Bklyn Sounds: 12/20/2022 - 12/26/2022

Shows: Phil Niblock / Kyle Hall + The AM / Theaster Gates / Ryley Walker + Garcia Peoples + Sunwatchers / "Voluminous Arts" / Oscar Noriega's Crooked Quartet / "Just Above Midtown" / Yo La Tengo... +

Holiday week means a smaller than usual grab-bag of musical surprises. But a couple of holiday parties - and some art to make up for the lack of club experiences.

The folks at Island House Recordings are hosting a fundraiser for The American Foundation of Suicide Prevention with some of the city’s finest indie-jam folks, including Ryley Walker, Garcia Peoples, Sunwatchers and a promised variety of special guests. Great line-up, good cause, excellent setting. The music is supposed to start early and run late. (Tues 12/20, 7p @ Union Pool 484 Union Ave., Williamsburg - $20)

Veteran New York drummer Diego Voglino is the constant at Bar Bayeux’s Tuesday night jam session, and this week has some star power, with the pianist Ethan Iverson and bassist Joe Martin scheduled to help lead the line. With these two on-board, the possibility of who joins expands greatly, but as the sign advertises: “Singers and instrumentalists welcome.” (Tues 12/20, 8p @ Bar Bayeux 1066 Nostrand Ave., Prospect-Lefferts - No Cover, One Drink Minimum, Drinks for Musicians Encouraged)

One of the events by which fans of experimental music and media in New York mark the holiday season is composer Phil Niblock’s annual Winter Solstice show, which for at least the last decade has been situated at Roulette. This wonderful 4-6-hour mix of sound, film, astrology and spirituality starts early to mark the longest night of the year. Highly recommended for folks who may dig ambient church, but can handle a headier (dare I say, “deeper”?) version of it. (Wed. 12/21, 6p @ Roulette 509 Atlantic Ave., Downtown Brooklyn - $25adv/$30) 

Full admission: I am yet to attend any shows at Paragon, the Broadway-Myrtle club opened by the folks who run the Bossa Nova Civic Club, but its commitment to giving proper techno locals and the right out-of-towners a bigger space, is increasingly undeniable. Friday’s all-Detroit bill, with Kyle Hall and The AM (Ann-Marie Teasley), features two of the best next-generation producer/DJs the original techno city currently has to offer. Should be a banger!  (Fri 12/23, 9p, @ Paragon 990 Broadway, “Brooklyn’s Times Square” - FREE before 10p w/RSVP/$15adv/$20)

Voluminous Arts was launched by the electronic composer, synthesizer genius, techno-house DJ extraordinaire Gavilan Rayna Russom (ex-LCD, Delia & Gavin, Crystal Ark) as “a creative support network disguised as a record label.” It is a wonderful arts community centering trans and queer artists, and is a cauldron of sonic and visual creativity. And they know how to throw a party. The Voluminous Arts Holiday Party is at a secret warehouse location (DM them on Instagram or email “info at voluminous arts dotcom.” (Fri 12/23, 8p @ Secret Location in Brooklyn/Queens - $15)

Oscar Noriega and pianist Marta Sanchez (whose excellent 2022 album SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) y’all should give a listen) have been leading a variation of a “Crooked” band at Barbes on-off for a few years now. It was a trio with Noriega on drums. This version of Oscar Noriega’’s Crooked Quartet features the bandleader on saxophone, and also includes bassist Christoper Tordini and drummer Ben Perowsky. Advertised “with special guests,” which, again considering the players, should be bonus quality. (Fri 12/23, 10p @ Barbes 376 9th St., Park Slope - $20suggested)

You know ‘em, you love ‘em - but if you’re like me, getting into the annual Yo La Tengo Hanukkah Shows (and the inevitable special guests that make us all salivate) without prior warning of tickets going on-sale, is next to impossible: They sell like hot-cakes. But this year, with Hanukkah falling on Xmas Eve and the “Big Holiday,” the last two nights are actually NOT sold out. (At least there was tickets available when I was writing this Tuesday morning.) (Sat 12/24 & Sun 12/25, 8p @ Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., Manhattan - $50)

Holiday week! So…yeah…not as many interesting club shows happening - or not as many as there usually are. That’s an opportunity to shout-out three great museum shows currently happening in the city, each of which has roots in musical/musicker practices, and each of which has great musical/sound components.    

If you don’t know about Chicago-based sculptor, designer, dance and conceptualist Nick Cave, you absolutely should. He’s one of the contemporary greats, but whose vibrant experiential and sculpted work naturally crosses over to the masses. (Here’s an interview I did with him in 2017 about the importance of dance music to his practice.) “Nick Cave: Forothermore,” his mid-career retrospective, is filled with sound-related/-inspired bits. Especially don’t miss the videos hidden in the basement. (Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan - $25)

Music has been central to the work of Chicago-based sculptor, conceptualist, organizer and archivist Theaster Gates. He was a choir director as a kid, and part of his art-practice is a musical congregation called Black Monks of Mississippi. (Here’s an interview I did with Theaster in 2019 about the Black Monks.) “Theaster Gates: Young Lords and Their Traces” surveys the enormous breadth of Gates’ work, much of it focused on memory, and especially that of Black American communities. This includes musical memory, and is deeply moving. (New Museum, 235 Bowery, Manhattan - $18) 

“Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces,” a show about the Just Above Midtown Gallery run by the curator Linda Goode Bryant in the 1970s and ‘80s, which showcased an incredible cross-section of African-American artists then-ignored by the art world, is a nugget of New York cultural history, art history and Black art history (not necessarily in that order). The reason I first learned about JAM is that it was a hub not only of visual art but of incredible music performances. (Also: Greg Tate worked (interned?) there immediately after college.) Happily, the MoMA show incorporates that aspect of its story. (And while you’re there, pop on over into photographer Wolfgang Tillmans’ retrospective to see visual evidence of the Berlin club scene. Quite the juxtaposition!) (Museum of Modern Art, 11. West 53rd Street, Manhattan - $25 timed tickets) 

Happy Holidays Everybody!