I am back into writing at least a little something (if not more) about every show I see in 2023. I hope I can keep it up and I encourage you to bug me if I slack. I will post them here on a monthly basis. It’s kind of a lot, so I don’t expect anyone to read all of it, but, who knows!
How do you find out about all these shows? Download the Tapped In app for up-to-date New York City show listings, and follow Tapped In on Instagram! Also, I am no longer on Twitter, you can find me on Mastodon @neddyo@shakedown.social.
In January I saw 40 shows, which is not the most I’ve seen in a month, but it is, by far, the most I’ve seen in what is typically a slow month. May or may not be related to moving to Brooklyn…
Enjoy!
Chris Potter with Craig Taborn, Scott Colley, and Marcus Gillmore @ Village Vanguard 1Jan23 (early set)
There are many awesome things about seeing music at the Village Vanguard, some more obvious than others. One of the cool little minor details is how the musicians take the stage. At some point near showtime, a staff member gets up and makes a few announcements — don’t take photos, don’t be a chatterbox — then a few minutes later the lights go down and the room gets rather dark. And then, the musicians kind of just appear. There is no backstage, they make their way through the very tight space from the back towards the front and kind of scramble up to the stage. It’s almost as if they’re just audience members that happened to get called up to take the stage. Some join on the right, some join on the left, some might go right up the center.
It’s rather inelegant, but also kind of enchanting and last night it struck me, as they transformed from just “four guys off the street making their way through the seated audience” into “a band” that there is some magic in this as well. As they started playing, almost immediately finding a firm groove and riding it hard, I was thinking about how there are all these jazz musicians in NYC and how on any given night they end up playing in various configurations, infinite permutations of talent right here in the city, and how, sure, there are “bands” that persist for more than a show or a tour, many of these groupings are entirely transient. On this night it’s these guys playing this music. Next week the same guys will be in completely different groups, playing somewhere else, bigger rooms or smaller rooms or not at all. There’s a bit of randomness to it, and a whole lot of fun, especially once you start to know these guys and scour upcoming gig listings… ooh, did you see who’s playing with whom at the Jazz Gallery next month. The point is, each of these sets, these gigs, these weeks at whatever club, they’re all just ephemeral, and when you catch them, there’s extra magic in the moment. They may as well be four random guys appearing out of the darkness, finding their musical footing, and just playing. Magic!
And magic it was when Chris, Craig, Scott, and Marcus became Chris Potter and band, working expertly through awesome Potter originals and cool covers (Ornette Coleman! Stevie Wonder! Amazonian folk songs!). Of course, it’s not the names that matter, but their unique talents and styles that turn random permutation into a working unit. Potter was fire, working the tenor sax and later the clarinet and, for one song, the bass clarinet (side note: we need more bass clarinet in this world, perhaps the most perfect of horns). Taborn, who can lead a band of “randoms” as good as the next, felt like he was largely in the supporting role, a few solos here and there, but more laying back and finding the cracks and gaps to fill in the sound. The rhythm section was formidable from the get go, the music almost all had a heavy swing that was more late Friday night than early Sunday evening. Gilmore was especially potent, his kit interestingly rock-it-out large for a stage like the Vanguard. He had two floor toms and two high-hats and if I had to use two words to describe his playing it’d be “hard” and “fast.” Dude was a one-man rhythmic wrecking crew.
Despite all that oomph, I was admittedly exhausted: four nights of Phish and more in the past week, 350+ in the previous year, not too much sleep the night before, and a massive dose of Minetta Tavern delicious right before the show. To say the least, I was drowsy on the first night of 2023. And somehow Potter’s music was still comforting and relaxing and allowed me to drift eyes-closed to cozy places. A perfect start to the year.
2Jan23
Lex Korten/Caroline Davis/Adam Olszewski/Eliza Salem @ Ornithology Jazz Club
First stop was my first trip to Ornithology a new(ish) jazz club in Bushwick. Been wanting to check it out for a while and this early Monday set seemed to be a good chance to make it happen. It’s got a very cozy, coffee-shop vibe, not typical of most jazz clubs in town. I guess I was expecting something that was trying to recreate the Village clubs in the outer parts of Brooklyn, but it was quite the inverse, with limited seating and a lot of SRO. I’d like to get there earlier next time to get a seat and catch more music. My arrival time was not well-matched to the set times, so only caught a little bit of the music, which was pretty great. They seem to attract a mix of up-and-coming names and people who are not on the radar yet (or my radar, at least). So I had heard Davis before and she is very excellent, but the others were all new to me. In my limited exposure, I was pretty impressed with the loose, spiritual-jazz style playing from Salem on the drums. I will be back to Ornithology, which isn’t totally convenient to get to, especially when you miss the bus, but does have a CitiBike station right out front.
Wyndham Baird @ Skinny Dennis
From there it was off to the best honky tonk in Williamsburg for Wyndham Baird. This is my second time seeing him and he definitely plays a lot around town. The first time I saw him he played almost exclusively Bob Dylan covers, those that fit in with his twangy country-folk vibe, and it was pretty great. Last night I caught some more Dylan, but also Grateful Dead (Brown Eyed Woman), and Chuck Berry and more. He’s got a great voice, great taste in material, and is also pretty darn good at the guitar. Great fit for Skinny Dennis or other similar (he’s at Sunny’s next week). I think anyone reading this would enjoy the hell out of this guy. Great bar band material.
Sauce y Salsa @ Barbes
Finally, a stop at Barbes for their weekly Monday “Tropical Vortex” sets which are always very fun with a lively crowd and excellent Latin music of various flavors. The bill said Los Mochuelas, but it was actually this salsa band who were decent. Crowd was a bit lighter than usual for these (it’s usually pretty packed and fun). They opened their set with a nice version of “Manteca” (love a good Phish cover!) and it was all fine, but nothing to write home about. It’s rare that I walk out of Barbes not totally bowled over, but it’s bound to happen every once in a while.
I guess the lesson from this outing was you win some/you lose some. Also gave me a chance to reflect on a conversation I had in a post-show hang on NYE: for the shows stats people, what do you count for “seeing” a show. My personal rule is 15 minutes or 3 songs and I’ve officially “seen” a set/artist/show, but your mileage may vary. Curious how others count. By the neddyo standard, I caught two shows last night and appeared at a 3rd which will not make the NedBase spreadsheet. Everyone should have a spreadsheet, btw, even if you see just a few shows a year and even if you’re just starting now. You’ll be glad to have some record even in a few months, let alone a few years. Trust me, it’s easy to do and it’s great.
3Jan2023
Mary Jane Dunphe, MIchael Berdan @ Union Pool
Started off checking out the first of a weekly free music thing at Union Pool. Free bills every Tuesday, a great way to check out shit you might not otherwise. Didn’t know a damn thing about a band on the bill, didn’t care. We caught two of three, the first, Michael Berdan, was an electronic musician that had some 90’s vibes — heavy-but-manageable industrial rhythms, not much melody. The second, Mary Jane Dunphe, was pure 80’s, singing with backing drum machine and preprogrammed synthesizer, she was very emotive and gesturing and moving around while she sang. Dunphe had an (electric) guitar and a stool set up on stage and I was totally expecting something more singer-songwriterish, but it definitely wasn’t. More New Wave sound. It was fine. It was free! Brooklyn Brewery is sponsoring with drink specials and some free swag, so worth checking out one of these Tuesdays. Ted Leo plays the final one, Bing and Ruth in a couple weeks.
