So 2012 has started with quite a bang for New Tricks. We had five great gigs in the New York city area. I find this quite inspiring seeing that January is usually the slowest month for most bands and musicians. We have been working some mew music out on the band stand and we have a couple more tunes to come but we are close to almost an entire new albums worth of material. This months gigs culminated with two important gigs for the band at Smalls, and the New Brunswick Jazz Project. Both of these groups are outstanding examples of individuals taking on the cause of keeping the jazz community alive and vibrant.
Smalls is owned and operated by Spike Wilner and we are ecstatic that he continues to ask us to perform there and participate in the performing community there. Smalls has become the center of the NYC jazz scene, . . . → Read More: New Year, New Music, New Gigs, New Tricks!
We will be welcoming in 2012 with a very busy month of January. We have written a bunch of new music and are looking forward to working it out on the band stand. You can catch us at the following-
1/4 The Brooklyn Lyceum 8pm-11pm $10 cover http://www.facebook.com/brooklynlyceum 227 4th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215 718.857.4816
1/5 The Pilsner Haus in Hoboken 8pm- 12am. Great beer, german food, atmosphere, and weekly jazz with no cover. http://www.pilsenerhaus.com/ 1422 Grand St. 201-683-5465
1/12 The Garage 10:30pm-2:30am. Come make the late village hang with us!99 7th Avenue South NY, NY (212) 645-0600 http://www.garagerest.com/index.html
1/18 Smalls Jazz Club 11:30-2:00am concert and jam session. 183 West 10th St. NY, NY http://www.smallsjazzclub.com
1/19 Makeda’s presented by the New Brunswick Jazz Project. 338 George St. New Brunswick NJ http://www.nbjp.org/
This year our recent recording “Alternate Side” made a number of “Best of 2011″ lists by some fantastic writers and bloggers. You can check out the articles at the links below.
Here is a couple of vids from some recent gigs in NYC that we have been playing. The first is from are most recent gig at The Garage. Look for us here in the future as we already have several gigs booked in 2012 here. Its a great place to hear fantastic music for no cover as you make the rounds to all of the west village jazz haunts.
This is a video of how Mike see’s the band. Just joking it’s really just bad camera placement. We had some nice musical moments here so I put it up anyway.
This past weekend New Tricks played two fantastic gigs. The First of which was at Moore’s Lounge in Jersey city as part of the JC Originals Jazz Series, produced by the JC Uptown Crew. This was a wonderfully warm room to play in. We knew from the minute we stepped in the bar that we were going to have a very inspired show. There is nothing better than when the line between the band and the audience is erased. We are going to try and upload video of the entire set soon! In the mean time you can check out some photos of the show and one tune from our set. here
On sunday we played at the Harlem Music venue “The Shrine”. There is always an extremely diverse clientele here and the bar staff is great, which creates an inspiring atmosphere to create in. Check out this clip of our theme song “New Tricks”.
The audio archive from our gig at Smalls on July 15th is now up. I encourage you to take a moment and listen through either set. We had a fantastic time playing here and are looking forward to the next time! Click here to check it out!
This past wednesday New Tricks performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of their Millenium Stage series. This series produces free to the public concerts that the Kennedy Center puts on 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The performance is also live web-streamed and archived on their website. It is quite impressive that they put together such a high quality performance every day of the year that is free to everyone! We were thrilled to be included in their programming and had a fantastic time! Here is a link to the web archive for all of you who missed the live-stream. New Tricks at the Kennedy Center!
Last night at the Brooklyn Lyceum began the first of 3 gigs this week for New Tricks. We pushed through some pretty intense heat inside the Lyceum for some fantastic fans that stuck it out through the heat. We will admit that we made it worth their while, as the band played great. However, we were all soaked by the end of the very first tune.
We continue this week at Kenny’s Castaways on Thursday with a short set at 9pm. There is no cover so come hang with us!
On Saturday we are very excited to be playing two full sets at the Bethlehem Musik-Fest at 6pm on the Banana Island Stage. If you live in western Jersey, or eastern PA. please come and check us out. This is a fantastic festival so don’t miss out. We are really looking forward to this one
Here is a bit of video from the Bethlehem Musik-Fest on August 6th. We are playing one of our favorite tunes “1919″.
