Hey Good People!

Ah! it is finally spring in Seattle, and I have some exciting events coming up starting this Saturday May 10 and continuing through Friday May16th.

First of all I am playing at the Seattle Art Museum Saturday May 10th from 7 - 9pm, and again Sunday May 11th from 2 - 4pm. These performances are part of the big party the Seattle Art Museum is throwing as their exhibition of “The Art of Rome”
concludes.

Follow this link for more on this extraordinary exhibition and the 35 hour marathon party the museum is throwing:

http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/calendar/eventDetail.asp?eventID=13882&sxTitle=&WHEN=&month=4&day=10&year=2008&sxID=

Also not to be missed is The Beat Council on May 10th 9pm - 2am at ToST in fremont. I am not playing this time, but there is a stellar cast of electronic performers including guests: Quartertone and Kid Amiga and Spec, and residents Crispy and Lara.

For more info about The Beat Council please check:

http://nwtekno.org/vb/showthread.php?threadid=125680&eventid=32723

And then on Monday May 12th at 7:30pm there is a big big show! This is the opening night celebration for the 2008 Seattle International Children’s Festival. I am going to be the MC and will also be performing live sarod and beats, singing the Washington state song, and performing a special track designed for the occasion that begins in bhangra, goes to beat boxing and hip hop, becomes rocktronica and then finishes as Congolese soukous. Mais oui! Claro que si!

Also peforming that night are other performers from the 2008 festival lineup including the Australian Circus group Circa, Japanese puppeteer Jo Taira, seattle based flamenco artist Savannah Fuentes, and the massive all female master drumming group from Guinea, West Africa, Les Amazones de Guinee.

For more info and to get tickets to the opening night celebration check:

http://www.seattleinternational.org/seattle/performers/opening-night.html

I will also be performing at the World Samplers at the Festival on Thursday May 15th and Friday May 16th at McCaw Hall at 10am and 12noon. If anyone has the day off, come and check it out, even if you don’t have kids!

Here are links to the schedule of shows at SICF for Thursday and Friday:

http://www.seattleinternational.org/seattle/showtimes/thursday.html

http://www.seattleinternational.org/seattle/showtimes/friday.html

Alright I hope to see you out there! Wish me luck with my busy week!

best musical wishes, peace and love,

James Whetzel

PS Here’s a summary of all the shows that are going down:

Saturday May 10th, 7- 9pm, James Whetzel,l Sarod & Beats at Seattle Art Museum. This show is free with museum admission.

Saturday May 10th, 9pm - 2am The Beat Council at Tost with Quartertone, Kid Amiga, Spec, Crispy and Lara. $3 cover.

Sunday May 11th, 2pm - 4pm, James Whetzel, Sarod & Beats at Seattle Art Museum. This show is free with museum admission.

Monday May 12th, 7:30pm, Bagley Wright Theatre, Seattle International Children’s Festival (SICF) Opening Night Party with James Whetzel, Circa, Jo Taira, Savannah Fuentes, and Les Amazones de Guinee. Tickets to this event are $18.

Thursday, May 15th 10am, McCaw Hall, SICF Europe sampler with Comerford Dancers, Savannah Fuentes, Orkestar Zirconium, and MC James Whetzel.

Thursday, May 15th, 12noon, McCaw Hall, SICF Asian sampler with Fillipiniana, Kabuki Academy, Huayin, and MC James Whetzel,

Friday, May 16th, 10am, McCaw Hall, SICF Africa Sampler with Gansango, Eritrean Youth Dancers, Les Amazones de Guinee, and MC James Whetzel.

Friday, May 16th, 12noon, McCaw Hall, SICF Latin America sampler with Mariachi Huenatchi, Correo Aereo, Petrona Martinez and MC James Whetzel.

http://www.funketabla.com/jwhetzel.php

http://www.ilike.com/artist/James+Whetzel

Operation Cell Phone is a new track that I have uploaded on Funketabla.com. First it is funk and then bhangra and then congolese with cell phone vibrate, cell phone flipping open, and dial tones sounds.

Now I didn’t just make this track for fun–though it was fun to make–it was designed for an open public dance performance called Operation Cell Phone that is going to happy Tuesday, April 29th at Westlake Center at 12:25pm. This performance is to honor International Dance Day, which just so happens to occur on April 29th!  Preceding Operation Cell Phone will be a performance of the “Seeds of Compassion Flocking Dance Score” at 12 noon.
The Operation Cell Phone dance was created by Dancer/Choreographer Liz Erber in collaboration with James Whetzel.

If you would like to participate the next (and last rehearsal) is this Sunday, April 27th at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill, or if it rains 4th floor in the Chamber Theatre in the Oddfellows Hall, which is across the street from Cal Anderson Park on Pine Street.