Will Graefe, Kenny Wolleson, Jeremy Gustin @ Pete’s Candy Store
5 minute walk away is the tiny caboose of Pete’s. I caught this trio at Rockwood a few weeks back, a show that was actually billed as a quartet with S. Ismaily, but ended up being a short trio set. This was billed properly, but had a different feel,. The sound alternated between loose experimental free-form and focused, somewhat gorgeous melodies. Graefe, on guitar, switched between acoustic and electric, sounding often like a traditional African instrument than a guitar. Wolleson played percussion and electric drum pad, lots of banging shit and shaking shit. Really, the reason I was there was to see Jeremy Gustin who has become perhaps my favorite drummer in NYC. Watching and listening to him play drums is just pure joy, he gives off the vibes of a guitar player more than a drummer sometime, a master of playfully melodic drumming and expert dynamics. Every time I see him it’s a “this is the best thing ever!” and last night was no different. Felt like the whole room was more or less friends with the band, lots of other musicians included. With multiple gigs already, I wonder if this is a “real band.” Definitely recommend checking them out, particularly in a pass-the-hat, no-stress situation like Pete’s or the no-cover Rockwood show last month.
Nathan Xander @ Skinny Dennis
15 minute walk away is Skinny Dennis. They have a regular rotation of artists there and I’d love to be able to put a sound with all the names, so jumped at the opportunity to check out SD regular Xander. I’d put him sort of middle of the pack in terms of artists I’ve seen there. Soft focus country rock, mostly originals, at least when I was there. Just easy-listening, easy-to-dig tunes for a Tuesday night. What could be bad? I’m sure I’ll find myself back at Skinny Dennis on a night he plays in the future.
Open invitation to come out in Brooklyn nearly any night…
Wednesday 4Jan23
Bill Frisell, Tony Scherr, Kenny Wolleson @ LunAtico (early set)
Hi, I’m a Bill Frisell fanatic. I also think LunAtico is one of the best rooms in the city. Did I want to be at this show? Yes, I really, really wanted to be at this show. I’m also not quite as interested in putting Herculean efforts into getting into shows that require Herculean efforts, especially when there is a lot of “low hanging fruit” that’s still the best shit ever on a nightly basis. Luckily for me, my better half was highly motivated to get into this show and “twisted my arm.” Long story short, we were the first ones there, had our choice of tables, and were through at least one course and 45 minutes of chit-chat before anyone else even showed up. For anyone else? Probably a big NAH! from me, dawg. For the Frisell Trio @ LunAtico? What the fuck else was I gonna do, sit at home?
In a way, this was “standard issue” Frisell trio, no setlist surprises. If I had to split Bill’s playing into three categories, I would take the three states of matter: solid, liquid, gas. His straight playing is solid as fuck, he’s a great guitar player, great jazz player, great in all ways. When he (and whomever he’s playing with) improvises, it’s just pure take-on-the-shape-of-the-container liquid, freeflowing, thirst-quenching, dripping, oozing, misting, wetness. On rare occasions, Frisell goes pure gaseous, evaporating into the air, odorless, colorless gas just permeating, floating…. This set at LunAtico was strongly in the liquid category, a flowing river of improvisation that didn’t quite achieve pure evaporative disassociation and may have been better off for it. (no fuck-with-your-head music-traveling-back-in-time effects were used during the set). Sick Thelonious Monk covers and a ridiculous ending couplet of You Only Live Twice and Change Is Gonna Come. The former was really the highlight, a springboard for encapsulated fractals of improv, the trio in a deep self-induced, we-can-do-anything trance of guitar/bass/drums that few other trios could match. Well worth the early arrival and extended wait. How could I ever have thought otherwise?
The Mandingo Ambassadors @ Barbes (first set)
In 2023, Barbes is officially on the way home from wherever I am. Even if I’m at home, the quickest way to where I am is to go via 9th St and 6th Ave in Park Slope. Wednesday nights at that address are for the magnificent Mandingo Ambassadors, which is really just Mamadou Kouyate and whomever else he gets in a given week. Sometimes the room is literally empty, sometimes it’s packed, but that doesn’t seem to affect the magic one bit. Last week it was two guitars, bass, drums, and Oran Etkin on saxophone. When Etkin plays with them he also does some emceeing which is a change because Mamadou don’t speak too much English and usually says everything he needs to say with his guitar. Well, I learned something new last week: Mamadou lives in New Haven, and comes down weekly to play two late sets at Barbes. Sometimes to an empty room! INSANITY! You should absolutely go see him play, it’s the best. Pure musical sunshine. If you go and don’t enjoy it, I’ll buy you a burrito. Last week was a heavygroove dance party Mandingo set and ain’t that a beautiful thing. Great crowd, funky as fuck, best damn guitar you’ll find for pass-the-hat on a Wednesday. Goes to midnight every week. Go! Throw some money in the bucket so he has gas money to get back to Connecticut.
Thursday 5Jan23
The Breakneck Boys @ Rockwood Music Hall 2
Lots of fun bluegrass set. Great harmonies, great originals. Set got better as it went on, which you gotta appreciate. No cover! Also appreciated.
Friday 6Jan23
Oscar Noriega Crooked Quartet @ Barbes
If you get out of work early enough on a Friday, you can go to 9th St and 6th Ave in Park Slope and, for whatever amount you want to put in the bucket, you can see some A++ jazz in a tiny room with like 5–10 other people. I swear to God, this is true. Oscar Noriega’s slightly-rotating cast of “Crooked Quartet” is perhaps the best deal/best kept secret (he screams loudly) in town. Cannot recommend this highly enough. Two sets, 5:30 & 6:30, done by 7:30, bring the kids if you have to.
This week was Oscar with Marta Sanchez (unbelievable young talent, have you heard me mention her before?), Jason Nazary on drums, and Matt Pavolka on bass. The environment and time leads to a very laid back vibe on stage, like being inside the chemistry experiment as its being concocted. You’re part of the action just by being there. So good. Every time. Go!!
Saturday 7Jan23
Tim Berne’s “Bat Channel w/ Chris Potter, Eivind Opsvik, Gregg Belisle-Chi, Jeff Davis @ Barbes
This was a packed house, out the door crowd to see a set of jazz “names” play in the cozy intimacy of Barbes at 6pm on a Saturday evening. Back on New Year’s Day, I saw Chris Potter and he played one song on bass clarinet and I said something like “need more bass clarinet in my life” and guess what? Less than a week later, Chris Potter played an entire set on bass clarinet in my favorite room in town. This is gonna be my year, friends, I can feel it!!
This was free-jazz at its finest, the ghost of Ornette Coleman haunting the corners of Barbes as Berne and Potter somehow made opposing horn shouts work together. The quintet would shift into various permutations with a few glorious sections of just straight trio, including some great guitar/bass/drums sections that brought a sense of calm to an otherwise not-so-calm early set. The mood in the room was pretty great, a real this is kind of special feeling, but also a this shit happens every day in this town feeling. Both correct. Berne is in early-Saturday residency with a rotating cast of who-care’s-who’s-playing. Go to Barbes on Wednedsay, go on Friday, go on Saturday! All good, friends, all good.
Curtis Hasselbring’s Curhachestra @ Barbes
No such thing as too much of a good thing. Left and returned for the 8pm set and saw perhaps my favorite set of the week with this band featuring CurHa on both guitar and trombone (who else does both with such skill??), Raphael MacGregor on lap steel, Adam Minkoff on bass, and Dan Rieser on drums. Hasselbring’s compositions and taste seem to dovetail nicely with mine, the set bounced between Tortiose-style postrock, spaghettiwesternish, Grant Green groove, and jazzrock fusion. What was cool was that everyone in the quartet had a lead-guitar mentality and even though that sounds like a recipe for disaster, it just worked, everyone layering melody on top of each other, following Hasselbring’s compositions, creating this massive moving sound, like very deft prog-rock, orchestral and epic and also groovy and smart. Really a treat to take in. I loved this set so much.
Side note: 3 of these guys have played Freaks events I’ve booked, and 5 of these 6 shows reviewed here have featured at least one person who’s played a Freaks event. Pretty cool!
