Bklyn Sounds: 11/29/2022 - 12/5/2022
#BklynSounds Shows: Henry Threadgill / IE Soundsystem + Speaker Music / Bitchin Bajas + Time Wharp / Combo Chimbita / Eri Yamamoto Trio / Lutalo / Toribio + Seven Davis Jr. + Photay...and more
Welcome back to Bklyn Sounds, a weekly guide to live music and related events in Brooklyn.
This column was initially created for the late lamented Bklyner in the Summer of 2021. It was born for two reasons: First as a response to the immense amount of local DIY cultural activity that was taking place around Brooklyn during the initial post-lockdown stretch of the pandemic, in the heat of the Black Lives Matter protests and during the short glimmer of hope after the vaccines first arrived. But also because of the dearth of newspapers/magazines/websites that were actively covering local musical events and artists in one of the world’s most musically rich cities. Bklyn Sounds was created as a way for interested people to hear about all the great shit taking place and being made by musickers who recognize that culture starts on the block — and that the blocks of Brooklyn included some of the most talented people in the world. It’s a way to surface stuff that gets primarily promoted on IG stories, through friends of friends, or by people who actively pay attention to what’s happening around town. You know that IG meme that “People Who Show You New Music Are Important”? This remains the core concept of the relaunched Bklyn Sounds.
But as I wrote the other day, Bklyn Sounds is now going to be both more expansive, and more focused on what kind of events it covers. Dada Strain was created to forward the idea that rhythm, improvisation and community is inherently intertwined. My community begins in Bklyn, but it doesn’t end here. So the Sounds will cover events throughout the metropolitan area (within reason), as long as the principles of rhythm-improvisation-community apply. The picks will also be more reflective of my own creative point-of-view. If Bklyn Sounds as published in Bklyner was happy to include pretty much any happening of neighborhood interest, now I am only willing to include events that I would want to recommend. My tastes have a lot to do with these choices, though not everything: I do deeply recognize that a) I don’t know everything of value, and b) even if I don’t rate something, it may be beloved by the community. Bklyn Sounds is not a pay-for-play concern, but I do want it to embrace a broader, people’s creative streak than simply my own personal one.
I also believe that musicker shit doesn’t end at live/DJ music performances. Which is why you will also see the occasional art, book-reading, film and dance happening in these spaces. And for full up-to-the-minute choices, I would recommend following the @DadaStrain’s on Instagram, as the #BklynSounds recommendations there are not inhibited by weekly deadlines.
So, without further adieu, in chronological order, some events Tuesday, November 29th (today - will be getting this out on Monday from here on in) through Monday, Decmber 5th:
The Webber-Morris Big Band, led by composers/multi-instrumentalists Anna Webber and Angela Morris, is full of some of the city’s most freewheeling spirits. Its music splits the difference between harmonically rich orchestral beauty, random atonal noise-bursts, and occasional brass-enchanted swing-stomps. It is a community musicker concern of the highest order - when was the last time you heard 19 people make a focused joyful racket? (Tues. 11/29, 8p @ Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave. Downtown Brooklyn - $25adv/$30)
Debut night of multi-instrumentalist/composer/Fly Or Die cellist Lester St. Louis’ new programmed night at the great Sisters is a mighty affair: DJ’d sounds from the IE Soundsystem (aka Irreversible Entanglements trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and bassist Luke Stewart), live electronics from Speaker Music (aka techno theorist/author DeForrest Brown, Jr.), and Lester playing with guitarist Wendy Eisenberg. Guaranteed to cook! (Tues. 11/29 8p @ Sisters, 900 Fulton St., Clinton Hill - $15)
Pianist Eri Yamamoto and her long-standing Trio partners, bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Ikuo Takeuchi, will be playing songs from their new album, A Woman With a Purple Wig, which Eri wrote of her pandemic experience. Some vocals — bearing a sense of lyrical freedom that reflect the slightly unhinged mind-state of early lockdown — now accompany the group’s earthy, tight improvisation turns. Perfect for Lunatico’s vibes. (Wed. 11/30, 9p + 10:15p @ Bar Lunatico, 486 Halsey St., Bed-Stuy - $10)
