selective listing
by critics of The Times of noteworthy pop
and jazz concerts in the New York
metropolitan region this weekend. *
denotes a highly recommended concert.
* BEAT SCIENCE, JOE MORRIS TRIO, CBGB
Lounge, 313 Bowery, East Village, (212)
677-0455. Beat Science is a septet from
Boston, with Brian Carpenter on slide
trumpet, Jim Hobbs on alto saxophone and
Charlie Kohlhaase on baritone saxophone;
it's a loose-limbed jazz group involving
conducting of improvisers. Joe Morris's
staccato, small-gesture guitar
improvising was unique in the late 80's,
when he started to get a little bit of
attention, and remains that way today;
his current band includes the remarkable
bassist Timo Shanko and the drummer
Luther Gray. Those sets are Sunday at 9
and 10; a four-band bill begins at 7.
Admission is $10 (Ben Ratliff).
* MAYA BEISER'S KINSHIP, Center for
Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street,
Manhattan, (917) 606-8200. Maya Beiser,
the cellist who plays contemporary
chamber music in the Bang on a Can All-Stars,
also leads a more improvisatory group,
with Saba on the Middle Eastern oud and
ney (reed flute) and the remarkable
percussionist Glen Velez, who plays frame
drums (the family that includes the
tambourine). Tomorrow night at 8; tickets
are $25 (Jon Pareles).
MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME, B. B. King
Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42d
Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144.
Clothes make the man about town in the
Time, Morris Day's long-running
Minneapolis funk band. Though Jimmy Jam
and Terry Lewis left the group to become
full-time producers, Mr. Day still preens
like a narcissistic Don Juan above the
band's keyboard-driven funk, while his
sidekick, Jerome, holds his mirror.
Tonight and tomorrow night at 8 and 10:30;
tickets are $35 (Pareles).
DORSA, Blarney Star, 43 Murray Street,
Lower Manhattan, (212) 732-2873. The New
York debut of a traditional Irish band
named after a town in Armagh, Northern
Ireland. Tonight at 9 and 10:30;
admission covering two sets is $15 (Pareles).
DR. JOHN, Community Theater, 100 South
Street, Morristown, N.J., (973) 539-8008;
Inter-Media Art Center, 370 New York
Avenue, south of Main Street, Huntington,
N.Y., (631) 549-2787. Dr. John is steeped
in New Orleans barrelhouse piano, swampy
bayou funk and the gris-gris mysticism
that surrounds it. He has applied his
cagey growl of a voice and his florid
piano playing not just to New Orleans
funk and rhythm-and-blues but to
Ellington, standards and songs with a
conscience. At the Community Theater
tonight at 8; tickets are $30 to $45. At
the Inter-Media Art Center tomorrow night
at 8 and 10:30; tickets are $35 (Pareles).
KATHLEEN EDWARDS, Joe's Pub, 425
Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778
or (212) 239-6200. On her new album,
"Failer" (Zoe/Rounder),
Kathleen Edwards sings about hard
drinkers, rock stars, lovers and killers
in songs that look toward the craggy
directness of Lucinda Williams and Neil
Young. Tonight at 9; admission is $15 (review
of Ms. Edwards's concert at the Village
Underground, this page) (Pareles).
VAL EMMICH, Mercury Lounge, 217 East
Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower
East Side, (212) 260-4700. Fans of the
pugnacious early Joe Jackson should
appreciate the blunt songs of Val Emmich,
whose wounds and vindictive streak are
barely contained by his terse rock tunes.
Tonight at 9:30, on a bill that includes
the Izzys, Noba, Torne de Nada and 00
Agents; admission is $8 (Pareles).
MAYNARD FERGUSON, Blue Note, 131 West
Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592.
If you like high-impact, high-frequency
jazz, this trumpeter is your man. Tonight
through Sunday night at 8 and 10:30;
cover charge is $30 at the tables, $20 at
the bar, with a $5 minimum at both
locations (Ratliff).
THE FIGGS, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue,
at Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn,
(718) 230-0236. Steeped in the verities
of 1960's garage-rock, folk-rock and the
Beatles, along with latter-day bands like
the Replacements, the Figgs cling to the
idea that songs are telegrams from the
heart. They sing hoarse, tuneful,
unguarded rock with titles like "Excuse
the Lame Excuse," and they've held
on to their rawness as they've been
bounced from label to label. Tonight at 9,
with the Brilliant Mistakes, Natural
Extension Concept and Jake Brennan;
admission is $8 (Pareles).
