NYS Music 2024

Author: Sal Cataldi

  • Brooklyn’s D.I.Y. Rock Scene of 1980s to be the Subject of Forthcoming Documentary

    When it comes to NYC’s D.I.Y. rock scenes and their club catalysts, CBGB wasn’t the only game in town. In the late 1980s, when the now uber-glitzy and fully gentrified borough of Brooklyn was still mostly grit, grime and crime, there was one incredibly unassuming dive bar on the fringes of Park Slope where a handful of bands built a scene that captured the attention of the indie rock world. 

    Now this bar and the many bands it birthed are set to be the subject of an in-the-works documentary, Before It Was Cool: The Brooklyn Beat from Lauterbach’s, with an online crowdfunding campaign and reunion concert set for September 14.

    Several years in the making, the nearly completed film is the passion project of three people who knew the scene best. Executive producer and director Michael West was there from the beginning, as a member of The Original Rays.  Today a DJ and music director at Radio Free Brooklyn, Rachel Cleary stumbled into this seedy venue when she went to see her boyfriend’s band play and was floored by what she heard but saw in the way of the unforgettable characters who were habitues of the bar. A Brooklyn native, Cleary is a producer and the on-screen interviewer who relates the tale through interviews with several dozen musicians and fans who religiously frequented the venue. Another Brooklyn musician who emerged a decade later, Jeannie Fry of the band My Little Eye, also serves as a Producer and Technical Advisor for the project.

    Lauterbach’s had a direct connection to CBGB’s. It all began in 1988 when Bob Racioppo, a former member of one of the original CBGB bands, The Shirts, walked into his neighborhood bar after a shift as a cab driver. In a 2023 interview with the Red Hook Star, Racioppo said: “It had a small stage and looked just like a mini-CBGB’s. It also had a pool table, just like the original CBGB’s. And in those days, the neighborhood was white and Puerto Rican working class, not yet upscale and gentrified.”  Housed on the ground floor of a two-story building on an otherwise residential block, Lauterbach’s was a true curiosity in the early days of Park Slope’s gentrification.

    With the blessing of the owners who lived upstairs, George and Alice Lauterbach, Racioppo began to bring in bands. “I brought in money and knew how to treat bands, so it took off right away.” The club soon began to attract aspiring bands from the borough and beyond.

    These D.I.Y-minded bands weren’t content to just play; they began issuing a series of self-financed compilation CDs, starting with 1988’s Today Brooklyn, Tomorrow The World.  Bearing the works of up to 20 bands in each CD, these compilations garnered national buzz, including radio airplay from popular stations like K-Rock and WNEW-FM and feature stories in outlets including The New York Times.

    This down-and-dirty but big-hearted scene is coming to life via in-person interviews with well over two dozen musicians and the locals who made this downscale tavern a must-stop every weekend. All totaled, there is 60 hours of footage being culled for the project including many archival performances taped at Lauterbach’s and at Brooklyn Beat events at other venues including CBGB.

    While artists including Joan Osborne and They Might Be Giants graced the stage in their early days, this film focuses on the bands who were the heart of the scene, with some musicians who have continued to perform professionally and others for whom their glory days in music are a cherished memory.  Interviewees include members of Racioppo’s band, Chemical Wedding, The Fields, Frank’s Museum, Formaldehyde Blues Train, Al Lee Wyer, The Moe, Squirrels from Hell and more.

    While much of the film is in the can, the producers are launching a campaign to secure completion funds for the film. They will use the monies to finalize its editing and to promote the documentary at leading film festivals in 2025. 

    The crowdfunding effort, housed at gofund.me/38eb3334, will be kicked off with an event on Saturday, September 14 at 8 pm at Young Ethel’s at 506 5th Avenue, South Slope, Brooklyn.  The event will feature performances by reunited Brooklyn Beat bands including Kenny Young and the Eggplants, Squirrels from Hell, Chemical Wedding, Medicine Sunday, Frank’s Museum and Hari Karaoke Trio of Doom.  Info at youngethels.com  (Ed. note: This writer was a member of the latter two bands in the lineup).

    “This film has come together much like the Brooklyn Beat scene itself,” begins West, “with a group of artists collaborating to create something more beautiful than any could’ve imagined or created on their own. This team, the interviewees and the subject matter have put us well on the road to producing a high-quality documentary about a fondly remembered corner of New York City’s rock history.”

    Rachel Cleary adds: “Trying something new can redirect the trajectory of a person’s life. In our interviews, people spoke about breaking their routine to go into Lauterbach’s and that it led to their lives taking a completely different course, for the better. I hope people will leave this film with an appreciation for the power and importance of community, shared experience, and especially music made for the love of it. The Brooklyn Beat crew is a family that lived and continues to thrive well beyond the walls of a bar.”

  • Tracey Yarad Brings Her Musical Memoir of Heartbreak to NYC Stage in July

    What do you do when your husband and musical partner of many years runs off with your teenage goddaughter? You write a boatload of wonderful songs, dye your wedding dress black and make it into a dynamic, emotional rollercoaster of a musical stage show. That’s how the soulful Australian-born, New York-based singer-songwriter-pianist Tracey Yarad coped with heartbreak by crafting an emotionally raw and sometimes even humorous blend of memoir and song entitled All These Pretty Things. 

