about Para Kow

Hi Claudio,

Ghana-born drumming prodigy Paa Kow hits the sweet spot between addictive groove and delectable complexity on his latest album, Cookpot (release: October 13, 2017).

Paa Kow’s deep groove and prodigious talent reveal a unique ability to speak to listeners with his drums, inspiring a profound spiritual conversation. His songs are captivating and danceable and incorporate lyrics in his native language, Fante, as well as English. 

“My music isn’t traditional, but it has deep roots. I want to invent my own style,” he explains. “The highlife music is there, but when you listen, it’s kind of jazz, too. It’s funk. It’s the way the music comes to me.”

 In recent years, Paa Kow has increasingly become recognized as one of the most remarkable drum set players to tour in Africa, Europe, and America. And you can catch some of that amazing energy live at the tour dates listed below!

 08/23/2017, Lincoln, NE, Zoo Bar, 9:00 PM

08/24/2017, Omaha, NE, Reverb Lounge, 9:00 PM

08/25/2017, Iowa City, IA, Friday Night Concert Series, 6:30 PM

08/26/2017, Des Moines, IA, Wooly's, 8:00 PM

08/27/2017, Iowa City, IA, Cafe Paradiso, 8:00 PM

08/28/2017, Minneapolis, MN, The Cedar Cultural Center, 7:30 PM

08/29/2017, Chicago, IL, Law Office Pub and Music Hall, 7:30 PM

08/30/2017, Madison, WI, The Frequency, 8:30 PM

08/31/2017, Chicago, IL, Martyrs', 8:00 PM

09/01/2017, Evanston, IL, 210, 9:00 PM

09/02/2017, Buffalo, NY, Nietzche's, 9:00 PM

09/06/2017, Syracuse, NY, Funk 'N Waffles, 8:00 PM

09/07/2017, New York, NY, Club Bonafide, 7:30 PM and 9:30 PM

09/09/2017, Bridgeport, CT, BRYAC, 9:00 PM

09/11/2017, Asheville, NC, Altamont Theatre, 7:00 PM

09/12/2017, Knoxville, TN, Red Piano Lounge, 8:00 PM

09/13/2017, Memphis, TN, Hi Tone, 8:00 PM

09/14/2017, New Orleans, LA, Cafe Istanbul, 9:00 PM

09/15/2017, Houston, TX, Dan Electro's Guitar Bar, 9:00 PM

09/16/2017, Austin, TX, Flamingo Cantina, 9:00 PM

Click here for our full press release, to hear the tracks, and to view the press kit. And please let me know if I can help your coverage or arrange an interview.

thanks, Ben 

Ben Michaels
Publicist

ben@rockpaperscissors.biz

 

rock paper scissors, inc.

511 W. 4th St. Suite #2 - Bloomington, IN 47404

www.rockpaperscissors.biz

Album Review: Kesha’s ‘Rainbow'

Chris Willman
Music Writer

Kesha seems stuck between a rock and a hard place on “Rainbow,” her third album and her first since the ongoing legal turmoil and startling allegations between the singer and her former producer/mentor, Dr. Luke began nearly three years ago. She rose to fame essentially as a gifted musical comedienne with her wildly entertaining debut, “Animal,” seven years ago, but it would strike an odd note for her to return after the years of legal trauma with an album of party anthems like her biggest hit, “Tik Tok.” But does the world want a Kesha who’s traded in irreverence for righteousness?


She splits the difference on “Rainbow,” which is initially so front-loaded with angry ballads, pop sing-alongs, and feisty feminist anthems that you might wonder if any real sense of fun got dropped along with the dollar sign in her name. The old mirth does reappear, mostly in the album’s second half. But first, she’s got some things to get off her chest, and some war paint to put on.

read more at: http://variety.com/2017/music/reviews/album-review-kesha-exorcises-demons-on-rainbow-but-the-party-songs-bring-the-charm-1202523804/

Jazz lovers swing to the beat at Montclair Jazz Festival

By Karen Yi

kyi@njadvancemedia.com,

NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Updated on August 12, 2017 at 4:41 PM Posted on August 12, 2017 at 4:40 PM

MONTCLAIR -- The lawn at Nishuane Park came alive with the sounds of horns, saxophones and singing on Saturday as music lovers gathered for the eighth annual Montclair Jazz Festival. 

Organized by the jazz vocalist Melissa Walker, the free festival brought performances by Dee Dee Bridgewater & Memphis Soulphony; A Christian McBride Situation; and the Cyrus Chestnut. 

