LIC Notes

It's Tuesday night at LIC Bar – have you checked out or even hopped onstage for the LIC Jazz Jam yet?!

Since this past October, the LIC Jazz Alliance has hosted an extremely unique and welcoming kind of open jam jazz event at LIC Bar. Tonight is another round of the Jazz Jam from 8-11:30pm. There's no cover and a one drink minimum to enjoy 3+ hours (!) of live local jazz. Jazz guitarist Amanda Monaco, member of the LIC Jazz Alliance, weighed in on what the Jazz Jam experience has been like thus far, and shares her hopes for LICJA's future:

"The session has been quite a success so far. The atmosphere has been warm and inviting – like a cozy, fun party in someone's living room (only with a fully stocked bar). We've had musicians from all over Queens come to play, as well as neighbors who have come to listen. It's a unique session in that the house band (currently Broc Hempel, piano; Sam Trapchak, bass; Christian Coleman, drums and host) performs about 3 tunes and then opens up the session for the next 3+ hours. The music is continuous – no set breaks to speak of – and musicians are invited to stick around for the entire time as there is almost always more than one opportunity to play, as opposed to the usual 'wait forever, play one tune, get off the stage' routine that sadly accompanies other jam sessions. We also have a tradition of ending each session with the jazz classic 'I'll Remember April' and inviting all of the horn players back on stage for a rousing finale.

LICJA's goals in the next year are to supplement this weekly jam session with a monthly concert series in the neighborhood featuring LIC Jazz Musicians and their own groups. We are also on the lookout for a permanent space where we can provide jazz workshops and lessons to children and adults in the community, creating a space where LIC residents can come and learn about and enjoy this great music called jazz.

We are hoping that the jam session will continue to be a weekly event as we see it growing over the coming months and bringing the community together."

Special thanks to Amanda and LICJA for fostering a creative – and quite importantly, FUN – atmosphere for open jazz jams and improvisation right here in LIC. The LIC jazz community is growing and whether you're bringing instruments to play or just enjoying the music, you can be a part of it with this event at LIC Bar!

The weekly Jazz Jam will continue on Tuesdays through November – and hopefully beyond!

LIC Bar
45-58 Vernon Blvd, LIC
Jazz Jam from 8-11:30pm

* Top photo by Jesse Winter

This article is reproduced with kind permission from where it originally appeared: writer/photographer William Ruben Helms' blog, The Joy of Violent Movement.

In the past three or four years, the LIC Bar, located on the end of a now bustling stretch of Vernon Boulevard, has developed a reputation for hosting some of the neighborhood’s best singer/songwriters – including Little Embers, whom I’m wild about, Jeanne Marie Boes, Gus Rodriguez (aka Silbin Sandovar), Brian Meece, Shelly Bhushan, Megan Kerper and others. With increasing frequency, some of the metropolitan area’s up-and-comers have stopped by to play sets such as the wildly talented Vanessa Boyd and others. I’ve seen a handful of shows at the LIC Bar and based on my own observations and conversations musicians seem to really enjoy playing at the venue – they rave about the sound system, which management has improved; they’ll mention that audiences there tend to come for the music and are lovingly supportive of the musicians; and musicians will rave about the intimate and informal performance spaces. In fact, I’ve heard some compare the LIC Bar to the Rockwood Music Hall, down in the Lower East Side. So when I heard that local indie sensation Nicola was playing her first of hopefully many gigs in Queens, I had to catch her – first because it had been about a year since I had seen her perform live and second, because she’s a phenomenon live. And considering the week I had before, I needed something to start my week off right. But I’ll get into that in a moment...

I’ve known Nicola for some time now, going back to when she introduced herself to me on MySpace. I listened to the tunes she had up and was blown away by that voice – it’s confident, soulful, sultry and powerful. What a voice! And before I saw her perform live, I had this visual sense based on hearing her on albums that she was an Amazonian; that she had to be at least six feet tall but when I saw her perform for the first time at Piano’s, a couple of years back, I was struck by her diminutive size. But she has a commanding, confident presence that’s simply unforgettable. I’ve seen her play with her full backing band and solo acoustic – you can normally catch her do solo sets at Penn Station, Union Square and Times Square as part of the MTA’s Music Underground series – but this would be the first time I would be catching Nicola with her percussionist Ray Diaz.

