Bklyn Sounds 7/24/2024—7/30/2024
This Week's Shows include: Underground System / Jana Rush x 'Lifesavers' / Arooj Aftab / Jah Wobble / Arturo O'Farrill & Roy Nathanson / Underground Resistance / 'Jamaica Jazz & Riddim' / much more
Still out of town so the paywall stays down. Recharging is important. Then again, so is listening to a lot of incredible new music in-between my kid (and their friend) absolutely caning the Chappell Roan catalog. (My favorite songs: “Kink is Karma,” “Femininomenon” and of course “Good Luck, Babe!” Least favorite is, predictably, the kids’ on-repeat jam: “HOTOGO.”)
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This Week’s Shows:
If you already know that the incomparable singer-bandleader Arooj Aftab makes beautiful recordings (which she does), but never seen Pakistan-born Bklynite front the all-star ensemble that plays with her, boy are you in for a treat. Deep torch music with South Asian classical, folk and drone-jazz overtones. In the park, Aftab is on a great bill with the Indian R&B singer Sid Sriram, the Tunisian singer-songwriter EMEL (Emel Mathlouthi), and Basement Bhangra mastermind DJ Rekha. Highest Recommendation. (Wed 7/24, 6p @ Central Park SummerStage, Manhattan - FREE)
Few musicians over the past 50 years have heard, played and embraced as many different global sounds as Jah Wobble, a dub bassist born in London punk, turned John Lydon’s revolutionary co-conspirator in Public Image Ltd., and henceforth a sonic omnivore whose instantly recognizable low-end has melded with everyone from members of the AACM, Can and P-Funk, to Eno and Bjork, Primal Scream and Evan Parker. The dub globalist’s current tour is called Metal Box – Rebuilt in Dub, hinting that the PiL classic will prolly get interpreted. But regardless of what he plays, Wobble’s live U.S. appearances are rare, his age is rising, and his skills sharp. A secret Dada Strain hero if ever there was one. Highest Recommendation! (Wed 7/24, 8p @ Music Hall of Williamsburg - $35+fees)
Industry City’s Backyard Jam bills are hitting their stride. This week’s free outdoor show is curated by the Bklyn dance label Razor N Tape, and features the jacking, full-band Afro-jazz-house of Underground System, a live set from the great house producer, Prince of Queens (Combo Chimbita’s Felipe Quiroz), and the Afro-Colombian fusionista, Madame Vacile. All guaranteed foot-stompers. (Thurs 7/25, 6p @ Industry City, Sunset Park - FREE).
An excellent deep listening Present Sounds at Light and Sound Designs studio: On top of a live set by Alcove, a beautiful improvised electronics project from technologist Hank Mason and reed player Alfredo Colon, the DJ’d selection will be by Palestinian-American producer Omar Ahmad, whose 2023 album Inheritance, and work with Miss Alicia in the techno-minded Umboma, is superb. (Thurs 7/25, 7p @ secret Greenpoint loft, Bklyn - $15-$30)
Though his popularity has undoubtedly risen by leaps and bounds over the past 5-6 years, I still don’t think drummer Makaya McCraven gets the deserved shine for how his cut-up album productions-turned-live grooves have affected the sound of current jazz. And his live bands, always featuring a rotating but constant cast of Chicago-meets-NYC-meets-LA all-stars, are never less than thrilling. So good, it’s worth braving the Village tourist jazz club. (Thurs 7/25—Sun 7/29, 7p & 10:30p @ Blue Note, Manhattan - $25-$35 + minimum)
Smack-dab in the middle of lockdown, London-born, Lagos-raised, New York-based bassist Michael Olatuja dropped a beautiful long-awaited album as a leader, Lagos Pepper Soup. Its outlandish list of guests (Brandee Younger, Angelique Kidjo, Lionel Loueke, Joe Lovano, Dianne Reeves, and Laura Mvula, among many) spoke to his respected stature in the Afro-jazz-pop-beat diaspora. The album was so good, Olatuja named his band after it. (Maybe it was the other way around, I don’t think so.) Its live performance is definitely worth your Friday evening should you find yourself in Midtown. (Fri 7/26, 7p @ Bryant Park, Manhattan - FREE)
My personal magnet to this excellently diverse bill of outer-edge, electronic-meets-acoustic music is a trio collaboration between cellist Lia Kohl, keyboardist Lynn Avery, and guitarist/string player Mari Maurice (More Eaze). Not sure if they’ve ever performed together before, but each is currently making gorgeous recordings that push sound into interesting improvised-composition spaces, while retaining a sense of melody and form. Also on the bill is the wonderful future-folk singer-songwriting of TIME WHARP, and the drone-rave electronica of Celes. (Fri 7/26, 8p @ Cassette, Ridgewood - $15)
