The long-awaited release of Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda could come much earlier than expected. The incarcerated emcee — born, Ackquille Jean Pollard — was arrested in December 2014, along with his associates, his brother and GS9 label-mate Rowdy Rebel on charges of drug and gun possession, reckless endangerment and conspiracy to commit murder.
Rowdy Rebel was released on December 15thafter Shmurda took a plea dealthat saw his time extended to lessen his label mate’s. Shmurda was up for parole in September but was denied as a result of disciplinary actions for behavior while in prison. It was then believed that he would serve the full length of his sentence — which was set to end on December,11 2021 The state Department of Correction subsequently restored his credit for good behavior and now the “Hot N****” rapper may be released as early as February 23, 2021. The conditions of his release are of course contingent on the rapper’s behaviors, with one infraction possibly delaying his release until the end of the year, TMZ reports.
While Shmurda has been incarcerated, he has maintained his strong following — especially on social media — and if theresponseto Rowdy Rebel’s release is any indication, then Shmurda will be coming home to a hero’s welcome.
“Beat of the Boroughs: NYC Online” received a $33K grant to extend the series through the Spring of 2021. The series is presented by the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD) and it highlights the artistry of New York City’s leading immigrant performers from around the world. The grant came from the Howard Gilman Foundation.
The 33K grant will allow CTMD to spotlight 100 New York City-based immigrant and folk artists with their series with the help of the previous funding CTMD received from the Scherman Foundation and the NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund.
The Howard Gilman Foundation supports a cross-section of New York City-based performing arts organizations of varying structure, style, and budget size. The organization is committed to serving geographically and culturally diverse organizations devoted to excellence in both artistic achievement and audience experience.
The artists being featured in the “Beat of the Boroughs: NYC Online” include several National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Award winners—represent the strength and diversity of the cultural sector in the City’s five boroughs, with traditions hailing from Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Gambia, Haiti, Iraq, Japan, Mongolia, Ukraine, and West Africa, among other areas.
Immigrant artists have suffered hardships due to COVID- 19, particularly in New York City, with many unable to support themselves due to venues shutting down, the lack of endowments, and government aid. A recent report by the Center for an Urban Future found that many immigrant-led and immigrant-serving arts organizations are facing fiscal catastrophe, reporting revenue losses amounting to 50 percent or more of their annual budgets. This grant to showcase immigrant performances could make a huge difference for these severely impacted performers.
Peter Rushefsky, Executive Director of CTMD spoke on the pandemic and its effects on CTMD saying, “New York City’s traditional and folk artists have been particularly impacted by both the pandemic and the anti-immigrant political climate in our country. Amid the pandemic, many of these artists have structural impediments including the digital divide and language barriers to access federal relief funds or private sources of funding. Now more than ever we need to support these artists, who have suffered losses because of canceled concerts, performances, exhibitions, and other events. It is imperative that we come together as a city to support and celebrate our immigrant communities.”
For more information on the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and their “Beat of the Boroughs: NYC Online” visit their website.
We’ve seen many artists make musical lemonade out of the lemon that is 2020 and Pool Cosby’s Jacuzzi Jefferson is no exception. Earlier this year, the sample-based electronic trio consisting of Jefferson, Kevin Kuh and Otto Botté released their latest full-length album, Day Breaks, providing the world with some much-needed music as things began to go a little haywire.
During that same time period, Jacuzzi Jefferson and New York City based producer and guitarist Chris Mazuera had an artist retreat in Woodstock, NY just before the quarantine began, and the final product was a joint EP titled For Real. Released on December 9, this 4 track EP is a transcendent mix of live instrumentation, airy vocal samples and hiphop percussive elements.
This EP is a distinguished, driving and dreamlike collaboration between two prominent NYC producers and as the year comes to an end, it’s certainly worthy of repeat listenings.
Flushing Town Hall announced it’s jazz inspired “Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration.” The performance will be a live virtual performance led by band leader Carol Sudhalter on January 13, 2021.
