it is with utmost delight that I announce at last the cross-country North American April TOUR we have been planning for many months now.

[we are working on a pun-ny name for the tour, but didn't settle on one before this went to press.  it will come.]

here are the UPDATED dates, cities, & venues:

basically, the full band is touring the West Coast (for the very first time) with our friendsWalter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys (who are touring in support of their STELLAR new album).

to make this tour happen, myself and Tony will be driving all the gear and ourselves to and from the West Coast in the conversion VAN that Tony was GIVEN, doing duo shows on the way and back.

here is a picture of the van, in the Boston snow:

(expect many more photos of this van ~ particularly the inside of it ~ throughout April, as we keep in touch with everybody at the usual social media hangouts.)

you can help us make this tour a success by COMING OUT if you are in our line of fire, and by spreading the word to those you may know in our path.

and we really appreciate this in advance & we seriously cannot wait to play for you!

for more detailed information about the individual shows, check the shows page here.

i will be updating the info as everything falls into place.

some highlights:

our Portland, OR show will feature us and the Toys playing a LIVE SCORE to the 1922 Swedish/Danish silent film, Häxan, at the Hollywood Theatre, on Sunday, April 14th:

Tony & I are working on new, never-before-performed material as part of our duo shows.
i got a new keyboard that can do electronic gorgeousness, & Tony will be multitasking on upright, electric, sintir, accordion, trumpet, and percussion (at least that is his plan ~ i’m not convinced we can fit all that stuff in the van).

Tony & I are super excited about holding things together to and from the full band leg of the tour.

check back often for updated info.

hope to see you all around these far-flung United States.

~ Singer Mali

We are in the process of booking a WEST COAST TOUR in April, that will entail Singer Mali and Tony doing a cross-country duo tour to and from, and then the full band gigging from Seattle to Austin.  Stay tuned ~ check the calendar for shows as they are booked.

~

Singer Mali is taking part in an experimental multidisciplinary theater project called Lunar Labyrinth, inspired by an unpublished short story be Neil Gaiman, produced by Liars and Believers, and directed by Steven Bogart.  It goes up at Oberon in Cambridge, MA on Wed, Feb 13th, and is pretty much sold out, but if you show up early, you could get lucky.  Click on the poster image below for more info, and tickets:

Here is a little video interview of Mali talking about the show:

~

Petaluma is in the process of recording her first solo album!  Go Lulu!  We’ll keep you posted . . .

~

Mali and Tony are taking part in a live music & dance event, giving life to Beck’s new album, Song Reader, at the historic Somerville Theater in Somerville, MA, on Thursday, Feb 28th.  Produced by Burns and Webb (Jaggery friends and frequent collaborators), the event will feature interpretations by over 150 different performers, including a 50 person choir.  It’s going to be ENORMOUS.  Tony will be on stage for much of the night, and Mali will be singing as well as choreographing.  You can get tickets here, and watch a clip about the show below:

Hope to see some of you Boston folks in February, and many more of you in April!

Keep in touch.

(Autoproduzione)

Rating : 8

Due anni fa scoprivamo con voi lettori una misconosciuta ma grande realtà musicale d’oltreoceano, segnatamente da Boston: un quintetto di nome Jaggery dalla curiosa formazione (piano/voce, arpa, viola, contrabbasso e batteria), all’epoca già autore di un album e di un EP, guidato dalla figura carismatica della cantante e pianista Mali Sastri. “Upon A Penumbra”, secondo album del combo, ci aveva sorpreso e colpito profondamente per la magnificenza delle sue canzoni così profonde e passionali, capaci di andare oltre gli schemi del jazz, della darkwave, della musica classica, delle derive avanguardistiche e di quant’altro possa aver toccato l’animo artistico di questi straordinari ed eclettici musicisti. È con enorme piacere che li rincontriamo con l’EP “Private Violence” (edito ora su CD, ma già rilasciato in download nel giugno 2011), autentico tributo al libro di Truman Capote “A Sangue Freddo” splendidamente confezionato nel bel formato digifile apribile (completo di booklet), contenente cinque nuovi brani dal tasso qualitativo in linea con le altissime aspettative maturate. Incuranti di mode, pose o tendenze di sorta, Mali e soci proseguono per la loro strada con la consueta teatralità che anima la loro musica, intrecciando con rara maestria generi ed influenze per dar vita a momenti di una purezza unica e di una passionalità che in pochissimi riescono davvero ad esprimere senza lasciare alcuna riserva. Sinfonica e dolente, “Trouble” apre coi crismi di un ‘warm up’, con l’estro vocali di Mali che si esalta subito fra le fiammate che spezzano il piglio mesto; tutt’altro tenore per la seguente “Hostage Heart”, realizzata con un’intera orchestra di ben 11 elementi: un gioiello che si apre dolcemente col piano della Sastri, per poi rivelarsi in tutto il suo infinito pathos fra gli arrangiamenti sublimi di una costruzione entusiasmante. L’estro della band, che sia quello vocale di quella forza della Natura che è Mali o quello strumentale suo e dei suoi ispiratissimi colleghi, emerge con forza immane dall’istrionico jazz ‘breakkato’ di “No Sympathy”, song che è l’ennesimo emblematico esempio dell’eclettico talento di cui dispone questa incredibile band; non certo da meno “Oh My God”, che apre sofferta nelle note dettate dai tasti d’avorio per poi prendere vita con una grazia toccante e incantevole, prima di tingersi di favolose sfumature jazz-noir. “End Song” chiude la breve ma intensissima opera ancora all’insegna del piano di Mali, esprimendo tutta la dolcezza e la passione di cui questi magnifici artisti sono capaci. Non serve aggiungere altro, a parte forse ricordarvi che i Jaggery sono senza dubbio alcuno una delle cose più vere e appassionate che possiate mai ascoltare: esimersi dal farlo è volersi male.– Roberto Alessandro Filippozzi

