News, tour dates, info and articles about Living Coloür :
Will Calhoun, Corey Glover, Vernon Reid, Doug Wimbish, Muzz Skillings, Black Jack Johnson Project w/ Mos Def, Free Form Funky Freqs, HeadFake, Jungle Funk, Masque, Native Lands, TackHead, Vice, Yohimbe Brothers and other projects
On June 28th Corey Glover hosted a fundraiser for NY2NO at Temple M. Vernon Reid, V. Jeffrey Smith, Booker King, Howard Alper, Dean Bowman, Kaila Paulino, and Will Calhoun joined him. If you were there, you know I’m not exaggerating when I say it was one for the books.
On July 31st Corey Glover, frontman for multiple Grammy Award winning rock band Living Colour will host another solidarity jam, this time unplugged. This acoustic set will also feature some very special guests. We promise another evening of impeccable musicianship – a night which will make you think hard about the world and your own inner life, while having a stomp down, sweaty good time!
All proceeds from this event will go directly to financial aid for participants in NY2NO’s summer projects. Financial aid covers the cost of food, shelter and transportation.
Katrina was nearly four years ago. We all watched it go down on TV. Some of us saw Spike Lee's 'When the Levees Broke.’ We watched busloads of pets being evacuated while people waited for days atop their roofs, left to die. Our newscasters on the screen told us white people were salvaging, while black people were looting. We all saw it happen. What most of us aren’t aware of is how much devastation remains, particularly in the Lower 9th Ward. A historical neighborhood equivalent to NYC’s Harlem, which was hardest hit with over 30 feet of toxic floodwaters. The Lower 9th had the highest rate of African-American home ownership in the country. Those who survived were displaced; families were separated in ways eerily reminiscent of slavery. Survivors are still scattered throughout, as far away as Alaska with no means of returning. Families are still searching for each other. Almost FOUR years later.
NY2NO is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. They are a youth-led, consensus-based organization creating a network of young people interested in organizing and mobilizing across New York City. NY2NO works in solidarity with those most affected by the social, racial, and economic inequalities in both New York and New Orleans. Through this, the youth break down barriers and work together to combat racism and classism and help move us towards a more egalitarian society. For more information on NY2NO please visit them at http://www.ny2no.org/ Twitter - http://twitter.com/NY2NO MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/newyork2neworleans Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/NY2NO/16371438556
Price: $10 at the door, $5 if you confirm on this event page, FREE if you’ve ever volunteered or chaperoned a NY2NO brigade. If you wish to support NY2NO but geography prevents you from being at the event, please consider making an online donation http://ny2no.com/donate.htm
LIVING COLOUR To Release ‘THE CHAIR IN THE DOORWAY’
LIVING COLOUR To Release ‘THE CHAIR IN THE DOORWAY’ Due September 15 On Megaforce Records
photo by Bill Bernstein
World Tour To Commence Fall 2009
New York/London — Living Colour will release their first new studio album in five years entitled The Chair In The Doorway on September 15 via Megaforce Records. The legendary downtown NYC rock band, who exploded out of CBGB’s in the late ’80s, landing all over MTV, the cover of Rolling Stone and stadium stages around the world with their Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum debut album Vivid, are back and “fierce” as ever.
Original members Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Will Calhoun and (since 1993) Doug Wimbish gathered at Sono Studios outside of Prague in The Czech Republic during the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009 to write and record what would become The Chair In The Doorway. The results stretch from the modern soul anthem “Behind The Sun” to the politically-charged, heavy rock of “DecaDance” to the sacred steel blues of “Bless Those.” The artwork for The Chair In The Doorway was compiled from thousands of contest entries by fans from around the world.
“We feel like this is the best record we’ve made yet and we couldn’t be more excited to be releasing it with the legendary Megaforce Records,” says guitarist Vernon Reid. “Some of our favorite bands were or are Megaforce artists, Metallica, Bad Brains, Anthrax, Black Crowes, so it’s an honor to be part of a label with a great legacy.”
