The program includes selections by Brazilian giants Villa Lobos, Jobim, Pixinguinha, and Baden Powell as well as popular works by European masters Bach and Chopin, framed in unexpected ways.  The event will showcase the kaleidoscopic palette of European inspiration and Brazilian innovation, featuring singer/songwriter Ivan Lins, percussionist Cyro Baptista, and guitarist/composers Juarez Moreira and Chico Pinheiro.

All proceeds from the Bach to Brazil Gala will support Access Orpheus and the Orpheus Institute, the orchestra’s signature music education programs that provides free musical instruction and a look at democratic leadership at work to the next generation of musicians and university students.

Get your tickets now!

Swedish garage-rock revivalists the Hives played a sold-out show at the tiny Studio at Webster Hall in New York City, in advance of their upcoming album, Lex Hives. Full of their usual bluster and bravado and decked out in tails and top hats, the Swedish five-piece tore through some of their greatest hits like “Walk Idiot Walk,” and “Hate to Say I Told You So,” and sprinkled in a handful of new tunes. Though Lex Hives doesn’t drop until early June, frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist assured the crowd that they already loved the record.

The Hives certainly lived up to their reputation as a great live band, a fact they continually reminded the audience of. Guitarist Nicholaus Arson admonished the crowd early in the set for not matching the group’s enthusiasm, saying “Never trust a crowd that isn’t sweating,” but also “Never trust a band that isn’t sweating, either.” By the end of the show in the tiny, hot room, both band and crowd were adequately trustworthy.

If you missed her this time, she will be back in New York, June 4^th – but the show is sold out, so grab your tickets on stubhub before the price rockets. Her album, ‘Our Version of Events’ is out June 5th, and she is to join Coldplay on their US tour after.

Preceding Emeli was Yuna. While hard to compete with the tour de force that is Sandé, Yuna was the perfect opener. A very sweet voice, with some beautiful inflections throughout. Her song produced by Pharrell, ‘Live Your Life’, performed at the end of her set was a refreshing surprise – resulting in a nod to my friend in definite approval. Her live version was much more colorful than the recorded, which is always a great sign of a true live artist. Her self-titled album is out now.

Anoushka’s performance came from her latest work, ‘Traveller’, combining Indian classical music with flamenco guitar and vocals, culminating in a dynamic dialogue between the two forms of music.

I was blown away by the pulsating rhythms of the tabla drums matched to the impressive sitar of Shankar and deeply emotional vocals of Sandra Carrasco. The Bansuri was also particularly striking, ringing out across the audience in tones closely matching the human voice.

The talent of the individual performers was only second to the strength of the band together. Knowing each other so well, they were enjoying the show as much as the audience and this was reflected in their playful jamming; coming together wonderfully on woven crescendos, interspersed with impressive solos. Producer Javier Limón’s ability to enact Anoushka’s vision of the musical pairing shone as the flamenco guitarist alternated with Anoushka’s sitar, proving similarities, while celebrating difference.

Be sure to catch Anoushka Shankar on the Traveller tour as it continues across the US before returning to Europe.

See tour dates and check out her latest album at http://www.anoushkashankar.com/.

But I squeezed through.

Thank God for Madeon. No really. This French producer/DJ was the first billed act and saved the night from becoming another mundane evening at the club. Truth be told, this guy is making the rounds here at SXSW, and after seeing his name everywhere, I was expecting big things. What I did not expect, however, was that the guy is actually 17 years old, and looked about 12. When he first walked on stage, there was an audible gasp from the crowd around me. What we didn’t know, was this little scrawny kid from France had come to kick our asses.

Madeon jumped right into a set that started out electro but quickly turned pure house. You could tell he is heavily influenced by deadmau5, and it even harkened back to the old days of Mr. Oizo. At points, his music almost ventured into happy hardcore, and the crowd was loving it. While playing remixes of artists like Elle Goulding who aren’t widely known in Texas, Madeon pumped out a reedited version of Blur’s classic Woo Hoo and blew the crowd away with a 30 second mashup of Daft Punk, Madonna, and the Gossip. Side Note- It’s always refreshing to hear a guy so taken up in the music that he keeps screaming “FUUUCKK YEAHHH! OOOHH MMYY GODDD! YEAAHHH!”

Madeon ended out his set atypically by playing a bit of drum ‘n’ bass, and really impressed the hell out of me. I’m looking forward to seeing what this kid does with himself as he grows as an artist.

Los Tigres

Having been introduced to Dada Life a few years ago while living in Brussels, I’ve always been a fan of the music the Swedish duo has put out. Their remixes are well known and celebrated, and I was eagerly waiting to hear how they were live. Basically, these guys are ferocious. Their entire set was like someone throwing heroin in your face and saying “let’s do this.” Hard, fast, pounding, amazing: these boys had the crowd nearly dance-rioting, if there’s even such a thing. Early on, Dada Life played a sweet rendition of “All That She Wants” by Ace of Base, and quickly followed suit with their classic remix of Duck Sauce’s “Big Bad Wolf” and Mylo’s “Drop the Pressure.” It was like tangoing with tigers.

The duo seemed to be having as much fun as the partygoers, and were the only act of the night to make full use of the turntables. The manic revelry going down was bananas… and champagne, literally. At one point during the show, one was cracking open and taking swigs from a champagne bottle, while the other half of the talented pair ate a banana. I’m not sure if these things were a call to arms, but suddenly 6 or so guys in the crowd got up on stage wearing banana costumes and started dancing like crazy. Dada Life were, in a word, spectacular. I’d love to see what these boys can do to crowds in larger venues, and I cannot wait to see them again.

