Musikfest

photo: Saed Hindash

I had the best time playing Musikfest over the weekend with Brass Queens. If you aren’t familiar, Musikfest is the nation’s largest free music festival, held in Bethlehem, PA. There were something like 400 different musical performances!

Our first set of the weekend was at the Levitt Pavilion at the base of Bethlehem’s iconic SteelStacks. It was 5pm and by the end of the show we were in full sun on the stage. We still had a blast and it was an awesome way to start out the weekend. Thanks to lehighvalleylive.com for the awesome profile (if anyone wants to talk about the no-analysis rule after reading this article, hit me up!).

Photo: Saed Hindash

The next day, we played an evening set on the PNC Stadplatz Stage which overlooks the valley. Prior to our set, the festival shut down for about 20 minutes due to lightning in the area. We were getting nervous that our set may be cut short, but everything quickly got back on track.

cumberland vibes for sure.

This was definitely my favorite set of the weekend. The energy on stage and in the audience was through the roof. We saw a lot of people from our first show at this one which is always nice. One of the main missions of BQ is to inspire women so it was awesome to see a few young girls right at the foot of the stage. It was HOT out. I drank an entire Vitamin Water during the show and wish I had another. Despite the heat, we unlocked a new level of energy, as seen in this video of Lady Marmalade which was filmed 80 minutes into our set.

I had to leave immediately after the performance as I was subbing my first show at Little Shop the next day (more on that another time). I wish I could’ve stayed longer but I definitely left happy and fulfilled. I hope we return to the Bethlehem region soon!

Brass Queens Take New Orleans

I had simply THE BEST TIME in New Orleans over the last week with Brass Queens! We played 4 shows in 3 days and they were all a blast. I thought we played really well and the New Orleans audiences really know how to turn up. Everyone on and off stage had one gear: full send.

As you can see from the picture above, I was really down to get into the Mardi Gras spirit, as Carnival season was in full swing during our trip. There were multiple parades every day we were there and it was so cool to see all of the floats and dressed up folx as well as many amazing brass bands.

Our first show was at Zony Mash, an incredible brewery in Mid-City. We opened for the legendary Cha Wa band. I had never seen them before and I was blown away. The music was amazing and I learned a lot about the history of the Mardi Gras Indians.

I didn’t take any pics at our second show which was at The Rabbit Hole. That venue had one of the coolest backyards I had ever seen, complete with a neon dinosaur. I unfortunately didn’t take any pictures of it, or the backline drum set which was in excellent condition. All of the backline kits I used down there were in much better shape than the ones here in NYC.

The next show was definitely my highlight of the trip: Mardi Gras brunch at Music Box Village. I had been eyeing up this spot since they opened up a few years ago.

From their website: The Music Box Village is a place where play, imagination, experimentation, collaboration, community and hard work come together as a whimsical village of artist-made interactive “musical houses.” Each installation is inspired by the unique musical and architectural culture of our home city of New Orleans, and represents a collaborative process between artists based here and abroad. Our one-of-a-kind art site hosts intensive artist residencies, performances, panels, and welcomes visitors for exploration and play.

Let’s just say the brunch drinks must’ve been pretty strong because the audience was going NUTS for us. It was the best possible way to start the day!

After Music Box, I mostly took it easy and napped for the rest of the day as we then played from 9pm-2am (!) at Favela Chic on Frenchmen Street. Even with the napping I was still pretty tired but we once again had an amazing audience to carry us through. Here I am with percussionist Caitlin Howe at 1am on Frenchmen with my first beer of the night:

After surviving the insane Saturday schedule, I got to spend Sunday and most of Monday hanging around town with my wife. Enjoy some of those pictures as I continue to detox off of butter:

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That's A Wrap: 2022

After 2 years of a massive slowdown due to the pandemic, 2022 felt normal again in my world of freelancing. I wanted to share with you some of my highlights of the year. Thanks for following along, coming out to shows, and making me feel supported!

Gig of the Year
This one has to go to Brass Queens at Brooklyn Bowl all the way back on February 3. This was the BKBowl debut for the Queens, and my first time playing there since 2016, having performed there previously with Trumpet Wom’ and numerous times with PitchBlak. I just love playing the Bowl because the hospitality is top notch, the sound on stage is excellent, and the food is so dang good!

Cabaret of the Year
I am not sure off of the top of my head how many times I played at 54 Below or Green Room 42 this year, but it was by far more than any year previously. It was really hard to choose a favorite, but I am going to go with an evening of Julian Hornik’s music at 54 Below. It was my first time meeting Julian and crew but I was SO IMPRESSED by all of them. They’re so talented! They’re so young! Plus it was my first time meeting The Lazours, whose music I got to play every night during Melis Aker’s Hound Dog at Ars Nova.

Honorable mention goes to Jenna Pastuszek who presented two perfectly curated nights at the Green Room 42: an evening with Judy Garland and an evening with Barbra Streisand.

On stage and ready for Julian Hornik at 54 Below

Pop Show of the Year
For our fourth or fifth show ever, Cinco12 headlined the Bryant Park Accordion Festival with a tribute to the Queen of Tejano, Selena! I simply love this music and everyone in the band. I thought we played really well that night and there was some AMAZING people watching. Every time we play this music, I watch people sing their hearts out and dance along. Couple that with the usual insanity that is Bryant Park…that place was LIT!

i am so proud of my former roommate, jenny luna, who put this band together and absolutely slays the vocals

Theater Run of the Year
Another tough choice, but I’ve gotta go with New York City Children’s Theater’s production of Dory Fantasmagory. I thought the show was charming and cute, and from the drum chair I could see the smiles on the faces of all the kiddos in the audience. It is delightful to watch children fall in love with theater for the first time! Plus I REALLY loved hanging with music director Robert Frost. I hope to work with him and NYCCT again soon!

Subbing Show of the Year
I subbed on some amazing shows this year, including Between the Lines and Suffs, but the award here has to go to Six. All of these shows included an immense amount of preparation (including having to rent a drum set in LA so I could practice at my in-laws house last Thanksgiving), but they were highly rewarding. It’s thrilling to play Six: I’m on the stage, in Tony Award-winning costume, and pretty much playing for the majority of the show. Thanks to all of my friends and fam who came out to see me play this show over the last year. It’s the best when I have people I know in the audience.

At the theater before my first night playing the show, losing my mind

on stage at the lena horne theater for my last date at six for the year, still masked but way less nervous

*****
So that’s it! I’m taking off for the rest of the year to enjoy time with friends, family, and of course PHISH, and will be back strong in 2023 with a few dates at Six and a few workshops!

Until then…Ashley

Hound Dog

For the last few weeks I’ve been working on a brand new play presented by Ars Nova: Hound Dog. We are currently in previews and open this coming Saturday. Here’s the official blurb:

In Melis Aker’s world premiere play HOUND DOG, a young musician returns from abroad to her hometown of Ankara, Turkey to look after her widowed father. Forced to reckon with the family and community she left behind, an investigation into her grieving parent’s strange pilgrimage to Graceland unravels into a sonic mirage of memory packed with humor, nostalgia and the love we cultivate across generations.

I’ve made a lot of new friends on this show and get to play with a really excellent band, including lead singer Sahar Milani, guitarist Maya Sharpe, and Mel Hsu on bass.

Here are some setup shots:

I’m playing a delightfully acoustic setup: 5-piece Gretsch kit with darbuka, triangle, tambourine, and wood block.

The view of our lead singer, Sahar Milani, from my seat. We are on the second story of the set that has windows that open up to reveal the band.

Of course I need the Miller Machine to make this show happen!

The array of sticks I’m using

Me with Maya Sharpe and Mel Hsu. We are the Flaming Sultans!

March Photos

March has already been full of many wonderful gigs so I thought I’d share some pictures!

