Nublu is a unique club and record label from the cultural epicenter of New York City, the East Village. There are three entities of the Nublu universe, a live music venue, a record label, and a recently launched Nublu Jazz Festival which has premiered in NYC, Sao Paul and Istanbul.
The venue was birthed first in 2002. It started out as a place for like-minded musicians and artists to gather and simply play music together, recalling New York in its creative heyday of the 70's and 80's. Nublu has come a long way since its humble beginnings. The club has attracted the admiration of many people and has been touted everywhere from the New York Times to Paper magazine. It is no surprise to come across Lou Reed at the bar, Kevin Spacey or Jorge Ben hanging out, or Norah Jones dancing to Forro. Last year, Jovanotti, the Italian superstar, chose Nublu as the place for his residency. The venue was filled to over capacity for eight straight weeks. Legendary artists like, Gilberto Gil and David Byrne have also done secret shows, and Moby said he realized that he "had more fun DJ'ing records for 75 people at Nublu than going on tour and performing in front of 10,000 people a night" XLR8R Magazine (2008). The list goes on and on.
The second arm of Nublu is the record label, which started in 2005 as a necessary outlet to release the music coming out of the club. The label now boasts a catalogue of over 50 releases, from music ranging from Brazilian acts 3 Na Massa, Otto and Forro in The Dark, to the jazz stylings of I Led 3 Lives and Nublu Orchestra, the indie pop of Hess is More and Wax Poetic. Between all of its entities, Nublu has established itself as a weighty curator and tastemaker in the independent music scene. There is no one sound to Nublu, just a vibe and a great selection. Nublu owner Ilhan Ersahin says it best, "We're just playing music."
