#Mauro Refosco

[garadinervi]

Wadada Leo Smith and Orange Wave Electric, Fire Illuminations, KB112, Kabell Records, 2023

Featuring: Nels Cline, Brandon Ross, Lamar Smith, Bill Laswell, Melvin Gibbs, Hardedge, Pheeroan akLaff and Mauro Refosco.

Cover Art: Einar Falur Ingólfsson

[thebowerypresents]

Blonde Redhead Come Home to Close Out Tour for New Album at Brooklyn Steel

Blonde Redhead – Brooklyn Steel – November 10, 2023

For all the painters renowned for their mastery of the use of contrasts, not enough bands get the credit they deserve for the same. Blonde Redhead, as their name almost implies, are wizards of contrasting sounds. Their Brooklyn Steel concert on Friday night kicked off with an immediate juxtaposition, taking to the stage playing through some ethereal guitar loops before jumping headfirst into the jagged angular guitars that begin “Falling Man.” It hit like a hard and sudden rain descending out of a misty fog. “Yet I am just a man still learning how to fall,” sings Amedeo Pace with his strained tenor voice punching through. This is followed by (and in contrast to) “Dr. Strangeluv,” with its lush and expansive landscape of sounds, this time filled out by Kazu Makino’s delicately singing as if she were floating above the song. 

There are only three members in Blonde Redhead, but their sound is so much bigger and their songs have so many layers spilling out of them that repeated listens often reveal something new. When played live, these opportunities to get pulled in are everywhere. For me, this hit the hardest during “SW,” with my ears for the first time noticing the brooding, rattling hum of the guitar that undergirds the song. Come the chorus, the refrains of “It’s not” and “I am” bend guitar strings toward Amedeo’s words like gravity.  

Brazilian (and New York City-based) percussionist Mauro Refosco joined the band for the final night of the tour. He was featured on Blonde Redhead’s recently released 10th LP, Sit Down for Dinner, including the hypnotically mesmerizing “Snowman,” which slowly builds in polyrhythms like, dare I say, a rolling snowball. 

“We’re getting forgetful in old age,” said Amedeo, excusing Makino taking a pause to track down a piece of paper before a song. “It’s not old age, I’ve always been like this,” answered the rhythm guitarist. Another thing Makino’s always been is strikingly beautiful, moving along to their songs like they’re waves washing over her. At times Amedo joined her in dancing, his lanky frame extenuated by his white jumpsuit, with the two of them flanking Simone Pace on drums. This is a band that’s long been in lockstep, for twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace, likely since birth. 

Their set closed with the shoegazing masterpiece “23,” which blows through with so much force only to end in some scattered guitar whispers and rhythms, the remnants of a tornado of a song that just blew through. —Dan Rickershauser | @D4nRicks

Photos courtesy of Dana Distortion | distortionpix.com

[jgthirlwell]

10.06.22 I caught Sean Lennon’s phenomenal set at The Stone with Devin Hoff (bass), Michael Leonhart (trumpet), João Nogueira (keyboards), Mauro Refosco (percussion), Ches Smith (drums) and Lennon (guitar). Music was progged out instrumental instrumental bliss with shades of Rock In Opposition, Robert Wyatt and even Santana. Thank you David Newgarden. Sean came down with COVID the next day and cancelled the rest of the residency.

[dustedmagazine]

As for the Future — S-T (Self-Release)

As for the Future mixes downtown cool with breezy bossa nova, convening a passel of New York City fixtures with Brazilian roots and inclinations. David Nagler, an experienced session hand who plays for Jon Oliver’s Last Week tonight, is the main songwriter and bandleader. He splits vocal duties with Alexia Bomtempo, a Rio native who has made her mark with a highly regarded tribute to Caetano Veloso and a jazz-bossa nova album titled Suspirio. Mauro Refosco, one of David Byrne’s go-to percussionists, adds a syncopated swing in hand drums, kit and that marker of Brazilian music, the cuica. And Ryan Keberle plays a fluid, evocative trombone, an odd instrument for such a small ensemble but essential here.

Nagler is a very clever lyricist, though perhaps a bit too clever on wordsmith-y entries like “Koan for the Music Business” and “My Therapist.” The former asks, “If a record drops in the forest, does anybody hear it?” to a swishing, shushing, ebullient cadence, imagining forest creatures trying to make sense of pop songs unheard by human audiences. It’s a little bit of inside baseball even before it name checks The Music Modernization Act, but hey, what do the writing teachers always advise: write what you know.

