Secret Society

I've been sizing you up and stuff

People often do not believe me when I tell them that the real reason I started a bigband after moving to New York was peer pressure. But I am not kidding when I say that putting together an 18-piece ensemble to play my own music started to seem a lot more reasonable in light of the fact that basically everyone I knew was also doing it. New York is blessed (or cursed, I guess, take your pick) with a staggering number of composer-led, progressive-minded bigbands, and now, thanks to my Pulse colleague JC Sanford, those bands have a home.

The "Size Matters" series, curated by the estimable Mr. Sanford, runs every Monday night at the Tea Lounge in Park Slope (sets at 9:00 PM & 10:30 PM). The series launched earlier this year and features a different Brobdingnagian beast every week -- I've been to several shows I've been uniformly blown away by the writing and playing.

The September schedule is here -- there are some great hits coming up, including bands led by Jeff Fairbanks, Javier Arau, JC himself, and another Pulsekateer, Jamie Begian. In October it's Asuka Kakitani, Russ Spiegel, Noriko Ueda , and Gary Morgan & PanAmericana. Great things are happening in this space. Plus, you basically have no excuse not to come because there is no cover. Although I know I can count on you to do the right thing by these hardworking bigbandleaders and drop at least five bucks (the "suggested donation") in the tip jar.

Incestuous and vain, and many other last names

It is not entirely clear to me what the point of having a blog is if you can't use it to occasionally give a shout-out to your friends and colleagues. So, in that spirit...

Trumpeter and Secret Society alumnus André Canniere is briefly back in NYC, and has gotten the old gang back together -- Josh Rutner, Ryan Ferreira, Ike Sturm, Ted Poor -- for a gig at Saint Peter's Church this Thursday, April 16. 8 PM hit, suggested donation $5. You'll help me welcome the old boy back to Gotham, won't you? You can download a track from the André's 2006 joint As Of Yet here.

And, on the new-bigband tip, my Pulse colleagues have some minty-fresh large ensemble CDs for you:

JC Sanford and his co-leader, David Schumacher, have unleashed the debut CD from their 17-piece behemoth Sound Assembly. Edge of the Mind (Beauport Jazz) features a killing band (anchored by John Hollenbeck on drums) and deftly integrates an almost dizzying array of compositional variety. (Samples here or on MySpace.)

Meanwhile, Joe Phillips has a new, insanely ambitious release out on Innova. Sometimes I think cat-herding 18 musicians is Sisyphean, but Joe's own band is 25-strong. (Gah!) The very un-bigband-y palette includes five singers, seven strings, two vibraphones, two pianos, two guitars, and no drumset. Joe is one of the first composers I met in New York -- in fact, I met him before I even moved here, back when I was Fung Wah-ing my way into town every week for the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop. He is the guy who deserves the credit -- or the blame, I guess -- for convincing me that minimalism didn't suck, and that (post)minimalist-inflected jazz was viable. This new disc, Vipassana is flat-out gorgeous -- just listen to the excerpts here.

Finally, not to be left behind, Jamie Begian returns to the scene with a new bigband record of his own -- coming "sometime in the summer of 2009." Watch this space -- or, you know, this space -- and I'll sound the alarm when it drops. His previous outing, 2003's Trance, is formidable.

This ain't Amsterdam, Vince

Fresh off their CMJ Showcase, there is much in the way of New Amsterdam goings-on this week. First, Corey Dargel's new disc, Other People's Love Songs, drops on Tuesday. You have seen this video for "All Other Sounds (For Brian From Molly)," yes? (Wait, you haven't? Watch, then:)

The CD launch show is this Wednesday, Oct. 29 at LPR -- doors 9 PM. NOW Ensemble are opening, and will also be the, ah, "backup band" for Corey's set. Corey wrote most of the arrangements but kindly invited Nick Brooke and yrs trly to contribute as well -- Nick arranged "Hurry Up and Settle Down (For Damon From Jenn)" and I did "Lullaby (For 45x From Rachel)."

Also, NewAm co-honcho Sarah Kirkland Snider and playwright Ellen McLaughlin (who you probably remember as the Angel in Angels in America) have a new music/theatre piece, Penelope, which runs from Oct. 29 through Nov. 1 at NYU's Labowitz Theater. It's a one-woman-plus-string-quartet show, starring McLaughlin and directed by Lisa Rothe.

I've seen all good people

Sherisse Rogers, originally uploaded by Lindsay Beyerstein.

What's the opposite of schadenfreude?

Sherisse Rogers has won the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Composers Competition. She won for her piece "Transitions" for bigband and string quartet, featuring Joel Frahm. (It's on her CD.) This is awesome and well-deserved. Sherisse is a longtime friend and huge influence on my writing. She is also among the composers featured in the Jazz Gallery's Large Ensemble Commissioning Program this year. Sherisse's Project Uprising bigband is at the Jazz Gallery Feb. 27 & 28, 2009 -- save the date.

Also, Lindsay has been recognized by Project Censored in their annual list of Top 25 Censored Stories. Her investigative piece for In These Times on the Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act is #6.

I'm trapped in a world before later on

There's an overwhelming volume of great shows coming up in the next few weeks.

The above photo is from Donny McCaslin's Aug. 27 trio hit at the 55 Bar, which was seriously one of the best things I have seen all year. I've been avidly listening to Donny live and on record for almost fifteen years now and I've never heard him sound like that. As you probably know, he has a terrific new album out on Greenleaf -- there are some streaming tracks here -- but this is really the kind of music that needs be experienced live. (Especially if you are under the mistaken impression that the saxophone trio is a played-out lineup.) The bassist on the 55 Bar hit was Ricky Rodriguez, who knocked it out of the park in his first-ever gig with Donny. He and Ted Poor are doing the "official" record release hit with Donny at Jazz Standard on Sept. 30.

Donny's label-mate and my fellow Canadian, bassist Michael Bates, is doing his own record launch, at Cornelia St. this Saturday, Sept. 13. He's joined by Quinsin Nachoff, a fantastic saxophonist and colleague of mine from way back when.

