The Nublu Jazz Festival now in its 10th year can be described as an exhilarating roller coaster ride but much hipper than that Coney Island trip. There is a big difference when music makes your heart palpitate as opposed to some ride. Music is the ride of life and the last days of Nublu (151 Avenue C), through November 17, will have you dancing on the shore’s edge but be careful those rhythmic waves and far out notes are high and mighty.
November 14 features multi-instrumentalist and composer Spencer Zahn & trumpeter, singer, and songwriter Spencer Ludwig; two West coast cats who don’t make the New York scene on a regular basis. At midnight get ready for the four-octave cultural ambassador from Brooklyn Maya Azucena, singer-songwriter and former graduate of LaGuardia School of Performing Arts.
November 15 will feature an outstanding line-up with vocalist/bassist Ben Williams, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, keyboardist Big Yuki (redefined the keyboards doing gigs with A Tribe Called Quest, Talib Kweli and Robert Glasper), synthesizer programmer and songwriter David Rosenthal, and drummer Marcus Gilmore. Later that evening the ensemble of the Turkish saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin (owner of Nublu), trumpeter Eddie Henderson, the comprehensive bassist Juini Booth (who doesn’t get any of his due credit), and drummer Kenny Wollesen will perform two sets at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. On November 16 music begins at 4 p.m. with the Nublu Orchestra and rolls past 1 a.m. The Sun Ra Arkestra under the leadership of saxophonist Marshall Allen continues its on-going steadfast, still increasing their vocabulary to broader dimensions. They perform two sets at 8 p.m. And 10 p.m. The festival offers closing notes on November 17 beginning at 6 p.m. and ending with the young tenor saxophonist and composer James Brandon Lewis Trio following his midnight gig.
For a complete schedule and times visit the website nublujazzfestival.com. Nublu located on the Lower Eastside of Manhattan is the site where the music leaps up and grabs you by the throat or rattles your heart. It’s the home of avant garde music but then again Louis Armstrong’s music could just as well be called avant garde and he lived in New Orleans. It’s not what music is called or categorized as but where it takes you, dig.
Joe’s Pub, the Public Theater has been known since the 1960s for trailblazing the arts from music to plays. That instinct for talent continues as the violinist composer Majid Khaliq pays tribute to his late mentor “The Godfather of jazz violin” John Blake Jr. in his performance entitled “Ma*JiD When Questlove met John Blake Jr.” on November 17, at 12 noon.
Khaliq will be joined by his band featuring keyboardist Jonathan Thomas, bassist Dezron Douglas, and drummer Norman Paul Edwards, the four-time Downbeat Rising Jazz violinist leads new interpretations of Blake’s classic compositions with his own 21st century spin. Augmented for this occasion by a string quartet, the Harlem School of the Art’s Dorothy Maynor Singers, and Philadelphia MC Khemist, Ma*JiD embraces an enthusiastic cotex of Black music from jazz fusion, classical, and hip hop.
The program’s title, “When Questlove met John Blake Jr.,” is a nod to the Roots drummer, who credits his own studies with Blake as the impetus to pursue his signature musical mixology. Through this tribute, Khaliq hopes to honor and further spread the legacy of his friend and mentor.
John Blake Jr., a Philadelphia jazz legend, profoundly influential, yet criminally under-acknowledged, made his name playing with Grover Washington Jr. and McCoy Tyner, as well as through his own compositions. Over a decade of private studies with Blake inspired Khaliq to seriously commit himself to composition and the pursuit of his own sound, to never pigeonhole himself to one approach, style, or philosophy. “Ma*JiD is cut from a different cloth,” said artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center Wynton Marsalis. “He has a unique blend of improvisation, groove, and technical sophistication.”
His eclectic works have included performances with Wynton Marsalis (he studied with Marsalis at Juilliard), Mr. Cheeks (of the hip hop group The Lost Boyz), saxophonist Antonio Hart, world-renowned classical violinist Itzhak Perlman, actor and singer Keith David, and classical/jazz violinists Isaac Stern and Regina Carter. His band, Ma*Jid, released a debut jazz EP in 2011 called “The Basilisk” that was produced by Blake Jr.
“I want to continue the legacy handed down by jazz violinist John Blake so the story doesn’t get picked up by irresponsible hands,” says Khaliq. “My music is a progressive eclectic blend of styles and influences from European classical, jazz and hip hop.”
Tickets are $15 and available online at publictheater.org. Joe’s Pub is located at 425 Lafayette Street in the East Village.
The 47th Annual Vivian Robinson AUDELCO Recognition Awards “The VIV” for Excellence in Black Theatre continues its legacy on November 18, at Tribeca Performing Arts Center (199 Chambers Street) in Manhattan, 7 p.m.-10 p.m.
The Honorary Chairs are Keith David and Dee Dee Bridgewater with Honorary co-host Rhonda Ross. Some awardees of the evening will include; Legacy Award Micki Grant, Rising Star Award Raif-Henok Kendrick, Outstanding Achievement Award Kenny Leon and Lifetime Achievement Award Barbara Montgomery and Woodie King, Jr.
Without the foresight and tenacity of Vivian Robinson and her most trusted friend and co-partner Mary Davis, AUDELCO would not exist and this long legacy of celebration to Black theater would just be a thought. It was Robinson, who coordinated buses to attend Black theater performances at Cross Roads and other New Jersey playhouses. It was Robinson, who became the publicist (and Peter A. Bailey) and promotions person for these plays calling this publication on a regular basis to make sure the then noted Arts & Entertainment editor Mel Tapley was aware of all the happenings in Black theater. Robinson created a legacy that required her daily perseverance and sincerity to Black theater. She was a significant force to the soul of Black theater and an inspiration for future generations to come.
Tickets are $75 general admission, and VIP $125. For tickets call 212- 220-1460.
Clips from Stepin Fetchit and Moms Mabley, to “Amos & Andy,” “The Jeffersons” (George Jefferson) to “Good Times” and “Black-ish,” along with colorful animation, and raging dancing jazz kicks and leaps accompanied by an outrageous piano played by composer Scott Patterson (the best live stage piano to be heard in quite some time) that kept the audience engaged for an hour with no intermission. For me it was the fastest hour in sometime, unfortunately I could have sat for at least another hour it was that absorbing.
All of this upright enlightenment of swing recently took place at the Joyce Theater’s presentation of Camille A. Brown & Dancers Mr. TOL E. RANCE the first installment of Camille A. Brown’s trilogy on Black identity. Inspired by Spike Lee’s movie “Bamboozled,” and Mel Watkins’s book “On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy from Slavery to Chris Rock.” Brown’s work celebrates the humor and perseverance of the Black performer while examining stereotypes that still dominate popular Black culture.
Mr. TOL E. RAncE through its components of riotous jazz, vigorous dancing, and historical video clips jumps in your face with a three-dimensional prospective of Black humor that may make you dance, laugh or feel the on-going anxiety of stereotypical racism in America.