NYS Music 202​0

Category: NYC Metro

  • Interview: Brooklyn’s Francis Aud Releases FONKY Single

    Brooklyn electro-pop funk artist Francis Aud recently released his newest single “Take Me Home,” blending bittersweet lyrics with an upbeat and unique electric funk. 

    Francis Aud

    Francis Aud started out as a retro-soul artist and released his debut EP Tender Things in July 2017. Since then, his music has evolved into what he calls ‘FONK,’ his own original blend of electro-pop and funk. This refreshing mix gives his music personality and makes his sound memorable. Francis tells NYS Music:

    My biggest inspirations are Al Green, Marvin Gaye, and Sam Cooke. From listening to those guys, I then found Jackie Wilson, James Brown, and then followed the thread of musicians they influenced all the way up to contemporary pop artists like Bruno Mars and Parcels.

    Francis Aud

    What he listened to as a child has been “carried in his psyche,” and he says that listening to “super romantic Spanish crooner music or The Commodores” all the time as a kid still influences his own writing style today. “I almost exclusively write about love, relationships, and desire and I still try to phrase the lines I sing like how a crooner would…old habits die hard I guess!” He’s been releasing several FONKY singles since 2018 in preparation for a bigger release in the future.

    “Take Me Home” looks back on a past relationship with bittersweet nostalgia. “When it comes to lyric-writing,” Francis says, “I’m always trying my best not to write lyrics that aren’t devoid of meaning (if that makes sense.) I think lots of the time when people hear the words ‘pop music’ their mind immediately jumps to this idea of extremely surface level and superficial lyrics that come from lazily relying on overused tropes and clichés. I think good pop music doesn’t have to be devoid of a deeper meaning and there’s lots of proof around me of that.” 

    Francis Aud
    Photo courtesy of Amanda Blide

    Despite its somewhat sad message, the single is in no way a downer. It’s upbeat and dancey. “That comes from my shameless love of 80’s music,” the artist admits. “I seriously, positively, TRULY, love music from the 80’s, especially the movie soundtracks where the arrangements were super over the top and used cheesy keyboard sounds on everything. Because that music makes me happy, I think it’d be worth exploring the juxtaposition between that music and the lyrics and I’m just lucky to call it a success!” The 80’s vibes in “Take Me Home” are clear, but with an original and modern spin that is lacking in some other “cheesy” pop. 

    Francis Aud’s music and website both shine with his positivity and humor. “I don’t think I can ever remember a time where I wasn’t blatantly making terrible dad jokes and puns,” he says about his ever-present humor. “In terms of positivity,” he notes, “I think it comes from both my parents and also comes with the territory of being a musician. With my parents being immigrants and coming to this NYC during the really rough 80s’-90’s, they had to work their asses off to make things happen and they had to have an optimism that things would work out. I think I naturally picked up on that. ALSO, when it comes to being an artist, you almost have to force train yourself to become more positive on a daily basis because there really is no guarantee that your art will be heard or even enjoyed.”

    Despite the global halt brought by the Coronavirus, Francis has been keeping busy working on music: “I’ve been spending most of the quarantine teaching myself more about music production and trying my best to ‘level up’ my home recording set-up,” and “I’ve been working with more getting more comfortable using synthesizers and more of the electronic aspects of music production,” he says, as he can’t record in a full studio with a band right now due to the quarantine. “Aside from that, I’m always trying to hone my writing and working to finding that distinct balance between saying something meaningful and being catchy.” 

    Stream or buy “Take Me Home,” and check out Francis Aud’s other music on his website, Soundcloud, or Spotify. Francis also has a side project where he releases original indie-folk music under the name “stella.”

  • Bronx Music Heritage Center Presents The Bronx Blast

    Bronx Music Heritage Center is bringing viewers the Bronx Blast on their Facebook page. The Bronx Blast are mini-performances that will be presented in front of the Bronx Music Hall. The theater is currently under construction and will be a future home to the Bronx Music Heritage Center.

    bronx music heritage center

    In July, Martha Zarate and Pilar Maez of Mazarte Dance Company danced to “El gavilancito,” a song from the son jarocho tradition from Veracruz, Mexico. “Jarocho” describes the people and culture of the southern coastal plain of Veracruz. The song, dance and costumes represent the Indigenous, Spanish and African influences on the cultural tradition. Watch the video on Facebook.

