Tommy Weeks, saxophonist and bandleader of Funky Dawgz Brass Band, has released the first single from his upcoming EP, Strangers. The single, “Strangers” is chock full of soulful guitar riffs and vocals, while heavy on the funk that Weeks is adept at delivering. The full EP will be released on April 25, with additional singles released in the next two months.
Tommy Weeks
A graduate of the University of Connecticut, Weeks earned a bachelor’s degree in music and formed the Funky Dawgz. The band has toured across the United States, in addition to short tours in Europe, pre-Covid. Serving as bandleader for Funky Dawgz, as well as a music producer, Weeks has performed at festivals including Okeechobee, Camp Bisco, Peach Music Festival, and at Madison Square Garden as the horn section for Dispatch.
Weeks also had a full season stint in the house band for the entire season of the new Guy Fieri TV show “Guys Ultimate Game Night” on Food Network, which featured celebrity guests including Cheech Marin, Bret Michaels, Alyssa Milano, Vivyka A. Fox, and Bobby Moynihan.
When Weeks isn’t on television or touring the world, he teaches young aspiring musicians at an after school music program in CT, “Project Music.“
The fresh sound of “Strangers” is as a fusion of pop, R&B, house, and hip hop that features musicians and close friends from the Connecticut music scene. Featured on the track are Gabrielle Lakshmi (vocals), Paulie Phillipone (synth), Jon Singngam (drums) and Billy Ruegger (guitar).
Strangers was recorded in three locations: Weeks’ home studio in Ridgefield CT, Funkhaus Studios in Hartford, CT and Black Rock Sound in Bridgeport, CT. The EP was produced by Weeks and engineer, Mikhail Pivovarov, who also mixed and mastered the EP.
Tommy Weeks
Catch Weeks with Funky Dawgz horns on the road with TAUK for the last leg of their “Tauk Moore Tour” at Brooklyn Bowl on Saturday, February 25. Listen to “Strangers” from Tommy Weeks below.
Sawyer Fredericks has released his brand new EP The Golden Tree, featuring tracks “Lonely Bear” and “The Golden Tree,” recorded at Dreamland Studios in Woodstock in the summer of 2022.
Sawyer Fredericks became the youngest male winner of the Voice in 2015 at the age of 16, and ever since then has cemented himself in the folk scene, his latest release being his record Flowers For You in 2020. Fredericks has lived in Fultonville on an 88-acre farm since he was eight, learning how to sing at age 11 and performing at clubs such as The Bitter End for the experience. Discussing the EP, he says “I couldn’t be happier with how this EP came out. I feel the recordings really captured the sort of melancholy beauty that I wanted. I’m very excited to get to perform the songs live on this upcoming tour.”
The album includes four new tracks featuring his band, Gannon Ferrell on bass, Jerome Goosman on dobro, and Chris Thomas on drums, as well as Sav Buist and Katie Larson of The Accidentals on strings and backing vocals.
The first song “The Golden Tree” starts out slow and sweet, with Fredericks’s signature folk vocals shining through, with background vocals that make listening feel easygoing and calm. The song has deep emotional resonance, and Fredericks talks about growing up in poetic terms, singing “But with the light shined on me, a shadow is what I’ll be/To those below that watched me grow from seed to golden leaves.” He also goes on to sing about toxic masculinity and the dangers of growing up, and how you become noticed once you are older.
The second song “Lonely Bear” is just as slow as the song that comes before it. Speaking on the song, he says “I wanted ‘Lonely Bear’ to progress like a kid’s book, but the character and story itself is inspired by my dad, as well as my own personal struggles. I feel this song captured the sort of misguided hero I wanted, he is always helping others, but never letting others help him.” He makes me feel fuzzy and warm inside, as well as comforted when he sings “They’ll be times I’m lost and scared/And I’ll reach out to lonely Bear/And he’ll come running bruised and battered/He’ll make me feel I’m all that matters.” Everyone needs to have a “lonely bear” in their life to feel safe and sound, and it makes me think about my parents and how they protect me. The slow guitar solos near the end of the song wrap it up well and make the listener be able to sway to the music.
