When I asked a cross section of music-minded locals for their thoughts on the best moments of 2010, I expected more comments like “The new Arcade Fire album.” Silly me. What I got was a nice reminder that our city is host and home to a lot of amazing music and that experiencing it live is both powerfully communal and profoundly personal. These are some choice examples. “Three things come to mind: 1) Listening to a song Jared Putnam wrote called ‘Nobody Came’ for his solo album, which made me cry. 2) Listening to Esperanza Spalding for the first time. Sounds like Erykah Badu and Stevie Wonder rolled into one with a hint of straight pop star (take your pick). 3) Getting to hear Billy Contreras play the fiddle live. He’s plays the violin like it’s a keyboard—improvised, yet fully realized tetra chord progressions at blinding speed that are not only virtuosic but extraordinarily musical. I contemplated never playing again.” —Muni Kulasinghe, Le Chat Lunatique“The day the new Lousy Robot record showed up in the mail: It marked the completion of a two-year-long project, and is probably the best recording I have been a part of to date.” —Dandee Fleming, Lousy Robot“Hard to define just one music memory of 2010! This year’s ¡Globalquerque! was simply amazing … listening to Simon Shaheen’s haunting old melodies in the courtyard patio [at the National Hispanic Cultural Center] under the stars was just beautiful.” —Flo Bargar, The Rogue Bindis“My band was playing for a contra dance, and the caller, Jim Mullany, wanted fast music (always fun). So we were playing these high-energy tunes, with the dancers weaving and spinning around the floor, and the caller clogging next to us, all of it really building this rhythmic, driving force. It was one of those moments when the whole room feels like it’s on fire. In a good way.” —Jane Phillips, FolkMADS“Halloween. We played a show at Burt’s with Oktober People, Sabertooth Cavity and Rawrr! and the whole night felt like a flashback to Albuquerque circa 2005. People really put in the effort to dress up, and the place was packed. The crowd was there for the music, not just to get hammered, and so it was incredibly satisfying to play music that night.” —Prue Fell, I is For Ida“I’d say Richard Thompson at the Museum Amphitheater on Aug. 16: AMP presented a night of awesome acoustic guitars, kicked off by Chris Dracup and wrapped up by Thompson’s fiendish alchemy, all under the New Mexico sky.” —Richard Malcolm, self-proclaimed “art slut”“The CocoRosie after-party at The Kosmos: The sisters had brought some DJs from Berlin to do a set, which included a sick beatboxer. Albuquerque’s own beatboxing extraordinaire Ashley SayWut Moyer happened to be at the party, and somewhere in the mix those two got into a battle. Things were already crazy in there with so many people and the energy so up, but when they got into it, it felt like a bomb was about to go off. Everyone was going apeshit! Truly one of the greatest single live performances I’ve ever witnessed—two masters at the top of their game. It’s all anyone talked about for the rest of the night. FUN.” —Maggie Ross, Kosmonaut-in-Chief“On Thanksgiving Day, the music community here lost a dear member—Mr. N’gala Mfalme. I first worked with N’gala when I was at the League of Young Voters, now New Mexico Youth Organized. I was a new development director there, and one of my first fundraising projects was to put together a mix CD of musicians in Central New Mexico. … He mastered that CD for us to make it sound polished and donated one of my favorite tracks. N’gala was a master drummer, studio technician, songwriter, computer technician, all around bad mutha ‘shut yo mouth!’ Everyone whose life he touched through talent, tenderness and teaching was made positively better. When his parents Jean and Joe Harris had the services for him, I was in a pew in a Catholic Mass in Corrales. And THAT moment was my most memorable musical moment of 2010. Not the gorgeous gospel / liturgical mass fusion that was being sung quite well there, but the presence of what seemed like the entire Albuquerque music scene (cross genres) on a weekday / work day afternoon. That made me feel part of something bigger, part of a family of artists, not just ‘co-workers’ or people who jam on a gig and then compete for other gigs. I felt like, if I am lucky and remain an upstanding member of this scene, people might celebrate me like that when my time is up. That was my most memorable musical moment of 2010.” —Hakim Bellamy, poet/singer-songwriter/MC/soloist/ensembleist
Musical Memories: Locals Share Their Best Moments Of 2010
Community Members Share Their Best Music Moments Of 2010
5 min read
Non Stop Bhangra performs at ¡Globalquerque! 2010.
Jade Leyva
Simon Shaheen at at ¡Globalquerque! 2010.