* SONNY FORTUNE-RASHIED ALI DUO, Sweet
Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, above
Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626.
These two improvisers, both in their 60's
now, worked in different contexts through
their careers: Mr. Fortune, the
saxophonist, was primarily a straight-ahead
jazz musician, while Mr. Ali played more
aggressive, loosely structured music (most
famously on John Coltrane's "Interstellar
Space.") But in a series of recent
duo concerts at Sweet Rhythm, they've
found common ground in the notion of the
extended high-energy jam session. They'll
take a few tunes — and in some
cases, only one — and after running
through a theme, explode it for an hour
and 15 minutes. It's free jazz with
serious commitment and momentum, and
pretty thrilling. Tonight and tomorrow
night at 8, 10 and midnight; Sunday night
at 8 and 10; music charge is $20, with a
$10 minimum (Ratliff).
GOGOL BORDELLO, Northsix, 66 North
Sixth Street, Williamburg, Brooklyn, (718)
599-5103. Gogol Bordello, led by a gruff
and extravagantly mustached Ukrainian
singer, Eugene Hutz, calls itself a Gypsy
punk band. Translating Eastern European
cabaret to the Lower East Side, its songs
work up to a frenetic oom-pah that's the
makings of a rowdy party. Tonight and
tomorrow night at 9, with Opti-Grab
opening; admission is $15 in advance, $17
at the door (Pareles).
GARLAND JEFFREYS, Village Underground,
130 West Third Street, Greenwich Village,
(212) 777-7745. The songwriter Garland
Jeffreys is a longtime voice of
multiethnic New York, mixing rock, reggae
and touches of everything from doo-wop to
samba. Along with love songs and
reminiscences of running "Wild in
the Streets," he doesn't flinch from
tough topics like racism. Tonight at 8,
with Pal Shazar opening; admission is $25
(Pareles).
HALL AND OATES, Beacon Theater, 2124
Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 496-7070.
Philadelphia soul and a touch of rock
yielded hit after hit for Daryl Hall and
John Oates for a decade from the mid-1970's
into the mid-1980's. Whether they were
affectionate, as in "Sara Smile"
and "Kiss on My List," or
nasty, as in "Rich Girl" and
"Maneater," the hooks were
there. They have just released a new
album. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $33
to $73 (Pareles).
HUUN-HUUR-TU, Symphony Space, 2537
Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400
or (212) 545-7536. Cowboys from Tuva,
where Siberia meets Mongolia, cultivate
the technique of throat-singing:
producing a deep bass note and two or
three harmonics above it, all at the same
time. Tibetan monks use a similar
technique for Buddhist chants. It is an
eerie, riveting sound, a growl linked to
whistling winds, and it seems both raw
and timeless. Tomorrow night at 8;
admission is $26, $21 for members and $15
for students (Pareles).
STEVE KIMOCK BAND, Bowery Ballroom, 6
Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower
East Side, (212) 533-2111. Steve Kimock
is a Jerry Garcia disciple who jams with
liquid guitar solos that can be
thoughtfully reticent or jazzy and light-fingered.
He has played with the elite of the
Grateful Dead diaspora, including the
Other Ones (formed by surviving Dead
members), Phil Lesh and Friends and Bruce
Hornsby. His own band has jazz-rock
leanings. Tonight and tomorrow night, two
sets beginning at 10; tickets are $25 (Pareles).
PATTI LABELLE, Westbury Music Fair,
960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, N.Y., (516)
334-0800. Nothing exceeds like excess in
the singing of Patti Labelle. She tears
into her love songs with the over-the-top
emotionality of a well-traveled soul
diva, soaring toward the heavens or
growling to get earthy. Tonight and
tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $48 (Pareles).
* THE MARSALIS FAMILY: A JAZZ
CELEBRATION, Prudential Hall, New Jersey
Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street,
Newark, (888) 476-5722. Five Marsalises:
the patriarch, Ellis, on piano; Wynton on
trumpet; Branford on saxophone; Delfeayo
on trombone; and Jason on drums. (Reginald
Veal will be the bassist.) The elder
Marsalis chooses most of the material;
the sons will demonstrate their facility
with it. Tomorrow at 8; tickets are $15
to $68; sold out, but returns may be
available (Ratliff).
