Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/679074/a-gatsby-party-and-billy-dee-williams-city-lights-for-feb-15-21/

My preview of Friday Feb 16 Chicago r& b singer and poet Jamila Woods at the Howard Theatre is included in the link

Haven’t listened yet to new J Robbins album Basilisk or the new Mary Timony singles out before the release of her new album

Reuben Jackson, who alternates as dj with Larry Appelbaum on WPFW on Sundays 4 to 6, who used to write for City Paper a bit, who is a published poet, jazz archivist at the Felix Grant collection at UDC, and a busy social media poster just had had a massive stroke about 10 days ago, and has been moved to hospice. Tragic news. Jackson spoke for a lengthy period of time to me for my Greg Tate obit that focused on Tate's life in DC. Jackson was friends with Greg Tate and his brother Brian growing up in DC. A good guy.

Folk-artist and performer Lonnie Holley will be backed by Lee Bains from Alabama Joe Lally, and Brendan Canty at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage tonight from 6 to 7 pm Eastern US time. The show is free but ticketed. It will also be streamed on the Millennium Stage Youtube & Facebook page

https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/millennium-stage/2024/february/lonnie-holley/

https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2024-02-16/one-of-a-kind-poet-dj-and-jazz-scholar-reuben-jackson-dies-at-67

Damn , this hurts. RIP Reuben Jackson. I will cherish that long phone call we had where you told me about going to Greg and Brian Tate’s house as a teenager where they had jazz records at one end of a room and punk records at the other. You told me about the poetry scene then and the early days at dc space and so much more about your DC and how self-proclaimed awkward Black nerds like yourself fit in.

Rare Essence streaming from K Ctr tonight

https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/millennium-stage/2024/february/rare-essence/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/21/j-robbins-concert-dc/

I want to love the new J Robbins album ( he’s best known from being in Jawbox and Government Issue), and like how he mentions steps he takes to keep his new album and live show fresh, but on first listen it’s to me just good and not innovative enough

The Wammies voters again did not nominate any of the Capital Bop top jazz albums for Wammies awards. Washington Post Chris R&chards fave dc rapper Wifi Gawd had one of his top 2023 albums of the year, but no Wammy nomination. Some guy named Ethan Spalding got nominated for best rock artist and best rap artist at Wammies. Anybody know his music?

Spalding calls his sound traprock

WAMU just suddenly shut down DCist

They’re even blocking insult to the site. Fuckers.

https://dcist.com/story/20/04/30/two-local-ethiopian-jazz-greats-have-new-albums/

Blocking access to my 2020 freelancer article for them on Hailu Mergia and Selam Woldemariam

https://www.ninaprotocol.com/articles/no-ones-moving-to-dc-to-get-famous-maybe-thats-why-the-music-is-so-good

interesting article on dc high bpm techno dance club music, dc experimental rap, and dc rhizome experimental jazz , but I wish article could have also mentioned Green Zone middle eastern djs, Adobo DMV, Ethiopian live music & dj scene ; dc Caribbean DJ scene. Article acknowledges dc go-go and dc punk as historic & still alive

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/28/new-thing-exhibit-american-university-museum/

Early 70s DC in exhibit

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/681410/when-the-music-stopped-remembering-reuben-jackson/

ALona in City Paper re Reuben Jackson

Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning doc plus a doc short on great current photographer Dee Dwyer who is best known for her SE DC photos and is a go-go fan; Sat March 2 from 2 to 4:30 @ngadc . See the great Lange exhibit too

https://www.nga.gov/calendar/film-programs/art-films-special-screenings/dorothea-lange-grab-hunk-lightning.html/2024/03/02/1400

https://theforeigncorrespondentsdc.bandcamp.com/album/lovin-you-aint-easy

The Foreign Correspondents is a power pop band with Brendan Canty , and former DCers Ted Leo, Michael Hampton, and Sohrob Habion

Sounds interesting! Ted Leo was, of course, in Chisel with my former colleague John Dugan. Next time I saw him he was out with Aimee Mann and Liz Phair. Brendan has been around forever. I confess I don't know the other two.

Michael Hampton was in DC hardcore band Faith , and then in some other bands . Lives in NY now I think

Sohrob was in dc postpunk band Edsel, and I think is now in postpunk band Savak. He lives in NY or Jersey now too.

DJ RBI mix of classic old and obscure new hiphop on Saturday nights 9 to 12 midnight last night on WpFw was so good.

I listened for a bit in the car as my wife and I were coming back from Baltimore where we saw the Ethiopian art at the Walters Museum and heard dc Ethiopian Ras Band there with guest vocalists. They had free tej Ethiopian honey wine samples and food too. We ate a full Ethiopian meal at Tabor afterwards.

https://wtop.com/music/2024/03/michael-reidy-dynamic-front-man-of-revered-dc-rock-band-razz-dies-at-73/

Michael Reidy was a great, charismatic front man for rock/ proto-punk band (the) Razz in late 70s/80s in DC. He was also a clever artist /painter who had art exhibits in local galleries, and designed cool flyers and zine ads for the band.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/682485/2024-spring-arts-guide/

I previewed late 70s early 80s Urban Verbs rock band talk ; Orquesta Akokan; Amaarae; Ms Kim; Arushi Mudgal dane & music ; & George Pelecanos for City Paper Spring Arts 2024. The Pelecanos one is under “books” but that Palisades Backstage event will have music too. Details in the preview DC rock fans. Also, the new Pelecanos book is kind of wacky -- written from the perspective of a dog who gre up in a public housing project, and later lived with a drunk, and then a drug dealer among others

If you pluck my name from there and enter in blogspot as well, you can find my March 2024 DMV calendar with some gigs by touring acts in various genres plus local bands and djs I am interested in from such genres as Ethiopian music, go-go, Latino genres, rock, r& b, rap, South Asian, old-school and new school African genres. A bit of jazz and experimental but not as comprehensive for jazz as the Capital Bop list

Love your monthly list

Thanks.