Originally from Minneapolis, indie singer-songwriter Lutalo Jones now works in self-imposed isolation in Vermont, and this evening marks the beginning of his monthly winter residency at Union Pool. Lovely, deeply melodic and emotional bedroom song-smithery perfect for the small room — and which I can fully hear finding a bigger audience. (Wed. 11/30, 7p @ Union Pool, 484 Union Ave., Williamsburg - $15.15)
EJ Strickland’s Transient Beings, the jazz drummer’s (brother to saxophonist Marcus Strickland) soul-funk fusion combo with vocal foil Sarah Elizabeth Charles, bassist Rahsaan Carter and a variety of electric guitarists, goes back to the mid-’10s. Song-oriented and jammy, the group now include seasoned slingers Mike Moreno and Alex Witz. Wine-bar jazz of the highest order. (Thurs. 12/1, 9p + 10:15p @ Bar Lunatico, 486 Halsey St., Bed-Stuy - $10)
Though he’s best known as one of New York’s landmark electric jazz-rock-fusion-hardcore bass players, Melvin Gibbs has been doing his own sonic thing for a long time. And it’s beyond bullshit categorization now. His new album, Anamibia Sessions 1: The Wave, is a abstract electronic work on the great experimental label Editions Mego, and, according to him, influenced by his friendship with Dada Strain hero Arthur Jafa. This will be a listening party for the album. (Fri. 12/2, 8p @ Shift, 411 Kent Ave., South Williamsburg - Free)
BDA (aka Bring Dat Ass) is the house-music party concern of drummer/DJ/producer Cesar Toribio, which mostly takes place in the sweaty basement at Black Flamingo. Friday, Cesar hosts his regular tag-team DJ partner, the wonderful Upstate-based producer Photay, and the NYC return of the mighty Seven Davis Jr., who has a bunch of great music dropping imminently (see above). Get there early, maybe stay late. (Fri. 12/2, 10:30p @ Black Flamingo, 168 Borinquen Place, Williamsburg - $TBA)
Shows by Pulitzer Prize-winning AACM composer Henry Threadgill are on Dada Strain’s “Do Not Miss” list, especially when the ticket-price is not set by an uptown institution. The folks at NYU are, thankfully, keeping this one — the New York premiere of a new Threadgill work called “Pathways,” which will feature a combination of International Contemporary Ensemble and Henry's regular group, Zooid — reasonable. (Sat. 12/3, 7:30p @ NYU Skirball Center, 566 LaGuardia Place, Manhattan - $25)
Pianist James Carney’s Quartet is a slightly scaled-down version of the group he had on his sextet’s great 2020 album Pure Heart. Who’s left? Ravi Coltrane on saxophone, Dezron Douglas on bass and Tom Rainey on drums. That’s what’s up! (Sat. 12/3, 8p @ The Owl, 497 Rogers, Prospect-Lefferts - $12)
The final local show of the year by Brooklyn/Queens-based “tropical futurists” Combo Chimbita — guacharaca-playing vocalist Carolina Oliveros, guitarist Nino Lento es Fuego, drummer Dilemastronauta and producer Prince of Queens — is a moment to celebrate. They released a great album, Ire, and their mixture of contemporary and folkloric dance rhythms is a gift. (Sat. 12/3, 8p @ Brooklyn Made, 468 Troutman St., Bushwick - $24adv/$28)
I am a huge fan of winter Sunday-afternoon indoor dance-parties at Nowadays. Gets dark early, same great music, smaller (and less inebriated) crowd, and by the end, those whoa re there, let it rip. One of this season’s Sunday afternoon residents is livwutang, among the many great young Black femme-identifying techno DJs living in the city RN; and this week her guest is Scott Zacharias, a Detroit selector that y’all should know, as he’s fire too. (Sun. 12/4, 5p @ Nowadays, 56-06 Cooper Ave., Ridgewood - $15adv/$20)
Basically, you are guaranteed to find me, eyes closed, propping up a wall at Union Pool Sunday evening! The Chicago all-synth improv quartet Bitchin Bajas are among my favorite musical groups in the world (and that was before they put out an album of Sun Ra covers). And Time Wharp (aka Brooklynite Kaye Loggins) also makes incredible indescribable music, somewhere between cosmic indie electronics, and baroque minimalist improvisation. A bill with truly great potential. (Sun. 12/4, 7p @ Union Pool, 484 Union Ave., Williamsburg - $20.45)
ART: As anyone who follows the Dada Strain Instagram already knows, I am fascinated with art about music and by musicians. And feel like the ideas situated in-between the two practices are very much community-building exercises, as well as great works. “The Art of Counterpoint: 8 Musicians Make Art” is a small wonderful group-show that features almost a who’s who of great improvisers/creative musicians that also make gallery pieces: Wadada Leo Smith, Matana Roberts, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Marion Brown, Oliver Lake, and others. (12-6p Tues-Sat, thru January 10, 2023 @ Zürcher Gallery, 33 Bleecker St., Manhattan - FREE)