The third single “Farm Song” is a nostalgic folk tune about his life growing up on a farm and seeing life being born then feeling grief when they leave. I can’t imagine growing the emotional attachment one does with animals just to see them leave, but he puts it into words with fiery words and passion-filled vocal arrangements. The song is beautiful with added strings to show this emotion further and makes tears well in my eyes as I keep listening to him paint this picture of a beautiful farm.
The final single “So Smooth” talks about a relationship ending but in the best possible way, knowing it is going to be okay, and that the future will be much better. This song is much different than the previous ones as he adds drums in the background, maybe to signify his pounding heartbeat as he has to leave the relationship. All he longs for is happiness with himself, and he is going to experience that. There is a sad and sorrow-filled string solo near the middle of the song that tugs on your heartstrings and makes the listener feel emotional along with Fredericks. Overall, the EP The Golden Tree took me on a journey of happiness, sadness, nostalgia, and more as his smooth and sharp vocals filled my ears with delight. The guitars, strings, and drums in some songs all worked together harmoniously to create something enjoyable.
Fredericks will be returning to the road with a two-part tour with Chastity Brown, beginning on March 16 and stopping at the City Wineries in Boston, Nashville, Chicago, and NYC. To purchase tickets to his tour, go here.
Sawyer Fredericks Tour
March 16 Boston, MA – City Winery
March 17 Keene, NH – Colonial Performing Arts Center
March 18 Portsmouth, NH – The Music Hall, The Lounge
South American rock legends Zapato 3 are making The Cutting Room the site of their first-ever New York City concert, one of a select number of U.S. stops on their much-anticipated “Requiem for A Shoe” reunion tour, on March 31 at 10 p.m.
One of the first Venezuelan rock bands to achieve worldwide success, Zapato 3 came together as high schoolers in early 1984. Over time, their original punk style transitioned into a more social-oriented rock with some sexual lyrics, something evidenced on albums like their 1990 debut, Amor, Furia y Languidez. Their second long player, Besame y Suicidate, is the one that would put them on the map internationally and would to several hits across Latin America and gigs in Mexico, Miami and other locales. The band would make several more albums, some embracing techno strains, before its “first” breakup after the release of their 1999 album, Ecos Punzantes del Ayer. The group would come together in 2012 for a reunion long tour called The Last Crusade.
Zapato 3’s current lineup includes founding members keyboardist Jaime Verdaguer, guitarist Álvaro Segura, vocalist Carlos Segura, bassist Fernando Batoni and a new drummer, Dario Adames. Critics have compared their sound to a fusion of New Order, The Cure and Soft Cell, with a live show that still packs a youthful, high-energy punk punch. Check their sounds out here on Spotify.
Opening for Zapato 3 at The Cutting Room will be another band with Venezuelan roots, New York’s own Toxic Tito.
The latest in a long line of musical outings by Hudson-based, Italian-Venezuelan art dealer Luis Accorsi, Toxic Tito is a band that puts a fresh spin of the adrenaline frenzy of classic NYC punks like The Ramones. In 1977 while living in Venezuela, Accorsi formed JANZ KAPPELLA, noted as perhaps the first-ever pure punk band in the nation. Upon his moves to Miami and New York City, Accorsi formed a host of other projectz including the ska-influenced Modern Method, Naked King and Screwy Louie. Check out Toxic Tito’s, music including their latest long player, 2022’s Energentico, and their cover of “Blitzkrieg Bop,” on Spotify. For a look at Accorsi’s “day job,” check out NYSMusic’s article on May 2022’s “Rock & Roll Circus Art Show” at his New Gallery in Hudson.
For tickets and information, visit the Eventbrite site here.