Also this Saturday, it's opening day of FONT (the Festival of New Trumpet Music), paying tribute to cult trumpet god Wadada Leo Smith. FONT runs through Sept. 28 and is brought to you by Greenleaf honcho Dave Douglas, and I've said before, it has by far the best programming of any jazz festival in New York, and is not to be slept on. Tons of great new music coming up at Cornelia St. (including Nabaté Isles) and LPR (including a sweet Avishai Cohen/Amir ElSaffar double-bill), while the Jazz Standard has Society co-conspirators Ingrid Jensen and Tim Hagans paying tribute to the tragic great Woody Shaw. Plus a trumpet-saturated Anti-Social Music afternoon at St. Marks Church called (naturally) "ASM Blows!!"

And also also this Saturday we have NYC new music supergroup Signal (who made their debut at this year's Bang on a Can Marathon) doing an all-Reich Wordless show at LPR. Hmm, all of my favorite NYC new music hotshots together in the same band, playing Music for 18 and You Are in a club? What could possibly be done to improve this situation? (Well, honestly, draught beer that costs less than $7/pint, but you know, Art requires certain sacrifices.)

If you ain't in the itinerary

I am glad I finally have a minute this summer to go hear some music, because there's some great stuff coming up this week:

Tonight (Tuesday 19 August - also Wednedsay night) at Smalls: Kurt Rosenwinkel & Aaron Parks Quartet w/ Matt Penman & Kendrick Scott (8:00 & 11:00 PM)

Tomorrow (Wednesday 20 August) at Public Assembly (ex-Galapagos): groups led by Tim Collins and Jaleel Shaw (w/Mike Moreno, Ben Williams, and Johnathan Blake). 8:00 PM

Friday 22 August - jazz night at the J&R Music Fest at City Hall Park featuring Aaron Parks (who has a new record out today), Esperanza Spalding, the Caribbean Jazz Project feat. Dave Samuels, and Roy Hargrove. Free!

Saturday 23 August and Sunday 24 August - the 16th annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. Saturday is at Marcus Garvey Park and features Barry Harris, Charles McPherson, Vanessa Rubin, Rashied Ali, and Robert Glasper. Sunday is at Tompkins Square Park and the lineup is Randy Weston, Jerry Gonzalez and Fort Apache, Eric Lewis, and Gretchen Parlato. Also free!

My writeup and pictures of last year's Charlie Parker fest are here.

Cross the streams

Assuming non-electric skies tomorrow, I hope to see you at the first-ever, free, outdoor Counterstream Radio/New Amsterdam Records shebang (part of this year's East River Music Project). 2 PM kickoff at the East River Amphitheatre.

It is a lineup packed w/nu-classical excellence:

itsnotyouitsme

Mark Dancigers

Timberbrit

Alex Sopp

Matt Marks and the Li’l Death Band

N.B.: bigger audience = definitely better, so don't y'all sleep on this.

That's what's made, well made is on my workshop

The BMI Jazz Composers Workshop (of which I am an alumnus) is holding its year-end concert at Merkin Hall tonight. Society co-conspirator Tom Goehring is among the nominees for this year's Charlie Parker Award and Manny Albam Commission. Concert is free, and a great opportunity to hear some up-and-coming composers.

Also tonight -- Joe Phillips brings a somewhat scaled-down, intimate version of Numinous (and by "scaled-down," I mean 10 players instead of 25+) to the Brooklyn Lyceum.

Final night - New Languages Festival

My sincerest thanks to those who came out to hear us late last night. A reminder that the New Languages Festival wraps tonight with performances by Aaron Ali Shaikh (w/Michael Formanek, bass & Randy Peterson, drums), TOTEM> (Bruce Eisenbeil, guitar; Tom Blancarte, bass & Andrew Drury, drums) and Chris Speed, Skuli Sverrison & Jim Black. Awesome music, great vibe, low price.

New Languages Festival kicks off tonight

Our hit is tomorrow, but this year's New Languages Festival launches tonight at 9 PM with sets by The Color Now (Ty Cumbie, guitar; Daniel Carter, winds; Adam Lane, bass; Lukas Ligeti, drums) at 8 PM, Miles Okazaki (w/David Binney & Christof Knoche, saxes; Jen Shyu, voice; Hans Glawischnig, bass; Dan Weiss, drums) at 9 PM, and Tyshawn Sorey (w/Ben Gerstein, trombone; Todd Neufeld, guitar; Chris Tordini, bass) at 10 PM. Assuming all goes well and I get all my advance shit together, I'm going to try to make it down for the big opening. Massive props to Jackson Moore, Aaron Ali Shaikh, and Ty Cumbie for all of their hard work in putting this festival together -- it takes a lot of blood and sweat to make a scrappy DIY festival like this happen.

The New Languages Festival is at the Living Theatre (21 Clinton St. between Houston & Stanton) tonight through Saturday. $10 a night, or $25 for all three.

Can I get an encore do you want more

Several people have written to ask if I am planning on liveblogging the Bang On A Can Marathon again this year.

The answer is simple:

OH HELLS NO.

I did my turn. It's on someone else this year. I will be there, taking notes and taking pictures, and will probably put up a little something something after the fact (amidst a wash of other rent-paying responsibilities), but I would also like to be able to actually enjoy hanging out at year's marathon without the additional stress of having to bang out a frantic liveblog update after each set concludes.

Gravity on me never let me down

Did y'all catch Matana Roberts being interviewd on WNYC's Soundcheck last week? It's a good interview, with some nice commentary on her recent CD The Chicago Project. If you missed the broadcast, you can listen here.

During the interview, the seemingly inevitable "women in jazz" question came up. This isn't really a topic that lends itself to radio-friendly soundbite answers -- Matana rightly points out that there are a lot of first-tier female horn players on the jazz scene right now, but for the more fully-realized version of her thoughts on gender and music, you should check her new video blog -- I am not yet ready to use the word "vlog" in earnest.

Yes, the video is split into four quadrants of Warholian colors -- if that bugs you, you can always, you know, avert your eyes and listen to the words.

Matana's new (or new to me, at least) drummerless trio GRACE (Gabriel Guerrero, piano; Kevin Tkacz, bass) is at the Jazz Gallery on May 31.

Also at the Jazz Gallery, this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday -- Henry Threadgill's ZOOID, a sextet that was first unveiled on the 2001 disc Up Popped The Two Lips. The band still features guitarist Liberty Ellman and cellist Dana Leong, but the 2008 edition adds a few new players to the mix, including the fearsome Stomu Takeishi on electric bass.

If you're not planning on catching this gig, I'm honestly not sure why you are reading my blog.