    New Yorkers will get a chance to experience this unique fusion of song and monologue when it comes to the 59E59 Theater in New York City, July 13, 14 and 16.  Yarad’s Big Apple run is a part of 59E59’s East to Edinburgh 2024, a showcase of 16 shows, including Yarad’s, which will be heading to the famed Edinburgh Fringe Fest in August 2024.

    This confessional and cathartic one-woman show is a classic illustration of when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  A phoenix rising from the ashes story, it takes the audience from the fallout of a devastating divorce in Australia, following her husband’s affair with their goddaughter, to an inspiring new life and musical career in New York City. Tracey Yarad plays both the damsel in distress and the heroine who saves the day in this dramatic sound play.

    “I started writing these songs to keep myself from going insane,” explains Yarad. “I didn’t realize that it would ever be recorded or performed. It was just my healing process. But the audience reactions so far have shown me it’s something that touches and helps other people to move through their struggles and challenges too.”

    Yarad’s sprawling All These Pretty Things began life as an album. It features contributions from some of New York’s finest jazz musicians including guitarist Luca Benedetti (Jim Campilongo), bassist Tony Scherr (Norah Jones, Bill Frisell), violinist Zach Brock (Snarky Puppy, Stanley Clarke), drummer Josh Dion (Chuck Loeb, Bob James) and organist Jon Cowherd (Brian Blade Fellowship, Joni Mitchell). An accompanying illustrated book will be available for purchase at the show and online at her Yarad’s website. Acclaimed jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux has called All These Pretty Things “an emotional roller coaster ride from thoughtful resignation to heartbreak, rage, acceptance and back again. I like it when I hear her roar!” BroadwayWorld.com labels it “a beautiful alchemy, breathtakingly honest and gorgeously sung songs on the themes of loss and abandonment and the restorative power of music and love.”

    Tracey developed this evocative portrayal of one woman’s capacity to come back stronger than ever with the help of her co-writer and director, the acclaimed jazz songstress Tessa Souter.  The work also serves as Souter’s directorial debut. Yarad names “heart-on-sleeve” songwriters like Laura Nyro, Rickie Lee Jones, Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt as some of her primary influences for the piece. Her music reflects her diverse experience as a performer – from classical pianist to singing German lieder, from leading a jazz fusion trio to fronting funk bands. All these stylistic variants blend to create Yarad’s singular style.

    All These Pretty Things showcases Yarad’s strength as an instrumentalist and vocalist.  With only a piano and her powerful voice, she communicates a wide range of human emotions, ones that come with the burgeoning of new love through to its inevitable and uniquely tragic unraveling to her rebirth as both a woman and an artist.  Her musical and lyrical acumen are showcased in the spoken word passages which are the connective tissue to the musical pieces.  They are a testament to another of her unique talent as a dramatist.

    Yarad’s musical life has been varied and globe-trotting. A pianist and singer-songwriter with jazz sensibilities, her career has taken her from touring her native Australia with her original music and having a Top 40 single in the 1990s, to a seven-year residency singing in 5-star hotels in Japan, to running her own music school for 18 years in the Blue Mountains of Australia and, finally, to New York City.

    Since relocating to the Big Apple in 2017, she has added jazz photographer to her list of professional accomplishments, specializing in portraits of leading names in jazz. Her work has appeared in Downbeat, Guitar Player and Drum Scene magazines to name a few.

    New York serves as an inspiring backdrop that has greatly fueled Tracey’s creative musical spirit. In the relatively short time since moving here, Tracey has produced two original music projects—one with her all-female group featuring Claudia Acuña, Jennifer Vincent, Elsa Nilsson and Rosa Avila and this one-woman version of All These Pretty Things.  Another musical memoir, Lost in Translation, featured stories and songs from her days as a hotel singer in Japan and was performed with virtuoso jazz pianist Jim Ridl.

  • Rock’s Everywhere Man Dave Mason Pens A Memoir

    Only You Know and I Know is not only the name of one of his biggest hits, but it is also now the title of Dave Mason’s forthcoming autobiography.  It’s a freewheeling testament proving that Dave was one of the most Zelig of rockers.  He’s a “quiet giant” who had his fingerprints all over the work of not only the famous group he co-founded, Traffic, but defining tracks by pals like Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Derek and the Dominoes, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Delaney & Bonnie, Joe Cocker, Graham Nash, Fleetwood Mac and many more.

    Only You Know and I Know dave mason

    Raised on a farm and saddled with a hip condition that kept him bedridden for a year as a child, Dave discovered music at 12, when he plucked a ukulele out of a trash can while visiting his sister in San Diego. His first axe didn’t last long; his mother summarily used it to fix a stopped-up toilet!  The would-be songwriter’s love of melody and harmony came from listening to The Platters while his still-underrated guitar chops were seeded by coping the solos of Hank Marvin and The Shadows and the Ventures, ones which he played in his early band, The Jaguars.  He would see The Beatles, Stones and Dylan in concert and even meet Little Richard before he struck out on a professional career.

    But it was the all-nighters at clubs in Birmingham where he would make his big connection, first with drummer Jim Capaldi in The Hellions then teenage Steve Winwood, when he was the star attraction in the Spencer Davis Group. Mason would contribute to the group’s latter-day hits, “Gimme Some Lovin’” and “I’m A Man,” before joining forces with Winwood, Capaldi and flautist Chris Wood in Traffic.

