Bklyn Sounds 11/6/2024—11/12/2024

This Week's Shows Include: Jeff Mills / 'The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni' / Tomin / Florist / Kyle Kidd & Joy Guidry / duendita / Raven Chacon / Stefan Ringer & Miss Alicia / and much more

Clockwise from upper left: Florist, Nikki Giovanni, Tomin, Jeff Mills

Under the circumstances, I hope you actually open this newsletter and go out to see some music. I fully understand if you do not. I will be here trying to figure out how the world moves forward. I have been at a loss looking for an answer to this question since October 7th, I am doubly so now.

Please remember that Dada Strain is a labor of love that requires many hours a week, and aspires to self-sustainability, not brand growth. So, please subscribe to Dada Strain — or consider upgrading your subscription. And please support your local musicians and musickers, independent venues, arts organizations and community broadcasters. They/We need it now more than ever. Again, thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting.

This Week’s Shows:

An evening of electronic R&B futurists and song: keiyaA you should already be very familiar with, a singular vocalist whose solo, hyper-manipulated voice+electronics sets skew simple boundaries. They’re joined by MHYSA, the music-performance persona of interdisciplinary artist E. Jane, who at times offers straightforward R&B, and at others “interrogates the inherent experimentalism that exists within traditional R&B's world-building techniques.” Also: Lambkin and BDGTA, a pair of male-idenifying singers backed by MPC constructions. (Wed 11/6, 8p @ Union Pool, Williamsburg - $15)

File under: great musicians in an odd-instrumentation pairing. Dezron Douglas and Brandon Lopez are two of the city’s best-known jazz bass players. The question this gig answers is, “What would a duet set between them sound like?” My only clue is that a 2019 duet between Lopez and the mighty Luke Stewart mixed a cutting session and a noise-punk/-rap cypher. Not to be missed by some of you. (Wed 11/6, 8 & 9:30p @ Bar Bayeux, Prospect Lefferts Gardens - No cover/One drink minimum/$10suggested)

It’s amazing to see Raven Chacon inhabit a space like The Stone residency, a program usually reserved for more traditional (kind of) improvising musicians. Renowned as a composer (he won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2022 for his Voiceless Mass), the Native American artist’s practice actually transcends categorization, though sound is always a critical component. The musicians Chacon is playing with each night, always in trios—: Lea Bertucci, Laura Ortaman, Marshall Trammell, C. Spencer Yeh, Che Chen and others—also move fluidly across creative borders. The stand has the making of a great moment in time, with a long cultural tail. (Wed 11/6 - Sat 11/9, 8:30p @ The Stone, New School - $20)

A pair of indie experimentalist lifers still going strong, and some younger folks doing their own thing. Topping it is Eric Copeland, a cornerstone of the immortal Black Dice, whose solo practice has continued into the lo-fi drum-machine realm; and Dean Spunt, one-half of post-hardcore legends No Age, whose own solo work has also embraced minimal electronics. The excellent newbs here are Nuke Watch, an NYC duo sometimes known as Beat Detectives, that in this guise get into fourth-world sonics and rhythms; plus Chronophage, a guitar-pop quartet from Austin. Also: itch princess. (Thurs 11/7, 8p @ Union Pool, Williamsburg - $15-$18)

The second Durations Festival, co-produced by Public Records and Pioneer Works, has again booked a well-curated group of artists involved in a variety of global electronic music cultures. There’s a program celebrating Chicago’s home of classic artful drone, Kranky Records; another devoted to Peak Oil, a classy Los Angeles ambient label; a heady club-type night with, among others, Lena Willikens and Umfang, and live performances from electronic pioneer Jill Fraser and Marie Davidson. Then Sunday there’s a rare NYC sighting of German ambient-jazz producer Jan Jelinek. It is a wonderful cornucopia which would 100% please a subscriber to The Wire magazine (and maybe some adventurous Dada Strain readers). Yet it also leaves me confused by some of the questions its short festival statements posit: What about this bill intuit “how music connects body, mind, memory, and imagination across time”? And, how does this bill “push boundaries in music and philosophy”? Either way, there is great stuff here. (Thurs 11/7 - Sun 11/10 @ Public Records, Gowanus - individual $25-$$$/full fest passes $140)

Selendis Alexander Johnson is a wonderful young vibraphonist  who regularly appears all over the city’s DIY improvised music community. With assistance from the great folks at Creative Music Studio, Selandis has put together a 19-piece Creative Improvisers Ensemble, filled with players I’d characterize as Bklyn Sounds all-stars, including Zoh Amba, Wendy Eisenberg, Zekkereya El-magharebel, Madison Greenstone, gabby fluke-mogul and Alfredo Colón. This evening marks the Ensemble’s public debut. (Fri 11/8, 8p @ Houghton Hall Arts Community, Midtown - $10-$15/sliding)

An invitation to a deep listening evening at the great private loft. For over 25 years, Belgian DJ SoFa (aka SoFa Elsewhere) has been a famed hunter of hidden musical gems “beyond space and time.” He’s got tunes. Playing  alongside SoFa is Modrums, aka Morgan Greenstreet, a drummer, percussionist, producer (Lollise) who’ll be performing a solo live set of “peace-music.” (Fri 11/8, 7p @ Light and Sound Design, Greenpoint - FREE-$30)

Heady live electronics meet two excellent soulful DJs: As Afrikan Sciences, Eric Porter has spent more than a decade and half creating expansive pieces of music adjacent to various dance-floors, some downtempo, others more jazzy, others where the beats are broken and then fixed-up. His Nowadays debut will be on a bill with New Yorker Marco Weibel (Darker Than Wax), and Meftah, one of Detroit’s new-gen soul-music makers. (Fri 11/8, 10p @ Nowadays, Ridgewood - $10-$20)

POETRY+MUSIC: 81 year-old Nikki Giovanni is among America’s greatest living poets, and one of the most influential Black American verse-writers of my lifetime. Back in 2022, she and saxophonist Javon Jackson collaborated on The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni, an album of blues, jazz and spiritual standards that sometimes finds her singing, and at other, reciting original lines. Giovanni and Jackson will perform it at the newly opened Armstrong House museum in Queens, making for a profound set and setting to take in the elegy of America. Highest Recommendation. (Sat 11/9, 3p @ Louis Armstrong House, Corona - $25)

Great deep-DJs double-bill in a superior small setting with a dancing audience. If it’s possible to create a dance-floor for both staying present and forgetting, there are few younger selectors I’d leave the task to than Atlanta’s Stefan Ringer (FWM) and Bklyn’s own Miss Alicia (Sweet Kicks, Umboma). May they provide you with the shelter we are all likely to need at the moment. (Sat 11/9, 8p @ Jupiter Disco, Bushwick - $9-$18)  

Legendary trumpeter, bandleader, musicker (and more recently author), Ahmed Abdullah returns to the neighborhood club where until recently he was musical director. His long-time concern, Diaspora, has some of the shambolic big-band flavor of Abdullah’s teacher’s ensemble, the Sun Ra Arkestra. That’s part of the fun. This Diaspora includes vocalist Ngozi Nri saxophonist Don Chapman, pianist D.D. Jackson, bassist Norbert Marius, drummer Warren “Trae” Crudrup III, and tap dancer Melissa Almaguer. (Sat 11/9, 8 & 9:30p @ Sistas Place, Bed-Stuy - $30-$35)

Jeff Mills was once known as The Wizard, among the greatest DJs and future-music thinkers to come out of Detroit’s “first wave” of techno. At age 61, MIlls continues his quest, releasing numerous albums per year, and collaborating with musicians of various disciplines from across the world. (Last year’s Tomorrow Comes the Harvest is a perfect recent example.) Situated primarily in Europe, Mills plays New York all-too-infrequently; and DJs his full-throttle (decks+gear) sets here even more rarely. (I believe this evening at Knockdown is his first local date since 2015.) So if you’ve never had the pleasure and think you know DJing and/or techno, prepare to have your world turned upside down. Highest Recommendation! (Sat 11/9, 10p @ Knockdown Center, Maspeth - $40)

This month, Pioneer Works’ Second Sundays program of open studios, screenings and live musical performance features a live set by the mighty Lollise, the solo project of Bklyn music veteran, Botswana expat, vocalist/producer Lollise Mbi. Her recent album debut, I hit the water, is one of the year’s best, filled with autobiographical singer-songwriter vibes, set to warmly addictive, electronic afro-funk and -pop. (Sun 11/10, 5:30p @ Pioneer Works, Red Hook - FREE w/RSVP)

After a couple of years away, the lauded Queens-raised soul singer/producer duendita recently dropped the mind is a miracle, another striking document of individualist, rhythmic embraces and leftfield sonic thinking. She’s doing two nights at Cafe Erzulie with harpist Samantha Feliciano, and additional vocalists Emily Akpan and Vanessa Camacho, promising “collaboration, experiments…. all kinds of sounds.” (Sun 11/10 & Mon 11/11, 8p @ Cafe Erzulie, Broadway & Myrtle - $20)

Part of the continuing lovability of upstate New York-based, folk-pop quartet Florist is how it’s never been defined by its fey, bedroom sound. Maybe it’s the synths, which you can hear more clearly in singer Emily Spague’s minimalist solo electronic work; or maybe it’s that the band’s songcraft does not flounder in the cliches of the bedroom pop “scene,” building a narrative by embracing tension and editing. Florist is a great band, and though many know this—look up its Tiny Desk + Beyoncé co-sign + Pitchfork BNM—it remains massively under-rated. The fact that its long-announced four-night stand at Cassette still has tickets available (Sunday is sold out) speaks to that. Can’t imagine a better place and community of folks to see it in. Highest Recommendation. (Sun 11/10—Wed 11/13, 8p @ Cassette, Ridgewood - $20)

With the lush, honey-layered A Willed and Conscious Balance, Brother Tomin made one of the great jazz records of 2024— and thankfully some folks are getting hipped to it too. So Dada Strain is very proud to help produce his hometown album-release show, which will feature the exceptional quintet that helped make this album. The site of the show, Brooklyn Music School’s auditorium, is also of personal import to Tomin: it was where he made his stage debut, as a three year-old ballet dancer. (Biased) Highest Recommendation. (Mon 11/11, 8p @ Brooklyn Music School, Fort Greene - $20)   

Continuing Black Quantum Futurism’s curatorial residence at Performance Space is A Ritualistic Conversation between two of the great young musical artists currently working in New York. Kyle Kidd is primarily a vocalist whose blues-jazz-soul delivery is awe-inspiring; and Joy Guidry is best-known as a bassoonist but is also an imagineer of improvised electronic worlds. Both are fluent in each other’s work, and America’s “great Black music” tradition, which makes this pairing feel like a glimpse into something rather than a drive-by. Watch their space. (Tues 11/12, 7p @ Performance Space, East Village - $0-$50)

Another great bill of improvising locals at the mighty Record Shop. Soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome and pianist Eli Wallace resume their occasional public tete a tete. There’s also an excellent trio featuring bassist/producer Lisa Mezzacappa, visiting from the Bay, with the violinist gabby fluke-mogul and drummer Ryan Sawyer. As always, helmed by curator and multi-instrumentalist, Kevin Murray. (Tues 11/12, 8p @ 360 Record Shop, Red Hook - $20suggested)