Thursday, September 10, 2009

Cheezy Stevie's Pizza, Back to School Berklee at Daddy's Junky Music and Tekeyé Concert at New England Conservatory on 09.09.09

Took the Green Line T Train out to Boston to go to Tekeyé percussion concert and had to grab a nice and cheeeezzy greeeezzzy SLICE at Little Stevie's Pizza on the way for old times sake. PIZZZZZA ! Some of you OBE fans may even remember our pizza delivery tune ZA from Open Your Ears CD (1994).

Then took a peak in the window of Daddy's Junky Music where I worked in the Pro Audio Department selling recording and PA gear back in the early/mid 80s when I first landed in Boston twenty five years ago. Perfect day job for meeting local musicians for my real "career" as a freelance live sound mixer and recording engineer/producer.

Then I continued down Mass Ave over to Huntington Ave to Brown Hall at the New England Conservatory to see Tekeyé. They are a percussion ensemble founded in Bogota, Colombia (almost a decade ago) by Tupac Mantilla who is a graduate of NEC.

Tekeyé conjured up top notch beats and fun vibes, morphing Airto (eye ear toe), Charlie Chaplin, Harlem Globe Trotters, Sesame Street, Mickey Hart's Planet Drum and a healthy dose of Stomp into a show all their own. They specialize in found objects and body percussion. Great flow to the set and superb audience interaction.

My recording engineer/musician pal Dave Sullivan (who has partnered with legendary jazz drum BOB MOSES to form production company Native Pulse) had recorded Tekeyé the night before and recommended that I go to the show. Bob Moses who also teaches at NEC did the session the night before, but had flown out of the country to gig. It was great to see Dave and chat for a moment. Spoke with Rafa García who is one of the members of Tekeyé and recording engineer and gave him my DRUM ARMY CD from early 90s and wished him well and let him know I snapped a few photos of them.

Make sure to poke around YouTube to see some videos of Tekeyé.

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