Walker, whose husband is jazz bassist Christian McBride, is the president and founder of Jazz House Kids, an arts education nonprofit in Montclair that started 15 years ago. 

read more at: http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2017/08/photos_montclair_jazz_festival.html

Dionne Warwick to be honored ....

FILE - In this June 10, 2017 file photo, singer Dionne Warwick arrives for the opening ceremony of the Life Ball in front of the City Hall in Vienna, Austria. Warwick will be honored with an award named for a ... more >

By - Associated Press

Friday, August 11, 2017

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Dionne Warwick will be honored with an award named for a pioneering opera singer.

The Marian Anderson Award is given in Philadelphia to “critically acclaimed artists who have impacted society in a positive way.” Anderson was the first black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera.

Mayor Jim Kenney announced Thursday that the five-time Grammy winner will receive the award at a Nov. 14 ceremony.


Warwick has had 18 consecutive top 100 singles, and 20 best-selling albums, featuring her blend of pop, gospel and R&B.; She has supported many philanthropic campaigns, including those battling AIDS and world hunger.

She’s also a champion of music education.

read more at: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/11/dionne-warwick-to-be-honored-with-marian-anderson-/

rock paper scissors

Hi Claudio,

Storytelling has many purposes. One of them is to keep the past alive, especially when it invokes communities that don't exist anymore. 

Composer and artist Guy Mendilow has followed this storytelling path to the past, weaving together vignettes, glimpses, and fragmented stories from and of forgotten Sephardic communities around the Mediterranean and Balkans.

Straddling two worlds ain't easy, and to do it justice Guy has bought the past into the present by creating a show that revolves around these stories called Tales From the Forgotten Kingdom.

The music from the show is incredible, and I'd love for you to check it out. If you visit the link below and enjoy what you hear, let me know and I can send you a physical copy. (Note, what I have to send is music only- the soundtrack, if you will. Like the soundtrack to Cats, except completely different.)

Guy Mendilow Ensemble - The Musical Lessons of Lost Worlds: How Guy Mendilow Ensemble Engages Creatively with the Sephardic Past to Inform the Present on The Forgotten Kingdom

10/06/2017
Rethinking the role of musical aesthetics and spoken word in re-creating these impressions, Mendilow and his Ensemble has recorded The Forgotten Kingdom (release: October 6, 2017). The album has two versions, one with just the music from the show, one reflecting the interwoven stories, complete with spoken interludes.

Play - Download Album

Best, Ron

ron kadish
publicist
ron@rockpaperscissors.biz

rock paper scissors, inc.
511 west 4th street, suite 2, bloomington, indiana  47404 usa
www.rockpaperscissors.biz

The Peacocks - Gary Foster with Jimmy Rowles

Newport Jazz Festival Begins a New Era, ....

Christian McBride, artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival, brought kindred sounds to the event, and performed with his own big band. Credit Steve Benoit/Boston Concert Photography

By GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOAUG
7, 2017

NEWPORT, R.I. — Christian McBride’s big band had just finished a bustling rendition of “The Shade of the Cedar Tree” on the main stage of the Newport Jazz Festival here on Saturday afternoon when the bandleader felt compelled to speak.

“I’m partial to jazz with a little bit of grease in it,” Mr. McBride told the audience in his affable baritone, as the applause died down. “Sometimes we get a little too into this gluten-free lifestyle.”

In March 2016, Mr. McBride became artistic director of the now 63-year-old festival — taking the reins directly from its 91-year-old co-founder, George Wein — so his metaphors matter. Mr. McBride, the 45-year-old bassist, is one of jazz’s uncontainable talents, able and eager to play almost anything, but he’s also one if its traditionalist standard-bearers. When he talks about grease, or carbs, he’s talking about the blues.

Lots of comparable festivals across the United States book pop acts as headliners, using jazz for its credibility and paramusical value. But Newport hasn’t stretched its rope very far, relying on its identity as the pre-eminent presenter of improvised music, and enjoying a reliable audience.


Mr. McBride wants to talk about how that role can be used. He’s sensitive about jazz becoming a marketing device, but also about the idea that it might be seen as a broad-brush label for experimentalism in American music. To him, jazz means something more like blues tradition, boldly extrapolated. Speaking backstage after the end of his set, Mr. McBride explained that he thinks a jazz festival in 2017 ought to include some kindred sounds from around the way.

read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/arts/music/newport-jazz-festival-christian-mcbride.html

jazz@jazzinstitut.de

9 August 2016

... what else ...

