Iceland’s reputation for sublime beauty and natural wonders is well established as is Reykjavik’s status as a cosmopolitan city with its own unique culture and flavor. The country, with a mere 360,000 people – which is about 20,000 fewer folks than live in Lower Manhattan, has also increasingly become known for its talented musicians who run the stylistic gamut. Iceland’s ability to export bands is thanks in no small part to the Iceland Airwaves festival. Since 1999, a decade after beer became legal (but you’re on your own if you want to research that oddity) the four day hootenanny happens annually in early November featuring homegrown talent as well as acts from around the world.

As was the case with Orville Peck and Whitney who were among the artists I was fortunate enough to hear, I made my first appearance this year. Whitney’s falsetto singing drummer Julien Ehrlich is one of my favorite vocalists. He co-founded the group with Max Kakacek after their previous band Smith Westerns, who established these Chicagoans as dudes to keep an eye on, broke up. The group is supremely textured; mixing acoustic and electric guitars with well-placed slide guitar played by Kakacek and an element that sets them apart from most rock groups – a trumpet player, Will Miller. Good on ’em for covering NRBQ’s “Magnet” and Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights“. The crooning masked man of country, Orville Peck, fronted a five-piece band and gave a shout out to drag queens and puffins. His songs are sultry and intoxicating; his baritone rich, drawing comparisons to the likes of Chris Isaak, but sometimes skirting the edge of Elvis Presley parody. He visited WFUV in May of this year for an interview and session while Whitney did the same last month.

Out of the fifteen or so groups that I heard, The Holy, a rock band from Helsinki and also a quintet, struck me most as being destined to be huge. In their best moments, they were thrilling and with two drummers, they maintained a rhythmic sense of propulsion throughout the set. I was a little skeptical at first eyeing their painfully earnest expressions of intensity in their slow to unfold opening number but I was soon won over by their dynamic and dramatic songs. Their two guitarists served up airy, swirling tones with one generally being drone based and the other laying down slashing lines atop a bedrock of keyboards.

Even if I hadn’t heard any music, I would have had a great time just enjoying the dramatic landscape of lava fields, mountains, and glaciers. I visited The Blue Lagoon on Sunday (11/9) and the weather which delayed the flight to JFK that I hopped that evening was rainy and windy. Despite moments of hail slapping my bald head, soaking in its nourishing 100 degree water piped from 2000 meters beneath the earth was refreshing and rejuvenating. Throughout my stay, it was chilly with highs in the 30’s and the sky was grey.

Reykjavi­k is not the cloudiest city in Europe as Glasgow gets fewer hours of sun per year. However, Reykjavik is a solid number two on that list ahead on the grey-meter of cities like London and Dublin. The latter city is where Pillow Queens hail from. The four women in the group got together only three years ago and, if I had to choose just one, were my favorite discovery of Airwaves. They have the spirit of punk running through everything they do, which can be tough, lean pop, or even sweet with four part harmonies but never for too long. The guitars have got some grit in them and vocalist Sarah Corcoran, who peppers her lyrics with inscrutable Dublin slang, has appealing attitude. The Pillow Queens don’t straddle a line between rock and pop. They land squarely in the former camp. Highlights of the set included Gay Girls that earned them some buzz last year and their new single Brothers which is earning them some more. They are working on their debut album due for release in early 2020.

A friend I met from Colorado told me it struck her as a mashup of Denver and Amsterdam while the amount of tattoo parlors, twirly mustaches, and bars made me think of Brooklyn more than once. They love their hot dogs too. Clearly, Reykjavik has its own idiosyncratic vibe and some very distinctive features.

Inspired by Iceland’s volcanic geology, the hypnotic Harpa Concert Hall’s crystals filter, reflect and fragment light. Looks cool in the day; better at night. It has a facade of 714 glass panels, all of which are a different shape and built with an LED light. It’s home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera.

The Reykjavik City Pond, Tjornin, is flanked by many museums as well as the church that John Grant performed in as part of the Iceland Airwaves festival.

