by Andrew Frisicano

The annual NYC Winter Jazz Fest starts tonight (Friday, 1/7) and continues Saturday with shows that go late into both nights at a handful of Greenwich Village venues. Like last year's fest - a huge success that spawned a similar festival in the summer - one pass gets you into any of the venues. All are in close proximity, and show hopping is encouraged. You'll also be rewarded for staying put: Take, for example, Saturday's lineup at LPR, which features two guitar slingers, Charlie Hunter and Nels Cline (as Stained Radiance with painter Norton Wisdom), in consecutive sets. For the number of acts (46 on Saturday night alone) at the price ($25 for one day, $35 for both), the festival is pretty can't lose.

Jazz resource and show promoter Search and Restore has two showcases as part of the fest. They'll be celebrating the fact that their Kickstarter campaign met its $75,000 (!) goal. As a result they'll be launching an ambitious project to film four jazz shows a week over the next year (and post the results online as part of an expanded site). Congrats!

Also this weekend are a set of shows at Cornelia St. Cafe that are also part of the APAP conference (the ostensible reason for the Winter Jazz Fest, the show at City Winery tonight, the show at 92YTribeca tonight, GlobalFEST and others). Your Jazz Fest passes won't work there, but the lineups include Theo Bleckmann/Gary Versace/John Hollenbeck, Jon Irabagon & Mike Pride and Mario Pavone's Totem Quartet.

Saxist Tim Berne, who played Cornelia St. Thursday night with his band Los Totopos, will be at the Stone twice on Saturday. The second set is listed as "Tim Berne Duo," with keyboarist Matt Mitchell, but he mentioned that the whole band (Ches Smith on drums and Oscar Noriega on woodwinds) would be appearing. Mitchell will be at the venue on Sunday night too, to play with John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet (who blew away a packed Bitter End at Jazz Fest 2010).

Check out the full Winter Jazz schedule below...

Continue reading "Winter Jazz Fest this weekend, shows @ Cornelia St. Cafe & other APAP events"

DOWNLOAD: Very Be Careful - La Furgoneta (MP3)

Oberhofer

In addition to the 1/9 date at Living Room as part of KidRockers and the pair of dates with The Vaccines on 1/20 at Bowery Ballroom (tickets) and 1/22 at Glasslands (tickets), Oberhofer have another more imminent date to contend with. On January 7th he'll/they'll team up with Rioux, Great Smokey and Coastal Toast to play Coco66 in Brooklyn. The Rooftop Shout Records (which two of the bands on the bill are associated with) showcase kicks off at 9PM.

All of these dates precede their dates with Tapes n Tapes, who are scheduled to play Music Hall of Williamsburg on 2/4 (tickets). So far, Oberhofer is not part of that MHOW bill, but neither is anyone else.

In related noteworthy-shows-happening-at-the-same-venue-this-week news, Coco66 will house DJ/Rupture the next night, January 8th, a one-off gig for the DJ who can be found on WFMU on Mondays. Very Be Careful are also on the lineup of the Brooklyn show.

Very Be Careful

The Coco66/Rupture gig is also one of three shows that Los Angeles's 'seminal vallenato band' Very Be Careful is playing in NYC this week. It should be a party...

"As you're cruising into the second or third hour of a typical Very Be Careful show -- tequila scorching your tongue, perspiration drenching your torso, accordions and cowbells rattling your ear drums -- it may not occur to you that you're actually listening to some pretty savvy and skilled musicians.

This isn't something that band founders Arturo Guzman, a bassist, and Ricardo, his vocalist-accordionist brother, necessarily want to publicize. Such awareness might compromise the Eastside quintet's image as an easygoing, good-times bar band, dispensers of irrepressible dance grooves for midnight mobs of well-lubricated party animals." [LA Times]

You can also catch Very Be Careful at Bowery Poetry Club on Friday, January 7th, and at 92YTribeca that same night. The 92YTribeca show is the Here Comes Trouble APAP Showcase...

"Trouble Worldwide and Barbès Records present an APAP showcase with Non Stop Bhangra, Very Be Careful, Razia, International Body Music, Sanda Weigl and a Surprise Special Guest.

Here comes trouble, indeed. Forward-thinking San Francisco agency Trouble Worldwide and the worldly New York label Barbès Records have teamed up for the third annual Here Comes Trouble showcase to present six groups that leap borders and continents with a single musical bound at 92YTribeca. A Bhangra dance party closes the night. APAP badgeholders welcome!"

Here Come Trouble's latest album, Escape Room, was released by Barbès Records in 2010. An MP3 from that release is above. And in case you were wondering, Barbès Records is an off-shoot of Barbès the club (which Very Be Care is not playing while they are here).

DJ/Rupture's other upcoming gigs include a keynote speech at World's Fair Use Day in DC, and a pair of dates with The Ex whose March tour also includes a NYC show with Liturgy.

All tour dates and some videos, below...

Continue reading "Oberhofer, DJ/Rupture & Very Be Careful are playing shows"