Bklyn Sounds 11/15/2023 - 11/21/2023

Shows: Nicole Mitchell (with Fay Victor and Craig Taborn) / Ghost Train Orchestra Plays Moondog / George E. Lewis x AACM / Darian Donovan Thomas / KMRU x Sonic Tonic Assembly / and much more

This Week’s Shows:

A photograph on a table of Miriam Makeba, Burnley “Rocky” Jones, C.L.R. James, and Stokely Carmichael, Montreal 1968. (c/o CUNY website)

LISTENING SESSION/ART & MUSIC TALK: Return To the Source is a new multi-artist exhibition and series of events put on by CUNY Graduate Center that looks to dislodge the revolutionary year, 1968, from its popular interpretation. Essentially the project uses information in the archive to break the colonial chains of history. Tonight’s opening session is a listening party and talk by william cordova, an interdisciplinary artist from Peru, on songs from his playlist 1968, popular tracks like Aretha Franklin’s “Think” but also lesser knowns such as “I’m Mad Like Eldridge Cleaver” by the MC5, and “Aos,” a live anti-Vietnam War improvisation by Yoko Ono and Ornette Coleman. (Wed 11/15, 6:30p @ James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center, Manhattan - FREE)       

The electronics-inclined flutist/composer/improviser (and former AACM chairwoman) Nicole Mitchell has a two-day residency at The Stone, and both evenings are duo pairings with equally grand figures she knows well. Wednesday sees Mitchell share the stage with vocal improviser and wordsmith Fay Victor; and on Thursday she’ll partner with pianist Craig Taborn, who played in Mitchell’s Sonic Projections. Potential future vistas by three of creative music’s great in-their-prime artists. (Wed 11/15 & Thurs 11/16, 8:30p @ The Stone at the New School, Manhattan - $20)

Coming on the heels of last week’s Durations Festival, which mixed experimental electronics, improvisation and rhythm, this Sonic Tonic Assembly, part of the Performa Biennial, feels like an immediate return to a rare candy store.The program is split into two parts: Sonic Wilderness will feature a round-robin collaboration between the Finnish female artists AGF (Antye Greie-Ripatti), Cucina Povera, Lau Nau and Islaja; while Sounding a Black Grammar will include sets by KMRU (Joseph Kamaru), the inspired pairing of HxH and Speaker Music (DeForrest Brown, Jr.), Lamin Fofana and Bhavisha Panchia. Expect ambient soundscapes, digital chaos and an occasional groove. Note the early start. (Thurs 11/16, 6p @ Pioneer Works, Red Hook - $35-$40)

Massive hip-hop bill, for me anyway. As Armand Hammer, Billy Woods and Elucid have further abstracted post-Wu NYC darkness, poetry made from the empty blocks between neighborhoods and the litter accruing by the third rail, using a hacked ChatGPT to finish the verses. And the beats aren’t even that seasoned. Together and separately, the pair makes some of the most interesting rap music today, of which the new We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is a great example. By comparison, opener Quelle Chris, a wonderfully philosophical weirdo, seems almost “pop” and he’s hardly that. H3IR is the duo of Jersey producer/DJ JWords and Bklyn wordsmith maasai, two women who still believe in hip-hop as a rhythm-centric concern. (Caveat/admission: I rarely feel as old as I do when I listen to new rap nowadays, and these artists do not make me feel that way.) (Thurs 11/16, 8p @ Bowery Ballroom, Manhattan - $25-$30)