Upcoming Shows:

Set 1: Baba D, Luis McDougal

Set 2: Luis McDougal, Bagarisha, Jemina

Barzakh Cafe in Brooklyn, NY. Friday, May 10 (8 - 11PM). $20 cover.

Jam session after!

Luis McDougal

25 West 132nd Street, New York, NY, USA , Apt 16L

Sunday, May 12 (7PM)

$5 to reserve online, $20 at door.

Past Events:

ALLOVR QUARTET live at Fiction Bar/Cafe in Brooklyn, NY. Friday, April 5 (9-11PM). No cover.

Jam session after!

Featuring: Adriana Vergara (voice), Luis McDougal (guitar), Ethan Cohn (bass), Rodney Clark Jr. (drums)

Institute for Music Evolution (I.M.E.) Turtulia Concert at Scholes Street Studio in Brooklyn, NY. Sunday, April 28 (7PM). No cover. Reception after.

Featuring works by: Samuel Torres, Joshua Nuñez, Jose Eduardo Muñoz, Luis McDougal, Yeabon Jenny Yi, Wong Foo Jeng, Gabriel Garcia

Popebama + Luis McDougal at Sō Percussion in Brooklyn, NY.

Friday, April 19 at 7:30PM. No Cover.

Featuring: Erin Rogers, Dennis Sullivan, Luis McDougal, Dániel Matei

Compositions

Life is in a constant state of evolution, and the responsibility of an artist is to communicate, engage with and challenge our realities which are perceived through the human experience.

 

Performances & Recordings

 

When things are less defined, they are more free.

Luis McDougal (b.1997) is a prolific composer, arranger, guitarist and private instructor. Coming from a jazz/improvisational background, he loves to use various genres as a medium for pushing boundaries in every sense. One of the hallmarks of his music lies in his exploration of extremes in art and the state of affairs in our society. Luis believes that through the expedition of material realities and untapped possibilities, art along with the artist can gain (or perhaps “earn”) a sense of freedom not found in other avenues. As an artist, Luis aims to challenge his audience along with himself to consider the possibility that music along with society doesn't have to be what we’ve always thought.

 

Excerpt from manifesto:

My responsibility as an artist is to challenge people to question their society and to consider the possibility of changing the world as opposed to accepting it as "just the way things are". I want my music to engage myself and others into realizing that there is more to music and life than what we are currently experiencing. In music, this would be done through the exploration of extremes in every sense so that we open new avenues of sound in contexts not previously explored. This idea highlights what I think are the two most important values in art and society: freedom and connection to reality. Society, with all its intricacies in politics and culture, is in a state of perpetual motion that I believe should be communicated in art. In this world of extremes (such preventable brutalities as poverty, slavery, world hunger, war, etc.), I think it makes sense to take this idea to music. I'd like to offer my perspective and invite others to reflect on/challenge the possibility of real democracy, real freedom from exploitation and coercion, and critique of nationalism.


Photos by Adam Sissler

Recommended Reading:

The Hundred Years War on Palestine - Dr. Rashid Khalidi

Expulsions - Dr. Saskia Sassen

A Subversive History of Music - Ted Gioia

Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art - André Breton & Diego Rivera

The ‘Beautiful’ in Music Today - Helmut Lachenmann

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction - Walter Benjamin

State and Revolution; Religion; Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism; ‘Cultural-National’ Autonomy; On the Jewish Question - V. I. Lenin

Critique of the Gotha Program - Karl Marx

Towards a New Socialism - Paul Cockschott & Allin F. Cottrell

The Unknown Cultural Revolution - Dongping Han

Beyond Time and Changes - Hal Crook