The Bomtempo tracks benefit from a sleek, fluid vocal style that slips through and past any verbal complications. She sighs and croons through “The Mob,” with effortless cool, unruffled and at ease, as clacking, rim-heavy percussion pushes forward and Keberle’s trombone executes arch, knowing brass flourishes in the interstices. It’s possible that the lyrics are just as fussily clever here as elsewhere, but they’re swallowed up in effortless sonic hedonism.

The sound here is very smooth and buoyant, whether it supports Nagler’s indie confessionals or Bomtempo’s chilly sensualism. It’s clear that everybody participating is very, very good at their respective instruments, and that they take pleasure in their blend of pop and Brazilian jazz. And yet, though the beats are heated and polyrhythmic, the brass inflamed, the songs come across as intellectual exercises. (For whatever it’s worth, the band name comes from an alternate title of a Claire Lispector novel.)  They’re too clean by half, and choked with jazz-handed, theatre kid energy. Not for me.

Jennifer Kelly

[nonesuchrecords]

David Byrne’s American Utopia is the focus of the latest episode of the Suzie Explores podcast. Seven members of the Broadway cast—Bobby Wooten III, Mauro Refosco, Daniel Freedman, Tim Keiper, Stéphane San Juan, Jacquelene Acevedo, and Tendayi Kuumba—joined host Suzie Collier six months after the end of the Broadway run to discuss the show and what’s happened since. You can watch the conversation here.

[burlveneer-music]

Wadada Leo Smith and Orange Wave Electric - what a lineup!

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith with Orange Wave Electric, an all-star electric band including guitarists Nels Cline, Brandon Ross and Lamar Smith; bassists Bill Laswell and Melvin Gibbs; electronic musician Hardedge; percussionist Mauro Refosco; and drummer Pheeroan akLaff. Throughout 2022, Wadada Leo Smith celebrated his 80th birthday with one of the most prolific and creative year’s worth of releases in his – and perhaps anybody’s – history to date. Lest anyone should imagine that this breathtaking run was in any way valedictory, the now 81-year-old Smith returns with his first of several planned releases for 2023. The exhilarating Fire Illuminations, due out March 31, 2023 on Smith’s own Kabell Records label, features his newly assembled ensemble Orange Wave Electric.

Ever innovative in his quest for new methods of composing, guiding, and creating improvised music, Smith crafted the five expansive compositions on Fire Illuminations in the studio from a series of recording dates conducted and edited over the course of nearly four years. He cites such precedents as the groundbreaking work of Jamaican reggae and dub innovator Lee “Scratch” Perry and Miles Davis classics like Bitches Brew and On the Corner. Album Cover Image by Einar Falur Ingólfsson

[abr]

Sono in Friuli col sublime musicista friulano Massimo Silverio, uno che suona e canta tra i Sigur Ros e il Pasolini dell’Academiuta, beviamo refosco, schioppettino, perfino verduzzo, e lo interrogo sul più grande friulano vivente.

Chi sarà mai? Dopo Pasolini, Zigaina, Bortolotto, chi potrebbe essere? Lui, indigeno, fa nomi a me purtroppo ignoti. Io, alloctono, avanzo due ipotesi: Mauro Corona e Giorgio Fidenato.

Corona non per meriti letterari (ai suoi libri preferisco quelli di Alberto Garlini) bensì televisivi: questo genio, o quest’uomo fortunato, non saprei, riesce a farsi pagare bene per dire la qualunque senza muoversi da casa. Ovverosia senza andare a Roma. E’ il mio sogno: starmene in cucina o in salotto, recitare la mia parte e aspettare il bonifico, senza stazioni e treni, senza i tassisti romani… 

Mentre Giorgio Fidenato per meriti libertari: è l’agricoltore ribelle che nei suoi campi semina mais ogm, proibito dalla superstizione ambientalista, e che perciò viene perseguitato dai superstiziosi e dallo stato.

Adesso devo decidere se scegliere il confortevole egoismo (la vita di Corona serve soltanto a lui) o il faticoso altruismo (la battaglia di Fidenato è per la libertà di tutti, per dare più cibo meno caro a tutti). Intanto che ci penso ordino altri due bicchieri (mai bevuto uno schioppettino così buono).

Grande Camillo Langone, via https://www.ilfoglio.it/preghiera/2024/03/20/news/i-piu-grandi-friuliani-viventi-6347116/

Un ignorante che sfrutta, da nomade quale appare, i cittadoni più ignoranti di lui che non sanno di non sapere, un grande saggio controcorrente inviso all'inclito dell'elite come al profano popolazzo sensibilizzato ai complotti ma che se li beve tutti.

