This was a “Farewell & good luck” performance for Gabriel José Bolaños Chamorro before he moved to the west coast for grad school. The event took place in New Haven’s  Popeye’s Garage at Goffe street.

The set started with Chris Point playing an Electronic noise piece of his followed by a piece by Adam Matlock on Accordion,Theremin & clarinet.

Then Black Thorn Cataclysm, Adam Matlock Nathan Bontrager & Gabriel José Bolaños Chamorro, took the stage playing a number of pieces using guitars, drums and keyboards. Their improvisational music ranged from heavy metal to post rock and flamenco.

The set was concluded with Chris Point & Adam Matlock playing one piece of electronic noise.

The following playlist shows all the pieces by the order they were played:

Evan Ziporyn, a founding member of the famous Bang On A Can, played an outstanding set for Solo Clarinet & Bass Clarinet last Sunday at the Noguchi Museum in New York. The performance took place at the sculpture garden and included original pieces as well as pieces by Steve Reich and David Lang. Evan Ziporyn’s performance is part of the ongoing collaboration between the museum and Bang On A Can to bring “Music In The Garden” series to the public.

The last performance will take place on September 12th 2010 with Tristan Perich.

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Bang On A Can Marathon took place in The World Financial Center this year with music flowing non-stop for more than 12 hours defying all borders between genres and really making it hard for music lovers to take a break.  Every time a new group emerged on the stage, we got swept away and taken by their ingenuity and brilliance.

The photos show the following performers in the event. I only stayed for 10 hours and took a few walks to stretch my legs!

Slagwerk Den Haag
JACK Quartet
Talea Ensemble
Moritz Eggert
Vernon Reid, Mazz Swift, and Leon Gruenbaum
Mira Calix
Tim Brady

And of course:Bang on a Can All-Stars

Can’t wait for the next Big Bang…On A Can!

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The Twilight Sad was accompanying Mono on their tour & opening for the shows!

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Mono is a Japanese instrumental Rock quartet formed in 1999. Their current lineup includes:

Takaakira Goto – lead guitar
Yoda – rhythm guitar
Tamaki Kunishi – bass guitar, guitar, piano, glockenspiel
Yasunori Takada – drum kit, synthesizer, glockenspiel

The photos were taken in Daniel Street Club in Milford, CT last Saturday where the band played songs from their latest release  “Hymn To The Immortal Wind”

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It is worth mentioning that the band performed one outstanding performance last year(their 10 anniversary) with The Wordless Music Orchestra at the Society for Ethical Culture Hall in New York City. Here is a youtube video from that day:

A night with one of the most aspiring Cello Rock bands . They played 11 of their original tracks and covers to an enthusiastic audience at Baruch’s Engelman Recital Hall on Friday May 7th 2010.

The following playlist has all the pieces in the order they were played.

Carl Testa Trio did such a stellar job Saturday at Never Ending Books in New Haven that the crowd forgot about the wind and rain blowing outside and immersed in an hour of music indulgence as the trio played a set of 5 pieces of their original compositions.

Cark Testa trio is:
Carl Testa, String Bass
Mike McGinnis, Clarinet
Aaron Siegel, Percussion

The set played included the following pieces:

Intent
Improvisation
Trio (2009)
17 (melodic) and Improvisation(2 clips)
Ballad

All six pieces can be watched in the same order they were played on the following YouTube playlist:

Yesterday was an interesting day in New England. It was dark and dreary, the sky was weeping continuously like she was crying and the overall mood was “Tell me why I moved here one more time!”.

However, things changed towards the evening when I “swam” my way to New Haven to a place called Never Ending Books that features local musicians the second Saturday every month in what is known as The Uncertainty Music Series.

Yesterday saw Boston based Kevin Frenette trio featuring

James Rohr on fender rhodes,
John McLellan on drums
and of course Kevin Frenette on guitar.

The trio played five pieces of their own improvisational Jazz work for the Uncertainty audience, all of which appear on the following YouTube playlist in the order they were played:

A tip of the hat goes to Carl Testa for his outstanding contribution to the local music scene. His trio will appear on the next blog post as they played their own set of music.

My Cello teacher’s trio,Broadcloth, has made it to “The Stone” described by many as “ A not for profit space for the Experimental and Avant-Garde”. Its location in Alphabet city talks a ton about its vitality and dedication to up and new musicians.

Broadcloth is:

Anne Rhodes on Voice,
Nathan Bontrager on Cello and
Adam Matlock on Accordion/Recorders

The trio played a set of 5 pieces of their free improv music to the Big Apple crowd. They were accompanied towards the end by the remarkable sound of the Stone’s heater!

1- Free Improv piece

2- Windows and Walls

3- Introductus

4-In Stitches

5- Free Improv finale

The following is a playlist that has all the pieces in order instead of navigating through individual clips:

On January 30th 2010, Broadcloth trio played two sets of their original compositions with two aspiring guests. Broadcloth is a free improv Chamber group that includes:

Anne Rhodes, Vocal
Nathan Bontrager, Cello
Adam Matlock, Accordion and Recorders(he also provided some voices)

The guests were

Gabriel Bolaños Chamorro, electronic spectral music composition and guitar
Steve Zieminski, percussion and drums

The trio played the following pieces(in the order they were played):

“Intro piece” composed by Nathan Bontrager

“Windows In Walls” composed by Adam Matlock

“In Stitches” composed by Anne Rhodes and inspired by an embroidery she had made

”State Crunch Singularity” composed by Gabriel Bolaños Chamorro and includes electronic renderings of previously played tracks with acoustic performance

“Free improv”

After the break, Gabriel and Steve joined the trio in playing the following pieces:

“Intro Piece II” revised with the addition of Gabriel on the guitar

The quintet then played a circular series of duets where two performers would play simultaneously with one of them leading while the other musician provides the atmosphere and transfer the rhythm to the next musician. This was really outstanding. Gabriel played the guitar and Steve the percussions.

“In Stitches II” was revisited with Steve adding the percussions

The quintet finally finished the performance with an improv(improvisation) finale.

You may find all the video clips captured during the performance on YouTube (links are provided on the names of the individual pieces above). Alternatively, I created a playlist that shows the pieces one at a time in the same order they were played, here it goes:

Still photos of the performance follow:

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