Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Kicks Off Highline Ballroom's Events, 6/18-7/1
By: BWW News Desk Jun. 13, 2012
Highline Ballroom (431 West 16th Street between 9th Avenue and 10th Avenue) has just announced its line-up from June 18 through July 1. See full details below. Tickets may be purchased through Ticketweb, online at ticketweb.com or at the Highline Box Office from noon until doors close at 866-468-7619.
Highline Ballroom is a full-scale restaurant with a full bar. A $10 food and/or beverage minimum is standard for table seating during shows.
Unless otherwise noted, all shows are suitable for all ages and offer general admission seating. Seating for all shows is first come, first seated; the Highline does not take advance table reservations, except where noted as a condition of a VIP ticket. The Ballroom cannot seat incomplete parties. Standing room for all shows is available at our bar.
For further show information, directions to the venue and for the latest updates visit www.highlineballroom.com or call 212-414-4314. All events are subject to change.
UPCOMING SHOWS – June 18 – July 2, 2012:
June 18, 2012
Blue Note Jazz Festival
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
With special guest Kelan Phil Cohran (Father)
Produced by Jill Newman Productions
Tickets $15.00 ADV., $20 DOS
Concert starts @ 9:00PM, Doors open @ 7:00PM
While most of today's music is overflowing with artificial elements and effects, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (HBE) offers the authenticity and attested musicianship of the eras that birthed the band's influences: jazz, funk, soul, and hip-hop. The group's fusion of these genres has created the unparalleled, mesmeric sound that has captivated audiences worldwide. Strong familiar musical ties encouraged these eight brothers, born and raised in the crime-riddled south side of Chicago, to infiltrate their neighborhoods with brass weapons of expression to provide much-needed enlightenment and entertainment. HBE's compelling street performances transformed the group members into global celebrities who plan to continue sharing their passion for music with the hope that their spellbinding sound will inspire every individual who hears it.
June 19, 2012
Sybarite Productions Presents
Love is Love
Tickets $15.00
Concert starts @ 10:00PM, Doors open @ 8:30PM
Did someone say "dance off?" On June 19th, Sybarite Productions will present Love is Love, a choreographer's showcase and competition, at Highline Ballroom. The evening will feature choreography by a variety of artists, a set of exhibiting painters, music by DJ Crazy Legs, and more!
June 20, 2012 **SOLD OUT**
Joss Stone
Tickets $35.00 day of show, Limited tickets available at the door at show time!
Concert starts @ 10:00PM, Doors open @ 8:30PM
In her short, young life and already long career, Stone has performed onstage with the likes of James Brown, Gladys Knight, Solomon Burke, Blondie, Smokey Robinson, and Melissa Etheridge, among many others. She's contributed to albums by Jeff Beck and Ringo Starr, played the Super Bowl pre-game show, performed on the Grammys, and indeed won a Grammy herself. In her 25 years, she's participated in more moments of absolute musical wonder than most people can hope for in a lifetime. And she's approached it all with a sense of independence and joie de vivre. With over 11 million album sales to date and a wealth of experience under her belt, 2012 seems like the right time to bring a new perspective to the album that first made Stone famous: Soul Sessions. Be on the lookout for her newest effort, Soul Sessions Vol. 2, due out on July 31st – a stunning exercise in vocal poise, passion, and power, showcasing some great songs and an artist at the peak of her vocal powers.
June 21, 2012
Blue Note Jazz Festival
Toshi Reagon & Allison Miller Present Celebrate! The Great Women of Blues & Jazz
With Christelle Durandy, Karma, Mayet Johnson, M. Nahadr, Imani Uzuri, Josette Marchak & Toshi Reagon, with host Liza Jessie Peterson & special guest dancer Michelle Dorrance
Produced by Jill Newman Productions
Tickets $15 ADV., $17 DOS
Concert starts @ 8:00PM, Doors open @ 6:00PM
Tonight at Highline Ballroom, Toshi Reagon and Allison Miller present Celebrate! The Great Women of Blues & Jazz. The show will feature performances by Christelle Durandy, Karma, Mayet Johnson, M. Nahadr, Imani Uzuri, Josette Marchak, Toshi Reagon, with host Liza Jessie Peterson and special guest dancer Michelle Dorrance. Featured instrumentalists will include Allison Miller on drums, Mimi Jones on bass, Alex Nolan on guitar, Tanya Darby on trumpet, and Reut Regev on trombone. The show is produced by Jill Newman Productions.