John Grant, who grew up in Colorado, first performed at Airwaves six years ago and soon after found a way to move to Iceland which has been his homebase ever since. He performed on two consecutive nights this year at Fri­kirkjan i Reykjavik, a traditional wooden church with a capacity of 500 that was one of the festival’s twelve official venues. (More shows happened in unofficial ones.) I was there the second night and Grant was in excellent form. The shows struck me as triumphant for him as an expat holding court in his adopted hometown. He speaks excellent Icelandic and had the locals laughing at his remarks made in that tongue on more than one occasion. His love of the language has informed some of his work as he explained was the case for “Grey Tickles, Black Pressure” with the former phrase coming from an Icelandic phrase expressing a midlife crisis. The outstanding acoustics enhanced Grant’s vocal gifts and gave the audience a chance to fully absorb the impact of his brutally honest lyrics buoyed by devastating metaphors.

The fact that I got caught in two moshes goes a long way towards illuminating the enthusiasm of the fans, both local and international, who turn up for the festival that’s the heart of the Icelandic record industry. Legitimate mosh pits formed during performances by Auðn and Hatari.

Auðn are part of Iceland’s extremely healthy Black Metal scene and their ferocious, sludgy (and yeah a little scary) set on Thursday was the most exciting gig that I made. Their name I understand is pronounced, kind of, as Oh Then as the eth or O with the squiggly cap corresponds somewhat in this case to TH. In any case, for style and cool it trumps even the umlaut about the O in Motörhead.

The vocalist sang in a shriek familiar to fans of the sub-genre and he had no doubt gargled with razor blades before taking the stage. I can’t remark on what he was singing about as I couldn’t understand a word but I assume Satan was involved. (I would hope so!) Auðn have chops of doom and their elastic melodies and colossal sonic tsunami make them a band to seek out if, to paraphrase Austin Powers, that kind of thing is your bag…baby. The mosh pit, like the band, was a little dangerous but I gamely served as kind of a back wall, mixing it up with those in the pit proper while protecting those behind me. (Even though some big dudes were bouncing around, they all showed good pit etiquette and kept their elbows close to their bodies.)

Hatari offered songs built on simple synth beats that scanned techno and sounded as if they’ve heard Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and Sisters Of Mercy records. The music though, seemed largely beside the point. They are all about spectacle. The three guys who are the full-time members were dressed in full-on bondage attire: dog collars, a Hannibal Lecter style restraint, and a lot of shiny PVC. The two female dancers and their choreographed moves were distracting in the best sense. The group, who also hail from Iceland, have gained attention with their anti-capitalist stance and provocative statements to the press.

I caught three other groups native to the most sparsely populated country in Europe: Seabear, Mammut, and Foreign Monkeys.

Seabear has shown up on the international musical radar; for the past decade or so and the acclaim they’ve gained is well deserved. They trade in crafty compositions rooted in folk that have distinct parts, sometimes in different time signatures. The fiddle player and mix of male and female voices are the group’s secret sauce. Like the other shows by Icelandic groups, the crowd for Seabear included plenty of local people.

A rock band that strike an appealing balance between darkness and light and one of Iceland’s most popular groups, Mammut is a five-piece starring three women who have been playing together since 2003, when they were aged between 13 and 15. They play with the kind of chemistry and intuition that comes only with such long associations. Singer Katrina Kata Mogensen AKA Kata exudes a genuine and undeniable charisma whose unique stage moves no doubt appeared more singular as she is well along in a pregnancy. She’s a powerhouse whose voice propels the group’s songs whose hooks aren’t generally super wide but are accessible through a vaguely psychedelic haze. Initially they resisted singing in English as they felt it didn’t suit their songs but they’ve embraced it on recent work. Mammut visited WFUV in 2017. Here’s video that I didn’t shoot…

Finally, if you’re a fan of say Helmet, track down Foreign Monkeys who were playing so loudly in my hotel lobby on Thursday afternoon that I could hear how delightfully heavy they were from my room.

They were even better on the first floor than the fifth! At Airwaves, sometimes all you have to do is keep your ears open.