NYC based FRANK have just released their newest instrumental recording Moment, on Thursday, Feb 23rd. The album captures the more jammier side of the band, which is what the band is known for sounding during their live performances.
The band recorded this piece a few months ago in one live take at the end of the night. They stated, “We had no plan, nothing said at all, we just started playing. As always, we listened to each other, explored together, and when we stopped, something that didn’t exist before was in the world. We decided to release it as an instrumental FRANK record we are calling Moment.
Originally NYC based, FRANK has been playing live and creating music since 2001, with seven studio albums and another on the way. One night in December in between album sessions, they created Moment, an impromptu instrumental improvised and recorded in one take.
FRANK has been working on a new LP to follow up their 2021 release Dreams and Fears of the Outside. They stayed, “We’re very proud of Moment as it represents the jammier side of our band. We are always exploring new sounds, rhythms, spaces, and ideas, which our audience doesn’t always get to hear as part of our recorded works.”
FRANK’s new album features many songs like “The Sparkling Realization,” a song that features the bands core collaboration. Other songs like “Sucker for a Pharoah” and “Broken Kaleidoscope” give fans what they love most, rock. All of these songs are classic studio jams that sound as if you were at one of FRANK’s sessions personally.
In a previous article by NYS Music, the album Dreams and Fears of the Outside was described as “…It has everything you want from a Rolling Stones influenced vibe. It still maintains the characteristic heavy drums and renegade guitar that FRANK has been putting on display throughout the record.” For more of this article, click the link here to read.
To listen to FRANK, click the link here. To listen to Moment, click the link here. For more about FRANK, click the link here.
Hudson Valley’s brother and sister harmonic duo Plane Station has just released their newest single “Keep Me Grounded,” on February 24th. The two are currently preparing to release two more singles over the following months and completing their third album, Art or Content, in the spring.
Plane Station consists of Nick and Brianna Chiapparino, a sibling singer songwriter duo based in Peekskill. Their sound, honed through years of live performance, is built on harmony, memorable melodies and a collaborative approach to songwriting.
Their single “Keep Me Grounded” is a powerful piece that will send shivers down your spine. No mater your headspace, Nick and Brianna’s angelic melodies will pierce through your heart. The song is beautifully written, the harmony that Plane Station has is incredible. The two are unbelievably talented artists with their sound and lyrics, they deserve more spotlight.
Nick and Brianna both grew up in the Hudson Valley and began singing together in High School. The duo has fronted many bands spanning a wide variety of genres, keeping their unique connection front and center with Plane Station.
Their music is often driven either by Nick’s acoustic guitar or Brianna’s piano work. Their sound together weaves seamlessly through the intimate and the grandiose, whispered lines over a finger picked guitar often give way to soaring harmonies over swelling instrumentation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJM6KdpxiWY
Their first album, The Other Side, finds the duo exploring themes of love, change and loss in a stripped down, predominantly acoustic setting. On 7th Street, Plane Station’s second full length LP, Nick and Brianna stretch their folk sound, taking full of advantage of a vaster sonic landscape while staying true to their singer/songwriter roots.
Their third and upcoming album, Art or Content, is coming together for release in the spring of 2023. For more information on Plane Station, visit their website by clicking the link here.
Lincoln Center has announced the schedule for its annual American Songbook: A Place You Belong performances, giving today’s brightest vocal talents the chance to shine in styles ranging from country to rock, from bluegrass to jazz, and more.
Lincoln Center at The Allen Room.
New York City isn’t just one place, it has five boroughs, thousands of distinctive communities with unique cultures, and hundreds of neighborhoods. Within these areas are dance clubs and music halls where we can sing, laugh, and dream about the future of life together. American Songbook: A Place You Belong presents American singers, songwriters, and composers in intimate concerts at The Allen Room and others in Lincoln Center, resurrecting old NYC long-lost performance spaces and dance clubs. Co-conceived by George C. Wolfe, this year’s theme explores themes of belonging and discovery, embodying the spirit of iconic New York City venues which paved the way for legendary artists.