Sunday 8Jan23
Three Blind Mice @ Barbes
Interesting trio, decent music. Not my favorite of the week… but! You never know what might go down when you’re out there and the absolute highlight of this one was when harmonica genius Gregoire Maret joined in for a lengthy solo on one tune. Last saw that dude playing alongside Julian Lage at the Vanguard a couple months ago. Pretty cool.
Amy Helm (Leslie Mendeslon opened) @ The Owl Music Parlor
There’s special in the literally-everyday magic of Barbes and there’s special of the Frisell-at-LunAtico type, and then there’s special when you are part of a cozy crowd on a Sunday night seeing Amy Helm underplay at the intimate Owl in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. There didn’t seem to be any occasion for this one other than “we hadn’t played together in a while and wanted to” and that’s probably the best reason for a show like this. The spirit and energy in the room was just right, the way you want to end a weekend and start a workweek. Helm was in great spirits, as was her band who also featured Adam Minkoff. In fact, I thought Minkoff kind of was the unsung hero of the night, not only playing bass (a completely different bass (Fender vs. Guild) and playing style than the previous night), but also singing, playing piano, and, on one song, mandolin. He also played a couple with Mendelson to open. The rest of the band featured the very-unsung Tony Mason on drums and Dan Littleton on guitar. They were pretty fantastic, I thought.
One of the things I love about Helm is that she’s obviously got music in her blood, grew up around it, etc. Her voice is ridiculously good. But she inherited so much more than talent. It’s really like, soul or whatever you want to call it. She’s got it. It comes through in her voice, in her songs, in the way she interacts with her band, lets them breathe in a way that makes her sound even better, like a big group hug that just gets tighter and tighter with real feeling. I don’t know her songs really, but they really ran the gamut from gospel to soul to classic rock to folk, etc. All her influences and loves, lovingly crafted. The set came off like a band that just wanted to play and have fun with an intimate audience. I mean, they’re pros, so they make it look easy, but man, did they make it look easy. Felt nice being in that room.
Mendelson’s opening set was just as good, a completely different songwriting point of view, but a sound that clicks well as an opener for Helm. She played mostly in duet with guitarist Steve McEwan — great banter chemistry — and then joined by Minkoff. A great night!
The Owl is another great under-the-radar room in Brooklyn that does great booking, almost always gonna see something good there and be in a cool, intimate space. Check it out sometime. There’s a great show there this Friday, competing with a lot of other stuff, but promise you won’t regret it if you go. Musician owned and run, like all the best rooms in BK (cf Barbes, LunAtico).
9Jan23
Rich Hinman vs Adam Levy @ LunAtico
Apparently it’s very hard to get into LunAtico on a Monday night! They’re legit turning away people at the door. I buckled down and returned for the late set and am very glad I did. Last week I caught the very cool Curhachestra which was a guitar/lap steel/bass/drum lineup. This was a very similar guitar/pedal steel/bass drum lineup, made even more similar by the fact that the drummer in each band (Dan Rieser) was the same dude! Despite the similarities, the bands’ sounds were quite different with this set being very heavy on otherworldly pedal steel grooviness and just a lot more meaty solos than the (still sick af) composition-heavy Hasselbring set. I think I loved this one just as much, standing behind the piano in the SRO area with a very close-up view of the musicians who were just having a blast, joking with each other, feeding off each other’s awesomeness, and just bringing that Monday-night-packed-house energy. The music occasionally had an island bounce to it, just very happy vibes and truly top notch playing. My first time catching this band, will definitely go out of my way to see them again.
11Jan23
Michael Daves/Alex Hargreaves/Jacob Joliff/Eric Alvar @ Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2
Daves used to have a weekly Wednesday residency at Rockwood Stage 1. I went several times and typically there was like 10–20 people there, which, on one hand, was great because it was a small crowd in an intimate room and the music was still A+. Really the best bluegrass in the city. Normally I’d say weekly residencies are the best, one of my favorite things about the city. But for Daves, moving to the bigger room and then more often having a more sizable crowd, I think the move to monthly was a very good one. .The room was packed on Wednesday night and it really makes all the difference for a set like Daves’. The dumb jokes and banter hit better with a decent crowd, the energy in the bigger room soaks up the energy from the stage and reciprocates more effectively, etc. etc. Because the thing is, if you’ve seen Daves play at Rockwood, you’ve probably seen a lot of the material he’s going to play: bluegrass/country standards, obscure tunes from Atlanta musicians, a few originals. It’s the month-to-month crowd/vibe/band that make it a good or excellent night.
Last week was an excellent Michael Daves show. Everything just hit right, the band was killer, with great solos from Joliff and Hargreaves (both of who sang a few on their own), and the crowd deeply into it.
The Mandingo Ambassadors @ Barbes
Mandingo @ Barbes on a Wednesday night. It’s the best. This one works perfectly as a weekly thing and I have to say the crowds have just been much livelier and more sizable at shows around NYC to start the new year. Live music is 100% back these days, people are coming out to see it, the artists are killing it… may it always be so.
13Jan23
Oscar Noriega Crooked Quartet (Santiago Liebson, Mathias Jensen, Jason Nazary) @ Barbes
I will hit this show every week if I have to. It’s currently my favorite residency, the musicians change, but the music is always ridiculously good. No better way to start your weekend. This past Friday there was a decent crowd in there — decent in that there were more than 5 people lol. I noticed Jeff Parker (IYKYK) was there and he came up and sat in to start the second set. Apparently he is an old friend of Noriega and he added a handful of tasty solos to an extended ballad to start the set. You never really know what you’re going to get and this was a special validating treat.
Ingrid Laubrock’s Grammy Season (Brandon Seabrook, Michael Formanek, Tom Rainey) @ The Stone
Was glad to make it to one night of saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock’s week at the Stone. One fun little game to play if you see enough music in NYC and start to see the same musicians in different configurations is wait, those guys are married!?!? Not something I think about often, but every once in a while I see Laubrock and Tom Rainey and remember that they do indeed share a ride to and from all the gigs they play together. Something about it just makes me smile, it’s more likely you would have no idea than not, but once you do…
Anyway, besides that tangent, which feels not so tangential, actually, the thing that struck me during this set is the “you have no idea what you’re going to get” aspect of seeing music at the Stone. There are names listed on the website, you may know them all or some of htem, but largely that’s irrelevant to the music you might see. It may end up being the most beautiful awe-inspiring 75 minutes you’ve ever experienced, and it may just be an experience, a challenging set of music that may not even qualify as “music” depending on where your definition fits. There’s an overarching yin-and-yang spirit that hangs over every show listing, the white-eyed black fish biting at the tail of the black-eyed white fish and vice versa in an infinite cycle of opposites. That’s the Stone. And that was the set Friday night, the quartet, playing largely from sheet music, compositions yielding to freeform improvisation, and then back again, gave doses of both, simultaneously weird and poignant, music making you edge-of-the-seat engaged in cerebral puzzlement, and then soothing your mind to near sleep. I am forever in awe of watching Tom Rainey play drums, he appears as a many-limbed lizard, the central axis of his body nearly motionless, while his limbs trace out rhythmic arcs with an easy and artistry that really has to be seen to be appreciated. I love his playing.
Great set at the Stone, and a great band name… “because we’ll never win one….”