    For episode two, the Bronx Music Heritage Center brought in Carmelo Soto, Jorge Vazquez, Bobby Sanabria, and Carlos Espada to demonstrate Plena. Plena is one of the traditional forms of music from Puerto Rico, often referred to as the “periódico cantado” or “sung newspaper” as many times the lyrics relate incidents from daily life or commentary on local events. The lyrics to plena was written by Carlos Espada and can be seen below.

    Que bien yo me siento, en esta occasión
    la gran apertura el Bronx Music Hall.

    Oyeee, finalmente, les presento yo,
    este gran proyecto aquí en el Bronx

    Y muchos no saben, fue la visión,
    de Elena Y Bobby, que se construyó

    Que viva, que viva, la diversidad,
    de toda la gente, nuestra hispanidad.

    English Translation:
    How good I feel on this occasion
    of the grand opening of the Bronx Music Hall.

    Finally I present to you
    this great project here in the Bronx

    And many don’t know, it was through
    Elena and Bobby’s vision that it was built.

    Long live the diversity
    of everyone, our Latino community.

    In their latest episode, Nélida Tirado returns home to the neighborhood where she grew up to perform some rumba flamenca in front of the future Bronx Music Hall. Watch the performance here.

    Check out NYS Music’s coverage of The Bronx Music Heritage Center’s concert series that occured this past June.

  • Watch Live Jazz from NYC’s Cafe Bohemia

    Located in Manhattan’s West Village on Barrow Street, Cafe Bohemia originally opened in 1955 and is an historic landmark and jazz club. Frequented by music legends the likes of Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Canonball Adderley and many others, the venue closed in 1960, and was revived at its original location in October 2019.

    One notable story about Cafe Bohemia comes from June 19, 1955, when Julian and Nat Adderley arrived in New York on a trip as Julian was to work on his Master’s Degree at New York University. That first night in the city the brothers went to the Café Bohemia to hear the Oscar Pettiford band, the house band at the time. The night would prove to be a turning point in Nat’s career.

    cafe bohemia

    Jerome Richardson, the group’s regular saxophonist was unavailable that evening due to a recording session. Pettiford asked Charlie Rouse – who was in the audience – if he would sit in, but Rouse did not have his saxophone with him. Pettiford then noticed another audience member, Adderley, who had a saxophone case with him and told Rouse to ask this unknown man if he could borrow his horn.

    Instead, Rouse asked “Cannonball” Adderley if he would like to sit in with the group. Reluctantly, the leader complied and allowed Adderley to play. Overnight Adderley rose to prominence on the New York jazz scene, and on June 21 he played his first official show at Cafe Bohemia. By October 1957, he was a member of the Miles Davis Sextet.

    cafe bohemia

    More recently, the late Eddy Davis (banjo), Conal Fowkes (bass, vocals), Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet) and Evan Arntzen (tenor saxophone) performed “My Monday Date?,” by Earl Hines, on December 26, 2019. Video performances below are available thanks to Michael Steinman for his blog JAZZ LIVES.

    Watch Eddy Davis and friends – Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet), Evan Arntzen (clarinet) and Conal Fowkes (string bass) – pay tribute to the great Jelly Roll Morton with “Good Old New York.”

    “The Intimacy of the Blues,” is a haunting piece composed by Billy Strayhorn and an album of the same name for Duke Ellington. Performing at Cafe Bohemia on November 14, 2019, JAZZ LIVES shares video of this pre-Thanksgiving performance in Greenwich Village by Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet), Evan Arntzen (clarinet), Neal Miner (string bass,) and Chris Flory (guitar). 

    On February 6, 2020, Mara Kaye was joined by friends and musical family Tim McNalley (guitar), Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet) and Brian Nalepka (string bass). 

    Mara Kaye is joined this time for “Me and MY Chauffeur” by Tim McNalley, (guitar), Albanie Falletta (resonator guitar), Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet) and Brian Nalepka (string bass). 

    From January 16, 2020, “A Shanty in Old Shanty Town” features Tal Ronen (string bass), Matt Munisteri (guitar), John Allred (trombone), and Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet). “In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town,” written by Ira Schuster and Jack Little with lyrics by Joe Young, was published in 1932. Ted Lewis and His Band performed it in the film The Crooner in 1932. His version was later released as a single and it went to #1, where it remained for 10 weeks.

  • A Bronx Tale: The Grateful Dead at Gaelic Park

    Although the Grateful Dead‘s track record with New York State is vast and varied, there’s one borough in particular that doesn’t get much love. And that’s The Bronx. Mainly because there’s only one show that was truly ever played there – Gaelic Park on August, 26 1971.

    grateful dead bronx
    stub courtesy of Wayne Eichen

    The performance is billed as a two-set show that really plays as three. A noticeably extended first set showcases some of the band’s newer original songs at time blended with a flurry of classic cover selections. Included in all this is a song the Dead would only play twice ever. And as for historical significance, this would be the last show featuring only the five founding members of the band. Seemingly aware of this, they collectively deliver a show for the ages that more than aptly serves as a figurative “passing of the torch” from one era to another.

    grateful Dead Gaelic Park

    This show opens with a crisp yet standard version of “Bertha,” a Dead original still in its nascent stages at the time. The early wave of originals would continue with a “Playin’ In The Band” that had just made its debut earlier this year at The Captiol Theatre in nearby Port Chester. Even though this would be a regular selection at Grateful Dead shows for years to come, seeing it so early in the first set like this is a verifiable treat.

    Pigpen gets his first chance to shine on vocals with a first set “Mr. Charlie,” another new song that debuted just last month. Even though he was beginning to take on a lesser role in the band by this point in time, Pig’s vocals are effusive and strong throughout this recording. This would be the last show before Keith Godchaux joined the band and assumed keyboard duties. So, fittingly, they give Pigpen plenty of the spotlight at this show and he takes it and runs with it.

    grateful Dead Gaelic Park

    The run on cover songs then begins with “El Paso,” a country-western ballad by Marty Robbins, sung smoothly by rhythm guitarist Bob Weir. “Big Boss Man” follows, a longtime Dead cover that was originally recorded by Jimmy Reed in 1960 and later popularized by Elvis in 1967. This gives Pigpen the chance to lead again and his blues-infused vocals ring loud and true throughout this one.

    This first set also features a typically stirring “Hard to Handle,” the Otis Redding tune that was one of staples of the Pigpen songbook and, perhaps, his signature song. Aside from a mild snafu with the recording, this version is terrific and sees the band fully locked in during an escalating funk-like jam before Pigpen’s wailing vocals reenter. Sung with all of the soul and swagger he would always bring to this song, sadly, this would be the last one ever played with him on stage.

    The set could have ended right there and few would take issue, but instead the band continues to motor on with “Beat It On Down The Line,” yet another cover. Jerry Garcia then takes the reigns courtesy of “Loser” and his customary hauntingly beautiful guitar solo that goes with it.

    Courtesy of Bronx Music Heritage Center

    Soon after is one of the true gems of this show – the second and final performance ever of “Empty Pages,” a song written and sang by Ronald “Pigpen” McKernan himself. It pairs his traditional crooning style with a slow blues jam that’s nicely peppered with fiery guitar licks from Garcia. It’s a true rarity and a shame that the band wouldn’t be able to further develop this one.

    The other first set highlight immediately follows with a smoking cover of The Rascals’ “Good Lovin’.” Pigpen remains strong on lead vocals as both he and the band get into some heavy improvisation on this one. Only the Dead can take a three-minute pop song like this and stretch it out to an almost ten-minute psychedelic journey.

