss additional Beatles covers from Turkuaz, and their variety special, “Hey You, Stay Tuned” by following them on Facebook and YouTube.
The third video from Turkuaz’ selection of Beatles’ covers featured “You Never Give Me Your Money” and shows the lasting influence of the second side of 1969’s Abbey Road. A favorite of both Dave Brandwein and Taylor Shell, and what Brandwein calls part of The Beatles’ “last burst of magic as a band,” the track is honest as it discusses the struggles and ultimate demise of the legendary English rock band.
“This song being third might represent the inevitable complications that arise in life, even after a sunny period. There’s always more. Things are always changing and evolving and this represents some of that.”
DAve Brandwein, Turkuaz
Staying true to the original arrangement of the song allowed bassist Shell to gain a deeper understanding of what makes The Beatles so incomparable. Through this rendition, his goal was to capture some of what he refers to as the greatest bass-playing of all time.
“This song really does it all. It unfolds with elegant mystery, it’s super catchy and the rhythm section parts are amazing. It’s really just a bold statement at the end of their amazing run.”
Taylor Shell, Turkuaz
Turkuaz will release their full Beatles set, as performed on Live From Out There, in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more information.
Give your favorite A Tribe Called Quest album a spin today. The man behind the turntables, Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad, who mixed up the beats that Q-Tip and Phife Dawg rhymed on celebrates his birthday today.
Born August 11, 1970, Ali Shaheed Muhammad became one of New York City’s underground rap legends. As a hip hop producer, Ali Muhammad is responsible for the early jazz rap sounds that A Tribe Called Quest is known and loved for.
Growing up in Bed-Stuy, Muhammad’s uncle, Michael Jones, who was a bassist and DJ himself, began teaching him at the age of eight. Ali would DJ parties in his Bed-Stuy neighborhood and recorded demos before joining Tribe in 1985.
Coming together in the early 1980’s in Queens, A Tribe Called Quest consists of Ali Muhammad (the only member not from Queens), who held the role of co- producer, assisted by the groups main composer, Q-Tip, along with Tribe’s MC, Phife Dawg. Together, the trio would be looked back on as pioneers of the alternative hip hop sounds which are still popular today. Muhammad was just 19 when the group released its first album, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, in 1990
Ali Muhammad and A Tribe Called Quest rose in popularity through their second album, the 1991 jazz-influenced album Low End Theory. The album was stripped back compared to their previous, with instrumentals consisting mostly of bass, drums, and the regular use of Jazz sampling, all sounds that find themselves synonymous with the underground alternative hip hop scene.
Later on in 1995, Muhammad co-wrote and co-produced the Top 40 pop hit that launched the neo-soul movement, D’Angelo’s “Brown Sugar,” and earned another Grammy nomination via Lucy Pearl’s “Dance Tonight” in 2000. Muhammad has remixed songs for Janet Jackson, Maxwell, Maroon 5 and KRS-One, and has writer, producer or co-producer credits on more than 20 albums. He would also go on to found The Ummah, a production company with Jay Dee and Q-Tip.
Throughout the early to mid 90’s A Tribe Called Quest maintained their commercial success through the release of their 1993 album, Midnight Marauders, which saw technical improvements in the groups dynamic. A Tribe Called Quest seemed to be on an unstoppable rise to success however, the group went on an eight year hiatus. Despite not working together during those years, individual members had the chance to pursue moderately successful solo careers until their reunion in 2006.
Patti Smith is set to perform a live Broadcast at Murmrr Theater.
The event is a celebration of her latest memoir, Year of the Monkey. Fans from all over the world will be able to watch her perform the live reading.
Smith’s long-time band mate, Tony Shanahan, will be joining her for some of the show, while renowned Matthew Shroeder films the performance.
The event includes a mixture of reading and both Smith and Shanahan performing music together.
In a press release, “Year of the Monkey is a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year.”
The event is set to broadcast Sept. 4 at 9:00 p.m. Tickets are on sale now for $30.
Patti Smith reads from one of her books, Just Kids, for PBS.
Miserable Chillers’ new album Audience of Summer has been released today, Friday, August 7. Chillers’ songs primarily deal with growth and exploration, especially as climate change irreversibly alters our natural landscape.
Miserable Chillers is a baroque pop project created by Miguel Gallego. While Gallego previously released three EPs, Audience of Summer is his full-length debut album. Its release was preceded by three singles: “La nave del olvido,” “The Glass,” and the album opener, “Saga’s Sword.” Made up of nine short tracks, Audience of Summer is a deeply pleasant listening experience that floats right by.