    Dave Mason – photo by Chris Jensen

    Mason’s star-crossed, on-again/off-again history with Traffic is a thread that runs through the entire book.  After “getting it together” at their little country cottage in Berkshire, just like Dylan and The Band at Big Pink, they would record Mr. Fantasy, their hit debut disc.  But it’s Dave’s song that the rest of the band hated, “Hole In My Shoe,” which was the biggest hit (#2).  The tension within the band would lead Dave to quit on the eve of their first U.S. tour. But because the trio was lacking in original songs, Mason and his songs are welcomed back for the second album, 1968’s Traffic. He contributes “All Join In,” a tune penned on a caffeine jag in an Athens café and “Feelin’ Alright,” written on the Greek island of Hydra that would achieve classic status in its cover by Joe Cocker. Before the album was released, Dave would be fired from Traffic.  He would be back for a couple of gigs captured on the album, Welcome to the Canteen, before a final split.  At their 2006 induction into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame, Dave was not invited to play with the band.

    Dave’s move to the U.S. in 1971 puts him in the circle of Cass Elliot and the CS&N crew, along with Delaney & Bonnie.  He becomes a part of the L.A. music scene bringing in A-list stars and session legends to record his truly great debut disc, Alone Together, closely followed by a duet album with Cass Elliot. He also becomes a part of the LaLa social whirl: partying with Sharon Tate and Abigail Folger shortly before the Manson murders, romancing actress Leigh Taylor Young and establishing close friendships with Dan Haggerty (TV’s Grizzly Adams) and Patrick Swayze.

    Dave Mason must be a really great hang because many of the true icons of rock are pals who call upon his talents in the recording studio.  He is featured on Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watch Tower,” The Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man,” Paul McCartney & Wings’ “Listen to What the Man Said” and George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass.”  It is Harrison who gives him a sitar which Mason plays on early Traffic tunes. It’s also Mason who purportedly shows George how to play slide during a break in a Delaney & Bonnie tour date.  Through Delaney & Bonnie and the Harrison sessions, Dave is enlisted into an early version of Derek and The Dominoes. He leaves after a little recording and one live performance when the drug use in the band proves too much even for him.  Though it’s seldom discussed, Dave was also a member of a post-Rumors Fleetwood Mac, touring from 1994-1995 and recording the album, Time.

    While charmed in many places, Only You Know and I Know demonstrates Dave’s life has not been a complete bed of roses. He is honest here about his battles with addiction (mostly cocaine), his broken romances, the loss of his son and shortcomings as a father and his faulty business acumen (bankruptcies, bad management and recording contracts). There’s also talk of aborted music projects with Ginger Baker, Bob Dylan during his Desire album sessions and his trio with Leon Russell and Gary Wright. There is also his decision to move to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands… a few days before Hurricane Hugo decimates it.

    Mason is priming his fans for the release of his new memoir with 40-concert running through mid-October. The book and this latest tour prove that Dave is one of the true rock-n-roll survivors, someone for whom music is a salve and salvation which has helped him and his generations of fans cope with life’s inevitable hurdles.

    Dave Mason tour Info can be found  here, pre-order Only You Know and I Know, co-authored by Chris Epting, here

  • Elusive Lo-Fi Legend Jandek to Appear at Rosendale’s Widow Jane Mine

    Jandek, one of the most mysterious and hyper-productive legends of the lo-fi folk/outsider music movement, is slated to make a rare appearance at one of the Hudson Valley’s most unique performance venues, Widow Jane Mine, on Saturday, July 20 at 7 pm.

    The recently-formed PlayTime Presents is producing the event.  According to its founder, Jeff Economy, PlayTime is “an evolving entity dedicated to presenting unlikely music, film and media events in New York’s Hudson Valley.”  PlayTime’s most recent event was a fundraiser for local radio institution WGXC-90.7/Wave Farm featuring a collaboration between the famed “culture jammers” Negativland and video artist Sue-C at the Greenville Drive-In.

    Jandek is the musical project of Sterling Smith and his Corwood Industries, a record label operating out of Houston, Texas. Since 1978, Jandek/Corwood Industries has independently released over 125 albums/DVDs of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk, rock, and blues songs without ever granting an interview or providing any biographical information. Jandek often plays a highly idiosyncratic and frequently atonal form of folk, rock, classical and blues music, at times using an open and unconventional chord structure. The name “Jandek” refers specifically to the musical project. www.corwoodindustries.com  

    “As a documentarian, writer, music video maker and occasional performer, I’ve had one foot planted in the music world since the late ‘80s,” says PlayTime’s Jeff Economy. “Part of my agenda with PlayTime is to give something back by putting on events that might not have happened otherwise. 

    “Despite being an active recording artist since at least 1978, Jandek remains one of the most intriguing and mysterious figures in all of music,” continues Economy. “They’ve been performing in public sporadically since 2004, but it seemed that a local show was a remote possibility at best. I extended an invitation knowing that a great venue was available and to my surprise, they accepted. With Jandek’s spectacularly wide range of music and Widow Jane’s unique space, this event is a perfect representation of our creative mission.”

