from: The New York Times

Music Review
Cup of Southern Joy (Northern, Too)

John Ellis is a North Carolina-born tenor saxophonist with a smart and generous flow who’s spent a lot of time studying and playing in New Orleans. But he’s a New Yorker now, and his new band, Double-Wide, combines musicians of both cities. Gary Versace, who plays Hammond organ, lives here; the sousaphone player Matt Perrine and the drummer Jason Marsalis live in New Orleans.

The tenor saxophonist John Ellis performing with his band Double-Wide at the Jazz Standard on Tuesday night.

The band, and its new album, “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” (Hyena), aim directly at pleasure. But at the same time this is not rowdy music. Double-Wide’s gig at the Jazz Standard on Tuesday felt almost miniaturized by the musicians’ narrative control over improvising, and comically transparent as a music with a clear high-end (Mr. Ellis’s light-toned melodic improvising, Mr. Marsalis’s cymbals), a middle (the organ and snare drum) and a low (the boom of the kick drum, the braaap of the sousaphone).

This all felt intentional. Double-Wide’s sound is bright and clever, a mixture of new jazz with old rhythm and blues and parade music; it’s a kind of pop-art remake of Southern vernacular (click here to read more...).

Click here and read the full article at NYtimes.com.

from: The Village Voice

The Brakes' Tale of Two Cities

A monument to calmly neurotic pop excellence

by Edd Hurt
May 13th, 2008

The Brakes
Tale of Two Cities
Hyena

Unlike any number of pop musicians who take refuge in formalism, the Brakes sound like they know all about the way the world can pass you by when you're looking for a love to call your own. Recorded live last year in New York and back home in Philadelphia, Tale of Two Cities gets structural with twin-guitar breaks, elegant soft-shoe piano, and funk rhythms that are jumpy and a little bookish. It's a tight, controlled, expert pop record that sounds suspiciously even-handed, as if the quintet's neuroses have been conquered all too successfully. The fancy chord changes and double-time passages convey what the arch lyrics don't, as chief songwriter Zach Djanikian croons soulfully about women he notices "standing in a hurry" in supermarket lines, along with other big-city perils.

"Supermarket" and "Big Money" make a case for these guys as harbingers of newfangled post-rock that recalls the relaxed post-boogie of such '70s bands relics as Little Feat and Orleans—you could imagine them covering "Easy to Slip" or "Still the One" with a straight face. "Big Money" rhymes death march with good heart and sports guitars that evoke the Allman Brothers and Big Star (click here to read more...).

Click here to read full review at VillageVoice.com.

LIVE! in NEW YORK

JOHN ELLIS & DOUBLE-WIDE

TUES. MAY 13th & WED. MAY 14th
(2 Shows Each Night - 7:30 PM & 9:30 PM)

THE JAZZ STANDARD
116 East 27th Street
New York, NY 10016
tel: (212) 576-2232

hyenarecords[dot]com/johnellis
johnaxsonellis[dot]com
myspace[dot]com/johnellisband

James Blood Ulmer will be the special guest of American Routes on the episode airing the week of June 13.

Please tune in and listen to James discuss his historic career, including his critically acclaimed albums on HYENA Records.

For local radio stations and times, please visit: www.americanroutes.org

The title track from Dale Watson's latest "From The Cradle To The Grave" is featured on the new American Songwriter "Country Way" compilation that comes free by purchasing the magazine.

You Can Buy This Issue Here: http://www.americansongwriterstore.com

Or Subscribe Now Here: http://store.americansongwriter.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

Dance Like There's No Tomorrow

John Ellis and Double-Wide | Hyena Records (2008)

By Joel Roberts

That's the low roar of a sousaphone—courtesy of New Orleans' Matt Perrine—you hear on the opening notes of “All Up in the Aisles,” the first tune on Brooklyn-based saxophonist John Ellis' soulful Dance Like There's No Tomorrow. A North Carolina preacher's son who spent his formative musical years in the Crescent City before moving up north, Ellis remains a devotee of the New Orleans sound, although he and his band Double-Wide put a decidedly New York twist on it here.

With Perrine holding down the bottom on the unwieldy but powerful instrument, Gary Versace providing some deep church grooves on organ, Jason Marsalis ably manning the drums, plus Ellis' own expressive tenor sax, the group serves up an eclectic mix of modernist jazz that's both danceable and challenging (click here to read full review at AllAboutJazz.com...).