L to R: Your truly, Najee Gabay, Mason Griffin, Sean Stephens, and Beda Spindola

First up, Sean Stephens’ Redemption of a 90s Kid at 54 Below. To say I had the perfect shirt for this show is an understatement! This set was an absolute blast to play. We opened with Reba McEntire’s “Fancy” and I haven’t been able to get this video out of my mind since I started working on this song. Absolutely epic.

L to R: Or Matias, Shoba Narayan, James Mohamdein, and Tim Basom. Photo by Rebecca J. Michelson.

Next, I got to play with literal Disney Princess Shoba Narayan at 54. Shoba is the first ever South Asian to play Jasmine in Broadway’s Aladdin. She is stunningly gorgeous and has the voice to match! My personal highlight was playing Stephen Schwartz’s “When You Believe” with Shoba and Lindsay Heather Pearce who currently stars as Elphaba in Wicked.

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Then, I got to celebrate the third anniversary of Brass Queens on International Women’s Day! Major shouts to Wandering Barman, a lovely cocktail bar here in my neighborhood, for being exceptional hosts.

I left Wandering Barman as soon as we finished playing because I had to get up at 6am to drive to PS 277 Gerritsen Beach to play with Dawn Drake’s ZapOte for the third grade class. Dawn talked about the music of the Americas and we demonstrated salsa, funk, and samba. They asked a lot of great questions and picked up on the rhythms impressively quickly! Thanks to the Brooklyn Arts Council for sponsoring this engagement.

Video: Brass Queens at Brooklyn

I played Brooklyn Bowl for the first time since 2016 last week with Brass Queens. It felt so good to be back on the stage there, a place where I’ve seen countless incredible shows, ate so much delicious fried chicken, and probably had, oh I don’t know, one or two beers over the last 10+ years (it looks like Brooklyn Blast is no longer on tap which is honestly probably for the best).

I made a little highlight real from some of the clips my wife was kind enough to shoot. I was so proud of the Brass Queens that night! Everyone brought their A-game. I’m hopeful that we’ll be invited back soon!

We are definitely back

I just wrapped what was certainly my busiest week of playing since the pandemic began. If my calculations are correct, I logged 4 gigs in a week which doesn’t sound that crazy until you factor in the 19 hours of rehearsal (actual number!) that these shows required.

On Monday, I had a morning rehearsal for Prospect Theater’s Tuesday night REIGNITE concert. Before the concert, we had a 5-hour tech rehearsal where we worked out the staging for 15 different songs, each featuring a different vocalist or vocal ensemble. It was my first time playing at Symphony Space in at least ten years! I thought the drums looked great on the stage!

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On Monday and Thursday, I had rehearsals for the Selena project I’m in. We played a Dia de los Muertos party on Saturday night at what is normally a restaurant in Ditmas Park. It turned out to be a great place for a concert. We sold the place out! I didn’t take any pictures except for this blurry one with percussionist Neil Ochoa. That dude can play.

Before the Selena gig, I played a super fun Halloween gig with Brass Queens at the Zo Loft in Rockefeller Center. I thought one of the coolest parts was that I got to venture down to the loading dock that services all of RocCen to load in my drums and park my car while I was at the event. It blew my mind that I entered the loading dock at 50th street and drove a block and a half underground to get to 1 RocCen. There’s a whole world down there! Brass Queens repurposed their custom Stella McCartney jumpsuits made for the Met Gala into “Brasstronaut” suits. I LOVED IT!

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The final show of the week was Drew Gasparini’s show last night at “Broadway’s Living Room,” 54 Below. This has become the cabaret spot in NYC. The energy in that room is always electric and Drew really brought down the house. I last played with Drew in the Bahamas in February 2020 for a presentation of his coming-to-Broadway show, the Karate Kid.

The craziest part of the week, perhaps, was the rehearsal for Drew’s show, which was at Euphoria Studios, the place I was rehearing on 3/12/2020 when it became suddenly clear that the world was shutting down. On my way in I passed the Sweetgreen we ate lunch at that day and the matcha shop that we stopped at for a quick pick-me-up. Coincidentally, the bass player on Drew’s gig, Justin Goldner, was the MD for that rehearsal in March. It was all very surreal.

