What a pleasure listening to cuatro music from Puerto Rico courtesy of the Nieves family this past weekend at Madison’s oldest park festival. The cuatro is a 10-stringed instrument belonging to the guitar family, and is the national instrument of Puerto Rico. Christian Nieves is today probably the most well known of the cuatristas and has been active in the revival and resurgence of tradition-inspired music akin to a country orchestra, with newer flavors of jazz and pop infused in. The brother and sister team were accompanied by William Gracia (conga), Josue Figueroa Ferrer (drums), Joy Emmanuel Santiago (bass), and Manolo Hernandez (chorus, percussion). The band does sure know how to get a crowd dancing on their feet, with Christian tearing it up on the strings… here are some pictures from the show. Enjoy!
This year, Fred and I finally made it down to the Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park in Chicago.We were there on Saturday and Sunday, and of course the headliners those nights – LCD Soundsystem and Pavement – were outstanding as expected.
But as usual at these fests, it’s the acts that surprise you that really provide the biggest thrill. One of those bands this year for me was Here We Go Magic. I’ve been their fan since the first time I heard the track Fangela. Their set in Chicago was energetic and sounded great; it was one of my favorite sets of the weekend.
Once again, HWGM has released a video in which they acoustically perform one of their songs. In this case, its Casual from their most recent release “Pigeons.”
Sunday at Yahara park had more great music in store for folks who braved the afternoon showers with two great international acts taking the stage – Great Lake Swimmers (Toronto, Canada) followed by Tony Allen and his Afro Beat Orchestra (Nigeria/France/Germany/USA). I had caught the Great Lake Swimmers at The High Noon Saloon the last time they were in town, and had enjoyed the soft, hushed melodic folk songs the band had performed. For the festival, the band played a more upbeat selection of songs to get the crowd dancing on their feet, rain notwithstanding.
The highlight of the festival for me was to see the father of Afrobeat, Tony Allen and his Orchestra perform at such an accessible and intimate festival setting. Described by Brian Eno as “perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived” and Fela Kuti once stated “without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat”, the 70 year old Tony Allen is going strong as ever. The energy, spunk and dynamism was evident throughout the extended 2 hour set that merged and weaved through high life, afrobeat, reggae and more showcasing genres and styles of music indelibly influenced by the man’s touch. Accompanying Tony was an eight person Afrobeat Orchestra included Kologbo, the tenor guitarist on 37 Fela albums and an original member of the Africa 70, and did the band play! I am still smiling from the great show last week… some pictures from the show…
The festival season here on the east side of Madison got off to a wonderful start last weekend with the Yahara Waterfront festival. The rain gods held off for the most part with Saturday bright and sunny, perfect weather to hear music from the likes of Yid Vicious (klezmer folk music), The Handphibians (drums and percussion ensemble), Chilean cumbia stars Chico Trujillo and wrapping up the evening, Grupo Fantasma (from Austin, TX) with some more of the wonderful south-of-the-border music! Sunday at the festival was overcast but that did not dampen the spirits of the bands and festival goers. We’ll have the report and pictures up soon, meanwhile here’s Saturday in pictures…
This was the 10th Anniversary edition of Movement, Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival and the usual motley crew from Madison and Milwaukee had expanded this year to more than a dozen car- and van-pooling techno-heads headed east to the Motor City. With gear packed into our van Tetris-style, we hit the road a day earlier to catch some of the pre-festival parties and settle in for the big first day of Movement. Rolling into town past midnight we started off the weekend party catching the latter halves of sets by Speedy J, Matthew Dear, and Seth Troxler performing Friday night and into Saturday morning at the official YEL3 party at St. Andrew’s Hall. And then for some more excellent techno and pounding beats by Jay Denham (Black Nation Recordings, Kalamazoo, MI) and HD Substance (from Madrid, Spain) at The Works down in the 1800 block of desolate Michigan Ave.
Batteries charged with a heady mix of music by artists both old and newly discovered, and a quick rest at the wonderful Atheneum Hotel (our second time staying there, walking distance to Hart Plaza and highly recommended!), a splinter group headed off on foot to find Detroit’s Eastern Market. Read more…
Once again, our crew migrated to Detroit to enjoy one of the best music festivals in the country: Movement (aka the Detroit Electronic Music Festival). Held annually over the Memorial Day weekend in the city where techno music was founded, this was its 10th anniversary, and techno fans from around the world came to Detroit to celebrate it.
Detroit’s Hart Plaza is a beautiful venue for this event, and Paxahau (the producers) always provide fantastic sound systems. Five stages in close proximity – but with really good sound separation - allow you to easily check what’s happening and find what moves you the most. And if you were prudent enough to buy early-bird tickets, it cost only $40 for three days and 100 artists. There is no better deal anywhere. Read more…
What a pleasure listening to cuatro music from Puerto Rico courtesy of the Nieves family this past weekend at Madison’s oldest park festival. The cuatro is a 10-stringed instrument belonging to the guitar family, and is the national instrument of Puerto Rico. Christian Nieves is today probably the most well known of the cuatristas and has been active in the revival and resurgence of tradition-inspired music akin to a country orchestra, with newer flavors of jazz and pop infused in. The brother and sister team were accompanied by William Gracia (conga), Josue Figueroa Ferrer (drums), Joy Emmanuel Santiago (bass), and Manolo Hernandez (chorus, percussion). The band does sure know how to get a crowd dancing on their feet, with Christian tearing it up on the strings… here are some pictures from the show. Enjoy!
Sunday at Yahara park had more great music in store for folks who braved the afternoon showers with two great international acts taking the stage – Great Lake Swimmers (Toronto, Canada) followed by Tony Allen and his Afro Beat Orchestra (Nigeria/France/Germany/USA). I had caught the Great Lake Swimmers at The High Noon Saloon the last time they were in town, and had enjoyed the soft, hushed melodic folk songs the band had performed. For the festival, the band played a more upbeat selection of songs to get the crowd dancing on their feet, rain notwithstanding.
The festival season here on the east side of Madison got off to a wonderful start last weekend with the Yahara Waterfront festival. The rain gods held off for the most part with Saturday bright and sunny, perfect weather to hear music from the likes of Yid Vicious (klezmer folk music), The Handphibians (drums and percussion ensemble), Chilean cumbia stars Chico Trujillo and wrapping up the evening, Grupo Fantasma (from Austin, TX) with some more of the wonderful south-of-the-border music! Sunday at the festival was overcast but that did not dampen the spirits of the bands and festival goers. We’ll have the report and pictures up soon, meanwhile here’s Saturday in pictures…
