Welcome to Quintessence!
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| Quintessence Info | Hours of Operation |
| 11 New Scotland Ave Albany, NY 12208 Phone: 518-434-8186 Fax: 518-434-5752 |
Mon – Wed: 7:00 am – 12:00 am Thursday – Friday: 7:00 am – 12:00 am Saturday: 8:00 am – 12:00 am Sunday: 8:00 am – 12:00 am |
Q University Open Enrollment & Orientation / BENCO Entertainment DJ & Karaoke
| Sep |
| 9 |
| 9:00 pm |
This Night is all about our area College Students and Q providing that cool “home away from home”! Bring your friends & meet new ones. We have lots of drink specials and specially created QU lab shots just for YOU! Bring your buddies and your tear up the dance floor. Kitchen open till close! Best Karaoke talent wins a $25 Gift Card!!!
Weekend Explorers Featuring Georgia Jones / Friday, Sept. 17th / 9PM
| Sep |
| 17 |
| 9:00 pm |
WEEKEND EXPLORERS are a 3 piece group consisting of Georgia Jones on vocals, Bill Grant on guitar & Larry Finke on keyboards, vocals and synthesizer programming. We combine technology and talent to create a wide variety of music including Cool Jazz, Classic Pop, Disco and Top 40. Come check us out!
The Tom Healey Band / Blues with an Attitude! Sat., Sept. 18th / 10PM
| Sep |
| 18 |
| 10:00 pm |
Area blues band up there with best
By Donald E. Wilcock
The Record, Troy, NY
A band most have never heard of and one that I never thought of as even a contender has just put out “Pearl Street,” the best local blues album I’ve ever heard.
You know them as Good Friday, but a few months ago, bandleader Tom Healey learned about a religious band in the Midwest with the same name and decided to switch rather than fight.
Now they’re called The Tom Healey Band, and their CD-release party is Saturday night at the Ale House in Troy. “It was a band decision, not an ego thing,” says Healey about the name change. “Besides, I’m getting too old to have a cute band name.”
The debut album avoids such usual pitfalls of a local release as flashy production — or little production at all, numerous guest cameos and slavish devotion to a mentor such as Stevie Ray Vaughan.
In fact, I’d stand “Pearl Street” up next to any of the recent releases from independent labels such as Alligator and Blind Pig and argue comparisons with the masters at larger labels such as Telarc and PointBlank.
A scruffy, rain-soaked mongrel sniffing his way through caked mud on the back cover captures the tone of this dangerous CD. The photo captures the feel for the will to survive in the face of adversity. “Ain’t no 12-step man,” sings Healey on “If You Want It,” a reference to programs like Alcohoiics Anonymous. “Nobody’s gonna tell me what to do.”
Like the dog in the picture. Healey comes across as a stubborn, determined survivor in his songs. Largely responsible for his own sometimes-sorry state, he makes no apologies to the world and adapts to his own self-administered pain. “I get lonely. I’m livin’ like you never left.”
This is classic, down and out blues reminiscent of early post-war Chicago electric blues as sung by Mississippi Delta transplants whose painful honesty about their human condition was counteracted by the hypnotic beat and uplifting dance-ability of the music. He may he self-destructive. but he loves life, booze, women and song too much to allow death to steal his joy.
This is very personal stuff. “It is and it isn’t,” says Healey. “When you think about it, some of those songs are constructed stories, and that’s what they are. To me almost it’s like a detective genre, some of it.”
A history teacher at Albany High, Healey is concerned about his image as the only blues singer in the capital region to have a built-in beer bottle holder on his mike stand. “Church, God and family,” he says, slurring the words like white gangsta rapper.
Healey’s been playing music for 30 years, since he was 14. He’s only been teaching since he was 30. “I love history, and hadda eat.”
Unlike most young white musicians in waiting, Healey was notinspired by the British invasion hard rocking blues wannabes. Instead, it was a series of blues concerts at Siena College that turned this Watervliet native around.
“The rock influence in blues and the English guys never really grabbed it lor me. At an early age, we got exposed to some phenomenal people from Otis Spann, you name it.
