Bklyn Sounds: 2/21/2023 - 2/27/2023 + February Festival Weekender

Festivals: Dweller / New Ear / Three Days: A Voluminous Arts Festival / Hudson Jazz Festival // Shows: KeiyaA / Darius Jones + Shahzad Ismaily + Ryan Sawyer / Benefit for Disaster Aid in Türkiye... +

When did the last weekend of February turn into New York’s mini-festival weekender? I’m still trying to figure it out, but I am not mad at it. On the one hand, as my friend Ronen once wisely said, New York “doesn’t need music festivals” since its weekly schedule of concerts is as good or better than what passes for most festivals out there. On the other, we live in a time when great contextual music programming is serving crucial social, historical and community purposes. And each of the four festivals recommended below are doing just that. The question of “What are the intentions guiding the music?” matters more than ever before.    

For regular readers, the fourth Dweller Festival will probably be the most familiar. It is a Brooklyn techno/house festival — not dance, not electronic, not “experimental”…but techno and house — heavy on local talent, and consisting exclusively of Black artists. Founded by Frankie Hutchinson of Discwoman, Dweller was a response to both the white-washing of global dance music and the amount of great young, Black producers and DJs coming of age and stature atm. (I’ve written about Dweller - and edited a great DeForrest Brown Jr. piece about its inaugural year.) And it continues growing and getting better, more interesting. Some of this year’s choice programming includes Jeff Mills performing his new score to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (sadly, already sold out at Anthology Film Archives), a Thursday evening at Paragon with live performances by Klein, Slauson Malone1 and Space Afrika; a deep Saturday night at Basement, that includes Detroit’s DJ Etta and Terrence Dixon, Chicago’s Juana, and the masterful Fred P; a 24hr session at Nowadays, with sets by the great house DJ Lakuti, London’s Lorraine James and local Detroit legend Al Ester, among many; and a closing night at Dweller’s spiritual home, Bossa Nova Civic Club with the mighty musclecars. If you like dancing to Great Black Music’s contemporary strains, these five days are the best NYC’s got. Treat yourself, respect the culture, and support the Black folks who keep pushing it forward! (Dweller 4, Feb. 22-26, all around Brooklyn, ticket prices vary)  

The New Ear Festival at Fridman, one of the city’s most musical galleries, hasn’t always taken place at this time of the year, but feels like a wonderful addition to the late February calendar. It’s a more traditional, kunsthalle counterweight to Dweller, but with many electronic sounds that are complementary, the art side of rhythm and improvisation. All shows take place at the gallery, 169 Bowery. Some choice moments of this year’s five-day program includes a noise+beats performance by the noise hip-hop duo of Dreamcrusher and King Vision Ultra (aka Geng, one of the folks behind the excellent lo-fi hip-hop label PTP); Irreversible Entanglement quartet with pianist Janice Lowe and Last Poet Abiodun Oyewole, performing Luke Stewart's piece "Assassinations for Free Jazz Ensemble"; the artful techno of Relaxer (aka Daniel Martin-McCormick); Tongues in Trees, an indie-folk trio with deep North Indian classical music influences; and improvised sets by electronic composition legend Phil Nibblock and indie multi-instrumentalist Samara Lubelski. (New Ear 2023, Feb, 22-26 @ Fridman Gallery 169 Bowery, Manhattan - $20 per night/$60-$75 full festival pass)    

Voluminous Arts is a Trans and Queer Culture organization that its founder, the mighty Gavilán Rayna Russom (one of the city’s foremost synth/techno stylists and composers) calls “a creative support network disguised as a record label.” Since its founding in 2020, VA has been involved in parties and raves and DIY noise shows, conferences and multi-media art exhibitions, promoting great boundary-pushing work and thought. Three Days: A Voluminous Arts Festival, its inaugural fest, is an off-shoot of Rayna’s residency at the KAJE Gallery in Gowanus, and features three distinct programs: Friday (2/24) is an all-noise show, Saturday (2/25) will include visual performances as well as screenings on Trans- and Queer-led Nightlife, and Sunday (2/26) late afternoon/early evening will be a club night dance-party, with DJ and live electronic sets. And though my knowledge of the artists appearing at Three Days is cursory at best, after 20 years of knowing Rayna, my trust in her curatorial radar is pretty absolute. Go to Three Days to discover something new — an artist, a sound, an idea. (Three Days: A Voluminous Arts Festival, Feb 24-26 @ KAJE 74 15th St. Gowanus - $10min per program/$25min full festival pass)

UPSTATE ALERT! If you’ve been to hear music in Hudson, NY, chances are it’s been at the great Basilica space, or at the now-shuttered Helsinki club. But the upstate town has another incredible room, an 1850s-built opera house now known as Hudson Hall; and since before the pandemic, it's been hosting the straight-ahead minded Hudson Jazz Festival. The festival’s sixth iteration is curated by Cat Henry, a veteran of Jazz At Lincoln Center as well as more adventurous community projects (more on that at a later date), and the second weekend of the Sixth Hudson Jazz Festival has a wonderful slate of shows. This includes drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.’s Generation Y, a premiere of a newly commissioned work by pianist Aaron Parks (with vocalist Samantha Rise and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello), and a festival-closing performance by powerhouse bassist Endea Owens’ group The Cookout. They’re trying to build something interesting and local up there, that’s for sure. (Hudson Jazz Festival, Feb. 23-26 @ Hudson Hall 327 Warren St. Hudson, NY - $30-$60)