Rochester’s own Moses Rockwell and Wisconsin native Plain Old Mike initially began working together in 2021. Along the way the duo settled on the name, Regular Henry, and the rest as they say is history. Moreover, they each brought their extensive experiences — Moses having previously worked with billy woods, J-Live, Homeboy Sandman and Von Pea among others and Plain Old Mike with Armand Hammer, Defcee, & Curly Castro among others — to bring about Regular Henry Sessions. In light, this latest effort is a blend of neurotic, quirky, descriptive rap album with quirks about every day life that resembles an episode of Seinfeld.
Regular Henry Sessions
With a heavy De La Soul influence (and some old Eminem) the duo have now released their Hipnott Records debut project, Regular Henry Sessions, and a new video for “Raise Hell.”
“The record was an attempt to accomplish a couple of things. First, it’s an ode to each of our favorite De La Soul albums; Moses’ is De La Soul Is Dead, and mine is Buhloone Mind State (Miss You Dave!!!). Second, we wanted to make a fun record” Plain Old Mike offers. “Life can be so heavy, maybe if you put Regular Henry on, you can just laugh at stupid jokes for 40 minutes. That sounds ok to me.”
With this in mind, Regular Henry Sessions is a blend of the respective rappers favorite sector of hip hop. After all, the album combines old school snare and low baseline to create a laid back feel as the duo tee off with introspective quips about every day life. In essence, Moses Rockwell and Plain Old Mike come off as huge hip hop nerds which makes the album that much more fun as it emotes and every man vibe.
“I think what Mike and I were able to produce as a group makes total sense” Moses Rockwell states. “We’re each hung up on the same oddities in rap music and laugh at the same jokes. All of which shines through on the record.”
Regular Henry Sessions is now available at all DSP’s.
The Broadway Green Alliance and Times Square Alliance are proud to announce the return of the Broadway Celebrates Earth Day Concert on Saturday, April 20th from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. ET in the heart of Times Square.
Perkiomen Valley High School.
This unique star-studded concert will feature live performances from Broadway’s top talent and young performers from around the region and interviews with environmental thought leaders. The concert will be held on Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets and is one of the key events for the NYC Department of Transportation’s “Car-Free Earth Day.”
Broadway Celebrates Earth Day underscores the Broadway community’s commitment to raise awareness about the climate emergency and inspire steps towards a more sustainable future. The concert will be simultaneously live-streamed, offering audiences the opportunity to join this musical celebration of sustainability.
The Times Square Alliance is thrilled to partner once again with the Broadway Green Alliance and the Department of Transportation to present a free Broadway Earth Day concert in the heart of Times Square as part of Car-Free Earth Day. Broadway in Times Square has been a leader in providing more space to pedestrians and we look forward to joining all the other neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs as we celebrate our public spaces and the great programming we can bring to them.
Tom Harris, President of the Times Square Alliance
Founded in 1992, the Times Square Alliance works to improve and promote Times Square, cultivating the creativity, energy, and edge that have made the area an icon of entertainment, culture, and urban life for over a century. It keeps the neighborhood safe and clean, promotes local businesses, manages area improvements, and produces major annual events.
Broadway performers joining the event include host Ben Cameron (Broadway Sessions), Tony Award Winner Ruthie Ann Miles (Sweeney Todd), Tony Award Nominee Anika Larsen (Almost Famous), Michael Maliakel (Aladdin), Jelani Remy (Back to the Future), Alexandra Socha (Wicked), Nik Walker (Spamalot), and more to be announced.
Young performers taking the stage include students from Epic Players, Marymount Manhattan College, NYU Steinhardt, Perkiomen Valley High School, R.Evolución Latina, and Wolf Performing Arts Center. The event will also feature guest speakers from Headcount and Julie Tighe, Director of New York League of Conservation Voters. David Alpert serves as the director of the event and Rick Hip-Flores provides musical accompaniment.
Wolf Performing Arts Center.
The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) educates, motivates, and inspires the theatre community and its patrons to implement environmentally friendlier practices. Launched in 2008 as an ad hoc committee of The Broadway League it is a fiscal program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, bringing together all segments of the theatre community, including producers, Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres in New York and around the country.
