This brief News Post is simply to let you all know that I will now be keeping the public abreast as to what I’m doing second by nano-second with the use of my newly created Twitter account. So for those of you that are curious as to what I’m thinking of saying at any given moment can now gaze upon my unscrupulous gems of venomous wisdom and sarcasm at any given moment! I don’t understand why you would want to, but now you can. It’s like having me in your phone and/or computer All The Time.Soon, I will be in your head…
Twitter aside, I hope to see as many of you New York City residents at my show(s) tomorrow night as I’ll be performing at St. Vitus in Brooklyn, NY, my father’s home borough, with two of my favorite bands to perform with:HUNG and Resolution15. Hung will be going on at about 10PM with R15 going on at 11PM
Please enjoy this video as a preview of what you can expect tomorrow night
Thanks again for visiting my site and I hope to see and or hear from you all very soon.
Here are some videos from my last show with HUNG from the December 30th, 2011 Show at The Knitting Factory. These videos were taken by Adam Cohen, brother of drummer Alex Cohen (Pyrrhon, NYC session musician). It’s not every day that I have someone standing next to me with a camera as I play, but at least you all get a chance to see what goes on during all the HUNG songs up close, not to mention, you also get a chance to see and hear some two new songs that will be on our upcoming album!
As per usual, I hope this message finds you in the best of spirits. I’m writing to let you know of some upcoming events that are worth checking out. The First of them being my upcoming show with long time friend, Richard Padron, at our usual haunt, Nublu. We play this Sunday at 930PM-11pm, so for those of you who love experimental Cuban Jazz, this best of it that you will hear, and as always, featuring Jim Robertson on Bass. (For those of you who may not have been following Nublu’s legal woes, the location of the new Nublu is 1st Ave between 1st and 2nd street. It’s in the lower club located directly underneath Lucky Chengs and next to Ortiz Family Funeral Home. Gotta love New York…)
On Monday, keeping up with our regular schedule, Felix Pastorious‘ Hipster Assassins will be Performing at Zinc Bar , as well as the following monday (Oct 10th), with both shows starting at 930PM. (Have you also noticed that most of my weekly, bi weekly, and monthly gigs All start at 930PM?!).
In the world of Metal, Resolution 15 has a couple of events worth checking out. starting with Wednesday, Oct 5th, The members of Resolution 15 will be hanging out at Trash Bar to support many of our dear friends, and we may even make a little noise, but that remains to be seen. Let’s just say for now, that any R15 fans who aren’t there will be kinda sad they didn’t swing through. We will be selling tickets for our upcoming show on October 12th at the Gramercy Theatre as we open up for Firewind and Arsis! This will be our biggest show to date, and needless to say, we are completely excited to share the stage with some serious badasses. We will be playing some new music from our Svaha Sessions, as well as some popular tunes off of our second studio release, Satyagraha. For those of you who are interested in getting tickets for the R15 show, you can either comment here or reach out to me via facebook, or via Skype (my handle is Kengro82), or if you have my cell phone or email you can reach out to me there. Or, you can find the band on our facebook page and reach out to us there for tickets. From what i understand, if you buy tickets through us (the band), the tickets are $19, but if you get them online its 20-something dollars and the day of its $36, so you may want to reach out to me first .
Lastly, I will be once again returning to Czech Rep. to participate in the annual Slet bubeníků 2011 tour, starting on Oct 16th-Oct 30th. The last time I went on this tour, it was a very refreshing and life changing experience and I’m so excited to see some old friends from the tour again. For those of you who, perhaps, don’t live in Praha, here are some clips of our last concert at the Divaldo Archa Theatre in Prague from last year’s concert:
Here’s also my drum solo/feature from the tour, aptly titled Sweet 15. And, for your drumming enjoyment (I hope ), here’s another video that i’ve recently posted on youtube, its a pretty quick video, just a portion of a drum solo during a Dapp Theory gig at 55 bar from early this summer.
Thank you for taking the time to read this long-as-hell post, but I hope that it keeps you informed and I hope to see you either in nYc at any of these upcoming shows or in CZ in two weeks!
May this message find you in a place of peace of mind, or at the very least, positive transition! It’s been some weeks since I’ve written to you, but my absence from the online world has not been for naught. I’ve been pretty busy with a brand new production lead by Grammy Award winning producer and arranger Victor “Papo” Ortiz for the upcoming Iglesia Casa De Alabanza album. For those of you who may not be aware of this church, it was founded by my Grandfather, Apostle Bobby Cruz (of the Richie Ray y Bobby Cruz fame). I won’t go into a full history of the church, but I will say that within the christian community, ICA has been a powerhouse of music, especially within the Latin Christian world, with my grandfather rewriting or rearranging with Richie Ray many of their classic songs, transforming them from secular songs to religious-oriented materials. But getting back to the point…
What started out for me as merely being hired as a session player for a few tracks on the album, has lead me to becoming part of the production aspect of the album, with the responsibility of writing/arranging/producing a song for the album in more of a Funk/Gospel vein. So far, the experience has been quite rewarding. We tracked the drums at Hit Factory Studios in Miami, Florida, in the same room that my father once tracked drums in when I was a little kid, Which was an honor in and of itself. Next, we recorded the rest of the song in New York City’s Premier Studios in Times Square, with good friend and studio virtuoso Ryan Kelly at the helm (Click Here for the “Humble” version of his clientele). Later in September, I’ll be flying to Nashville to produce the singers for the song, another event that I’m quite looking forward to. The album is expected to be done by early Fall, so stay tuned for more information on that.
