Bklyn Sounds 6/13/2023 - 6/19/2023 + Vision Festival

A preview of (and a ticket discount for) New York’s great free jazz festival + Shows: musclecars' Juneteenth block party / “You Are My Friend: A Tribute to Sylvester” / Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog / +

The reason I think of the Vision Festival as one of New York’s great musical events is because of how deeply rooted it is in the energy and sound of this city. Every year for most of the past 27 — and again this week at Roulette — Vision features a program of music (often labeled “free” or “spiritual jazz”) that simply can not happen anywhere else. There’s a unique topographical consciousness at play here. Most “jazz” festivals and big performances that take place around this town have some sort of equivalent in other musically astute centers of the world. Yet Vision, with its constant access to secret timeless truths and new sounds, is at once explicitly local and deeply universal. 

That’s because when Vision was founded in 1996 — by among others Arts For Art’s Patricia Nicholson (partner of the great bassist, William Parker) — it was specifically done to create a space for the community’s sound, which at the time was being ignored not only by the jazz police, but also by the city’s more-avant institutions, even its Downtown coterie. Vision Festival suggested strength could be found in numbers: getting many musicians to gig together, in front of audiences attracted to a full bill of creative music more so than to individual performances. In its opening year it hosted local improvising fixtures/future Vision regulars like Parker, pianists Cooper-Moore and Matthew Shipp, saxophonists Daniel Carter and David S. Ware, and drummer Andrew Cyrille, among others; there were famed community members, including poet Amiri Baraka, Art Ensemble of Chicago co-founder Joseph Jarman, drummer Milford Graves, and John Coltrane’s former bandmates, drummer Rashied Ali and bassist Reggie Workman; and there were musically adjacent visitors like Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore and German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. 

This week’s 27th annual installment of Vision shows that the formula behind the uniquely narrow mission with a broad perspective has remained steadfast: Present this music’s current cornerstones still creating new work, celebrate its legends, give space to younger adherents, and leave room for the contiguous directions the living music is expanding into. When it works, it’s a healthy ecosystem.

This year’s celebrations of exceptional veterans making new music includes an opening night devoted to the many permutations of work by French bassist Joëlle Léandre, who will be receiving this year’s Lifetime Achievement award; and the festival’s closing set will be a group led by one of that first year’s participants, Reggie Workman Celebration Band​, which will feature the mighty Jason Moran on piano. 2023’s big tribute sets to now-classic musicians whose stature garners museum shows (and bumper stickers) are led by legends-in-the-making. Wednesday will see Chicago drummer Hamid Drake’s Turiya (featuring, among others, Joshua Abrams on bass and James Brandon Lewis on saxophone) perform a program “Honoring Alice Coltrane”; and Sunday’s schedule includes drummer Kahil El’Zabar’s great Ethnic Heritage Ensemble​ playing a “Don Cherry Tribute” (with the exquisite Dwight Trible on vocals). There are also sets by bands whose leaders I’d comfortably categorize as contemporary giants — bassoonist Karen Borca, bassist Mark Dresser, pianist Matthew Shipp, trombonist Dick Griffin, and violist Melanie Dyer, among others.

But if there’s one thing that’s made me appreciate Vision even more as the years have flown, it’s how much “next” music they’ve brought into the fold - and the quality of it. Some by relatively young musicians and groups; some by improvising lifers and great non-New Yorkers making incredible sounds outside the spotlight; and some that’s just not been presented in town. This leaves Vision’s program in a constant state of healthy rejuvenating flux, and makes for some of the most interesting music of the week. So in the spirit of “music recommendation,” here are some favorite upcoming sets of “new” music at this year’s Vision Festival. 

Gerald Cleaver Black Host​ (Wed. 6/14, 7p) - This may not be drummer Cleaver’s synth/electronics-based music, but this freewheeling, noisy group of intergenerational all-stars swings like techno modernists rather than throwbacks. Dig this band: Cooper-Moore (piano, synth), Brandon Seabrook (guitar), Darius Jones (alto saxophone) Dezron Douglas and Brandon Lopez (bass). 

Brahja: Watermelancholia​ (Thurs. 6/15, 7p) - Brahja is alto saxophonist/keyboardist Devin Waldman four-reed spiritual groove attack, and Watermelancholia is the incredible album he sneaked out in December that has remained shockingly under-lauded. Lots of great horn harmonies and dissonances floating through this music.

Mike Reed's Separatist Party​ (Thurs. 6/15, 9:30p) - Drummer Reed is one of Chicago’s secret weapons: as a drummer, as a presenter (his club Constellation is one of the best places to hear Dada Strain-type music in Chi), and as a musically progressive mind. Tonight’s group includes some of my favorite musicians in the world (Ben LaMar Gay + all three Bitchin Bajas), and the poet Marvin Tate.  

Patricia Brennan’s More Touch​ (Fri. 6/16, 6p) - I’ve previously sung the praises of vibraphonist Patricia Brennan here, and especially of her great drum-heavy More Touch group (with Marcus Gilmore plus the Puerto Rican conguero, Mauricio Herrera). The way these rhythms interact with Brennan’s wonderful electronic manipulation of her instrument is magical.

Mayan Space Station (Flight 66) (Fri. 6/16, 7:30p) - The 2021 Mayan Space Station album, credited to Parker, but co-featuring Cleaver and guitarist Ava Mendoza, was a wonderful bit of power-trio shredding over rhythm, with Mendoza playing heir to Santana and McLaughlin. They’re yet to do this music in NYC, and will now be joined by Lee Mixashawn Rozie on mandolin and flute, as well as violinists Jason Kao Hwang and the mighty gabby fluke-mogul.

SUN HAN GUILD (Sat. 6/17, 7p) - This string- and woodwinds-heavy quintet led by composer/violinist eddy kwon is “inspired by the Spirit Worshipers’ Guild of early 20th century Korea.” The exceptionally free music moves from noisy drones and soaring group improvisations, to something more supple and fragile. 

75 Dollar Bill Altered Workspaces with Jason Kao Hwang (Sun. 6/18, 6:30p) - The constantly malleable ensemble with electric guitarist Che Chen and Rick Brown on drums/percussion is one of the most eminently listenable bands in New York. Whether they play “jazz” or “rock” or “wannabe-global hipster jive” is really for the listener to parse. The line-up usually decides where things are going; tonight’s includes violinist Hwang joining regular Dollar Bills bassist Sue Garner and keyboardist Talice Lee. 

Also this year, for the first time, Vision Festival will stage a Friday-night after-hours program at the FourOneOne space in Williamsburg; it will be free for Vision ticket-holders and a sliding-scale admission fee as low as $5. That scale is a good thing, because generally speaking, Vision tickets are expensive — and, anecdotally, are cost-prohibitive to many folks who may otherwise want to check out this music. This is why I am happy to offer interested Dada Strain readers a discount. The folks at Vision Festival and Arts for Art have set-up a discount code at the ticketing outlet EventBrite. Use the code BklynVision23 at the check-out to receive $30 off individual evening tickets. It’s a pretty great deal. Thank you to Patricia, Todd and Nathan at Arts for Art for setting that up.    

(Vision Festival, Tues. 6/13 - Sun. 6/18 @ Roulette Intermedium - Full Festival Pass starts at $375, each night is $50-70 - use the code “BklynVision23” to get $30 off individual nightly tickets)

FOR MORE ON VISION FESTIVAL: Patricia Nicholson interview (The Broadcast, July 2021)   

The Week’s Other Shows: