Bklyn Sounds 6/27/2025—7/1/2025
This week's events include Two days of Julius Eastman music at Lincoln Center / ATL house in Bklyn / James K / Jubilee / Justine Lee Hooper, Alfredo Colon & Shara Lunon / much more
It has been quite a week. New York found a bit of hope at the ballot box. We sat around discussing New York radio in 93degree heat. My kid graduated from middle-school. And somehow I haven’t fallen down yet. My deepest apologies for the latest newsletter in 16 months. I promise to try to make it up to you somehow…
THIS WEEK’S SHOWS:
Wonderful experimental rock-centric triple bill on the rooftop. You may remember BASIC from Dada Strain’s Winter Jazzfest showcase, with guitarist Chris Forsyth, bassist Douglas McCombs (Tortoise) and drummer Mikel Patrick Avery (Natural Information Society) taking inspiration from a mid-’80s guitars+drum-machines album by Robert Quine and Fred Maher, to jam in extended luxurious ways. Animal, Surrender! is the duo of multi-instrumentalist Peter Kerlin and drummer Rob Smith sculpting rootsy, dubby psyched instrumentals. Mikey Coltun is now better known as the producer of and bassist in the largely Tuareg band, Mdou Moctar, but has been working with African guitar heroes for a while now. WFMU’s John Allen is gonna DJ before-between-after. (Fri 6/27, 6p @ Sultan Room Rooftop, Bushwick - $25)
The Sugar Hill Salon, a chamber music series and artistic collective that centers on Black and Brown woodwind artistry in classical music, is hosting a night of free improvisation with three wonderful players, flutist Justine Lee Hooper, alto saxophonist Alfredo Colón, and vocalist Shara Lunon. (Fri 6/27, 7p @ Jackie Robinson Park, Harlem - FREE)
Start Pride weekend off in exquisitely mambostic, percussive style with Las Mariquitas, New York’s phenomenal queer and trans salsa band. In addition to kicking off the holiday, the group is celebrating the release of its new single “Como Me Quiero,” featuring Sara Ramirez. Also on the bill, burlesque performer Throbbing Mojito and DJ Chiqui B, of the great Uptown Vinyl Supreme crew. (Fri 6/27, 7p @ Sultan Room, Bushwick - $31)
Inexplicably, tickets are still available for all 10p sets (and even Sunday’s 8p set) of bassist Linda May Han Oh, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Tyshawn Sorey’s stand at one of the world’s great jazz rooms, the Village Vanguard. (Which doesn’t get a lot of Dada Strain ink because pretty much everything I want to recommend there, sells out well in advance.) These are three incredible instrumentalists/composers, all at the top of their creative powers, who’ve collaborated on May Han On’s upcoming album, Strange Heavens, to incredible effect. (Fri 6/27 - Sun 6/29, 8p & 10p @ Village Vanguard, Manhattan - $40)
Tó Ara, the improvising Caribbean electro x poetry x performance-art project of (Las Marquitas members) Samira Mendoza and Mobey Lola Irizarry, welcome one of the city’s best guitarists, Key Hutch, into the fold. Playing alongside the trio of guitarist Gían Pérez, bassist Brandon Lopez and drummer Eliza Salem, at the neighborhood anarchist bookstore. (Sat 6/28, 6p @ Property Is Theft, W’burg - $20suggested)
An afternoon-into-evening-into-late-night soiree that’s becoming an MO for the new East W’burg club, this one’s got Atlanta vibes all over it. Central to my love for ATL’s house sound are Kai Alce, the don dada of the nearly peerless NDATL label, and Stefan Ringer, whose own FWM Entertainment has an incredible batting average for deep, jackin’ cuts (vocals and otherwise). Add Deep South ATL resident Alexis Curshé, and this party has one of the most crushing, multi-DJ, Black dance-music bills in a minute. Even before you add Analog Soul’s Jacky Sommer, as well as Shan S and Abraham Othwell to the mix. Check for set-times. (Sat 6/28, 2p @ Signal, East W’burg - FREE w/RSVP - $35)
It is one of the few blessings of our moment that guitarist-singer Wendy Eisenberg plays lots of gigs in town, with a whole lot of incredible musicians. Not least when pairing up with their multi-instrumentalist partner More Eaze, and with drummer Ryan Sawyer, two more bright stars in the Bklyn Sounds constellation, always conjuring something at the intersection of the rock continuum, roots experimentalism, free jazz and the creative unexpected. The trio plays together at The Owl on Saturday, joining singer-songwriter Graham Lampe, and Dangle, a quartet led by singer and songwriter Daniel Barbrack. (Sat 6/28, 8p @ The Owl, Prospect-Lefferts - $15suggested)
