Last year, the Blue Note celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival. The musical celebration is back June 10-30, with more than fifty shows at various New York City venues. Things take off in a big way on June 10, with Kate Davis playing the Blue Note Brunch, the Harlem Gospel Choir hosting its regular Sunday brunch at the B.B. King Blues Club, Béla Fleck and the Marcus Roberts Trio at the Blue Note, and Curumin and Céu at the Highline Ballroom. Among the plethora of exciting highlights are the Legendary Jimmy Scott at the Blue Note on June 11, Savion Glover with such special guests as McCoy Tyner, Jack DeJohnette, and Roy Haynes at the Blue Note June 12-17, Bootsy Collins at B.B. King’s on June 13, Little Richard at B.B.’s and Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) at the Apollo Theater on June 14 [ed. note: The Yasiin Bey show has been moved to October 28], Kathleen Battle with Cyrus Chestnut at the Blue Note June 19, Toshi Reagon & Allison Miller Present “Celebrate! The Great Women of Blues and Jazz” at the Highline Ballroom on June 21, Africa/Brass: McCoy Tyner & Charles Tolliver Big Band at the Blue Note June 21-24, the Rolling Stones Project ft Tim Ries with Bernard Fowler & Darryl Jones of the Rolling Stones at the Highline on June 22, An Evening with Leon Redbone at the Abrons Arts Center on June 23, Stanley Clarke & George Duke at B.B. King’s on June 26, Meshell Ndegeocello at the Highline on June 28, Cassandra Wilson at the Blue Note June 28-30, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars at the Highline on June 29, and the Adam Deitch Project closing things out as part of the Blue Note’s Late Night Groove Series on June 30.
Annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams fest flies into the Lower East Side on June 10
Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Sunday, June 10, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
Admission: free
212-219-0302 www.eldridgestreet.org
The twelfth annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams block party will bring together the Jewish and Chinese communities of the Lower East Side on June 10 for what is always a fun day of food and drink, live music and dance, history, culture, and lots more. Among the highlights of the festival are the kosher egg creams and egg rolls, yarmulke and challah workshops, tea ceremonies, a genealogy clinic, Yiddish and Chinese lessons, Hebrew and Chinese calligraphy classes, mah jongg, cantorial songs, Jewish paper cutting and Chinese paper folding, face painting, and free tours (in English and Chinese) of the wonderfully renovated Eldridge St. Synagogue, which now boasts the East Window designed by Kiki Smith and Deborah Gans. In past years, the festival has included performances by the Chinatown Senior Center Folk Orchestra, Qi Shu Fang’s Peking Opera, the Shashmaqam Bukharan Jewish Cultural Group, Ray Muziker Klezmer Ensemble, and Cantor Eric Freeman, some of whom will be back again for this year’s multicultural party.
Jon Langford will kick off the musical festivities at the tenth annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Madison Square Park
23rd to 26th Sts. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Saturday, June 9, and Sunday, June 10, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Admission: free; $8 per plate of barbecue, $4 per dessert www.bigapplebbq.org www.madisonsquarepark.org
The weather is not looking great for the first day of the tenth annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, but maybe that will help cut down on the ridiculously long lines that surround Madison Square Park. This year’s menu features baby back ribs from Mike Mills (Las Vegas), western Tennessee-style whole hog from Patrick Martin (Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint in Nashville), pulled pork shoulder from Garry Roark (Ubon’s Barbecue in Yazoo City), St. Louis-style ribs and fried pies from Joe Duncan (Baker’s Ribs in Dallas), beef brisket and sausage from Scott Roberts (Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, Texas), whole hog from Ed Mitchell (Raleigh), smoked sausage from Drew Robinson (Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B-Q in Birmingham), pulled pork shoulder from Chris Lilly (Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama), beef brisket from Myron Mixon (Jack’s Old South in Unadilla, Georgia), whole hog from Rodney Scott (Scott’s Bar-B-Que in Hemingway, South Carolina), St. Louis-style ribs from Tommy Houston (Checkered Pig in Danville, Virginia), pulled pork shoulder from Jimmy Hagood (BlackJack Barbecue in Charleston), baby back ribs from Mike Emerson (Pappy’s Smokehouse in St. Louis), and ’cue from New York City joints Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Blue Smoke, Hill Country, and Rack & Soul. The excellent music lineup begins with the Mekons’ Jon Langford on Saturday at 1:00, followed by JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound at 2:45 and Southern Culture on the Skids at 4:30 (check out our interview with SCOTS here); on Sunday, Roadside Graves takes the stage at 1:00, the Revelations featuring Tre Williams at 2:45, and Alejandro Escovedo and the Sensitive Boys at 4:30. Among the seminars, workshops, demonstrations, and film screenings are “Easy Ideas for Summer Staples” with Allie Lewis Clapp and Dawn Perry, “Signature Southern Dishes” with Norman King, “Ready, Set, Grill” with Billy Strynkowski, and “The Oyster Is Our World” with Chris Hastings. As always, our advice is to go with a large group of people, split up and wait on various different lines to get a wide range of food, then meet up at the music tent and enjoy.
