The popular Lift Concert Series in Troy presents performances of new, independent music featuring regional performers. The lineup for the 2022 series was announced, and it features a variety of genres of performances.
The Lift Concert Series takes place at the historic Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. It is curated by Organ Colossal: Sam Torres and Sophia Subbayya Vastek. The audience is invited to take the freight elevator to the backstage area, and be seated on stage, with the musicians, creating an intimate concert experience. Concerts last about an hour, and after the show concert goers are encouraged to go to the many restaurants or breweries in Troy.
The series starts on Dec. 14 with Rajna Swaminathan and Utsav Lal. Swaminathan has has been described as “a vital new voice” (Pop Matters), creating “music of gravity and rigor… yet its overall effect is accessible and uplifting” (Wall Street Journal). She is one of only a few women who play the mrudangam professionally. Lal is recognized as one of the most talented musicians of his generation, stunning the world with his innovative handling of Indian Classical Music on a Western instrument.
For World Piano Day on March 29, the Lift Concert Series will be hosting an event featuring local and regional pianists of different musical genres. The lineup is to be announced. The final event is on April 26, where Half Waif will be performing. Singer, songwriter, and producer Nandi Rose resides in the Hudson Valley and writes and records under the name Half Waif. Over the past decade, she has built upon her classical training to create a bold and unique sound that melds pop and folk songwriting styles with experimental production and arrangements.
Tickets for the Lift Concert Series at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall can be found here.
How To Find Yourself is a new film produced by rapper Dylan Owen and directed by Brian Petchers. In it, the two try to answer that very question by following teens through those familiar coming of age film tropes: traipsing through wheat fields, impromptu fight clubs, screaming for joy on a roof in slow motion, motorcyling through back alleys. The characters speak over those portraits of adolescence in interviews — airing the regrets, joys and discoveries their juvenile years brought them.
And playing underneath it all is a heartfelt acoustic score by Dylan Owen, of the same name, made for the film and featured on the artist’s upcoming EP, Take Care Of Yourself.
Dylan Owen found himself moving all around Upstate NY as he grew up. He’s from Orange County, NY, and has lived in Goshen, Middletown, Circleville and Chester; Owen now calls himself proudly a “nowhere kid from a nowhere town.” Now living in NYC, Dylan Owen’s poetic songwriting and sensitive style has found him a wider audience and prompted comparisons to icons such as Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa. How to Find Yourself is Owen’s foray into film making, and fans who know of Topaz Jones’ short film – that paired with his album Don’t Go Tellin Your Momma which looks at Jones’ own upbringing in Montclair, NJ – will connect with Owen’s film.
Through the testimonies from the film’s characters and the emotionally evoking scenes of innocence juxtaposed with violence and sudden danger, the film creates a space for people to openly share their stories of growing up, with an emphasis on those working through mental health problems. How to Find Yourself focuses on the harrowing journey to love and know other people and yourself while working through obstacles of anxiety and depression.
The short film will be released on October 25, and Owen’s album will be out in November.
Danielle Ponder returned to Rochester for her first show after her major label debut, Some of Us Are Brave. She was back after crisscrossing the country as Marcus Mumford’s opener along with numerous festival dates. But on this night, she was no opener and she needed no warmup, this night belonged to Danielle Ponder and no one else.
The agnostic daughter of a pastor reached back to her roots and preached from her pulpit to the sold out Water Street Music Hall. Instead of seeing God, with the help of some mushrooms, she had seen herself and her place amongst the trees and oceans and earth. Her speaking quickly turned into singing, her voice exponentially more powerful in song, “What a joy it is to be alive… I feel your love and it gives me power…” Her congregation responded not with Amen’s but melodic lalala’s. The power of music was in the house, and Ponder was delivering.
As always, in shows, in interviews, anytime anywhere, her love for her hometown was effusive. Off the bat she inserted a “Rochester NY!” into the opening song. She followed by explaining how Rochester was involved in a group effort to lift her up to the heights she’s reached in the past year. It prepared her to be a professional, impressing the industry bigwigs she’s been rubbing elbows with as of late. Later in the night, she noted humbly, that if she ever falls back down, she knows she can always come back home.
