Bklyn Sounds 4/24/2024—4/30/2024

This week's shows include 'St. James Joy' anniversary celebration / Atrás del Cosmos / Sun Ra marathon / Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet / 'Latinoise' festival / LTJ Bukem / 'PMA ina BK' / and much more

Out of commission. Enjoy the music. Take care of one another. Back next week.

This Week’s Shows:

There’s a bunch of great improvised music shows coming up in Green-Wood Cemetery, under the series name Phantom Waves, all taking place in different spaces. It kicks off this week, in the very intimate chapel, with the extraordinary Iraqi-American trumpeter/multi-instrumentalist, Amir ElSaffar, whose solo sets are electronics-heavy maqam-meets-jazz wonders. Two separately ticketed sets each night, space is hella-limited. (Wed 4/24 - Thurs 4/25, 6:30p & 8:30p @ Historic Chapel, Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park - $40)

Roulette is teaming up with Experimental Sound Studios (ESS), a mighty community music organization from Chicago, for an incredible evening of sounds and videos they’re billing the Sun Ra Marathon. First they’re showing media: Most Ra heads have probably already seen the 1974 film, Space Is the Place, but the other things on screen this evening are super-rarities courtesy of the immense El Saturn section of ESS’s archive. This includes the late Phill Niblock’s experimental film of the Arkestra, The Magic Sun; music videos created by Ra in collaboration with Bill Sebastian’s “visual music instrument” (the OVC); rarely seen and heard archival interview and performance footage, and other goodies. Then there’s the evening’s live music: Angels & Demons is the duo project of alto saxophonist Darius Jones and vocalist Amirtha Kidambi, in which they create musical adaptations of Ra’s cosmological writings; and Bklyn-based media artist Kamau Amu Patton premieres a new Ra inspired piece entitled Sekhet Hetepu. Highest Recommendation! (Thurs 4/25, 6p @ Roulette, Downtown Bklyn - $30-$40)

Massive guitar trio bill! Not sure if they’ll be playing solo sets, or join together in one spirited free-for-all, but David Grubbs and Wendy Eisenberg have been collaborating on occasion for at least a few years now; and Grubbs is now playing a string of dates with Chicagoan Eli Winter. Any combo of these folks will be great, but a three-way conversation would surely be a special treat. (Thurs 4/25, 8p @ Bar Sundown, Ridgewood - $12)

BOOKS + ART + MUSIC! Regardless of where it’s held or what time of year — and it does tend to bounce around — Printer Matter’s annual NY Art Book Fair is one of the events that best unifies the city culture’s various DIY factions, and the people who try to broadcast the work. Artists and small-gallerists, writers and publishers, musicians and musickers. Thursday is the opening night ($30) and Saturday is the day-long block party. The weekend’s music will include performances by Bergsonist, Embaci, Hiro Kone, the Batalá New York percussion ensemble, LYDO, and numerous others. A New York community tradition event if there ever was one. (Thurs 4/25 - Sun 4/28, various hours @ 548 W. 22nd St, Manhattan - FREE - $30)

A unique occasion! Formed in 1973 in Mexico City, Atrás Del Cosmos, helmed by pianist Ana Ruiz, have been called “Mexico’s first free jazz ensemble,” and four years later were collaborating with no less an expert in the matter than Don Cherry. With Blank Forms now reissuing the group’s one officially released recording, Ruiz and percussionist Evry Martin, make a belated New York appearance, with the mighty Daniel Carter holding down the reeds. Two sets in Blank Forms’ living room. (Fri 4/26, 7:30p & 9:15p @ Blank Forms, Clinton Hill - $25)

I never identified as a junglist, but hearing people tell the popular history of drum’n’bass nowadays, it seems like LTJ Bukem’s more ambient sound has been sent to the backseat by the hardcore and breakbeat-ier factions. Yet in ‘96-’97, I played the shit out of his Logical Progression, Vol.1 comp, which felt deeper, less chaotic than the sturm-und-drang of various Metalheadz. Bukem and MC Conrad were regular NYC visitors back then, but I can’t remember the last time I saw him booked. So I think this is gonna be a fun one, junglist-reunion-wise. (Fri 4/26, 11:30p @ Brooklyn Bowl, Williamsburg - $22) 

The story of St. James Joy will be forever intertwined with that of Bklyn Sounds. The father-and-son DJ team of Jo and Chad Vill began playing house records out their windows on St. James Place during the lockdown’s nightly salute to essential workers, and soon a crowd of dancers started gathering outside (masked, socially distanced), to get their release. In the ensuing months, the corner of St. James and Greene became the site of a nightly dance-block-party, and the stuff of legend. To say that the Vill family’s collective action — Chad’s mom Gail was the head of the block association who facilitated the party’s growth — saved a few of our lives is not hyperbole; and to say they showed the spirit of New York musicking culture at a historic time, is now in the permanent record. The party only happens a couple of times a year now. Come out for the Fourth Anniversary, and say thank you! Highest Recommendation! (Sat 4/27, noon @ St. James Place at Green, Clinton Hill - FREE)

