In this installment of the weekly New York State of Mind Amoeblog I take a visit up to Harlem where the Apollo Theater (left) is holding strong. Unfortunately, another African American cultural landmark, the nearby legendary Lenox Lounge jazz club, recently faced eviction. In addition to a run down of some of the concerts and events (including NY Restaurant Week and free national monument admission day next week) in the week ahead, I also report on last weekend's WFMU benefit concert with The Relatives and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at the Bell House, and the GZA headlined show at Stage 48.
 
"This is where it all started. Before American Idol. Before Star Search and before all of these other great shows that are on, it was the Apollo Theater that really was the springboard to jump everything off," Vanessa Rogers, producer of Amateur Night at the Apollo, told me when I stopped by the Apollo Theater in the heart of Harlem. For close to eight decades (two of them televised on "Showtime at the Apollo") the legendary Harlem theater has been fueling dreams and jump-starting a seemingly never ending line of careers that have been kick-started at the Apollo. Since Superstorm Sandy hit, the Amateur night got put on hold. It will resume in early March with national regional auditions to get to Harlem taking place in the interim. Over the decades countless greats came to shine courtesy of the Apollo.  Billie Holiday, James Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Michael Jackson, Stephanie Mills, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, The Isley Brothers, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys,and Dave Chappelle are all among those who came to the historic uptown Manhattan venue on 125th Street as unknown 'amateurs' but left as future American superstars.

1) Freestyle Fellowship The Promise (Decon)

2) Idle Warship (Talib Kweli & Res) Habits of the Heart (Element 9/Blacksmith Records)

3) M.E.D. Classic (Stones Throw)

4) Wale Ambition (Warner Bros.)

5) Statik Selektah Population Control (Duck Down)

6) Dessa Castor the Twin (Doomtree)

Special thanks to Luis F. Soria (aka Lou) at the Amoeba San Francisco store for this week's top six chart which sadly will be Lou's final contribution to this Amoeblog and to Amoeba Music too since he has just announced that he is moving on from Amoeba for good to focus all his time and energies on the other worthwhile projects he has going in his life. Like so many of his co-workers at the Haight Street store, who counted on Lou for not just music knowledge, but genuine friendship and support when things troubled them (he's one of that rare breed that actually give a damn about his fellow humans), I always enjoyed dealing with Lou. Whenever we spoke we would talk at length and in great detail about something we both love, hip-hop music. And it is that genuine love and passion for hip-hop by Lou, who is also a DJ, that will be missed the most. If it were not for Lou the hip-hop isles at Amoeba on Haight Street would not have showcased so many amazing (often well under the radar) hip-hop releases. And of all the regions represented none got more love from Lou than San Francisco and the Bay Area. Responsible for getting in so many homegrown hip-hop acts into Amoeba Lou will be missed not just by his co-workers at Amoeba Music on Haight but by the Bay Area hip-hop community at large. Good luck in all you do Lou and thank-you for being you! And please stop by Amoeba Music from time.

She may not be a household name (at least not yet) but Midwest singer, emcee, spoken word artist & author Dessa has been garnering some high praise of late, and from some well respected quarters. NPR likened her "old-fashioned high-quality singer-songwriter" skills to that of Joni Mitchell and Rosanne Cash while the Utne Reader lauded the sole female member of the  Minneapolis Doomtree hip-hop collective as "A one-woman powerhouse...with a literary sensibility and an aversion to genre clichés."

Of the artist born Maggie Wander, the Chicago Tribune wrote,  "Dessa sings, raps, rolls out rhymes like an accomplished poetry-slam veteran, thinks like the former philosophy student and published author she is, and commands the stage with the expressiveness of a performance artist."

Released early last year, her critically acclaimed debut full-length A Badly Broken Code became a staple at college radio and was a favorite with both Amoeba customers and staffers -- myself included. The aforementioned Chicago Tribune was among those to include her record in their 2010 year-end top ten albums list. The album was the artist's long anticipated follow up  to her attention grabbing 2005 introduction to the hip-hop world, the five-song Doomtree release False Hopes.