Concert Reviews

Sort By: Post DateTitle Publish Date
Andre Marc  |  Feb 29, 2012  |  3 comments

Like Steve Earle, Ryan Adams and other distinctly American artists, Shelby Lynne finds it difficult to settle down musically in one place.

Since releasing I Am Shelby Lynne in 2000, she’s been a moving target for her fans and critics alike. Though she won a “Best New Artist” Grammy® Award for that album, in fact, it was her sixth record! Go figure.

Andre Marc  |  Feb 22, 2012  |  2 comments

The Los Angeles based band Dengue Fever played to a packed house near downtown San Diego, on a beautiful night in late January. For those not familiar with this unique outfit, they are comprised of a group of American musicians with xenophile and psychedelic tendencies fronted by Chhom Nimol, an exotic female vocalist from Cambodia. Michael Fremer reviewed their latest CD, Cannibal Courtship, here http://musicangle.com/album.php?id=1015. Sound funky? It is, in the most delicious way.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 09, 2013  |  3 comments
They came to play and boy did they! Led by long time Les Paul Trio member Lou Pallo (Haledon, NJ, age unknown but no "Spring chicken"), and joined by Al Caiola (Jersey, City, NJ age 93!), Bucky Pizzarelli (Paterson, NJ age 87) and Frank Vignola (from Lon Guyland but forgiven and the kid on the block at 47), the quarter produced sublime music and demonstrated throughout guitar virtuosity that was always mesmerizing and occasionally thrilling.

Michael Fremer  |  May 08, 2014  |  16 comments
Backed by a stellar, award-winning trio of musical director and pianist Mike Renzi, bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Dave Ratajczak, Lyn Stanley greatly impressed in her New York debut at the intimate Metropolitan Club, billed as an "Internationally acclaimed jazz cabaret".

Roger Hahn  |  May 31, 2008  |  2 comments

(As we approach the August 29th 2007 second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we thought it a good time to reflect on the pathetic response by the Bush administration then and now and to present our man in New Orleans's Roger Hahn's coverage of last spring's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival—ed.)

Terri Karnessis  |  Apr 30, 2007  |  2 comments

Listening to Spoon is best done as described in singer/songwriter Britt Daniel’s own words: “You gotta feel it/ Don’t take notes/ Just clear out your mind.” Fans of Spoon’s five albums and two EPs, issued over the past twelve years know very well the feelings brought to mind when listening to these songs: they range from yearning, heartbreak and frustration, to isolation and desperation, to tenderness, lust, and satisfaction from a job well done.

Michael Fremer  |  Jun 19, 2013  |  12 comments
The Rolling Stones rolled into Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center Tuesday night for the first of two shows. There was no opening act. The house lights finally dimmed more than an hour after the 8PM "lip" call (there was no curtain) but the full house, aged from teens to the seriously addled, didn't seem to mind.

Roger Hahn  |  Dec 31, 2006  |  2 comments

Old-Time Standards the Old-School Way
With the eclipse of the Olympia Brass Band, it is generally acknowledged that the Trémé band, in all its multiple configurations, has now become the symbolic parade marshal for the Crescent City’s historic “street” jazz tradition. The mainstay of Trémé’s songbook are well-known New Orleans jazz tunes and old-time spirituals. With the rain pummeling the big tent into which maybe 500 or more of us had managed to jam ourselves, the band carried on as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

In the shoulder-to-shoulder crush I found myself standing beside a middle-aged woman with a tiny baby sleeping on shoulder. Behind her, a rugged-faced man stood guard at the helm of an empty baby carriage.

Roger Hahn  |  Dec 31, 2006  |  2 comments

There was a moment early in the afternoon of the last Sunday of New Orleans’ first post-Katrina Jazz Fest when it appeared to me that everything about the event, my perception of it, and even my hopes for the damaged city I’ve come to call home for the past ten years, changed dramatically. I was standing just outside the Economy Hall tent listening to the Trémé Brass Band, one the city’s oldest and funkiest old-time-jazz aggregations, when it started to rain.

Up to that point, the festival had managed to avoid bad weather. First, it outlasted an early heat wave that had collapsed a week and a half earlier, just as music fans began streaming into the city, then it successfully dodged heavy periods of rain that fell overnight on the first weekend. Another wave of rain showers had passed immediately north of the city on the second weekend. Now, however, it seemed the festival’s luck had pretty much run out.

X