HOTEL X plays their own self-composed music, weaving its way through all of the African and African-American diaspora with percolating dance rhythms, dream-like sequences, and real fire.
This award-winning band has toured throughout North America, recorded 10 albums, and celebrates 32 years of sonic adventures with a reinvigorated lineup featuring Tim Harding & Tyler Donnelly on saxophones, Jonathan Watson - trombone, Chris Vasi & Vlad Cuiujuclu - guitars, Charles Hunter - keyboards, Carter Blough - bass, Hunter Duke - drums, and James McDonald, Mike Reitz, and Jeff Morris on percussion.
Founded in 1992 in Richmond, Virginia, by Tim Harding and Ron T. Curry, HOTEL X was quickly joined by a host of Richmond underground music scene veterans and released six albums on the Los Angeles–based SST Records. SST Records was founded by members of the seminal punk rock group Black Flag and included in their catalog some of the great American underground groups such as Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Sound Garden, Universal Congress Of and Saccharine Trust.
HOTEL X toured regionally and nationally between 1992 and 1997, received reviews in Jazz Times, The Washington Post, Option, The Wire, and Alternative Press among others; was nominated for Best Jazz Group by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD) in 1996; and participated in the JVC Jazz Festival in New York City in 1997. National Public Radio selected soundbites of several songs from the Hotel X album Engendered Species for use between news stories in 1994. Richmond Magazine awarded HOTEL X with the Pollack Prize for Excellence in Arts in September 2005.
In the biography Fela - the Life and Times of an African Musical Icon by Yale professor Michael E. Veal, HOTEL X is mentioned alongside the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Branford Marsalis and Steve Turre where the author talks about the broad influence of Fela Kuti's Afrobeat style.
From 1998 to the present HOTEL X has been mining the musical wealth of Africa and Latin America by using rhythms and melodies inspired by traditional music and contemporary composers from those regions.
Be cool // OMP is the place for peace, love, support and kindness. Critique must be requested.
Listen // Be mindful of what other players are doing. Be mindful of dynamics. It's OK to not play - music needs silence, too.
Courage // The good stuff is beyond your comfort zone. Make mistakes. See rule #1.
$18
Doors: 7:00pm
Music: 8:00pm - 11:00pm
21+ / 16+ must be accompanied by an adult
General admission. Arrive early for the best seats.
3108 W Cary St
Richmond, VA 23221
804-918-5681