Southern Culture on the Skids will be serving up culinary delights at the annual Big Apple Barbecue in Madison Square Park
Friday, June 8, Maxwells, 1039 Washington St., Hoboken, 201-653-1703, $15, 9:00
Saturday, June 9, Big Apple Barbecue, Madison Square Park, free, 4:30 www.scots.com
For nearly thirty years, Chapel Hill’s Southern Culture on the Skids has been keeping southern culture alive, serving up its unique brand of rockabilly surf country punk on such records as Voodoo Beach Party, Dirt Track Date, Plastic Seat Sweat, Liquored Up and Lacquered Down, and The Kudzu Ranch. Its latest swampy, bluesy collection, Zombified (September 2011, Kudzu), continues the band’s wicked sense of humor and playfulness, featuring such songs as “Undertaker,” “Bloodsucker,” and “Idol with the Glowin’ Eyes.” Guitarist Rick Miller, drummer Dave Hartman, and bassist Mary Huff will be at Maxwell’s on Friday night, followed by a hotly anticipated free performance at Saturday’s Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in Madison Square Park. Miller recently filled us in on some of the band’s culinary plans for the weekend.
twi-ny: The Big Apple Barbecue is famous for its ridiculously long lines, and host Danny Meyer is perhaps equally famous for making everyone, including his relatives, wait on lines and get no special treatment. Do you have any idea what the food situation will be for you?
Rick Miller/SCOTS: I don’t know. We usually get a free lunch ticket and are left on our own to wander about. Hard to take a dip in the meat fountain before you play, though. Those smokey burps halfway into the set can slow a fellow down!
twi-ny: You’re from North Carolina, which will be represented by smokemaster Ed Mitchell and his whole hog. Is that where we’ll find you before or after your set? What other barbecue are you planning on checking out at the block party?
SCOTS: Oh yeah — in the Carolina Q is where we’ll be. When it comes to the other smoking meat — brisket is the ticket!
twi-ny: You’ll be playing to an enormous crowd on Saturday, most of whom will be covered in dripping sauce and stale beer and stuck on long lines away from the music area. Do you plan on tailoring your set to this very different kind of devil’s stomping ground?
SCOTS: Might start with “Come and Get It (Before It Done Gets Cold)” or “Too Much Pork for Just One Fork.” “Pig Pickin’” will be on the table as well, and of course “8 Piece Box” for the fowl fans. And for dessert we’ve got “Day Old Banana Puddin’.” Don’t forget to bring your wet naps and moist towelettes — it might get messy!
twi-ny: You have a smokin’ new album out called Zombified. What kind of southern food and drink goes best with it?
SCOTS: Deviled ham and moonshine!
twi-ny: You’ll also be at Maxwell’s in Hoboken on June 8, where you’ll be playing to a smaller but more SCOTS-dedicated audience. What have you got planned for that show?
SCOTS: We will prepare a rock-and-roll hot bar! A buffet of greasy grooves — the surf-and-turf sounds for downwardly mobile socialites!
Silvia Costa’s LA QUIESCENZA DEL SEME will examine birth and consciousness at the Queer New York International Arts Festival
Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement (and other locations)
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
June 7-15, $20
212-598-0400 www.abronsartscenter.org www.queerny.org
In March 2011, Zvonimir Dobrović, the curator and producer of the Eastern European Perforacije Festival, put together the inaugural American Perforations Festival at Club La MaMa, a collection of eclectic theatrical productions from Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Macedonia. Dobrović, who is also the artistic director of Queer Zagreb, has now teamed up with art historian and independent curator André von Ah to present the first Queer New York International Arts Festival. Taking place June 7-15 primarily at the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side, QNYI features multidisciplinary projects that recontextualize and reconsider what constitutes queer art. The opening-night party, held June 7 at the Delancey, includes performances by Carol Pope, Carmelita Tropicana, Eyes Wild Drag, Sarah-Louise Young, Raul de Nieves, Justin Sayre, Kayvon Zand, and others, with DJ sets by JD Samson, DJ R!C, and DJ Malakai. The shows begin with Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte’s Macadamia Nut Brittle, which is inspired by writings by Dennis Cooper and focuses on four characters in search of their identity. In Tadaku Takamine’s Kimura-San installation, the artist documents how he cared for a paraplegic, including sexually. In Auto + Batterie, David Wampach uses dissonant music, live drumming, extreme choreography, and whipped cream to bring together sound and movement. In Guintche, a drawing by Marlene Monteiro Freitas explodes into life and becomes unstoppable. Silvia Costa of Plumes dans la tête examines birth and not-birth in La Quiescenza del seme. Igor Josifov’s 2-Dimensional reconfigures performer and audience, as people walk over the Macedonian artist, who is trapped under a plexiglass structure. Body parts figure significantly throughout the festival; François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea look deep into “a reflection of the denial of the anus in dance” in Paquerette at the Invisible Dog in Brooklyn, while Biljana Kosmogina’s ‘P’ Campaign follows the exploits of the presidential candidate Vagina. And East Village Boys are hosting the art exhibit “For personal use” June 7-16 at the Impossible Project, with specially commissioned works by Mx Justin Vivian Bond, Jeff Hahn, Jayson Keeling, Josh McNey, and others.
