Category Archives: Music Interview

SISTERS IN SONG Cabaret Sauvignon, All-Female Singing Group blends Voices & Friendships

By Sally Deering

Cabaret
Elena Zazanis, Alex Finger,
Amanda Levie, and Amy Elise
of Cabaret Sauvignon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elena Zazanis, Alex Finger, Amanda Levie, and Amy Elise belt, croon and harmonize songs without any instruments, just a pitch pipe to locate important first notes. They’re known as Cabaret Sauvignon, “a female a cappella ensemble covering tantalizing tunes from torch to top 40.” The four songstresses layer their voices in harmonies that modernize classics like “Bie Mier Bis Du Shoen” by The Andrew Sisters and put a twist on Top 40 Pop hits like Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love”.

 

Performance by Cabaret Savignon
Cabaret Sauvignon on stage at the recent premiere of their show
“The Mysterious A Cappella Murder Cabaret” at the
16th annual Midtown International Theatre Festival

Cabaret Sauvignon can be seen in their first cabaret performance A MYSTERIOUS A CAPPELLA MURDER CABARET at the 16th annual Midtown International Theatre Festival in Manhattan for two shows, July 30 and August 2. The show is described as a “reality-theatre tale where four female vocalists meet in fierce competition, surmount their backstage backstabs, form the a cappella group Cabaret Sauvignon, and allegedly murder their manager.”

Continue reading SISTERS IN SONG Cabaret Sauvignon, All-Female Singing Group blends Voices & Friendships

MUSIC VIEWS- The Better Letters-Tri-State Area Band Releases Second Album

 River View Observer “Best Pick” Emerging Artists Band

By Sally Deering

Jersey City festival-goers know Joe Palumbo’s band “The Better Letters” because the group performs at the 4th Street Art & Music Festival every year and has a huge local fan base.

The band’s first album “Mixed Feelings” was released in June 2011 and now fans of the group can look forward to the August release of a 3-song EP “Play it Straight,” which will also be free for download on the band’s website, www.thebetterletters.com and available on iTunes.

Here’s how Palumbo describes the title track:

“’Play It Straight’ has a nervously paced verse which evokes a sense of paranoia in the listener as voices whisper from every dark corner. The protagonist is a victim of his own misconceptions of how others view him and interpret his actions. The tension in the high-pitched guitar breaks echoes this uneasiness. The solution offered is “…give the people what they want … Play it straight”  but they may as well be saying “be yourself”… Could this be another song about having developed ever-changing multi-stable perceptions from wading in the bottomless stimuli pool of the vast and lawless Internet?”

Palumbo, who was born and raised in Eastern Long Island and plays guitar also writes the band’s original songs.The Better Letters is going on tour in Feb 2013 starting in Pennsylvania then heading west to Minneapolis and south to Georgia. Palumbo says:  “I love playing live, especially every day.”

The Better Letters started as a two-piece in late 2009 and three more band mates joined the following year. The band features Abraham Something on keyboards, Ben Brunnemer on guitar, Steve Goldberg on drums and Darryl Specht on bass guitar.

“It wasn’t cutting it for two people,” Palumbo says. “We had to expand quickly. I asked my friend Ben (to join the group). We had been on a job together painting somebody’s wall and we started talking about the band and I brought him along.  Steve and I were working years ago in separate competing bakeries, which was kind of funny. That’s kind of our connection.” Continue reading MUSIC VIEWS- The Better Letters-Tri-State Area Band Releases Second Album

“Your So-Called Friends”-Local Rock Band Takes Touring Detour to Debut in New York

your-so-call-friends-pick-12

your-so-called-friends-pic-2 By Sally Deering

 

 Life on the road can be an exhausting and liberating experience for any performer but for a rock band on tour, the road becomes a testing ground for new material, a venue to get the word out about the music and – with any luck – a step closer to a record deal. New York-area rock band Your So-Called Friends has been touring the East Coast, southeast and Midwest since October 2010, playing its original tunes in local clubs and with each show, tightening grooves and polishing their performance. On March 5th, Your So-Called Friends takes a break from the road to make their New York City debut at Crash Mansion on the Lower East Side. Continue reading “Your So-Called Friends”-Local Rock Band Takes Touring Detour to Debut in New York

The Partridge Family meets the Red Cross? Mother Teresa with a saxophone.

richie-petrello This isn’t a PR stunt or a reality show, this is as real as it gets – this is human truth. It’s one hell of a story.

Born and raised on Long Island, Richy Petrello has seen his career come full circle; complete with a meteoric upswing and a tumbling downfall, only to rise from the ashes like a Phoenix. If you knew Richy back in the day, he was a fierce Sax cat – the man was a Rock and roll terrorist, terrorizing his own body with alcohol and drugs, waking up in his own vomit.

Richy lived this cliché of sex, drugs and rock and roll for many years; Continue reading The Partridge Family meets the Red Cross? Mother Teresa with a saxophone.

DO YOU WANNA ROCK? The Sons of Saint Rocco-Music Interview -Phil Granito

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Debut CD from The Sons of Saint Rocco
is a roots of Rhythm & Blues explosion

http://sonsofsaintrocco.com

The River View Observer sat down with Phil Granito and talked about his debut album, The Sons of Saint Rocco, which “drops” this week, to talk about the tracks, life, and whatever comes up.

RVO : I have to say the record sounds like fun from beginning to end.

Phil: I was doing it for fun. I brought in a lot of friends to work with me. Bobby Jay and Angel Risoffs both came in and helped me out with the vocals. Bobby sang bass on all the tracks and Angel performed the background vocals on BOOT ‘EM UP. Just terrific, and very humbling, the caliber of players who came together for me. These guys have played with Chuck Berry, Darlene Love and Bo Diddely, just to name a very few. It’s not about name-dropping, you know, it’s about heritage. They’ve been at the center of the scene for the last quarter century and they feel the same way about this music as I do.

RVO: Yes, it’s obvious from listening to the performances that there’s a deep knowledge here, but also a very authentic passion. Continue reading DO YOU WANNA ROCK? The Sons of Saint Rocco-Music Interview -Phil Granito