The National Reserve @ Skinny Dennis
Been hitting lots of the regular resideNYC’s so far this month and so it was only a matter of time before I got to Skinny Dennis on a Friday night for National Reserve. Another personal favorite, another don’t-know-what-you’re-gonna-get in terms of who’s actually in the band, even though it’s a good bet they’ll play most of the same songs week to week. Sometimes it’s just a great time and sometimes it’s more than that. Something about this version of the band and maybe the crowd being into it more than it usually is, but something about this Friday’s NR show was just totally kick ass. They had this guy Jim Parker on guitar and I believe Henry Plotnick on keys and somehow having 3 soloists in the band (along with frontman Sean Walsh) just opened things up marvelously. The band just sounded great, they were in no hurry, they were almost jamming. They do such a great, downright funky version of “Statesboro Blues” that just killed. I also love their take on “Trouble In Mind.” Another one they played was “Big Boss Man.’ Those three covers give you an idea of the National Reserve sound. They’re a country/blues/rock bar band, but damn, are they good at what they do. Great originals, too. Hard to believe you can go see a band that good play in a place like Skinny Dennis every Friday for a few bucks, but you can!
Brooklyn Marathon @ Winter Jazzfest 14Jan23
I have this hang-up with the idea of a jazz festival in NYC. Regardless of what internal logic you use to arrive at WJF, the notion is ridiculous. Every year they announce this festival, and my initial reaction is why!? I have no idea why I still have this reaction, because every year that I’ve gone (which, admittedly, isn’t every year) I am super impressed with the booking, the creativity in the combinations and permutations, the taste of the organizers, and the way they take advantage of interesting spaces in the city. I mean, it’s not perfect by any stretch, I’m happy to provide feedback and thoughts to anyone in a position to make changes, but they do a damn good job and I can think back on a bunch of very awesome, very cool, and very eye-and-ear-opening sets I’ve seen at the Winter Jazzfest over the years.
In fact, one of the first times I broke down and went to a WJF, one of the acts that I caught that blew me away was John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet. I was remembering that as I settled in to the first set of the Saturday Brooklyn Marathon. The night’s music was spread out over several rooms in Williamsburg, many of which I had never been to, some of those I had never even heard of. The acts playing Saturday night were intriguing enough that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to catch even half of what I wanted to, but the venues themselves (I mean, what the fuck is Club Curious!?! (which was in the listings as just an intersection around the corner from Union Pool and did not show up in Google maps) were as much a draw as anything. Got to the Loove Lounge for the first set, a spot like 2 doors down from Music Hall of Williamsburg, a pretty cool little studio space that I hope I get a chance to return to someday. The set was by a band called “GEORGE” led by Hollenbeck, one of several he’s had with just first names. The music was kind of about/inspired by people named George! There was a song that Sonny Bono used to play and a song “about” George Washington Carver and a killer closing tune that was groovy as hell called “Iceman” (I’ll let you guess what George that one was about). The band was Hollenbeck on drums, Aurora Nealand on vocals and alto sax and keys/synth, Anna Webber on tenor and flute, and Chiquita Magic (what a fucking name!) on keyboards, although she mostly played synth bass shit on there. The set was really great, it ran the gamut, but everything was interesting and intriguing. They have an album coming out this week or next and I’m pretty excited to hear it. Great start to the night!
Right down the street was National Sawdust and we got there in time to catch the last couple songs from Cuban pianist Dayramir Gonzalez. Probably the straightest jazz I’d see all night, but still pretty great. Actually, about half the time we saw was Gonzalez bantering and joking and he was quite endearing. Not sure I’d check him out on his own, but enjoyable nonetheless. All that banter meant that Mark Guiliana started a few minutes late, so only caught about 20 minutes of his set. I can live with that because I’ve seen this quartet multiple times and, yes, the last time it blew my fucking brain to bits it was so good, kudos to the organizers for putting together a lineup that made me leave a Mark Guiliana set early. I left a MG set early! Crazy!!!
The reason was a longer walk to this Club Curious place to see Daniel Villarreal whom I really wanted to see. The website said the room was at capacity (very cool feature that they had semi-up-to-date info about how full each room was), but figured it would be worth the 17 minute walk. When we got there, there was no line, but we were informed the venue was very small and it was full. We stuck around and the door folk were kind enough to prop open the door enough that we could hear the music inside. It actually didn’t sound horrible (quality) and it sounded fucking amazing (music quality)… it was cold, sure, but not that cold. We caught the first 15 minutes or so outside and then they finally found room for us inside. Squeezed our way through a packed room (although I’ve been in much more packed rooms) and were right in front/side stage for easily the best set of music I’ve seen so far in 2023. Like maybe I’ll see better shit between now and 12/31/2023, but this was leader-in-the-clubhouse-with-a-pretty-great-score level awesome. The band was Villarreal on drums leading a percussionist, bass, guitar, keys in some of the sweetest, grooviest, call-it-jazz-if-you-must shit. If you haven’t heard his album, you definitely, absolutely should, but as good as it is, didn’t prepare me for how good this band was live. The space was also super cool, tight living room vibe with some random rooms in the back. Almost like something out of New Orleans or that kind of feel. For those 30–40 minutes, it felt like we had snuck into a slamming house party in some faraway place, not that we were part of a jazz festival in chilly Williamsburg. Everyone in the band was in the zone, tremendous keyboard playing especially, and a bassist that just dominated the groove. I could have danced to that for another hour or two, for sure. If/when he comes back to NYC, you would do wise to check out Daniel Villarreal.
From there we walked to The Opera House, which is actually booked by the folks who booked Murmrr and has a similar feel to that main room. Like I’m pretty sure it’s a church, but it’s pretty nice compared to Murmrr was. This set was Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn more or less playing their album Pigments, another great record from last year, another great booking by the WJF folk. Richard had this kind of sparkly get-up on, something between old-Genesis Peter Gabriel and Janelle Monae or something. The past’s future look I guess. The band included some familiar faces (Stuart Bogie, Doug Wieselman) as well as strings, guitar, drums…. They sounded great, the music is very good, the balance between Richard’s vocals and the dreamy ambientjazz of the music was an excellent narcotic after the groovejams we had just seen. From there I went back to Sawdust and got a great spot up in the balcony from which to take in the duo of Zoh Amba and Chris Corsano. This was my first time seeing Zoh play saxophone, a gloriously intense experience. The pairing with Corsano could not have been more perfect. Corsano seems to be a go-to guy for playing with wild-eyed improvisers and he seemed ideal to corral Amba’s energy without curtailing, finding veins of rhythm and even a little groove in her freeform playing. For one “song” she sat at the piano on stage and banged out chords rhythmically while blowing her tenor with the other, Corsano somehow managing to make it all sound coherent. This Saturday lineup for WJF was experimental in all the right ways, I saw it as a mini-Big Ears, and the musicians leaned into it, taking license to just do their thing and this was personified by the Amba/Corsano duo. Pretty awe-inspiring set.
At this point, it on the verge of officially being “late,” I had missed more sets that I had planned to try and squeeze in than I had actually hit and good lord, was I so much better off for it. It felt like every step had been the right one, so what could be bad as the endgame appeared before me. Killed some time by checking out another new-to-me venue Superior Ingredients which is a short bowling-ball roll from the Brooklyn Bowl. I guess this is a dance club? It was a good space for the Jazzfest, too, kind of reminded me of the old Rough Trade space in a few ways, the bar on the left at the back and an upstairs and the size was about the same. I’d seen Irreversible Entanglements before, built around spiritual jazz-backing-poetry-reading. They’re good! But was mostly just filler before I went back to National Sawdust for what would have easily been the set of the night for me if I hadn’t just seen Villarreal before. Photay with Carlos Nino put out a fantastic album last year and I ended up missing them when they played Public Records recently. So glad I had another chance because their set was a late night masterpiece of mind’s-adrift ambient groove. The early sets at Sawdust had been at full bright lighting. Amba/Corsano were bathed in a darker blue that matched their sound perfectly. For Photay/Nino, the lights were very nearly off, a glorious time-for-bed set. Nothing much to look at then, I found a stair in the balcony to sit down in, eyes closed, brain decompressing and recompressing and decompressing once again. So fucking good.