“We are thrilled to collaborate again with the Times Square Alliance to harness the power of theatre to cultivate courage and community around the most pressing challenge of our time,” said Molly Braverman, Director of the Broadway Green Alliance.
For more information about Broadway Celebrates Earth Day, visit here.
Albany has been ranked as the best place to live in the state, according to a survey by the U.S. News & World Report. Some may also be shocked that New York City ranked fifth in the 2023-24 list of best places to live in the state, behind Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo, respectively. What we find less surprising is that all five cities have a large music presence.
The Palace Theatre in Albany is one of the Capital Region’s premier music venues. Credit: Palace Theatre.
Ranked as the #1 best place to live in New York State, the Capital Region is home to several music venues and recording studios. White Lake Music and Post, one of the recording studios on Albany’s roster, has produced, recorded, and mixed multiple Billboard Top 40 singles and provided audio services for clients including Netflix, Discovery, Lifetime, Universal, Disney, Nickelodeon, and HBO. Additionally, the Palace Theatre, which first opened its doors in 1931, has been graced by the presence of musical greats like the Rolling Stones and is home to the Albany Symphony Orchestra.
Central New York’s premier professional theatre, Syracuse Stage. Credit: Syracuse Stage
Ranking second on the list, Syracuse is home to many venues, among them Syracuse Stage, which is approaching its 50th anniversary this year. The premier professional theatre in Central New York, Stage is part of Syracuse University and is a member of The League of Resident Theatres (LORT), the largest professional theatre association in the country. America’s leading actors, directors, and designers work and/or have worked at Stage including Tony Award-winners Jason Alexander, Lillias White, Chuck Cooper, and Elizabeth Franz, Emmy recipients Jean Stapleton, Sam Waterston, John Cullum, James Whitmore, and Ben Gazzara.
Drive By Truckers at Water Street Music Hall – photo by Brian Ferguson
Rochester ranks as the third best place to live in New York State. Rochester is home to Water Street Music Hall, the city’s largest and oldest concert venue. Originally opened in 1976 under the name The Country Warehouse, the venue has brought hundreds of large artists including Phish, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Ashanti, David Byrne, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Iggy Pop, Jack Harlow, Sublime, St. Vincent, King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard, Maroon 5, Weezer, and many more.
Shea’s Theatre in Buffalo. Credit: Shea Performing Arts Center.
Coming in fourth is the Queen City of Buffalo, a major music and entertainment region of its own. Buffalo is home to GCR Audio, a recording studio that has worked with Buffalo natives the Goo Goo Dolls, who recorded their self-titled debut album as well as Jed, Hold Me Up, Superstar Car Wash, A Boy Named Goo, Jessie J, and Who You Are at the studio. The city is also home to the nearly 100-year-old Shea’s Theatre, which this year alone has held performances of classic musicals such as Les, Mamma Mia, and in previous years Beetlejuice, Dear Evan Hanson, A Christmas Story: The Musical, The Nutcracker, and Mean Girls: The Musical, among others.
Exterior of MSG – photo by Rob Tellerman
As we know, New York City is the music and entertainment capital of the Empire State, if not the country. With countless music venues such as the Beacon Theatre, Knockdown Center, Brooklyn Bowl and Madison Square Garden, plus dozens of recording studios such as Electric Lady, the Big Apple has earned its title as one of the best cities for music in the world. MSG has hosted more than thousands of sports events and concerts, including upcoming tours by Fall Out Boy and Nicki Minaj. Electric Lady Recording Studio has made music for several big names in the industry such as Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, as well as New York natives Christina Aguilera and Lana Del Rey.
The state of New York is home to several of the most prestigious and oldest music venues in the country, making it clear to see why the aforementioned cities rank in the top five best places to live in New York State.
Osiris Media is adding some more programming to its ever-growing array of musical podcasts. Today marks the debut of The Jam, a new show hosted by music industry and jamband veteran Jonathan Shank. The series will explore the evolution of music through personal conversations and sit-downs with artists, industry icons, and legendary bands.