But it wasn’t just about her homecoming. Nearly every song was dedicated to a group of people that resonates with her. “Some of Us Are Brave,” to black women all over the world. “Someone Like You,” to all the singles, including Ponder herself, who wondered why her DM’s weren’t more active then they were. On the contrary, “Only the Lonely” was dedicated to the people who stayed with someone too long. “Poor Man’s Pain” was dedicated to all the Public Defenders, of which she was one not too long ago. Now as she was following her passion of being a professional musician, “So Long” was dedicated to all the dreamers and artists that know their purpose. Her songs were deeply personal, but for everyone.
And for the old school fans, of which there were many, she reached back into her vault to pull out some old favorites. The bluesy “Working” appropriately reminisced her 9 to 5 days, while a cover of Laurny Hill’s “Doo-Wop (That Thing) got the whole place hopping, her friends and family pouring into the pit much to the chagrin of security.
Ponder presented a couple of more cover in the encore. Though when she sang “Whole Lotta Love,” it wasn’t as much a Led Zeppelin song as it was a Danielle Ponder song with lyrics by Robert Plant (though even then some of those words belong to Willie Dixon). Likewise, when she sang “Creep” to close the show, it wasn’t a Radiohead cover, but a Ponder original, that just happened to be written by Thom Yorke. As a song that band has abandoned, it might as well belong to Ponder now anyway. Like one of her inspirations, Nina Simone, Ponder takes these songs and reinvents them for her own purpose, as she has reinvented herself.
As her star begins to rise and explode, is Danielle Ponder at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester in the not too distant future?
The trailblazing program by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, Next Jazz Legacy, has extended the 2023 application deadline through October 31. Next Jazz Legacy crowns awardees with personalized apprenticeships with jazz legends and financial support to combat gender and racial injustice in terms of access and opportunity in the music industry.
The awardees are chosen through a meticulous process of review by esteemed jazz musicians. On the 2023 board is tenor saxophonist and composer JD Allen, Berklee College of Music Brazz Department chair Tanya Derby, saxophonist, flutist and composer Caroline Davis and more to be announced. Those awarded will receive $10,000, performance opportunities, mentorship programs, a cohort of progressive jazz students and professional promotional support.
Next Jazz Legacy is only in its second year supporting female and non-binary jazz musicians; but even in 2022, its inaugural year, participants saw apprenticeships with icons such as Esperanza Spalding, Lizz Wright, Marcus Muller, Tia Fuller and Chris Potter. Awardees have performed at such prestigious events as the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival and Brooklyn’s JazzFest.
The deadline to enter the empowering program is now October 31, the application can be found here, the program FAQ page here, an overview of the program with application tips here.
They say there is no such thing as coincidence, well that was before Artificial Intelligence was deployed in our browser searches. In the case of Rock Voices and Tony Lechner, its founder, I’m grateful either way.
The Collision of AI & Coincidence
The impact of harmony cannot be denied when you discover a new ways to connect in community with Rock Music. I spied the Rock Voices advertisement on Facebook, combing the Internet for potential guests on my podcast The Long Island Sound. Intrigued by the YouTube video of various people singing a choral arrangement of Rock songs, I am reminded of the Playing for Change, Songs Around the World videos, which began on the web during the Covid quarantine. Leave it to the musician community, who will not be deterred from delivering their art to the masses, while endeavoring to draw communities together. Ever amazed at the seeds of creativity, I am drawn to unpack Rock Voices, an amazing program. Taking a stab at an invitation and reaching out to Tony Lechner, we were drilling down on the particulars after a couple of days for an interview.
Follow the full conversation with Tony Lechner, a music professor turned entrepreneurial rock coral arranger on The Long Island Sound Podcast.
Professor Tony planted the seeds of a rock coral group ten years ago in Hadley, MA. Our cousins across the pond in England had flushed out the idea and Mr. Lechner knew the time was right to start a no-audition Rock chorus in America. He was so amazed with the early impact and results, he told the pioneers of Rock Voices that he’d quit his full-time job as music teacher and pursue the dream of bringing a Rock-based choral group to life.
