08/04/04 ulu @ Half Moon ROCC, New York, NY

An ulu is an Inuit all-purpose knife traditionally used by women. It is utilized in applications as diverse as skinning and cleaning animals, cutting a child's hair, cutting food and, if necessary, trimming blocks of snow and ice used to build an igloo.

The Halve Maen (Half Moon) was a Dutch East India Company ship which sailed in what is now New York harbor in September 1609. It was commissioned by the Dutch Republic to covertly find an eastern passage to China. The ship was captained by Henry Hudson who was an Englishman in the service of the Dutch Republic.

04/30/04 + ??/??/04 ulu @ Ramapo Valley Brewery, Suffern, NY

Richard Gehr of the Village Voice called ulu's jazzy funk "Gumby-textured squonk." Sounds about right.

They were one of those talented bands that never moved up to the level of similar groups like Medeski Martin & Wood and the Greyboy All-Stars. It was a treat seeing them in my local haunt.

The highlight was an instrumental version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" with an audience sing along.

I saw them once again at the same venue, but the crowd reaction that time was so poor that they didn't even do an encore.

They do a mean cover of the Super Mario Brothers theme song.