“We heard it all, and we loved it. And when it was up the street, it was unbelievable. It seriously was an epiphany. You know, George Harmonica Smith, my God. There were things there that were devastating.
“It was unbelievable — Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Big Mama Thornton –unbelievable. I can remember she sat behind the drums, and we were, ‘Holy cow!’ And I was a young kid. So, it was quite a thing. That was my thing. I never got into older contemporary music. Some of it I love, it floats my boat, but… ”
The early orientation to the roots of the style rather than the derivatives gives Healey’s music strength. You can hear the references to Chicago blues master Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor” on The Tom Healey Band’s “Lost Dog” and his homage to John Lee Hooker, “Hookerfied,” captures Hooker’s deceptively simple beat, which most bands can’t come close to. Special kudos to lead guitarist George Deveny for his understated work on this cut and throughout the album.
The entire band is uniformly strong. Adam Graham, the quiet lurking Nosferatu of the bass holds the rhythm in the pocket with drummer Andy Hearn. Saxophonist Keith Pray never steals the show from Deveny’s lead guitar but tastefully supplements the sound. And child prodigy Jason Ladanye is transcendent on keyboards. How a teenager from East Greenbush with an attitude can sound as if he’s been living his music for decades in the Crescent City is beyond me. But Jason does it. Listen to his runs on “Sick and Tired,” in particular.
Healey and crew have picked up one important trait from their mentors, dynamics. “The thing with this band,” says Healey, “is that we can stay quiet and get off on the quiet dynamics of numbers that call for it.
“We’ll bring brushes sometimes, and you’re working with two 15-watt amps that me and George have so we can get quite. We get into a quiet groove. I’ll tell ya’, we get off on that. The thing about this band is we always get off. We get off on the different dynamics.
“There’s no need, it’s such a magic thing. No need for that crotch-rock-hero feeling, and there’s a certain kind of dignity to it that I just love playing with these guys.”
Open Mic With the Charlie Smith Blues Band, featuring Donny Russo
| Sep |
| 13 |
| 8:30 pm |
Buckle up for some Red Hot Blues as The Charlie Smith Band featuring Donny Russo hosts Open Mic Every Wednesday. It just happens to be our newest menu theme night too….Italian Night! So bring your skills down to the Q…You might just get discovered! Sign up at 8:30, Show goes Live at 9PM.
Resident DJ TruMastr Kick-Off Party / Q University College Night / Thursday, Sept. 16th /9PM
| Sep |
| 16 |
| 9:00 pm |
The QT? Quintessence Trumastr, Quality Time!
Please join me as I celebrate my first DJ residency in the Capital District. Quintessence has called upon me to keep the good people of Albany movin’ & shakin’ every week for, “The QT.” We are doing it BIG with an, “introducing DJ Trumstr”‘ Residency Kick-Off Party, Saturday September 16, 2010. A wide range of tunes from house, to classic soul…hip-hop, to funk will fill the air. And don’t forget abou…t the 80’s, cuz I won’t. Drink Specials and Q University Shots created at the QU lab!
Peace,
DJ Trumastr
Sonny & Perley / Classic Jazz Duo
| Sep |
| 15 |
| 8:00 pm |
 The exciting duo of Sonny Daye and Perley Rousseau achieves a rare musical symbiosis. The husband and wife team have spent the last several years developing and perfecting their unique blend of Jazz, Bossa Nova, American Songbook Standards, and International Cabaret which has become their musical signature. They engagingly perform the timeless standards of the Great American Songbook such as Berlin, Gershwin and Porter as well as the irresistible Brazilian melodies of Antonio Carlos Jobim. |
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Sonny and Perley perform as a duo, trio, quartet or quintet for concerts, festivals, theme shows, intimate cabaret, restaurants, nightclubs and private events. Their Their 4 CD releases “Love Dance” (1996), “East of the Sun” (1998), “Let it Happen” (2004),”Sonny and Perley Live! Love is Here to Stay” (2009) have generated international air play and received critical acclaim. It is in live performance; however, where Sonny and Perley truly shine. Throughout New York, New England and in Europe, the duo has captivated audiences with their spontaneity, warmth, musical honesty and broad repertoire.