Nick Lippa reports about inspirational music teachers in Buffalo, New York ( WBFO). --- Farah Jasmine Griffin reads a new biography about the singer Sarah Vaughan ( Washington Post). --- Evelyn Vogel sees an exhibition by the German photographer Arne Reimer in Munich, Germany ( Süddeutsche Zeitung ), who will show some of his photos and talk about his meetings with "American Jazz Heroes" at the next Darmstadt Jazzforum. --- Dan Emerson hears the saxophonist Pharoah Sanders in Minneapolis ( Twin Cities Pioneer Press ). --- A month after his death, Nick Budnick picks up the allegations of sexual abuse against the trumpeter Thara Memory who had died last month, quotes the bassist Esperanza Spalding who once studied with him and who came out in his defense and quotes former students who say they had at least been verbally abused by him ( Portland Tribune). --- Maxwell Reil talks to the organist Dan Fogel ( Press of Atlantic City ). --- Giovanni Russonello talks to the bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding ( New York Times). And R. Hawkins reports about bassist Esperanza Spalding's new teaching appointment at Harvard University ( Rolling Out). --- Mhairi Graham recommends five London jazz bars, Ronnie Scott's, Jazzgir, Boisdale, the 606 Club as well as Nightjar ( Luxury London). --- David Bianculli talks to the pianist and singer Dave Frishberg ( WYSO). --- Carlos Valladares reports about the Giant Steps Camp at the Stanford Jazz Festival and how it inspires young musicians ( San Francisco Chronicle ). --- Daniel Barbiero talks to Michael Heller, author of a new book about New York's loft jazz scene in the 1970s ( Perfect Sound Forever ). --- Bill Beuttler talks to the saxophonist Henry Threadgill ( The Boston Globe). --- Jeff Barron talks to the pianist and vocalist Robert Lepley ( Lancaster Eagle-Gazette ). --- Kevin Kirkland talks to the guitarist Joe Negri ( Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ). --- We read an interview with the German saxophonist Philipp Gerschlauer about his new album "Mikrojazz" with David Fiucznski and Jack DeJohnette ( Broadway World).


Obituaries

We read about the funeral of Dolores Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis' wife and Wynton and Branford Marsalis' mother ( New Orleans Times Picayune); we also saw a video of the jazz procession after her funeral ( The Advocate). --- We learned of the passing of the German trumpeter Pit Müller ( Pit Müller), the guitar maker Bill Collings at the age of 58 ( New York Times), the pianist Clem Moorman at the age of 101 ( The Record, North Jersey), the Cajun singer-songwriter D.L. Menard at the age of 85 ( New York Times), the guitarist Chuck Loeb at the age of 61 ( Legacy), the saxophonist Larry Slezak at the age of 71 ( Houston Chronicle), the saxophonist Eddie Pazant at the age of 79 ( The Island Packet), the saxophonist Joe Thomas at the age of 84 ( Woody Home for Services), the Dutch jazz researcher Herman Openeer at the age of 82 ( NRC), the Zimbabwean singer Thomas Zawaira aka Bla Thomas ( The Standard), as well as the German trumpeter Toni Rabold at the age of 83.

#HerbieHancock Is Still Hurtling Forward

Herbie Hancock performs at the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival in August 2016. (NPR)

August 4, 20179:00 AM ET
NATE CHINEN

There's an emblematic photograph of Herbie Hancock on the back cover of his album Sunlight, which he began recording 40 years ago this month. He's depicted against a red backdrop with a Sennheiser vocoder headset on his cranium, which is bowed in deep focus.

He's also totally boxed in by his keyboards. The LP insert sleeve includes a diagram to help identify them by name: Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer, Sequential Circuits Prophet Synthesizer, ARP 2600, ARP Odyssey, Micro-Moog, Mini-Moog, Poly-Moog. (This is not a complete tally.)


At the time, Hancock had already proven his ability to work in a few divergent modes: taut acoustic postbop, of the sort he'd refined in the Miles Davis Quintet; coloristic chamber-jazz, on albums including Speak Like a Child; and earthy jazz-funk, in and out of his spectacularly successful band The Headhunters. But Sunlight opened yet another door to pop crossover, pushing even some admiring listeners to their limit.

read more at: http://www.npr.org/2017/08/04/541565573/on-the-cusp-of-his-north-american-tour-herbie-hancock-is-still-hurtling-forward