June 22, 2012
Blue Note Jazz Festival
The Rolling Stones Project
Tim Ries's Stones World with special guests Bernard Fowler & Darryl Jones of the Rolling Stones, plus Ben Monder, Ilan Bar-Lavi, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Jasia Ries & More
Opening Act(s): The NOWtet Plays Zep
Tickets $25.00 GA ADV., $30 DOS/ $45 Reserved VIP Seating available for 1st 2 rows
Concert starts @ 7:00PM, Doors open @ 6:00PM
Known to millions as the lead horn player in the Rolling Stones touring band, saxophonist Tim Ries is celebrating the recent release of his newest album, Stones World: The Rolling Stones Project II (2008). A fabulously entertaining jazz set of Jagger-Richards songs, the disc brings to the broader world an incredible mixture of jazz and rock swagger, much as the Rolling Stones themselves have done.
June 22, 2012
Blowoff
Featuring the DJ Sounds of Bob Mould & Richard Morel
Tickets $20.00 ADV, $25.00 DOS
Concert starts @ 11:30PM, Doors open @ 11:30PM
General Admission Standing Room / 21+
Bob Mould and Richard Morel's Blowoff is a DJ event that has become a premier destination for a wide cross-section of appreciative music fans. Originating in 2003 in Washington, DC's Velvet Lounge, Blowoff started as a musical collaboration between Mould and Morel. The two DJ in tandem, laying down a signature mix of indie rock, electro, and house, accented by a series of artfully eye-popping vignettes projected throughout the club. With the focus firmly on cutting-edge music, dazzling live visuals by Nick Lopata, and stunning poster art by Baltimore-based artist Linas Garsys, the party has grown quickly and is now an established event in New York, San Francisco, Provincetown, Chicago, and San Diego. The Blowoff artist CD was also released in 2006 on Full Frequency Music.
June 23, 2012
Akhenaton
Tickets $20.00 Adv. $25.00 DOS
Concert starts @ 8:00PM, Doors open @ 6:30PM
Philippe Frangione, better known by his stage name Akhenaton, has become one of the highest-profile artists from Marseilles, France. He is without a doubt one of the most widely heard representatives of French rap music. Known under a pseudonym borrowed from ancient Egypt, the rapper first gained notoriety as a hip-hop theorist, publishing the influential essay "La Deuxième Génération du Hip-Hop" in 1988 in the fanzine Vé. After making his recorded debut that same year with Let's Make Some Noise, he helped form the group that would become the hip-hop coalition IAM, one of the most popular French hip-hop acts of its generation.
June 24, 2012 **EARLY SHOW SOLD OUT**
Blue Note Jazz Festival
Buika
Performing 2 shows!
Tickets $35.00 Adv., $40.00 DOS.
Concerts start @ 8:00PM & 10:30PM, Doors open @ 6:00PM & 10:00PM
Buika is one of the most peculiar Spanish artists around. This singer, born on the island of Mallorca to African immigrant parents from EquatoriAl Guinea, has become a true revelation to those who thought flamenco had little left to contribute to Spanish music, and to jazz. Her evident African roots and her cosmopolitanism, developed in clubs in Spain and Americanized during a strange detour to Las Vegas as a Tina Turner impersonator, explain Buika's rare self-possession. But nothing can quite explain her ability to connect as one of those rare and wonderful "one-listen" artists.
June 25, 2012
Life Will Write the Words Tour
The Rocket Summer
With The Scene Aesthetic and States
Tickets $16.00 Adv. $18.00 DOS
Concert starts @ 7:30PM, Doors open @ 6:00PM
Texas native Bryce Avary, the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer mastermind behind The Rocket Summer, has accomplished enough for someone a lot older, as he prepares for the release of his fifth full-length album, Life Will Write the Words (2012). Since launching his career as a 16-year-old with the independently released The Rocket Summer EP (2000), a name he took from a Ray Bradbury short story, Avary has toured around the world, selling out venues not just in the US, but in Canada, the UK, Australia, and Japan as well, while playing such noted events as the UK's Glastonbury Festival, Scotland's T in the Park, Japan's Summer Sonic Festival, Australia's Soundwave Festival, Austin City Limits, SXSW, Bamboozle, Cornerstone, and the 2007 and 2010 Vans Warped Tours.
June 26, 2012 **SOLD OUT**
Eric Hutchinson
Opening Act(s): Avalanche City
Tickets $15.00 Adv., $18.00 DOS.
