Bklyn Sounds: 4/4/2023 - 4/10/2023 + A (Re)Introduction

What and Why Is 'Bklyn Sounds'? + Shows: "The Cry of My People" / Daniel Bell / Brandee Younger / Camilo Ángeles & Joanna Mattrey / "Salt City: a techno choreopoem" / "Dope Jams Spring Ball” / ...

For most of the next two weeks, I will be traveling and out of the city. No worries though, the column will continue. But I thought it might be a good time to take Bklyn Sounds from behind the paywall, and give a quick re-introduction that could spread the word, to get folks who read it for free to consider becoming payed subscribers. Towards that here’s a recap of “what this is” and “why this is.” Read on if you’ve no idea why you’re at Dada Strain’s weekly ‘local’ events column, or scroll down if you do know, and just want this week’s shows and music.  

Welcome back to Bklyn Sounds, a weekly guide to live music and related events in Brooklyn (and the surrounding area). 

This weekly column was initially created for the late, lamented (and recently relaunched - YAY!) Bklyner in the Summer of 2021. It was born for two reasons: First as a response to the immense amount of local DIY cultural activity that was taking place around Brooklyn during the initial post-lockdown stretch of the pandemic, in the heat of the Black Lives Matter protests and the short glimmer of hope after the vaccines first arrived. But also because of the dearth of newspapers/magazines/websites actively covering local musical events and artists in one of the world’s most musically rich cities. Bklyn Sounds was created as a way for interested people to hear about all the great shit taking place and being made by musickers who recognize that culture starts on the block  — and that the blocks of Brooklyn included some of the most talented people in the world. It’s a way to surface stuff that gets primarily promoted on IG stories, through friends of friends, or by people who actively pay attention to what’s happening around town. And to give readers a musical taste of each of these sounds. You know that IG meme, “People Who Show You New Music Are Important”? This remains the core concept of the Bklyn Sounds.      

But relaunching it as part of own Dada Strain newsletter, it made more sense to make Bklyn Sounds more expansive in terms of the location, while also more focused on what kind of events it covers. Dada Strain was created to forward the idea that rhythm, improvisation and community is inherently intertwined. My community begins in Bklyn, but it doesn’t end here. So the Sounds cover events throughout the metropolitan area (within reason), as long as the principles of rhythm-improvisation-community apply. The picks will also be more reflective of my own creative point-of-view. If Bklyn Sounds as published in Bklyner was happy to include pretty much any happening of neighborhood interest, now I am only willing to include events that I would want to recommend — and at places I trust most readers will not hate. My tastes have a lot to do with these choices, but they’re not the end-all be-all: unlike other members of the music mediaratti, I know I’m not omniscient or aware of everything of value, and that even if I don’t rate something, it may be beloved by the community. Bklyn Sounds is not a pay-for-play concern, but I do want it to embrace a broader, people’s creative streak than simply my own personal one.

I also believe that musicker shit doesn’t end at live/DJ music performances. Which is why you will also see the occasional art, book-reading, film and dance happening in these spaces. Including this week, actually. And for full up-to-the-minute choices, I would recommend following @DadaStrain on Instagram, as the #BklynSounds recommendations there are not inhibited by weekly deadlines. 

More up-to-the-minute FAQs will be answered next week. For now, thanks for reading, following and subscribing.

THIS WEEK’s SHOWS:

The opener of Creative Music Studios’ Free First Tuesdays residency at Union Pool curated by guitarist Ava Mendoza, in what promises to be a far-reaching series of improvisation-minded bills, is a set of solo performances. With metallurgical shredder Mick Barr following noisemaking violinist Laura Ortman, and electric bassist Melvin Gibbs, whose latest project is an experimental electronics mission for Editions Mego. (Tues 4/4, 7p @ Union Pool 484 Union Ave. Williamsburg - FREE)

GREAT MIDWEEK BILL: Signal Route continues to be one of the most interesting techno-informed parties in the city, and tonight’s jam at Bossa is more proof. Resident Sweater On Polo brings the jams whether as a DJ or (especially) playing live gear. He’s joined by the free-spirited electronics improviser Bookworms, and the industrial garage-punk Porkchop (aka SSPS, aka Jon Nicholson) in what will be a well-informed, beatwise dance-floor ride. (Wed 4/5, 10p @ Bossa Nova Civic 1271 Myrtle Ave. Bushwick - FREE)

Mexico City-based flutist Camilo Angeles is visiting New York this month, and gigging with many of Brooklyn’s great improvising players, in a variety of ensembles and space. Wednesday, he’s at Bar Laika with the wonderful string player Joanna Mattrey as part of e-Flux’s “Satellite” experimental music series, curated and produced by Sanna Almajedi (aka DJ Sanna).    (Wed 4/5, 8p @ Bar Laika 224 Greene Ave. Clinton Hill - $10)