Venues like the Palladium Ballroom, Paradise Garage, the Savoy Ballroom, and Café Society all have historical significance to the city and are showcased during these performances. The Palladium Ballroom was home to the mambo craze in the 1940s and ’50s and created a welcoming oasis where New Yorkers of all races, ethnicities and social classes could dance the night away. Paradise Garage was Soho’s gay underground dance haven in the 1970s and ‘80s, creating a safe space for the queer community. It was the place to connect with others through dance, to lose yourself in the music, and to find yourself along the way.
Portrait of Dizzy Gillespie, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948, from Lincoln Center.
The Savoy Ballroom was one of the first integrated ballrooms in the country, operating from the 1920s to the ‘50s in Harlem. It was home to the Lindy Hop, and those who went danced to the best swinging big bands of the era and swayed to the vocals of Ella Fitzgerald, Chick Webb, Dizzy Gillespie, and more. Café Society was one of the first racially integrated nightclubs in North America, tucked away in Greenwich Village. It was where Billie Holiday first sang the protest song “Strange Fruit,” and many soon-to-be stars sang there, including Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and more.
Events
American Songbook: A Place You Belong kicks off April 1 in David Geffen Hall, NYC’s newest cultural hub, with singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff, performing along with his orchestra Harry Nilsson’s 1973 LP A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night from start to finish on its 50th anniversary. Next in David Geffen Hall on April 8, Academy Award winner and Tony-nominated actress, singer, and dancer Ariana DeBose debuts an original solo concert, Authenticity. It will showcase her musical influences, including Judy Garland, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ray Charles, and ABBA, and her dynamic voice.
In honor of Café Society’s impact, The Appel Room plays host to three nights of cabaret from April 5-7 led by house band the Matt Ray Trio, featuring performances from Rizo and comedian Ikechukwu Ufomadu, Grammy-nominated R&B artist and Broadway star Mykal Kilgore and comedian Aminah Imani, and singer-songwriter Raye Zaragoza and comedian Jordan Carlos, each night ending with a special guest performing Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.” You can choose what you pay for the evening.
In honor of the Paradise Garage, on April 14, queer-owned Brooklyn venue C’mon Everybody reimagines the venue in a free one-night dance party blowout at the David Rubenstein Atrium with a set from DJ Samuella, hip hop drag provocateurs The Dragon Sisters and disco, funk duo The Illustrious Blacks. On April 20, the spirit of the Savoy Ballroom comes to the Atrium with jazz vocalist Charles Turner & Uptown Swing and The Eyal Vilner Swing Band. The audience is welcomed to the dance floor by professional Savoy swing Lindy Hoppers from choreographer Caleb Teicher’s SW!NG OUT, all for free.
Closing out the American Songbook series is a free event on April 21, a tribute to The Palladium Ballroom and the mambo craze that started there with Tito Rodríguez, Jr., one of the leading timbaleros and bandleaders of salsa and Latin Jazz.
The events on April 1 and April 8 at the American Songbook: A Place You Belong require tickets to view the performances, for more information and to purchase tickets, go here.
Actor and comedian Jane Curtin, one of the original cast members on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” plans to make a visit to the University at Albany on Saturday, April 29 with two distinct events in store.
At 4pm, Curtin, a two-time Emmy Award winner for Kate & Allie, will participate in an on-stage interview with WAMC’s Joe Donahue as part of The Creative Life: A Conversation Series. This event is free and open to the public.
Then, later that day at 7:30pm, Jane Curtin will be a part of the cast of Selected Shorts, the live version of the weekly public radio show that airs locally on WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Tickets purchased in advance are $10-$15. Both appearances will take place at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown University at Albany campus at 1400 Washington Avenue.
