Gimme some truth.
A quick update on what's up with this newsletter and its platform, plus a remembrance of Jay Clayton and musical picks for the next seven days.
The “Substack Has a Nazi Problem” debate is a fetid mass of contradictions, criticisms, and wretched bro-blurt. Platformer, the popular tech newsletter that convinced (or pressured, or whatever) Substack to observe its own stated policies concerning hate speech, has just moved to Ghost anyway.
I did not enjoy my Ghost experience, and won’t be following. But I’m also tired of seeing free-speech warriors among the commentariat unironically citing rebuttal posts by certain loud, highly visible Substack essayists as validation to ignore or deny the issue. (One such essay was inserted directly into my inbox this morning, sent by Substack in its “Your Weekly Stack” recommendation blast.)
This morning, composer/performer Will Mason shared this post… and the caveats author Josh Drummond states at the top assuredly apply.
This, evidently, is the price one pays for the platform’s social benefits.
Last week, Ty Wilcox sent out notice that the Substack newsletter for his Tumblr site, Doom & Gloom from the Tomb, is ending, though happily the main site will tumbl on. Sasha Frere-Jones migrated his elegant S/FJ to Buttondown, where Lars Gotrich has published his illuminating Viking’s Choice for ages. There’s also a lot of buzz around Beehiiv (sorry!!), where Jonathan M. Katz, the reporter who wrote the original “Substack Has a Nazi Problem” article, now publishes.
So I’m weighing alternatives again, while also putting some fresh effort into my original old-school blog. Frankly, the real reason I’ve not yet made any decisions about relocation is because I’m contemplating the future of this venture, period.
But sharing news about interesting events and recordings still feels compulsory and enjoyable. I’ll do that here until I determine what’s next.
Jay Clayton, an inventive jazz singer and educator also renowned in contemporary classical circles for her recordings of John Cage and her decade of work with Steve Reich and Musicians, died on Dec. 31, 2023. The New York Times invited me to write her obituary, which ran online last Friday, and in print yesterday.
I’d had a friendly acquaintance with Jay for many years, via the long connection my wife, journalist and academic Lara Pellegrinelli, and I have had with the great jazz singer Sheila Jordan, Jay’s colleague and friend. But I’d never immersed myself deeply in Jay’s entire body of work – apart from the Reich recordings, of course – until I started to work on this remembrance.
What a deep, broad, rich body of work—including an arresting debut, All-Out, that some enterprising label should license for reissue.
I’m grateful to Kendra Shank, Andrea Wolper, and Lara for expert guidance; to Jay’s daughter, Dejha Colantuono, for answering questions quickly and patiently during a sensitive time; to Jane Ira Bloom, Karen Goldfeder, Fred Hersch, and Steve Reich for speaking with me; and to Sheila Jordan for her blessing.
Also of note is Alex Williams’s New York Times obituary of Phill Niblock, who died on Monday at age 90. I’m not alone in observing that in the days after Niblock died, my social-media feeds were filled with more glowing tributes to his memory than anyone since Prince. Without his decades of work as an iconic composer, filmmaker, and curator of live events and recordings, New York City would be a quieter, poorer place.
Video of the week.
“Sonic Spectrum II,” a concert the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will present on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 7:30pm in the intimate Rose Studio, was slated for inclusion among this week’s picks, below—but it’s sold out. However, you can still catch the program – which includes a local premiere by Jessie Montgomery and works by Lera Auerbach, Chris Rogerson, and Kaija Saariaho – streaming live on the CMS website, here.
The Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
NOTAFLOF = no one turned away for lack of funds.
17
PROTOTYPE
Various venues
Wednesday, Jan. 17–Sunday, Jan. 21; times and prices vary
prototypefestival.org
This groundbreaking festival of new opera and music-theater works heads into its home stretch with four remaining productions. Three shows – Terce: A Practical Breviary, by Heather Christian; Adoration, by Mary Kouyoumdjian and Royce Vavrek; and Chornobyldorf, by Roman Grigoriv and Illia Razumeiko – are available on multiple dates. The fourth, Malinxe, by Autumn Chacon and Laura Ortman, is a site-specific event happening free of charge in The Playscape at Battery Park on Saturday, Jan. 20, at 5pm. Three digital presentations – SWANN, Whiteness, and Vodalities, Paradigms of Consciousness for the Human Voice – also remain available for streaming free of charge through Sunday, accessible via the festival website.
EDIT Jan. 18, 3:30pm: Because of the extreme cold anticipated on Saturday, the performance of Malinxe has been moved to the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey St. in Lower Manhattan, and the start time has shifted to 5:30pm. Admission is still free.
18
Sarah Hennies
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Thursday, Jan. 18 at 8pm; $30, advance $25, seniors and students $20
Free livestream on the Roulette website and YouTube
roulette.org
Percussionist and composer Sarah Hennies presents two rarely encountered works by Michael Ranta, a percussionist, composer, and sound artist who worked closely with such major musical figures as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Harry Partch, and Helmut Lachenmann, and whose departure from the U.S. in the late 1960s likely has contributed to his relative obscurity. A series of recordings issued on the Metaphon label have raised Ranta’s profile over the last decade; now, Hennies and two clarinetists, Madison Greenstone and Katie Porter, present scored chamber works from the 1970s, as well as a new Hennies composition.