In their first visit to New York this month as part of Globalfest, Jupiter & Okwess, who hail from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, stole the show with a frenetic, joyful performance that represented the catholic spirit of the annual event put on by its not for profit namesake organization.   

As festival organizers endured its first year operating under the Trump Regime, fans survived a wickedly cold New York night to support artists from around the world who managed to gain visas and share their musical gifts stateside.  After years at Webster Hall which is currently closed for renovations, BB Kings in Times Square served as the venue for the 15th annual showcase as artists played the main room and a second stage at Lucille’s as well as across the street at the Liberty Theater.  Frontman Jupiter Bokonjdi (in red hat) is long on charisma and his band Okwess plays a fresh and refreshing blend of Congolese, Pan-African, and international styles.   

With a locked in rhythm section, Jupiter & Okwess comes off an original amalgam that hits like a very dangerous and uplifting afrofunk band.  I couldn’t understand a word their multiple vocalists were singing but I was sure I could get behind it. This band has been around the block a few times and won some fans.  A documentary film entitled Jupiter’s Dance was released in 2006 and their most recent album Troposphere 13 included appearances by Warren Ellis and Damon Albarn.

Did I mention their drummer wears a mask reminiscent of Mexican wrestlers!

Other standouts among the dozen artists of Globalfest 2018 were a pair of Paris based acts.  The trio Delgres, remarkable for their unusual instrumentation of guitar, drums, and sousaphone, provided unexpected counterpoint to tough bluesy riffs played by guitarist Pascal Danae whose vocal range included a falsetto lilt that recalled Aaron Neville.  The Cuban fireball La Dame Blanche nee Yaite Ramos Rodriguez, owned the stage while infecting the crowd with happy feet through Cumbia rooted rhythms that nodded to hip hop and dancehall.  She played percussion and flute too!

Here’s a flashback to Globalfest 2016:

And the last shot goes to Jupiter & Okwess members on the street with WFUV evening DJ, my pal Alisa Ali!  

Pharoah Sanders Recalls Homelessness At Winter Jazzfest – January 5, 2017

2017 Winter Jazzfest NYC got underway on Thursday with an appearance by Pharoah Sanders at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village.  The 6 day event is now in its 13th year of delivering a well-curated mix of heavy hitters and up and comers across a handful of venues.  Of the 130 or so artists participating, none generated as much enthusiasm or reverence than the mighty tenor saxophonist who led a one-off quartet put together for the gig.  It was comprised of long time ally and contemporary William Henderson on piano along with a hotshot rhythm section of new acquaintances Dezron Douglas on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums.  

Sanders does few interviews but I made a pitch to speak with him before the show and, as his manager put it, caught him at the right moment.  I knew that he had moved to New York City in 1961 so I asked him about those days which led to his candid remarks about being forced to live on the street for a period when he first arrived.  It was powerful testimony that included recollections of doing odd jobs like painting and cooking and even selling pints of blood to earn a few bucks.  In his stint as a short-order cook of sorts, he remembered the drummer (who appeared on Sanders’ 1981 album Rejoice) Billy Higgins dropping by and playing the spoons!  He mentioned Sun Ra as an important friend of the time and agreed the tipping point was hooking up with John Coltrane with whom he played extensively between ’65 and ’67.  Sanders was honored as a 2016 NEA Jazz Master and appeared in, of all things, a GQ spread last month sporting a nifty Nigerian fez.

The 2017 Winter Jazzfest features panel discussions for the first time as a compliment to the music.  The event is marking the 100th birthday of Thelonious Monk as well as exploring a theme of social justice this year.  In fact $1 of every ticket sale of the festival will benefit BLACK LIVES MATTER and the ACLU.  The concert by the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra at Le Poisson Rouge tonight – Tuesday, January 10, 2017 – will be preceded by an environmental justice panel from 6:45-7:45.

Donovan & Brian Wilson Celebrate Fifty Year Anniversaries – Sunshine Superman and Pet Sounds were both released in 1966 and both the Glasgow born troubadour and American genius are marking the landmark releases with tours visiting New York City.