    They had such a fun time playing the first set that the second one begins with a rare “Me and My Uncle” placement, as if to keep the opening vibes going strong. Immediately afterwards, reality sets in with a joyous “China Cat Sunflower” that soon effortlessly blends into to its traditional running partner, “I Know You Rider.” Bassist Phil Lesh, turned up particularly high in this mix, gets his turn to show off as he steers the band through the seamless transition.

    There would be no extended “Drums” section this evening. Instead, the band collectively rips into the opening of “The Other One,” fueled predominately by drummer Bill Kreutzmann. After a rip-roaring opening sequence, the jam composition quickly devolves into a meeting of the minds between Garcia and the rhythm section. Seemingly out of the blue, Weir interjects with his vocals right on point and the song is off and running.

    For a quality listen to the transition into the opening of “The Other One,” alongside some backstage photos, check out this great video courtesy of Sam Cutler, one of the band’s early tour managers:

    The powerhouse second set continues with a tidy version of “Uncle John’s Band” and one of the last performances of “Saint Stephen” before it would be shelved for nearly five years and rearranged. The jam progresses into something that almost resembles “The Eleven” before immediately settling back down into the ending of “Saint Stephen.”

    And then, right on cue, the rhythm section is back in action with the opening drumbeat of “Not Fade Away,” a Buddy Holly cover that the band had completely appropriated at this point in time. The Dead take one last swing and develop a passionate collective effort that once again flows right into “Goin’ Down The Road Feeling’ Bad” without batting an eye.

    This closing sequence serves as the cap to a phenomenal show that’s rich in both quality and legacy significance. It can be argued that the end of the Pigpen Era happened here. Amazingly, the only time the Grateful Dead would ever grace the “Boogie Down” Bronx. But talk about making the most of a single opportunity.

    Set 1: Bertha, Playing In The Band, Mr. Charlie, Sugaree, El Paso, Big Boss Man, Big Railroad Blues, Hard To Handle, Beat It On Down The Line, Loser, Sugar Magnolia, Empty Pages, Good Lovin’, Casey Jones

    Set 2: Me And My Uncle, China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider, Deal, Cumberland Blues, Truckin’ -> Drums -> The Other One, Next Time You See Me, Me And Bobby McGee, Uncle John’s Band, Saint Stephen -> Not Fade Away -> Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad -> Not Fade Away

    Encore: Johnny B. Goode

  • SummerStage Jubilee Benefit Announced by the City Parks Foundations

    SummerStage Jubilee was announced by City Parks Foundations to benefit free programming in the park. The benefit will take place on September 17, 2020 at 8PM across different virtual platforms. The benefit will include performances from big names like Sting, Norah Jones, and Trey Anastasio and an appearance from Billie Jean King.

    The 2020 SummerStage Jubilee Benefit Concert will help support the free parks programs and ensure they can continue. The City Parks Foundation is the largest presenter of free arts and cultural programs in New York City parks. They serve 300,000 New Yorkers each year through arts, education, sports and community building initiatives. The fundraising being done through the SummerStage Jubilee event will help fund free tennis and golf instruction, experiential, science-based lessons, buying tools and bulbs for volunteers to beautify local parks, providing training, microgrants, and coaching to facilitate their local advocacy. Donations will also help ensure SummerStage, New York City’s largest free music festival, and SummerStage Anywhere, its virtual festival, will remain free and available to all New Yorkers. At a time when public programs have been upended, destroyed, and cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the city’s parks have remained open as some of the only public assets available to all still in these trying times. 

     David Barse, City Parks Foundation Board Chairman spoke about the SummerStage Jubilee Benefit Concert saying,  “This benefit concert will help support the important work that the City Parks Foundation does in every community, park and green space we serve in New York City. Although the concert is free, as is our usual SummerStage festival, we hope that viewers will feel motivated to support our work and make donations to keep that work going during these challenging times.”

    The benefit will last an hour and will highlight the various City Parks Foundation programs. SummerStage Jubilee will feature musical performances by Sting, Norah Jones, Trey Anastasio, Rufus Wainwright, Leslie Odom Jr., Rosanne Cash, Emily King, PJ Morton and others to be announced on top of notable advocates for CPF’s work including tennis icon BillieJean King.

    https://youtu.be/BQE9IqKPMAA

    The benefit festival can be viewed  across all SummerStage social platforms (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitch) via live stream on Thursday, September 17 at 8PM EST. Donations can be made on the SummerStage website.