Now Diaz on the congas and other percussion instruments bring Nicola’s pop sentiment back to el barrio. The drums reminded me of the meringue and salsa blasted at eardrum bursting levels out of cars and house parties along Junction Boulevard, Roosevelt Avenue and 99th Street during boyhood summers. What was impressive to see is that both musicians had the comfortable simpatico of musicians who have played together for years. Both Diaz had Nicola had an impeccable and intuitive sense of what each other were doing and when they would be doing it.

Nicola did many songs I was familiar with from her previous albums and previous gigs, including “Limited Knowledge” which done as an acoustic number peels back the dense layers of the album version and allowed Nicola some room for her vocals to freely roam about the song. It seemed apparent to me that the small, Monday night audience was impressed by this woman. The fourth song of her set, a song I haven’t heard before, reminded me a bit of an old Cyndi Lauper song – and interestingly enough, it was a beautiful moment that enraptured the small crowd at LIC Bar. No one checked their Facebook or went on Twitter, no one aimlessly chatted with their friends. No one stared at the walls or decided to get up for a drink. It was rare and it was probably one of the best moments I’ve seen at the LIC Bar – if not the best moment I’ve experienced at a show this year. “Down,” from her first album had a comfy pop twang and it showed Nicola’s ability to write a catchy pop song. “Message” was pure power pop with some extensive guitar solos and a bit of a Latin party feel, thanks to an extensive solo by Diaz towards the end that had the crowd really getting into a party mood. People started cheering as though the Yankees won the World Series.

There were a couple of hilarious moments – moments that I really couldn’t possibly make up even if I tried. During Nicola’s set a crazy old man yelled out, “I’m horny – now where’s the food!” It was awkwardly funny. And at one point Nicola went into some playful stage banter about playing shows where there was at least one person from Des Moines, Iowa – and there was someone there who was actually from Des Moines, Iowa! What I will say is that Monday night at the LIC Bar was memorable and a helluva lot of fun. Go out and catch this woman – it doesn’t matter if it’s a solo, a duo, a trio or her full band wherever and whenever you can, it’ll be a Latin-styled pop party.

Article and all photos by Willam Ruben Helms. Check out more photos from Nicola's show at LIC Bar on Flickr.

Long Island City, to me, is an outpost town, a town somewhere at the edge of an island, not quite Queens, not quite Brooklyn. The sunset only can be seen between the grid streets of Manhattan like a landscape of window blinds. Yes, it’s only fitting a band called Mission: On Mars plays at the edge of the universe, or at least as it may be known to some of the nearby residents. Okay, that last part was forced writing and cheese but seriously, to many of the attendees who came out for Mission: On Mars at the Gantries, the faces – curious of the live music playing in their backyard – may have led to the band’s uninspiring set. The band may as well had been from Mars.

Mission: On Mars sounded technically good. Vocalist Kristen Hoffman sang with a tinge of Indian flavor while Neel Murgai’s throat singing added another layer to their blend of East meets West music. The band’s broad influences combine jazz, rock, funk, and Indian folk music, and was a hit among the children, who danced along with a belly dancer; imitating her movements as she flitted across the floor.

But the band played without heart and thus became boring. I had seen the band play before. It was last year at a music festival in Queens. I remember really liking them, their energy, their mojo, that hypnotic gesture they made with their instruments, and the way they made my head swirl with ‘60s decadent exuberance. At Live at the Gantries it was different but the band’s set shouldn’t have been surprising – most especially since the audience consisted of children, parents, and curious baby boomers.

If anything the show did, however, showcase the Gantries, and Long Island City for that matter, as a location for live music if the right people continue to sow these seeds.

Carlos Detres is an author and DJ, founder of multimedia online magazine, The Whiskey Dregs.

First and last photos by Carlos Detres; all other photos by Arianys Wilson, view more on Flickr.

Mission: on mars, Live at The Gantries by Renzo Ortega from Live at the Gantries on Vimeo.

El Chico Blanco, the band of Long Island City improvisational stalwarts Steve Blanco, Anthony Riscica, and Geoff Gersh, played an inspired set last Saturday night at LIC’s The Creek & The Cave. After a full set earlier in the evening, the group was joined at midnight by LPS on turntables to improvise a full score to the 1982 movie Tron. It was an appropriate choice: the film’s long awaited sequel is being released this year, and more to the point, the band’s gamut of sounds is perfectly suited to the movie’s iconography.

The neighborhood was out in full force for the show. The band passed around glow sticks for audience members to wear as their own facsimiles of the suits worn by the program avatars in the electronic world of the movie. When the lights went out for the performance, the space was lit up with neon halos, like a vision of the future from the 1980s. The range of sounds the group worked with was less ambiguously contemporary, tending towards precise layering of grooves and spectral lines instead of hazy synthesizer nostalgia.