You can check rehearsal video and the dance score on You Tube:

Operation Cell Phone - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDq1hnxf0SI

Operation Cell Phone - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4zwOMqaDh4

Operation Cell Phone - Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32qbcsz7RHA

And to listen to the music please go to my artist page:

http://www.funketabla.com/jwhetzel.php

And for more info on the event and why the heck we decided to make a dance piece based on things people do with cell phones check:

http://www.internationaldanceday.com/

Hope you enjoy the music and hope to see some of you Seattle people out there! Cheers!

James Whetzel

Friday April 25th, EQlateral and James Whetzel at Skylark, with Wolfgang Del Toro and DJ Baba James

Friday, April 25th presents a rare opportunity to catch an extended performance by psyche classical ensemble EQlateral and special guest, funketabla’s own James Whetzel.

EQlateral is John Ames on Cello, Susan Dumett on voice, Sebastian Lange on violin, and Peter Toms on upright bass and percussion. All the members of Eqlateral mix their live sounds with electronic effects and beats. The music ranges from funky electronica to ambient atmospherics and can sound like trip hop, european classical chamber music, or industrial music, hence the moniker “psyche-classical.” To this James add his penchant for cleverly punchy Indian and African beats and love for ragas and modal music. For this show he will play sarod, darbouka, do throat singing, and also play selected fresh beats from his electronic repetoire.

For more info on EQ check:

http://eqlateral.com/
For more info on James check:

http://www.funketabla.com/jwhetzel.php
http://www.ilike.com/artist/James+Whetzel/

This performance will take place at the eminently cool and intimate environs of Skylark in West Seattle. Skylark is located at 3803 Delridge Way SW, zip. 98106 take the Delridge Exit from the West Seattle bridge, veer left and voila it’s right after the ramp on your right.

http://www.skylarkcafe.com/

Also on the bill are the funky tripped out hopping sounds of Wolfgang Del Toro. And likewise rocking you will be DJ Baba James (aka James Whetzel with his DJ hat on) who will be doing a DJ set featuring sounds from his soon to be released album “The House of Good Juju.”

Tentative Schedule for the night is:

9 - 10pm Wolfgang Del Toro

10pm EQlateral & James Whetzel

11pm DJ Baba James

12am - ?? EQlateral & James Whetzel

And like all shows at Skylark the show is free!

This is definitely a show you don’t want to miss!!!

Hope to see you there, best musical regards,

Funketabla

Here are some additional music and video links of EQlateral and James Whetzel playing together.

http://eqlateral.com/music.html

And here’s is a link to a video from the October 5, 2007 Beat Council show that finds Peter (bass) and Sebastian (violin) and James (darbouka, beats) playing over a surprisingly jolly Baba James beat.

http://revver.com/video/425956/baba-james-with-eqlateral-at-beat-ons-the-beat-council-october-5-2007-at-electric-tea-garden-at-oseao/

The Beat Council is back for it’s monthly spot on the second Saturday of the month on Saturday, April 12th at ToST, 513 N. 36th in Fremont in Seattle.

Special guest for this month is Funketabla’s own Yaw Amponsah.

http://www.funketabla.com/yaw.php

Yaw will be doing a special set of deep traditional African beats mixing with cutting edge Electronica. He will be playing traditional West African Asante drums from Ghana, and will be joined on Asante drums by Greg Campbell.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=14753

Funketabla’s James Whetzel will be playing traditional support drum parts electronically on laptop.

http://www.funketabla.com/jwhetzel.php
http://www.ilike.com/artist/James+Whetzel
http://www.myspace.com/jameswhetzel

The Special guest DJ for April 12th is B. FLY

http://www.myspace.com/whybfly

And holding down the rest of the night are Beat On! residents:

Crispy

http://djmix.net/Crispy/mixes

&

Muad’deep

http://www.karunarecordings.com/
http://www.myspace.com/djmuaddeep

It’s only $3
Don’t miss it.

Set by Yaw Amponsah, Greg Campbell and James Whetzel begins the night. 9pm - 10pm

This is a great show that is going to be happening in Seattle on Tuesday, March 25th. Two wonderful groups, Brass Menazeri and Pangeo, are going to be doing a show together at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard. This will be awesome.

Starting off the night is Pangeo, a group that features Greek folk musicians Christos Govetas and Ruth Hunter. Pangeo specializes in traditional dance music of Greece and the Balkans. They are “equally at home playing ballads from the mountains of Epiros in Greece or lively tunes from the Bulgarian and Albanian border areas.” They will rock you with clarinet, zurna, accordian, guitar, and percussion, perhaps even some oud.

http://www.kyklosmusic.com/PANGEO/Pangeomain.html

And if seeing Pangeo live wasn’t already good enough, which it is, coming up from the Bay Area for the second half of the night is Balkan Gypsy Brass Band Brass Menazeri. If you have yet to heard Gypsy Brass Band music music, clearly you should seize this opportunity. The group will “cascade through the music of the Serbian, Macedonian, Greek & Rajasthani Roma with wild rhythms, soulful vocals & hot improvisations.” Da! They will seize you and shake you around, and perhaps induce you into a manic dancing frenzy.

http://brass.menazeri.com/

Tickets are available via Ticket Web:

http://www.ticketweb.com/

http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=xxx&query=search&interface=ticketweb&newhps=1&search=brass+menazeri&x=0&y=0

Hope to see you Seattlelites there . . .