Starting in its first season in 1975, Jane Curtin was one of the original “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” on “Saturday Night Live” and stayed with the show through the 1979-80 season. She later starred in two long-running television sitcoms, “Kate & Allie” from 1984 through 1989, during which she won back-to-back Emmy Awards in 1984 and 1985, and “3rd Rock from the Sun” from 1996 through 2001. Curtin also starred in all four seasons of “Unforgettable” as well as the television movie series “The Librarian” and its spin-off television show, “The Librarians.” Guest appearances have included“The Good Wife,” “48 Hours ’til Monday,” “The Good Fight,” “Broad City,” “United We Fall” and, most recently, “The Conners.”
Jane Curtin has appeared on Broadway in “Noises Off,” “Candida,” and “Our Town.” Her film credits include “Coneheads,” “Antz,”” I Love You, Man,” “I Don’t Know How She Does It,” “The Heat,” “The Spy Who Dumped Me,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” “Ode to Joy,” “Godmothered,” and “Queen Bees.” Upcoming projects include the film “Jules,” opposite Sir Ben Kingsley.
The Creative Life series is a major arts initiative of the University Art Museum, New York State Writers Institute and UAlbany Performing Arts Center in conjunction with WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Sponsored by The University at Albany Foundation, the series features live onstage interviews conducted by WAMC’s “Roundtable” host Joe Donahue with artists of national and international prominence in conversation about their creative inspiration, their craft, their careers and the demands of sustaining an artistic practice over time. A question-and-answer period closes each program.
Previous Creative Life guests include fiction writer Joyce Carol Oates, tap dancer-choreographer Savion Glover, jazz violinist Regina Carter, painter David Salle, Young Adult author Lois Lowry, choreographer Garth Fagan, Broadway star Patti LuPone, Warhol film star Bibbe Hansen, sculptor Jean Shin, author/essayist Esmeralda Santiago, New Yorker journalist/author Susan Orlean, comedian/actor Paul Reiser, high-wire artist Philippe Petit, rapper Rakim, novelist Jhumpa Lahiri, chef/food writer Ruth Reichl, designer Debbie Millman, writer Roxane Gay, and art critic Lucy Sante.
Over thirty-five years ago, Selected Shorts was born on the stage at Symphony Space in New York City and quickly became one of the best-known shows of its kind spawning a popular public radio show, podcast, audio collections, and national tours. The series was conceived with a simple premise: take great stories by well-known and emerging writers and have them brought to life by terrific actors of stage and screen. The show is now broadcast on more than 150 stations to about 300,000 listeners around the country. The Selected Shorts podcast consistently ranks as one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes, with more than 100,000 downloads each week. Selected Shortson Tour takes the show live to theaters, libraries, college campuses and conferences.
This is the third Selected Shorts performance at UAlbany. Previous guests who have performed on stage at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center have included Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle”), Anthony Rapp (original cast of “Rent”), Alysia Reiner (“Orange is the New Black”), Patricia Kalember (“The Tick”), Bhavesh Patel (“The Good Wife”) and Rita Wolf (Tony Kushner’s “Homebody/Kabul”). The two actors joining Curtin for the April 29 performance are still to be announced.
Tickets for the live performance of Selected Shorts are available through the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s web site at www.albany.edu/pac. The show is presented by the New York State Writers Institute and the UAlbany Performing Arts Center with support from the University at Albany Foundation and University Auxiliary Services.
Saxophonist Ricky Ford, one of the last of a generation of influential jazz artists to make their home in Europe, is scheduled to appear in downtown Syracuse’s Jazz Central Theater on March 3rd at 7:30 with his current U.S. touring combo for a full-length concert.
This marks the second trip to Syracuse for the 68 year-old tenorman now living in Paris, who is midway through a tour of the Northeast. His current touring group includes John Kordalewski on piano, Tony Marino on bass, and Thurman Barker on drums.