The performance will be part of their Jazz Jams series hosted by Flushing Town Hall. The series premieres monthly and features artists from across the globe. Jazz musicians come together to play their tunes reflecting each month’s theme. This month’s theme is Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration. The performance will take place on Wednesday, January 13, 2021 at 7PM EST and will feature jazz musicians from New York City and across the world will play tunes reflecting the pursuit of racial justice in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s deep appreciation of music as an “instrument of change” is one of the main inspirations for it being the muse of January’s Jazz Jams. As The International Musician once noted that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr considered jazz to be “triumphant music” and had once written that, “Jazz speaks for life. The blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.”
The interesting thing about the Jazz Jams programming is that Flushing Town Hall opens it up to the public for performance slots. Musicians interested in participating on January 13, 2021 should email education@flushingtownhall.org with their suggested three- to four-minute tune they intend to play. The performance can be live or a pre-recorded audio or video (but not a professional, edited recording such as a CD or YouTube video). Musicians who previously performed are now welcome to return. Each month, up to five returning musicians and up to 15 new musicians can participate. Selection is on a first-come, first-served basis.
The performance will be free to the public and available to watch live on Flushing Town Hall’s Facebook or Zoom.
Best of 2020 finds The Beacon Jams on the headline for threefold: It took the podium for ‘Best Streaming Series’, ‘Best Charitable Effort,’ and outstanding audience interaction. While we didn’t expect much from such a painstaking year, one thing remains true: music always prevails. The Beacon Jams and Trey also came up countless times in other Best Of categories.
Best of 2020: Overall Streaming Series
The Beacon Jams earns the Best of 2020 Streaming series, an eight-week residency featuring acoustic and electric performances from Trey Anastasio, with bonus content and audience interaction. New York City’s historic Beacon Theatre took this on as its first ever virtual residency. Anastasio performed every Friday at 8:00 p.m. ET from October 9, and concluded November 27. The effort streamed exclusively on Twitch.
With Trey’s name attached, it is hard to believe anything would fall short of ‘Best of.’ Trey is an all-in type of musician, despite being reluctant to create anything virtual. His leap of faith: The Beacon Jams.
Trey calls The Beacon home. With countless performances at the theatre it was a natural choice. After a crazy two years of touring Anastasio didn’t think live-streaming was necessary. Times changed and he was still creating, with the July release of Lonely Trip, as well as prerecorded SummerStage Jubilee performance and a Jimmy Fallon appearance. While the mass of energy (people) in a live performance is hard to match, Trey was not disappointed with the reaction from The Beacon Jams. In fact, it was overwhelming and inspiring. “I don’t know if I want to play without our community with me,” but we we’re right Trey. We’re right here.
So much of my work is about getting out of my own way, rather than fighting toward something. The work is to not mess up what already exists. There’s a tsunami of energy happening, and my mind is the impediment.”
Best of 2020: Charitable Effort From a Streaming Series
In true Anastasio fashion, there is always a charity or greater good in mind. With The Beacon Jams, there were two: The WaterWheel Foundation and Divided Sky Fund (DSF). Since 1997 Phish and WaterWheel have been raising money for those in need via touring, while The Divided Sky Fund focuses more on delivering quality care and compassionate treatment for those suffering form alcoholism and addiction. Likewise, all net profit from The Beacon Jams merchandise sales went directly to DSF.
The Divided Sky Fund crushed their initial goal of $150,000. As the organization inched towards its benchmark with mass fan-donations under $100, large sums (upwards of $15,000) and merchandise sales currently raised over $422,000 dollars. This is again feat in itself, especially during times where fans may have had little money to spend. Anastiaso set the bar high, gave back, and instigated this generous giving-tree lifecycle.
You can still donate to DSF and aide The Beacon Jams’ efforts via Paypal HERE. Not only is your donation visible, but you can feature a public note or inspiration. A $20.00 donation is auto-populated, but amounts of any kind are more than generous, and can be marked anonymous. They are very close to their new $450,000 goal.
My hope is that this fund can touch many lives with positive support for addiction recovery. Thank you so much for music each Friday. It became something my girlfriend and I looked forward to every week.
Twenty-twenty was an odd-egg, but Anastasio opened a Beacon Jam set with “Corona,” interjecting a bit of comic-relief. Music lovers found happiness in all live stream series. It made light of a crude reality around us and social detachment. Livestreams sucked us back into how music should be: a constant, ever-changing dialogue between musicians, instruments and the fans.