You'll listen and you'll like it

The Ensemble de Sade - 8 PM tonight at the First Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn Heights (124 Henry).

Because there is no art without suffering.

Drawn to all things

Matana Roberts is bringing her blood narrative, Coin Coin, to Brooklyn's Issue Project Room tomorrow night (Thursday, Oct. 11), assisted by Jessica Pavone and Amelia Hollander (viola), Shoko Nagai (piano), Thomson Kneeland (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), and Daniel Givens (video).

I will be on hand to moderate/instigate a post-concert discussion, which will no doubt touch on some of the thorny personal, political, and social issues Matana has been exploring on her amazing blog, Shadows of a People.

Coin Coin is deeply moving and personal music. Hope to see you there.

A new typeface, a new day

Regular readers surely need no reminder that New York's most excellent jazz festival kicks off tomorrow at venues all over Manhattan and Brooklyn. Curators Dave Douglas and Taylor Ho Bynum have posts on their respective blogs highlighting some of the upcoming brassy goodness.

Naturally, you can also befriend the festival on MySpace.

Body Art

Corey Dargel has been hard at work this year putting together his first stage piece, Removable Parts, which opens tomorrow at the Here Arts Center. Corey is aided and abetted by pianist Kathleen Suppové and director Emma Griffin. Like the tagline says, Removable Parts is a series of love songs about voluntary amputation.

Corey invited me to contribute program notes for this piece, which I was delighted to do — you can read them here. Having heard the music and sat in on rehearsal, I'm very excited about seeing it all come together on opening night. The show runs until Sept. 15 -- get your tickets now.

Now the whole wide world is movin'

I am fairly confident that this is going to be all kinds of awesome:

At the Tea Lounge (837 Union St. in Park Slope) tomorrow (Friday) night.  Admission by donation. Sets at 9 PM and 10:30 PM.

Andrew D'Angelo. Curtis Hasselbring.

André Canniere @ Bar 4

Tomorrow night (Sunday, Aug. 25), Society co-conspirator André Canniere returns to the scene with a hit at Park Slope's Bar 4. Ignore the seriously appalling cocktail menu (nothing that combines flavored vodka, schnapps, and sour mix should ever be billed as a "Martini") and go for the music, which promises to be much more refreshing — Canniere's band for this hit includes his fellow co-conspirator Sam Sadigursky (reeds), Ryan Ferreira (guitar), Ike Sturm (bass), and Tommy Crane (drums).

Last year, I posted an MP3 from Canniere's debut recording, As Of Yet, and it is still available for your listening pleasure.

7:00 PM hit. Suggested donation — $5.

Give us this day

On Sunday afternoon, Society co-conspirator Josh Sinton brings his Steve Lacy project, Ideal Bread, to Café Grumpy in Greenpoint (193 Meserole Ave). Ideal Bread is Josh, Kirk Knuffke, Reuben Radding, and Tomas Fujiwara. No cover.

The band is named after a characteristically charming and epigrammatic Lacy quote:

"... I have to remake it, I have to do better.  Today's bread isn't good for tomorrow.  I'm always looking for the bread that I had the idea about . . . the ideal bread."

Josh studied with Lacy from the time he returned to the US in 2002 until just before his untimely death in 2004. Back in January, Josh contributed a wonderful guest post on what it means for him to perform Lacy's music with Ideal Bread. If you missed it the first time, go read it now.

All I'm askin' is for

The seriously entertaining Respect Sextet is at The Tank tonight, in a double bill with Dave Crowell's Naked Brunch, playing separately, and together. As you know, Respect includes Society co-conspirator James HIrschfeld on trombone and Matt Clohesy on bass, along with Josh Rutner (tenor sax), Eli Asher (trumpet), Red Wierenga (keys), and Ted Poor (drums). Naked Bruch is Crowell (alto sax), Grey McMurray (guitar), Mike Chiavaro (electric bass), and Jason Nazary (drums).

I previously posted some MP3s from Respect's first two records -- if you didn't get them the first time, they are still available.

7 PM hit, $10 cover.

Matt Shulman @ Jazz Standard

Occasional Society co-conspirator Matt Shulman is playing Jazz Standard tonight and tomorrow -- this is the official NYC launch for his newish disc So It Goes. I wrote about Matt's trio (which includes Society co-conspirator Matt Clohesy on bass and Jason Wildman on drums) back in December when they played Union Hall -- his unlikely blend of intimate singer-songwriter vulnerability and acrobatic nu-jazz swagger is something to behold.

Tuesday July 23 and Wednesday July 24 - two sets each night (7:30 PM & 9:30 PM). $20 cover.

As long as I'm making my music ain't gonna do nobody no harm.

Because what New York really needs is more free summer shows.

Of particular note for readers of this blog:

The Respect Sextet play J. Hood Wright Park, 335 Fort Washington Ave (at W 175th St) from 5:30 PM-9:00 PM.

Lily Maase and Brian Adler Project play on Bleecker St (at Thompson St) from 4:00 PM-6:00 PM.

Manhattan Samba play Jackson Square Park, Greenwitch Ave (at Horatio St) from 8:00 PM-10:00 PM.

Composers Collaborative play Terry Riley's In C in the middle of Cornelia Street from 6:00 PM -8:00 PM.

-----

Not part of Make Music New York, but still free today:

Lizz Wright at MetroTech (sponsored by BAM) -- 12:00 PM.

Richard Thompson in Prospect Park -- 7:00 PM.

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Not free, but important:

The Vision Festival continues tonight and runs through Sunday.

The drug of a nation

So the 1970's punk/new wave supergroup reunion I'm actually excited about happens tomorrow -- Television is playing Central Park Summerstage. For free. Hopefully with Richard Lloyd, although I'm very saddened (and a bit disturbed) to learn about his recent health troubles. Although Television only released two records (both of them gems) back in the day, they have been getting together again off and on since '92. But this Central Park hit was supposed to be Richard Lloyd's farewell to Television, so I sincerely hope he's well enough to make it out for at least a couple of tunes. That said, dude's just coming off eight days of intensive care, so I doubt anyone will hold it against him if he decides to sit this one out. Get well, Richard.

