Friday, April 11, 2008

Blue Note: Late Night Groove Series (take 3)

A table during a Friday night show at Blue Note usually run about $25-35, but a couple summers ago Jared and I discovered that they have late night shows -- we're talking so late it's early. (Read my account of our first show here. Or Jared's account here.) These Friday and Saturday night shows feature: "New York's up-and-coming jazz, soul, hip-hop, R&B and funk artists." We went a couple times and although it makes for a really late night (shows ending somewhere around 2-3 in the morning and then trekking home on a local train uptown from the Village to get home at like 4am) it's been well worth it each time considering the caliber of the music we've heard and the price of tickets being $8-10 (typical ticket price for one of their late night shows).

I'm sure the 8pm and 10:30pm shows are phenomenal, but the Late Night Groove Series is definitely a winner for someone like me who:
- doesn't own money tree
- enjoys jazz without being a connoisseur of the form
- has a music taste that entertains a bit of the avant-garde and digs the cross-pollination of music genres
- doesn't mind staying up late and getting home at about 4am

Anyways, all of that was basically a longish intro to tell you this:

Leah gets up really early on Saturday mornings; so consequently, our typical Friday night ends earlier than that of our friends. This makes attending something like the above mentioned Late Night Groove Series slightly difficult, considering the start time of the set is ~12:30 am.

Well, wanting to attend a late-night show at Blue Note, Leah and I decided to take advantage of the fact that her early morning Saturday would not be in affect for conference weekend. We enjoyed the night of April 4th (err...the morning of April 5th?) listening to a Brooklyn-based band named "Soul Cycle." The show was great. On their youtube site, they describe themselves as "a sublime mix of jazz, funk, and breakbeats, with a little reggae, Latin, and African grooves thrown in for good measure." I'd say that's fairly accurate and would definitely encourage people to go to one of their shows. If the opportunity arises, I could easily see myself enjoying my time at another one of their shows.

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