A one-day festival that foregrounds some of the New York improvised, experimental and DIY community’s finest Latinx musickers, taking place on one of Prospect Park’s holiest musical lawns, Latinoise feels like a wonderful dream. Of the appearing artists I am familiar with, trumpeter/beat-maker Aquiles Navarro, vocalist Isabel Crespo Pardo, tap-dancer Melissa Almaguer, and the collective A.B.E.L.A. (Asociación de Bateristas ElektrónikXs de Latinoamerika) are blindingly great. And that’s less than half the line-up. Highest Recommendation! DM @undiscolosedxlocations on IG for exact park coordinates. (Sat 4/27, 4p @ Vale of Cashmere, Prospect Park - FREE)

In their own words, the new-music Ghost Ensemble “fosters groundbreaking music that blurs borders of genre, style, and scene, expanding perceptual horizons through shared immersive experience. Collaboration with living composers is its primary focus.” On this night, the composers include the mighty Lester St. Louis (a premiere of “PRIM ii: Metaphors Made of Soot and Ultraviolet Light”), Pauline Oliveros (“In Consideration of Earth”) and the Ensemble’s own Ben Richter (“Rewild”). (Sat 4/27, 8p @ Zürcher Gallery, Manhattan - $20cash)

The Belgian-in-London selector Lefto aka Lefto Early Bird has for a few years now been one of “your favorite DJ’s favorite DJ,” a listener whose ear is broad-minded and deeply ahead of the pace. I’d classify him as a deep-crate global boogie dude, but that does disservice to his musical breadth. Tonight, he’s tag-teaming with Darker Than Wax’s Marco Weibel, another extremely top-of-the-line listener and selector. It will get crowded in the basement, but the music’s guaranteed to be sublime. (Sat 4/27, 10:30p @ Black Flamingo, Williamsburg - $10-$15) 

Nuke Watch is a side-project name that Beat Detectives, the sampladelic producers Chris Hontos and Aaron Anderson, have given to their recording collaborations with live musicians. The latest is the wonderfully indescribable Pepper’s Ghost, a hard-drive concoction that hides the digital stitches of its Fourth World build. It’s quite the concoction — as is its release show, which features a live performances by Nuke Watch as well as a slew of next-level production and noise makers, including African-American Sound Recordings (aka Cities Aviv in beat-making mode), Pink Must (aka More Eaze and Lynn Avery Murphy), and Madronas (Ry Fyan and Isaiah Barr). Plus DJ sets by Arp, Time Dream and Samantha Vacation. Another pretty stacked bill of folks who make massive DIY sounds. Highest Recommendation! (Sun 4/28, 3p @ The Lot Radio, Greenpoint - FREE)

PMA Ina BK is the snappy title given to the all-star benefit for Paul Hudson, aka HR, the legendary lead singer of hardcore originators, Bad Brains. Since 2014, HR has been suffering from SUNCT, a debilitating neurological disorder that requires brain surgery, which has understandably devastated his life. This show is raising money for that procedure. The night will feature two sets, one hardcore and the other dub. The band will be comprised of members of Living Colour, Fishbone, and Steel Pulse. Subatomic Sound System will be at the controls. Special guests are expected, and HR will be in the building. Great cause, good probability of a classic. (Sun 4/28, 8p @ Brooklyn Bowl, Williamsburg - $35)

My experience of performances by legendary downtown minimalist Arnold Dreyblatt, rare since he’s been living in Berlin where he moved in the ‘80s, are ecstatic rhythm drone situations. Solo amplified strings, prepared overlapping, building into a volcano. As a former student of Pauline Oliveros and LaMonte Young’s, this makes sense, but his solo shows have had the volume and distortion edge of punk rock. This evening is billed as “Music for Excited Strings (with special guest).” Also: Patrick Holmes + Kyle Motl. (Mon 4/29, 7p @ Artists Space, Manhattan - FREE w/RSVP)

I don’t do regret all that often, but not going to see Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet’s show at Roulette last March is definitely among the recently memorable ones. For that electric quartet, Orcutt, the minimalist guitarist/composer who made his name with indie-noise stalwarts Harry Pussy, invited three killer collaborators: Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish. They recently released a live record off their 2023 dates, and are back around slinging, albeit in a more club-like atmosphere. (Tues 4/30, 7:30p @ Le Poisson Rouge, Manhattan - $20-$30)

A duo performance by Jad Atoui and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe. Atoui is a sound artist/improviser who splits time between Beirut and New York, and creates machine-based pieces classifiable as “ambient,” but philosophical in concept. Lowe is a veteran of the indie-prog-post-rock world (as a member of 90 Day Men), whose solo synth and voice work, and more recent film soundtracks and scores have marked him as one of the great synth-based composers working at the moment. Expect heady sounds. (Tues 4/30, 7:30p @ e-flux, Clinton Hill - $15)