Spiegelworld and Bjorkestra

The third annual Spiegelworld Festival has begun. Spiegelworld is a summer carnival that takes place on Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport and runs from now until November 2. This year, the festival takes place in two tents and offers a variety of different forms of entertainment: theater, intimate concerts, burlesque, DJs, dancing, and dining. You can check out the official site and also find out more information here.

I want to call your attention to a particular band that will be playing at 10:00 p.m. on September 23. Saxophonist Travis Sullivan and his Bjorkestra will be opening for the Benevento-Russo Duo, an indie jazz-rack band. Sullivan's Bjorkestra is an 18-piece jazz that takes the music of the Icelandic pop musician Björk and uses it to create a big-band sound for the new century. It sounds improbable, I know, but it works and it's fab! They released released their first album, Enjoy, earlier this year and played before a crowd of 25,000 at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Lead singer Becca Stevens was profiled earlier this month in the New York Times.

You can find out more about Travis Sullivan and the Bjorkestra at their website www.bjorkestra.com, where you can also listen to live tracks by the band