The now-annual Blue Note Jazz Festival will sprinkle over 50 shows at venues across the city during its twenty day reign (June 10th - 30th).

"After the success of the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival, we decided to make this a yearly event as a way to continue expanding audiences, cultivate young talent and promote this wonderful music throughout New York City," Blue Note President Steven Bensusan said. "This year's performances go beyond jazz to include everything from flamenco, soul, and Latin to tap, blues and R&B, all with the common thread of improvisation. But the heart of the festival is and will always remain the type of jazz that we present night after night at the Blue Note club."

Highline Ballroom, B.B. King's, Central Park Summerstage, The Apollo, Henry Street Playhouse, Brooklyn Bowl and Sullivan Hall are all on board to host parts of the festival, which will feature everyone from Béla Fleck to Stephanie Mills, Bootsy Collins to Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and many, many other notables. Full list of shows, below...

Continue reading "Blue Note Jazz Festival announces 2012 lineup"

Canadian folk/alt-country band Blackie and the Rodeo Kings are set to release Kings and Queens today (6/14) in the US via Music/Dramatico/Universal. The album features a different female vocalist in each track, and the list is pretty impressive. It includes Lucinda Williams, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Exene Cervenka of X, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash and others. Full tracklist below.

The band plays The Living Room TONIGHT (6/14). Tickets are available. They play at 9 PM before Joseph Arthur plays one of his 10 shows at the same venue at 10 PM.

No special guests are announced, but we know at least one of the artists that appears on the album is probably in town. NYC resident Rosanne Cash, who spends much of the summer touring to promote her music and a book, has no dates scheduled before this Thursday (6/16) when she plays as part of Hal Wilner's 'Freedom Riders' show with Lou Reed, Tao Seeger, and others.

Lucinda Williams also has shows coming up too. She plays Wellmont Theatre on July 20 (tickets) and Beacon Theater on July 21 (tickets) with Amos Lee.

Emmylou Harris plays Summerstage on July 18 with the Levon Helm Band and Hayes Carll. Tickets are still on sale.

Exene Cervenka will be in NYC with X in September and October.

I don't know if Sara Watkins is on tour with the Decemberists (who play Prospect Park tonight), but she did play with them at the Beacon Theater in January.

All B&RK tour dates, album art, and tracklist below...

Continue reading "Blackie & the Rodeo Kings released a guest-filled album, playing a NYC show tonight (and other dates)"

Janelle Monae @ Terminal 5 (more by Matthew Eisman)

With the dates announced for Prince's Welcome 2 America Tour, one of the touring acts, Janelle Monáe, spoke to MTV News about hitting the road with the legendary musician. To sum it up, she's pretty stoked to tour with someone as iconic as Prince.

"Well, I'm excited. We're great friends," Monáe told MTV News on Monday at the Glamour Women of the Year event in New York City. "I'm honored that he had chosen me to be a part of the tour."

Monáe may be somewhat of a rookie compared to Prince, but long before stardom came her way, touring with him was on her to-do list.

"It's definitely one of the things that I wanted to do in my career, is tour with him," she shared. "And it just means a lot that he's a mentor to me and he loves the stuff that we're doing and he's going to help out every way he can to make the show phenomenal."

So, will fans see some collaborations between Monáe and Prince? "We may [collaborate], we may," she teased, adding that she doesn't have a favorite Prince song. "And when that happens, I'll be sure to let you guys know." [MTV News]

Though not much is really known about these shows, Prince did promise the following list of openers/collaborators when he first announced: Maceo Parker, Janelle Monae, Mint Condition, Esperanza Spalding, Cassandra Wilson, Lalah Hathaway and Sheila E. Cassandra Wilson released a statement that was slightly more specific than Janelle. She said that she, herself, Cassandra, "will be joining Prince on stage at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ on December 17th." Maybe Janelle will be at all the shows, or only one too? Prince did say the shows would be different each night.

Tickets for the recently added Prince show at MSG go on sale at noon.

And in slightly related news, being picked to play with Prince isn't the only thing Lalah Hathaway and Janelle Monàe have in common. They're both also, like Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, on the For Colored Girls soundtrack.

Janelle and Esperanza Spalding also have at least one prior connection. They, along with Patti Labelle and Alicia Keys, paid tribute to Prince on the 2010 BET Awards. Video of that and the full For Colored Girls soundtrack tracklisting below...

Continue reading "Janelle Monae paid tribute to Prince & happy to be playing with him (MSG tickets on sale)"

Prince on stage @ the Apollo, October 14, 2010 (Stephen Hill)

Today, Prince headed to Harlem to the iconic Apollo Theater to announce he would be serving as Master of Ceremonies for a new concert series called 'Welcome To America,' which will be kicking off this December.

Though he was mum on details like dates and tour stops, the 52 year-old singer/songwriter told the crowd that 'Welcome to America' will showcase some of his favorite artists including Maceo Parker, Janelle Monae, Mint Condition, Esperanza Spalding, Cassandra Wilson, Lalah Hathaway and Sheila E.

The Minnesota native also confirmed that he and the New Power Generation would also perform nightly alongside featured acts.

"If you've been to one of my shows, then you know what time it is," the usually media shy artist joked. "You need to come early and come often because every time we play it's always something new. I got a lot of hits. Bring friends, bring children, and bring foot spray because it's gonna be funky."

"I didn't want to talk too much but how many have seen 'Waiting for Superman,' " he asked before bringing out Harlem Children's Zone head Geoffrey Canada who also spoke briefly about how grateful he is Prince chose Harlem as the venue to announce the series.

Prince will play a special guitar for the duration of the concert series and then auction off the guitar for the benefit of Harlem Children's Zone. [Prince.org]

I don't know if "concert series" means he'll play one venue multiple times, or if this is just a regular tour with openers. Details are sparse, but I'm excited either way. Stay tuned for more as it's announced.