Recalling the many Zoom calls we all engaged in during quarantine, and recognizing the need to stay connected to the community, Rock Voices is well worth investigating. The program seems to be a prescription to allow singers of every skill level re-enter the local collective and have some fun along the way.
I don’t even like to call it a choir, I’d like to call it a Rock Band with a ton of singers
Tony Lechner
Communities Making Connections
Today, Rock Voices has chapters in six states, and there is a waiting list for new locations as the vetting process for directors continues. New York State has chorus’ in Albany, Brooklyn Heights, Saratoga Springs, Syosset, and Syracuse. They perform concerts in the Spring, Summer and Autumn seasons.
The various Rock Voices Choral Groups have performed selections from the Beatles, James Taylor and the Foo Fighters to name a few.
I was amazed at the arrangements, in particular, the cover of “Somebody to Love ” by Queen, raised the hair on my arms and pulled at my heartstrings.
A choral group is a great place to hide and learn in a no judgment zone
Tony Lechner
Healing Harmony
Tony spoke about the various studies which highlight the mental health benefits for the participants who engage in harmony singing. The positive feedback from the choral group members is an endorsement of the healing powers that music can bring to a community. Rock Voices flings the door wide open and provides an easy entry point for everyone to participate in a fun-loving learning experience. So if you’re ready to Rock, this just might be the therapy you need.
All in-person activities have resumed for the Celebrate Mexico Now festival in New York City for the first time in three years. The inclusive and groundbreaking festival features Mexican and Mexican American innovators and will happen from Nov. 14-22.
Celebrate Mexico Now was founded in 2004 by award-winning curator and producer Claudia Norman of CN Management. It is NYC’s first and only independent arts festival spotlighting contemporary Mexican culture. Norman has brought hundreds of native Mexican artists – sculptors, musicians, poets, chefs, filmmakers, actors, dancers, painters, and directors – to perform and show at venues across the city.
The festival will start on Nov. 14, with a book presentation by American-Mexican writer Jennifer Clement on her book Prayers for the Stolen. She writes about some of the most dangerous states in Mexico, where adolescent girls and young women are abducted from bus stops and schoolyards. This is the horrific truth, and her books talk about these things through the lens of fiction. The event will be on Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Center for Fiction.
On Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. there will be an art gallery showcase of Contemporary Mexican Photography with Mexican photographer and visual artist Martha Naranjo Sandova. She will talk about Mexican photography and its impact of it on the art circuit of New York City and the world.
The Celebrate Mexico Now festival will have performance art on Nov. 19 at 9:30 p.m. for $20 a ticket. NYC-based artist Carlos A. Cruz Velazquez will be performing with the group Psychedelic Spectacular. The performance invites the audience into a journey of self-acceptance through music, dance, costume reveals, and dramatic stupidity.
There will be storytelling and musical performances as well. Storyteller Valentina Ortiz will share stories of Quetzalcoatl and the essence of life and wisdom. Storytelling will be followed by Mariachi Angeles de New York, music from the hearts of young people, who from childhood gathered in the community to learn the musical traditions of their ancestors and preserve the art form for future generations. These will happen on Nov. 19 at 3 p.m. and Nov. 20 at 3 p.m.
To celebrate Mexican Revolution Day on Nov. 20 at 8 p.m., there will be a special event at Sobre Masa Tortilleria & Restaurant. Mexican chef Zack Wangeman and his wife Diana Wangerman created a special three-course menu for the occasion.
Celebrate Mexico Now presents a special musical performance by the chamber group Mexamorphosis. Led by Guadalupe Peraza, the group performs cross-cultural concerts with different musical elements with traditional African, Turkish, and Mexican instrumentation. They will perform on Nov. 21 from 7-8 p.m.
On the final day of the festival, there will be a closing cocktail reception and screening of Los Guardianes del Maíz (The Keepers of Corn), directed by Gustavo Vazquez and produced by Jonathan Barbieri. The film tells the story of native corn by the indigenous farmers, artisans, and cooks in Mexico whose ancestors brought life to the seeds since the agricultural revolution. This will take place on Nov. 22 at 6 p.m.