At that point, I probably should have gone home, but probably my favorite bassist was playing back at Superior Ingredients, and I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I didn’t at least get 15 minutes of Tim Lefebvre in when he was just a short walk away. The group was Nate Smith, Jason Lindner, and Tim L, and damn, that’s a great trio, late night, or early night, or even during the day. I was impressed that the venue was still completely jampacked, even at 1am, my personal evening entering its 6th hour. They were freakin fabulous, all three of ’em, Lefebvre making sure I did not regret my decision. I would have stayed longer, but decided to catch a subway with a long, ridiculous day of adulting/driving awaiting me the following morning.
Holy moly, a fantastic night, one that could have gone in many other directions and probably been just as killer. Looking forward to tut-tutting the Winter Jazzfest lineup in 2024 and then giving in and going and having the best time.
18Jan23
Ches Smith with Mary Halvorson, Mat Maneri, Craig Taborn @ The Stone
One thing I meant to mention in my Winter Jazzfest review was how so many of the groups I saw were drummer-led and how I didn’t think it was a coincidence that these were also incredibly creative. John Hollenbeck, Mark Guiliana, Daniel Villarreal, etc… the unique perspective drummers bring to both bandleadership and musical composition can really make magic.
Last night we caught the Wednesday hit in drummer Ches Smith’s week at The Stone. The lineup was intriguing as all heck, but like I said about the Stone, you never really know what you’re going to get. Before the set even started, I was struck once again (as I often am) by the magic of being there live, about how all these other factors can come into play, even in the smallest ways: for example, how when you get out of work might affect how early you can get to the venue which determines what seat you get which might give you a totally different perspective than if you had left earlier or later or stopped for a slice on the way. Whatever, it’s all there. Needless to say, we were two of the last people in the room, thankful to get seats, but sitting in the back with an obstructed view of the musicians. On the flip side, before the set even started Mat Maneri asked the crowd if anyone had cheap reading glasses he could borrow so he could read the music. His had broken when he came out. Thankfully someone had a pair… what might have happened if no one did? How did the guy who offered up his glasses experience the show differently knowing he played a part in one of the quartet being able to actually see what he was supposed to play? I love thinking about this shit.
So, with the benefit of hindsight, I think it’s very good that Mat Maneri could read the music. I think it is very good that Ches Smith wrote the damn music. The music was damn, damn good. But that’s hindsight speaking. In the moment, I didn’t know what we were going to get and the set started up and it was just four musicians playing notes. Almost random notes. From the back row, not seeing anything, it felt like random bits of music popping up from somewhere up there. Perspective matters. Context matters. Now, these were notes, not chords, barely associated with each other. Guitar, piano (a lot of plucking the strings inside, less actually hitting the keys), viola, and Smith hitting bells and cymbals and playing notes on vibraphone. My visualization of the music was of pointillism, a Georges Seurat painting seen at close distance, except the painting was being made in real time by four people dabbing paint on the canvas together, little dots of music, random notes, four totally different sized and shaped paint brushes dabbing paint on the canvas together. It felt random and formless and just the kind of out there shit you really only can see at a place like the Stone. But then, over time, patterns started to emerge, notes combined with each other, not quite chords, but structure, rhythm. Slowly, slowly, slowly it became clear there was no randomness at all, the dots were part of something larger. At some point, some indefinable moment, the music became music. What a rush! It built, built, built, rhythm, melody, structure, and then where previously it had been nothing but notes, it became almost too much. An intense, loud, amazing whoah! of sound — where the fuck did that come from — an explosion that turned into a quiet, floating ambient outro that was just simply gorgeous. The effect was like a rocket violently puncturing the atmosphere and then finding pure weightlessness on the other side. And then it was over. That single piece was probably 20–25 minutes long. A journey. Amazing self-commentary on music itself. Holy cow, that was something else. I could have walked out after that completely satisfied. Those drummers, man!
That wasn’t the end, though! I think there was almost an hour more to come (this was one of the longer sets I’ve seen at the Stone). The theme of the music that emerged over the course of the set was each piece containing some moment where the entire band was focused and playing together, brilliantly, accessibly, wonderfully and those moments surrounded by the band dissociated into its constituent parts. The cool thing was how each piece did it differently. The second one started off with what I would loosely call a “groove” the quartet on the same page and then rapidly falling apart into an amazing formlessness. And on and on. Smith utilized the talents of his band quite brilliantly, highlighting each in just the right way without anyone getting too showy. This was true ensemble playing, mesmerizing in and out. Just a fantastic show.
David Murray with Marta Sanchez, Luke Stewart, Kassa Overall @ Village Vanguard (late set)
If the show at the Stone was a cerebral journey, the set at the Vanguard (such an easy walk, how would you not??) was one of pure soul. First of all, it has to be said that David Murray was wearing a freakin’ David Murray t-shirt on stage at the Village Vanguard, which is such a baller move, I don’t know what else to say. Second of all, halfway through the first song, someone walked up to stage and handed him a pair of… reading glasses! He forgot them, I guess. It was reading glasses night, I guess, and there’s an old man joke in here somewhere, just not sure what it is.
I was not familiar with Murray too much, I mostly wanted to hit this show because I am all-in on Marta Sanchez who I try to catch as much as possible of at her very early Thursday gig at Bayeux and her very early Friday gig (usually) playing with Oscar Noriega. She is a mesmerizing young player and I won’t shut up about her, sorry! Thankfully, the rest of the band was truly excellent, a killer rhythm section and Murray was a fascinating, powerful saxophonist. He basically would start playing a solo, rapid, intense, loud, melodic, and just go go go go. Didn’t seem like he was even breathing and he has this in-a-trance look in his barely-opened eyes. There’s an athleticism to his playing that was really engaging to watch, and the notes coming out of his horn was just a torrent of awesome.
But I was there to see Sanchez play and she got a lot of time to remind me why. Almost every song followed a pattern with an extended, wild-eyed solo from Murray leading the band to some very cool places. And then he would walk off to the side of the stage, I think he was actually sitting down at one of the tables (the room was a supremely comfortable 1/2 full) and the band reduced to a straight piano trio. It was a little show-within-a-show and Sanchez blew me away each time, often turning whatever song they were in on its head, or veering into something completely different. She was in command and just took the room to some ethereal, out-of-this-world places. It was probably the best I’ve seen her play in my short time seeing as much of her as possible and hinted at the potential of her playing, building up atmosphere and magical energy with lots of soft notes in lieu of big bold ones.
Been a lot of jazz in my last few outings, but thankfully really freakin’ good jazz.
19Jan23: Improv Nights Derek Bailey Tribute @ Roulette
My general goal is to try and write about shows the next day because my memory ain’t what it used to be and I have thoughts during the show I’d like to get down before I forget. On occasion, though, letting things marinate a little might offer some new perspective. I caught this improv night on Thursday and then the next night I caught the early Friday evening Oscar Noriega residency. I never would have thought one might influence my take on the other but…
There’s no denying that I just love a residency. The idea of an artist or a band playing every week opens up such a kaleidoscope of possibilities. Halfway through the Noriega set on Friday I was struck that I now recognized several of his pieces, that he plays a lot of the same songs week to week (though definitely not always the same set, not even close) and that the music was becoming that much more interesting to me in being able to see how it might change week to week based on mood, who’s in the band, what the crowd is like, phases of the moon, who knows what. I mean, that’s the shit right there. Getting to the point where you can recognize and appreciate multiple levels of nuance in a piece of music or a musician’s playing. That’s what it’s all about. That’s why you see a band a hundred plus times. When I reached that stage with Wayne Krantz and it was truly next-level. And it was in that moment Friday that I realized that I would be going to see Noriega play his 5:30 show on Fridays as often as humanly possible. That there were layers and subtleties still to be discovered. An infinity of them.