link: http://www.darkroom-magazine.it/ita/109/Recensione.php?r=2519

Jaggery’s most recent release, Private Violence (EP), takes us through 5 tracks of progressive but elegant chamber rock. Most tracks are filled ably by the five piece band such as the sneaky, trickling “Trouble” (highlighted by wonderful bow scraping and a nice payoff when the full band kicks in). But my favorite is the sterling “Hostage Heart,” which features the accompaniment of small orchestra. Listen to how Singer Mali’s simple piano figure becomes increasingly swept-up with a sequence of orchestral counterpoints and a melody that glides wickedly through a range that is as vastly as it is cleverly tight. The large ensemble breathes nicely through a piece of work worth shelling the extra studio time on. You don’t have to be classically inclined, but it sure doesn’t hurt.  – Jonathan Donaldson

link: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/blogs/localmusic/2012/12/jaggery_wows_and_flutters_toni.html

THE SPICE OF LIFE – While their range and musical leanings might put them at risk of being misunderstood in our contemporary rat race, JAGGERY are far from unaccessable. In many ways, the band of five players could be the region’s most talented band. Leader Mail Sastri is a brilliant vocalist and piano player. In this project she is surrounded by a number of very strong players — and this Lot have a new and rather stunning record of statement in, Private Violence.

Today we share a brand new song from Jaggery that can’t be found any new other albums, EPs or singles. The new song today is “Paprikah” – it’s a fun, cool French Pop-influenced number featuring bhangra drum line, noisy piano, and Singer Mali’s completely unique wail..

link: http://www.rslblog.com/2012/12/jaggery-paprikah.html

photo: Matt Samolis

Great music often comes from great literature.  Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas, based on Virgil’s Aeneid, is one example.  Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome, inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan,” is another.  Jaggery’s latest release, Private Violence, carries on the tradition with a collection of songs singer Mali Sastri wrote after reading Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.

If you’re a fan, you know what’s in store: lush strings, haunting melodies, operatic singing.  The music is hard to describe to someone who hasn’t heard it before.  Jaggery invites synaesthetic interpretations.  Using literary terms — the album is like a Maupassant short story where the protagonist doesn’t know if he is alive or dead.  Or through scent — rich, musty, old and cobwebby, like musk and rosewater and pressed flowers.  Or like Gustave Dore’s Paradise Lost engravings — not in terms of intricacy, since the music of Private Violence is impressionistic and atmospheric, but in how these songs evoke a sense of both grandeur and loss.

The songwriting process for the album was the work of a sane mind coming to grips with the horrors of murder.  Singer Mali says, “In Cold Blood totally riveted me — in particular, the character of Perry Smith.  I fiercely identified with this man who had committed an atrocious murder 50 years ago.  It was like we shared the same personal psychology.  I read my own thoughts in what Capote wrote about Perry’s.  This experience led me into learning all I could about the Clutter case.  I was living in NYC at the time, and I began going to the NYPL Archive Division three times a week to pour over the apparently 6000 pages of microfilm of the notes Capote took.”

