Bklyn Sounds 1/31/2024—2/6/2024 + Odds and Ends

Other people's beautiful Pitchfork thoughts + Shows: Heart of The Ghost / Gavilán Rayna Russom / Weak Signal + Eric Copeland / Charlie Burnham / 'Out Music Festival' / June McDoom / much more

At some point last week, I thought that I would write this column about Pitchfork and music journalism. It wasn’t gonna be another obituary, but a note about how we can both mourn and not give up, how the werk and the vocation was bigger than the business, how only focusing on the losses (of our colleagues’ employment, of outlets for our own words, of our dreams…maybe) drains the energy needed to re-imagineer the future. 

I am not writing that now. It’s not because I don’t believe all those things to be true. To the contrary: after lecturing in my colleague Liz Pelly’s class on music media this past Monday night, and receiving multiple notes from students afterwards, I feel more strongly than ever that we have a future, we just don’t know its form yet. But because people have touched upon so much of this thinking ambiently in their own pieces on the subject, that it feels more apropos for you to go read their beautiful words and see where they take you.

Words by Linnie Greene: 

There’s a difference between a career and a vocation. One pays your rent. The other is an outward projection of your humanity....If writing about art has persisted through the twilight of media, it’s because there are some of us who will do it to the bitter end. Unpaid or underpaid, viral or barely read, influential or gathering dust in the depths of a Discord. Ultimately, it’s a question of values — are we on this earth to live inside teetering stacks of money, or are we here to write novels and play the guitar?

Words by John Doran:

I think a good analogy for writing about music is like composing poetry about the weather. You could spend an entire lifetime writing verse about thunderheads and tornadoes and not come within a mile of creating something that was as literally sublime, but once in a while the writer will connect with the rhythms, the flash of lightning, the spatter of rain, and if they are really focused they will discover entirely new rhythms and be inspired to write something unique.

And especially by the writer I regard as the dean of the classical popular-music criticism game, Ann Powers:

What I love about music writing is that it can sidestep that productive, competitive side of culture, the market-driven need to sell more tickets, more records, more streams. Instead, great music writing messes with productivity by creating a space to slow down and really immerse in someone else's creative work. To really listen....I feel nourished by the daring of my fellow scribes, by the way their words are indeed extraneous to the churn of art and emotion as product, carving out a zone where the pause matters, time spent thinking, laughing at a good line, feeling my brain crackle as it absorbs an insight.

What I am talking about is pleasure. In the end, what matters about music writing is exactly the same as what matters about music: It isn't leading anywhere productive. Instead, it's offering a break from the grind, a free zone for thought and a few glorious, rejuvenating moments of fun....Music writing says: Slow down. Pay attention. It witnesses the unfolding of meaning within measured time, and calls back to it.

The singer-songwriter Josh Ritter said it well in a tweet the other day: "Loving music is one thing, but to then attempt to translate those ineffable emotions into words for the rest of us, takes talent and bravery and beautiful human optimism." Optimism is exactly right. To believe that on any given day, a person can make room to absorb something soothing or electrifying or challenging, something that others made with their whole souls, and then find a way to share it with others – that's a gift worth cultivating.

Each of these notes points somewhere beyond the stars, beyond the spaces and contexts where most modern media operates. And that, for me, is where the hope lies, in a different way of thinking about just what it is we do and why it is we’re doing it. I keep harping on the need for new institutions, and that too requires a set of new perspectives, cultivating and encouraging them. The weirder the better. I don’t claim to have the answers, but I know damn-well where they ain’t. And that, I think, is a start.

Now go see some live music, ‘cause that’s a space that cultivates new ideas. Enjoy the free listings this week - and please consider upgrading your subscription.

This Week’s Shows:

Though he could have long ago drowned in a jam-band-landia littered with wreckages of indie kids who took up post-Dead, white-boy grooves, guitarist William Tyler keeps pushing himself into odder, less defined spaces of Americana. Last year’s album with the Impossible Truth (percussionist Brian Kotzur, bass guitarist Jack Lawrence and pedal steel player Luke Schnieder) rubs up against Krautrock ambience, Fahey drones and other melancholy instrumental treats. Tyler’s a helluva guitarist, and a brilliant imagineer. Keep watching his space. Also: Adeline Hotel (aka D​an Knishkowy) creating a lovely orchestral Balearic folk sound. (Wed 1/31, 8p @ Le Poisson Rouge, Manhattan - $20adv/$25)

Multi-media artist Takuya Nakamura (aka Space Tak) brings his solo trumpet+synths+electronics set-up into the backroom of Sisters. This is exactly more of what we need: appropriate spaces for artists fluent in improvisation, composition and rhythm musics to stretch out in, and audiences comfortable in accepting it. Really hope it goes well. (Wed 1/31, 8p @ Sisters, Clinton Hill - $15)