And as I’m having this minor moment in a quarter-filled Barbes, my mind hopped to the previous evening at Roulette. And the realization was that what I had seen that night was the exact philosophical opposite of what I just described. What I had seen at the improv night was “bands” that were so ephemeral, they existed for less than 5 minutes, they existed to play a single piece of music, music that wasn’t even really “music” in any sense. That the whole point of John Zorn’s take on the improvisation set was a group of musicians playing notes that only existed in that very moment. In fact, taken out of context, the notes played would be entirely meaningless. Even if I recorded the music made by Bill Frisell and Mary Halvorson or John Zorn with two trombones or any of the dozen or so seemingly random combinations, if I had recorded it and played it back, I’m not even sure it would be music anymore. Its existence as something noteworthy, at all listenable, was only in those few minutes when it was being played in the moment. Obviously, we all listen to improvised music, jams and whatnot, but this is something very very different. A darker magic. Collections of people and notes and audience members bringing meaning to something otherwise completely random, in the moment. Wild.
20Jan23
Oscar Noriega, Mathias Jensen, Santiago Liebson, Jason Nazary @ Barbes
#2023.25
(see above)
21Jan23
Felix Slim Band @ Skinny Dennis
Skinny Dennis is a great spot, it’s a fucking trip for so many reasons. I think it’s at its best on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and the energy was great this Saturday with Felix Slim. I’ve seen him once before: a combination of blues and rockabilly, he plays the part perfectly. Caught just enough this weekend, but will be back to see him there again ere too long, I’m sure.
Tim Berne, Eivind Opsvik, Gregg Belisle-Chi, Jeff Davis @ Barbes
#Barbes2023.10
Berne is playing the 6pm slot every Saturday in January, all weeks the same band except for #2. I caught the first week which had Chris Potter sitting in, which was great, but a lot of squonking between his bass clarinet and Berne’s alto. This week there was more space in the room — still a healthy crowd, but not a Potter-induced packed-to-the-gills thing — and more space in the music. I’m generally a less-is-more guy and this set proved the point. I mean, Chris Potter is fucking amazing, but without that extra horn in there, the mostly-same material felt so much more alive, a freedom in the spaces between each instrument, between each note, etc. Berne was in a very jovial mood with some great banter (“these songs are all autobiographical… this one is called ‘Sludge’”). Also, the name of this band is “Bat Channel” which is a great band name. Every time I leave the house I come home with a reshuffled “favorite NYC drummers” list and Davis keeps doing damage to that compendium every time I see him. In quartet form, this is a killer band, talent at every position, well-harnessed freeform… one more week to see such high-caliber talent in a room like Barbes all before dinnertime. Are we the luckiest motherfuckers in the history of livemusic’n?
Danny Arakaki (kendraplex, Jake Acosta open) @ Union Pool
Third and final was a trip to Union Pool for this intriguing bill. Only in NYC can you see three sets of music like this and have no idea what to call any of it. Acosta played solo with guitar and laptop, not quite the powerhouse jamming of his album, more dramatic exploration. kendraplex is Kendra Amalie’s project, playing Saturday with a woman on violin. The combination was highly enjoyable, one wouldn’t have come off as well without the other, Amalie’s trends-weird electro-pop finding some focused grounding in the supramelodic violin accompaniment.
Arakaki, if you don’t know, is a founding member of Garcia Peoples. Not quite the lead guitarist, not quite the rhythm guitarist, not quite the lead vocalist, not quite the backup singer. With a band like GP, it’s not always clear who’s contributions are what. So a chance to see Arakaki celebrate the release of his solo album with a very solid band was a treat in of itself. That the music was great and the band totally rocking felt like a bonus. The band was a tad oversized, with two guitars, bass, drums (the severely awesome, get out that “favorite drummers” list and bring me an eraser if you please,, Ryan Jewell), plus a backup singer, a saxophone, and the everything-he-plays-in-is-awesome Dan Iead on pedal steel guitar. Iead, as he tends to be, was the secret weapon to the band, pairing in interesting ways with the saxophone. The soprano sax/pedal steel combo on a couple songs was one I don’t know I’ve ever seen and it just worked. What I learned from this set is that Arakaki is the heart of Garcia Peoples, someone around whom great music just happens and that it’s probably no accident. There were short chugging jams and great songs and nothing overstayed its welcome. Three short sets in two hours and not a complaint from me.
22Jan23
Jeff Rum Trio @ Barbes
For a while the Jeff Rum Trio was playing regularly on Sundays at Wild Birds in Crown Heights. Sadly, the room is no longer and sadly I haven’t seen these guys play since the summer. It’s a shame because it’s perhaps the most perfect Sunday music ever. The trio, to remind you!, is Ryan Dugre on guitar, James Buckley on bass, and Jeremy Gustin on drums. They all play sitting down and while their music is not sleepy or quiet (you can dance to it!), it’s probably best appreciated sitting down as well. Their whole thing is just chill af and it really is the musical equivalent of easygoing Sunday evening. I mean, I’d go see them any day of the week, in whatever weird corner they’re playing, I love ’em so, but what a treat that they were playing Sunday at Barbes. Even on a rainy, nasty night, it was a no brainer. I was surprised to learn it was their first time playing Barbes… I was confident they had played there before. Hopefully not the last!
If I had to sum up the night in one anecdote: they decided to take a break and play two short sets (they had ~90 minute slot and had to be done at 8:30). So they start back up around 8 and they’re kind of killing it, best shit in the second set, natch! So this couple comes in and they walk right up to the front (most of the 15-ish-person crowd is sitting around the perimeter of the room) and the dude is pretty tall and big and is wearing a rather large parka with gloves. And this dude is standing right in front of Gustin and just obviously having a great time and loving the music. And this guy goes and gets drinks and comes back and he’s dancing and then Ryan’s like: this is our last song. And the deflated look on this guy’s face…
“last song?”
“Well, there’s another band coming on after this.”
“but, this is your last song?”
“yes.”
“Man, that SUCKS!”
Pretty much how we all felt. Those last two songs, though. Finally got a name for one of them, “Iceland.” Not sure if it’s a cover or an original (most of their shit is well-chosen covers), but it’s total made-it-their-own magic. I can’t imagine anyone not loving this band, I hope they play again soon. Sunday or otherwise.
Monday!
Kings County Swing @ St. Mazie’s 23Jan23
This was an outing for the resideNYC “club” wherein a group of 5–20 go see a regularly-occurring residency and have a meal in the neighborhood. St. Mazie is in Williamsburg, right across the street from Emmy Squared, which has lots of dining options, but it’s also kind of a “supper club” and so we ate there. The space is roomy with plenty of tables and bar seating, I wonder if it ever gets packed there. It would probably take a big crowd to make it feel uncomfortable, and there definitely wasn’t a big crowd Monday. Too bad! The food, music, and company were superb. The space is very old school, it feels very much like you’ve walked into a little time machine, very little in the way of modern flourishes (handheld credit card reader and Venmo code for the band were some of the few things that broke the spell).
I’ve seen the listing for Kings County Swing, but didn’t really know much about them until a few months ago seeing Matthew Avedon play in this open mic thing and he was introduced as part of KCS. Well, he was not there Monday, but no matter. The lineup probably changes a bit week-to-week as is the case with many of these regular gigs. Monday was two guitars and a bass, but videos online include violin and/or clarinet, etc. The style of music is gypsy jazz/swing/hot club. Both guitarists (wish I had their names) took turns with rhythm and lead and both were truly excellent at both, slightly different tone and takes on the same material, with some back-and-forth mixed in. The quality of the music was very, very high for a pass-the-bucket, empty room on a Monday night, I will absolutely be returning, an easy pair with a trip to Skinny Dennis or Rev Vince at Union Pool.
Tuesday!