For more information about the Celebrate Mexico Now 2022 festival in NYC, and to buy tickets to select events, go here.
Over November 1-6, Birdland will be alive with “Hot Gypsy Jazz,” featuring the Django Festival Allstars. True virtuosos of Django’s style, The Allstars swing like crazy and will break your heart with a ballad, while carrying on Django’s legacy.
Called the “Hardest swinging band at The Newport Jazz Festival” by Downbeat Magazine, the lineup for the upcoming tour is a true family affair. Samson Schmitt (lead guitar) and part of the famous Schmitt French ‘gypsy’ Manouche musical family brings his 2 daughters Stefi (vocals), and Stenli (guitar/vocals). They’ll be joind by Ludovic Beier (accordion), Pierre Blanchard (violin), Antonio Licusati (bass), and Michael Harris (guitar).
The Django Reinhardt Festival carries on the legacy of gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt with top players from Europe combined with America’s great jazz stars to bring joy to the public with its swinging sound, virtuosity, romantic melodies, and camaraderie amongst the musicians.
The Django Reinhardt NY Festival was launched in 2000 and was the first-ever festival of its kind in America and established a home at the legendary club, Birdland, in New York City. 2022 will mark its 22nd anniversary, and it’s still going strong. The Festival is produced by Pat Philips, and founded by Pat Philips & Ettore Stratta.
Django Festival Allstars shows at Birdland will be held on November 1-3 at 7 pm and 9:30 pm, while on November 4- 6, shows will start at 8:30pm and 10:30pm. More info on the Birdland shows can be found here.
Django Festival AllstarsTour Dates
October 30: Rosen Performing Arts Center, Wayne, NJ
November 1-6: Birdland, NYC
November 8: Boca Black Box, Boca Raton, Florida
November 9: Faena Theatre, Miami, Florida
November 12: Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild , Pittsburgh, PA
November 13: Bach Dynamite & Dancing, Half Moon Bay, CA
B-Real, Sen Dog, Bobo, and Dj Lord, better known as Cypress Hill, took to the stage at The Vine, at Del Lago Casino in Waterloo, NY on Friday October 21, as the band celebrated 30 years of mainstream hip hop and rap, as well as promoting new album, Back in Black.
The Vine @Del Lago
Activists for legalization of cannabis, the band members routinely take the stage with blunts in hand and enjoy the Mary Jane throughout the show and this show did not disappoint! After an approximately 18 minute intro by DJ Lord who seemed to be in his own little haze, B-Real took the stage with blunt in hand and continued to get the crowd pumped up with collaboration of “Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up,” “I Wanna Get High,” “Cisco Kid,” “Dr. Greenthumb,” and “Hits From the Bong.”
30+ years and 10 albums later, these guys from South Gate, CA can still kick it and toke it just as hard as they did in 1988. Fans were in the aisles, on the steps, and on section dividers grooving and moving as the beat played on.
Setlist: DJ Lord intro/ Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up, I Wanna Get High, Cisco Kid, Dr. Greenthumb, Hits From the Bong/Real Estate/Hand on the Pump/Sound of da Police/When the Shit Goes Down/Tequilla Sunrise/Lowrider/Illusions/Latin Lingo/Lick a Shot/How I Could Just Kill a Man/Throw your set in the Air/I Ain’t Going out like that/(Rock Superstar)/Insane in the Brain/Jump Around (House of Pain cover)
The Empire State Youth Orchestra (ESYO), a prominent NY youth ensemble, has announced its 2022-23 concert season.
The first event of their upcoming run is a 3 p.m. matinee on Sunday, October 30 which features the orchestra in full at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall performing Beethoven’s “7th Symphony.” Other pieces on display include Gabriella Smith’s “Field Guide,” which is described as “a musical safari into the natural world,” and an original student-led “instant” composition.
Also including a three-event holiday concert series from December 10 to the 20th, the season will feature performances in the capital district up until June 4, when the ESYO will close out with a concert at Carnegie Hall.
ESYO Music Director Etienne Abelin.