Typo above, should read - Arushi Mudgal dance and music (her sister is 1 of 2 vocalists for that event)

Saw the crappy 9 and 53 Washington Wizards win a basketball game last night @ Capital One & then we stuck around of course for Northeast Groovers and Backyard Band go-go . we had bought 2 tickets for $25 total via a special deal. Huge turnout for the go-go.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/03/08/a-dc-indie-rock-musician-is-now-ceo-of-amtrak/

Member of 90s art pop groups Lorelei and Chessie is now head of Amtrak

Me on Michael Reidy of late 70s DC rock band Razz and his provocative visual art for galleries, Razz ads in the Unicorn Times , Razz record sleeves, Washington City Paper , and punk fanzines

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/685208/remembering-michael-reidy-musician-and-visual-artist/

Dear Rhizome community,

An UPDATE, and an INVITATION…

1. We have NO NEWS on when/if we are ever going to actually get kicked out of everyone's favorite house on Maple Street. We're still there, and still going strong.

2. We have YES NEWS on a potential "forever home" for Rhizome, and we want to share it with you.

VERY BRIEFLY: We have an opportunity to purchase a building nearby with the help of a big grant from the DC Arts Commission.

We will be hosting a TOWN HALL on TUESDAY March 26 at 7pm to share information about the building and how YOU can make it happen. (Yes, we need HELP!)

To attend meeting by zoom you need to register on their google doc. Look for a link in their social media or on their website

Very interested to see what Rhizome figures out. Hopefully they end up in a great spot and can keep things rolling along.

The Urban Verbs nostalgia talk at Palisades yesterday/Sunday was the same time as the WPFW jazz dj, poet, archivist , writer Reuben Jackson memorial poetry tribute service at Josephine Butler Center, so I chose the latter. Very emotional and touching. Poets read Jackson poems and then read their own work about Jackson. Plus they showed an Ellie Walton 6 minute video interview with Jackson. Some of those Jackson poets hit hard .

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/686524/washington-women-in-jazz-festival-city-lights-for-march-28-to-april-3/

Some of these events are a bity pricey, but once a year DC's Washington Women in Jazz fest happens with a range of styles

Leonsis just did a make nice tweet to Ron Moten of Dont Mute DC, while simultaneously I am seeing this:

Axios -What we're watching: Another Leonsis lament, noisy street buskers, are also included in the terms. Monumental proposes creating an 'Entertainment District' around the arena with rules against vending, loitering, and noise

January W Post article on the buskers

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/18/ted-leonsis-street-musician-noise-gallery-place/

https://www.capitalbop.com/rhizome-dc-community-investment/

Rhizome is gonna try to buy a building on Alaska Ave off of Georgia Ave in DC. They got a $350,000 grant from DC Arts , and the hard part is going to be raising 400, 000 more via loans and donations. I think if they raise 200 grand , they then get a bit more time before having to come up with remaining 200 grand

I listened to the Zoom. New location is not near a Metro station, just near Metro bus routes. They seem more optimistic about raising the bucks than I would be

I’d be willing to donate, but the document I saw is that they are going to crowdsource loans of a minimum of $2,500.

They are supposed to based on my listening to the zoom have a separate donation link to a go fund me . But yeah for the loan they want more - 2500 . Which they say they will pay back in 10 to 15 years

https://givebutter.com/rhizomedc

Link for Rhizome donations

Thanks! If they haven’t used their email list yet to blast the link, they should.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/03/29/rhizome-dcs-diy-mecca-is-trying-to-buy-a-permanent-home/

Washingtonian with more details re current rhizome landlord; and some stuff re the move

My April concert calendar is posted, and my City Paper preview of the DC history conference is also online . The conference has presentations on big serious items with race, class, and gender aspects as well as looks at the beginning of the 930 Club on F Street; go-go and politics; U street and Howard Theatre history; a guy who painted pics of Rock Creek Park in the 1800s. If I was in town this weekend I would go to see Digable Planets and Sun Ra for free at Franklin Park

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/687813/curtis-sittenfeld-district-dreamers-film-fest-city-lights-for-april-4-to-10/

April 12 deadline to submit for consideration to Amanda M for Fort Reno summer concerts

https://www.fortreno.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/listings/items/orquesta-akokan-april-10/

My City Paper Spring Arts preview of Wed April 10 Orquesta Akokan at Hamilton live

My City Paper preview of Sunday April 14 gig by Ethiopian music band Qwanqwa is included in the link

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/689557/new-worlds-atmosphere-and-more-city-lights-for-april-11-17/

DC punk band Ekko Astral got an 8.0 from Pitchfork

reunited Dc punk bands Scream and Soulside are about to tour UK

DC's Mark Cisneros is touring Australia as part of Kid Congo's band . Mick Harvey from Bad Seeds and others is playing bass on this tour

Dreamcast Moe ep getting lots of attention

https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/iota-club-cafe-arlington-va/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0BMQABHXmKZ1kaMQL3PoyqmPRqvh0JKWSD14S_vEoiTTOYCOqSYrw8VccerBDvUg_aem_AWd4xFbAjbQaDnFY_iW0rsAwpyfWE-bm7fygp0FBHUZqJ8uTddzCPkvxRK4EAxvZfEo

Folks who loved Americana music and more club Iota in Arlington that was open from 1994 to 2017 reminisce

Rhizome still has a way to go to raise the money they need to buy their own place

https://www.rhizomedc.org/future