Real blues in the North at CHAI BLUES HOUSE, Soi Wat Umong, Suthep Road, behind Chiang Mai University Arrive in Chang Mai. Enter Suthep Road. Go past Suan Dok Hospital on the Right. Pass Nimmanahaeminda Rd; and pass Canal Road. Soi Wat Umong is on the left and is under a big blue sign for F’Pangya. Chai Blues House sign is at the mouth of the Soi under the F’Pangya sign at about eye level. Turn Left into Soi Wat Umong (Soi 4) and go in about 300 meters. Chai Blues House is on the left side behind the Take A Seat restaurant.

Bob Lefsetz said it: “…music, when it’s done right, trumps all other art forms. In a three minute concoction you’ve got all the emotions of life, you’ve got a power that gets you through.”

The amazing Ari Hoenig Quartet featuring Gilad Hekselman, Jamie Oehlers, and Orlando Le Fleming do two shows, Wednesday November 4 and Thursday November 5, 2009, at 9:30pm at Nui’s Jazz Club on Silom Road and this is not to be missed as it brings the cream of contemporary New York jazz to your feet – very special and typical of Enlightened Planet’s desire to turn Bangkok jazz fans on to nothing but the best…there..I said it!

Ari Hoenig is a drummer and bandleader who is truly making a huge name for himself in the highly competitive New York jazz scene, and winning audiences over worldwide. In 2008, Ari put on a virtuoso display in Bangkok with pianist Jean-Michel Pilc. This year, fresh from a tour of Australia, Ari returns with a totally different lineup for two nights at Niu’s on Silom Jazz Club & Wine Bar: the Ari Hoenig Quartet featuring Gilad Hekselman, Jamie Oehlers, and Orlando Le Fleming.

“One of the most promising jazz percussionists of his generation, Ari Hoenig is worth watching.” – All Music Guide
He is, first and foremost, a remarkable musician who happens to play the drums. His phenomenal sense of rhythm and polyrhythm and his ability to take over the melody from behind the kit are simply an exhilirating experience to see in person.

“Ari Hoenig is drumming’s new resourceful shining light – his drums dance and flirt with the soloist like few you’ll hear.” – All About Jazz

Over the past year he has put together a top-notch international group to bring his musical ideas to life, including 2005 Gibson Montreux International Guitar Competition winner Gilad Hekselman, 2007 Australian Jazz Musician of the Year Jamie Oehlers on saxophone, and Britain’s Orlando Le Fleming on bass. Whether they’re adding a post-bop twist to a Gershwin tune, putting their signature on a Coltrane standard, or soaring through an original Ari Hoenig composition, you’ll enjoy the freshness of the sound and feel the passion and excitement of the artists. This is music for purists and adventurers alike!

“The payoff arrives in this band without much delay. The set started with a Thelonius Monk tune, which Mr. Hoenig has thoroughly altered, with a highly rearranged theme and extra arrangements to frame the solos. Mr. Hekselman, playing complex chords with extended harmony, moved his solo toward a peak. About two minutes in the audience began yelling.” – New York Times

Treat yourself to an evening of the finest contemporary jazz in the intimate setting of Niu’s on Silom Jazz Club & Wine Bar… or double your pleasure by dining first upstairs at the fabulous Concerto Italian Restaurant from a menu of superb dishes specially selected by Chef Marco Cammarata!We recommend that you make arrangements now to assure yourself a place at this exclusive event, as we will only offer 65 seats for each performance. Enjoy the unique sound of the Ari Hoenig Quartet at THB 2500 per person, or the combination of extraordinary jazz and dinner at THB 3500 per person, and both tickets include one drink in the club. We’ll make this an evening you won’t soon forget!Tickets may be purchased today by calling Niu’s on Silom on (02) 2665333 – 4, or through ThaiTicketMajor locations and call centers.

Ari Hoenig (born on November 13, 1973 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a jazz drummer, composer and educator known for his unusual and intense approach to drumming emphasizing complex rhythms in direct harmony with other group members.
Hoenig is also known for his unique ability to modify the pitch of a drum by using drum sticks, mallets, and even parts of his body (such as his hands and elbows). Using this technique, he can play any note in the chromatic scale, virtually any melody, and even improvise on a chord structure in the same way as any other instrumentalist would.

Hoenig has released 6 CDs as a bandleader, and has performed or recorded with jazz greats Mike Stern, Joshua Redman, Herbie Hancock, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Richard Bona, Dave Liebman, Chris Potter, Toots Thielemans, Dave Holland, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, and Pat Martino, among others.