Anyway, it's recently come to my attention that a lot of you jazzy/new music types don't necessarily know about Television. They are basically responsible for kicking off the scene at CB's in the 1970's, but I guarantee you they don't sound anything like the speedy, sloppy sound you probably associate with early New York punk. First off, they were all virtuoso players -- Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine are bona-fide guitar heroes, but not in the overwrought post-Jimmy Page shredder mode, or in the proggy, heady Robert Fripp mode either. Both of them found new ways to solo that were less about flash and more about slow burn. But their sinewy, intertwining rhythm parts are really where it's at -- the classic example being the long-short chordal stabs vs. the back-and-forth double-stop sixteenths that open "Marquee Moon." (Did I mention that this song, their biggest "hit," is ten minutes long? Did I mention they are considered a punk band?)

Here are some of my favorite bits from Alan Licht's awesome liner notes for the reissue of Marquee Moon:

Verlaine wanted to work with Rudy Van Gelder, who'd recorded dozens of classic Blue Note jazz records in his small studio in New Jersey. This was perhaps too out of left field for even a CBGB band, so Fred Smith played a bunch of Stones and Zeppelin records for Verlaine and told him the same guy, Andy Johns, recorded all of them.

[...]

Lloyd remembers Andy's introduction to Television's aesthetic:

We got to the studio on 48th St. Andy wasn't there... but the drums were set up -- we were wondering about that. A long time later Andy comes in and says, "Sorry I'm late. I came in early yesterday and set the drums up; let me play it for you." He plays the tape of the drums. All of a sudden out of the speakers comes the John Bonham drum sound, that huge, compressed, smacked sound. Tom shook his head and said, "No, no, no, no, no, you've got to take all that down -- that's got to go. We don't want that drum sound." And Andy was flabbergasted, saying, "I thought you hired me for that. That's my trademark. So what the hell am I doing here?" We said, "We want a dry sound, no reverb, no giant compression -- nice, tight, smaller kit." Andy didn't know what to make of it. We said, "We hired you because you did all these great guitar records and because you're a master engineer." And that kind of softened him a bit. "Oh, it's a New York thing, right? Like a Velvets thing, right?" he said, undoing all the things he had done and starting over again.

[...]

One of the reasons for this is Lloyd's skill at developing written-out solos "that had a melody and a plot... a kind of playwriting." He was also fond of The Beatles' use of double-tracked vocals and wanted to transfer it to lead guitars, "instead of using chorus or delay." So, with his solos already worked out, he adeptly double-tracked them. Andy tried to convince Tom to double-track his solos too, but it was too difficult for Verlaine to remember what he had exactly played, given his spontaneous approach. The enduring quality of the Verlaine/Lloyd guitar teaming is due to the effective contrast of their techniques."

[...]

The song ["Venus"] starts off with a sped-up tango beat and shifts into an almost classical, cascading dual guitar figure that Tom wrote on piano. "I thought two guitars could be the left and right hand of a piano, so that concept was different for a guitar band."

[...]

Marquee Moon closes with "Torn Curtain," perhaps the moodiest song on either Television record. Verlaine's concept was a ballad with "weird chords, because the song before is like a '50s major-chord song and I wanted this contrast. I heard some Stravinsky in the '70s 'cause some guy in a club said, 'God, you guys sound like Stravinsky.' So I went and bought three Stravinsky records for a dollar apiece, and I still had no idea what this guy was talking about [laughs], except for these weird chords."

Interested now? Okay, here is a pretty good video someone has made to accompany the alternate take of "Marquee Moon":

Night Vision

Just an early heads-up about this year's Vision Festival. If you've never been, it's kind of like Coachella for the Destination: Out set. Except with significantly less camping.

It runs June 19-24 at the beautiful Angel Orensanz Center, a former synagogue turned arts space on the Lower East Side. (It's a big space and the sound there can get a bit washy, so be sure to get there early so you can get up close.) Every year, the festival bestows a lifetime recognition award on an overlooked master -- this year, it goes to trumpeter Bill Dixon. I'm not all that familiar with Dixon's music, but Taylor Ho Bynum has a superb post talking about how much Bill Dixon's music has influenced his own -- he puts Dixon's album November 1981 right up there with In a Silent Way, A Love Supreme, The Rite of Spring, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Too Much Sugar for a Dime, Braxton’s Willisau Quartet, The Far East Suite, and Sign ‘O’ The Times. Dixon is premiering new works with the 17-piece Sound Vision Orchestra, which includes Bynum on cornet. I hope he will blog about the experience of putting this music together.

Other Vision Fest highlights include a 50-violin tribute to the late Leroy Jenkins (that's "Leroy Jenkins," not "Leeroy Jenkins"), premieres by Roy Campbell, Nicole Mitchell, and festival founder William Parker, and sets by Fieldwork, Marc Ribot, Marilyn Crispell, Tim Berne, Matthew Shipp, Fred Anderson, Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone, Myra Melford, Corey Wilkes, and Hamid Drake. There's even a poetry-plus-music project headlined by none other than Amiri Baraka. (I'm sure Stanley Crouch will be on hand to check that out.)

The full Vision Festival lineup can be found here. I'm going to the opening night on Tuesday and the Bill Dixon tribute on Wednesday (and might possibly be back for another night if I can find the time), and I'll be posting photos and a review here. Somebody asked me if I was going to follow up my Bang on a Can Marathon coverage by liveblogging the entire 6-day Vision Festival. This person either has an excellent sense of humor or is trying to kill me.

My photos from last year's Vision Fest are here.

The laugh that floats on a summer night that you can never quite recall

Ran Blake is making a rare NYC solo piano appearance at CIM on Thursday night. You really have no excuse to miss this -- Ran's solo piano record All That Is Tied was among the of the best releases of 2006, but Ran live is another thing entirely. It's no secret that Ran is personally and musically mercurial, but when he is on he is unreal. No one has a surer command of dynamics and pedal effects -- Ran has built up an entire vocabulary around extracting impossible-to-replicate sounds from the piano. His gift for daring harmonic juxtapositions and elliptic musical storytelling is unmatched. There is absolutely no one like him, and if you've never heard him play in person, you, uh, really need to fix that. My music sounds nothing like Ran's -- no one else's music could ever sound anything like Ran's -- but his cinematic approach to musical structure is a huge inspiration. Not to mention his big ears and big heart.

May 17, 8:30 PM, CIM. $15/$10 students.

