Three Art + Music Exhibits | Bklyn Sounds 11/27/24—12/3/2024

Current gallery shows where music and art cultures intermingle + This Week's Events Include: Spacetime Continuum / SML / Soul Connection's 'Friendsgiving / Jeff Parker ETA IVtet / 'Abasement' / more

Clockwise from upper left: Romare Bearden’s Ellington, Rainbow, Jonah Sharp (aka Spacetime Continuum), SML, Lovie and Honey Bun of Soul Connection

This week, another small set of Art+Music exhibit recommendations, in pretty varied parts of the city. This is going to be a semi-regular feature from here on in. Let me know what you think.

Guadalupe Maravilla, "Double Guadalupe Drawing," (2022). Ink and paint on inkjet print, embroidered beads, obsidian, amethyst, 30x90 inches. Courtesy of the artist and PPOW, New York.

Way out in Jamaica, at the on-campus gallery of St. John’s University, which is now overseen by my old friend Max Warsh, is a group exhibit called To Mend The Heat, inspired by and including the work of the late Milford Graves. Graves, who passed away in 2021, was known as one of the great, idiosyncratic drummers within the tradition often known as “free jazz.” Graves’ eccentric reputation was based on where his fascination with rhythm took him: to the human heart beat, which he studied, recorded and emulated in his drumming. As a multi-disciplinary artist, a homeopath indebted to indigenous medicines and ceremonies, a martial artist and a shamanistic teacher to many other musicians, Graves connected his life and interests to the max. (There is a 2018 documentary on his life, Milford Graves: Full Mantis, which I can’t recommend enough.) Graves also lived much of his life in Jamaica, near St. John’s; which is why, though his own work has been exhibited at great museum, gallery and institution shows, To Mend The Heat is a little different.

Only a handful of the pieces in this exhibition are Milford’s. Instead, Heat gathers work by artists from around the world, all of whom are inspired by the same ideas which drove him, “sound, song and vibration as a form of medicine and storytelling.” Among the two large rooms of work of various mediums are objetos sonoros (sound objects) by Koyoltzintl, an Ecuadoran artist living upstate; the objetos are “pre-Columbian-inspired instruments that carry the knowledge and healing power from the Andean mountains.” There are hallucinatory, biographical works on paper by the Salvadoran trans-disciplinary artist Guadalupe Maravilla, who also identifies as a healer. There are the sprawling, intricate mandalas drawn by Marcelo Sturgeon, an Argentinean artist who now resides in New York, and takes inspiration from indigenous imagery of the Americas. There are also fabric collage works and ‘zines by Damali Abrams, a.k.a. Glitter Princess, whose uses art as a healing and spiritual practice. To Mend The Heat is aesthetically sprawling, while thematically tight as a tuned snare. All of it responds to the questions in Warsh’s opening notes: “What can centuries of indigenous healing practices teach us now, and how can artists play a unique role as translators and messengers sharing this information in new ways?” A show for the moment. (Tues-Fri, 10a - 5p, Sat 12-5p @ Yeh Art Gallery, St. John's University, Jamaica, Queens - thru 12/7)

Romare Bearden, "Bessie, Duke, and Louis," (c. 1981). Collage on fiberboard, 121/4x43 inches. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery.

Romare Bearden: Paris Blues/Jazz and Other Works is a beautiful archival show of music-related pieces by one of the great American painters, collagists, and documentarians of 20th century Black American culture. Bearden was a life-long music fan, and in 1950 moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne on the GI Bill. While there, Bearden interacted with many other Black American musicians, writers, artists and students, and stories from that period inspired his friend, photographer Sam Shaw’s 1961 film Paris Blues, starring Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman and Diahann Carroll. Inevitably the Hollywood myth-making machine de-racialized and impaired much of the original story. So 20 years after the film’s release, Bearden, Shaw and jazz critic Albert Murray returned to the stories and events, looking to publish a book of Bearden’s collages, Shaw’s photographs and Murray’s words. The book was never completed, but a slew of the work Bearden created for it, remains. It is a magnificent visual tribute to the artists, sounds, cities and times that inspired him—heavy with images of characters like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith, ideas and scenes of “jazz” and “blues,” and urban panoramas of Paris, New York, and New Orleans. (Tues-Sat, 10a-6p @ DC Moore Gallery, Chelsea - thru 1/11/25)

Uptown, on the West Side, are adjacent shows by musicians with inter-related pasts and presents. 20 years ago, at Cal Arts, now-Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon was a student of the now-Pulitzer Prize-finalist composer Wadada Leo Smith. Among the classes that Chacon took with Smith was one exploring non-traditional composition. Wadada taught this class with aplomb, partly because beginning in the mid-1960s, as one of the early members of Chicago’s AACM, Smith had discovered and continued developing his own compositional visual art language, which he called “Ankhrasmation.” By the mid-’70s, Wadada’s Ankhrasmation scores weren’t just pieces of music the could be played—meticulously composed but also requiring informed open improvisation—they were also gorgeous canvases. The scores had their own skeleton key and specific reads, but were written to be open to creative interpretation, with colors, shapes and symbols primary guides. The Academy of Arts & Letters exhibit, Wadada Leo Smith: Kosmic Music, gathers 30 or so of these scores, plus contextual materials, by an artist whose influence on contemporary improvised music keeps on growing, even as he continues to perform and create new work into his ninth decade on Earth. (In fact, more Wadada next week…)