Emily Nenni @ Skinny Dennis 24Jan23
Speaking of Skinny Dennis, that was the spot on Tuesday night. Flashback to a year or so ago when we went there to check out Teddy and the Rough Riders who put out a truly excellent country record last year. That night they were on the bill with Emily Nenni whom I had never heard of. It turned out that they played their own set and were also her backing band and she also was kind of awesome. Her record has been in steady rotation for me and I jumped at the chance to see her again, this time returning to play two nights at SD on her own.
This was also a rare chance to see a ticketed show from someone out of town at Skinny Dennis. Someone from Nashville, no less. There’s always that this is Nashville-esque feel in SD, but a little bit more so Tuesday. Even with a $12 ticket, the fact that there’s a ticket at all changes the complexion of the crowd there, smaller (about half full) and way more attuned to the music. It turns out that the Rough Riders were still her backing band, which was a nice surprise. The set was pretty great, I thought, just very good, personalized songwriting, a sound well-suited to a Nashville-in-Williamsburg setting, and bits of nervous-laughter banter that was rather endearing. She played much of the album, my favorite earworm “In the Monrnin” second song in the set, and a few older ones. Band sounded great. They also had this dude Muskrat Jones on pedal steel, whom I finally figured out I had seen in Boston last fall with Kelsey Waldon. He’s pretty phenomenal and brought a little oomph to the material. She ran through originals and then did the last third of the set just “honky tonk covers.” I thought it was neat how this last section of the night kind of turned the room over, the audience who had been attentive to her material starting to chit chat and such, like the normal Skinny Dennis vibe. Or maybe it was just that many beers into the night. Anyway, check out her album and the Rough Riders one as well. Highly recommended both.
Wednesday!
Mary Lattimore/William Tyler @ Brookfield Place 25Jan23
And now something completely different.
I never got to do a full rundown of Big Ears last year, but the tl;dr is that it was one of the best this-is-why-I-livemusic weekends I’ve ever experienced. Part of that “why” is the sheer joy in the surprise of seeing it live. That was definitely the case when we saw Electric Appalachia. I mean, I knew it was Mary Lattimore, quite possibly my favorite artist of the last 10 years, and William Tyler, way up on that list as well. I knew it was going to be good no matter what. I knew it was doing a live soundtrack (in a gorgeous, huge movie palace/music theater in downtown Knoxville). I fucking love live soundtracks, sign me the fuck up for any of that shit. I knew I was going to like this. But that’s all I knew.
What I didn’t know was that the film would be such a powerful experience. Not just the film, but the film matched to the music. Not just that but with those musicians, how well suited they are to the material of the film, the geography of it. How well suited all of those were to Big Ears, to Knoxville, to the location itself, almost down to the location of the theater. I don’t want to turn this into a review of an event that’s almost a year old, but I’ll just say that the movie is about how the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) transformed that region of the country (and the whole country), from what you might call a backwater mountain community to a burgeoning US cityscape. It’s an amazing thing. An awesome thing. Awesome for good, and awesome for not that good. It’s 100% original footage with little narrative except the obvious and the music. And that music, the verge of peaceful, quite acoustic music to in-your-face electronic-infused sounds. The boundaries and the interface between the two. The metaphors are a little on the nose, but it doesn’t make it any less powerful. The film/music are rather awe-inspiring.
And when you see and hear and experience something that awe-inspiring and you’re not expecting it. Not expecting it at all. That’s something else. That’s why we livemusic, because you never know. Wednesday I had a chance to revisit the film and music as part of the free silent music series at Brookfield Place in downtown Manhattan. Knowing what was coming and the change of scenery meant that the experience, even though the music and film were identical, would be very different. And ain’t that fun? To experience something like that the second time and to experience how your experience is different, revel not quite in the absolutes, but in the deltas of the situation. This was, it should be said, the second time ever it had been performed, Big Ears being the first, so there’s the added edge of the fact that everyone (musicians, host John Schaefer, filmmaker, etc) was experiencing it for this quite-as-magical? second time. Pretty cool!
Friends, it still hit me pretty strongly! It was different! Knowing the “story” going in had me more attuned to the “foreshadowing.” The music actually sounded different to me. I didn’t remember how the first half was dominated so strongly by Mary’s atmospheric harp, how Tyler slowly takes over from her, so slowly you don’t even notice it’s happening. I felt like the first time there was more “negative” energy towards the advent of electricity to the region, whereas the second time felt more neutral or even cozy to the idea of progress. The setting as well, slightly brightly lit, essentially in teh atrium of a giant, high-end Manhattan mall, it seemed to real-time accentuate the capitalistic bent to “progress.” Wild how little changes can tweak your experience like that.
Mary Lattimore is my spirit animal, a great night. Plus free popcorn, fuck yeah!
Thursday!
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead @ Brooklyn Bowl 26Jan23
Every religion has it rituals and holidays, rites, culture, and customs, some more important than others, some more meaningful. If livemusic is my religion. Livemusic in NYC that is. Then the NYC Freaks are my congregation and events like “Joe Russo’s Almost Dead plays 10th anniversary show at Brooklyn Bowl” one of those important rituals that you kind of have to go to. To tell you the truth, for a while I didn’t want to go anywhere near this show, I was about as excited for this as I might be for Yom Kippur fasting. But as the date drew closer, the livemusic gods reminded me that, yes I had to be there and when it was finally upon me, the congregation, the customs, the ritualistic nature of the night was as cleansing and soul-fulfilling as that fast can be.
I won’t go into a full blow-by-blow, but I will say that the first set was… fine. It felt a little rough and forced at times, but the energy of the crowd tided things over and the appearance of is that fucking Bob fucking Weir on stage was an awe-inspiring “the emeritus rabbi is doing the sermon, he’s a bit shaky, but I remember why we loved him so” moment that I can’t believe I witnessed. The full-circle mindfuck of Weir on stage at that show was, well, a full-circle mindfuck of the highest order. The humans on the stage, in the crowd, those notable by their absences, the nonlinear lines drawn from then to now and back again. The first set was… fine.
The second set, on the other hand, was everything. Everything that was ever great about JRAD was there in full-force for the second set. The exploratory sonic fuck you! to the Grateful Dead catalog, the unbridled weirdness, the overlay of multiple songs, creating new songs in the overlaps and the gaps (how the fuck they do that!?), Joe Russo I-brought-my-own-rocket-fuel self-shooting himself from the launch pad at exit velocity like few can, Scott Metzger kind of owning the whole ordeal without ever asking or being asked, the non-Dead covers finding even more musical space, not needed, but not not needed either, especially the the-roots-of-our-roots-are-Zeppelin-duh! Everything! Totally fulfilling. All I needed. One day of fasting will do it for me, until the next one.
Friday!
Oscar Noriega’s Crooked Quartet @ Barbes 27Jan23
This quartet is so damn crooked, it was a quintet last week. Noriega with Marta Sanchez on piano, Jason Nazary on drums, Mathias Jensen on bass, and Caleb Curtis on an instrument I learned is called a “straight alto” saxophone… I liked to think of it, in my cheeky way, as a bass soprano sax, because that’s what it looked like.
This was magic yet again, my go-every-week philosophy paying off. Seeing Sanchez back on the piano bench after a couple weeks of Santiago Liebson made me appreciate her even more. Infosfar as you can be “Frisellian” on a piano, she is it. A gentleness to her playing that deceives her ability to go very deep with improvisation while keeping things dreamy and lovely. Wow! There is this song that they play that’s got this very complicated repeating riff and the past two weeks I’ve walked in in the middle of this song and it’s been a sheer ripsnort of sound, Liebson losing it at the piano. This week I was there earlier, so caught this from the start, but the difference in the piano section was so delightfully jarring.
The highlight of the set was this extended ballad, just gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. Lost-in-a-dream playing from everyone. Then Noriega says “I wrote that about my ex-wife!” Funny.