Vipassana

My Pulse colleague Joe Phillips's brilliant, sprawling, massively ambitious and deeply moving Vipassana will be performed at Makor tonight. Joe's music is thoroughly compelling on a purely aesthetic plane, but perhaps it's also worth noting, in light of this discussion, that it also completely destroys stereotypes of what music written by an African-American composer is supposed to sound like.

If you're unfamiliar with Joe's work, get thee to his MySpace page. His music, his drive, and his friendship have meant a lot to me. My own music would be very different (and much poorer) if we'd never met.

You must sing more sad

Founding Secret Society co-conspirator Sebastian Noelle brings his new band, Koan, to Cornelia Street tonight. The lineup is killing, as you can see above -- Loren, Thomson, and Ted all bring their own formidable personalities to bear on Sebastian's intricately plotted tunes. Seb's got more details about the music he's written for this group up on his website.

8:30 PM hit.

Kickin' like Kermit

You know Kermit Driscoll -- he's the one laying it down on all your favorite Bill Frisell records, and many more outstanding sessions besides, including two albums with New and Used, the group he co-led with Dave Douglas. Kermit has played on (and continues to play on) a staggering number of records that were vitally important to my development as a musician, and though I've never met him in person, I owe him a lot.

Back in the mid-1990's, Kermit was out on a hike in the New Jersey hinterlands when he got bitten by a deer tick. Thereafter, he started to develop some nasty chronic symptoms -- aching joints, throbbing headaches, fever -- that eventually began to really slow him down. But it wasn't until August 2005 that Driscoll's doctors finally connected the right dots and realized he'd been infected with Lyme Disease -- but by this time, the disease had become very advanced, very debilitating, and very expensive to treat.

The good news is that the treatment appears to be working -- while he's still very much up and down, Kermit has recently been able to return to (limited) performing. I saw him with the John Hollenbeck Big Band at IAJE and he sounded outstanding. But thanks to the absurdities of the US health care system, he's now faced with massive medical bills far beyond his ability to pay, or his insurance company's willingness to cover. (And this is despite having "good" health insurance via the Musician's Union.)

This Monday, January 29, at Tonic, there will be a benefit concert featuring groups led by Bill Frisell, John Zorn, John Patitucci, and John Hollenbeck -- 7:30 PM hit. Tickets are $23 in advance or $25 at the door, with all proceeds going to help Driscoll in his time of need. Please come out and lend your support.

For those unable to make it or not in NY -- consider mailing in a tax-decutable donation to:

Kermit Driscoll Emergency Relief Fund
ATTN: Bill Dennison
Musicians Union Local 802
322 West 48th Street
New York, N.Y. 10036

Go cat go, high and down low

Stalwart co-conspirator Josh Sinton will be part of the following, totally killing, totally free show, tonight at The Lucky Cat in Billyburg:

7:30 PM
THPT -- Taylor Ho Bynum (you read his blog, right?), Pete Fitzpatrick, Thompson Kneeland, Harris Eisenstadt
swaying to the gentle strains of Jimi Hendrix

9:00 PM
Ideal Bread -- Josh Sinton, Kirk Knuffke, Reuben Radding, Tomas Fujiwara
rockin' the music of Steve Lacy

10:30 PM
TIN/BAG Quartet -- Mike Baggetta, Kris Tiner, Brian Walsh, Harris Eisenstadt
making their own special brand of sounds

Again, no cover (though hats will be passed and support will no doubt be gratefully and graciously accepted).

I saw Ideal Bread back in December at Jimmy's Restaurant. I didn't have time to blog about the hit at the time, but I was very impressed and asked Josh to submit his thoughts on the gig:

Why do I perform Steve Lacy’s music?

I have three reasons for doing this. The first reason is simply to honor and promote the artist Steve Lacy. I met Steve my last year in school and studied with him and he kind of changed my life. I had never met such a unified human being. By that, I mean he’s was all of a piece. The way he walked, played, wrote and talked were almost all interchangeable. When he walked down the hall, I could almost hear one of his songs in my head, and when he talked, it was eerily similar to when he played his saxophone. He came to mean an enormous amount to me as a teacher, composer and friend even though I only knew him for a little over two years. As for promoting him, Steve’s compositions are a unique and very American contribution to the world. While he might evoke other composers, no one else wrote what he wrote. Once you start listening to his music, you can instantly recognize one of his compositions as easily as one of Monk’s, Ellington’s or Webern’s. And there’s a lot of this material (anywhere from 300-500 compositions depending on who you aks) to choose from. No one else is regularly playing his music (yes, occasionally) so it struck me as fertile material for exploration and promotion. I looked at Lacy’s music and realized that maybe I could do a little for his music what he did for Thelonious Monk’s music.

Read the rest below the fold...

Bright Mississippi

Matana Roberts's Mississippi Moonchile is at Tonic tonight, presenting Chapter 2 of an ongoing musical narrative called Coin Coin. Hank Shteamer talks with Matana about the project here:

The project takes its name from her maternal forebear Marie Thérèze Coincoin, a fabled Southern figure who, living as a free black woman in mid-18th-century Louisiana, bought her children out of slavery. Various Coin Coin installments have also dealt with Roberts’s paternal relatives in Mississippi and her family’s participation in the Great Migration.

[...]

“Coincoin was the first example of the strong female archetype that I was ever given as a child,” she says. “She had no business acumen and no education and just learned by observing. But there are a lot of discrepancies in the documentation [of her], so I’m also trying to touch on lore.”

[...]

Each of the many musical episodes that make up the wonderfully moving follow-up, Mississippi Moonchile—which Roberts will reprise at Tonic on Tuesday 5—was named after one of her Southern ancestors. The saxist based the narration in the piece on interviews with her octogenarian paternal grandmother. “She has this really thick, beautiful Mississippi accent that I still can’t decipher,” she says with fond exasperation. “For a while, I kept asking, ‘What’d you say?’ But she was getting annoyed, so I just wrote exactly what I heard.”

She's joined by Shoko Nagai (piano), Hill Green (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Beatrice Anderson (voice) & Jason Palmer (trumpet).

8 PM at Tonic. $10.

Imaginary itineraries

Lots of good music coming up in the next couple of days...