Produced by critically acclaimed podcast network Osiris Media, The Jam debuts today with its first two episodes— one featuring legendary bassist and producer Randy Jackson and another with Relix editor-in-chief Dean Budnick.
Inspired by other podcasts like Promoter 101 and Questlove Supreme, as well as JEMP Radio, Shank conceived the basis of the show as an outlet for artists and industry stalwarts to tell untold stories, lift up musical heroes, and find the connective tissue between the jam scene and the mainstream. Having worked with everyone from Mickey Hart to Mickey Mouse, he lends an incredibly unique perspective to these free-flowing, unscripted conversations.
Episode One lays the groundwork for the season, and sees best-selling author and Relix editor-in-chief Dean Budnick diving into the evolution of the jam scene. Each episode of The Jam also features exclusive music offerings and will be accompanied by a slice of “toast and jam” pairing. The B-52’s join Particle from the Jammy’s 2002 for an explosive 14-minute “Love Shack” as part of the first episode, which Shank co-produced with Budnick who noted, “I’m psyched. I can’t wait to hear this podcast and what comes next.”
Episode Two features Randy Jackson talking with Shank about his Louisiana roots, epic collaborations, and connection to pop culture – including his appreciation for Phish and guitarist Trey Anasatasio. Additional guests this season will include Robby Krieger (The Doors), Billy Cobham (Miles Davis), Bill Payne (Little Feat), Dave Mason (Traffic), George Porter Jr (The Meters), rock photographer Henry Diltz, Cymande, and The Disco Biscuits.
It’s such an honor and privilege to be joined by so many amazing artists, friends, and fellow travelers. The Jam is a place for people to listen, learn, laugh, and lift up. I’m blown away by the response to the podcast so far and can’t wait for the music lovers around the world to come on this journey with us.”
~ Jonathan Shank
Listen to The Jam here. It can also be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever podcasts are available.
Béla Fleck reflects highly on his years-long collaboration with late pianist Chick Corea, sounding like a bashful student musician, still in awe of the jazz legend whose impact transformed him as a teenager in the ’70s. The duo’s album, Remembrance – out May 10 via Thirty Tigers – serves as a moving final document of the profound creative and personal rapport Fleck and Corea have showcased previously on 2007’s Latin Grammy-winning The Enchantment.
Released just over three years after Corea’s passing, Remembrance serves as an addendum to Corea’s legacy, highlighted by three previously unreleased Corea compositions as well as five short free improvisations, or impromptus, that Fleck has infused with written music.
Recorded both live in concert, over the duo’s final tour dates in 2019, Remembrance was crafted by trading sound files amid the Covid pandemic. Running a stylistic gamut, the album features Corea’s unreleased tunes “Enut Nital” (“Latin Tune,” spelled backwards), and “Continuance,” an older work that resurfaced in the duo’s setlist, as well as new Fleck compositions, including “The Otter Creek Incident” and “Juno,” a winsome tribute to his son, the channeling Thelonious Monk and Scarlatti, and challenging exercises such as “Small Potatoes,” which evokes Corea’s work in the jazz avant-garde.
When the 18-time Grammy Award-winning banjoist reflected on his time collaborating with Corea, Fleck said, “I just feel so lucky to have played with him in such an intimate way, and to have gotten to know him so well.”
The title track, a Corea composition “Remembrance,” is one of the last pieces of music Chick ever recorded. “It’s just one of those perfect Chick Corea tunes,” Fleck says. “It sounds to me like a New Orleans funeral march, even though it has a Latin component, like everything he did tended to.”
Corea’s death in 2021 devastated the jazz community, who saw the pianist as a constant international presence, a vibrant musician who never ceased touring and recording. “It was a deep shock,” says Fleck, who also released an inspired live project with Corea, Two, in 2015. “It was one of the special relationships in my life. He was just so kind to me, and so helpful, and I learned so much from him.”
“We pushed this duo to a new place before we ran out of time,” says Fleck, who produced Remembrance. “We have here another cool look at Chick Corea, at the different ways that he can play that we wouldn’t have had. There’s a lot of great Chick Corea out there, and this is different.”