    For more information on the event visit the City Park Foundations website.

  • Drug Couple Releases Psychedelic EP ‘Choose Your Own Apocalypse’

    Brooklyn-based musical duo Drug Couple has released their sophomore EP Choose Your Own Apocalypse via Papercup. The EP draws inspiration from classic rock greats, like the Rolling Stones, Liz Phair, and REM, exploring finding that someone special to spend the end of times with.

    Choose Your Own Apocalypse

    A real life couple, as well as creative duo, Drug Couple’s music showcases the ongoing dialogue they’re engaged in, and the spirit of deep collaboration that colors their songwriting as well as their lives at home together. The pair released their debut EP Little Hits in November of 2019, establishing their unique brand of “off-kilter indie” (The Deli).

    Their sophomore EP, Choose Your Own Apocalypse, is a collection of songs about finding someone special to share the end-times with. They started writing and recording the EP back in the summer of 2016, as events were leading up to the election of Donald Trump. Drug Couple decided to make an album based around the concept of falling in love mid-apocalypse without fully realizing that’s exactly what they were doing. 

    A meditation on the idea of holding on tight to love during the worst of times, the album (as well as their recently released single “Protest Song”) proved to be oddly prescient, written long before 2020 turned out to be one of the scariest and most trying years in recent memory.  Drug Couple hopes that their clairvoyance wasn’t causal, though they’d be lying if they said they didn’t feel partially responsible for the disintegration of the very fabric of our society. 

  • Brooklyn’s Soapbox Gallery presents Electronic Looping Sounds of The Sonic Vision Looping Festival

    Soapbox Gallery, the intimate Prospect Heights performance space that grew out of the studio of sculptor Jimmy Greenfield, will present three nights of live streaming performances, from August 26-28 at 8 PM. Each performance will be dedicated to adventurous electronic looping sounds paired with video narratives.

    Electronic Looping Sounds

    Globe- and genre-trotting percussionist Will Calhoun will headline and close out the festival.  The lineup will also feature the acclaimed sound painting jazz saxophonist and film composer Hayes Greenfield and Guitars A Go Go, the ambient guitar duo of Sal Cataldi (aka Spaghetti Eastern Music) and Rick Warren, who are supporting the release of their buzzed about record, Travel Advisory. 

    According to founder Jimmy Greenfield, the festival grew out of the success of the Immersive Surround Sound Experiences performed by his musician brother, Hayes Greenfield, since the beginning of the COVID quarantine.   Here are the details on the festival’s lineup:

    August 26 – Guitars A Go Go – This is the edge-pushing improvisational partnership of two very “switched-on” Hudson Valley-based guitarists, Sal Cataldi (aka Spaghetti Eastern Music) and Rick Warren. Armed with a plethora of effects pedals and a quest for meditative and melodic adventures that span a galaxy of musical influences and attitudes, the duo has swung for the fences with the June 2020 release of their debut album, Travel Advisory. 

    August 27 – Hayes Greenfield with Ikuo Nakamura – With electronically tweaked sax, flute, kalimba, and voice, Hayes Greenfield creates lush lines and emotionally charged melodies layered into compositions that are both healing and liberating.  Accompanying images of sometimes collaborator 3-D filmmaker, Ikuo Nakamura, Greenfield enhances the visual thematic explorations of the human connection to nature by creating sound waves that stop time, and inspire fields of memory and a collective awareness, unlocking a sense of the natural world at once from above, below, inside, and out.  

    https://vimeo.com/224740378/d75ac01151

    August 28 – Will Calhoun – With an array of indigenous and electronic percussion instruments, flutes (some sacred) and his drum kit, Calhoun weaves together ever more densely packed rhythms, ones that conjure an alternate reality no less transcendent than the multi-layered sounds of nature, people, thoughts, and relationships. Performed along to images he’s taken on his journeys to places as far flung as Mali, the Australian outback, and the heart of Brooklyn, Calhoun’s compositions unify the pulse of the ancient and modern worlds, revealing the hidden and underlying connections between the sacred and the everyday. electronic looping sounds

  • Rave Organizers Continue Defending their Illegal Events

    Over the past month, illegal raves have continued to spark anger throughout Brooklyn as rave organizers claim they’re not doing anything wrong.