Tonight at Barbès (8 PM hit), Secret Society co-conspirator Josh Sinton unleashes his new band, Ideal Bread, a group dedicated to the music of the late and much-lamented Steve Lacy. Josh studied with Lacy and knows his music intimately, and he and Kirk Knuffke (trumpet), Reuben Radding (bass), and Tomas Fujiwara (drums) have spent a long time getting inside this music. Here's how Josh describes the hit:

The evening's show will be filled with songs about art, gymnastics, love, philosophy, food, garbage, marriage, wine, tobacco, literature, oration, protestation, defenestration, New York, Paris, Rome, New Jersey and all points in between, outside of and inclusive of.

Also tonight at the Good Shepherd-Faith Church (6:30 PM reception -- free wine, y'all; 7:30 PM hit) is the second installment of the innovative Wordless Music series, featuring Albuquerque-based postrockers A Hawk and a Hacksaw, violinist and indie darling Andrew Bird, and classical pianist Stephen Beck playing an all-Bach program. (I reviewed the first Wordless Music hit here.)

Tomorrow (Thursday, Nov 16) at The Tank (9:30 PM hit), Corey Dargel and Kamala Sankaram perform apart and together. In addition to your favorite tunes from Less Famous Than You (reviewed here), and some timely "policy anthems," Corey will be premiering a set of songs about the Virgin Mary, presented in collaboration with violinist Jim Altieri -- by all accounts, Corey and Jim stole the show at the American Composers Orchestra hit last month. Meanwhile, Kamala's band Squeezebox will present the live musical accompaniment to an original film, bloodletting, an expressionistic horror flick about the struggle for artistic survival -- and just plain survival. But before all of that, Corey and Kamala will open with a pair of songs from Nick Brooke's chamber opera Tone Test.

Meanwhile, that same night, back at Barbès (8 PM), singer Monika Heideman -- whose record has already been flagged by the Boston Phoenix as the "the jazz-vocal debut of the year... make that the jazz debut of the year... make that the debut of the year" -- returns to Brooklyn with her regular lineup: Khabu (guitar), Erik Deutsch (keyboards), Reuben Radding (bass), and Take Toriyama (drums). Monika also studied with Lacy, and may even sing some of his music if you ask real nice-like.

See also this Destination Out post on Lacy's recordings with Mal Waldron.

Artist In Residence

The insanely multitalented Erica vonKleist has her first NYC art opening tonight at the Greenwich Village Bistro. You can preview some of her paintings on her website. She will be performing from 7:30 PM - 10:30 PM with Jamie Reynolds (keyboard), Dan Loomis (bass), and Sara Caswell (violin). No cover.

I got my laundry on the back seat and an itinerary too

The fourth annual Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) opens tonight with a triple-bill (Ben Neill, Eric Biondo, and the Vector Trio at Rose in Williamsburg) and runs for a whole month. Highlights include:

• Festival curator Dave Douglas and Roy Campell in a tribute to Don Cherry at Merkin Hall tomorrow night
• Secret Society co-conspirator Ingrid Jensen and my old Banff buddy Lina Allemano at Jazz Standard on Thursday, September 21
• Cuong Vu on Tuesday, October 3 and Jonathan Finlayson on Thursday, October 5, both at Makor
• Ralph Alessi at Tonic on Sunday, October 8
• Secret Society co-conspirator Jacob Varmus on Wednesday October 11, and Montreal-based Gordon Allen with Nate Wooley on Thursday October 12, and John McNeil + Ron Horton on Friday, October 13, all at Cornelia Street

I'm just barely scratching the surface of the amazing lineup -- go check it out for yourself. FONT is clearly the most exciting annual jazz festival in the city.

• • •

Also tomorrow (Saturday), my Pulse colleague JC Sanford and his co-leader David Schumacher bring their new music big band, Sound Assembly, to the Spark Café and Arts Center. The killer lineup includes John Hollenbeck on drums and (in the incestuous way of NYC big bands) a sizable contingent of Society co-conspirators including Dan Wills, Ben Kono, Mike Fahie, Mark Patterson, Jason Colby, and Dave Rezek.

• • •

Sunday, September 17 - Tortoise at the Bowery Ballroom. Apart from the composers I've studied with personally, Tortoise is probably the single biggest influence on Secret Society. And yet, somehow, I've never managed to catch them live. This changes on Sunday.

• • •

Monday, September 18 - Wordless Music featuring Glenn Kotche and Nels Kline (who are apparently in some band together or something), performing with Jenny Lin and Elliott Sharp, at the Good Shepherd-Faith Church (152 West 66th Street). Tickets ($20) available online here. This is the first concert in a new series curated by Ronen Givony, who invited me to check out Monday's event. Here's more info from his email:

The project is called The Wordless Music Series. The idea, in a word, is to pair classical and instrumental indie-rock or electronic artists in an intimate chamber music setting. The intention is to bring together two divergent audiences, and to explore the many similarities and concerns these sound worlds share. Above all, my hope is to demonstrate that it's really one big continuum of music, and that everyone has something to learn from each other.

It's actually very exciting to see Lincoln Center get behind this kind of innovative programming. The gig's at 8 PM, but I recommend hitting the pre-concert reception at 6:30 PM.

It's full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing

Sound Art @ Washington Square Park

September 9, 2006 - 3:00 PM

Paul Lansky + So Percussion + Luke DuBois + Joan La Barbara + Daedelus + Jerseyband

and Carl Stone's Acid Bop

Curated by Jen Stock of Soundbook One.

Free.

As Matt Marks of Alarm Will Sound writes:

If you are in or around New York, and you don't go to see this, you hate music. That's all there is to it. You Hate Music.

More info via Jen:

Carl Stone is one of the pioneers of live computer music, and has been hailed by the Village Voice as “the king of sampling” and "one of the best composers living in (the USA) today." He has used computers in live performance since 1986.

Daedelus presents a live electronic set. Experimental electronic composer based out of Los Angeles. Impeccable collage work with eclectic sound sources; recent albums include Exquisite Corpse and Daedelus Denies the Day's Demise (Mush/Ninja Tune)

Jerseyband -- experimental rock ensemble that fuses heavy-metal sounds with jazz instrumentation: “a melange of de-tuned electric guitars, crashing drums, and a seemingly traditional jazz-ensemble front-line…totally rad, and totally loud.” (The Metroland Weekly). Plays solo set and first collaborative set with So Percussion.

