Music

Out on an ill-advised shopping trip to Georgetown one sweltering August afternoon some years ago, the two of us rounded the corner from Pennsylvania Ave. to M Street. In our path a junkie lay shirtless and spread-eagle, a pitted dark briquette smoldering on the new brick sidewalk. A factoid bubbles up as the sweat beads down: “Gil Scott-Heron’s playing at Blues Alley this week” just a few wavy-lined blocks away.

Springtime’s burst of energy is always refreshing, but the churning unpredictability of recent weather (via climate change) saps some of the excitement about rising temperatures. As dead zones balloon in the oceans, the UN is grasping for direction and memories of the Copenhagen Summit now linger like the stench of thawing permafrost. All that being said, spring is still pretty frickin’ awesome.

Further proof that Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter doesn't lie on his records, he did go to the White House and he does have "Obama on the text."

Interestingly enough in these photos it shows that he also brought along Beyonce, her mother, RNB singer Trey Songz, and manager Kevin Liles

Props to Politico and Rap Radar.

Jazz music has nothing in common with the grey spruce lying unwanted on the Bleecker Street sidewalk, its shreds of tinsel swaying upwards with cold winter gusts. The NYC Winter Jazzfest’s Saturday venues are, in fact, hot houses for a verdant field of talent. Rumors of jazz’s demise are greatly exaggerated with so many genre-bending improvisers sprouting up these days. For a little green ($25 for one night, $30 for two), a crush of 2,500 cultivated souls reaped the benefits of one of the year’s best fests.

Radiohead's Phil Selway and several other drummers such as Police's Stewart Copeland, Elbow's Richard Jupp, Pink Floyd's Nick Mason are playing their part in raising awareness for the conflict in Sudan by doing what they do best -- drumming.

The collective beat making session is part of a project put together by Sudan 365. 

Props to Pitchfork Media

So this is the Horn of Plenty. It’s the first night of the NYC Winter Jazzfest and one thing’s for certain: I can’t write in the dark. In its sixth year, the festival features a line-up of fifty smartly selected bands performing at five venues in the West Village. 

2010 Winter Jazzfest (now in its sixth year) began promptly (Le) Poisson Rouge with Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, an 18-member ensemble (by my count) directed by the eponymous leader. Argue’s direction was precise, if not robotic, but the band sounded confident and emphatic.