The Lounge at Dixon Place
161A Chrystie St. between Rivington & Delancey Sts.
Friday, June 8, free, 9:30
212-219-0736 www.dixonplace.org
Last Friday night, Raquel Cion packed the Lounge at Dixon Place for her latest show, Gilding the Lonely, billed as “An Evening of Cabaret” that explores being single in the big city. Accompanied by 3 Teens Kill 4 drummer Bill Gerstel and downtown pianist Lance Cruce, Cion, wearing a dazzling, form-fitting gown designed by David Quinn, goes through a repertoire of carefully chosen, mostly deep-cut ballads by David Bowie, Prince, the Rolling Stones, and Dwight Yoakam (!) while sharing personal stories about dating actors, being scarred for life by The Giving Tree, and needing to replace a lightbulb. Cion will be back at Dixon Place on June 8 at 9:30 for an encore presentation of Gilding the Lonely; get there early if you want to grab a seat.
twi-ny: You played to a packed house last Friday. Are you happy with how things went?
Raquel Cion: Very much so! It was a blast. The audience was so present. The Lounge at Dixon Place is such a great place to hone a show. Ellie Covan and her staff are very supportive of new work while giving artists such freedom. You work it out and just show up and do it. There’s a wonderful sense of trust in that. In 2010, I work-shopped another cabaret-esque show, Cou-Cou Bijoux: Pour Vous, in the Lounge. This past fall I ran into Ellie and she asked if I wanted to bring anything to the Lounge. I told her I had been throwing around some ideas for another cabaret and within a week we had booked the space even before anything on the creative side was created. Nothing like a deadline!
So, yeah, it was a blast. Working with Lance, Bill, and our amazing director, Hillary Spector, has been really great and, well, challenging. It’s NYC and we all have such packed schedules, so rehearsals were very limited. Bill did the first incarnation of the show this past December, so we had a context for the material. All of us come from such different backgrounds, stylistically and aesthetically. Bill’s a full-on kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll drummer but is incredibly sensitive to the emotional arc of the whole show and really provides a backbone to it. Lance comes from a more traditional cabaret background and has been valiant in dealing with much of the song selection, which required him to play by ear and make huge jumps between different styles of music and get them to flow together. Hillary and I come from the theater world. It’s quite the mix. So we had to find, and quickly, where those worlds intersected. I think those differing perspectives serve the show really well. Like with any show, you create your own language. Thankfully, the audience really could understand and connect deeply with our vernacular.
twi-ny: Your show deals with various aspects of loneliness. How do you think being lonely in New York City compares to loneliness in other places?
Raquel Cion explores loneliness in nontraditional cabaret show at Dixon Place (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Raquel Cion: Hmmm . . . I’ve lived some other places and uh, yeah, I think being lonely in NYC is different. Though loneliness is universal, no one is immune. But there is something about feeling lonely in New York that has its own particular flavor. Sometimes it feels like an everlasting gobstopper in how it can change flavor and how you gotta just suck it (up). We’re constantly in relationship with others, be they familiar or not. We’re so thrown together, and each one of us has such drive, be it personal, professional, or, hell, just getting on the train. The constant information of “others” for me can increase that feeling of loneliness. It’s perhaps that compare/despair thing that the twelve steppers speak of, that wanting that our wonderful but sometimes overwhelming city can set up for us or bring out in us. And it’s particular, what we want. Strangely enough, even though I have been wrestling big-time with these feelings of loneliness, I am fierce about getting time to be alone. I think that’s a New York thing, too. Carving out our particular world within the worlds of this city and, well, finding who can inhabit that world intimately with us isn’t the easiest thing to do, especially as one gets older. I don’t mean to sound trite, but I don’t think I’m alone in this.
twi-ny: You sometimes perform under your real name, Raquel Cion, and other times as your alter ego, Cou-Cou Bijoux. What are the differences between the two?