Joan La Barbara is a composer, performer, sound artist, and pioneer of a broad vocabulary of extended vocal techniques, praised as “one of the great vocal virtuosas of our time.” (San Francisco Examiner) La Barbara will perform “Urban Tropics Revisted,” a surround piece for voice and electronics.

Luke DuBois presents selections from Timelapse (Cantaloupe) and a live electronic set. A composer, programmer, and video artist, he is the co-author of Jitter, a software suite developed by Cycling 74, and teaches interactive music and video performance at Columbia’s Computer Music Center and NYU.

Paul Lansky presents “Ride,” an 8-channel piece using traffic sounds for source material. Paul Lansky is professor of music composition at Princeton; albums include Alphabet Book and More Than Idle Chatter (Bridge).

So Percussion plays new works from the group’s upcoming album Amid the Noise (Cantaloupe), featuring original compositions by ensemble member Jason Treuting and Paul Lansky's "Threads."

And here you thought NYC's free summer concert season was over. It's looking to be a beautiful weekend, too, so you literally have no excuse to miss this last chance to get your geek on in the daylight, before we all retreat to our black boxes, industrial lofts, and other usual haunts.

Rule number two give respect where respect due

DOWNLOAD: The Respect Sextet - "Cartel" (from The Full Respect)
DOWNLOAD: The Respect Sextet - "Postal (a.k.a. PB&J)" (from Respect in You)

On the heels of a regional tour of scenic Toronto, picturesque Rochester, panoramic Detroit, bustling Ann Arbor, and the hipster haven of Grand Rapids, the boys from Respect are road-seasoned and ready to transform the basement space at Cornelia into their own personal playground of depravity. Respectful depravity, of course.

Tonight (Thursday September 7) - The Respect Sextet. 8:30 PM, Cornelia Street Café. $10 cover.

Eli Asher, trumpet
Josh Rutner, tenor sax
James Hirschfeld, trombone
Red Wierenga, piano/accordion
Matt Clohesy, bass
Ted Poor, drums
Plus guest alto saxophonist Chris Wicks.

Exclusive MP3s offered with the kind permission of the Respect Sextet.

Sound Will Alarm

Alarm Will Sound have announced their 2006-2007 season.

RE: the Feb. 4 Perspectives at Carnegie gig, AWS managing director Gavin Chuck writes:

The Feb 4 show is curated by David Byrne who has chosen drones as the theme. So all the pieces we will perform will be drone-based.

New York hits:

Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 3:00pm
Reich Legacy
Whitney Museum of American Art, Madison Avenue & 75th Street, NY, NY
Steve Reich, Proverb
Michael Gordon, Yo Shakespeare
Caleb Burhans, Amidst Neptune
Steve Reich, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ (with So Percussion)

Friday-Saturday, October 20-21, 2006 at 8:30pm
Work in Progress
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NY, NY
Conlon Nancarrow, Player Piano Study No. 2 arr. Gavin Chuck
Conlon Nancarrow, Player Piano Study No. 6 arr. Yvar Mikhashoff
Conlon Nancarrow, Player Piano Study No. 3A arr. Derek Bermel
Benedict Mason, Animals and the Origins of Dance
John Orfe, new work
György Ligeti, Piano Concerto, first movement (John Orfe, piano)
Thoinot Arbeau, Branle des Hermites arr. Courtney Orlando
Anonymous, Budi imya Gospodnie arr. Jessica Johnson
Anonymous, Ot Yunosti Moieya arr. Jessica Johnson
Anonymous, Blagoviernomu Tsariu arr. Jessica Johnson
Johannes Ciconia, Le ray au soleyl arr. Gavin Chuck
Solage, Fumeux fume par fumee arr. John Orfe
Anonymous, Saltarello arr. Payton MacDonald
Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum

Saturday, January 20, 2007 at 8:00pm
Composer Portrait: Edgard Varèse
Miller Theatre, Columbia University, 116th Street & Broadway, NY, NY
(with musicians from the Manhattan School of Music)
Dance for Burgess
Offrandes
Hyperprism
Déserts
Ionisation
Un grand sommeil noir
Poème électronique arr. Evan Hause
Octandre
Density 21.5 (Jessica Johnson, flute)
Intégrales

Sunday, February 4, 2007 at 7:30pm
One Note (part of David Byrne's Perspectives series, with Haale and Camille)
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, 57th Street & 7th Avenue, NY, NY
Aphex Twin, Cliffs arr. Caleb Burhans
Giacinto Scelsi, Pranam II
Anonymous, Saltarello arr. Payton MacDonald

Sunday, March 18, 2007 at 3:00pm
In Your Ear Redux: Out of Our Heads
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, 57th Street & 7th Avenue, NY, NY
John Adams, Scratchband
Stefan Freund, new work
Caleb Burhans, Amidst Neptune
Autechre, Cfern arr. Dennis DeSantis
Payton MacDonald, Cowboy Raga/Cowboy Tabla (Payton MacDonald, percussion)
Miles Brown, Q-Ball
Gavin Chuck, Seen
John Orfe, Cyclone (John Pickford Richards and Caleb Burhans, violas)
Aphex Twin, Four arr. Jessica Johnson and Payton MacDonald
Aphex Twin, Avril 14th arr. John Pickford Richards
Aphex Twin, Jynweythek Ylow arr. John Orfe
Aphex Twin, Prep Gwarlek 3B arr. Courtney Orlando
Aphex Twin, Cock/Ver 10 arr. Stefan Freund
Remixes by Dennis DeSantis
Super Marimba Boys with Toys

Say, don't you know it?

In a naked attempt to raise my profile and increase my credibility with composers of Serious Music, I recently agreed to be interviewed by Prof. Heebie McJeebie, the well-respected TANDY Professor of Electronic Music at the Hotel Cadillac in Rochester, NY. The good professor has now posted the transcript of our conversation to his blog.

Meanwhile, in totally unrelated news, this weekend is your last opportunity to see Corey Dargel perform in the Magic Monkey Dance Company.

From the press release:

Laboratory Theater's Magic Monkey Dance Company is an operatic primate fantasia, chronicling the life of an orangutan named Kusasi. This animal epic tells of his beginnings as an orphan, his rise in dominance over a jungle kingdom that – due to the logging industry – will soon disappear, his struggle with panic attacks and bouts of depression, and the psychotherapist who would try to save him. The piece is performed in English and Orangutan with simultaneous English translation.