[screamingforyears]

IN_A_MINUTE: // AN INDIE EXPRESS…

@jpblues is here w/ “LIFE IS,” the lead single/track from her forthcoming LP titled ‘Here in the Pitch’ (5/3 @mexican_summer) & it finds the LA-based artist, rounded out here by Al Carlson, Matt McDermott, Spencer Zahn, Mauro Refosco, Ryley Walker, Peter Mudge & Alex Goldberg climbing “back on the horse before it gets dark” across 3 mins of retro-dipped, aesthetically apt & bitterly melancholic IndiePop.

“BEHIND YOUR EAR” is the final single in the run-up to @latebloomernc’s forthcoming LP titled ‘Another One Again’ (3/1 @deadbrokerekerds @selfawarerecords) & it finds the Charlotte-based trio of Josh (bass), Neil (guitar) & Scott (drums) power_popping their way across a compact 2:41 clip of charged up CollegeRawk.

“BILLOW” is the latest single from @meatbodiesofficialauthentic’s forthcoming LP titled ‘Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom’ (3/8 @intheredrecords) & it finds the Los Angeles-based quartet stone_rosing their way across 4 ½ mins of shimmy-shaking, righteously riffed & psych-tinged AltRawk.

@omnideluxe are here w/ “COMPLIMENT,” the final single in the run-up to their forthcoming LP titled ‘Souvenir’ (2/16 @subpop) & it finds the ATL-based trio of guitarist Frankie Broyles, singer/bassist Philip Frobos & drummer Chris Yonker post_punking across a sub-4 min slice of southernly twanged NewWave.

“THE LIGHT” is the lead single from @parsnip_hq’s forthcoming LP titled ‘Behold’ (4/26 @antifaderecords@upset_the_rhythm) & it finds the Melbourne-based quartet of bassist/vocalist Paris Richens, drummer Carolyn Hawkins, guitarist/saxophonist/vocalist Stella Rennex & keyboardist Rebecca Liston bringing a 1:56 clip of retro-riffing & girl_grouping RetroPop.

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[nofatclips]

Hurts To Be Alone by Norah Jones from the album Pick Me Up Off The Floor

[cbjustmusic]

David Byrne & Brian Eno's "One Fine Day" performed by Brooklyn Youth Chorus, David Byrne, and Mauro Refosco _________________________ One Fine Day Songwriters: David Byrne and Brian Eno

Saw the wanderin’ eye, inside my heart Shouts and battle cries, from every part I can see those tears, every one is true When the door appears, I’ll go right through, oh I stand in liquid light, like everyone

I built my life with rhymes, to carry on And it gives me hope, to see you there The things I used to know, that one fine

One fine day

In a small dark room, where I will wait Face to face I find, I contemplate Even though a man is made of clay Everything can change that one fine —

One fine day

Then before my eyes, is standing still I beheld it there, a city on a hill I complete my tasks, one by one I remove my masks, when I am done

Then a peace of mind fell over me — In these troubled times, I still can see We can use the stars, to guide the way It is not that far, the one fine —

One fine day

[angelpiejan]

[whateverurhavinyerself]

Some of the American Utopia Cast and Crew. (x)

[mitjalovse]

Domino is a record label based in London, so the fact that most of their signings are a part of the English scene makes a lick of sense. However, their scouts or whatever they are called look outside their country to get some intriguing groups, including Dirty Projectors. While the latter do resemble the indie rock scene of New York – you can hear this is their base –, they basically add, well, everything. Sure, they don't reach the level of maximalism with their tones, yet they can be overwhelming at times. Still, the sheer mastery of Mr. David Longstreth does bring the entire suspense of an utter crash to a halt. He established a certain sonic identity that can be malleable, though you can continue to hear that as nothing else but Dirty Projectors.

[nonesuchrecords]

David Byrne was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! from Brooklyn, joined by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and drummer Mauro Refosco to perform "One Fine Day," a song featured on David Byrne's American Utopia on Broadway, now at the Hudson Theatre, and its original cast recording, out now on Nonesuch.

[robmoro]

Listen | Bingo Fury returns with new single 'Birchall & Kings'

Listen | Bingo Fury returns with new single ‘Birchall & Kings’

Bingo Fury releases a new single called ‘Birchall and Kings’, his third to date and his premier release for the Practise Music imprint. ‘Birchall & Kings’, is a topsy-turvy track that is said to epitomise the artist’s musical style. “Birchall and Kings spawned from an obsession with limitation in the creative process. It’s an attempt at writing a mono-tonal song, while trying to keep things…