Screenplays
I just finished my second feature length screenplay. I’m editing both now and will soon share synopses. This has been challenging but also liberating.
Hello, California
This summer I moved to California. It is beautiful, rich, and perilous. It’s taking some time to adjust, but I am finding experiences, places and people that bring me joy.
HONG KONG / ART BASEL / EUROPE SPRING 2019
2019 Tour Recap: Art Basel in Hong Kong, Europe, NOLA Jazz Fest
I’m back home in a moment of repose and pivot after five weeks on tour with Antibalas.
We began the tour in late March in Hong Kong (our first trip there and only other Asia appearance outside of Japan). We played the LACMA X UCCA Party connected to Art Basel.
I wasn’t sure what we were in for but it was a beautiful and strange night filled with immersive dance and theater performances, lots of people in couture, and a performance before us by Vava, an MC from China who put on a really good show.
The jet lag was intense and at times, crippling.
We had a few days to walk around before the next leg of the trip.
Part Two: Europe
From Hong Kong we flew via Moscow to Paris. It was not a nice flight, and the transfer was hectic.
We arrived in Paris and none of our checked luggage had arrived: no clothes, nor instruments (except for what we gate-checked and carried by hand.
Luckily our stuff arrived the evening before our first show in La Rochelle.
We set off on the next 3.5 weeks in a sprinter van and 4-person car throughout France, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, England and Ireland.
Sugar Club, Dublin Ireland.
The shows were a lot of fun and the level of production overall was tremendous, a much higher level than what we normally experience at clubs of the same size in the US. A large part of this has to do with two things: culture is taken seriously as a profession and social benefit/right and 2) The state (at local, regional and national levels provides financial support to both venues and festivals which allows them to staff each event with capable staff who are trained and getting paid okay.
It was non-stop, and has to be when you have 12 people on the road all needing to eat, drink, sleep and move. We can’t really afford many days off.
In Zurich, we made a horn squad field trip to the workshop of Thomas Indirbinen who makes some of the most divine instruments I’ve ever seen and played. These baritone saxophones are so balanced and resonant, top to bottom. Saving my Swiss francs…
The squad was top notch and we had Jerome Bach on sound and tour managing. I can’t imagine having done this run without him.
Part Three: New Orleans / Jazz Fest / Music Box Village
The Music Box Village is hard to describe: it’s a cluster of home-made buildings made from repurposed materials that are musical. Each one has different sounds (percussive, chimes, horns, metal, strings) and can be played with the other buildings. Everything is mic’ed or has electric pickups and the sound is fed and mixed through a soundboard.
We did a hybrid performance using our own instruments integrated with the sounds of the buildings. We had two days to get the repertoire and new compositions and set together. On day one it poured for five hours straight so our rehearsal was confined to the warehouse.
The day of the show we had pure sunshine and got to work setting up and testing the sounds.
On tour with Antibalas worldwide in 2019
On tour across North America, Europe and beyond with Antibalas, celebrating 20 years of making music together.
We’ll be performing in the US, Canada, Western Europe this spring. See the map and itinerary below for the updated schedule:
Louisiana
Back in Louisiana visiting family, doing research, writing, walking, observing and making new friends. Shaking off the old year.
Back in Louisiana visiting family, doing research, writing, walking, observing and making new friends. Shaking off the old year.
Louisiana is at all times the most beautiful and ugliest place in the United States. All of the strands of this country’s history ever present.
Marigny / Bywater
With Corey Henry and Treme Funktet. Vaughan’s Lounge Oct 2018 Photo: Raymond J Mason
Crescent Park
Crescent Park
My partner in time. Press St. Bywater.
Orquesta Akokán Nominated for a Grammy
Congratulations / felicidades to Orquesta Akokán for the Grammy nomination for their latest release on Daptone records. I was honored to have to privilege of writing the album’s liner notes.
Read / listen here: https://www.orquestaakokan.com
End of the year...2018
End of 2018 reflections, touring, travels, work, life.
highlights from last few months…
Emerald Cup (Santa Rosa, CA) with Antibalas (12/16/2018)
This was a beautiful cannabis culture event in Sonoma County. It was pouring rain and I was in full business mode so I didn’t sample any of the world class (and legal) cannabis, but I did get to see an entire set by the ever-amazing Dirty Dozen Brass Band who played right before us.
Trópico Festival (Acapulco, MX) with Antibalas (12/8/2018)
I wish all festivals were like this—right on the beach, super laid back, the stage was walking distance from our hotel rooms. The lineup was really cool—Nicola Cruz, De La Soul, Celso Piña and Giorgio Moroder were my highlights. They don’t do festivals like this in the US.
Art Basel: PAMM (Miami, FL) with Antibalas (12/6/2018)
Photo: WorldRedey
This was a jump off concert for the Perez Art Museum-Miami for Art Basel 2018. We played on a beautiful stage right on Biscayne Bay. I also got to make a visit to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens to discuss proposals for some interpretative history projects.
Complete Last Waltz (Capitol Theater, Port Chester, NY) (11/17/2018)
I get to do this every two years with an amazing crew of friends that includes my Antibalas horn mates plus John Altieri on tuba, the amazing house band, and singers including Nels Cline, Binky Griptite, Nicole Atkins and a bunch of other people.
September-October
Fall touring with Antibalas all over—Calgary and Edmonton, DC, Brooklyn, Richmond VA…
And lots of time spent in California with my man Gabriel Roth and bandmate Amayo mixing the new Antibalas album for Daptone records.
Back from Bogotá with Antibalas
Whoa! Our trip Bogotá was beautiful. So intense, dynamic and delicious, and as always, fleetingly short.
I went with Antibalas to perform at Rock al Parque, a three-day (FREE!!) festival produced/funded by the city of Bogotá, featuring three stages, probably 100 or so regional, national and international bands, and over 300,000 people coming through.
It was so much fun but not without its challenges. Each band only had 50 minutes to perform--we're just getting warmed up and into our third or fourth song by then. Bogotá is also (8,660 feet) above sea level. The altitude was no joke when it came to singing and blowing air through a horn. The cold weather (55F) was not ideal for tropical music but nonetheless it was a jam and a privilege to rock for such a great audience.
Highlights:
Seeing Javier Bonilla and his group present Afro-Colombian music at Bar El Chaman. Arepas, of course, and lots of good coffee. Some delicious vanilla-steeped rum at bar Matik Matik with insane vinyl DJS, hanging out with one of my favorite bands--La 33-- at the birthday of Santi, the pianist, meeting master quena/flautist Fabian Triana and receiving a beautiful quena as a gift along with his music, digging for second hand vinyl in the flea markets thanks to tips from Quantic.
UPDATE: Antibalas-Journey Back to the Motherland film on Kickstarter
UPDATE: We hit our and exceeded our goal!
Antibalas has just 24 hours to meet our Kickstarter goal of $50K to film our upcoming musical pilgrimage to Lagos, Nigeria.
In the past 29 days, over 421 supporters around the world have gotten us over 90% of the way there. Please help us reach this goal, and thanks to everyone who's already generously contributed.