Living Colour will announce plans for a world tour shortly. With dates set to begin in September, it will include their first North American tour in four years along with performances in South America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
Having helped to pave the way for a number of contemporary African-American artists to follow in their wake, ranging from Rage Against The Machine to Lenny Kravitz to Ben Harper, with a multi-dimensional sound that drew equally from Jimi Hendrix, Bad Brains, Talking Heads and Ornette Coleman, the success of Living Colour broke down the color barriers in rock music. Guitarist and founding member Vernon Reid also founded the Black Rock Coalition to use his influence to further this cause.
Discovered by Mick Jagger who produced their first demo and later offered them an opening slot with The Rolling Stones, Living Colour would go on to create a repertoire that includes a multitude of classic songs, including “Cult Of Personality,” “Elvis Is Dead,” “Open Letter To A Landlord,” “Glamour Boys” and “Love Rears Its Ugly Head.” With The Chair In The Doorway, the fifth album of their storied career, Living Colour expands the scope of their timeless body of work and, in the process, proves vital as ever.
Track listing:
1. Burned Bridges 2. The Chair 3. DecaDance 4. Young Man 5. Method 6. Behind The Sun 7. Bless Those 8. Hard Times 9. Taught Me 10. Out Of Mind 11. Not Tomorrow ------------------------------------------------
Living Colour Return With First New Album in Five Years 6/19/09, 9:56 am EST Photo: Bill Bernstein
Living Colour’s original lineup — Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish, who joined the band in 1993 — will release their first new studio album in five years on September 15th on Megaforce Records. The band, who broke big in 1988 with “Cult of Personality,” recorded The Chair In The Doorway, their fifth LP, in the Czech Republic. The album features hard rock, soul and politically charged tracks, and Reid describes it as “the best record we’ve made yet.” A world tour will launch in September. Rolling Stone
Wade in the Water - A Solidarity Jam featuring Living Colour's Corey Glover + special guests!
This will be an evening of impeccable musicianship – a night which will make you think hard about the world and your own inner life, while having a stomp down, sweaty good time! All in a community of love and like-minded freedom-fighters. Living Colour’s guitarist Vernon Reid (one of Rolling Stone's 100 best guitarists of ALL TIME), vocalist and multi-instrumentalist V. Jeffery Smith of The Family Stand, and Dean Bowman, former lead singer of the Screaming Headless Torsos are among the musicians scheduled to appear. On Sunday, 6/28/09 we plan on taking it to church at Temple M. Join us.
Temple M is possibly Harlem’s best-kept secret, a federal masterpiece of Newport dimension, with a French twist, nestled in historic Hamilton Heights in Harlem. It was built in 1917 from the assemblage of two adjacent Victorian mansions, on the same charming tree-lined street as the Alexander Hamilton Grange. Temple M is now blooming after four years of focused vision and restoration, dedicated to honor a reviving Harlem and the vibrant soul of this building, which is said to have been once a Synagogue, and then a Church. The capacity at Temple M is 200 people, so please don’t risk being turned away at the door. This is a one night only event.
Sunday June 28th, 2009 6:00pm - 10:00pm Temple M 555 West 141st Street New York, NY
Doors open at 5pm.
ADVANCE TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE! http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=WAD or order by phone (212) 868-4444
Vernon Reid and Masque will be performing June 10th @ 10pm at The Stone in New York, NY.
Masque is: Vernon Reid - Guitars, laptop Leon Gruenbaum - Keys, Samchillian Tip Tip Tip CheeeeePeee, melodica Steve Jenkins - Bass Don McKenzie - Drums
Wade in the Water - A Solidarity Jam featuring Living Colour's Corey Glover A fundraiser for NY2NO - One night only
New York 2 New Orleans Coalition
Sunday, June 28, 2009
6:00pm - 10:00pm
Temple M 555 West 141st Street City/Town: New York, NY
Email: organizers@ny2no.com
Dear Friends,
The New York 2 New Orleans Coalition cordially invites you to attend
Wade in the Water - A Solidarity Jam featuring Living Colour's Corey Glover & other special guests!
