Fat Mama to Reunite at Green Apple Music Festival

Well, looks like the rumors of a Fat Mama reunion turned out to be true. Jambands.com is reporting that Fat Mama will be performing at the Knitting Factory on April 22nd in NYC as part of the Green Apple Music Festival’s closing celebration:

Fat Mama, the seminal jazz collective who received the New Groove award at the inaugural Jammys, will reunite at the Green Apple Music and Arts Festival this spring…Since disbanding at the tail end of 2000 the members of Fat Mama have performed in a number of different settings: drummer Joe Russo co-founded the Duo with childhood friend Marco Benevento, keyboardist Erik Deutsch gigs with the Charlie Hunter Trio, vibraphonist Kevin Kendrick fronts A BIG YES…and a small no, and guitarist Jonathan Goldberger scores film.

Man, I remember when these guys were the hot new s*** in town back in 1999 and 2000, but they disbanded shortly after I started getting interested. They’ve now got a Fat Mama MySpace page up in preparation. My guess is that this is one-time thing or, at most, might produce a small run of additional shows. But it definitely makes ya wonder if the Duo could be trying to re-group full-time?

In other Benevento-Russo news, the Duo will also be opening the Green Apple festival with a pair of acoustic performances at the Tonic on April 19th, also in NYC. Thanks to commenter, Nicholas, for the reminder on this one. The Duo are in the midst of short run of shows with their Led Zeppelin side project: Bustle in Your Hedgerow; and Hidden Track has some great photos from the band’s recent show at Abbey Pub.

By the way, we’ve been neglecting a big update to our original post on Green Apple, because we should be due for more deets on the full festival line-up very soon, possibly today or tomorrow. We’ll keep our eyes out, but let us know if you catch wind of anything official.

In other related “Knitting Factory” news, the folks over at Glide Magazine’s Hidden Track have compiled a great “20th Anniversary” column (with a ton of videos) on this NYC venue that continues to be a prime space for up-and-coming, independent bands. Also, XM recently announced that it will be broadcasting a “Live from the Knit” concert series, to feature bands playing at the clubs two spots in NYC and Hollwywood. Should be even better with the Knit’s recent sound system upgrade. Schedule and info after the jump…

Live From The Knitting Factory on XMU

New York/Hollywood
Fridays 10PM ET on XMU – XM 43
Encores: Saturdays 2 PM ET and Sundays 6 AM ET

Schedule:

March 2 – Launch of XMU Live from the Knitting Factory – The Boy Least Likely To
March 9 – Art Brut
March 16 – Mazarin
March 23 – The Broken West
March 30 – Portastatic
April 6 – Margot
April 13 – The Elected
April 20 – Richard Bruckner
April 27 – Chin Up Chin Up
May 4 – Beauty Pill
May 11 – White Whale
May 18 – Judah Johnson
May 25 – Georgie James