“I know it sounds unlikely. But it really happened. Once upon a time, I played banjo in a duo with Chick Corea.”
“He found the good in everything. I’m just so glad to be a part of this — glad I could be with him, and glad there’s more to share.”
Chick Corea & Béla Fleck Remembrance track listing
1. The Otter Creek Incident (Béla Fleck)
2. impromptu III: march hare
3. Enut Nital (Chick Corea)
4. impromptu II: mock turtle
5. Bemsha Swing (Thelonious Monk, Denzil Best)
6. Lucky Bounce
7. impromptu I: cheshire
8. Remembrance (Chick Corea)
9. Juno (Béla Fleck)
10. Scarlatti Sonatas (Domenico Scarlatti, arr.. By Corea, Fleck)
11. impromptu V: jabberwocky
12. Small Potatoes
13. Continuance (Chick Corea)
14. impromptu IV: gentleman fish
“With Béla, our duet has become so simpatico, and comfortable–comfortable spiritually. And not meaning that we’re not adventuring musically, but I know that whatever we’re going to do is going to be musical.”
Chick Corea, speaking about Bela Fleck, in 2015
Béla Fleck Tour Dates
April 3 Buffalo, NY Kleinhans Music Hall ^
April 4 Oakville, Ontario Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts ^
April 5 Kingston, Ontario Kingston Grand Theatre ^
April 6 Stowe, VT Spruce Peak PAC ^
April 9 Ottawa, Ontario Centrepointe ^
April 10 St. Catharines, Ontario Partridge Hall ^
April 12 State College, PA The State Theatre ^
April 13 Goshen, IN Goshen College ^
April 14 Lexington, KY Lexington Opera House ^
April 24 Skokie, IL North Shore PAC *
April 25 Kohler, WI Kohler Memorial Theatre *
April 26 Royal Oak, MI Royal Oak Music Theatre *
April 27 Wilkesboro, NC MerleFest *
April 28 New Orleans, LA New Orleans Jazz Festival *
May 4 New York, NY Carnegie Hall (Béla Fleck: Rhythm, Raga & Rhapsody)
June 13 Groton, MA Groton Hill Music Center #
June 14 Kingston, NY Ulster PAC #
June 15 Hartford, CT The Bushnell #
June 16 Kennett Square, PA Longwood Gardens #
June 18 Boulder, CO Chautauqua Amphitheater #
June 20 Telluride, CO Telluride Bluegrass Festival (house band)
June 21 Telluride, CO Telluride Bluegrass Festival #
Arts organization Performance Space New York has announced Taja Cheek as their newest Artistic Director. Best known for her experimental, against-the-grain pop music under the name L’Rain, Cheek will expand the organization’s mission with the rare insight of her experiences of experimental performance.
Cheek joins Senior Director Pati Hertling and Associate Director Ana Beatriz Sepúlveda-Echegaray to form a three-person leadership team.
Performance Space New York is based in the East Village of Manhattan and aims to educate, curate and produce various projects with an artist-and-community-first approach. Taja Cheek will satisfy and expand this vision as her life and career in the arts have yet to adhere to disciplinary boundaries or creative norms. This is a perfect reflection of what Performance Space New York stands for.
Okwui Okpokwasili Performance Space New York Spring Gala
Over the last 40-plus years Performance Space has been propelling cultural, theoretical, and political discourse forward. Progress and world-building connect the interdisciplinary works presented here. Works that have dissolved the borders of performance art, dance, theater, music, visual art, poetry and prose, ritual, night life, food, film, and technology, shattering artistic and social norms alike.
“Taja has in her work transgressed disciplines and institutional preconceptions; she’s a community maker and a renegade, and her work feels so connected to what we’ve been doing at Performance Space. With our new leadership structure, we’re continuing in the direction of a practice where new work and ideas are generated through internal collaboration—rather than us just commissioning artists who are being handed from one institution to another.”
Senior Director Pati Hertling.
For more information on upcoming Performance Space NY events, click here.
The Hudson-based music organization Basilica Hudson have received a statewide recognition from the Preservation League of NYS with the Award reception to be held on March 14 at the Rainbow Room in NYC.