In the press booklet for the Firefox #FEED party last night, organizer Justin Bolognino of Learned Evolution spoke of creating a place where product experience could be defined by blurring the lines of technology, music, and social media. What followed was an evening of power synth, heavy bass, and an eclectic mix of revelers.

The night started out with a set by French artist Anoraak who loosened up the crowd with music that felt like reinterpreted 80s. He introduced the crowd to a blend of Balearic chillwave and funk beats that was almost acid lounge, but better and more danceable. It seemed that the crowd hadn’t come across this type of music before, and it took some time before people switched from head-bobbing to outright dancing. At one point, I heard a guy next to me tell his friend “It’s good music, but I don’t know how to dance to it.” I hope this kind of music can escape the clubs in Paris and build a following on this side of the Atlantic.

And then came Fred.

That Fred Falke is sneaky. Opening his set with music from his recently-released album, IV, he had me convinced the night was starting down a path gilded with delicate and nearly ambient electronica. The music came off as super happy, maybe even too happy to dance to. This may be why a few people around me decided to light up a couple of joints and smoke right there on the dancefloor.

Then, about two songs in, he kicked on the bass. I’m not sure if he just wanted to test the strength of the sound system, but the bass was wonderfully tremendous. It became obvious that Falke was fusing together a palette of acoustics on a road to somewhere, and, while I struggled to swallow my drink (the bass was that amazing), he suddenly flipped into the unique sound we’ve come to recognize him for. Both driving and melodic, Fred Falke set the crowd on fire. Marrying vocals with the sound he had been building, the France-based German artist knocked it out of the ballpark with the lyrical finesse I’ve come to expect from him. For me, the biggest challenge was to restrain myself from disco-clapping for a good half hour.

While not terribly known in these parts, Falke most definitely kept the crowd engaged and dancing. He also was responsible for a tragedy that kept occurring: People kept getting so caught up in the music that many a drink was dropped during Falke’s 1hour 45 minute set.

It is also worth nothing that the light show created and executed by VJ artist Alejandro Crawford added to the immensity of the performance, marring flawless mixes with spectacular visuals.

http://www.myspace.com/fredfalkemusic

http://www.anoraak.com/

Indie-girl-rock supergroup Wild Flag played their first New York show since the release of their self-titled album on Saturday, October 15, at Brooklyn’s Bell House. After playing a series of sold-out shows beginning in the spring, the band finally have a proper record to peddle. But as good as that album is—and it’s pretty good—there’s no replacing their live show. Maybe it’s just a natural result of debuting as a live band with no catalog to speak of. But the excitement generated when the band was announced last year and then when they played their first shows and improbably lived up to the hype—that’s tough to capture on record.

It’s possible that the reason the live shows are so energetic is because the band’s Sleater-Kinney half—drummer Janet Weiss and guitarist/singer Carrie Brownstein— were so used to playing huge venues (Weiss with a host of other bands besides SK), and just forgot to tone it down for these smaller clubs. But that would be ignoring the contributions of keyboardist Rebecca Cole and guitarist/singer Mary Timony, who for my money is one of the best female rock guitarist around, period.

On Saturday night, they tore through their album at a blistering pace (though delving into meandering jamming periodically), then threw in a few covers for good measure, one of which was Television’s “See No Evil.” And it really can’t be overstated how well Brownstein and Timony compliment each other. I’d give Timony the nod as far as axe chops go (can’t beat the jagged, Medieval guitar lines and two-finger tapping!) but Brownstein is by far the better showman. But you can definitely see the influence they’re having on each other,  especially in Timony’s attempts at keeping up with Brownstein’s master class of Pete Townshend guitar kicks and jumps. They may be the most endearingly dorky guitar histrionics ever, like if Napoleon Dynamite was a girl who was awesome at guitar.

It should be also mentioned that the opener was Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Renaldo + Band—a four-piece that also included SY drummer Steve Shelley—in their first performance as a band, according to Renaldo. “It’s a strange night to be starting a new project,” Renaldo said, referencing the fact that his Sonic Youth bandmates—wife/husband Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore— had just announced their split. He actually made quite a few references to the divorce, introducing one song saying “This goes out to a couple of friends of mine who are having a tough time,” and after introducing Shelley on the drums, “We’re still playing together.”

Musically, Renaldo’s sound didn’t veer too far from Sonic Youth’s musical palette. You could easily imagine Gordon or Moore speak-singing his lyrics, which may be a backhanded way of saying that the tunes sounded like decent facsimiles of Sonic Youth songs.

The Tennessee country/punk outfit Those Darlins hit New York City on Friday, October 14th, playing Brooklyn’s Bell House. The three-girls-and-a-guy group got the crowd going by opening with their “let’s just be friends” anthem “Be Your Bro,” and neither the band nor the crowd (which I’m pretty sure included Best Coast baritone guitarist Bobb Bruno) let up the rest of the night. The band oozed attitude and desire (though in the case of “Fatty Needs a Fix,” the desire is for a lover—to get some food, stat!), rolling through most of their second album Screws Get Loose, adding in a generous dose of songs from their more-countrified first record.

Lead singer Jessi Darlin came out in what’s becoming her standard sequined gold leotard, which she totally pulled off despite the fact that it looked absolutely ridiculous. Her look was helped out by a serious dosage of crazy eyes, and a few forays offstage into the crowd, which added to the whole “screws get loose” concept. And while Jessi is center stage most of the time —and it’s hard not to be the center of attention when you look like Amélie in a sparkling unitard—Nikki and Kelley Darlin, along with drummer Linwood Regensburg, all chipped in their fair share of lead vocals. Standouts included Kelley Darlin’s “Boys,” an ode to the men she encounters on tour, and Nikki Darlin’s matter of fact, back-the-fuck-up-mister declaration, “Wild One.”