Angélica Negrón & Sophie Parker
Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center
129 W. 67th St., Upper West Side
Thursday, Jan. 18 at 7:30pm; $30
kaufmanmusiccenter.org
An inventive creator of appealing works, composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón showcases a collaboration with Sophie Parker, a visual and botanical artist, involving new songs accompanied with playable sculptures.
19
The Chelsea Symphony
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St., Midtown West
Friday, Jan. 19 & Saturday, Jan. 20 at 8pm; $33.85
eventbrite.com
In a program titled “Heritage,” Mark Seto conducts the Chelsea Symphony in Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3, Gabriella Lena Frank’s Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra, and a world premiere by Mike Boyman, Double Cello Concerto, featuring soloists Sue Rangeley and Jennifer Shaw.
International Contemporary Ensemble
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Friday, Jan. 19 at 8pm; $30, advance $25, seniors and students $20
Free livestream on the Roulette website and YouTube
roulette.org
International Contemporary Ensemble presents the world premiere of T-Minus, the newest in a series of narrative electroacoustic compositions designated radio operas by their ingenious composer, Yvette Janine Jackson. (You can sample two previous radio operas on an arresting, disquieting LP issued by Fridman Gallery in 2021.) The new work is part of a series in which Jackson is exploring the impact of space tourism on communities near launch sites; here, it shares a program with the wordless Swan, in which a tall ship navigating the Middle Passage transforms into a spaceship headed to freedom.
20
BlackBox Ensemble
Shapeshifter Lab
837 Union St., Brooklyn
Saturday, Jan. 20 at 8pm; $30, students $25, NOTAFLOF
shapeshifterplus.org
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Sunday, Jan. 21 at 8pm; $30, advance $25, seniors and students $20, NOTAFLOF
roulette.org
Presented over the course of two evenings in two different Brooklyn venues, BlackBox Festival 2024 showcases the eager experimentalists of BlackBox Ensemble in a variety of settings. Night one opens with a program of recent pieces by Paul Novak, Bobby Ge, Jessica Meyer, Baldwin Giang, and Yaz Lancaster, followed by a late set devoted to solo works by Lancaster, Brittany J. Green, Kaija Saariaho, Nina Shekhar, Lucy McKnight, and Paul Kerekes, and an electroacoustic premiere from ensemble members Tyler Neidermayer and jc clancy. Night two is devoted to a themed presentation, “The Sound of Space Between Us,” involving music by Seth Cluett, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Angélica Negrón, Morton Feldman, Dai Fujikura, and ensemble member Annie Nikunen, in partnership with dancers and choreographers. Check both websites for combination deals, deluxe packages, and payment-free options for those in need.
Eclipse Quartet
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Saturday, Jan. 20 at 8pm; $30, advance $25, seniors and students $20
Free livestream on the Roulette website and YouTube
roulette.org
Los Angeles new-music institution the Eclipse Quartet celebrates its 20th anniversary. The program includes a newly commissioned piece composed by Niloufar Shiri, featuring kamancheh player Mehrnam Rastegari, plus works by Fred Frith, Ali Can Puskulcu, and Kaija Saariaho.
22
“Striped Light”
Undisclosed location, Long Island City
Monday, Jan. 22 at 8pm; $15 (cash preferred, Venmo accepted), NOTAFLOF
Instagram
The third edition of the clandestine creative-music workshop curated by composer and multi-instrumentalist David Watson features yet another compelling triple bill. Eternities, the duo of clarinetist Katie Porter and electronic-sound artist Bob Bellerue, celebrate their first anniversary as a performing unit that debuted in a previous Watson series. Solo sets by violist Jessica Pavone and cellist/vocalist Dr. Thokozani Mhlambi complete the bill. Send a DM via Instagram to learn the location.
23
Ian Antonio & Josh Modney
Miller Theatre, Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights
Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 6pm; free admission
millertheatre.com
Wet Ink percussionist Ian Antonio and violinist Josh Modney join forces for Dirt Road, a contemplative wander just under an hour in duration, composed by Linda Catlin Smith. The event is part of Miller’s intimate, casual Pop-Up Concerts series, which invites audience members to surround the performers onstage.
Shelley Hirsch
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Saturday, Jan. 20 at 8pm; $35, advance $25, seniors and students $20
Free livestream on the Roulette website and YouTube
roulette.org
The extraordinary singer, storyteller, and multidisciplinary artist Shelley Hirsch presents And So it Was And Was and WaAAassSSssSss, an ambitious evening of works for multiple vocalists, instrumentalists, and video inspired by surrealism and awash in spontaneity.
(What a simply extraordinary week at Roulette, eh?)
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.