Sunday June 28th, 2009 6pm - 10pm
www.NY2NO.org have some huge projects coming up this summer and really need your financial support and of course your solidarity. As you probably already know, we are proud to provide financial aid to all who may require it and believe that our projects will not be effective without the economic diversity of our participants. Here are some of the projects we have in the works for June, July and August:
Summer New Orleans Brigades: involves taking 300 young people from New York to New Orleans to work on recovery and learn about the struggles faced by survivors. The trips are focused on building solidarity between groups and learning about similarities in the inequalities in New Orleans and our own city. We will be working to construct community gardens in the Lower Ninth Ward and canvass the community to build stronger community involvement.
NO2NY trip: a group of young residents of New Orleans are planning a trip to New York City to reciprocate our efforts in New Orleans to New York, build further solidarity, and practice organizing for themselves. We hope that this trip will result in a powerful youth led organization to lead the recovery in New Orleans. We will be working directly doing direct action and organizing with organizations tackling action for food security and sustainability and environmental justice. We will be paring these organizations with other community-based organizations combating gentrification, as these are parallel struggles all over the United States. We believe that the NO2NY trip is essential for the productivity of the entire New Orleans Summer brigades as we hope to be following the leadership of the young people from New Orleans for the rest of the summer and the rest of our trips following until the Lower Ninth Ward is self-sustainable.
New York Trips: are an organizing tool to get the masses of unoccupied New York City youth to get involved in the struggles and solutions in their own communities. These trips focus on education on struggles in New York communities, communal living experience, working on action in the city for environmental, food, and social justice. We will be doing community outreach and urban farming.
NY2NO is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. They are a youth-led, consensus-based organization creating a network of young people interested in organizing and mobilizing across New York City. NY2NO works in solidarity with those most affected by the social, racial, and economic inequalities in both New York and New Orleans. Through this, the youth break down barriers and work together to combat racism and classism and move towards an egalitarian society.
Price: This fundraiser has a suggested minimum donation of $25, $15 for students and the un/under-employed. If you wish to support NY2NO but geography prevents you from being at the event, please consider making an online donation http://ny2no.com/donate.htm
Philadelphia hip-hop outfit The Roots return to London to open Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown with guest David Murray and more. With support from Andy Hamilton.
Produced in association with Jill Newman Productions
The Clore Ballroom at 10.30pm: A special post-show jam session featuring festival artists. Admission free.
Cindy Blackman Group w/ Vernon Reid and Free Form Funky Freqs tour dates
On tour w/ Cindy Blackman group 18.05. Valladolid(ESP) @ Puerta Caeli 19.05. Caceres(ESP) @ Sala la Bola 20.05. Sevilla(ESP) @ Sala Q 21.05. Alicante(ESP) @ Sala Stereo 22.05. Terrassa(ESP) @ Faktoria d`Arts 23.05. Bilbao(ESP) @ Apolo Andorra As always, please make sure to check with the local venues to confirm show dates and details!
FREE FORM FUNKY FREQS MAY 2009 Tour
May 26 2009 Henkelmann Jazzclub Iserlohn - Iserlohn, Austria May 27 2009 KLUB MC PEKARNA - Maribor, Slovenia May 28 2009 Porgy - Wien, Autria May 29 2009 Festival - Raab,Austria May 30 2009 Channel Zero - Ljubljana, Slovenia
From Free Form Funky Freqs and Philadelphia drummer G. CALVIN WESTON :
A Benefit for Dominic Weston-Wilkerson
Hello to you all, on Wednesday May 13th, we'll be having a fund raiser for my son that was killed by a hit and run driver this past week. Dominic would have turned 19 this past Sunday. It will be held at the Fire (412 W Girard Ave – Philly) starting at 8pm untill 2am. All friends and musicians are welcome to come and play.
http://www.iourecords.com/thefire/shows.html
Some musicians lending their support will be Jamaladeen Tacuma, Darrol Burges, Doc Gibbs, Tom Spiker, Jeff Monjack, Chuck Treece, Terry Lawson, Kenny Taylor, Tony Catastrophe, DJ Frosty, Tony Cosby, Wadude, J Michael Harrison, Marco Benevento, Reed Mathus, Members of As Human; Dion Paci, Ryatt, Jason Fraticelli, Tim Conley & many more surprise guests will be on hand. This is an open jam session & all musicians are welcome to come play & support.
