Lakou Brooklyn at Meli Melo & Live Recording

This past Saturday, June 23, 2018, Lakou Brooklyn played a wonderful evening of music at a beautiful new Haitian-owned restaurant and bar, Meli Melo, in Valley Stream, NY.  The spot is large and tastefully designed, has good food and hospitality, and is very conveniently located, with ample parking and an LIRR train station across the street.  They are looking to promote more music programming, and Lakou Brooklyn looks forward to the next opportunity to perform there.

The core quartet of myself, Bobby Raymond on bass, Monvelyno Alexis on guitar and vocals, and Godwin Louis on soprano & alto sax, was also joined by the wonderful Mr. Jean Caze, one of the finest trumpet players you will hear.  Jean was gracious enough to sit in with us for most of the evening, and we had a blast. Jean is featured prominently on both my first CD - Tanbou nan Lakou Brooklyn, and my first Soundkeeper Release, Equinox. - See the discography page for samples and links.  The crowd was most attentive and supportive, and a wonderful time was had by all! 

Tomorrow, the band will record a session for our next project for the audiophile label Soundkeeper Recordings. The label is run by master audio engineer, Barry Diament, whose mission statement is thus: The goal of every Soundkeeper Recording is to bring the listener to the performance, to create the feeling the listener is in the presence of the musicians, in the space where the performance actually took place.

This will be my second time recording a project with Barry, and I am so excited to play this new material, with this incredible bunch of musicians, for the benefit of Barry's recording techniques, which are also pretty amazing to behold.  I could not ask for a more talented and sympathetic cast of musicians than Bobby, Monvelyno and Godwin. My goal is to create opportunities that will allow their talents to shine, while celebrating the rich legacy of Haitian music, as well as #BAM (Black American Music - i.e. Jazz traditions). Looking forward to sharing more on this very soon!