Despite Gallego’s gloomy pseudonym, many of the songs are cool and upbeat, especially early on in the album. “Saga’s Sword” in particular has a beachy quality (further accentuated by the album cover), whereas vaporwave influences reign supreme on “La nove del olvido.” This is most likely intentional: vaporwave tends to satirize consumerism, and the track is about finding wrappers, plastic bags, and other eco-unfriendly debris on the ocean floor. The album track “Card Captor” is also a standout, in which Gallego’s vocals channel Imogen Heap over mesmerizing synths.
Although a Brooklynite, Miguel Gallego grew up in suburban New Jersey. His fascination with nature began with a “bizarrely bucolic” creek in the woods beside his house, which he later discovered was man-made. “[Audience of Summer] is a document of where I was before things changed permanently and abruptly,” Gallego said in a press release. “I feel a personal affection for myself growing as a person and as an artist as I made this.”
Audience of Summer is now available for streaming, as well as on digital album and cassette. 50% of proceeds for the latter formats on Bandcamp are going to Bed-Stuy Strong through August 7. Bed-Stuy Strong is an organization that provides food assistance in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
For more information, see Miserable Chiller’s Bandcamp page.
Keytracks: Saga’s Sword, La Nave del Olvido, Card Captor
Not too long after parts of the nation started reopening, did many individuals start to ignore the CDC’s recommendations to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
A picture of the secret rave held under Kosciuszko Bridge.
Footage of a secret rave at Kosciuszko Bridge in Brooklyn showed people gathered without participating in social distancing. Regardless of the global pandemic, hundreds of guests attended and many didn’t wear masks.
“Huge parties whether on land or boat are: Illegal, Disrespectful, violate constant decency, rude,” Cuomo tweeted.
Huge parties whether on land or boat are:
Illegal Disrespectful Violate common decency Rude
Aren’t those enough reasons not to be stupid?
— Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 3, 2020
Renegade, the rave organizers, told Gothamist that there’s no stopping people from gathering. One organizer said, “people need a release,” referring to quarantine.
This was not the first time Renegade held a group gathering during the pandemic. On July 4, they organized a rave supposedly for the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Among artists asked to play was DJ and producer Mike Simonetti. According to Guest of a Guest, Simonetti declined. He felt the event was disrespectful after his father died alone from COVID-19.
Although many attended the rave, some guests felt uncomfortable once they arrived.
Footage taken from attendees shows no social distancing among the rave.
An attendee told Gothamist that him and his friends stayed on the outside and stating, “I would not do that again….It was too soon for too many people in one spot.”
Renegade continues to defend the cause of the rave, but said it got out of hand.
“I don’t want people to go back to putting their heads in the sand. We need to stay on top of this and keep marching and keep protesting,” said one organizer.
Incarcerated rapper Bobby Shmurda celebrates his 26th birthday today, with hopes of it being his last behind bars. On the heels of the anniversary of his breakout record, the Brooklyn-born drill rapper may have even more good news to look forward to, as a parole hearing — set for August 17— will determine his immediate future.
Why they wanna pin a felly on me?
After a countdown from a website seemingly belonging to the embattled rapper set a date for August 4, many began to speculate about the meaning, with some assuming it was related to his release. Speaking to TMZ in late July, The rapper’s mother — Leslie Pollard — confirmed that the rapper was indeed scheduled for a parole hearing in August. While also divulging his plans for a documentary about his life, as well as new music as soon as he gets out — as the rapper is still contractually tied to Epic Records. For his birthday, GS9 cohort Rowdy Rebel’s official Instagram, shared its own social media ode to his label-mate, hash-tagging “3months left.” It is unclear whether it is referring to his own release or that of Bobby Shmurda.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDeM1vQnXIF/
Nonetheless, rumors of a release as early as August 5, set social media ablaze, with most eliciting thoughts of joy.
When Bobby Shmurda is released from prison his hat finna come back to him like Thor’s hammer https://t.co/InTD5RI1AW
When COVID-19 hit New York City in March, the music, as Jim Morrison crooned, was over. But one place it never stopped was at Soapbox Gallery, one of Brooklyn’s most unique and eclectic performance venues.
Soapbox Gallery is not the brainchild of a veteran promoter, profit-seeking barkeep or musician, but a music-loving sculptor with a true D.I.Y. spirit, Jimmy Greenfield.
A native of Poughkeepsie, Greenfield moved to NYC’s SoHo in the mid-1970s to pursue a career in art. While there, he drank in and was inspired by the loft jazz scene percolating at homey little venues like Sam Rivers’ Studio Rivbea. Like many visual artists, Greenfield became friendly and collaborated with the adventurous musos on that scene. And like many a SoHo artist, he was eventually priced out of the tony neighborhood and helped pioneer a new scene with a move to Brooklyn in the early 1980s.
