One of the most interesting groups currently emanating from the suddenly-relevant-again upstate New York experimental music scene, Oshe is a remarkably interesting, futuristic electro-groove beast that, in all of its jams
Former Phish bassist Mike Gordon and guitar legend Leo Kottke have reactivated their partnership for a handful of summer concerts and a new studio album. At deadline, six shows were on tap, including June 19 at Colorado’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival and July 1 show at Red Rocks outside Denver, alongside moe. and Gov’t Mule.
The pair’s new album, “Sixty Six Steps,” is expected in late summer via RCA Victor. The set was recorded at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, the Bahamas, and features contributions from percussionist Neil Symonette, who will join Gordon and Kottke on the road.
A longer tour is in the works for September and October, with dates to be announced. “Sixty Six Steps” is the follow-up to 2002’s “Clone,” which debuted at No. 17 on Billboard’s Top Internet Albums chart.
Also on tap for Gordon are three shows later this month with the Benevento/Russo Duo: April 27 in Athens, Ga., the following day in Atlanta and April 30 in New Orleans. The group is also booked to play the Bonnaroo festival on June 10 in Manchester, Tenn.
Here are Gordon/Kottke tour dates:
June 19: Telluride, Colo. (Telluride Bluegrass Festival)
June 24: Portland, Ore. (Northwest String Summit)
June 26: Taos, N.M. (Taos Solar Music Festival)
July 1: Morrison, Colo. (Red Rocks; w/ Gov’t Mule, moe.)
July 2: Saratoga, Calif. (Mountain Winery)
July 3: Quincy, Calif. (High Sierra Music Festival)
Source billboard.com.
More than 100 concerts have been scheduled for the fourth annual Rochester (N.Y.) International Jazz Festival, including shows by Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Chris Botti, Chaka Khan and Derek Trucks, among others. Set for June 10-18, the event will be music will take over various venues around the city, including two free outdoor stages.
The biggest shows will be held at the Eastman Theatre with Rollins (June 10), Khan and Will Downing (June 11), Corea (June 14), Brubeck (June 16) and Botti and Madeline Peyroux (June 17) all slated to play there. Among its programs, the venue will also host the premiere of the Miles Davis film “Live at the Isle of Wight 1970.”
Among the artists slated to perform on the free stage are contemporary blues artist Jon Cleary with his band Absolute Monster Gentlemen (June 17) and blues/rock act the Derek Trucks Band (June 18). Nightly jam sessions will be staged at the Crowne Plaza State Street Bar & Grill throughout the festival.
Other performers slated to appear include the Ravi Coltrane Quartet, the Bad Plus, Alex Torres y Su Orquestra, Raul Midon, Sex Mob, Mamadou Diabate, Mad Science, the New School University Jazz Quartet and Soul Stew. The full lineup and schedule can be found at RochesterJazz.com.
Source billboard.com.
Pearl Jam is progressing on its eighth studio album in Seattle. Guitarist Mike McCready tells Billboard.com the band has “about 20-25” songs in the hopper, comprising “some ballads and some pretty harder stuff, and some Who-ish type-stuff.”
In addition, McCready says Pearl Jam is approaching the project from a new angle. “How we’re recording it is a first,” he says. “We’ve been recording for awhile, and then we’ll sit down and listen to the songs and then take a couple of weeks off, come back and re-record them and add stuff. We generally just go in, do some demos and record.”
McCready is hoping the as-yet-untitled album will be out before the end of the year, with a tour to follow. The set will be Pearl Jam’s first for J Records/BMG, following the dissolution of its career-long relationship with Epic.
However, the guitarist says Pearl Jam is “not anywhere close to being done. We’re about halfway there. It’s going to be a really awesome record, and I’m not just saying that like every band member says it. It’s been really exciting.”
The opportunity to revisit and potentially add to songs has been a welcome one, the guitarist says. “I’ve woken up a few times and had a riff going in my head that I really liked, say, of [bassist] Jeff [Ament]’s or something,” he offers. “It’s like, OK, cool. That one is sticking in my head. I want to keep doing that. Let’s do that. Whereas before, you’d just do it and it’d be done.”
Last month during a benefit at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre, the band unveiled a fast, punky song co-written by McCready with guitarist Stone Gossard, tentatively titled “Crapshoot Rapture.”
