Bklyn Sounds: 12/6/2022 - 12/13/2022
#BklynSounds Shows: billy woods / Photay & Carlos Niño / Isaiah Collier / Marisa Anderson & Jim White / Patricia Brennan / DJ Tara / Sweater on Polo / Will Shore / Wesley Brown / ¡Pa' Baila!...+ more
This week’s Sounds (and Readings):
The main characters of author Wesley Brown’s “Blue In Green” are Miles Davis and his wife, the dancer Frances Taylor Davis; the scene is a couple of days in August 1959, after Miles was accosted and arrested by a racist NYPD cop outside of Birdland. The novella is made up almost entirely of wonderful internal monologues and dialogues by these two complicated icons, which Brown unfurls in natural colloquial language learned from interviews and biographies. Brown reads from the recently released “Blue In Green” and is in conversation with Lampblack co-founder Simeon Marsalis at the excellent Bed-Stuy bookstore. (Tues 12/6, 7p @ The Word Is Change, 368 Tompkins Ave., Bed-Stuy - FREE)
My dabbling into hip-hop’s independent crevices seems to get lighter with every passing year, so please consider my rap recommendations accordingly. (Instead, go follow Timm’s wRap Caveat.) That said, there are few New York MCs I enjoy in a variety of contexts as much as billy woods, he of Armand Hammer and of 2020’s epic collaboration with Moor Mother. Church, one of the two excellent solo albums billy released this year, has the streetwise storytelling and production grime of life after Wu, but backed a great CRT library’s set of references. This evening’s show celebrates its release. (Wed 12/7, 10p @ Baby’s All Right, 146 Broadway, Williamsburg - $25)
Last summer, vibraphonist/producer Will Shore put out People’s Dream, a wonderful EP-single on the excellent local Pique-nique label, an on-point mixture of dance-beats, electronic textures, and excursions into improvisations. It is Dada Strain mana. This week Will’s finally bringing that music out to the people with a special intimate show at a loft in Greenpoint. Though you have to RSVP to get the details. Opening is the very excellent Time Wharp. (Thurs 12/8, 7p @ Private Location in Greenpoint, RSVP - $23)
Over the past decade, Congolese-in-Montreal singer-producer-DJ Pierre Kwenders has been perfecting a fusion of traditional African dance riddims with Western house-hip-hop-techno flavors for the global bass crowd. All the while also trying to make internationalist pop — Kwenders has quite the afrobeats croon in him, and deploys it in multiple languages. Not sure it’s always my bag, but when he breaks out the electro-rumba, or when the techno-infected experiments come to the fore, his “One World” dance-floor vibes are real. With Uproot Andy, Kwenders’ sometime collaborator, who is one of NYC’s great long-running global-beat DJs. (Thurs 12/8, 8p @ Nublu, 151 Ave. C, Manhattan - $23)
Since 2020, Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Isaiah Collier has spent a lot of time in New York, and whether he’s headlining with his own rotating cast of Chosen Few, or backing great players like Theon Cross, Kahil El’Zabar, or Angel Bat Dawid, his balance of melodicism and outward-bound bravado is always a thoughtful fire. I’ve probably seen him a dozen times in the past couple of years, and always hear a new aspect of his ideas. Collier’s two-night stand at Blank Forms will feature him playing solo, in a duo with percussionist Michael Shekwoaga Ode, and with a Chosen Few that includes legendary New York bassist William Parker. This will be guaranteed fire. (Thurs 12/8 + Fri 12/9, 7:30p @ Blank Forms, 468 Grand St., Clinton Hill - $25adv/$30)
Kudos to the good folks at Brooklyn label Razor-N-Tape, who in October opened a label store in Greenpoint. Double kudos for featuring great in-store DJ sets every Friday and Saturday late-afternoon/early-evening happy hour. On Friday, one of those will be the mighty DJ Tara, The Lot Radio regular, and one of my favorite new music selectors in the city, fluidly moving between house, future-soul, global beats and any number of wonderful weird sounds in-between. Her set at Good Room a few weeks back was massive. (Fri. 12/9, 4-8p @ Razor-N-Tape, 110 Meserole, Greenpoint - FREE)
Vibraphonist/producer Patricia Brennan’s brand-new album, More Touch, is one of my favorite albums of the year. Where Brennan previously blended the sounds of her marimba with electronics by herself, she now does so in the company of a wonderful three-person rhythm section, with bassist Kim Cass, percussionist Mauricio Herrera, and drummer Marcus Gilmore adding a might groove. Tonight, Brennan’s quartet celebrate the album’s release. (Fri 12/9, 7:30p & 9:30p @ Jazz Gallery, 1158 Broadway (at 27th St.), Manhattan - $30)