Founded in 2010 by director Tony Stone and performer Melissa Auf der Maur, Basilica Hudson is located on the Hudson River in Hudson, New York, in a renovated 1880s industrial facility powered by solar energy. Over 20,000 people attend the organization’s genre-pushing music festivals, sizable marketplace events, frequent cinema screenings, artist-in-residence program, public installations, and other community activities each season. Most of its offerings are sliding scale or free.
Through its programs, Basilica Hudson strives to create experiences that are as grit, tough, and beautiful as its surroundings while also promoting the growth, production, and presentation of independent arts and culture. It is inspired by the cultural tradition and environmental advocacy of the area, as well as the long past of the City of Hudson, as well as the region’s artistic legacy and environmental advocacy.
One of the first co-founders, Melissa Auf der Maur, born and raised in Canada, is a musician, photographer, curator, and producer. Her most well-known role was bassist for two influential bands from the 1990s: The Smashing Pumpkins and Hole. Her shots from both bands have been featured in publications and shows including National Geographic, Spin Magazine, Sotheby’s NYC, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The other co-founder, Tony Stone-based in Lower Manhattan, is a filmmaker and builder. His latest film, Ted K which was distributed by Neon, carries on his exploration of the rugged and dark soul of America, and has been met with high acclaim.
The 2024 Pillars of New York also include Peggy King Jorde, Principal of King Jorde Culturals, Richard J. Moylan, the President of The Green-Wood Cemetery, and of course Melissa Auf der Maur & Tony Stone, the co-founders of Basilica Hudson and River House Project.
Musician Paul Shaffer is emceeing a concert in honor of Stephen Schwartz’ induction into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame (LIMEHOF). Stephen Schwartz is best known for being the lyricist and composer of “Wicked,” “Godspell,” and “Pippin.”
The ceremony takes place March 23 at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame headquarters in Stony Brook. Stephen Schwartz has written and composed various musical works for both Broadway plays and Hollywood films. Schwartz is a native of Long Island and has grown up in both NYC and Long Island.
The ceremony will be followed by an hour-and-a-half concert featuring performances from Schartz’s musicals. The music concert to follow the induction will be emceed by musician Paul Shaffer, with whom he worked early in his career. Schwartz and Shaffer will perform alongside musicians from the musical “Godspell” that include Rick Shutter, Doug Quinn and Steve Manes.
“Long Island has proven to be especially fertile ground for producing major talents in the fields of music and entertainment. The list of names is long and impressive. It’s a great honor for me to be recognized as being a part of that amazing tradition.”
Stephen Schwartz
Stephen’s acclaimed career spanned over 50 years, and he consistently composed works that lasted in the hearts of many. Paul Shaffer will be alongside Schwartz as the induction ceremony ensues. What better way to honor the Long Island talent than induction into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.
Several Broadway performers will be in attendance to honor Stephen as well. Teal Wicks, Carrie St. Louise, Dale Soules, Alysia Velez, Sam Simahk and DeMarius Copes are featured to honor Schwartz.
Tickets for the induction and concert event are available for sale on LIMEHOF’s website, limusichalloffame.org. Come see Stephen Schwartz get honored.
Acclaimed singer-songwriter David Shaw of The Revivalists has shared his powerful new single, “Alabama,” serving as his deep response to the ongoing battle against women’s reproductive rights.
Recorded at the historic FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL, “Alabama” also speaks about last week’s Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos created during IVF fertility treatments should be considered children. Shaw’s frustration and the recent birth of his daughter inspired his emotional return to the feelings originally captured while recording in Muscle Shoals.
“Music has always been, and always will be at its core a way for people to come together over a common love and bond,” says Shaw. “It’s the great communicator. It reaches the heart of the unreachable and the voice of the unspeakable. It has the distinct ability to pierce the heart of the hardened. Alabama was written to be a beacon of awareness for what’s going on in the South and our beloved country.