Raquel Cion: When I speak of Cou-Cou Bijoux it’s like she is her own person. She feels that way. To backtrack a bit, I’ve always loved to sing but was mostly an apartment singer. Yeah, it encompassed much more than the shower. Cou-Cou Bijoux was created with Katherine Valentine for her show The Va Va Voom Room. Coming as I said before from a theatrical background, singing from a character was much easier and got me singing in front of people. Which due to some horrible posttraumatic-college-voice-class-syndrome hadn’t happened in a long while. Cou-Cou was that character that let me be a singer because she is a singer and, well, she’s also a hot mess, so as she would say in her French accent, “everything is possible.”
So singing as myself has been a process, one that is still revealing itself to me in beautiful and unexpected ways. I still approach song from an acting perspective; that’s where it translates to me. Telling the story. Connecting emotionally. Singing as me is still a bit terrifying but incredibly satisfying. When I was in the process of creating this show and was flipping out about its structure, etc., a friend of mine said, “Why don’t you ask Cou-Cou about it? She knows how to put a show together.” Okay, now I just sound schizophrenic.
twi-ny: Although you refer to the show as “An Evening of Cabaret,” it has a decidedly rock-and-roll aesthetic, with cover versions of songs by David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Tom Waits, and Prince, among others. What do those artists bring to the loneliness table?
Raquel Cion: Damn, you found me out! Yeah, it’s not a traditional cabaret. I don’t know if I’d know how to do that, actually. I’m a ridiculously huge Bowie fan. His voice, his music, his presence in the world — see, told you — just immediately comfort me on such a deep level. So, when I’m feeling lonely or pretty much any feeling, Bowie both sends me and grounds me. In terms of that “no one is immune from loneliness” thing that I mentioned, all these great songwriters are able to sink down into those feelings and we go with them. When choosing songs for the show, they broke down into a few categories for me: those songs that present a vision of happily ever after, those songs that drive you deeper into loneliness, and the songs where there’s an equanimity in regard to the very human experience of loneliness. The songs actually encompass a few styles; there’s pop, rock, R&B, punk/wave, country, and a show tune, to name a few. They’re some of the songs I love and turn to when I’m feeling lonely. I’m very moved by the quality of singers’ voices. I’m also a sucker for melody and a good modulation. If I connect to the sound of someone’s voice, that’s pretty much it for me; I’m in and in for life.
twi-ny: Who are some of the other artists that have influenced you?
Raquel Cion: Wow, there are so many influences. Did I mention Bowie? (Tee hee.) Seriously, the list is endless and can go from things like Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam to Vladimir Nabokov. I’m a bit of a magpie.
twi-ny: Is it possible to be covered in more glitter than you were last Friday night?
Raquel Cion: As I said, I’m a bit of a magpie. I love sparkly things! But to answer your question, yes, yes, yes! There can always be more glitter. Just ask a Dazzle Dancer.
Once in a while you’re lucky enough to catch a band firing on all cylinders, and it’s a visceral experience that gets your toes tapping, your head nodding, and your ass shaking all at once. The Liza Colby Sound is this type of combo — sort of a rock and soul hybrid, tight beyond belief, that meshes a ’60s guitar sound with the powerhouse vocal presence and physicality of a lead singer who can channel prime-era Tina Turner and Janis Joplin while still rocking a style completely her own. As a performer, Connecticut native Colby is all charisma, by turns unaffected and convivial, or sultry and arresting — playing it as the moment (or song selection) calls for. . . . With a set of belt-’em-out pipes and a penchant for provocative attire, she demands attention from the eyes and your ears. And lest they be mistaken for a backing band, the Sound’s sound is a big part of the equation, too. The crisp and resonant guitar/drums/bass and spot-on co-vocals are anchored by New York scene veterans Adam and CP Roth and Alec Morton, forming a fine counterpoint to Colby onstage, with the arrangements and songwriting all benefiting from the unit’s cohesive vibe. With a growing following, great original material (and stellar taste in mining the occasional cover), and a well-received six-track EP, High Yellow, released last summer, the Liza Colby Sound seem to be hitting their stride. Colby is celebrating her birthday on June 5 with a show at the Mercury Lounge with Brooklyn-based psychedelic blues band the Juggs, then will be back on June 15 at Lucille’s at BB King’s headlining a bill with Miami Cake & Donuts. Seeing them live is more than recommended. It should be required. A toe-tapping, head-nodding, foot-stomping, fist-pumping, ass-shaking good time is guaranteed.