There aren’t a lot of DJs who’ve had as much influence—or as deep a reach—on the underground club sound of Bklyn/NYC over the past two decades as Jessica Jubilee. Forever rooted in the booty-bass-heavy, Afro-Latinx/Caribbean sensibilities she brings from Miami, Jubilee’s parties go off because, like occasional compadre Eli Escobar (whose club she’s playing on Saturday), her sound swings from deep to pop to experimental in the way that all great flows should. You can dip in’n’out. But spend an entire night listening to her breadth, and watch both your mind and ass get due rewards. Highest Recommendation! (Sat 6/28, 9p @ Gabriela, W’burg - FREE before 10p/$20cash only)
al
I’ve written previously about the cognitive dissonance of hearing the late Julius Eastman’s music performed at uptown institutions, and I stand by those words. But it’s also important that, as places like Lincoln Center identify an inclusive, expansive contemporary repertoire moving forward, new performances of the composer’s work find space in these old-money music institutions — and raise him to the stature he deserves. This weekend’s program of Eastman music overseen by cellist Seth Parker Woods, and part of LC’s Run AMOC* Festival, feels like a good step towards both curation and contextualization of it. Saturday’s performance at Geffen Hall is entitled “A Power Greater Than,” and will include the Eastman compositions, “Trumpet” (1970), “Touch Him When” (1970), “Hail Mary” (1984), “Piano 2” (1986), “That Boy” (1973/1974) and “Gay Guerrilla” (1979). Sunday’s program, entitled “The End Is Not In Sight,” moves outside to the Robertson Plaza, and will include “Prelude to…” as well as “The Holy Presence of Joan D’Arc” (1981), a reprise of "Trumpet," “Stay on It” (1973), and close with a performance of Eastman compatriot Arthur Russell’s “24 to 24” (1979. The weekend’s “encore” will be provided by the mighty King Britt, who will spin a set at LC’s “Silent Disco” into the evening. The whole thing is Pay What You Choose (Saturday) and Free (Sunday). Highest Recommendation! (Sat 6/28 7:30p @ Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, Uptown - Choose What You Pay + Sun 6/29, 5:30p @ Lincoln Center Plaza, Uptown - FREE)
Mesmerize brings together Paris’ Mesma and NYC’s 29 Speedway, two of the more progressive labels/organizations on the digital drone-noise avant-garde spectrum, which are also devoted to fully integrated audio-visual presentations, for an evening of original, immersive sights and sound. Machine-made sonic tsunamis by Hiro Kone, Ben Shirken (aka Ex-Wiish, 29 Speedway founder) and young Paris producer Karim Kahar. Edibles recommended! (Sun 6/29, 7p @ Stone Circle Theatre, Ridgewood - $17-$25)
It is useful for the jazz lay-person to add Alfredo Colón to the list of hardest-working musicians in the city, and to use the young alto saxophonist/composer as a marker for the more-interesting, improvised groupings and events taking place around fair Gotham. Alfredo has an ear for where the action is, and for bands. At LunÁtico on Monday, he’s in a quartet I am unfamiliar with outside their presence on his excellent 2024 album Blood Burden, but he’s got tunes (new and old), schwag, and one of the best rooms in which to discover young people creating wondrous sounds. (Mon 6/30, 9p & 10:15p @ Bar LunÁtico, Bed-Stuy - $10suggested)
A blindingly diverse triple-bill from the super-current outskirts-of-pop sound-making. Fievel Is Glauque is “a series of live bands” led by vocalist Ma Clemént and multi-instrumentalist Zach Phillips that generationally updates the stylistic schizophrenia of art-school kids with a taste for every music in the world, plus the chops to approximate them. May the youth never lose that tendency to make artsy messes. Bedroom soul-prog-jazz guitarist Flanafi plays with Salami Rose Joe Louis — tonight, he both opens the show and joins the FIS septet. And though Black Noi$e is bottom of the bill, this Detroit producer who connects hip-hop and dance tracks is the most established cat here, the one I have the most affinity for, and the one who makes me most curious as to how this entire night flows. (Mon 6/30, 10p @ Night Club 101, Manhattan - $30)
Over the past decade-plus, NYC singer-songwriter-producer James K (Jamie Krasner) has made what seems like a trunk-load of artful, rhythmically astute, electronic pop music for hip labels, alongside prominent underground club artists. It sealed her reputation among an attentive few, but maybe hasn't paid off as expected. She’s got another one coming in September, and playing a live set at the best new little dance-club in Ridgewood. Also: Ayegy and Country Girl. (Tues 7/1, 9p @ Earthly Delights, Ridgewood - $22.70)
MORE RECOMMENDED EVENTS:
A Tribute to Quincy Jones: The Greatest Night in Pop (Fri 6/27, 7p @ Lena Horne Bandshell, Prospect Park - FREE) - first dig a panel conversation about Q and the night “we Are the World” came to live with documentary director Bao Nguyen and The New Yorker writer Doreen St. Félix, moderated by the mighty Julianne Escobedo Shepherd - then watch the doc, under the stars.