Gilad Hekselman studied classical piano from age six to nine in his native Israel, before taking up the guitar. By age 12 he was a regular performer on a weekly children’s television show. In 2005, at the age of 22, he won the Gibson Montreux International Guitar Competition, which opened doors for him at jazz festivals around the world. After moving full-time to New York he’s been able to perform with top jazz talents like Chris Potter, John Scofield, Gretchen Parlato, Sam Yahel, Anat Cohen, Jeff Ballard, and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts. He has also released two CDs as a band-leader, Split Life and Words Unspoken, and is set to participate in an all-star jazz release this year called Disney Jazz.

Recognized as one of Australia’s leading jazz musicians, Jamie Oehlers was the winner of the White Foundation World Saxophone Competition at Montreux Jazz Festival in 2003. He was won numerous other awards in Australia, has performed at jazz festivals around the world, and in the past year has played gigs in the US, Great Britain, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, and the Philippines. He has performed with international artists such as Charlie Haden, Ronnie Scott, Cindy Blackman, Jamie Cullum, and Eric Harland, and has created eight CDs as a bandleader. When he is not performing he is the Coordinator of Jazz Studies at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts.

Englishman Orlando Le Fleming was torn between a love for cricket and a passion for music, right up until he received a place at London’s Royal Academy of Music, which seemed to settle the matter for the time being. He quickly established himself as one of the UK’s most prominent bass players, in demand from both local British artists and from visiting international stars. He’s performed with the bright lights of British jazz such as Jason Rebello, Iain Ballamy, and Guy Barker, and with touring US musicians such as Branford Marsalis, Bill Charlap, George Coleman, and Dave Liebman. After moving to New York he joined Jane Monheit’s band for three years, and continued to build a strong reputation by performing with Billy Cobham, Joey Calderazzo, and David Sanchez.

By Luke Lewis

Remember when you first got an iPod and your CD collection, overnight, became less a cherished possession – the soundtrack of your life – and more a slab of shelf-hogging plastic clutter? The same thing is about to happen to the MP3s on your hard-drive, and it’ll happen sooner than you think.

After almost a decade of iTunes dominance, suddenly new streaming sites are pinging up everywhere. Emboldened by Spotify’s success in courting major labels and the media, the new breed of start-ups are not interested in selling you music files, at least not primarily. Their goal is to charge you for access to music that you will never physically own. Monday sees the launch of Sky Songs (£6.49 a month – which seems a more realistic price than Spotify’s £9.95).

Recommendation service MOG has just announced plans to launch an online jukebox in the Pandora vein, aided by millions of dollars’ worth of investment from Sony BMG and Universal. Meanwhile, the money men behind Kazaa and Skype are plotting a “secretive” streaming service called Rdio (presumably inspired by Primal Scream’s ‘XTRMNTR’ album – or maybe they’re just dyslxc). Even Napster has come back from the dead: they recently sold up to retail giant Best Buy and now they’re undercutting everyone, offering monthly subscriptions for £5. That sound you can hear is Lars Ulrich punching a brick wall.

Taken the hint yet? The industry wants you to stop downloading, and to start streaming. Why? Why are labels colluding in the final eradication of recorded music? It’s simple: streaming is proven to defeat piracy. According to the most recent report, 60 per cent of illegal file-sharers go straight once they start using sites like Spotify.

Crucially, this is all taking place in the slipstream of a broader, more profound technological shift: the death of ownership and the rise of cloud computing. Admittedly, ‘cloud computing’ sounds like a phrase only an appalling nerd would use – the kind of whey-faced compulsive masturbator who pities you because you can’t work out how to Twitpic – but it’s a thuddingly simply concept.

It basically means information is increasingly housed ‘out there’, on a universal shared network, rather than on individual hard-drives. A limitless data stream that you access at will. And it’s one further reason why streaming is the Future Of Music. The gods of technological progress have willed it so.

There’s just one problem with all this, and it’s a pretty major one: it’s almost impossible for musicians to earn any money via streaming. How much do you think a songwriter makes when you listen to one of his songs on Spotify? As Billboard point out, it takes 150-200 plays of a track before the content owner earns royalties on a par with one paid-for MP3. It’s no surprise bands would rather you downloaded their music from iTunes, or bought the CD (well, they can dream).

But if musicians are screwed, the companies themselves must be coining it in, right? Not really. Not yet, anyway. According to co-founder Daniel Ek, Spotify has “a long way to go” before it turns a profit. No surprise, given that one informed estimate puts its outgoings at over £10million per month.

Neither is Spotify alone. In March, LastFM suspended free services in some territories in a bid to keep a lid on runaway streaming costs. It’s generally assumed that the colossal expense involved in streaming copyrighted material will at some point be offset by rising subscription income. It could happen. But until it does, absolutely no-one is making any money.

The bottom line? Streaming makes technological sense. But it doesn’t make financial sense. Which means we’re confronted, once again, with the single, glaring, ineradicable fact of the internet age: what’s exciting and welcome for consumers is almost always catastrophic for the poor bastards who produce the content.