While there are quite a few talented DJs making the rounds in Brooklyn right now, I’ve not heard a producer play a live set as good as the ones Sweater On Polo brought out at Dweller in February (see link above) or the one he played at the “Harlem New Age” park jam in May. He’s back on the Nowadays soundsystem this Friday night, with hopefully more than two data sticks in tow. Also: Evan Biggs. (Fri 12/9, 10p @ Nowadays, 56-06 Cooper Ave. Ridgewood - $25)
Catalytic Sound calls itself a “creative music cooperative,” a multi-city community of some of the finest improvisers on the planet, whose musical output you can subscribe to. (New models for new worlds.) In early December, they’ve been staging a global, seven-city Catalytic Sound Festival 2022 (live on the ground, live-streaming on the web); Shift hosts the NYC edition, with two days of incredible music by an all-star crew that includes Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Fred Moten, Sylvie Courvoisier, Nate Wooley, Chris Corsano, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and numerous others. (Fri 12/9 + Sat 12/10, 8p @ Shift, 411 Kent Ave. Williamsburg - $25)
Upstate New York-based beatmaker Photay and Los Angeles’s man-about-sound Carlos Niño make a wonderful collaborative pairing, finding a contemplative space between earth-tone spirituality electronics, and liquid new age improvisation. (Full disclosure: I wrote the liner notes for their Offerings LP.) Their rare live show at public records’ pristine Sound Room will feature the pair playing in a quartet, plus special guest, Laraaji, the new age naturalist who is their common bond and sonic forebear. (Sat. 12/10, 8p @ public records, 233 Butler St. Gowanus - $26)
The ¡Pa' Baila! party was begun by Irreversible Entanglements trumpeter Aquiles Navarro (with DJ Newyork Knick and conguero Angel Acevedo) to create a live and DJ’d fusion of salsa and deep house, merengue and garage, reggaeton and electronic bass, all in the spirit of 24hr dance marathons Navarro’s parents told him about in Panama. They bring the party to one of its spiritual homes, The Bronx, with guests, the DJ Delaceiba and the smokey house vocalist, Brigitte Zozula. (Sat. 12/10, 8p @ Bronx Brewery & Empanology, 856 East 136th St., The Bronx - FREE with RSVP/$10)
For the vinyl-heads, Monk-One and Presige’s Shake! monthly is a model of consistency: great old-school DJs, great selections, a crowd that gets turned up, and great guests. This month is no exception, as the Pittsburgh DJ/producer/monster-funk keyboardist Buscrates gets involved (his set-up features a mix of live- and record-playing), so expect the unexpected. Also: it’s Monk’s birthday party, get him a cupcake. (Sat. 12/10, 10p @ Friends and Lovers, 641 Classon Ave. Crown Heights - $5 with RSVP before midnight/$10)
The Quickening, the 2020 album on which guitarist Marisa Anderson and drummer Jim White came together to create 10 noisy roots-post-punk instrumentals, is one of those reserved masterpieces that weirdly reflects the standing of the two veteran musicians. Not sure they’ve played here since the world has “re-opened,” but the opportunity to see them in the tiny, first-come-first-served confines of Pete’s Candy Store (as part the “I Heart Noise” Fest) should not be passed up. Get there early, as it will get to capacity. (Sat. 12/10, 11p @ Pete’s Candy Store, 709 Lorimer St. Williamsburg - $10 suggested donation)
Feel like some warm noise on a December Sunday night? Two great options, one proven the other surprising. Lightning Bolt are veterans of the chaotic, experimental post-hardcore roar, and if you’ve never spent an 75mins in their slipstream, it’s a cleansing feeling. (Sun. 12/11, 7p @ Brooklyn Monarch, 23 Meadow St. East Williamsburg - $35) TV Eye has something a lot less proven but potentially more interesting, billed as a “night of wild sounds + artist-made instruments.” Of the five acts, I can vouch for the great Dan Friel, who somehow extracts wonderful melancholy melodies out of his noise-boxes, and for the visiting Brit Lia Mice, whose “chaos bells” is part sculpture, part industrial marimba, part bizarro digital interface. Based on them, “wild” seems apt. (Sun 12/11, 7p @ TV Eye, 1647 Weirfield St. Ridgewood - $12)
I met trumpeter Kenny Warren last week at the Henry Threadgill show, and we got to talking about the recently departed trumpeter Ron Miles, who was a lodestar for Warren when he was growing up in Denver; and about our common friend, the late trumpeter jaimie branch, and about the power of noise. A great conversation. He told me that his trio Sweet World, which includes the cellist Christopher Hoffman (who also plays in Threadgill’s Zooid) and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell, had an upcoming early set at Barbes. Not sure if what we’ll hear Monday is in keeping with Warren’s great looping minimalism experiments (such as the above), but all of his recent soundscaping compositions are worth a punt. If you come, say hello. (Mon. 12/12, 7p @ Barbes, 376 9th St. Park Slope - $15)