Clara Joy + Imal Gnawa + Taxidermists + K Porcelain (Fri 6/27, 8p @ 303 Ten Eyck, East W’burg - $15) - first-rate NYC musicker and singer/songwriter Joy celebrates her new, Kramer-co-produced album by booking a great bill in an East W’burg warehouse.
Sunny Cheeba + Analog Soul (Fri 6/27, 9p @ Dead Letter No.9, W’burg - FREE w/RSVP before 10p/$25) - I gotta hand it to the weird, theme-heavy club on Grand Street for regularly booking good-ass DJs.
Ravi Coltrane Quartet (Fri 6/27 & Sat 6/28, 8:30p & 10:30p @ Birdland, Manhattan - $40-$$$) - the son plays the great Midtown jazz room, with David Virelles (piano), Vicente Archer (bass) and Johnathan Blake (drums).
Body High (Sat 6/28, 3p @ H0L0, Ridgewood - $10) - afternoon queer femme Pride party with a massive bill: Niyah West, Sevyn, Ashley Younniä and VARSHA.
Rock The Bells (Sat 6/28, 6:30p @ Prudential Center, Newark - $$$) - a 20+ string bill that is veritable who’s-who of Golden Era and ‘90s hip-hop, with an Uptown Records celebration on the side.
Jeezy presents…TM: 101 Live (with orchestra) + DJ Drama (Sat 6/28, 8p @ Apollo Theater, Harlem - $$$) - In 2004-05 Thug Motivation 101 and the Gangsta Grillz: Trap Or Die mixtape were in my constant rotation — not sure what the hell an orchestra will be doing up there, but I respect the commitment to excess.
Branford Marsalis Quartet: Belonging + Charles Lloyd Sky Quartet (Sat 6/28, 8p @ Town Hall, Manhattan - $$$) - a pair of legendary tenor saxophonists, both of whom played with the Grateful Dead (two decades apart).
Deerhoof + iiisa (Sat 6/28, 8p @ Pioneer Works, Red Hook - $30-$35) - one of America’s greatest post-hardcore art-prog bands, and one of Brooklyn's uniquely artful vocal talents.
Rich Medina: HOME (Sat 6/28, 10P @ Nublu, Manhattan - $20) - brother Rich, who remains one of the great deeply soulful and funky DJs operating on the East Coast (Miami, Philly, NYC) has moved his local party from House of Yes to Nublu.
Pride 2025: Glitterbox X Tiki Disco X House Of Yes (Sun 6/29, 2p @ 1 Noble Street, Greenpoint Waterfront - $$$) - as Brooklyn Sounds-friendly DJ-curation Pride parties go, it is hard to top this one: Amber Valentine x JD Samson, Andy Pry x Eli Escobar x Lloyd, DJ Holographic x Stacey 'Hotwaxx' Hale. Plus Billy Porter as master of ceremonies!
Frankie Cosmos + Juan Waters (Sun 6/29, 2p @ Union Pool, W’burg - FREE first come…) - NYC indie princess returns - get there early if you want in.
Azymuth (Sun 6/29, 8p @ Sony Hall, Manhattan - $35-$$$) - only bassist/guitarist Alex Malheiros remains from the original trio that became one of Brazil’s greatest groups, but the future-disco-fusion catalog still sound ahead of our time, so…