The White Light Festival is an annual exploration of music's power to illuminate our interior lives. From the powerful opening chords of Beethoven's Missa solemnis to an exploration of light itself by Jennifer Tipton, to a meditation by Toni Morrison, Peter Sellars, and Rokia Traoré on the darkness of the soul that leads to the transcendence of love, the White Light Festival offers experiences of passionate beauty and occasions of profound insight into the many dimensions of our individual selves and the collective shared forces of the human condition. The Festival closes in a fitting fashion with the bonding power of spiritual ecstasy as Ensemble Sarband, joined by whirling dervishes from the Muslim Mevlevi tradition, draws startling connections between J.S. Bach's Passions and the Sufi mystics...

The White Light Festival hopes to provide moments to pause and explore the spaciousness and breath within.

Entering into its second year, the White Light Festival takes place from 10/20 - 11/19 care of Lincoln Center at ten venues around the city (including Lincoln Center). The events take place almost daily and feature everything from art installations to Toni Morrison to the London Symphony Orchestra to scores for silent film. Malian artist Bassekou Kouyate kicks off the festival on 10/20 at David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center with a FREE event.

One of the events is a live score to Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc, which will be given a live score by Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Will Gregory (Goldfrapp) at Alice Tully Hall in the Starr Theater on 10/29. Tickets are on sale.

Check out the fest's site for the full schedule.

Adrian Utley of Portishead, in NYC to play Hammerstein Ballroom, Fallon & ATP, stopped by Criterion this week to discuss some of his favorite films and ended up discussing Joan of Arc and the genesis of his film scoring project with Gregory. Video of that below....

Continue reading "Lincoln Center's White Light Festival returns -- 2011 schedule includes live movie score by Adrian Utley & Will Gregory"

by Andrew Frisicano

Tinariwen @ (Le) Poisson Rouge in April (more by Tim Griffin)

Malian band Tinariwen recently won the 2009 Uncut Music Award for best album (given by Uncut Mag) for their record Imidiwan:Companions. The 11 member jury, which included Billy Bragg and Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold, voted the album the "most inspiring and rewarding" of the past 12 months over the seven other entries including Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors. For a better idea of the sizable competition, the shortlist of nominees is below.

Tinariwen, who made a good impression at Coachella and played NYC's LPR both in April, will be coming to North American this February. The trip includes a pair of NYC shows: they return to Highline Ballroom on February 18th and then play a rare Brooklyn show (their first?) at The Bell House on February 19th. Ticket info TBA.

Also coming to the Highline in 2010 will be Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traore for a show on Saturday, April 17th, as part of the World Music Institute Presents: Songs of Mali series. Tickets are on sale. World Music Institute will also bring Nigarian juju legend King Sunny Ade to the Highline Ballroom on April 9th. Tickets are on sale.

For Rokia, the Highline show is somewhat of a makeup show after her Summer 2009 tour was cancelled.

On Friday, March 26th another Music of Mali show will happen with Bassekou Kouyate (who play the ngoni, a West African lute) at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. That'll be the New York debut of his band and Mali's "first ngoni quartet," Ngoni ba. Tickets are on sale now.

Videos of all four with the Uncut shortlist and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Tinariwen win an award, announce tour dates ++ upcoming King Sunny Ade, Rokia Traore & Bassekou Kouyate shows too"

Rokia Traoré @ LPR in February (more by Lori Baily)

Allen Toussaint @ New Orleans Jazz Fest 2009 (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)


The 15th-annual BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival will take place every Thursday at noon from June 4th to August 6th at Brooklyn's MetroTech Commoms. The previously-announced festival kicks off today (June 4th) with funk band Lakeside (of "Fantastic Voyage" fame).

One festival highlight -- previously listed as "A New Orleans R&B legend, to be announced," -- will be Allen Toussaint on Thursday, June 11th. Toussaint recently played six nights at the Village Vanguard.

Rokia Traoré, pictured above, closes the fest on August 6th.

Full schedule and directions to the venue, which is on corner of Flatbush and Myrtle Avenues, below...

Continue reading "BAM R&B Festival at MetroTech kicks off (shows Thursday at noon) - now w/ Allen Toussaint on the schedule "

photos by Lori Baily

Pitchfork: As the daughter of a diplomat, you must have traveled a lot. How does that experience inform your music?

Rokia Traoré: My father was not able to get all the vinyl he used to listen to with me. He couldn't travel as he did it because of his profession as a diplomatic career. The fact of playing an instrument and singing... that I can try to make my dream of singing and becoming a professional musician come true is linked probably to the fact that I traveled a lot, which gave me an open mind and an ability to push my limits. Probably, traveling so early changed my personality and gave me this ability today to do the music I do and to think in a certain way that everything can be possible. You just have to try before thinking that you can't.

Rokia Traoré last visited NYC in February. She played Le Poisson Rouge, and we have some pictures from that show in this post.