Again, I only took one photo last night and it was with Erica Rotstein, Drew’s manager and one of the producers from Hundred Days, who happens to be married to my lifelong friend Ian Kagey. It was great to get to catch up over a drink at the end of a very long week!

I think that’s it! Thanks for following along. Now it’s time to pack for Grinch tour which kicks off on Saturday!

Busy Weekend with Brass Queens

View from the stage in Cape May

I had so much fun this weekend playing a run of shows with Brass Queens. We had an early hit at the Exit Zero Jazz Festival in Cape May, NJ on Saturday, so we spend the night in Wildwood Friday night. Though I’ve played out of town a few times over the pandemic, this was the first overnighter I’ve done since February 2020 and it was a blast to be “on the road,” even if it was for one night.

This was my first trip to Cape May and it was quaint and wonderful and the view from the drum kit (above) was spectacular! I spent a significant amount of our set watching the waves crash behind the audience.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to stay for very long as we had to return to Brooklyn to play the launch of Witch Please, a new pumpkin beer by Dyke Brewing, at the Crown Inn. I don’t usually go for pumpkin beers, but it was pretty tasty and I even bought a shirt! It was, as always, nice to play an event for the queer community.

This may surprise you, but every drummer loves free beer!

On Sunday, we got to play yet another waterfront gig, this time at The Hudson in Inwood. Somehow I’ve never heard of this restaurant, but I will be back for dinner and drinks sometime. This was a 70th birthday party and everyone was down to get down! We even had jet skiers on the river pull up behind us to listen for awhile.

On the Hudson, at The Hudson

After that, my wife and I went to a belated Sukkot dinner at our friends’ apartment in Harlem. There’s no better way to round out the weekend than with good friends, good food, and good drinks! There may have also been a trip to the ice cream shop :-)

Sukkot Squad <3

Governors Ball

I had an amazing time playing all three days of Governors Ball this weekend with Brass Queens. If you aren’t familiar, Gov Ball is an annual advertising music festival held in NYC that usually attracts late-teens and twenty somethings. Thankfully, I didn’t feel as old as I prepared myself to feel, and even though I’m not 20, I have 20 years of festival-going experience under my belt, so let’s just say I’m quite the professional!

We had a blast playing and getting the crowd pumped up. The weather was perfect and it was nice to be at Citi Field and not have to worry about the Mets blowing it in the 9th! I got to catch a bunch of artists that I otherwise would never see. Highlights for me were Megan Thee Stallion, Portugal. The Man (one of very few straight-ahead bands at the fest), and Burna Boy. The definitive musical highlight was, BY FAR, Carly Rae Jepson playing “Call Me Maybe.” Damn, that song is pretty incredible and the crowd was going nuts!

Keep an eye out on the Brass Queen’s Instagram as I’m sure we will be sharing clips from the weekend. I hope we are invited back next year!

Operation Gig

At the Japanese House with Brass Queens

I had the pleasure of playing not one but TWO events presented by Operation Gig over the weekend. If you aren’t familiar with the series, Operation Gig has been presenting crowd-funded outdoor gigs to help support working musicians through the Covid era. The concerts are hosted throughout porches in Ditmas Park, one of my absolute favorite neighborhoods in all of New York City.

Amor Prohibido pre-show. Yuka Tadano on bass and Rich Stein hiding back there on percussion.

Saturday’s concert featured the triumphant return of Amor Prohibido: The Must of Selena. I fall in love with her songbook the more I play it and it is truly a joy to play with each and everyone in that group! Sunday’s concert was with Brass Queens at the famed Japanese House and it was amazing to play with those ladies after being away in California for three weeks!

It felt really good to have back to back weekend gigs after a difficult year of lockdowns and cancellations. The Ditmas Park community came out strong both days and it was a delight to share both of these projects with everybody.

Me and some absolute legends who came out to Brass Queens: Jo Lampert, Kate Freer, Barrie Lobo-McLain, and Ada Westfall.