Cheers! Best Musical Wishes!

Funketabla

Just a little word about a great night of music called The Beat Council that will be happening at ToST Saturday March 8th from 9pm ’til 2am. Presented by Beat On! March’s edition will have resident Beat On! DJs: Crispy, Lara, and Muad’deep spinning along with special guests: Geminitrix and Swank. Funketabla’s own DJ Baba James (aka James Whetzel) won’t doing a set this time, but James will be sitting in on percussion and adding a little rhythmic spice and a bit of throat singing to the mix.

Here’s a quick summary:

Beat On! presents: The Beat Council @ToST
513 N. 36th in Fremont, Seattle, WA 98103
Saturday, March 8th, 2008
9pm -2am
Only $3

James Whetzel will be doing a set of live sarod & beats in Occidental Park in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle. James set begins at 5:30pm His sarod and beats set is an instrumental performance which features live Indian fretless lute (sarod) over original beats inspired by South Asian and African rhythms.

For a sample of what these sets sound like, listen to the the track “Sweet (Indian African Downtempo)” on James’s ilike page http://ilike.com/artist/James+Whetzel or James’ myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/jameswhetzel or right here at Funketabla: http://www.funketabla.com/jwhetzel.php

James Whetzel’s performance at Occidental Park is part of the City of Seattle’s Art in the Parks program and is free and open to the public.

What is BFE? It’s an excellent play that is having it’s West Coast premiere Feb. 22 - March 16th at Richard Hugo House on Capitol Hill. The play is directed by Leticia Lopez and produced by Lorna Chin, Kathy Hsieh, Jane Moon, Lisa Marie Nakamura, and Miko Premo.
The writing by Julia Cho is brilliant and the cast is outstanding. The director made the bold choice of casting two actual 14year olds in lead roles and they are great. Byron Au Yong composed the original music for the piece, which James Whetzel played a large part of on nylon string guitar.Though much of the subject matter of BFE is serious and dark, it’s also really funny.
It’s a tricky play to mount so it is rarely staged. Catch it while you can!

Shows are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 4pm, The show runs until March 16.

Here’s a quick description of the story:

“Panny is a typical 14 year old girl, living in the middle of nowhere U.S.A., coping with everyday stuff like an agoraphobic mom who’s way into too much TV, a socially-awkward uncle who’s a security guard at the local mall, a pretty blonde gal who gets all the guys, and wanting to date but not knowing where to start. Oh yeah, and there’s a serial killer on the loose. But what does Panny have to worry about? She’s Asian-American. The murderer would have to notice her first. A panoramic view of self-identity and relationships written by award-winning Korean American playwright Julia Cho.”

The New York Times says:

“an insightful, beautifully structured drama about the agonies and conforts of isolation, told through the struggles of Panny and her family.” The New York Times

Shows are Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays through March 16th.

Reservations strongly encouraged, opening night was totally sold out.
For tickets call: :206-323-9443
or email: tickets@sis-productions.org www.sis-productions.org
Richard Hugo House is located at 1634 11th Ave on Capitol Hill

[BFE Image by Steve Marts, photo by Rick Wong]

Ladies and Gents!

Two exciting shows are coming up!

The first show is happening Friday January 25th at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW in West Seattle. This event is the 2008 Launch of the 4 Culture (King County’s Arts Organization) Touring Artists Roster. James will be doing an electro-acoustic set at from 7:30 - 8:15pm.

The second show is happening at ToST in fremont, 513 N. 36th St. on Saturday, February 9th. See e-flier above. This show will feature resident DJs: Crispy, Lara, Muad’deep and Baba James and will have as special guests EQlateral with James Whetzel. EQlateral is a four piece group that mixes classical music and instrumentation with live electronic music and improvisation on violin, cello, bass and voice. James will be joining EQlateral for this show and will be playing sarod, african guitar, beats, percussion and singing.

Both of these show are free and open to the public!

Best funketabla regards, hope to see you out there!

Your friends at Funketabla

Yes yes!

Saturday, January 12th Beat On! is throwing it down from 9pm until 2am. And it’s free!
It’s the Beat Council present by Beat On! Residents Baba James, Crispy and Muad’deep.
Special guest for this show are:
DJ Lara (Electro House)

James Whetzel (Throat Singing, Percussion)

Shri Deepayan (Live Tabla n Bass from PDX)
Free! No Cover.

This will be the first of a new series of monthly shows by Beat On! at Tost on second Saturdays.

Tost is located in Fremont, 513 N 36th Street, Seattle, WA 98103

http://www.tostlounge.com/calendar.html