LES MERVEILLES DE GUINEE, FULA FLUTE
ENSEMBLE, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway,
at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400 or (212)
545-7536. Les Merveilles are a 25-member
troupe of leaping, twirling dancers
driven by the exhilarating drumbeats of
traditional Guinean rhythms. The Fulani
or Peuls, a North African culture that
has spread through Mali, Senegal and
Guinea, have a flute called the tambin
that's made from a vine and is often
played with the flutist singing through
it — a technique borrowed by Rahsaan
Roland Kirk and Jethro Tull's Ian
Anderson. Bailo Bah, a flutist from
Guinea, leads an eight piece group —
with singers, koras and balafon (marimba).
Sunday night at 7; tickets are $30, $26
for members, $15 for students (Pareles).
THE MOONLIGHTERS, Barbés, 376 Ninth
Street, Park Slope, (718) 965-9177. Few
would expect former members of Helmet and
the Pain Teens to play ukulele-strumming,
steel-guitar-sliding, sweetly harmonized,
optimistic Hawaiian-styled songs. But the
Moonlighters do just that, writing
anachronistic ballads and swing-style
tunes that Bliss Blood sings without a
hint of campiness. Tomorrow night at 9;
admission is $5 (Pareles).
SAM NEWSOME'S GROOVE PROJECT, Jazz
Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, above Spring
Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063. Mr.
Newsome, a soprano saxophonist, has been
working on an internationalist (North
Africa-to-Manhattan), rhythm-based idea
of jazz that includes a glowing sense of
humor and sparse swing. In this band he
has added a Hammond B3 organ (played by
Greg Lewis) to grease up the music.
Tomorrow night at 9 and 10:30; cover
charge is $12 (Ratliff).
SAHARA HOTNIGHTS, Maxwell's, 1039
Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201)
653-1703. This four-woman punk-pop band
is Sweden's answer to the Donnas, who are
New York's update of the 1970's Los
Angeles band the Runaways — all of
them bright and tough, sassy and tuneful.
Tonight at 9, with Ikara Colt, Washdown
and the Gore Gore Girls; tickets are $10
(Pareles).
* KAZEM AL SAHIR, Beacon Theater, 2124
Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 496-7070.
Kazem Al Sahir, from Iraq, is hugely
popular across the Arabic-speaking world,
with a voice that melds grit and
microtonal finesse. His love songs are
pop with deep traditional roots, and
he'll be backed by a 15-piece orchestra
including many leading Middle Eastern
musicians. Tonight at 8; tickets are $50
to $100 (Pareles).
* SIMON AND THE BAR SINISTERS, Rodeo
Bar, 375 Third Avenue, at 27th Street, (212)
683-6500. Simon Chardiet is the kind of
guitarist that bar-band fans dream of
finding: a one-man twang meltdown who
knows where surf meets blues, rockabilly
meets klezmer, country meets punk. His
songs are wryly frustrated; his guitar
solos assuage his troubles with the grand
sweep of American music. Tonight at 10;
free (Pareles).
"SONGS OF PROTEST: THE VIETNAM
SONGBOOK," Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette
Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212)
239-6200. Songwriters from the 1960's,
including Tuli Kupferberg of the Fugs,
Bev Grant, Watermelon Slim and Barbara
Dane, meet younger musicians including
Thurston Moore and Jim O'Rourke from
Sonic Youth, Dean Wareham of Luna,
Stephan Smith and Barry Reynolds to
revive old protests in a new context.
Tomorrow night at 7 and 9:30; admission
is $20 (Pareles).
* SOUND TRIBE SECTOR NINE, Irving
Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street,
Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. Jam-band fans
come to dance; dance-music fans strive
for communal utopia. It was inevitable
that they would meet, and in the
instrumental jam band Sound Tribe Sector
Nine they do, as the live musicians
embrace the rhythms of drum-and-bass,
house and other current dance music.
Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $17.50 (Pareles).
TIBET HOUSE 13TH ANNUAL BENEFIT,
Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue, at 57th
Street, Manhattan, (212) 247-7800. Tibet
House is dedicated to preserving the
culture of Tibet, which has been occupied
by China since 1959. Its annual benefit
brings back regulars like Philip Glass
along with David Bowie, Lou Reed, Laurie
Anderson, Angelique Kidjo, Ziggy Marley
and Rufus Wainwright, many of them
performing in unexpected combinations. It
also includes the deep Buddhist chants of
monks from the Drepung Gomang monastery.
Tonight at 7:30; tickets are $30 to $85 (Pareles).