The songs in Private Violence are, predictably, about death.  ”Trouble” is about killing.  ”Hostage Heart” immortalizes Perry Smith at the very moment of his hanging — 17 minutes before he physically dies.  ”No Sympathy,” which had been released as a single before, eroticizes the viscerality of violence, a la The Killer Inside Me, which was published seven years before the Clutter case.  ”Oh My God” is the aftermath, and “End Song” is Mali Sastri emotionally depleted by these murders that she vicariously survived.

If you’re not familiar with Jaggery, go watch them play.  Their next show is on 20 December, at the Oberon in Harvard Square.  It’s part of Org, “Last Day On Earth,” which will feature apocalypse-themed performances (the last such Org, “Literati,” included burlesque poetry readings, literary presentations, and interpretive dance).  Or you can get yourself to their Bandcamp site at jaggery.bandcamp.com right now.  Everything’s free to steam; Private Violence is even free to download.

In the context of Boston bands, Jaggery is the exact opposite of, say, Aerosmith — their songs don’t have the word “baby” in them, they don’t have wattles, and the pelvic thrusts are kept off-stage.  Put on your headphones and imagine Madeline Usher come to life as the universe beautifully deconstructs all around you.  As Shakib Chowdhury of Bangladeshi prog-metal band Cryptic Fate says, “Jaggery’s songs are the brightest flowers in my avant-garden.”   ~ Arafat Kazi

i’m broken-hearted & i don’t know how it started
no i don’t / no i don’t
& you’ll never know just how much you captured my imagination
no, you won’t / no, you won’t

diving under water / keeping you safe from the impending thunder
pulling you under / taking you deeper
bringing us closer / to each other
to each other

& i’m in a dream / you are more real than those around me
yes, you are / yes, you are
& who is to say / what is it we are / fierce soul shades of grey
we’re ineffable / it’s ineffable

rage trapped in fat tissue / & all the muscle that has been tattooed
that has been branded & that is burning / to decipher the message that i am learning
i am learning

something here’s so consoling & so quite compelling & it keeps growing
seems never-ending / going & going / taking up somewhere without us knowing
do we keep growing
do we keep going —

]]> http://www.jaggery.org/?feed=rss2&p=2398 0 http://www.jaggery.org/?p=2395 http://www.jaggery.org/?p=2395#comments Fri, 16 Nov 2012 21:41:53 +0000 mali http://www.jaggery.org/?p=2395 oh my god

music ~ Jaggery, lyrics ~ Mali Sastri ©

he takes thirteen steps
he’s got seventeen minutes left
it’s called a quick and painless death
this breaking of the neck
oh my god / what have we done?

the hood is placed
to hide the face
so that we can’t see
the look in the eye of the life erased
oh my god/ what have we done?

i do not take the lord’s name in vain
may he have mercy upon your soul upon your pain

the conceit / the arrogance
and the hate / the contempt
and the rage / the revenge
on this world / his only defense
oh my god / what has he done?

so an eye for an eye
& a tooth for a tooth
within your song / your dark, dark song
you were harboring your truth
oh my god / what have you done?

i do not take the lord’s name in vain
the lord he giveth and the lord he taketh away

witness welcome to the brouhaha

brother men, who after us live on
harden not your hearts against us
for if you have some pity on us poor men
the sooner god will show you mercy

music ~ Jaggery, lyrics ~ Mali Sastri ©

you’re bad news that’s my good news
quite an offer how can I refuse
ah ~

fascination w/ the dark side
you’re a bad one w/ a wild side
ohhh ~

you’re so good boy when you’ve done wrong
& you have no sympathy for these people

mmmm

murderous fantasies
you mean business you made ‘em reality

you’re so bad boy what you get away w/
do you feel nothing have you got no conscience

you’re so right boy when you’ve done wrong
& you have no sympathy for these people ow ow ow ow ow

& there’s
blood on your hands on your forehead & there’s blood in your hair on your forehead
oh boy what do you feel but the thrill of the killl

oh my god you’re not right boy but my god you’re so fine
& i’ll watch you do it & i’ll wear the T-shirt

better run boy ‘cuz they’re on your tail
& they have no sympathetic feeling for your kind of people

oh
but who’s to say how we are who’s to say how we are
who’s to say how we are who’s to say how we are
who’s to say how we are who’s to say how we are
who’s to say how we are who’s to say how we are
who’s to say how we are are you to say how we are
are you to say are you to say are you to say are you to say
are you to say

untamed & hateful unchained unsave-able

but whose to say how we are are you to say how we are hey

FIRE      BLOODY MURDER