A few weeks ago a bunch of Antibalas members served as the house band at the City Winery afterparty following the Music of David Bowie concerts at and Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall on 3/31 and 4/1/2016. Here are some audience videos from the night:
"Black Star"
"Fame" featuring Marcus Farrar, vocals.
"Golden Years" featuring Timothy Allen, vocals.
Here's one more, with the full Antibalas band, from January 19, 2016 from our residency at Brooklyn Bowl with special guest Miguel Zenón.
Trumpeter Jordan McLean's label System Dialing just released "New Vocabulary", a new album with saxophonist Ornette Coleman with McLean, drummer Amir Ziv and keyboardist Adam Holzman.
Drummer Miles Arntzen is out on the road with Will Butler of Arcade Fire playing songs off the new album "Policy" on Merge Records. His band EMEFE just released a new video (WATCH) and released a new album on May 3.
Antibalas horns Ray Mason, Martín Perna, Jordan McLean, and Jas Walton can be heard on Mark Ronson's new album "Uptown Special."
T
he full Antibalas band is featured on two songs co-written by Martín Perna: "Melagioco" and "Libera" on the new release "2015cc" by Lorenzo Cherubini aka Jovanotti. The horns are featured on a third tune, "Ragazza Magica."
Ray Mason, Reinaldo de Jesus, and Martín Perna recorded on the Mark Ronson-produced soundtrack to the film "Mortdecai" starring Johnny Depp and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Antibalas founder / baritone saxophonist Martín Perna has entered the world of standup comedy. He has performed at the Comedy Cellar Village Underground, Eastville, and StandUp New York.
Antibalas tenor sax emeritus Stuart Bogie is leading his band Superhuman Happiness (feat. longtime Antibalas trumpeter Eric Biondo) on a tour of the west coast with Marco Benevento.
Nikhil Yerawadekar (bass) and Timothy Allen (guitar) are in California for two record release shows with the Sway Machinery. Nikhil and his group "Low Mentality have a new 45 rpm out called "Reel It In" on 3rd Generation Recordings. Here's the VIDEO.
Trumpeter emeritus Todd Simon just won a Grammy in the category of Best Reggae Album for his performance and horn arranging work on Ziggy Marley's "Fly Rasta." His LA-based ensemble Ethio Cali has a new residency in LA at Acabar.
I've been working on the EMEFE album for the past year. It is finally done, and now we are scheming how to release it and building up our live show. (We recently put up one of the tracks on Soundcloud as a teaser.) Not only is the album is a true representation of all of my influences, but it is also the debut of myself as a lead singer, which is a role I've been quietly working on for years now. I am writing, recording and preparing a bunch of other music to release around the same time as the EMEFE album, to further present myself as a songwriter and producer, not just a drummer.
I worry about the fact that the music industry seems impossible to break through unless you pay your way to the top (or experience what is basically a miracle). It is easy to let this mentality bring you down, but I also believe that good music prevails! So what am I doing about it? Writing music, making music, living music... all the time.
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