Giving thanks.
A quick list of new-music performance highlights happening over the long holiday weekend and just beyond in New York City, plus a few new albums for Friday.
Bob Dylan compelled audiences at this year’s concerts to deposit their cell phones into Yondr pouches in order to thwart illicit documentation, so the photo above is from the last time I saw Dylan—a concert I reviewed for the Boston Globe in 2014. It’s not lost on me that the photo accompanying that review is from a Los Angeles performance in 2012. But folks are wily, and it’s not hard at all to find photo, audio, and video evidence attesting to the strength Dylan’s shown lately.
Having started the North American leg of his current tour with geo-tagged surprises in nearly every show, Dylan had streamlined his set to a dependable core by the time he hit Brooklyn last Tuesday… though he threw a few curve balls, for better (Billy Joel?!) and for worse (Jann Wenner?!), in his Beacon Theatre show on Thursday.
Ray Padgett addressed this phenomenon thoroughly in an insightful post on Flagging Down the Double E's, his essential Dylan-devoted Substack:
These days Bob Dylan is more predictable. But he is also something he often is not: Consistent. Every show is great. That would be an unimaginable sentence in many years past. Consistency has rarely been one of Dylan’s fortés; certainly not in the NET era. But for the entire Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, 169 shows and counting, I’ve never heard of a show where the general fan consensus was, “Well that one sucked.”
Padgett is also quoted in an article newly published by The New York Times that talks about how Dylan’s been covering locally meaningful songs on numerous stops during his current tour… “Kansas City” in (natch) Kansas City, Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” in Montréal, and so on.
Funny time for the story to appear, seeing as how Dylan dropped Grateful Dead songs into shows here and there instead—and mostly dropped the covers altogether prior to regaling the Beacon with a few bars of “New York State of Mind.” But like the article says, “…maybe it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why.”
There won’t be a newsletter this Friday, so you’ll find a very brief list of albums due out this Friday at the end of this evening installment. Wishing everyone who reads this peace, happiness, and safety; we’ll catch up again next week.
Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
22
Jason Moran and The Bandwagon
Village Vanguard
178 Seventh Ave. S., Greenwich Village
Through Sunday, Nov. 26 at 8 and 10pm; $40
villagevanguard.com
Pianist and composer Jason Moran has been playing a Thanksgiving-week residency at the Vanguard for so long now that it’s become a part of the storied club’s lore—which doesn’t mean you can sleep on what he’s cooking up with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits. Naturally, many sets are sold out already; be certain you check in before heading out.
24
X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X
Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side
Various dates and times through Saturday, Dec. 2; $47–$470
metopera.org
The first opera by composer Anthony Davis and librettist Thulani Davis – introduced at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia in 1985, and presented in its operatic premiere by New York City Opera in 1986 – has come to the Metropolitan Opera, in a new production helmed by the Tony-nominated director Robert O’Hara. Will Liverman is in the title role, and Kazem Abdullah conducts. (This week’s performances are Friday at 8pm and Tuesday at 7:30pm.)
25
Allison Miller
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Saturday, Nov. 25 at 8pm; $30, advance $25, seniors and students $25
Free livestream; donations encouraged
roulette.org
Allison Miller comes to Roulette with a brilliant band – including three tap dancers!! – to share music from her sensational new record, River in Our Veins. The album documents a 12-piece cycle honoring the nation’s rivers; Miller’s evocative writing and potent flow give Jenny Scheinman, Ben Goldberg, Jason Palmer, Carmen Staaf, and Todd Sickafoose lots to do. For more, read Larry Blumenfeld in the Wall Street Journal on Miller’s record and the new one from Sickafoose, Bear Proof, too – gift link here – and for good measure, read Jim Macnie on Staaf, here.
26
Lea Bertucci
All Line Gallery
119 Hester St., Chinatown
Sunday, Nov. 26 at 7:30pm; $17
eventbrite.com
Composer, improvisor, and sound artist Lea Bertucci celebrates the eminent release of her newest album, Of Shadow and Substance, which features two mesmerizing pieces scored for varied combinations of strings, electronics, harp, and percussion. Sinonó, the trio of vocalist Isabel Crespo Pardo, cellist Lester St. Louis, and bassist Henry Fraser, plays an opening set, and a sound installation by Cole Blouin greets your arrival.
Jane Ira Bloom & Mark Helias
Soapbox Gallery
636 Dean St., Brooklyn
Sunday, Nov. 26 at 4pm; $25
Pay what you can livestream
soapboxgallery.org
Even when the pandemic lockdown prevented soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and bassist Mark Helias from sharing the same room, the longtime collaborators managed to play together in real time at a distance with razor-sharp reflexes and genuine presence… the albums Some Kind of Tomorrow and See Our Way offer all the proof you’ll need. On Sunday afternoon they’re reunited—and you know it’s gonna feel so good.
27
Brooklyn Orchestra
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Monday, Nov. 27 at 7:30pm; $40, students $30
eventbrite.com
Olivier Glissant conducts the U.S. premiere of Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 14 (“Liechtenstein Suite”), sharing a program with his Piano Concerto No. 1 (“Tirol”), with Simone Dinnerstein as the soloist. If you’re inclined to listen first, these two charming, persuasive works shared a 2021 album on the composer’s Orange Mountain Music label.
28
Adam Tendler and Conor Hanick
Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center
129 W. 67th St., Upper West Side
Tuesday, Nov. 28 at 7:30pm; $30
kaufmanmusiccenter.org
Pianists Adam Tendler and Conor Hanick are two of the most intelligent, sensitive interpreters of the contemporary piano repertoire you might hope to hear. And here, you get to hear them together in two iconic queer masterpieces: Steve Martland’s Drill and Julius Eastman’s Gay Guerrilla. Stick around for a post-concert conversation led by Nico Muhly.
For even more listings, see the Night After Night Watch master list, here.
New recordings this week.
John Blum, David Murray, Chad Taylor - The Recursive Tree (Relative Pitch)
Sam Dunscombe - Two Forests (Black Truffle)
Lawrence English/Werner Dafeldecker - Tropic of Capricorn (Hallow Ground)
Büşra Kayıkçı - Places (Warner Classics)
Uncivilized - 5 by Monk by Csatari (Ignore Heroes)
Jack Wright - What Is What (Relative Pitch)
Thank you.
(Photographs by the author, except where indicated otherwise.)
Allison Miller’s River In Our Veins is a brilliant performance. The dancers are amazing!