    Widow Jane Mine is a circa 19th-century natural cement mine housed on the 22-acre Snyder Estate in Rosendale, N.Y. The cavernous room and pillar construction create a natural amphitheater, one with amazing acoustics and unobstructed views due to the sloping floors. Audiences of up to 500 face the stage with a pond as a backdrop and light filtering in from four openings to the outside. The venue, which has presented music, theater, raves, poetry readings and other events for over 40 years, is managed by the Century House Historical Society a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the preservation of the local history of Rosendale, New York and of the Natural Cement industry.

    For tickets, visit widowjanemine.ticketspice.com/Jandek24 or www.playtimepresents.com  

  • Ukraine’s Kommuna Lux Brings US Charity Tour to the Falcon in Hudson Valley and New York City’s Drom

    Kommuna Lux, the acclaimed ‘Odesa Urban Folk’ band from Ukraine, is set to embark on a 30-city US charity tour this Summer, blending thrilling Klezmer and Ukrainian folk music to raise funds for humanitarian causes back home.  

    Just as the streets of their hometown of Odesa are rich with nostalgia and a diverse, bohemian Black Sea coastal vibe, Kommuna Lux’s melodies are filled with dazzling rhythms, refreshing anarchy, and plenty of joie de vivre! These conservatory-trained musicians combine traditional Klezmer, Balkan, and Urban Chanson, with a dash of Ukrainian Folk and inject it with rocket fuel for a high-energy Big Band sound from the bygone days of speakeasies and rum runners.  

    The first stretch of the tour will bring this unique ensemble to leading venues in the Hudson Valley, Upstate New York and New York City.  Performances will including Drom in NYC (June 21), Live at the Falcon in Marlboro (June 23), The Levitt/AMP Concert Series in Utica (June 24) and Ithaca’s Unitarian Church (June 25).

    Leading Kommuna Lux is Bagrat Tsurkan, whose hot buttered voice and nonstop energy compel everyone to the dance floor. The remaining band, Volodymyr Gitin (clarinet), Oleg Vasianovich, (accordion), Andrei Okhramovich (trumpet), Yaroslav Besh (trombone), Viktor Kirilov (acoustic guitar), and Sergei Poltorak (percussion), miraculously manage to play with perfection while creating equally dizzying energy on stage. Watch an example of their live show here. 

    Kommuna Lux has been fundraising at their shows since 2022 and raised $16,000 in donations on their fall 2023 US tour. They created KMLX, a 501-c3 charity, after their first US tour, ensuring that 100% of donations received at their concerts are used for humanitarian aid. Virtual donations can be made on the website kmlx.org

  • Sibylle Baier, the Greta Garbo of Lo-Fi Folk, Re-emerges June 9 at Upstate Films

    She’s the German actress and amateur singer-songwriter who achieved notoriety three decades after she made the humble home recordings that were released in 2006 as the critically acclaimed Colour Green.  Now the reclusive Sibylle Baier is making a rare appearance at the Saugerties’ Orpheum Theatre for the June 9 screening of Wim Wenders’ 1974 classic Alice in the Cities.

    Sibylle Baier

    “Sibylle Baier and her daughter Julia appeared briefly in Wim Wenders’ film Alice in the Cities. The two protagonists come across Sibylle standing on the ferry, holding her daughter as she sings one of her songs entitled ‘Softly’.. Through the early 1970s, Baier made lo-fi acoustic recordings of songs she wrote for her pleasure alone, ones that Robby gathered onto a CD gifted to friends to mark his mother’s 60th birthday. One recipient was Dinosaur Jr’s J. Mascis who secured its commercial release as the 14-track collection, Colour Green, on Orange Twin label. 

    Sibylle Baier

    Baier’s breathy, stripped-back acoustic sound is often compared to Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake and a folky Nico. Her fans number musicians like Kim Gordon, who included her on a playlist of favorites in a 2015 article in the New York Times.  Her evocative music has since been licensed for many projects including the films Drinking Buddies and My Salinger Year and the TV show, End of the F**cking World. A new recording, “Let Us Know,” was featured in Wenders’ film, Palermo Shooting.

    Although she will not be performing live, Baier will be playing tracks from Colour Green.

    Sibylle Baier
    Sibylle Baier

    The event will take place in “The Mark,” the brand-new screening room at Upstate Films’ Orpheum Theatre in Saugerties. The Mark’s most notable elements are its acoustics with its Dolby Atmos sound system, engineered with WSDG and cinema specialist Dave Berti, which provides precision sound that envelops the audience, immersing them in the heart of the film. WSDG, led by John Storyk, has previously designed venues and studios for Bruce Springsteen, UCLA, Lincoln Center, Spotify, Jay-Z, MTV, Alicia Keys, NYU, and, at the beginning of Storyk’s career, Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios.

    For more information and tickets, visit Upstate Films

  • Avant-Garde Electro Salsa Quintet Meridian Brothers Provide A Rollicking Season Opener at Opus 40

    The 2024 concert season at the sublime Opus 40 Sculpture Park in Saugerties opened May 9th with something that delighted ass-shakers and intellectuals alike– a high-energy performance by one of Colombia’s most renowned musical exports – Meridian Brothers.

    photo by William A. Loeb

    The five-piece is the brainchild of Bogota-based singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Elbis Álvarez. Meridian Brothers is a moniker Álvarez has used on many albums and collaborations, on most of which he plays all the instruments.  Friday’s performance was the kick-off of the band’s latest tour, on which Álvarez is supported by a quartet of equally adept and captivating musicians.