Cass McCombs @ Bowery Ballroom 27Jan23
Friday night was my first time to the Bowery for the year and first time seeing Cass McCombs in almost 4 years. There is something to be said about an artist who, even though it’s his name on the bill, sees himself as part of a band and thus surrounds himself with an amazing band. Every time I’ve seen McCombs this has been the case and it definitely was Friday. The group was Brian Betancourt on bass, Frank Locastro on keys, Austin Vaughn on drums, and then, just because of course, Shahzad Ismaily hopped on and off stage seemingly every other song just to make a good band even better. At this point, as a musician, you have to ask yourself why Ismaily isn’t playing in your band. Like, what the heck is wrong with you, bro?
The set was pulled largely from his latest album which, admittedly, is not his best, but is still pretty great. The set, like the record, was pretty laid back and I was pretty glad that we had gotten there early to get a sweet spot in the balcony with seats! Pretty rare get at the Bowery Ballroom! But the set had some extended moments, some let’s-get-weird! interludes, and then dipped just enough into back catalog to turn a on-the-mellow-side repertoire into a full-on dreamworld show. Really a superb set, he knows how to put on a show and the band killed it.
Saturday!
Joel Ross @ SEEDS::Brooklyn 28Jan23
There wasn’t a ton that was catching my eye for Saturday night and I was fine to just take one off and maybe, I dunno, what do normal people do?, watch TV? But I can’t resist the scroll of Tapped In and poked around at this show at a room called SEEDS. I had never been there, but a quick look at the trusty map link in the app (this app kicks ass!) pointed me to the fact that the venue was a very short walk from our apartment, the set started at 8 and would be an hour long, so… sure! Why the hell wouldn’t I go?!?!
Short walk to the room, step inside and it’s a very small (one might say “cozy!”) square room, filled front to back with folding chairs which were, when we arrived, almost all filled. But there was a futon couch in the back with one guy sitting on it and the door dude said to sit there and so we were indeed quite cozy in the back of the room on a rather comfy couch waiting for a show to start with the likes of Donny McCaslin and other musicians in the room.
I’ll cut to the chase, this set, the one I wasn’t going to go to until a short while before, this thing blew me the fuck away. Holy guacamole, it was very, very good. Joel Ross is a master vibraphonist and I knew it would be good, but his band was exceptional and the chemistry and interplay was next-level. That band included new-to-me (I think) Sean Mason on piano who was the major revelation (to me!) of the night. Then Joe Dyson on drums and Russell Hall on drums. They opened with a rather hypnotic number and the lazy Saturday/sitting on a couch energy had me drifting off and I figured I was in for a relaxing evening of mind’s-a-blur jazz. But man, that is not what happend. Not what happened at all. Because about midway through that song and for the rest of the hour it was just a nonstop torrent of awesome, an engorgement of music, happy, high-energy, brain’s-aflame music. The piece would introduce a theme, a riff, a melody, and then the band would toss it around a little, bass, drums, piano, vibes, and then it was into the rabbit hole, that theme popping back up in interesting, inventive new ways, but buried underneath truly inventive and unassociated improvisation. Insofar as improv goes, the way these pieces went was (and I truly hesitate to say this, don’t make me regret it!) very Phish like. These dudes were jamming in a jazz setting and instead of a lead guitar, there was a lead vibraphone, and the whole thing kind of blew my mind. And when Ross dropped out, Mason was left leading a trio that, if it had just been that trio all night, blew my mind in completely different ways. I didn’t think it wasn’t going to be good, but this was better than just a good set of jazz, it was a revelation of talent and chemistry in the tightest of confines. This isn’t the group that’s playing at the Vanguard next month, and maybe that group is just as good, but man, I wish, I wish it was.
Sunday!
Clube do Choro @ Barbes 29Jan23
Every Sunday afternoon, around the table in the front bar, there’s this open jam session where they play choro music. Don’t ask me what choro music is, but you can ask me if it’s awesome. Go ahead ask me!
yes, yes it is pretty awesome. I’ve seen this a few times and this week’s was the best one I’ve seen yet. When I got there there were two guys playing, one on a small ukulele kind of thing and one on a guitar, and they both were quite good soloists. Then a woman sat down with a flute and was a bit tentative and was like “I only want to play songs I know” so they asked her what she knew and every time they were psyched to play it and it was awesome, the three of them. Then another guy on guitar joined and then a trumpet and every addition was an addition. The music is just perfect chill afternoon music, hard not to love, the scene is Barbes at its best. Pretty great.
The 41 Players @ Skinny Dennis 29Jan23
41 Players is one of those bands that’s more a (NOLA) state of mind than a specific set of musicians and so their set at SD was with a few people I’ve never seen with them before, but it was no less party-time. Mardi Gras is around the corner, and they did their best to usher in the spirit, even in the weird confines of Skinny Dennis on a Saturday afternoon. Craig Dreyer (on sax) and Al street (on guitar), and Tony Mason (on drums) were standouts, but the band sounded great and it was, by far, the oldest average aged audience I’ve ever been a part of at Skinny Dennis.
Brad Mehldau, Dayna Stephens, Josh Evans, Christian McBride, Joe Farnsworth @ Village Vanguard (early set) 29Jan23
A friend texted me earlier in the week after catching the early/late sets off this residency and warned me that there were a lot of drums solos. So, in the back of my mind the entire night last night I was waiting for drums solos to come at me. Kind of a weird mindset, especially because there was exactly one drum solo and it literally came about 5 minutes before the end of the last song of the set. The rest of the set leading up to that I-can-take-it-or-leave-it drum solo was rather fantastic. If I had one complaint it’s that the presence of a sax and a trumpet took valuable time away from the core piano/bass(holy Christian McBride!)/drum trio who, when they were let loose (which was often), created some makes-my-brain-feel-good magic. But the horns had plenty of value add as well, I was particularly impressed with another new-to-me Evans on trumpet who created a lot of enjoyable narrative in his solos. McBride was wearing an Eagles sweatshirt and hat and seemed particularly happy at the start of the set.
I thought there was a chance we might get some Beatles stuff because Mehdlau has a Beatles covers album forthcoming, but it was almost all instrumentals, almost all sort of mid-paced stuff, all in a very enjoyable, relaxing, makes-you-work-just-enough Sunday-sweet-spot space.
One thing you don’t often enounter outside the Village Vanguard is a random middle-aged woman coming up to you and saying “holy fuck!” after a set, but if you need a short review, I think that will suffice.
Simon Moullier, Alexander Claffey, Jongkuk Kim, {uncredited pianist} @ Ornithology 31Jan23
Closed out a rather engorging livemusic January catching the early show at Ornithology. I gotta tell you, I freakin love the early show! It pairs well with working from home and a reasonable bedtime and the quality is very much up there with prime time programming. This was my second trip to Ornithology, which is sort of in the corner of several neighborhoods, technically in Bushwick, and not the easiest place to get to. I think the crowd there is mostly locals, which makes it a bit on the young side — I think was the youngest person there by at least 10 years — but, like, a decently-filled room at 6:45 on a Monday to see jazz? Best damn livemusic city in the history of the universe!
The band was Moullier’s. Him on vibraphone, Claffey on bass, Kim on drums and a dude that was not listed on the website and who’s name, every time Simon said it, I could not catch. Ah well. The set was entirely originals, many of them from an album he said was coming out in a couple weeks. Not sure if it’s the same band or not. They kind of teetered between needed direction (like they never played together) and settling in nicely without much effort (like they played together often). The band, the music, the crowd, the vibe… all excellent. Most of the musicians were new to me and I will be seeking them out for sure. Ornithology is a great room, not only with low-key jazz every night, but an early 6:30–8:30 two-setter every night (in addition to a different band playing 9-midnight. Get out of your geographic comfort zone and check it out.