Donovan played Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on Thursday September 15th, 2016. Brian Wilson played the Northside Festival at McCarren Park on June 12th, 2016 and returns to New York City on Saturday September 24th for a show at The Beacon.

When Donovan was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame four years ago, it was said that he single-handedly initiated the psychedelic revolution with Sunshine Superman. When we spoke on Thursday, Don agreed he opened the door as “when you look at the lyrics, the sound, the attitude, and the presentation of that album, it does pre-date by a year and a half most of what is called psychedelic music.” My bringing up the word psychedelic spurred a discussion that touched upon music, drugs, and meditation and Donovan recalled how he and The Beatles went to India seeking the ‘purest form’ of meditation to bring it back to the West.

On stage, Donovan shared a number of funny and engaging anecdotes including a songwriting session with Paul McCartney in which Macca played an early version of Eleanor Rigby with the title character named Oliver Tungee! Upon hearing an embryonic version of what turned out to be the B-side of Eleanor Rigby, Donovan contributed the line, “Sky of Blue, Sea of Green…In Our Yellow Submarine.” The scuttlebutt is he’ll be playing a set of Beatles songs when he accepts the John Lennon Real Love Award in December. In another aside, he revealed he wrote There Is A Mountain on a trip to the Caribbean and added an exclamation point of “Rastafari” after playing it. The stories, like the songs, were delivered with affection and the lucky 600 people at Zankel Hall went home delighted. Richard Barone, by the way, was fab helping out on guitar on a couple of tracks including the climactic Sunshine Superman.

As for Brian Wilson, the show in Brooklyn on a cool night in June was an equally memorable affair. The setlist was an embarrassment of riches with the complete Pet Sounds supplemented by a a generous handful of Beach Boys hits that weren’t on the album. Matthew Jardine handled the falsetto parts admirably and it was as transcendent an experience as one would have hoped with the kind of immortal material that was presented. With the acoustics of The Beacon enhancing the experience next Saturday, Broadway and 74th will definitely be the place to be. A memoir is coming next month from the man called I Am Brian Wilson!

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down In Town Tonight – August 4, 2016

When I spoke with Thao on a lovely afternoon in Austin during SXSX in March, she said that the new record A Man Alive was a much more personal album than she and the band had intended to make but she’s glad it unfolded the way it did. She explained how she put herself in a vulnerable position exploring the grief, sadness, anger – and whatever was there – in the relationship with her father. Thao pointed to her close friend and producer Merrill Garbus (she of Tune-Yards) as a key to finding the fearlessness required for tackling that kind of lyrical content. She also affirmed that she and Merrill share the same taste in health food.

Sonically, Thao said the plan was to rely on beats and bass and loops as a foundation and introduce other elements like her guitar playing almost as if they were being sampled. This gave her the chance to acknowledge the influence that hip hop has on her that past albums have not. It also was the perfect complement – one with, in Thao’s words: joy and vitality and that people could dance to and connect with on a physical level – to the cadences that have always been a strength of her talk-singing and singing.

Tonight’s show should be memorable as Thao is sharing the bill with the super fab Lucinda Williams as well as iLe, a.k.a. Ileana Cabra Joglar, who went by PG-13 when she performed with the hip hop crew Calle 13. The show is free! The Damrosch Park Bandshell is the place at Lincoln Center. It’s an NPR event and some Q&A with the artists will also be part of the program. Here is a flashback to my chat with Lucinda, along with her performance, at the WFUV Holiday Cheer show four years ago. The free action continues tomorrow and through the weekend with AmericanaFest which features a tribute to 40th anniversary of The Last Waltz. M Ward, Margaret Glaspy, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, and Larry Campbell will all be performing.

James Carter Organ Trio: Django Unchained – July 2, 2016

James Carter honked, squawked, squeaked, and whistled his way through an exciting and entertaining set on Saturday night as part of the 37th annual Montreal Jazzfest. He even did a bit where he produced sound from a sax without putting his lips on the mouthpiece by putting its bell into a microphone and manipulating the keys. He pulled out all the stops! His playing was melodious, ambitious, and unfailingly fluid as he contrasted lightning fast runs with smokier mid-tempo material.