    The Meridian Brothers sound is an intriguing amalgam of styles and influences.  The songs are anchored on danceable Latin rhythms – salsa, boogaloo and cumbia – accented with eerie, experimental keyboard sounds reminiscent of ‘50s sci-fi classics like Forbidden Planet and echoed guitaring that brings to mind Syd Barrett’s work on Pink Floyd’s debut, Piper at Gates of Dawn. In performance, Álvarez’s vocals are often treated with a harmonizer, digital delay and phasing as are some of the ever-present percussive accents. It brings to mind the short-lived era of early Roxy Music when Brian Eno slathered a boatload of sonic treatments on the live sound to ramp up the otherworldly vibe.

    photo by William A. Loeb

    But make no mistake. As heady and refined as this may sound, this is music for ass-shakers, first and foremost. And that was proved by the multitude that boogied down on the lawn at Opus 40 for all of The Meridian Brothers’ 90-minute plus set.

    Álvarez and his cohorts – María Valencia (wind instruments, percussion and keyboards), Mauricio Ramírez (drums), Alejandro Forero (keyboards) and César Quevedo (bass) – ran through a 12-song set of their neo-tropicalista classics from their 10-album discography. 

    The band commenced with its 2020 single, “Cumbia de la Fuente.”  Like many of the tunes, it’s anchored by a sub-harmonic bass riff and thump groove over which float cloud fronts of spacey keyboard effects and samples, triggered by Álvarez and Forero’s midi-keyboards.  This track winds down with arpeggiated bells samples that sound like a drunken ice cream truck.  Things moved more uptempo with the next number, “Bomba Atomica.”  This is an almost traditional salsa groove belied by the slightly dissonant harmonizer vocals.  Percussionist Valencia truly shined on this one, unleashing a heady dose of cowbell and delay-treated splash cymbals, something she would do all night with a bright smile delivered with each bash.

    photo by William A. Loeb

    Álvarez introduced the next number, “Salsa Caliente,” as a salsa boogaloo. This was Plan 9 from Outer Space meets Tito Puente, with some groovy, new wave-y keys and sax accents from Ms. Valencia.  The band’s 2022 album, Meridian Brothers & El Grupo Renacimiento, was the source for several of the best tunes performed including “Metamorfosis,” “Hipnosis” and “La Policia.”  The next song in the set, “La Policia, provided the space for an extended echo-y guitar solo from Álvarez.  The band initially closed their set with the high-energy dance jam instrumental, “Guaracha U.F.O.,” from their 2012 album, “Desesperanza.”  After a brief pause, they returned for an encore, their tropicalia take on the Dusty Springfield classic, “Son of a Preacherman.” 

    The Meridian Brothers’ wonderful show was the first concert of what promised to be a watermark one for Opus 40, which over the years has hosted many legendary performances, mostly notably the one by sax great Sonny Rollins chronicled in Robert Mugge’s documentary, Saxophone Colossus.  Read our remembrance of it here.

    Opus 40’s headlining events will include two nights with the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra led by 100-year-old Marshall Allen (July 5 and 6), London post-punk with Dry Cleaning (June 27), alternative R&B with Nick Hakim (May 29), reggae with Sundub & Upstate Reggae Posse (August 13), the Afro-Pop of Zimbabwe’s Mokoomba (August 2) and more. Opus 40 will also host Sunday afternoon shows highlighting homegrown Hudson Valley talent including Larry Locust, Biryani Boys, Blueberry, Mac $ Cheeze Balkan Trio and Spaghetti Eastern Music.

    photo by William A. Loeb

    “At Opus 40, I try to honor the musical legacy here with a curated selection of acts local and international, experimental and accessible, with a focus on spiritual jazz, ambient and singer-songwriters,” adds Mike Amari, Program Manager at Opus 40 and founder of local concert promoter, Chosen Family Presents. “Harvey Fite, who built Opus 40 by himself over 37 years, wanted his sculpture park to host events that uplifted the human spirit – just like his monumental earth art. So, this is why Opus 40 has committed so much effort and taken so much pride in bringing these incredible acts and many more community events to the site.” 

    “As for Meridian Brothers, I became obsessed with their brand of music via a compilation of ‘chicha’ music from Peru in the ‘60s/’70s called ‘Roots of ChiCha,’ continues Amari.  “A friend who knew I liked this music turned me on to Meridian Brothers.  They play some of the same ideas but chop them up and put them together in a Frankenstein-like, Krautrock-y way. It’s hypnotic, dissonant but somehow groovy and very danceable.  For these reasons, they were the perfect act to launch our new season.  It was the first night of their newest U.S. tour and they traveled for 24 hours to get here.  So, we commend them on giving us such an energetic performance.”

    Special props to the band’s sound engineer, Alejandro Araujo and the crew at Opus 40, for expertly balancing and EQing what could have easily descended into cacophony. This performance was more electric than the first I witnessed by the band at globalFEST 2023, an event co-programmed by another veteran Hudson Valley promoter, Isobel Soffer. 