Tour Dates | John Ellis & Double-Wide

• May 13, 2008 / The Jazz Standard / New York, New York (7:30 PM & 9:30 PM)
• May 14, 2008 / The Jazz Standard / New York, New York (7:30 PM & 9:30 PM)
• May 28, 2008 / Regatta Bar / Cambridge, Massachusetts
• August 21, 2008 / The Sunside / Paris, France
• August 22, 2008 / 72 hours of Ainlay - Castle Concerts / Ainlay, France
• September 20, 2008 / Chris' Jazz Cafe / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Marco Benevento on NPR's World Cafe

The World Cafe with host David Dye has broadcast their session with Marco Benevento on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 and can be heard at National Public Radio's website.

Click here and listen to NPR's The World Cafe with David Dye session with Marco Benevento at NPR.org.

Express: A Publication of The Washington Post posted these kind words about The Bridge.

from: ReadExpress.com

Crossing Over: The Bridge

BEFORE NOV. 22, 2006, The Bridge had never played a headlining show to more than 400 people in its Baltimore home base. So, when the band had an album release party at the 1,600 person-capacity Rams Head Live, mandolinist Kenny Liner had hoped 800 people would show up. As fans filtered in, the crowd rose to 1,000. Then, by the time the band took the stage, it had swelled to 1,200.

Liner was sick at the time, nursing a 100-degree fever. He doesn't remember seeing much — he was so sick he was hallucinating — he said, but he does remember one thing:

"I remember walking out on stage and almost fainting, I was so surprised," he said. "I was just like, 'Who are these people? How do they even know who we are?'"

Lead singer and guitarist Cris Jacobs remembered the experience a bit better.

"It felt good," he said. "Just to walk out on stage, after five years of doing it, and see that huge crowd was definitely gratifying. It's one of those moments that you just kind of be thankful for."

And these days, The Bridge is having a lot of those moments.

The jam band, which melds rock (Southern and otherwise), jazz, funk, Americana and even a little bit of hip-hop, might be poised for its biggest year yet. The group is playing more shows outside of the Mid-Atlantic than it has before — including some dates in Europe this summer — and it's finishing up its third album, which Jacobs said he hopes to have out by fall (click here to read more...).

Click here to read full article at ReadExpress.com.

Tour Dates | The Bridge

• May 8 2008 / East End Cafe / Newark, Delaware
• May 9 2008 / Whiskey 1803 / Annapolis, Maryland
• May 22 2008 / Sullivan Hall / New York, New York
• May 23 2008 / The Wheelhouse / Narragansett, Rhode Island
• May 25 2008 / Strangecreek Music Festival / Greenfield, Massachusetts
• May 29 2008 / The Goodfoot / Portland, Oregon
• May 30 2008 / Fenario Gallery / Eugene, Oregon
• Jun 1 2008 / Private Party - congrats Rick & Stacy! / Seattle, Washington
• Jun 3 2008 / Tractor Tavern / Seattle, Washington
• Jun 4 2008 / The Goodfoot / Portland, Oregon
• Jun 13 2008 / Nix BB Blues / Enschede
• Jun 14 2008 / Umsonst Und Draussen Festival / Kist, Baden-Württemberg
• Jun 16 2008 / Oerol Festival @ Braskoer Club / Terschelling
• Jun 20 2008 / Canal Club / Richmond, Virginia
• Jun 21 2008 / Private Party / Boyce, Virginia
• Jun 26 2008 / Wilbert’s / Cleveland, Ohio
• Jun 28 2008 / Lazy River Music & Arts Festival / South Elgin, Illinois
• Jul 5 2008 / Stone Pony Summer Stage / Asbury Park, New Jersey
• Jul 12 2008 / Allgood Festival / Masontown, West Virginia
• Jul 19 2008 / Camp Bisco / Mariaville, New York
• Jul 26 2008 / Blue Balls Music Festival / Lucerne, Lucerne
• Aug 17 2008 / Ladew Gardens / Monkton, Maryland
• Aug 24 2008 / Rehoboth Beach Bandstand / Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

With profound sorrow and regret, we’re sorry to have to tell you that on Sunday, May 4, The Brakes’ drummer Josh Sack lost his battle with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML). Diagnosed last August, Josh bravely fought the cancer, even regaining his strength long enough to tour in October and drum at rehearsals as recently as last week.

The family respectfully requests that contributions in his memory be made to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Condolences, memories or messages to the band can be sent to management@brakesband.com.

Josh Sack's obituary can be read here at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

THE BRAKES are currently featured artists on imeem's music page thanks to our friends at IMEEM.

Click here to listen to The Brakes' debut HYENA Records release Tale of Two Cities in it's entirety at imeem.com/thebrakes.

Tale of Two Cities is available everywhere tomorrow, May 6th!!!

Click here to order your copy today at HYENArecords.com.