One building over, in the Academy’s North Gallery, is Raven Chacon: Aviary, a very different, if equally conceptual, bird. As an artist who works with sounds and histories of specific sites, Chacon was fascinated to learn that the Academy stands on ground once owned by James Audubon, who purchased it in 1841 with funds from the sale of his perennial best-seller, Birds of America. The booming sound of the gallery, coupled with ideas about the continuing extinction of birds during the Anthropocene, led Chacon to imagine a unique sound installation: Avery mixes the artificially recreated calls of birds that have disappeared from American skies and ears, and recordings of existing birdcalls. The dark preamble gives way to one of the most beautifully serene aural experiences currently available in New York. The gorgeous Beaux Arts skylight illuminates the airy room, and surround-sound envelops the space, in which you can comfortably lie, listen and interpret the past and present, trying to figure out which is which, as you let go of the future. If only for a few minutes… (Thurs-Sun, noon - 6p @ American Academy of Arts & Letters, Sugar Hill, Manhattan - thru 7/3/25)

BONUS BEAT: still open through January 11th is Elizabeth Catlett’s magnificent retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies. Read more about that HERE.

This Week’s Events:

Though the myth of mask-hidden Newark-based Haitian battle rapper Mach-Hommy has crossed into the mainstream over the past five or so years, his steady musical output has remained penetrable only to the devoted: thickly soulful and hallucinatory, overwhelmingly Kreyol, unconcerned with the world outside his purview. Mach continues to be guided by his own compass, charging extreme amounts of money for physical albums and merch, remaining outside the spotlight to anyone but those who seek him. Which includes not doing live shows—or did, until now. Inexplicably, Mach’s playing the Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, an appearance billed as his NYC debut, a performance of #RICHAXXHAITIAN, which was released earlier this year. Tickets are still available, and more expensive than I am usually comfortable including in this newsletter. But this one…how could you not. If you go, please drop a note with a review. (Wed 11/27, 7p @ The Appel Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Uptown - $$)

YOUR THANKSGIVING EVE DANCE CARD: Lotsa people frown upon going out on the Wednesday before the turkey, considering it an amateur night second only to New Year’s Eve and Halloween, but it’s always been one of my favorites on which to go long and late. Especially if the planning for the following day is well on its way, or you’re just a dinner-time passenger. And as always, NYC is happy to oblige with options. First and foremost are the #BklynSounds community vibes of Soul Connection’s Friendsgiving, the annual gathering overseen by SC sisters Honey Bun and Lovie, whose “friends” this year, Ayanna Heaven, DJ Tara and JADALAREIGN, are three more of the best Great Black Dance Music DJs in NYC. In the current era, the ladies rule the decks, and this is a feast. Highest Recommendation! (Wed 11/27, 10p @ Good Room, Greenpoint - $15) Over at Sultan Room, more community vibes with DJ Rekha's Bollywood Disco: Choose Ur Fam Thxgiving Edition. Rekha, the Queens lifer and Basement Bhangra founder who has spent nearly three decades sewing together a pan-South Asian dance community, will be joined by Roshni Samal (aka DJ Raat Ki Rani) and Varoon. Sultan Room/Turk’s Inn will have drinks and food specials for early arrivals. (Wed 11/27, 10p @ Sultan Room, Bushwick - $30) Detroit house luminary Marcellus Pittman, maker of classic deep funk and a magnificent DJ, is not a local, but he’s been doing an all-night pre-Thanksgiving fete at Nowadays for almost as long the club’s been open. A tradition has been set, and it’s a good late, vibey-ass time. (Wed 11/27, 10p @ Nowadays, Ridgewood - $20) Latin house legend Louie Vega is a local and his Flashback party at the Musica super-club will be a big Manhattan draw. I know there’s a lot worth decoding in that statement, but trust, Louie plus the crowd that adores him don't mess around; and word from trusted sources is, despite its location and size, Musica is alright. (Wed 11/27, 10p @ Musica, Midtown - $35)

POST-DINNER BENEFIT DANCE #1: Once a lone light of NYC’s turn-of-the-century minimal techno scene, longtime M_nus/Hawtin associate Magda has long been based in Europe and not around to participate in the city’s day-to-day. So it’s beyond a pleasure to see that her first Bklyn appearance in memory is a benefit for Willie Mae Rock Camp, which has evolved from a School of Rock-type institution, to one that integrates music, technology, and STEM to empower girls and gender-expansive youth. Great dance option, greater cause. Also: Devoye + Vivian Wang + Asha Jasz + J. Richards (Thurs 11/28, 10p @ H0L0, Ridgewood - $25-$$$)

POST-DINNER BENEFIT DANCE #2: Hopefully, any local Dada Strain-reading club-goer in it for the deep realness already recognizes that the free Thursday night Romance party Eli Escobar has instituted at Gabriela, most often with Synthicide/Italomatic Andi at his B2B side, is one of the best new events in the city. (And a rare reason to go clubbing in Williamsburg.) Though the Thanksgiving night door remains free, part of the evening’s bar-money is going to the New York Immigrant Coalition. So drink up! (Thurs 11/28, 10p @ Gabriela, Williamsburg - FREE)