    Rave Organizers
    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.

    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.

    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.

    Rave Organizers
    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.”

  • Businesses speak out: Ticketed Music Events Banned in Updated NYS Coronavirus Guidelines

    Ticketed music events will now be banned at bars, restaurants, and similar venues in the state of New York due to new coronavirus guidelines for Stage 3 and 4 reopening for licensed on premise establishments released on August 18, 2020. These new guidelines prohibit these establishments in NY from offering live music that customers pay for separately. 

    New York Coronavirus Guidelines
    The Hollow, Albany – photo by Zach Culver.

    Not only do they prohibit ticketing music events but prohibit any events where a patron has to buy a ticket. On top of that it prohibits venues from advertising live entertainment. These new guidelines will bring all events that have been planned by venues to a screeching halt. Music will be allowed at establishments but has to be “incidental” music according to the rules posted in Q&A format on the State Liquor Authority website. Incidental music basically means music can be at performed at establishments but it can’t be advertised and promoted as a reason people should go to the establishment.  

    “Restaurants and other on premises food and beverage establishments that have a license through the SLA are only allowed to offer on-premise music if their license certificate specifically allows for such activity (i.e., live music, DJ, recorded, etc.). A manufacturer that has an on premises license also must assure that its on premises license certificate specifically allows for the type of music it is offering.  A manufacturer without a separate on premises license may offer music unless its license certificate specifically prohibits such music. 

    If offering music, indoors or out, all relevant aspects of the respective Department of Health guidance dining must be followed, e.g., patrons should not be standing except for necessary reasons (e.g., restroom, entering/exiting), standing patrons should wear face coverings, etc.   Performers should be at least 12 feet from patrons. 

    All other forms of live entertainment, such as exotic dancing, comedy shows, karaoke etc., are not permissible currently regardless of phase. 

    Additionally, please note that only incidental music is permissible at this time.  This means that advertised and/or ticketed shows are not permissible.  Music should be incidental to the dining experience and not the draw itself.” 

    New York State Phase 3/4 Guidelines for Licensed On-Premises Establishments Answer for “Can I have live entertainment or a DJ in my indoor or outdoor dining area?”

    This new coronavirus guidelines will disproportionately hurt musicians and venue operators. Many musicians depend on ticketed events for income. Many bars and venues depend on special music events to pay the bills. According the New York Upstate article Julie Leone, who is co-owner of The 443 Social Club & Lounge on Burnet Avenue in Syracuse had spoken to a State Liquor Authority enforcement officer August 18 and, “Was told the agency could automatically suspend the liquor licenses for any venues found to be advertising shows. That seems to be different from regular enforcement, in which officers physically visit the venues to verify non-compliance.”

    To many, this guideline seems shocking, unfair, and far out of left field. It will effectively shut down many establishments again that have only recently been able to reopen. These guidelines were implemented with the intention to try to keep people from mingling for prolonged periods of time to help contain the spread of the virus by Governor Andrew Cuomo and other state officials but to musicians and venue operators it feels like an attack on the music industry. 

    New York Coronavirus Guidelines
    Funk n’ Waffles, Syracuse – photo by Josh Davis.

    Dave Ehmann, owner and founder at Adirondack Independence Music Festival elaborated on his feelings about this implementation of these guidelines on his Facebook page saying, “I don’t know about anyone else but I feel like someone needs to hear enough is enough with this bullshit. This is nothing more than a straight up attack on the music industry. Why aren’t we yelling louder and pushing back? It’s gone way past being safe into straight up nonsense. Peaceful protests are in order here.” 