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The QT / Resident DJ TruMastr, Saturday, Sept.11 / Disco, Funk, Soul, House…
| Sep |
| 11 |
| 10:00 pm |
Please join me as I celebrate my first DJ residency in the Capital District. Quintessence has called upon me to keep the good people of Albany movin’ & shakin’ every week for, “The QT.” We are doing it BIG with an, “introducing DJ Trumstr”‘ party, Saturday September 11, 2010. A wide range of tunes from house, to classic soul…hip-hop, to funk will fill the air. And don’t forget abou…t the 80’s, cuz I won’t. Dinner and drink specials will be available and there will also be a special guest DJ, Albany’s own, “Nate Da Great!” Hope to see you at, “The QT”.
Peace,
DJ Trumastr
Dinner w/ Jason Ladanye / Cardshark Illusionist – Sundays at 6:30
| Sep |
| 12 |
| 6:30 pm |
Come for Quintessence’s famous Mexican Night for Dinner as INTERNATIONALLY recognized card illusionist Jason Ladanye entertains you table side. He will BLOW YOUR MIND! Jason Ladanye became interested in magic early. At the age of seven, his mother took him to see David Copperfield. Jason was enthralled with the performance, with its grand and exciting stage effects. Jason knew then that magic would be a part of his life. He began watching magicians on TV and spending time at the Ol’ Curiosity Shoppe in upstate NY. He became intrigued by card and coin tricks. The owner of the Curiosity Shoppe, Peter Monticup, began to teach Jason a few tricks. Even at such an early age, he would practice his sleight of hand for hours each day. He began collecting magic books and creating his own effects.
By the time he was 15, Jason realized that card magic was his true love. He would practice for four to six hours a day. Jason believes in card magic that is achieved through sleight of hand, not gaffed or gimmicked cards. Anyone can perform with a trick deck. Jason makes even more amazing things happen with an ordinary deck of cards. At age 21, Jason met Darwin Ortiz, the foremost expert of cheating with cards and one of the best card manipulators in the world. Jason took private lessons with Darwin for several years. Darwin has called Jason “…a future great of card magic.” Today, he and Darwin are friends and Jason still studies his work. Some of Jason’s clients include the Turning Stone Casino and Resort, Foxwoods Casino and Resort, Mohegan Sun Casino, Fuji Film, Saratoga Racetrack, Saratoga Racino, Jack’s Oyster House, Albany’s First Night, SUNY Albany, SUNY Ulster, Captain JP Cruise Line, The Spectrum Theater, Niskayuna Continuing Education Program, The Knowledge Network, McGeary’s, Niska-Day, Fort Orange Club of Albany, Albany’s Winterfest, Maple Hill High School and many more. He has performed for Albany’s Mayor Jerry Jennings, who exclaimed, “You’re the best I’ve ever seen!” Jason Ladanye has performed his magic all across the United States and Europe. This year, his skills have earned him a spot in the prestigious International Magic Convention in London, where he is sure to delight and amaze everyone, even his competition!
Brunch w/ Paul Quigley/ Classical Guitarist / 11AM – 2PM
| Sep |
| 12 |
| 11:00 am |
Paul was born in Albany NY, Paul first started playing guitar at age 12. Self taught in popular music, he began his study of classical guitar with Tony Sano and Joel Brown at Schenectady County Community College. Successfully completing the requirements for the A.S. degree in performing arts: music, he moved to New York City to study at the Manhattan School of Music with Norbert Kraft and later Mark Delpriora.
Paul has performed in master classes for David Russell, Eliot Fisk, David Starobin Magnus Anderson , and Luis Zea. He was a finalist in the Artists International auditions for a 2000-2001 debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Most recently, he received a scholarship to attend the Bowdoin Summer Chamber Music Festival at Bowdoin College ME.
The George Muscatello Trio / Jazz / 8PM
| Sep |
| 8 |
| 8:00 pm |
The Capital Region’s own George Muscatello, popular musician and educator, blazes the stage with amazing jazz greatness.
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