Performances at The Brick in Williamsburg. Tonight at 7 PM, Saturday (Aug 19) at 3 PM, and Sunday (Aug 20) at 7 PM.

Just lights and glitter and garbage underneath

Fishbone to play CB's two days before it closes for good.

UPDATE: Tickets now on sale.

[Via BV]

BMI Jazz Composers Workshop - July 6 @ Merkin Hall

On July 6 at Merkin Hall, the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop presents its annual concert showcasing this year's best works. This will be my fourth consecutive appearance at BMI's year-end shebang, where I will present a freshly revised version of "Induction Effect." This will also be my last hurrah with the BMI Workshop -- I've enjoyed my four-year stint (including one spent commuting in from Boston) and learned a tremendous amount, from workshop directors Jim McNeely and Mike Abene and also from my fellow participants, but now it's time for me to move on and make room for the new blood.

The concert also features the premiere of Sherisse Rogers's Manny Albam commission, and also new music by Secret Society co-conspirator Tom Goehring (who is, BTW, among the nominees for the Charlie Parker Jazz Prize this year) and many other worthy up-and-coming composers: Javier Arau, Jon Schapiro, Asuka Kakitani, Jeff Fairbanks, Bryan Knox, Ann Belmont, Andrew Rathbun, and Michele Caniato.

Best of all, it's free. Come on out and enjoy the fresh, crispy tunes.

Corey Dargel, Anti-Social Music + Gena Rowlands Band, The Sharp Things@Norhtsix

Tonight at Northsix:

Corey Dargel opens. (I reviewed Corey's debut record here.)

Anti-Social Music and the Gena Rowlands Band present their multimedia opera, The Nitrate Hymnal.

The Sharp Things close.

Doors at 8 PM. $10.

[xposted at Pulse]

Joe Phillips's Vipassana

70 minutes. 20 instrumentalists. 5 singers. Tonight at the Puffin Room.

Details.

You can read me anything

Tonight at the Knit's Tap Bar, composer Jennifer Stock presents her electronic music trio Soundbook One, along with performances by Paul Lansky, Jonathan Zalben's laptop ensemble, a rendition of George Crumb's "Celestial Mechanics" (cosmic dances for amplified piano - four hands), and much fun besides. 8 PM, $10 cover.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

If you're going to be at the Bang on a Can Marathon today, please say hello. I'd been hoping to blog about the event (and even briefly entertained the idea of trying to figure out some way of liveblogging it), but between preparations for next week's Pulse hits, the music copying gig I should be working on instead of typing this entry (rent must be paid), and my day trip to Atlanta on Wednesday to discuss plans for an exciting new project, y'all will have to settle for some snapshots instead. In fact, I can barely justify going to the event at all, but, like Warren Zevon said...

Order. Design. Composition. Tone. Form. Symmetry. Balance.

Pulse has a pair of gigs coming up in June, continuing our series of music inspired by photography, called "The Eloquent Light." I'll be contributing a new piece based on this shot by hometown hero Jeff Wall.

Joe has the details.

André Canniere Group @ The Knitting Factory

Unindicted Secret Society co-conspirator #3, André Canniere, brings the band from his recently released debut recording, As Of Yet, to the Knit tonight. These partners-in-crime include saxophonist Josh Rutner (of The Respect Sextet), guitarist Ryan Ferreira, bassist Ike Sturm, and drummer Ted Poor (who you surely know from his recent recordings with Cuong Vu and Ben Monder). They will be joined by guest trombonist James Hirschfield (also of the Respect Sextet, and a veteran of the very sexy new music band Alarm Will Sound).

André has also generously agreed to allow me to offer to you, gentle reader, an [ahem] exclusive free download from As Of Yet. "Accelerated Decrepitude" opens with some skittishly funky rhythm section work leading into an attractive Zorn-ish head, and features outstanding blowing from both André and Josh. Check it out:

Listen to/download "Accelerated Decrepitude"

There's more to be had at André's MySpace page.

André Canniere Group - tonight at the Knitting Factory (Old Office) 9 PM - 10:30 PM. $8 cover.

Blown soundscapes

If you're looking for an excuse to make one last pilgrimage to CBGB before the club closes its doors for good at the end of October, you could do a lot worse than Sonic Youth's June 13 hit.

Till I can’t, till I can’t, till I can’t take no more of it

Bang on a Can Marathon at River to River --- June 4.

Details.

Holus Bolus @ Cafe Grumpy

Our estimable co-conspirator Josh Sinton brings his band Holus Bolus to Cafe Grumpy for their first ever NYC hit. The band includes former Bostonites Jeremy Udden (alto and soprano saxophones), Peter Bitenc (bass), and Eric Platz (drums), and transplaneted Montrealer Greg Ritchie (drums). Josh alternately describes Holus Bolus as "well-made American improvised music" and "the quietest two-drummer band you may ever hear."

Tonight, 9 PM, Cafe Grumpy (Green Point)

Shane Endsley and Jonathan Finlayson @ Tonic

Goddammit, this looks killing. I can't go (locked inside writing music for our April 18 hit) but you all had better:

8:00 PM - Shane Endsley (trumpet) with John Hollenbeck (drums), Mike Gamble (guitar), Matt Moran (vibes), Erik Deutsch (keyboards), and our co-conspirator Matt Clohesy (bass).

9:30 PM - Jonathan Finlayson's Common Thread -- Jonathan and Shane (trumpets), Tim Albright (trombone), Tyshawn Sorey (drums), and -- again -- Matt Clohesy (bass).

$10 for both bands.

Grachan Moncur @ The Iridium

Jackie McLean: "Whenever I have a conversation about what's wrong with the jazz business, I always start out by saying, 'Where is Grachan Moncur?'"

Answer: Saturday and Sunday night at the Iridium. With Billy Harper (tenor sax), Michael Blake (alto sax), John Hicks (piano), Calvin Hill (bass), Noriko Kamo (electric piano) and Richard Pearson (drums).

Grachan has been largely absent from the scene for far too long. His comeback began with 2004's Exploration, a nonet record featuring classic Moncur compositions arranged by Mark Masters. While he has been quietly honing his chops at clubs in Newark and Brooklyn, this is Grachan's first appearance as a leader in a Manhattan jazz club in many years. Absolutely not to be missed.

Sets Saturday, April 08 and Sunday April 09, 8 PM and 10 PM. Cover is $27.50.