Last year, Patricia Nicholson’s “discovery” that Sam and Beatrice Rivers’ legendary Studio Rivbea loft was still standing and functioning as a theater space on Bond Street, led to a series of excellent Arts For Art shows of spiritual and free jazz music there. This year, the spiritual jazz organization is stepping back into Rivbea-cum-Theater for the New City with the Out Music Festival, which started on Monday and runs through Sunday the 4th. Three great sets every night (and Sunday afternoon). My highlights are saxophonist Alfredo Colon’s group (Wed 31st), the duo of drummer Tomas Fujiwara & saxophonist Darius Jones (Thurs 1st), Val Jeanty and Nicholson’s spoken word+electronics Shamanic Principles (Fri 2nd), the dueling violinists gabby fluke-mogul & Charles Burnham (Sat 3rd), and the volcanic Luke Stewart Silt Trio  (Sun 4th). The loft has legacy ghosts all up in its walls, and this music honors and updates those specters. (Wed 1/31 - Sat 2/3, 7:30p + Sun 2/4, 3p @ Theater for the New City, Manhattan - $25)

Though bassist Luke Stewart spends a lot of time in Bklyn, and is central to our improvised music community, much of his formative work as an improviser took place in DC/Baltimore. (Still does — he’s actually everywhere at once.) Heart of the Ghost, his trio with saxophonist Jarrett Gilgore and drummer Ian McColm, is one of the bands that continues that long-standing musical conversation, open, deep and evocative. They’re playing two rare local shows this week. The first is at Union Pool, alongside drummer Ryan Sawyer’s Shaker Ensemble, which is debuting new music written for the occasion; and veteran free-jazz duo, saxophonist Dave Sewelson & trombonist Dick Griffin. (Wed 1/31 8p @ Union Pool, Williamsburg - $20) The second show is at Red Hook’s mighty Record Shop, supported by the duo of cellist Leila Bordreuil & Tamio Shiraishi, the fiery saxophone-playing co-founder of psyche-noise legends Fushitsusha. Also on board is cornerstone NYC musicker, Matt Mottel. (Thurs 2/1, 7:30p @ 360 Record Shop, Red Hook - $10suggested)

Born in Japan but long based in Brooklyn after studying at the New School, trumpeter Takuya Kuroda has been making wonderful jazz records for dancing, with heavy electronic funk and Afrobeat overtones, for almost a decade. Can’t recommend 2020’s Fly Moon Die Soon highly enough for those who dig Freddie Hubbard’s early ‘70s CTI classix — though the recent US reissue of Kuroda’s Japan-only debut, Rising Son, is also a groover. Nublu is the perfect place to get on his wavelength. (Thurs 2/1, 10p + Fri 2/2, 7p @ Nublu, Manhattan - $20-$25) 

You can often catch violinist Charlie Burnham at Sunny’s in Red Hook, weaving a wondrous blue jazz-folk hoedown. His Charles Burnham Trio, with NYC guitar deity Brandon Ross and percussionist Pheeroan akLaff, promises to be something larger and more open, without fully abandoning the traditional threads. Also playing is the cellist Aliya Ultan, who runs the improvised music series, Wham! (Fri 2/2, 8p @ The Owl, Prospect-Lefferts - $15) 

Signal Route throws some of my favorite techno events in the city nowadays, and they’ve got a doozy at Jupiter Disco. If you only know Gavilán Rayna Russom as a synth goddess (Black Meteoric Star, Black Leotard Front, LCD Soundsystem) and/or tireless trans rights activist (Voluminous Arts), I’m here to tell you that she’s also a monster with the CDJs. and the 1200s Joining her is Sweater on Polo, who’s among my favorite young electronic-music producers and gear-heads in Gotham, and also knows good records. Also on-board is a Chicago newcomer named Arsene (which, as a Gooner, I am very down with). Highest Recommendation! (Fri 2/2, 10p @ Jupiter Disco, Bushwick - Free before 11p/$10)

Forty-something drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. came up as a torch-bearer of a straight-ahead jazz music that, to my ears, has been dulled by being suspended in cultural amber, museum-ified. It was never a question of whether Owens could swing hard (yes!), so much as what the purpose of that swing was. Yet the dynamism at play on his new (very straight-ahead) album with a quintet called Generation Y is positively electric — once they get through the themes, they hard bop til they drop. Gen Y joins Owens at Miller Theater, and if you like your jazz old-school but fresh, it’s hard to do better at the moment. (Sat 2/3, 8p @ Miller Theater, Columbia University, Manhattan - $20)