Concert starts @ 8:00PM, Doors open @ 6:00PM
By all accounts, Eric Hutchinson burst onto the music scene several years later than he should have. His first album caught the ears of Madonna's Maverick Records, which signed him later that year. However, the label folded before he was able to issue a release on the imprint. Hutchinson struck out on his own, self-promoting and producing his next album Sounds Like This (2007). Again, his release garnered the attention of a media juggernaut – Perez Hilton. This time, however, the attention paid off. Sounds Like This ascended to No. 5 on the iTunes Store and No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers album chart. With all the hype, Hutchinson was quickly snatched up by Warner Bros. Records, which re-released the disc.
June 27, 2012
Blue Note Jazz Festival
Michel Camilo Trio & Alfredo Rodríguez Trio
Performing 2 Shows!
Tickets $35.00 Adv., $40.00 DOS.
Concerts start @ 8:00PM & 10:30PM, Doors open @ 6:00PM & 10:00PM
Michel Camilo is a composer and pianist extraordinaire. He is a bandleader, lecturer, and visiting professor. He is a chart-topping producer and a Grammy, Latin Grammy, and Emmy Award winner. He is the recipient of his native country's highest civilian honors. Camilo is all of these things and more, wrapped in a human being of boundless enthusiasm, musical passion, and love of life. His artistry and virtuosity bridge the genres of jazz, classical, popular, and world music. He is a pianist with a brilliant technique and a composer who flavors his tunes with the spice of Caribbean rhythms and jazz harmonies.
June 28, 2012
Blue Note Jazz Festival
Meshell Ndegeocello
Produced by Jill Newman Productions
Tickets $25.00 Adv., $30.00 DOS.
Concert starts @ 9:00PM, Doors open @ 7:00PM
Canonized, marginalized, or just scrutinized, Meshell Ndegeocello has given up trying to explain herself. After 20 years in an industry that has called her everything from avant-garde to a dying breed, what unquestionably remains is a fearsome bassist, a prolific songwriter, and the creativity and curiosity of an authentic musical force. With these elements alone, she has earned critical acclaim (including 10 Grammy nominations), the unfailing respect of fellow players, songwriters, and composers, and the dedication of her diverse, unclassifiable fans.
June 29, 2012
Blue Note Jazz Festival
Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars
Tickets $25.00 Adv., $30.00 DOS.
Concert starts @ 8:00PM, Doors open @ 6:00PM
Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars have risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of war and enflamed the passions of fans across the globe with their uplifting songs of hope, faith, and joy. The band is a potent example of the redeeming power of music and the ability of the human spirit to persevere through unimaginable hardship and emerge with optimism intact. From their humble beginnings in West African refugee camps in the midst of their country's bloody civil war, Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars have performed on some of the world's most prestigious stages and matured into one of Africa's top touring and recording bands.
June 29, 2012
Direct from Ethiopia
Gosaye Tesfaye
Tickets $30.00 Adv., $35.00 DOS.
Concert starts @ 8:00PM, Doors open @ 6:00PM
General Admission Standing / First come, first seated / $10 min. per person at tables / All ages
Tesfaye, who is endowed with a magnificent voice and marvelous singing talent, kept on with his career and started performing in Addis Ababa's night clubs. He performed at a restaurant and club called Shewaget for four years, where he gained the admiration of many music lovers and started to become famous. Around this time, he was also hired by the Kistane Band, with which he performed for one year. An excellent composer in addition to having a magnificent voice, Tesfaye has since released three albums and has become one of the most well-respected young EthiopIan Male vocalists in the country's popular music industry. His popularity is even beginning to expand beyond his native country. As The New York Times declared in a review of one of his New York performances in 2008, this African music star plays "modern pop that is well aware of the world outside Ethiopia."
June 30, 2012
Blood for Blood
With The Unseen, Wisdom in Chains & Cruel Hand
Tickets $27.50
Concert starts @ 8:00PM, Doors open @ 6:00PM
The lights drop, the sound crackles a bit, and the crowd begins to aggressively sway back and forth. Then as your stomach knots up, it hits you: Blood for Blood is about to play, and you better get the hell out of the way. Hailing from Boston, this band and its reputation for performing the most blistering live sets have become the stuff of legend. The hype and the rumors are well deserved. The band's ability to cross over into other music genres has garnered it a loyal diverse and ferocious following of hardcore kids, punks, skinheads, and metal heads, all itching for a chance to try their luck.
July 1, 2012
Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir
Tickets $12
Concert starts @ 1:00PM, Doors open @ 12:00PM
Videos