Rokia will next be here in August. On August 7th she plays the Damrosch Park Bandshell as part of the Lincoln Center Out Of Doors festival, and one day earlier she'll play a free lunch-time show at Metrotech in Brooklyn. The 2009 "BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival" lineup also includes Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and "A New Orleans R&B legend, to be announced". Full Metrotech lineup, and more Rokia tour dates and pictures, below...

Continue reading "2009 BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival @ MetroTech - lineup includes Rokia Traoré (who played LPR - pics) "

Lincoln Center Damrosch Park bandshell - August 2008 (miro.m)

This year's Lincoln Center Out of Doors (LCOOD), three weeks of FREE music and dance on the plazas of Lincoln Center, will run from August 5 through August 23. The 39th annual edition of the festival will present a wide range of music and dance events by dozens of international, U.S. and local artists, highlighted by New York, U.S. and world premieres and debuts and special commissions. Out of Doors opens Wednesday, August 5 with the worldwide debut of the Asphalt Orchestra, a new marching band developed by Bang on a Can, premiering works commissioned for Lincoln Center's 50th Anniversary from Goran Bregovic, Tyondai Braxton (of Battles), and Stew and Heidi Rodewald. The band will also perform original arrangements of iconoclastic rock, jazz, and classical material--all to movement created by MacArthur Fellowship winning choreographer Susan Marshall. Asphalt Orchestra will kick-off the first five consecutive nights of Out of Doors at 7 p.m., performing in different locations across Lincoln Center's campus, with a varying playlist each night. The opening night concert at the Damrosch Park Bandshell at 7:30 is a double-bill with Out of Doors alum The Dave Brubeck Quartet (marking the 50th Anniversary of the landmark album Time Out) with guest soloist, oud virtuoso Simon Shaheen, and Iraqi-American jazz trumpeter Amir ElSaffar leading the New York debut of his Two Rivers Large Ensemble.]

The Asphalt Ochestra shows also include "world-premiere arrangements of works by: Björk, Meshuggah, Charles Mingus, Colon Nancarrow, Frank Zappa."

And Lincoln Center and Wordless Music are again planning a performance of Rhys Chatham's Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars. It'll be happening Saturday, August 8th at Damrosch Park. Let's hope they've secured a rain location, or this could be an annual thing. Section leaders include David Daniell, John King, Seth Olinsky (Akron/Family) and Ned Sublette. The fest is taking applications to volunteer as a guitarist or bassist for the event. Also on the bill for that is "seminal funk-punk band Liquid Liquid."

Other highlights on the schedule are "a pairing of Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré with Raul Midón", The Derek Trucks Band, and Slavic Soul Party.

Closing out the festival will be the 26th Annual Roots of American Music Festival at the Damrosch Park Bandshell, an event that'll touch on the blues (Four Women: A Tribute to Odetta, Miriam Makeba, Abbey Lincoln and Eartha Kitt), Creole music (The Louisiana Renegades), country (Texas Tornados: Tribute to Doug Sahm), and "Mazel Tov, Mis Amigos: The Lost World of Latin-Jewish Sound" with Afro-Jazz bandleader Arturo O'Farrill.

Full schedule below...

Continue reading "Lincoln Center Out of Doors 2009 lineup - another attempt at Rhys Chatham's 200 Electric Guitars included "

Lily Allen @ Bowery Ballroom last night (more by Bao Nguyen)

today in NYC
* DANCE
* Questlove @ 92YTribeca
* Roman Candle @ Union Hall
* Brett Dennen @ Webster Hall
* Lissy Trullie @ Mercury Lounge
* Reggie Watts @ the Studio @ WH
* Dave Hill's Madea Goes to Jail!! @ UCB
* Rokia Traoré @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Thank You, Mi Ami & Miracles @ Cake Shop
* Goblin Cock, Orphan & Warship @ Highline Ballroom
* the BQE Project playing to silent film @ the Winter Garden
* John Wesley Harding's Cabinet of Wonders @ Le Poisson Rouge
* The Submarines, The Morning Benders & Dawn Landes @ The Bell House
* Abigail Washburn with Casey Driessen and Ben Sollee @ Joe's Pub
* Robbers on High St, La Strada & The Silent League @ Union Pool

"The daughter of a diplomat, Malian singer Rokia Traore grew up assimilating European and African cultures, and in her 10-year career, she's developed a sound that uses elements of Malian tradition in her own way. Traore's fourth album, Tchamantche, is just out, and it's her best and most daring work." Rokia plays the early show at LPR tonight. John Wesley Harding, Eugene Mirman and friends are the late show.

Dufus and Diane Cluck are playing Union Pool tomorrow.

Cinematic Orchestra play a free show tomorrow.

Ben Sollee will be back in April to play Le Poisson Rouge.

Demetri Martin's TV show is on tonight.

Joly posted some new live No Age videos. Watch them below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"