I haven’t seen Eli Escobar play at Gabriela. since opening night, but the hosannas that surrounded his all-Madonna set at last week’s installment of the Thursday-night anything-goes party, Romance, were wonderfully deafening. (I was throwing my own show, otherwise, I would have dropped everything.) Eli’s doing an all-nighter Friday at House of Yes too, but at this moment in time, you should just go check out Gabriela. The vibes are ecstatic. (And, yes, more to come on this…) Highest Recommendation! (Sat 2/3, 9p @ Gabriela., Williamsburg - $10cash)

If Eli is the new “king of New York” (RA), then Nicky Siano is a founding member of its original royal house, alongside David (Mancuso) and Larry (Levan), who revolutionized the sound of Big Apple nightlife with how they played records. Siano has been throwing these occasional Reunion parties these past few years, with various results. But the last one was at Samovar on West 52nd, a Russian expat restaurant-lounge-bar that is part of my own family’s lore. It has a cozy but vibey party room upstairs, and reports are that Nicky’s party went off there. Maybe lightning can strike again. Lord knows the music selections will be hot! Also: DJ Andre Collins. (Sat 2/3, 10:30p @ Samovar, Manhattan - $20adv/$30)

Pique-nique’s Unheard series brings an artist-in-residence to play a series of shows, each set with a new, different partner. One of 2024’s residents is the mighty Photay (the great upstate producer/DJ/collaborator Evan Shornstein), who on Sunday afternoon will partner with Will Epstein, another upstate multi-instrumentalist and improviser. Expect gorgeous electronic soundscape with dabs of rhythm, all taking place at my favorite secret Bklyn loft. (Sun 2/4, 5p @ secret Bklyn location - $24withRSVP)

PANEL TALK (AND PUNK SHOW): Whether you believe my cheerleading or not, New York is undergoing a change around how it regards community music history, increasing the public recognition of its own. And as far as I’m concerned, the more grassroots conversations involved with the people who were there — or are there NOW — the better. The good folks at MOMENT NYC (Museum Of Music and Entertainment in New York City) have organized a nice panel to discuss Naturally Occurring Music Communities and why they matter(ed). The talking heads are Jesse Rifkin (author of This Must Be The Place), Douglas Sherman (musical host at The Loft), Julie “DJ Shakey” Covello (of Warper Party, Shakey’s Record Fair), and Federico Ausbury (of the queer-punk group Pinc Louds). Afterwards, Pinc Louds will perform. (Sun 2/4, 7p @ Drom, Manhattan - $15adv/$20)

I’ve written about singer-songwriter June McDoom on a number of occasions, and I remain somewhat obsessed with her chops as a writer, how she balances traditional lo-fi folk songs with layers of psychedelic production, the timeless quality with modernity. I know the Anthology of American Folk Music is on everyone’s lips at the moment, but as I keep listening and re-listening to June’s small catalog of music (particularly 2022’s self-titled EP, and last year’s With Strings) I keep hearing that old weird America being brought back into focus. Also on the bill: Eliana Glass and Katy Pinke. (Sun 2/4, 8p @ The Owl, Prospect-Lefferts - $12adv/$15)

I trust in synchronicity, and in repeated unexpected community connections. I first ran into saxophonist Alfredo Colón last summer at a L’Rain gig, where he seemed to know the entire band (all of whom are incredible musicians who play with other incredible musicians besides Taja). Once the connection was made, I have seen Colón continuously share the stage with one great player after another, a reed-playing multi-instrumentalist of range and chance-taking. On Monday, he’s bringing a two-part program to Roulette: “Alcove” is written for woodwinds and live processing, and features Colón in a duo with pianist/sound artist Hank Mason; and “Our Armor” is a quintet work, with Alfredo on alto saxophone. No idea where this is going, but if you trust musicians by the quality of the company they keep, and their work elsewhere, this is worth the chance. (Mon 2/5, 8p @ Roulette, Downtown Brooklyn - $25adv/$30) 

When Union Pool announced its annual beginning-of-the-year free-music Tuesdays series, this is the one I’ve had my eye on the entire time. Great sordid sounds of NYC then and now. Eric Copeland co-founded the legendary techno art-punk group Black Dice, and continues to make strange wonderful lo-fi noises that occasionally translates as hooky bliss. Weak Signal is a minimalist garage trio that writes some of my favorite rock songs coming out of the city today. The two shows I’ve seen the group play were both tremendous. Highest Recommendation! (Tues 2/6, 8p @ Union Pool, Williamsburg - FREE)