Music of Aretha Franklin at Carnegie Hall 3/6/2017

We'll be back at Carnegie Hall for the third time since 2014 performing as the house band for The Music of Aretha Franklin on Monday March 6, 2017.

The partial lineup of participating artists is already incredible and growing by the week. The show is a benefit and proceeds go to several NYC-based charities that bring musical experiences, training, and instruments to young people in the city.

We'll also be doing a warm-up show with some of the featured performers the night before at City Winery (NYC) on March 5. Big shout-out to producers Michael Dorf, Shlomo Lipetz and the entire City Winery crew for inviting us back.

Concert/Ticket Info HERE: http://musicof.org

To get you in the mood, here's a Spotify playlist of some of our favorites:

On the Road with Zap Mama

Greetings from Tampa. We're two shows into a 29 show tour with the amazing Zap Mama taking us across the US (and one show in Toronto). What a treat to start the tour in warm sunny Florida, far away from the bitter cold of Brooklyn. We'll be here for three more shows (West Palm Beach, Miami, and Orlando) before making our way back north via Atlanta, Richmond, Newport News, and DC, and then to some of the coldest parts of the US...

The tour has been unique in that we're collaborating with Zap Mama...we've learned some of their songs, and they've learned some of ours, and the bulk of the set features the twelve of us and four of them singing and making music together. In addition to Zap Mama's tunes, we're performing mostly new original material...songs composed by lead vocalist Amayo and Antibalas founder/baritone saxophonist Martín Perna. In the mix so far: "Action Time", "Hook and Crook", and "Tombstown". We're also doing a trademark Antibalas arrangement of the 1984 Rockwell/Michael Jackson jam "Somebody's Watching Me" which seemed like a silly paranoid fantasy at the time it hit the radio, but now 30 years later has proven to be prophetic. Audiences are loving it in the way that you can love a song that tells the bitter truth about a sad, absurd reality.

Zap Mama is amazing and it has been a pleasure working with them. After seventeen years of Antibalas being an all-male band, their presence has created a refreshing and necessary equilibrium of yin and yang energy onstage. They are consummate professionals, excellent vocal performers, great dancers, sharp dressers (we've had to really step up our clothing game) and all-around nice people. It's been a family vibe with Marie and Lene each bringing their children out for the first leg of the tour.

We'll be posting some live recordings on our Soundcloud page (and mirrored here) as well as photos and video of the tour. You can follow it virtually, but nothing will come close to the experience of seeing this rare collaboration live in person.

Stay tuned.

Scenes from City Winery / Carnegie Paul Simon Tribute 3/30, 3/31

Shots from the Tribute to Paul Simon at Carnegie Hall  on 3/31 and the rehearsal concert and afterparty both held at City Winery.

The work at hand. 15 songs

Carnegie Hall, from the top row, looking down

Our view from the stage

With Judy Collins

With Mike Gordon

With LP

Marcus Farrar and Sam Moore

Sam Moore : "Loves Me Like a Rock"

With Dan Wilson

With Bettye LaVette at Afterparty

With Angelique Kidjo at rehearsal concert

Rehearsing with Allen Toussaint

Rehearsing with LP at City Winery

Rehearsing with Bob Mould at City Winery

Rehearsing with Andy Cabic and Isobel Campbell at City Winery

Afterparty at City Winery