    For a list at the Opus 40’s summer concert schedule, visit here.

    photos by William A. Loeb

  • Cult Singer-Songwriter’s Star-Crossed Life Profiled in New Documentary Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill

    She was one of the greatest “misses” of the 1970s – a singer-songwriter of lyrical and musical depth who led a life more tragic than anything conjured by Tolstoy.  Now, 45 years after her passing, she is revealed and righteously revered in a powerful new documentary from co-directors Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom, Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill (Greenwich Entertainment).

    Judee Sill

    While there are many wonderful interviews with her contemporaries like Linda Ronstadt, Graham Nash and Jackson Browne and performances of her songs by Fleet Foxes and more, this documentary is very much a first-person autobiography.  The most powerful voice telling Sill’s story here is her own. It comes in audio clips from recently unearthed interviews and heartbreaking passages from her journals read by Sonya Goddy.

    Sill’s story begins and ends in hardship, interrupted by a brief two-year window when she was poised to be “the next big thing” in the burgeoning singer-songwriter genre.  She would be one of the first signings to David Geffen’s powerhouse Asylum Records, the home of platinum-selling artists like Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and The Eagles.

    Sill would begin tickling the ivories at the piano in her father’s bar at age three. By her teen years, her life went south when she became involved with petty theft and addiction, which sent to a reform school. While there, she fell in love with playing the church organ and gospel music. In 1968, while in prison on fraud and prostitution charges, she realized that if she could endure the agony of kicking heroin cold turkey in the clink, she could do anything.  She decided to become a singer-songwriter and marked this commitment with a jailhouse tattoo of a treble clef on her shoulder.  She would continue her struggles after prison, working as a jazz bass player in a piano bar and developing a 15 – 20 bag a day heroin habit, before finally getting clean. Within a few short years, she went from living in a car to being the subject of cover story on Rolling Stone Magazine.

    Judee Sill

    Her songwriting career began when she secured a $65 a week job writing songs after scoring her first major achievement penning “Lady-O” for The Turtles.  While playing open mic nights at the legendary Troubadour in Los Angeles, she would come to the attention of songwriter and boyfriend-to-be JD Souther. He and other in that tight circle of musicians who would sing her praises to Geffen.  Her unique fusion of country jazz and baroque stylings, and her songs uniquely anchored on Bach bass movements, would secure her a record deal and heavy promotion for her eponymous 1971 debut album. 

    Unlike some artists who play it humble, Sill unabashedly proclaimed: “I really want to be a star” in interviews.  Her debut album included the classic “Jesus Was A Cross Maker.” It was a tune based on her turbulent relationship with Souther who, by then, was dating Linda Ronstadt.  A faithful friend to the end, Ronstadt provides some of the most pertinent observations in this film about Sill’s massive talent and her inability to cope and roll with disappointments in her career.  Sill’s follow-up album, 1973’s Heart Food, would also garner continued critical accolades but even more disappointing sales.  It would include the incredible “The Kiss,” a song that is called representative of her “amazing, universal force.” It is a ballad that, like many of her works, is a representation of “a sensual experience with God” according to Big Thief’s Buck Meek.

    “She didn’t play the game well and was terrible at kissing ass,” adds JD Souther. “Part of her bitterness was that she knew how good she was.” Another reason for her lack of success may have been cosmetic – that she didn’t possess the physical beauty of contemporaries like Joni Mitchell.

    Judee Sill

    In frustration at her lack of success, and especially in light of the soaring careers of label mates like Ronstadt and Mitchell, Sill would lash out at Geffen, reportedly calling him “a fag” from the stage.  “She went to battle with Geffen and lost” adds another musician.  She would be dropped from his label, beg for forgiveness that wouldn’t come and spiral down from there. 

    A car accident would severely compromise her health. It would lead to two spinal fusion surgeries, constant pain and, once again, a dependence on drugs.  She would pass away in October 1979 due to an overdose which was officially ruled a suicide. It’s a conclusion doubted by many of her friends and collaborators.

    With all of the agony, this film really is more about the pure ecstasy of Sill’s talent and music.  The documentary’s directors do a wonderful job presenting her music, with clips of her performances on BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test and at a low-key lunchtime gig on University of Southern California campus.  There are also some great covers including “The Kiss” by Fleet Foxes and “The Phoenix” by Shawn Colvin.  Her impact on a new generation of artists is related in interviews with luminaries like Big Thief’s Buck Meek and Adrianne Lenker and Weyes Blood.

    Do yourself a favor and see this film now streaming on Amazon and Apple TV or in a theater near you.

  • Pat Metheny Puts on a Dream Show for Guitar Lovers at Bardavon

    Is it possible to win 20 Grammys and even more “Best Jazz Guitarist” polls, to be an inductee into a variety of Halls of Fame including those of Downbeat Magazine and your home state and still be underrated?  The answer is a yes if you are the ceaselessly creative and melodic Pat Metheny. 

    Michael Torres, Photographer Instagram @michaelatorresphotography

    Pat’s latest venture is “The Dream Box Tour,” a solo concert extravaganza unlike any before it in the world of guitaring.  Pat’s nearly two and a half hour performance on April 13 at The Bardavon was not just a showcase of his massive skills as an instrumentalist, composer and interpreter of classic songs.  It was a revelatory journey through new technology being brought to the fore through Pat’s perpetual experimentation and innovation of the guitar in partnership with his longtime luthier, Linda Manzer.