A super-duper trio, back in one of their favorite New York haunts. The extraordinary jazz harpista Brandee Younger has been in-and-out of drummer Makaya McCraven’s bands for more than five years now, and it’s wonderful to see the favor returned. Bassist Rahsaan Carter is the bedrock, so you know the grooves will flow. As close to a guaranteed great jazz gig as you’re gonna get in 2023. (Fri 4/7, 7p @ public record 233 Butler St. Gowanus - $30)

3afak, “please” in Moroccan slang, is a party/coming together run by Selwa Abd (Bergsonist) and Sanna Almajedi (DJ Sanna) in order to, as they put it, “empower Arab women's creative vision in New York nightlife.” Both have great DJing ears, and are semi-regulars at Mood Ring, where they return on Friday, with special guest Miho Hatori. The vibe is electronic, global and inclusive. (Fri 4/7, 10p @ Mood Ring 1260 Myrtle Ave. Bushwick - $10)

ART & MUSIC: The current exhibit in Pioneer Works’ main hall is called Medusa, an augmented reality environment developed by the media collective Tin Drum. Medusa originally featured a score by the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. But at PW, on Saturday afternoons, the virtual installation is activated by pianist Kelly Moran, playing a durational, five-hour long set that improvises off Sakamoto’s cues to create a live soundtrack for the visuals in the provided headsets. On a Spring afternoon, it is a wonderful, soothing journey. And an accidental tribute to Sakamoto, whose passing was announced last week. (Sat 4/8, 1p @ Public Records 159 Pioneer St. Red Hook - FREE)

WORDS, DANCE & MUSIC: Detroit musical history has long helped power poet Jessica Care Moore’s verses, but The Crystal City Is Alive, a 2020 album she recorded alongside techno originators Jeff Mills and Eddie Fowlkes under the name The Beneficiaries, added a grand sci-fi vision. Apparently her work on ‘Salt City: a techno choreopoem’ predates that album, but at first blush there are intriguing narrative overlaps. This weekend, Care Moore brings two workshop performances of ‘Salt City’ to the Apollo, site of her earliest artistic victories, offering an early chance to see something special. (Sat 4/8, 2p & 7p @ Apollo Theater 253 W. 125th St. Manhattan - $20)

Hal Willner was a special kind of New York musicker, a central focal point of downtown eclecticism, while also being the founding musical director of Saturday Night Live. His best remembered artifacts were compilation albums on themes like the songs of Kurt Weill and Walt Disney films. 1981’s Amarcord Nino Rota was the first such compilation, a tribute to the man who wrote score for Fellini films, and it brought together the likes of Debbie Harry, Wynton Marsalis, Carla Bley and Bill Frisell, to reinterpret this maniacal music. Willner died of COVID in the pandemic’s first months. This evening at Roulette is an all-star tribute to his memory, and that album. (Sat 4/8, 7p @ Roulette 509 Atlantic Ave. Downtown Brooklyn - $45adv/$50)

“The Cry of My People” is the last in a series of shows curated for BAM by Solange Knowles. It’s a stunner that harkens to the late-’60s/early-‘70s moment in the improvised sound sometimes called “free jazz” when new music, old music and word music flowed naturally together. Headlined by the legendary saxophonist Archie Shepp, whose 1973 album lends the program its name, accompanied by the equally legendary pianist/composer Amina Claudine Meyers and a 10-piece orchestra. Also present will be Claudia Rankine, one of the country’s unofficial poets laureate, and in an incredibly rare performance, singer Linda Sharrock, widow of Sonny. (Sat 4/8, 8p @ BAM Howard Gilman Opera House 30 Lafayette St. Ft. Greene - $35-$75)

Detroit’s greater techno community’s been blessed with so much talent through the years, its forgotten legends are better than the best DJs and producers the world has to offer. Enter Daniel Bell, who moved to Berlin in the early 2000s, stopped making new music, whose classics under the names DBX and Cybersonik remain vinyl-/CD-only treats. But give him decks, a soundystem, a dancefloor, and 4-10 hours, and you’ll find another variation of minimalist Detroit techno heaven. Easter Sunday at H01O, Bell goes on at 6a. Rise and shine. (Sun 4/9, 6a @ H01O 1090 Wyckoff Ave. Ridgewood - $20)

For those who do not want to rise early for the minimalism, Paul Nickerson, Ivan Mongro and the upstate Dope Jams crew, whose way with mixing golden era New York house and hip-hop remain very special, return to their city home away from their upstate home. The afternoon “Dope Jams Spring Ball” will be a hoot. (Sun 4/9, 4p @ public records 233 Butler St. Gowanus - $20)