“I’m certainly by no means a punk rocker at all,” McCready says with a laugh. “But, the guys in my band are. Jeff and Stone and Ed have that in them, and those guys bring that out of me. We have this joke that my punk is more Dio-like.”
As previously reported, McCready will lead the U.F.O. tribute band Flight To Mars at a benefit tomorrow (April 8) at Seattle’s Showbox for the Northwest chapter of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Earlier in the day, he will serve as the featured speaker at a CCFA luncheon at Seattle’s Westin.
Source billboard.com.
U.K. rock act Gomez has rounded up highlights from a Jan 20-22 stand at San Francisco’s Fillmore for its first live album. The 20-track, double-disc “Out West” is due June 7 via ATO, marking the band’s first release for the Dave Matthews-co-owned label after a long association with Virgin.
In addition to such favorites as “Bring It On,” “We Haven’t Turned Around,” opener “Get Miles” and “Here Comes the Breeze,” the album also features covers of Tom Waits’ “Going Out West” and Nick Drake’s “Black Eyed Dog.”
As previously reported, Gomez in the midst of the Virgin College Mega Tour with Cake and Robbers On High Street. The trek rolls into Lake Buena Vista, Fla., tomorrow (April 9), and will run through May 6 in San Jose, Calif.
Gomez’ version of “Bring It On” is also featured on a live collection from “Bonnaroo 2004,” due Tuesday via Sanctuary.
Here is the track list for “Out West”:
Disc one:
“Get Miles”
“Shot Shot”
“Hangover”
“Going Out West”
“Here Comes the Breeze”
“We Haven’t Turned Around”
“Fill My Cup”
“Do One”
“Revolutionary Kind”
Disc two:
“Bring It On”
“Nothing Is Wrong”
“Love Is Better Than a Warm Trombone”
“Do’s and Don’ts”
“Black Eyed Dog”/”Free To Run”
“Ping One Down”
“Blue Moon Rising”
“Get Myself Arrested”
“These 3 Sins”
“Make No Sound”
“Whippin’ Piccadilly”
Source billboard.com.
The Burlington (VT) Vermont Discover Jazz Festival has announced their lineup for the festival to be held June 3-12, 2005. Acts include: The Madeleine Peyroux Quartet, McCoy Tyner Trio, The Saxophone Summitt feat. Michael Brecker, Joe Lavano and Dave Liebman and Trio feat. Bela Fleck, Stanley Clarke, and Jean-Luc Ponty. Other acts include Jamie Masefield & Doug Perkins opening for Madeleine Peyroux Celebrating the Gil Evans Gil Evans/Miles Davis Collaboration -paying homage to Sketches of Spain with Randy Brecker on trumpet Bill Charlap Trio Matt Wilson’s Arts and Crafts Kurt Rosenwinkel Group Bayou Blue Tent feat. Buckwheat Zydeco, ReBirth Brass Band, and Guy Davis Interstellar Space featuring Sonny Fortune & Rashied Ali Avram Fefer & Bobby Few Past Burlington Discover Jazz Festival artists have included Branford Marsalis, Dave Brubeck and Trey Anastasio. For more information please visit the festival's website.
Longtime Ray Charles manager Joe Adams has unveiled plans and artist renderings for the previously announced Ray Charles Museum. Encompassing Charles’ existing RPM studio site, the three-story, 18,000-square-foot museum is slated to open in late 2007 under the auspices of the Ray Charles Museum Foundation.
Venice, Calif.-based RipBang Studios created the facility’s initial design. In addition to rotating exhibits and never-before-seen artifacts from Charles’ career, the museum will house classrooms, a cafe, a rooftop garden and a retail shop, as well as the business offices and administrative staff for Ray Charles Enterprises.
“The museum is something that Adams and Charles had been hashing around for a few years,” says Jerry Digney, a spokesperson for the Ray Charles estate. “Charles was always very active in supporting schools, including Morehouse, and he wanted to do something for the community. It will not only be a museum but equally a music education center available to locals and out-of-towners.”
Built in 1964 under the direction of Charles and Adams, RPM was named a Los Angeles landmark in 2004.
Source billboard.com.