Ricky Ford came up on the heels of the greatest icons of the art form as a young Bostonian making his mark on the national jazz landscape. At age 20, he was picked to succeed the legendary Paul Gonsalves in Duke Ellington’s band. He worked on the international scene with such legends of jazz history as Sonny Stitt, McCoy Tyner, Yusef Lateef, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, and Lionel Hampton, before settling in France in the 1990s.
“We’re pleased that Ricky Ford had such a good time in Syracuse last time and made us a stop again on his current schedule,” said Larry Luttinger, leader of CNY Jazz. “His first gig here in 2021, during the early days of the pandemic recovery, was well attended. We’re predicting a sell out crowd for this one. Those who got shut out of our sold out Black History Month Cabaret will get a second chance to experience some world class music at this one.”
Seating is limited in the cozy 63-seat Jazz Central. Advance sale ticket purchase is recommended. Advance sale tickets for Ricky Ford are on sale now at CNY Jazz’s website.
Brooklyn‘s indie-dance band Underground System have just announced their new EP Looking In, out on April 17th. Along with this, they have also released an iconic music video for their song “Sleazy” which embodies NYC in a psychedelic nutshell.
The band’s EP Looking In is the second in a series of two. Of the song inspiration, Domenica explains to Northern Transmissions, “This song is about having a spontaneous night with strangers. Doesn’t necessarily mean in the romantic sense. Just a night where you’re out on the town feeling alone (not lonely just alone) in a big ass city, but then meeting one or two people, instantly hitting it off, and next thing you know, you’re having a nocturnal adventure until sunrise.”
“The music video we made for ‘Sleazy’ with our friend Chris Egan is the cherry on top,” says the group’s co-leader Peter Matson. “…We ran around the city for many nights in a row filming at golden hour, and the crown jewel of the whole shoot… when we finally got a hold of a very elusive party limo that once returned me and several passed out friends from a DJ gig at the nightclub LeBain to our homes in BK… It just all made sense for “Sleazy.”
Underground System is one of the most dynamic bands to emerge from New York City in recent years, continuously innovating a brand of global dance music that is uniquely their own. Domenica Fossati, headman of the group, cites “A true New York eclecticism” running through the band’s core. If you’ve crossed paths with Underground System, then you’ve witnessed the group’s larger than life presence.
The band had described “a natural synthesis of styles” being born out of their journey from humble beginnings performing rare grooves and DJing bars around Brooklyn, to the development of an authentically original, internationally touring indie-dance band.
Whether political philosopher Emma Goldman actually said, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution,” or not is still up for debate, there’s no doubt that New York City’s Underground System wholly embodies that vibe”
– Remezcla
To watch the video for “Sleazy,” click the link here. For more of Underground System, click the link here.
Due to overwhelming demand, a second date was added to the When We Were Young Festival at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, taking place on Oct. 21 and 22, 2023.
When We Are Young Festival took social media by storm when it was first announced, with people not believing it was even real at first, featuring big names like My Chemical Romance and Paramore as headliners. Tickets sold out almost immediately and two more dates were added afterward. The first run of the festival on Oct. 22 started out weak as it was canceled due to high winds, with fans taking to social media complaining as the festival was canceled after doors had already opened. Nevertheless, it has still maintained popularity as a second date has been added on Oct. 22, 2023.
This run there are many household punk names that will bring in huge crowds, including headliners Blink-182, featuring reunited original members Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker, and one of the most influential bands of the genre, Green Day. The lineup also features fan favorites, like 30 Seconds To Mars, The Offspring, Good Charlotte, 5 Seconds of Summer, Sum 41, Pierce the Veil, Gym Class Heroes, Rise Against, Simple Plan, New Found Glory, and many more.
Presale for When We Were Young festival begins Feb. 24 at 5 p.m. EST here and any remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Feb. 24 at 6 pm. EST. Layaway plans start with a $19.99 downpayment and GA tickets start at $279.99, GA+ tickets start at $439.99, and VIP tickets start at $539.99.