Known far and wide as frontman for The Revivalists, David Shaw made an extraordinary solo debut with 2021’s David Shaw, exemplifying his hard-working and courageous nature. Produced by GRAMMY Award-winner Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, Solange), the album saw the singer, songwriter, musician, and producer following the direction of his internal compass, with rock ‘n’ roll impulses and honesty. Listening solely to his creative impulses, Shaw constructed a studio in his backyard where the songs took shape before recording at The Parlor Recording Studio in New Orleans, LA. Accompanying Shaw on the album is an ensemble of talented musicians and friends including Neal Francis (vocals/guitar), PJ Howard (drums), Mike Starr (bass), and Chris Gelbuda (guitar).
In addition to The Revivalists’ five studio albums – which have earned close to 800M worldwide streams and include the RIAA Platinum-certified #1 hit, “Wish I Knew You” – Shaw spearheaded the creation of the band’s RevCauses, a philanthropic umbrella fund supporting organizations dedicated to investing in our communities, health, and environment. By donating a portion of ticket sales, through fan donations, and a variety of other fundraising efforts, the band assisted multiple national and local organizations in building a better future. Current organizations benefitting include After School Matters, Mercy Ships, Musically Fed, Trans Lifeline, ACLU of Louisiana, Healing Minds NOLA, New Orleans Family Justice Alliance, and Restore The Mississippi River Delta.
I adore living in the south. It’s my home. There’s a warmth here to the people and places we inhabit. But sometimes it can feel like you’re swinging upstream without a paddle with an 800-pound gorilla on your back. It’s hard and it hurts to realize where we are and how far we have to go to reach some sort of common ground and understanding. We’re divided in so many ways but bodily autonomy and reproductive rights for women shouldn’t be one of them. We’ve got to stand up and come together on this. I’m hoping with some action we can find a way forward together. I love you all.
David Shaw
The powerful and emotional single “Alabama” is out now.
The Copland House has purchased a school campus on the New York-Connecticut border, heralding a transformational programmatic and institutional expansion.
The expansion will be a home to a vibrant, multidisciplinary creative community centering the arts in ongoing public conversation, the property, known as Bluestone Farm. It will stand as a vital meeting place, both live and virtual, where artists, music lovers, cultural adventurers, and newcomers of all ages, backgrounds, and identities are welcomed into an exhilarating world of continuous exploration, discovery, and innovation.
The Copland House was formed by Aaron Copland who was one of the most celebrated and profoundly influential musical figures in American history. The composer lived and spent most of his time on a rocky hill atop three acres of woodland in the lower Hudson River Valley hamlet of Cortlandt Manor, less than one hour north of New York City. After his death in 1990, a coalition of local townspeople launched a genuine grassroots movement to preserve and restore this historic residence as the living, enduring embodiment of his seminal artistic and personal legacies and lifelong advocacy of American composers.
The Copland House offers public programs throughout the country, the infamous house also provides recordings, broadcasts, webcasts, film screenings, visual exhibitions, and an annual performance series at its vast new satellite venue at the historic Merestead estate in nearby Mount Kisco.
In 2020, its music ensemble, Music from Copland House was featured on Tiny Desk (Home) concert where they performed from home, and not so tiny writing desk, of Aaron Copland, one of America’s beloved composers. The $3-million, 24-acre complex nestled in the woods in Brewster expansion will allow the Copland House to substantially extend its artistic support, audience reach, public presentations, educational engagement, and programs that uniquely embrace and champion the entire artistic process.Â
The recently announced institutional extension will be an excellent addition to Rock Hill, Copland’s cherished, long-term home in neighboring Westchester County, which continues to play an important role. Even though a small private property cannot accommodate the demands of a nationally recognized arts organization, Rock Hill will always be Copland House’s indispensable institutional and inspirational home. Rock Hill, a National Historic Landmark and exceptional cultural, educational, and civic asset, embodies Copland’s principles and goals and links him to a location and era, even though his influence well surpasses both.
This transaction represents a big milestone for the Town of Southeast. Copland House plans on working with the Town to bring a wide spectrum of musical and cultural programs to the community. This will enhance the quality of life for all town residents in Southeast and the surrounding area.
Thomas LaPerch of Houlihan Lawrence Commercial, the dealâs lead selling broker
To learn or schedule visiting tours, fans can visit here.
