The News Review:
- Mo’Rockin Project melds Moroccan US music
- California Poet Laureate Al Young’s ‘Blues’
- Can’t Miss
- Interlochen Arts Camp: Outdoor Music and more
- Back Door Slam guitarist talks about blues and luck
- Events in Connecticut
- ‘Little boy’ hopes to beat top DJs
Mo’Rockin Project melds Moroccan US music
San Francisco Chronicle – Apr 20, 2008
” Finding links between stylesAlthough Shaheed was at first puzzled by Moroccan musical scales he quickly recognized their similarity to the jazz and blues he’d been playing since he was a teenager in Chicago. “It has a different tonal center and the use of half steps and quarter tones is more prevalent than it is in Western music” he says. “The thing that struck me when we started writing music together was that they ain’t playin’ nothin’ but the blues. Whether you’re doing it in Chicago or Casablanca it’s still the blues. A lot of times what those quarter tones do is the same thing as a flat five in Western music. It’s like that blue note. Since forming three years ago the Mo’Rockin Project has played in the Bay Area Los Angeles and Chicago and has made two CDs “Sahaba” in 2006 and the new “Tajine” both on Shaheed’s Princeton Park Music label.
California Poet Laureate Al Young’s ‘Blues’
NPR – Apr 20, 2008
and there was just a lot of romance about it. ” He had $15 and a guitar. Young’s poems touch on not only blues and jazz music but also not surprisingly life in California. In “Watsonville After the Quake” he writes about the Mexican immigrants forgotten in the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. In “Blues My Naughty Poetry Taught Me” Young observes the state through the window of an Amtrak train:Sea-fences industrial wash-ups slushy tracksand rickety light: skies so soulfully watercolored you’d have to be an arts commissioner not to see it. Seen across the Bay through trees and the undersides of freeways San Francisco looks lonely at the end of one bridge and the beginning of another.
Can’t Miss
Washington Post – Apr 20, 2008
5TH ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL BLUES FESTIVAL– Wednesday at 6 p. The Music Maker Relief Foundation celebrates American roots music with nonstop performances on three stages. Performers include the Robert Cray Band Elvin Bishop and Mudcat. For details and tickets see.
Interlochen Arts Camp: Outdoor Music and more
mlive.com – Apr 20, 2008
Part of the experience always has been the chance to mingle with friends amid uniform-clad campers who may be painting on easels set up in the campus mall or playing that cello music that’s wafting from a practice hut somewhere on the 1200-acre wooded campus. A cultured pearl Whether you’re heading to Interlochen for a little country or some rock ‘n’ roll a visit to the academy’s summer arts festival makes a great centerpiece for a culturally themed getaway weekend based entirely on campus or in nearby Traverse City. “We bring in some of the biggest names in the music business” McBride said. “We bring country rock ‘n’ roll blues classical a little bit of everything. This year’s lineup includes more than music. The Capitol Steps political comedians who claim they “put the ‘mock’ in democracy” are back with a performance that regularly sells out. The Golden Acrobats of China appear for the first time and is a great family-friendly option McBride said.
Back Door Slam guitarist talks about blues and luck
Seattle Times – Apr 20, 2008
They’d just finished a live performance at KZOK-FM and we snared a vacant news studio for a chat over tea. Q: So how did three guys from the Isle of Man become so besotted in American black blues?Davy Knowles guitarist: As a kid growing up I had that kind of music playing in my house all the time. I’ve got an older sister and she used to get these blues magazines. So I used to be listening to Howlin’ Wolf when I was about 6 or 7. And then as soon as my dad played the Dire Straits actually that’s when I first learned guitar… They’d just finished a live performance at KZOK-FM and we snared a vacant news studio for a chat over tea. Q: So how did three guys from the Isle of Man become so besotted in American black blues?Davy Knowles guitarist: As a kid growing up I had that kind of music playing in my house all the time. I’ve got an older sister and she used to get these blues magazines. So I used to be listening to Howlin’ Wolf when I was about 6 or 7. And then as soon as my dad played the Dire Straits actually that’s when I first learned guitar. Q: How did you learn to play guitar?Knowles: I had a few lessons when I first started out but it was kind of leading me to play the classical way and I really didn’t want to do that.
Events in Connecticut
New York Times – Apr 20, 2008
The Acoustic Blues Project. Shen Wei Dance Arts… playhouseonthegreen. HARTFORD Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts “The Music Man” musical by Meredith Wilson. Tuesday through April 27. Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts 166 Capitol Avenue.
‘Little boy’ hopes to beat top DJs
Independent Online – Apr 20, 2008
So one day he let me and I enjoyed it. ” His favourite type of music is rhythm and blues and he likes listening to T Pain Akon and Snoop Doggy Dogg. Last May Ashton entertained patrons at a supper club in Umhlanga when he turned up as the guest DJ. ‘This is an opportunity for me to turn up the volume without my parents shouting at me’”It was a gift to my mom on Mother’s Day. She was just as surprised as the rest of the people in the restaurant” said Ashton. “People were amazed to see a ‘little boy’ behind the turntables.