This marks the first season as Empire State Youth Orchestra Music Director for Etienne Abelin, a Swiss violinist and conductor. “The season builds upon what makes the ESYO experience so unique,” said Abelin. “It challenges the most passionate young musicians in the region to see music-making as a joyful pursuit of musical excellence. This new season will carry this hallmark with a sprinkling of something new.”
As director, he’s sporting a philosophy called MusicNOW which “allows for more curiosity and risk-taking, which are at the heart of creativity and our sense of well-being,” said Abelin. As part of MusicNOW, the ESYO’s 2022-23 season will include workshops for Soundpainting, a musical sign language which uses more than 1500 gestures to compose music live, something available as early as opening day on the 30th.
The orchestra rehearses.
Information regarding tickets and more can be found on the ESYO website.
2022-2023 FALL CONCERT SCHEDULE:
Opening Day Matinee
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Sunday, October 30, 2022, 3:00pm
Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
ESYO PERCUSSION ENSEMBLES
Monday, November 7, 2022, 7:30pm
Brown School, Schenectady
Three Orchestras! One Incredible Afternoon of Music
A shining beacon in the Williamsburg neighborhood since it opened in 2017, the 1800-capacity structure originally occupied as a steel manufacturing plant, Brooklyn Steel, welcomed post-punk rockers Viagra Boys and Shame for their only New York show on Tuesday evening, October 18.
Brooklyn Steel | Photo by Michael Dinger
Viagra Boys, who hail from Sweden, are touring in support of their third studio album, Cave World, released by Year0001 this past July. Written during the COVID-19 pandemic and recorded last winter at Silence Studio and RMV Studio, the album was produced by Pelle Gunnerfeldt and DJ Haydn.
Sebastian Murphy of Viagra Boys | Photo by Michael Dinger
Joining Viagra Boys on the bill as a co-headliner was Shame, an English band from South London. Their debut album (Songs of Praise) was released in 2018, followed by Drunk Tank Pink in 2021 – both to critical acclaim via Dead Oceans, an independent record label based in Bloomington, Indiana.
Charlie Steen of Shame | Photo by Michael Dinger
In support of the co-headliners were Kills Birds, a trio of talented young rockers based in Los Angeles who are fronted by Nina Ljeti (born in Bosnia and whose family escaped to Canada soon after the Bosnian War began), along with guitarist Jacob Loeb and bassist Fielder Thomas. Formed in 2017, they released their debut self-titled album in 2019 on KRO Records. Their second album, Married, was recorded at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 (by invitation from the man himself) and was released last year.
Taking the stage promptly at 7:30 pm, Kills Birds played an unrelenting, electric set for a little more than 30 minutes. Performing songs embodying a hybrid style of new wave punk and grunge – such as “Jesus Did,” Volcano,” “Natalie,” “Cough Up Cherries” and “Offside” – Kills Birds grabbed our collective attention with a visceral intensity spearheaded by Ljet’s energetic stage presence. Combined with Loeb’s scorching riffs and Thomas’ thumping basslines, Kills Birds has an undeniable chemistry that is sure to lead them down the path to a bright future.
Nina Ljeti of Kills Birds | Photo by Michael Dinger
Formed in 2015 and with three studio albums under their collective belt – Street Worms (2018), Welfare Jazz (2021) and the aforementioned Cave World – Viagra Boys have already gained a reputation as being an unapologetically raw live act. Led by frontman Sebastian Murphy (originally from California), whose debauched stage persona has led to comparisons with iconic performers Iggy Pop and Nick Cave, the sextet is rounded out by Henrik Höckert (bass), Tor Sjödén (drums), Oskar Carls (saxophone), Elias Jungqvist (keyboards) and Linus Hillborg (guitar).
With Viagra Boys and Shame flip-flopping their set order each night of the tour, it was the boys from Stockholm who were up first. Possessingan atypical vocal style to that of the everyday punk frontman, with yelling and screaming kept at a minimum, Murphy delivered the night’s first offering (“Ain’t No Thief” from Cave World) in his monotone, deadpan fashion. His lyrics are both cerebral and surreal, often drawing on themes of drug addiction that are laced with satire. Viagra Boys songs often invoke crude imagery, as embodied in the newly christened fan favorites also performed this night from Cave World, including “Troglodyte” and “Punk Rock Loser.”