We will also have a raffle going on with some gracious donations from Ropeadope, The Philadelphia Eagles, Arsnovaworkshop, & more.
I hope to see you all there and god bless you and all your familys.
If you cannot attend & would like to send donations (THROUGH MAY 15th)to help pay for my son’s funeral expenses donations can be sent via paypal to : dominikaweston@gmail.com
Vernon Reid, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and G. Calvin Weston are: FREE FORM FUNKY FREQS Check out their myspace page : www.myspace.com/freeformfunkyfreqs .
May 26 2009 Henkelmann Jazzclub Iserlohn - Iserlohn, Austria May 27 2009 KLUB MC PEKARNA - Maribor, Slovenia May 28 2009 Porgy - Wien, Autria May 29 2009 Festival - Raab,Austria May 30 2009 Galahala - Ljubljana, Slovenia
Living Colour have finished writing and recording new material for their new album titled "The Chair in the Doorway". The band would like fans, non-fans, and photographers to participate in this process by submitting original images , designs, illustrations, etc conveying their interpretation of "The Chair in the Doorway".
The image could become artwork for the next Living Colour album!
Vernon: "I did a press junket for CollideØscope with Corey and whenever something was going wrong Corey would always say "the chair in the doorway". It was just one of these things he would say and I looked at him and said 'you know that thing you always say, that's going to be the title of our next album.' I don't know what that means but that's it. What I like about "The Chair In The Doorway" is that it is a concrete image and a very real thing but……Why is there a chair in the doorway? What does it mean? It's completely abstract, while being a contract, a physical manifestation of what it is."
Proof of ownership will be required prior to finalizing agreements with Living Colour.
Please submit/post a photo/illustration by May 31, 2009 on the Flickr site : http://www.flickr.com/groups/thechairinthedoorway/
An Amazing Myspace Story - Vernon Reid Friday, April 17, 2009
I had one of the best days of my life yesterday (Not as good as the day my daughter Idea Viola was born, but better than the day I got my Mac-Book Pro). This best-of-days is directly related to one of my worst, which was this past monday, April 13th.
I was supposed to start prep work for a guitar instructional video that I'm doing with Rock House. Plans were changed and I went to Manhattan instead to pay off a studio balance owed for a Masque session, & to return an item that I bought at the 14th street Guitar Center. After finishing business with the studio I made the Guitar Center exchange & made a stop in Williamsburg Brooklyn before returning home to North Shaolin aka St George Staten Island. I got out of my car, and realized to my HORROR that my wallet was gone. Vanished. Missing.
I raced back to Manhattan, my mind reeling-"Was I pick-pocketed? Did it fall out after I parked the car?! Did I lose it in the store?!! I called while I drove back & nobody saw anything! I went straight to the guitar counter & NO ONE saw it or tuned in anything. My heart sank. Feeling pretty much crushed I called Gabri (my wife) & told her what was up & she was great about it; all empathy & sympathy. She made the whole ordeal bearable. I drove home, terrified that I'd be pulled over without license, registration, or I.D. of any kind. She started, & I completed the process of canceling cards, contemplating spending time at the DMV and kicking myself over the whole mess.
On the 3rd day of this nightmare, I got messages from Gabri & Tim E (who set up my MySpace & Facebook sites) that there was a message from the person who FOUND MY WALLET!!!! I went to the mailbox & there he was- Darius Emmanuel Scheider - http://www.myspace.com/dariusscheider
The following is an excerpt of his letter to me-
hi vernon i'm a guitar player from Paris,just passin' through new york.
i found your wallet man and that just makes no sense but anyway i got it!
we've got to meet up man and i'll give you back what you own.
We met & had coffee yesterday in a little shop in the west village. It turns out that he's followed my career & was as astonished to find my wallet in Guitar Center, as I was in getting it back. The whole time that we spoke about meeting, I never asked him about the contents of the wallet, but as I walked out of the house, I threw a possible gift in the trunk of my car on the remote chance that the wallet was returned whole.
I got the wallet back complete with the $1.5K that was in it when it was lost & Darius has a new guitar -a greenburst Mojo Flame Parker-like this one+a Roland interface.