This time around, the Underground Resistance residence at Nowadays features a takeover by the legendary Detroit label’s long-standing Meso-American wing: DJ Dex Nomadico (UR-61) has been holding the sound down in East Los Angeles for over a decade, putting out tons of great records on his own Submerge-distributed imprint, Yaxteq. The young brothers, Gerardo and Emanuel Cedillo Ramírez, aka Mano de Fuego, based in Mexico, have dropped their own jacking-AF records on both the UR mothership, and with Yaxteq. The Ancient Mystic knowledge and connection is strong with them. (Fri 7/26, 10p @ Nowadays, Ridgewood - $10-$25)
Lifesavers, the party that’s built a great bridge between Bklyn’s smaller independent clubs and some great Black Midwestern DJs/producers not yet getting bigger bookings in the city, is celebrating its Second Anniversary at the local neighborhood techno club. The headliner is the incredible Jana Rush, whose work combining deep bass electronics, footwork and classic jazz cut-ups includes some of my favorite recordings of the past few years. Also: Montreal’s deep-techno duo Pelada, CDMX’s ghetto-technologist Charles Moon, and the tag-team, Track Maintenance. (Fri 7/26, 10p @ Bossa Nova Civic Club, Bushwick - FREE before 11p/$10)
Because it takes place near the Queens/Nassau County border, The Jamaica Riddim & Jazz Festival remains one of the city’s best-kept musical secrets; and the fact that it takes place in one of New York’s oldest enclaves of middle-class African-Americans (a neighborhood populated by New York jazz musicians, post-war) informs its particular kind of no-BS bookings. Between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon (at two separate locations, please check the listings), Jamaica Jazz & Riddim features two undeniable stars (Grammy-winning singer Samara Joy and saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins), a couple of local favorites (tap-dancer Melissa Almaguer, the posthumous Roy Hargrove Big Band), and a flurry of well-chosen next-gens. (Fri 7/26—Sun 7/28 @ Jamaica Performing Arts Center + @ Rufus King Park, Jamaica, Queens - FREE)
An excellent Please Y.S.-presented house show of massive improvising talents: Trumpeter Chris Williams & drummer Trae Crudup can make eerie noises, and throw-down dance rhythms; as AM/FM, electric guitarist Ava Mendoza and violinist gabby fluke-mogul, wrap their string lines around each other with both noisy discordance, and thorny harmony; while flutist Laura Ortman can play it pretty and threatening, often in adjacent measures. Highest Recommendation! (Sat 7/27, 7:30p @ private house, Crown Heights - $15 RSVP for address)
The mighty Rich Medina moves his HOME party (monthly?) out of Bushwick, to the Lower East Side clubhouse for the kinds of global, rare, jazz, soul and hip-house grooves he’s been slinging over a quarter-century. On his night, Rich is among my favorite DJs on the planet, and Nublu is populated by people who get exactly what he’s doing. (Sat 7/27, 10p @ Nublu, Loisaida - $20-$25)
Wonderful afternoon breakcore-punk-jazz backyard bill: topped by my favorite local screamo dub improv weirdos, Nu Jazz, and Kill Alters, NYC’s psychedelic industrial cornerstones. They’re joined by Montreal digital hardcore singer-producer D Blavatsky and performance noise artist, Reagan Holiday. [H/T NYC Noise] (Sun 7/28, 4:44p @ Eurekas, Broadway & DeKalb - $TK)
Pianist Arturo O'Farrill and reed player Roy Nathanson are a pair of veteran New York jazz players and musickers, whose paths have crossed too-irregularly over the past four decades. Nathanson through his association with downtown’s Jazz Passengers, and increasingly with the mentoring of a new generation of young musicians (including Nick Hakim and Isaiah Barr); O’Farrill as a player, writer, arranger of numerous Afro-Latin bands, including the orchestra led by his legendary Havana-born father, Chico O”Farrill. Both are maestros in the best sense of the term, and this rare meeting has an evening of potential musical perfection written all over it. (Mon 7/29, 9p & 10:15p @ Bar LunAtico, Bed Stuy - $10suggested)
Thee Sacred Souls is a lovely retro-soul trio from San Diego led by the dulcet tones of vocalist Josh Lane, whose records for Bklyn’s great Dap-Tone (and produced by the label’s venerable mastermind Gabriel Roth) are manna for those in love with the late-’60s/early-’70s boardwalk sound. Also: LA LOM (aka Los Angeles League of Musicians), a trio that practices a similarly throwback Chicano garage-soul. (Tues 7/30, 7p @ Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park - FREE)