Other Streaming Series in 2020
Other streaming series were hot on NYS Music’s Best of list from Umphrey’s Mcgee, Aqueous, Goose’s Bingo Tour, Dinner and a Movie, Lotus, Noon Chorus, The Talking Dead and multiple mentions of moe. Share your favorite streams of 2020 with NYS Music.
Syracuse beat-driven psychedelic jam band, Vaporeyes, took their own flair to a livestream series via Facebook. With over a dozen episodes and a November album release, Cantrips, the band took advantage of live streams to the fullest.
Heavy hitters moe. rolled with the punches after their drive-in series was shut down due to COVID-19 concerns. The band fired back with a live studio stream from Big Blue, and a saucy full length album stream from The Palace Theatre lobby. If you missed it, you missed out. Click play and get taken away with soaring vocals and unmistaken live-concert energy.
Red Rocks is magical in its own regard. Add a trippy light-show and cosmic jam band, and well, you see where this is going. Lotus dominated a livestream in two sets and you didn’t have to leave your couch. The 4K livestream sucked us into production. Lotus released Free Swim, a 10-track album on 2xLP Vinyl in August, paired with this event at the Ampitheater as we closed out September.
Make sure you check out all of your favorite bands and support them during these, still, turbulent times. Stay updated with NYS Music as your #1 source for all things music across New York State and beyond. The Best of 2020 is just beginning. And we promise, once we recap we’ll leave it where it belongs – dead in the past. Thank you to live stream series for keeping us alive.
Check out photos from The Beacon Jams by Jake Silco
The infamous year 2020, although there have been a lot of restrictions preventing live music there is a silver lining to be had for those still responsible to spawn it. William Lawrence is an example of those who refuse to let these new set rules restrict his creativity. He started the year like many others in the studio with a suitcase full of new material ready to devise and debut on the road.
“We decided to continue working on the songs together from our own home studios, bedrooms, living rooms, attic spaces…we all recorded where we could” Ten months later, Lawrence’s third full-length studio album, Fool For You was released on Christmas Eve of this year. The eight song collection oscillates gracefully between dreamy folk rock and twangy country waltzes.
In a state like New York where Neil Young’s Canadian northern words blow across Lake Ontario and The Band’s grooves move you out of the Hudson Valley in Woodstock it can be helpful to use these influences to create your own voice. “Everybody seems to wonder what it’s like down here, i gotta get away from this day to day running around, everybody knows this is nowhere”.
The album mixed by Ian McGuire features a terrific cast of mixolydian musicians with James Felice, Keven Lareau, Rachel Meirs, Brian Kantor, Donny Amidon, Phil Nicolazzo, Allison Olender, Jonathan Talbott and Greg Marino. William Lawrence is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has been the drummer and vocalist for the folk rock band “The Felice Brothers” A song by the brothers “Whiskey in My Whiskey” is playing on the jukebox in “Merlotte’s Bar” in the first season of the HBO show “True Blood”. His collaborations have even taken him internationally with artists like “Conor Oberst”, “Mail the Horse”, and “Gun Outfit”.
The music is that matter of a fact over your in-home speakers. His lyrics reflect all of the love had by an outlaw in this life each day spinning around the sun. If you listen to the wind outside your back porch it will softly carry the words and music with it. Until the moonlight dawn you can let this album shine on you. When there’s just one more before you go needed at a roadside diner like Merlottes click the track “Jukebox” that has saxophone player Greg Marino bring it home for you. Is the recognizable penny whistle on Paul McCartney’s “Fool on the Hill” the same as “Fool for You”? No wonder it is “the most collaborative record i’ve ever made” says Lawrence.
What does silver lining mean? A silver lining is a sign of hope or positive aspect in an otherwise negative situation. The phrase is often seen as part of the proverb “ Every Cloud has a Silver Lining” meaning that there’s hope or something good to be found in every bad situation. Let’s be glad William Lawrence and company embraced this concept early this year to help bring this eminent music to all of us on the way to Christmas Eve. Let the title tracks lyrics help you celebrate this New Years Eve, “Got the champagne open in my hotel room, spent my last good dollar on a dream come true” Hopefully we’ll see them on the road in 2021.