    Throughout his career, Metheny’s signature has been his lyricism – his unchallenged capacity to weave a world of gorgeous melody and lush harmony in his original compositions and interpretation of jazz standards like “I Fall in Love Too Easily” and pop tunes like the Beatles’ “And I Love Her.” Not as resonant with fans have been his periodic excursions to jazz’s freer edges and even noise rock. These include his collaborations with Ornette Coleman on the album Song X and The Sign of Four with avant-garde guitar pioneer, Derek Bailey.

    To me, Pat is a bit like Marilyn Monroe, the talented actress who doesn’t quite get the full credit she deserves because you are blinded by her simple beauty.  In Pat’s case, it’s the relentless pretty he pulls out of his guitar.

    At this concert, Metheny performed on at least ten different axes by my count, the majority modified in intriguing ways via their amplification, number of strings and their gauges (to enable deep bass accompaniment), his alternative tunings and electronics.  The showstoppers were his 42-string guitar named Pikasso and his truly ingenious Orchestrion. The latter is a Rube Goldberg-like device through which his guitar triggers an ensemble of other acoustic and electric instruments, from various oddball percussion to a duo of xylophone-like devices and much more.

    Pat began his performance with a 15-minute suite on a traditionally-tuned nylon stringed guitar. Here he interweaved bits of songs like his popular “Phase Dance” and “This Is Not America.”  This was a followed with a set pulled from his duo album with bassist Charlie Haden, Beyond Missouri Sky.  This medley included “Waltz for Ruth,” “Two for the Road” and his take on Ennio Morricone’s theme from the Italian cinema classic, “Cinema Paradiso (Love Theme).”

    Metheny provided some shock-and-awe when he moved to one his modified 8-steel string acoustics for a super-percolated version of the strum-fest “Over on 4th Street” from his album One for the Boys.  Next he unleashed his inner Derek Bailey/Eugene Chadborne when conjured a cacophony by string-bashing and pick scraping – a bit of noise rock, all done on an acoustic. 

    Pat also brought out his 42-string Pikasso for a long improvisation. This instrument’s sympathetic strings enable Metheny to do harp-like glissandos and pluck melodies and anchor it all with very deep bass notes courtesy of Pikasso’s 90+ gauge strings. 

    He then moved to his uniquely strung baritone guitar for a medley of serene covers included on popular albums like 2011’s “What’s It All About.”  This guitar combines two uber-low bass strings with higher range and doubled third and fourth strings and mid-ranges on the traditionally higher tuned first and second strings.  Pat says he approaches playing and composing on this guitar as if he was a one-man string quartet.  This and most of Pat’s acoustic guitars are outfitted with microphones within the body to provide extra resonance and depth.  During this chapter of his master class on guitar, Metheny performed gorgeous versions of “Alfie,” “Rainy Days & Mondays,” Carly Simon’s “That’s The Way I Always Heard It Should Be” and the Bossa Nova staple, “The Girl From Ipanema.”

    Metheny then went to another modified guitar, a hollow body electric, for extended versions of several tunes including “Morning of the Carnival.” He first laid down deep bass and chordal loops for accompaniment before ripping into more bebop-inspired improvisations. 

    Pat’s hard-working guitar tech, Andre Cholmondeley, then ran about the stage to unveil the many parts of The Orchestrion, which Metheny used for a dazzling improvisational display. He would then go to his vintage 1984 synth guitar to solo over the well-tempered musical maelstrom he triggered with The Orchestrion.  He would end this outstanding showcase of virtuosity with luminous versions of “Seuno con Mexico” and the Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell classic, “Wichita Lineman.”

  • Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera Discusses His Half Century in Music & Intriguing Family History in Revolución to Roxy

    He is one of the most underrated guitarists and producers to come out of the ‘70s British music scene.  But now Phil Manzanera, best known as the long-running axe man for glam-cum-art rockers Roxy Music, is telling the story of his globetrotting life, in music and beyond, in a new memoir, Revolución to Roxy  (Wordzworth Publishing)

    Manzanera’s autobiography goes well beyond the usual, dumbed-down VH-1 “Behind the Music” rise-fall-rise template.  As he states in his introduction below, it’s a very personal exploration of his life – one made as much for music fans as it is for his far-flung family.

    “I’ve written this memoir for my English and Colombian family, dear friends and music fans, who have followed my musical twists and turns for over half a century. It spans from my 50’s childhood in Cuba, Hawaii and Venezuela, when everything seemed in the brightest technicolor, to grey but very cool ‘60’s London and the start of a music career that continues to enrich my life, some 50 years later. Roxy Music is an important part of the story and I will be forever thankful to the doors it opened for me to a global world of music and musical collaborations. But I hope you’ll find my family history every bit as fascinating as my music adventures, I’m proud to be related to a Colombian pirate, a spy and an Italian opera musician.”

    On the musical front, Phil is best known for his 50 years with Roxy Music, from its incredible 1972 debut disc to its final 50th Anniversary tour.  In the band’s early days, it was the two Bs – Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno – who sucked up most of the limelight.  But it was Manzanera’s searing, melodic and uniquely treated guitar riffage that brought the fire to Roxy’s post-modern mélange, along with the Bonham-like thump of the equally-underrated drummer Paul Thompson.

