Tag Archives: jefferson voorhees

Engine: Looking for the Light

Engine: Robin Gentien, Pierre Lauth-Karson, Alejandro Tomás Rodriguez. Photo by Trevor Meier.

Back in 2017, when the trio Engine was invited to perform at Tricklock Company’s 17th Annual Revolutions International Theatre Festival and at ¡Globalquerque!, likely no one suspected that it was the beginning of a love affair between the band and New Mexico. Two years later, however, thanks to the Theater Department at UNM and Neal Copperman at AMP Concerts, the Franco-Argentine trio—Alejandro Tomás Rodriguez (vocals, acoustic guitar), Robin Gentien (vocals, electric guitar, cascas), and Pierre Lauth-Karson (vocals, harmonica, shaker)—has established a North American home base in Albuquerque. Last spring, their Encuentros Íntimos (Intimate Encounters) concert series here quickly developed a devoted (and SRO) audience and produced a live recording, Encuentros Íntimos: Unplugged in Albuquerque, and the band also recorded a studio album, Si viene la muerte, before taking off on a four-month European tour. This week, the band—now a sextet for its New Mexico appearances, with the addition of Terry Bluhm (bass), Jefferson Voorhees (drums), and Caro Acuña (percussion)—is launching another set of Encuentros Íntimos. This year’s edition includes four appearances in Santa Fe and four in Albuquerque. Anyone interested in an ecstatic musical experience should mark their calendars accordingly.

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Drummer Jefferson Voorhees Explores Tonality and Rhythm in Solo Show

For close to 30 years, drummer Jefferson Voorhees has built a reputation as an earnest, reliably quirky, and much appreciated fixture on Albuquerque’s music scene. His list of credits runs the gamut from world music (with Wagogo and others) to avant-garde jazz (with TG3 and others) to several unclassifiable varieties of miscegenational music (with Pray for Brain, The Dogbone Trio, and others). He is as much at home onstage playing the most unconventional music you might ever encounter, as he is playing standards in nursing homes and senior centers with Red Roosters, or any number of danceable genres with Jasper. Along the way, he has studied West African and East Indian drumming, played with world beat pioneers such as O.J. Ekemode and the Nigerian Allstars, and is currently collaborating with the trio Engine. This coming Thursday at the Outpost, he will draw from his vast storehouse of rhythm to present a solo concert—just him and his idiosyncratic drum kit—on a bill with the Glass Key Trio. Continue reading →

A Dog-Loving Trio at the Outpost

The Dogbone Trio: Micah Hood, Jefferson Voorhees, Maren Hatch

Serendipity, thy name is the Dogbone Trio. Comprising Micah Hood (trombone), Maren Hatch, (acoustic bass), and Jefferson Voorhees (drums), this improvisational trio with a wide-ranging repertoire was formed and then discovered by chance. Nevertheless, their booking this week at the Outpost to kick off the 22nd Annual Summer Thursday Jazz Nights series, in tandem with the Jackie Zamora Brazilian Quintet, was a purely intentional move by Outpost Executive Director Tom Guralnick, who knows a good thing when he hears it. Continue reading →

Ear Curry

Pray for Brain, None of the Above (indie)
A Review

Album cover, with artwork by bassist Christine Nelson.

Album cover, with artwork by bassist Christine Nelson.

Fair warning number one: the music on the premiere release from Pray for Brain, featuring Mustafa Stefan Dill (guitars, oud), Christine Nelson (bass), and Jefferson Voorhees (drums, percussion), may induce you to dance naked in the backyard and howl at the moon.

That may also be a good way to describe the genre of music the trio writes and plays.
Arabilly, indofunk, sufisurf, and countryeastern—terms the group has coined in an attempt to convey what they do—don’t quite cover it.

It’s easier to say what it isn’t. It’s not power-trio rock, surf music, or funk. It’s not Sufi devotional music, bhangra, or jazz. It’s not bluegrass, jam band, or flamenco. In fact, as the title says, it’s None of the Above, but it does incorporate
elements from all of the above, sometimes within the same song. It’s an ecstatic dance party perfumed with coriander. Continue reading →