-
VOX Festival
There are few cures better for the postapocalyptic hurricane-blackout doldrums than a heavy dose of contemporary opera. With its rabid unpredictability, deconstruction of modern technology, and gale-force philosophical questions, the New York City Opera’s annual festival of new works and works-in-progress presented as staged readings is geared toward destabilizing the unquestioning mind, the pared-down Brechtian […]
-
The Best Jazz Shows in New York City This Week 10/29/2012
Here’s a list of jazz shows happening in the city we think you’ll enjoy. David Virelles The young, Cuban-born pianist David Virelles celebrates the release of his new album, Continuum — a mysterious, chamber-like thing featuring the bassist Ben Street and the drummer Andrew Cyrille, among other musicians — this Tuesday at Drom. The music […]
-
Davey Williams, LaDonna Smith, & Andrea Centazzo
The Ictus Festival is celebrating the wiles and rigor of free improvisation at John Zorn’s romper room, and Italian percussionist Centazzo, who launched the adventurous imprint decades ago, curates the program. One of the highlights is this devilish trio, which features the former Curlew guitarist Williams, the beguiling violinist Smith, and the drummer himself. Instant […]
-
Many Arms
Killadelphia’s guitar-weilding, audience-massacring hero Nick Millevoi leads Many Arms, a fiercely frenetic and precise avant-jazz instru-metal trio whose purveying berserk cacophony led New York’s very own downtown icon John Zorn to release their new, self-titled album via his Tzadik imprint. Tonight, the band celebrates the release of that LP, a manic trip into a universe […]
-
ONE STEP BEYOND
Saxophonist John Zorn relinquishes curatorial duties at his no-frills Avenue C performance bunker to Andrea Centazzo for the first two weeks of the month. An intrepid, prolific, and somewhat enigmatic percussionist-composer, Centazzo has been releasing some of the world’s most uncompromising outside music on his Ictus record label since 1984. Purists will revel in Centazzo’s […]
-
Jenny Scheinman’s Mischief and Mayhem
Jenny Scheinman has sawed away at her violin for the likes of Norah Jones, John Zorn, and Bill Frisell. On many a Tuesday, she can be found collaborating with a variety of musical co-conspirators at the Brooklyn performance space Barbès, and she’ll also be heard on the forthcoming Metallica/Lou Reed meeting-of-the-minds Lulu. Her latest project, […]
-
Sofia Rei
This leading light of Latin jazz had the most infectious smile at the 2012 Winter Jazzfest. The Buenos Aires native infuses the traditional music of Argentina with edgy harmonies and odd time signatures, but even for the non-Spanish speaking, the warmth that goes into every syllable communicates it all. Cumbia, currulao, fandango, and other rhythms […]
-
John Zorn & the Aleph Trio
Sucks to be culturally Christian tonight, particularly if it means missing this “Nittle Nacht (Xmas Eve) Radical Jewish Culture Blow Out” benefiting the Center for Jewish Arts and Literacy. Yackety saxophonist John Zorn fronts the Aleph Trio, which usually includes Trevor Dunn (bass) and Kenny Wolleson (drums); percussionist Cyro Baptista’s group will perform works from […]
-
Avoiding the Holiday’s Most Cloying Carol
No sooner were the turkey leftovers stored in the fridge than the sound of sleigh bells and other things that should not be on the radio were, in fact, on the radio. Some stations didn’t even wait for us to carve the bird: New York City’s staple of waiting rooms, Lite-FM (a/k/a WLTW), made the […]
-
Basya Schechter
The intensely spiritual Jewish songstress and her mystical band Pharaoh’s Daughter just released Songs of Wonder, a klezmer-folk homage to renegade Yiddish philosopher, poet, civil rights activist, and all around mensch Abraham Joshua Heschel. Schechter sets Heschel’s poetry to that beguiling harmonic minor sound, with Middle Eastern instrumentation, but any doubts as to accessibility should […]