JC‘s Organ Trio consists of one familiar foil and one new blood. Carter described Gerald Gibbs as the alpha and omega as far as organs are concerned and “the cat.” He’s been evolving aside Carter for the past fifteen years or so and is as well-rooted as they come as a former prized pupil of Richard Groove Holmes. On drums, Alex White is a “blinking rhythmic beast.” Carter explained the two are still feeling each out (as he recently took over for Leonard King) but credits him as being instrumental in elevating the rhythmic aspect of the Django Unchained material.

As for Django, clearly James Carter has a deep connection with him and relished not only using the Romani master‘s work as a springboard but turning his fans on to his material as well. Below are two bonus bits from our conversation this past Sunday. In the first, he describes his introduction to Reinhardt by a non-commercial radio station and how the Chasin’ the Gypsy album was born sixteen years ago. In the second, he talks about his first experiences in New York City with Lester Bowie and how he gave him the opportunity of a lifetime.

Last lick: The venue for the show was Gesu, an exquisite sounding church that dates back to the 1860s. This is my favorite venue in Montreal and an ideal setting to hear a B3. Beyond providing the overtones for Gerald Gibbs’ inspired performance on Saturday, this was where I shot Dr. Lonnie Smith, with his octet no less a couple of years ago. It was also where NYC’s own Cory Henry knocked my socks off the following night.

Montreal Jazzfest ’16: Stacey Kent – July 3, 2016

Festival International de Jazz de Montreal is a honking good time! As for the talent, the ten day hootenanny draws an embarrassment of riches. For the fans, whether they be native Quebecois or the quarter of a million or so visitors from the rest of Canada and the rest of the world, a chunk of downtown Montreal turns into a pedestrian-only musical wonderland. Free outdoor shows abound on nine distinct stages while even more action unfolds inside ten concert halls. A handful of acoustically pleasing spaced are housed under the roof of the Place des Arts including the Theatre Maisonneuve which has about a 1500 person capacity. This was the venue on Sunday evening for Stacey Kent.

Like the city we were in, Stacey Kent speaks French as well as English. Like the festival she was a part of, those languages are only but two of many in play. English was a given for her as she grew up in Essex County in New Jersey. She learned French as a girl and spoke it with her grandfather who was a Russian that had emigrated to France before making his way to the United States. At Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester, Kent studied Italian, German, Latin, and most importantly for her musically, Portuguese. She and her husband, Jim Tomlinson, are passionate about Brazilian music and her fluency in Portuguese has allowed her to gain insights into the music through the culture unavailable to those with a language barrier. Kent’s latest album Tenderly is a collaboration with one of the essential figures in Brazilian music, Roberto Menescal.

Here’s a look at the performance on Sunday plus some bonus interview footage that you’ll really enjoy if you are a fan of Bossa Nova. If you are here in NYC this week, catch Kent and her fab band that features Tomlinson on sax, at Birdland through this Saturday the 9th.

Wolf Parade Light Fuse On 2016 Northside Festival; June 9, 2016

After Wolf Parade’s sound check on a gorgeous afternoon at Brooklyn’s McCarren Park, Dan Boeckner clipped on a microphone and spoke about this band‘s wildly triumphant comeback. “I underestimated what this band meant to people while we were active.” Maybe a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder in play here for both fans and bandmates. Wolf Parade’s shows ending their five year hiatus have been mad love fests! Smiles and positivity radiates from the stage to the audience where the waves gain power and bounce back. After five sold out nights at the Bowery Ballroom last month, this gig was a NYC victory lap. It also kicked off Northside Music, a festival that has evolved quickly and become a highlight of summer in the city. It ended in fine style on Sunday night with a Brian Wilson show at the same venue.

Boeckner brings great energy to whatever project he’s involved in and there have been plenty. Beyond Wolf Parade, he’s made compelling records with Handsome Furs, Divine Fits, and Operators. As he explained however, he always expected he would get back together with Spencer Krug, Dante DeCaro, and Arlen Thompson to make a fourth record and play shows. About eighteen months ago, it began to happen as the four men got together on Vancouver Island. After coming to the conclusion very quickly that it was fun and it felt like the right time, they brewed up half a dozen songs – four of which made the EP released last month.