TIGA, Piano's, 158 Ludlow Street, near
Stanton Street, Lower East Side, (212)
505-3733. Tiga is perhaps the most
shameless of the dance-music producers
who want to revive 1980's pop music: he's
best known for his version of the Corey
Hart hit "Sunglasses at Night."
This DJ appearance is a celebration of
his new mix CD, "DJ Kicks" (K7).
Doors open Sunday night at 11; $5
admission (Kelefa Sanneh).
TRIBUTE TO DEXTER GORDON, Village
Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th
Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037.
This is actually more than just a club
rattling up interest in a great old jazz
hero; it's syncronized with Blue Note
Records' release of a Dexter Gordon
anthology, and in between sets a short
documentary on Gordon will be shown at
the club. The music will be played by Joe
Lovano (who's influenced by Gordon's
stretchy sound) on tenor saxophone,
George Cables on piano, Rufus Reid on
bass and Victor Lewis on drums. Tonight
through Sunday night at 9 and 11, with a
12:30 set tomorrow; admission is is $30 (Ratliff).
STEVE TURRE QUARTET WITH WALLACE
RONEY, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th
Street, (212) 864-6662. The trombonist,
aided by Stephen Scott on piano, Buster
Williams on bass and Obed Calvaire on
drums, will be joined for a few nights by
the trumpeter Wallace Roney, who can be
excellent in a muted, interior way.
Tonight and tomorrow night at 9, 11 and
12:30; cover charge is $20 (Ratliff).
* THE ULTIMATE BREAKDANCE THROWDOWN,
the Key Skate and Dance Family Center,
220 East 138th Street, near Rider Avenue,
South Bronx, (718) 401-1387. This
breakdancing competition is to include a
live performance by the old-school rapper
Kurtis Blow, and music by Kool Herc, the
pioneering hip-hop DJ. Tomorrow night at
7:30; admission is $15 (Sanneh).
SERGIO VARGAS, ALEX BUENO, YOSKAR
SARANTE, EL REY TULILE, Amazura, 91-12
144th Place, Jamaica, Queens, (718) 298-6760.
A merengue concert celebrating Dominican
Independence Day. It should be a wild (and
exhausting) night, especially if El Rey
Tulile performs in a wedding dress.
Tomorrow night at 10; tickets are $20 (Sanneh).
FERNANDO VILLALONA, ZACARIAS FERREIRA,
United Palace Theater, 4140 Broadway, at
175th Street, Washington Heights, (212)
568-0915. Fernando Villalona is a
merengue singer who is also partial to
the slow-dancing seductions of the bolero.
Zacarias Ferreira, who has had a string
of hits since 1999, is determined to
remove any remaining hick-music stigma
from bachata, the ballads of lost love
carried by spiky guitar syncopations that
came from the Dominican province of El
Cibao. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $38
to $88 (Pareles).
JEFF TAIN WATTS QUINTET, Iridium, 1650
Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121.
Mr. Watts, the drummer, possesses the
prime characteristic of all great jazz
musicians: he has a complete sound, a
system, a conception, made of rhythm and
timbre and logic, and it stays present no
matter what goes on around him. His
drumming has a low center of gravity;
it's forceful and comfortable. He is all
there at all times, and though his best
moments with his groups are in high-energy
grooves and vamps, his music has been
showing more and more of a decorous,
romantic side. The band this week
includes the young saxophonist Marcus
Strickland, the guitarist Paul
Bollenback, the pianist David Budway and
the drummer Eric Revis. Tonight through
Sunday at 8 and 10, with an 11:30 set
tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $25,
with a $10 minimum (Ratliff).
LIZZIE WEST, Stinger, 241 Grand
Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 218-6662.
Lizzie West sings folksy but telling
songs about love, family and wanderlust,
with a warm, reedy voice reminiscent of
Natalie Merchant. She's appearing at
Stinger every Friday in February before
releasing an album in April. Tonight at
10; admission, $3 (Pareles).
* MATT WILSON QUARTET, Jazz Standard,
116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212)
576-2232. Audiences love Matt Wilson: his
music has eccentric and comic twists, as
well as beautiful, folklike passages.
He'll perform melodic ideas on his drum
set imitating something curvy his
saxophonist just played, or prod his bass
player until the interplay turns into a
bit of humor; his brain is always
working, making the music change as it
goes along, and he's easily one of his
generation's best drummers. This week
he'll be playing music from his new
album, "Humidity" (Palmetto).
Tonight through Sunday night at 7:30 and
9:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and
tomorrow; cover charge is $20 (Ratliff).
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