In other news, Resolution 15 is getting ready to release another chapter of our Svaha Sessions, so check us out on Facebook and Twitter for release times, or, if you’re a true audiophile, hit us up on our Soundcloud page. Also in metal news, the music video that I performed in for I.N.C. is now live and streaming for your viewing pleasure! Check out myself and Sam Roon from Hung rocking out from a rooftop in Brooklyn!
Lastly, I will be returning to Colombia this year with my good friend and tremendous guitarist Greg Diamond. This year we will be performing in Bogota, Manizales, and Barranquilla, throughout the first week of September, with a few more dates to come so stay tuned for that as well!
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming show or hearing from you via email or facebook!
Cheers,
Kenny
Related show
Artist:Greg Diamond Group
Tour:The Greg Diamond Group: Gira Colombia Capitulo Dos
It is my hope that this message finds you in good spirits! I’m excited to let you all know about some very special shows that will be taking place both this week and next. Ze Luis, Beco Dranoff, and Simone “4MuLA” Guiliani‘s Sambismo will be making it’s first appearance since its inception this week at a favorite haunt of mine, Nublu.This project has been a collaboration between these three musical powerhouses, and their unique and thoughtful blend of Bossa, Lounge, Funk, Soul, and Samba will be shared with the regulars and new fans alike this Wednesday and the following Wednesday, opening up for Nublu mainstay, Forro In The Dark. Both shows will take place at 10PM and will feature the likes of Ze Mauricio on Percussion, Masa Shimizu on Accoustic Guitar, Simon Katz on Electric Guitar, Jim Robertson on Electric Bass, Ze Luis on Winds, Simone Guiliani on Keys and Samples, Beco Dranoff at the DJ booth and handling Visuals, and Gabriella Tessitore and Mila Burns on Vocals. I strongly urge you all to make either or both of these shows as they will be Monsterous!
In other news, Resolution 15 will be going back to Big Blue Meanie Studios in New Jersey to continue with our next batch of songs for our prolific DIY project, The Svaha Sessions. For those of you who may not know, Resolution 15 has decided to undergo a self promoted recording project in which we offer up a brand new song every 5-6 weeks, in leu of recording a full length or Ep, to help keep momentum going and keep the fans happy. If you haven’t checked it out, our first song released utilizing this process is available now for download at our bandcamp page under the song name Yama. I think the results will speak for themselves, and it doesn’t hurt either that we’ve been using the aid and expertise of studio ace Ryan Kelly. Not too shabby.
Hollands will also be making a triumphant and long awaited return to full group status since our last shows terrorizing the L.E.S. with fellow stringers, Project 60/40. We will be making our way north to Toronto for the upcoming NXNE festival with a warm up at a favorite city of ours, Rochester, at Boulder Coffee. If you haven’t had a chance to check out this group yet, I highly recommend giving them a listen. Incredibly sarcastic, dark, an hysterically thoughtful lyrics blended with impeccable song writing and excellent musicianship. Besides, where else can you hear me hold down a simple 4/4 groove?
Also in Awesome gig news, the brimstone-summoning tour de force that is The Hipster Assassins will be making their return back to Zinc Bar, but this time it will be a special event since this coming Monday, June 20th, we will be doing a live recording of the show! This will also be a quite legendary show and if you want to have your voice immortalized, or at the very least, your hand claps and/or snickering, then come down to Zinc Bar at 930PM and take part in the festivities!
That is all for now, but I do believe I’ve left enough food for thought. I hope to see you at one of the upcoming shows, and until then, be well.
I hope this posting finds you all in great spirits on the first day of May. I’m writing to let you all know about some upcoming shows in New York and Long Island, starting with the return of Felix Pastorius’ Hipsters Assassins this Monday, May 2nd. Show time is at 930PM at our usual haunt, Zinc Bar, so please stop in and see the triumphant return! My apologies to those who showed up last week to find that we were not able to perform, but we will make up for it with the best 90 minutes ofJazz Fusion in the City!
Here’s a clip from us playing in Mid-April, playing Jaco’s Used To Be a Cha-Cha:
*(Julius Pastorius is the usually drummer for the gig, but I’ve had the privilege of filling in for him while he’s been out conquering the world)
Also coming up with this week is a some-what last minute show for the Greg Diamond Group on May 4th at Nublu, featuring Edward Perez, Ilia Skibinksky, and Mike Ekroth. We go on at about 9PM, so come on out and hang with us and stick around for Forro In The Dark, one of Nublu’s hippest and craziest shows. So if you love Latin Jazz, Forro, Bayon, and dancing, then you will love this night of music!
Lastly, Hung will be performing this Friday, May 6th, in New Hyde Park, Long Island at the Dublin Pub. We’ll be sharing the stage with Misery, so if you are in the area or within driving distance, you seriously need to be at this show! The show starts at 7PM, so we’ll see you Islanders there.
As always, please check in periodically and I hope to see you all soon!
cheers,
Kenny
Related show
Artist:Felix Pastorius’ Hipster Assassins
Date:Monday, May 2nd 2011
Time:9:30pm
City:Felix Pastorius’ Hipster Assassins in
New York
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