    New York Coronavirus Guidelines
    The Haunt, Ithaca – photo by Casey Martin

    Adam Gold, owner of Syracuse’s well know Funk ‘n Waffles gave his two cents on the new guidelines saying, “I was under the impression these were the regulations anyways. For me it was more of a reminder: ‘By the way, you still can’t do anything (music-wise). We aren’t currently having any indoor dining, even with it being technically allowed for several weeks now. It seems the one thing experts tell you to avoid doing is being near a bunch of strangers in a building for more than an hour.’”

    Jarrett Hartstone, promoter at Hartstone Productions, feels that safety is paramount and guidelines should not limit live music performances.

    Having closely followed this entire pandemic since the beginning, I fully believe in the need for reopening guidelines in order to keep people safe and control the spread of COVID-19.  That said, I think that this latest order by the State and SLA saying that establishments can’t advertise live music and that it has to be “incidental” takes it step too far.  

    As long as an establishment is operating within the safety guidelines (ie; maintaining social distancing, requiring face coverings, frequently disinfecting, even making people remain seated at tables if need be), there is no reason why they can’t safely host live music and advertise it to help generate business to their already reduced-capacity establishment.  

    While safety measures are indeed critical to controlling the spread of the virus, so is the need to give businesses (in this case musicians, music venues, bars and restaurants) a fighting chance to survive. 

    If an establishment isn’t operating within the safety guidelines, by all means, issue a violation.  But the focus should be on whether or not they are operating safely, which has nothing to do with advertising and hosting a particular band.

    Jarrett Hartstone, Hartstone Productions

    Corey Rossoff, owner of the Monopole in Plattsburgh, feels awful for musicians and bands who rely on live performances for income. He divulged on this saying, “I feel bad for all the musicians. We have cancelled all of our live music due to social distancing being impossible with a band playing. Everyone wants to be near the stage. We cancelled open mic because of all different people having to share instruments. We don’t even have the upstairs where bands play even open. With no end in immediate site I just have told bands there is no sense booking anything at this point. We have the downstairs open at reduced capacity at this time. This was even before this information was emailed to us from the SLA a couple of days ago. We don’t charge covers when we do have live music but under this ruling we could not even have any live music. So as I said I don’t know what avenue all the musicians have to make an income so I feel awful for all the many bands everywhere.”

    If you are part of an independent music scene in New York State and would like to comment on this story, email nora@nysmusic.com.

  • Wu Tang Wednesday: RZA composes another type of ‘Ice Cream’ for Good Humor

    “French-vanilla, butter-pecan, chocolate-deluxe, even caramel sundaes is gettin’ touched, and scooped in my ice cream truck, Wu tears it up.”

    Iconic lyrics, on an iconic beat, this Raekwon and Method Man collaboration is one of the many iconic records that have solidified RZA’s status as one of hip hop’s best producers. Yet, the man behind some of hip hop’s most recognizable beats isn’t finished composing songs about ice cream.

    And as of recently, French-vanilla, butter-pecan, chocolate-deluxe ice cream will now be served from Good Humor ice cream trucks sans-racially insensitive undertones. Celebrating their 100thanniversary, the pioneers of the ice cream truck have decided to make a much-needed change to their marketing strategies, ditching their old theme — with racial undertones and history — for a fresher, more inclusive version, composed by the Wu Tang head honcho. 

    They called me up and was like ‘We gotta do something about this, Riz. We can change the dynamics, we can make a new ice cream jingle for a new era. We wanted to make a melody that includes all communities, that’s good for every driver, every kid.

    – RZA in a social media video accompanied by the new jingle.

    The old jingle “Turkey in a Straw” is tainted with a history of being performed in 19th century minstrel shows, with the lyrics often replaced in favor of more egregious options. 

    Good Humor has said in a statement that it is now “calling on all drivers to stop playing ‘Turkey in the Straw’ immediately” and, to ensure that, they have released the song as a free download for every ice cream truck to use.

    The RZA endorsed jingle, keeps many of the same elements that will continue to endear children to ice cream trucks, while incorporating sped up drums, giving it a faster pace, as well as a hip hop feel.