The group was wise in choosing not to reference the iconic themes of the original score by Wendy Carlos. In their place, the group improvised an original score in their familiar style. LPS added scratching effects and looped vocal samples of the film’s dialogue on top of the band’s heavily effect-laden guitar riffs, keyboard sounds, and drum rhythms. The band shifted fluidly from groove to groove, responding to the film’s plot and visual themes with new motives and shifts in timbre.

The set was split in half by a brief intermission. The break came at a seemingly arbitrary point in the movie, and it highlighted the show’s one flaw. Even though the band continually engaged with the film on the level of its images and editing, the story of this very diagetic feature was pretty much left aside. The dialogue of the film was muted along with the rest of the film’s original soundtrack, and this made the progression of the narrative difficult to follow for spectators not already familiar with the film. It was a necessary omission, perhaps, but one that made this more of a multimedia music event than a film screening with music.

The evening was an impressive showing by a band that’s already become a fixture of the scene. The band has been exploring a sound world beyond the scope of all but the most cutting-edge musicians, and the Tron event saw them in appropriately idiomatic form. It was an ambitious, engaging night of music and film, and hopefully a sign of what’s to come. El Chico Blanco plays at Domaine Wine Bar every Tuesday evening at 9:30, and you can also stay updated with the band on Facebook.

Drew Jaegle is an LIC resident and musician. He is currently working on a new rock-oriented project with his band, The Icons, and on material with a hip-hop group that is still to be named.

The videos are dark due to the lightning, but sound quality is great – have a listen below and get a feel for ECB! Check out more videos of the band here and here.

This article is reproduced with kind permission from where it originally appeared: writer/photographer William Ruben Helms' blog, The Joy of Violent Movement.

Although it wasn’t the birthplace of hip-hop, Queensbridge manages to hold a very special place in hip-hop history as it was the home of legendary producer Marley Marl, who later produced some of LL Cool J’s best work – including a ton of songs on one of LL Cool J’s biggest breakout hit albums, Mama Said Knock You Out; and because the neighborhood was also home to Marley Marl’s Juice Crew whose members include Roxanne Shante, MC Shan and Craig G., before introducing rappers like Kool G. Rap, Biz Markie, and Big Daddy Kane. The Juice Crew developed a reputation for firing off and starting beefs with rival crews on records, including their biggest rivals, the South Bronx-based Boogie Down Productions, fronted by KRS One, as well as DJ Red Alert. Of course, when compared to the beef records of new school hip-hop, the beefs between Boogie Down Productions and the Juice Crew seem – well, kind of tame. But regardless of their tameness by more modern standards, some truly amazing records were released during this time. Unfortunately and typically, for hip-hop or any other genre, the Queensbridge sound fell out of favor for the better part of a decade. But rappers such as Capone (of the Queens-based duo Capone ‘N Noreaga), Mobb Deep, Cormega and superstar, Nas brought the neighborhood back to prominence and back to public consciousness. So with Queensbridge’s place in hip-hop history, it should be no surprise that Summerstage would host the first of a recurring series of hip-hop shows here in Queensbridge with Funkmaster Flex and legendary old school rappers, EPMD as the headliners.

Figuring that there would be a lot of people out for the free show, I changed to a t-shirt and shorts and bolted from my office to make sure I got a decent enough spot to actually see the stage. Of course, that meant getting there for some of the last bit of sound checks before DJ Hotday warmed up the early comers with a tad over an hour set that started off with some area-appropriate old school hip-hop with the Juice Crew’s “The Bridge,” and weaved its way through hip-hop history, as it was followed by Jay Z, Mobb, Deep, Run DMC’s “Sucka MC’s” and tons more, before finally ending with Too $hort’s “Blow the Whistle.” Hotday’s DJ set was fairly workman-like as it was relatively free of turntable pyrotechnics – there wasn’t endless scratching for the sake of scratching or sudden and obnoxious switching between stereo and mono sound either, which are staples of tons of DJs across the country. Granted some of the song selection felt a bit obvious but I was quite pleased to hear both “Sucka MCs” and “Blow the Whistle” in the same set – especially since I hadn’t heard “Blow the Whistle” in some time (and because it’s one of my favorite Too $hort songs).