    Roxy Music “Ladytron” on BBC 1972

    But outside of Roxy, Manzanera has plied a productive career as a solo artist, producer and collaborator.  He has worked as a sideman, producer and songwriter partner with greats like Bob Dylan, Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt, John Cale, Split Enz and David Gilmour, both solo and in the final works of Pink Floyd.  He also became one of the most prominent producers of Rock En Espanol.

    The story of Phil’s much-traveled youth is one of the more engaging parts of the book.  Phillip Targett-Adams was born in England to a British father and Colombian mother whose surname he would take for his life on the stage.  His father’s work for a British airline company (and maybe as a spy?) would take young Phil to Venezuela, Hawaii and, most notably, Cuba where he witnessed the Fidel Castro-led revolution. He would become fascinated with the guitar while living in Cuba and make his first forays into playing while at board school in England, with the purchase of a Hofner Galaxie which he still has.  There, he would form a musical partnership with bassist Bill McCormick which would fully flower in the collaborations with Eno and with an album by his immediate pre-Roxy prog band, Quiet Sun.

    Manzanera’s memories of the early Roxy Music days will provide plenty of juice for glam music fans.  Phil would fail his first audition with the band and get his signature “look” – the bug-eye sunglasses – when the band’s stylist pulled them out of a bag of accessories during the first album photo shoot.  Wearing them while playing guitar would prove a challenge Phil would have to endure through the band’s early rise. 

    Roxy Music fans will enjoy his description of the band’s unique working style.  The detail-oriented control freak leader, Bryan Ferry, would come up with all the music first and, only after it was recorded, would he write lyrics.  After the basic tracks were laid down, Phil would take them home and work out different guitar parts on tape, which would then be assessed and the best recorded.  He also discussed the inevitable parting of Eno from the band, perhaps due to the fact that Brian had much more success with the ladies than Ferry?  We also hear how he purchased his signature guitar, the “Cardinal Red” 1964 Gibson Firebird VII.  And also how he broke his leg falling off the six-inch platform shoes that were required wardrobe in the glam rock days.

    As with all too many musician memoirs, Phil’s demonstrates how an artist’s fortunes can suffer from bad management.  According to Manzanera, Roxy only received 5% of the monies earned from early albums, a sum that would be divided equally amongst the six members.  It would be 12 years before he earned anything meaningful from his recording and touring with Roxy Music.

    Roxy Guitar Solo “Dream Home” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KODD2sjfH0

    There is great context about his collaborations with Brian Eno on his legendary early solo album, their work in the band 801, the Quiet Sun project and Phil’s acclaimed early solo albums, Diamond Head, Primitive Guitars and K-Scope. It’s a tune from the last album than would pay huge and unexpected dividends decades after its release.

    Phil would go on to be the director of Guitar Legends, a 5-day concert extravaganza featuring B.B. King, Brian May, Steve Vai, Joe Walsh, Jack Bruce, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan and many more, produced in tandem with Expo ‘92 in Seville, the birthplace of the guitar.  His Latin roots would make him the choice producer for many of the biggest Rock En Espanol acts including Heroes de Silencio and the later solo work of its leader, Enrique Bunbury.  Also discussed are the many productions created at Gallery Studio at his home in Sussex, St. Ann’s Court. These included latter-day Roxy Music albums like Avalon, their biggest commercial success.

    Manzanera also elaborates on his extensive role as a co-writer, guitarist and producer for the post-Roger Waters era Pink Floyd and the solo work of its guitarist, David Gilmore.  Phil would earn composer credit on tracks like Floyd’s “Learning to Fly” and producer credit on albums like their final work, The Endless River.  He would serve as producer of various David Gilmour solo albums from 2006 – 2015, including On An Island, Live in Gdansk and Rattle That Lock.   During Covid, he would remotely wax three albums with Tim Finn of The Split Enz.

    Roxy Music fans will get Phil’s take on the many fits and starts of their career, including three big breakups and reformations through their final world tour in 2022 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction.  He compares Roxy to one of his vintage cars, a Rolls Royce, saying – It’s beautiful to look at, but very hard to drive.”

    Manzanera’s biggest financial windfall would come not from rock but rap. That would arrive in 2011 when a beat-maker named 88 Keys would sample a guitar riff from a tune on his 1978 album K-Scope for use in a Jay-Z/Kayne West track, “No Church In the Wild” on their album, Watch the Throne. Manzanera was allocated one-third of resulting royalties and publishing revenue for the song, more than either of the rappers. The album went Gold in the UK and Platinum in the US, and the song was used in the film The Great Gatsby and various tv commercials. 

    In his book, Manzanera states that he earned more from “this brief sequence of maybe twenty notes” than he had in his 50 years with Roxy Music.

    Phil on the Jay-Z/Kayne Sample – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A61-wcM9sQo

    Bio: Sal Cataldi is a musician, writer and publicist living in the Hudson Valley and NYC. He is President of Cataldi PR and leader of the band Spaghetti Eastern Music and member of the ensembles Guitars A Go Go, Vapor Vespers and spaceheater.