Greenfield came to the street-level space at 636 Dean Street that would become Soapbox in 1996. He utilized it for years as his sculpture studio, with the street frontage being dedicated to installations by visual artists he loved.
“The gallery was inspired by the idea of a soapbox, the humble stage that one stands upon to deliver a message, a narrative story, that can start a movement that can perhaps change the world,” says Greenfield. “It functioned that way for our art shows and, since 2014, with our escalating program of musical events.”
Music became a part of Soapbox Gallery in 2014, when Greenfield made his venue the home to periodic shows by critically acclaimed Brooklyn Raga Massive, a collective of world class musicians dedicated to furthering the understanding of Indian classical and Raga forms. Within a couple of years, Greenfield decided to move his sculpture studio to another location and, over time, convert Soapbox into a full-time performance space.
“The idea was to create an intimate space, a sanctuary that was almost like a mini-concert hall,” adds Greenfield. “I wanted the best sound and atmosphere, so we completely renovated the space, with soundproofing, a dropped ceiling with acoustic tile, high-end sound mitigation and amplification. We wanted the room to be a draw, the perfect acoustic environment that would attract the very best musicians.”
It was serendipitous that Greenfield tapped his neighbor, filmmaker Dave Power, and his brother, the sound-painting saxophonist Hayes Greenfield, for advice on cameras and sound, and to execute all the physical labor.
“Our intention was to create not only a world-class performance space of intimate size, but a top-of-the-line production center as well,” adds Greenfield. “We designed where the camera drops would be, where the computers and controls would be, even a system to move the sound around the space and the stereo spectrum, all anticipating the era of streaming. So we were ready for what has, unfortunately, become the performance model of today.”
Another thing Jimmy did to attract a top-flight coterie of performers was purchase the world-class piano, the lightly used Yamaha C7 that is the physical centerpiece of the space.
“My friend Ludwig found that for us, a 1998 Yamaha Grand that was barely used,” continues Greenfield. “It was another stroke of good luck in the collective, all D.I.Y. effort to build this space and scene.”
The scene started to gain critical mass in 2019 with Soapbox Gallery’s weekly Piano Hangs, organized with David Berkman, noted pianist, author and director of the Jazz Department at Queens College.
“Every Saturday, we would invite four to five pianists to perform and discuss their work,” adds Greenfield. “The series attracted high-caliber talent from the worlds of jazz, classical and beyond, like Fred Hersh, Chano Dominguez and Bruce Barth.”
Into 2020, Soapbox Gallery continued to expand its palate of performances. Greenfield added small groups like jazz trios, classical quartets, a virtual fest with the New England Conservatory Jazz Lab, and solo performances by notables like electro-jazzer Adam Neely, looping violinist and vocalist Natie, singer/songwriter Tracey Yarad and many more.
One mainstay of the space has been Jimmy’s renowned musician-brother Hayes Greenfield and his Immersive Surround Sound Experience. Here, Hayes employs his saxophone, flute, kalimba, harmonica, voice and a plethora of delays, synths, effects pedals and loopers to create meditative sound environments reminiscent of Brian Eno’s ambient works. With the assistance of Hayes’ sponsor, Eventide, Soapbox Gallery has been outfitted with a system that produces true 3D sound that can be moved around the space and within the heads of stream listeners.
When COVID-19 closed down NYC’s live performance venues in mid-March, Jimmy and Hayes were quick to provide a sonic salve for the quarantined masses, in New York and wherever there was a broadband connection.
For weeks after the shutdown, Hayes performed his Sound Meditations nearly every day at 3 pm from the Soapbox Gallery, more than 30 total events and counting. As soon as WNYC’s Greene Space began streaming in early April, Soapbox Gallery began programming more events, from its space and the homes of some of its coterie of musicians.
Since May, Soapbox Gallery has been presenting live-stream performances six days a week from Greenfield’s former sculpture studio. Its state-of-the-art, three-camera system provides a great view of the action, and video overlays are increasingly a part of the performance equation, providing a unique multimedia experience.
One notable upcoming event that will make the most of the technology is Soapbox’s three-day Sonic-Vision Looping Festival, August 26– 28. The event will include adventurous performances by noted percussionist Will Calhoun (Living Colour, Pharoah Saunders), Hayes Greenfield and the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, who will perform their hypnotic improvisations to fractal videos.
Also not to missed are the latest installments of its on-going “Couples in Harmony” series, curated and hosted by Tracey Yarad, which presents real-life couples in performance, often for their first artistic collaborations. On Sunday, August 16, Soapbox Gallery will feature jazz vocalist and bassist Teri Roiger and John Menegon; on August 23, singers/songwriters Lisa St. Lou and Tor Hyams.