As in the past, they didn’t make a move towards recording until the songs had reached a state where they could play them live. Boeckner told me they don’t write or build tracks piecemeal in studios. When they were ready, they adjourned to Dante’s studio in Shawnigan Lake and laid them down. Mike McCarthy, who is best known for his work with Spoon, then produced the ones featuring Dan’s vocals while the ones sung by Spencer were produced by Jonas Verwijnen of Kaiku Studios in Berlin whose resume includes Handsome Furs.

Here’s a bonus. Dan talking about his history with Spencer…”Don’t date my sister!”

John Scofield is a guitar virtuoso. He can make his guitar, seemingly, do anything he wants short or having it buy a round of drinks. Brad Mehldau is a keyboard virtuoso. No appreciable space exists between sounds in his head (I imagine) and the sounds that emanate from his piano or, as he showed last week at The Blue Note, from his electronic keyboards. Mark Guiliana is a virtuoso on drums. The most memorable quote about him was from Tony Visconti when he spoke about producing the final David Bowie album. “Mark Guiliana changed all our lives!” What a way to kick off The Blue Note Jazz Festival 2016: these three men, on stage in New York City as a trio for the first time ever, playing eleven freshly born songs that they had collaborated on.

‘Freshly born’ is not an overstatement. Scofield explained that they had exchanged emails and sound files for a while but it was only a few days before the first gig that they had been able to get together to give them their initial work out in person. The musicians used some sheet music on stage that, as Mehldau mentioned during the set, would no doubt become unnecessary by the end of their six night stand which ended Sunday.

Scofield revealed that the three had not even spoken about bringing the new trio into the studio yet. However, when I asked him if fans could be optimistic, he said that after they do a big tour of Europe that starts in Slovenia at the end of the month, they could kick around the possibility of an album and that he sure hopes so. Scofiield/Mehldau/Guiliana will return to the states for what promises to be memorable appearance at the Detroit Jazz Festival in September. Sco will also turn up at the Newport Jazz Festival in July with his quartet featuring Joe Lovano.

Sunflower Bean at Flamingo Cantina in Austin for SXSW 3-16-16 & coming to House Of Vans as part of the annual Brooklyn hootenanny known as the Northside Festival on Thursday 6-9-16

Love the Bean!

The Wednesday afternoon performance that you get a taste of in the accompanying video was a highlight of this year’s extremely fertile SXSW festival crop. Nick, Julia, and Jake indulged me with an interview behind the venue and then matter of factly got down to the on stage business. The influences are great ones as evidenced by Julia’s Marc Bolan tattoo and they’ve got all the tools – chops, song craft, and presence – to be the most exciting New York City export to the rock world in a long time.

The guys hail from Long Island while Julia grew up on the edge of Alphabet City in the East Village. Jake has since found some digs in Bushwick while, unless he made a recent leap, Nick was still living with the ‘rents!

I was introduced to this trio‘s music at WFUV where they recorded a session earlier this year in our Bronx studios. My radio compadres are also knocked out by the Bean and they were enthusiastically invited to perform at FUV’s Highline Bash at Milk Studios in Chelsea just a few weeks ago. I was thinking it was a treat to see them in such an intimate space as bigger stages in bigger venues can’t be far off. They revealed they are brewing up a headlining show in November atop the free show at House Of Vans coming a week from Thursday. That show is part of the Northside Festival, 6/9 through 6/12 that boasts an impressive lineup including Conor Oberst, Frankie Cosmos, Wolf Parade and Brian Wilson! The House of Vans stage is on the water in Greenpoint just blocks from where Sunflower Bean recorded Human Ceremony in the studios at Thump. The event the Bean will play at will be headlined by another crack local outfit Diiv and includes Torontonians BadBadNotGood and Los Angeles quartet The Paranoyds.

A parting shot –