There were two brief stoppages during DJ Hotday’s set to allow Ron Artest, the local hero and member of the 2010 NBA World Champion Los Angeles Lakers to say a couple of words to the crowd and later to let him know that State Senate Chairman Malcolm Smith had passed legislation proclaiming July 15th to be Ron Artest Day across the state. Artest gets an unfairly bad rap – he’s a bit of a weird dude and yes, he has gotten himself into trouble – but he’s always been proud of being from Queensbridge, and he routinely gives back to the community, so I have to give him credit for that. And although I’m jumping a little ahead of myself here, despite what he does for his community, as a rapper he frankly isn’t good. Sure, as a basketball player, he exudes confidence but on stage, he exudes an awkward, cringe-inducing presence that made me feel embarrassed for him. If he wasn’t the tallest dude on stage, I think it would have been easier to dismiss him as a wannabe. Artest’s rhymes and rhyme schemes are fairly simplistic and the material is more of the clichéd stuff any listener will come across on the radio: songs about money, bling, women, champagne and cars. At one point, Artest seemed to be lip synching one of his songs – badly. It wasn’t as terrible as a strung out and screwed up, David Bowie lip synching “Fame” on Soul Train but it was close. During his insufferably long set, I had turned to an older woman who was standing near me and we both agreed on one thing – that Ron Artest should stick to playing basketball.

Like a lot of Hot 97 listeners, I’ve bitterly complained about Funkmaster Flex, especially over the last five years or so. Funkmaster Flex seemed to spend much more time promoting his car shows down in South Jersey and his other various projects than playing actual music. But when he’s actually inspired to play, Flex is among the world’s best DJs. His set also primarily stuck to old school stuff, ranging from New Edition’s super saccharine “Candy Girl,” to Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison,” Mobb Deep, old school break beats, Wu Tang Clan and others. Unlike DJ Hotday who stuck to playing longer pieces of songs, Flex’s set involved much more pyrotechnics – scratching, weaving and bopping galore. Strangely, Flex ended his set with Too $hort’s “Blow the Whistle.” I love the song but I kept wondering why both DJs played similar tunes throughout the set. Regardless, both DJs had the audience amped up for the rest of the night.

EPMD brings back all sorts of fond memories for me. I think of catching Yo! MTV Raps with Dr. Dre and Ed Lover on the weekends after school and the weekend edition with Fab Five Freddy, and catching the hottest videos of the day or of the week. Ah, there was Third Bass, Heavy D, Kwame and the Polka Dots, the New Jack Swing era, Redman, K Solo, and of course EPMD. One of the first cassette tapes I bought was EPMD’s Business Never Personal in 1991 or 1992 from the long defunct chain, Nobody Beats the Wiz. Granted, seeing Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith looking like they were aging (and badly), reminded me that I was also getting older. But you know, at the same time, it reminded me of how much fun some of the old school stuff really was. “You Gots to Chill” and “So Whatcha Sayin’” with their 808 synthesizer drum beats and heavy bass lines bristle with the sort of braggadocio that was common in old school rhymes. Sure, Sermon and Smith’s rhymes were never as politically charged or as a deep as KRS One, never really filled with the righteous indignation of Chuck D, nor filled with the wild pop culture references of Das EFX but they were always fun.

Both Sermon and Smith took a breather to allow for their DJ, DJ Scratch to do a ten or fifteen minute DJ set full of wild pyrotechnics – including Scratch using his mouth and teeth on the turntable. DJ Scratch who’s a three-time World DJ Champion is known for these sorts of tricks and it really wows the crowd. Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith joined Scratch back up on the stage to do an incredibly energetic and wild version of “Headbanger” complete with roughly every possible hip-hop personality they could gather in New York on stage with them. I recognized Greg Nice of Nice ‘N Smooth, Marley Marl, Spinderella of Salt ‘N Pepa, and Capone of Capone ‘N Noreaga. Even Ralph McDaniels was around somewhere. Ending the set with Erick Sermon’s subpar hit “Just Like Music,” was a bit of a downer but still this show was probably the most fun at a show I’ve had in quite some time.

(Photos: #1 [top]: Funkmaster Flex on the 1s and 2s; #2 and #3: DJ Scratch on the 1s and 2s; #4: EPMD rocking the crowd; #5: Ron Artest spitting some rhymes; #6: DJ Hotday warming up the crowd; #7: Ralph McDaniels; and #8: Ron Artest saying a few words to his neighborhood)

Article and all photos by Willam Ruben Helms. Check out more photos from the show on William's Flickr page.