Viagra Boys | Photo by Michael Dinger
As per usual, Murphy performed most of the hour long set shoeless and shirtless, displaying his tattoo-covered (he is also a tattoo artist by-day) and bloated beer belly. The driving force of the band, Murphy addressed the fervent crowd on more than one humorous occasion:
Listen up folks. It’s fucking beautiful to be up here. I literally felt like I was an olive marinating in some horrible alcohol this morning when I woke up. And I thought that I was gonna cry before the show. I was like, I can’t fucking do this man! I don’t got it in me anymore! But then I come out here, and I see all your beautiful fucking faces, it gives me reason to live one more day and make it back to Switzerland where I’ve got seven beautiful dogs and a fiancé. [I’ve also got] a couple of gerbils. One of them disappeared recently, I’m not gonna say where.
It’s probably a bit confusing for some of you that are here tonight that were at the last show in Brooklyn. Because, back then, I was incredibly good looking [with] the perfect specimen of a body. It was then, on the US tour, where I sampled some deep fried food every now and then, and I had some candy, and the occasional beer. And, I have become somewhat of a big boy. But I am proud of myself.
Viagra Boys’ 12-song set closed with the absurdly hilarious “Sports” and “Shrimp Shack” (a Swedish idiom for someone who hasn’t had to work hard to get where they are), both from their debut release (Street Worms) in 2018. In just a few short years since that time, Viagra Boys have created a brazen palette of heavily intoxicating punk melodies which often feature frantic guitar shredding, hefty drumbeats, meaty basslines, jazz-style keyboards and saxophone solos.
A perfect pairing with Viagra Boys, Shame are the British quintet of Charlie Steen (vocals), Sean Coyle-Smith (guitar), Eddie Green (guitar), Charlie Forbes (drums) and Josh Finerty (bass). Formed in 2014, around the same time as their tour mates, Shame took the stage at approximately 9:45 pm to Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried” playing over the house PA.
Charlie Steen of Shame | Photo by Michael Dinger
In keeping with tradition of his homeland’s post-punk predecessors (the original wave formed in the late-1970s), Steen exudes a magnetic stage presence that demands your attention. Tuesday night, when he was not smoking a cigarette mid-song, instigating the mosh pit or crowd surfing, Steen was lurking along the stage apron with sweat streaked along his cheeks or smirking at bandmate Finerty after he successfully completed another of his signature, one-handed flips (while still holding his bass!).
Shame played their entire, 14-song distortion-filled set with an unbridled emotion that could only be accomplished by a band who has risen to success amid a grueling, relentless tour itinerary. Highlights of Shame’s night included back-to-back presentations of tracks from 2018’s Songs of Praise – “One Rizla” (introduced by Steen as “the first song [they] ever wrote”) and “Angie” for the first time on the current tour. With the emergence of post-punk peers IDLES and Fontaines D.C. in recent memory, it’s now time for Shame to breakthrough with their own brand of loud and abrasive punk anthems.
At the conclusion of their U.S. tour in Dallas, TX at the end of the month, Viagra Boys will head oversees with a slew of dates that will take them to Primarvera Sound in São Paulo, Brazil (November 6), followed by stopovers in Mexico, Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Denmark and finally, Norway (March 30, 2023). Up next for Shame will be a much-needed break, before embarking on a journey to Mexico City for the Hipnosis Festival on November 5.
Viagra Boys Setlist: Ain’t No Thief > Ain’t Nice > Troglodyte > Punk Rock Loser > Return to Monke > Secret Canine Agent > Slow Learner > Worms > Big Boy > Cold Play > Sports > Shrimp Shack
Shame Setlist: Dust on Trial > Alphabet > Fingers of Steel > Concrete > The Lick > Six Pack > Tasteless > Adderall > Born in Luton > Burning By Design > One Rizla > Angie > Water in the Well > Snow Day