This past friday New Tricks had our first gig at Smalls. This is a date that had been on the calendar for sometime and represented a next phase in the development of our group. Smalls is our favorite venue in NYC. We could not have been happier with the way the music came off or with our fantastic turn out. There is nothing better than playing music with the people you most like to play with, in a great club, for a fantastic audience. This past friday could not have gone better and we thank all of our friends, family, and first time listeners for coming out.
The club was so packed I was not able to get a great angle for the video, so I had to set it up on the bar to the side of us. This is not the best video I have taken. However, it was such a great night I had to put some video up to share with the people who were not there, or could not tune in to the live web-stream.
Unfortunately, the New Tricks at the Groove on Grove show was rained out last night. Just seconds before we were about to play, a rainstorm opened up on us. Thus, canceling our performance and our friends in the Hangmen who were to play after us.
However, this morning we woke up to the nice surprise of another fantastic review by one of the band’s favorite jazz writers David Orthmann. David has come to several of our gigs and really understands the core of what we are going for. David particularly understands the creative brilliance that is going on in our “Shellen” rhythm section. Please check out his review of us and all of his other writings. Here is a link to our review.
We had a great performance at Freddy’s Bar in Brooklyn this past thursday night. For all of you who missed it, we will be back there again soon so don’t miss out! Freddy’s is a great hang, with a fantastic music space. They also have a really cool bar dog there. Here is our “New Dog” for Freddy’s dog.
Check out this new review in a great local NY jazz Magazine. You can also find the publication in the corner of the bar in all the best NY jazz clubs. Or you can read it online here.
By Mark Keresman In case you needed to be reminded appearances— and preconceptions—are often deceiving. Take the latest disc by the NYC-area quartet New Tricks—two horns, bass, and drums. One might think the contents are going to be post- Ornette Coleman “out” jazz. Wrong—this foursome forgoes the presence of a chordal instrument (like piano or guitar) not to “depart” from a conventional semblance of harmony but to emphasize harmony. So Alternate Side superficially evokes the classic Ornette Coleman Quartet(s) of the 1950s, the style is surging, hard-swinging hard bop a la Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, and Art Blakey, with wee touches of free jazz (as defined by Don Cherry, Dave . . . → Read More: “Alternate Side” review in Jazz Inside NY Magazine.
Please pick up this months new Jazz Times for a great review by the fantastic writer Bill Milkowski. We feel that he really got to the heart of what our band is about! Jazz Times
New Tricks – “Alternate Side”
by Bill Milkowski
Co-led by fellow Cleveland natives Mike Lee on tenor saxophone and Ted Chubb on trumpet, New Tricks conveys a distinct New York sound on its aggressively swinging sophomore effort. With Kellen Harrison on bass and Shawn Baltazor on drums, the quartet puts a new spin on an old hard-bop formula without crossing over into the avant-garde camp. They come out of the gate swaggering on the vibrant title track, on which Lee reflects the influence of his mentor Joe Lovano (particularly in the high register). “Optimistic-Lee,” a metrically tricky form that yields bracing solos by both Chubb and Lee, is Lee’s take on the many tongue-in-cheek song and . . . → Read More: New Tricks review in July’s Jazz Times!
The ‘less-is-more’ approach seems to pay off for Mike Lee, Ted Chubb, Kellen Harrison and Shawn Baltazor who feel that lacking a polyphonic voice such as a piano or guitar allows them greater freedom for experimentation and improvisation. It may have worked. These tracks seem less like songs and more like organisms, trying to express themselves in a language we can’t understand. . . . → Read More: Muizikreviews.com – “Alternate Side”
This is a video of a performance of Mike’s new tune “Night Town” which is penned after his family’s favorite restaurant and jazz club in Cleveland. Mike grew up going to and performing at this club and has a long standing relationship with the people there. We actually played this tune at Night Town on the very last date on the tour. A video of that will most likely follow soon. Enjoy this one in the mean time.
Smalls is owned and operated by Spike Wilner and we are ecstatic that he continues to ask us to perform there and participate in the performing community there. Smalls has become the center of the NYC jazz scene, . . . → Read More: New Year, New Music, New Gigs, New Tricks!
