In-between days.
Live-music picks for the next seven days in NYC.
Just as I once predicted, I finally found a use for the headline above.
This newsletter finds me – and perhaps you? – between one thing and the next. But there’s plenty to see and do—so without further delay, here are some choice live-music events happening this week into next.
The Night After Night Watch.
July 2–9
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
NOTAFLOF = no one turned away for lack of funds.
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Joanna Mattrey, Leila Bordreuil & Sean Ali + Nate Wooley & Jonathan Reisin
Sisters
900 Fulton St., Brooklyn
Wednesday, July 3 at 7pm; $20 suggested donation (cash/Venmo at door)
sistersbklyn.com
Two disparate chamber groups promise heady listening in the back room at Sisters on Wednesday night: a string trio comprising violist Joanna Mattrey, cellist Leila Bordreuil, and bassist Sean Ali; and a wind duo pairing trumpeter Nate Wooley with saxophonist Jonathan Reisin. (For more adventures with Mattrey, see Lesley Mok, below.)
Lesley Mok
Glass Box Theatre, The New School
55 W. 13th St., Greenwich Village
Wednesday, July 3, Friday, July 5, and Saturday, July 6 at 8:30pm; $20 cash only
thestonenyc.com
Percussionist Lesley Mok comes to The Stone series at The New School for a three-concert sequence that provides a vivid snapshot of her range. Mok opens on Wednesday with an acoustic trio featuring pianist Craig Taborn and cellist Lester St. Louis; continues on Friday with an electronic trio including vocalist Shara Lunon and trumpeter Chris Williams; and concludes on Saturday with much of the band on her evocative, poetic 2023 album, The Living Collection, including saxophonists David Leon and Yuma Uesaka, trombonist Kalun Leung, and violist Joanna Mattrey (whose own Stone series starts July 11).
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Camila Nebbia & Marta Sanchez
Barbès
376 9th St., Brooklyn
Thursday, July 4 at 8pm; $20 suggested donation
viewcy.com
If you need to hear freedom ring on this particular night – and who could blame you? – then this rare local appearance by fiery Argentine saxophonist Camila Nebbia should deliver what you need. She’s joined by the versatile Spanish pianist Marta Sanchez for an encounter certain to guide your hand to your heart.
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Zoh Amba
Close Up
150 Orchard St., Lower East Side
Friday, July 5 at 8 & 10pm; $20
closeupnyc.com
Zoh Amba, the prolific free-jazz prodigy spiritualist saxophonist from Tennessee who roared onto the local scene not quite three years ago – a story recounted by Hank Shteamer in The New York Times (gift link) – cuts loose at the newly opened Lower East Side jazz club Close Up, leading a quartet that includes pianist Rahul Carlberg, bassist Caroline Morton, and drummer Miguel Marcel Russell.
Judy Dunaway: Aeronaut
Harvestworks Art and Technology Program Building 10a
Nolan Park, Governors Island
Friday, July 5–Sunday, July 7, 11am–5pm, through August 18; free admission
harvestworks.org
Judy Dunaway, the extraordinary and unpredictable doyenne of balloon music, has a new immersive site-specific installation work up now on Governors Island: Aeronaut, mounted under the auspices of the Harvestworks Art and Technology Program, honors aviator Charles K. (“Charlie”) Hamilton, who made the first round-trip flight between New York City and Philadelphia on June 13, 1910—departing from and returning to Governors Island. Dunaway, citing the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, says Hamilton was “known for his dangerous dives, spectacular crashes, and extensive reconstructive surgeries.” Her elaborate, evolving installation includes adjustments she makes in person daily at 1pm.
Harlem Chamber Players
Bryant Park
42nd Street & Sixth Ave., Midtown West
Friday, July 5 at 7pm; free admission
bryantpark.org
Pulitzer Prize winner, Kennedy Center honoree, and current Carnegie Hall composer in residence Tania León conducts the Harlem Chamber Players in Trevor Weston’s The People Could Fly, narrated by radio host Terrance McKnight and featuring violin soloist Josh Henderson and dancers from the Harlem School of the Arts. The program also includes compositions by Adolphus Hailstork, Chen Yi, and León herself.
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David First & Matt Sargent + Seth Cluett + Madison Greenstone
Sunview Luncheonette
221 Nassau Ave., Greenpoint
Saturday, July 6 at 8pm; by donation
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Hard on the heels of his latest Dave’s Waves series, multi-instrumentalist and composer David First teams up anew with recent guest Matt Sargent for a set of guitar duets certain to be rarefied and special. Sharing the bill are two purveyors of extraordinary extended sound point-counterpoint: clarinetist Madison Greenstone via acoustics, and sound artist Seth Cluett with electronics.
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A Far Cry
Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park
Mid-park at 71st St., Midtown Manhattan
Tuesday, July 9 at 7:30pm; free admission
naumburgconcerts.org
A regular attraction at the free Naumburg Orchestral Concerts series since 2018, Boston conductorless chamber orchestra A Far Cry teams up with Syrian composer and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and Sri Lankan-born Canadian pianist-composer Dinuk Wijeratne for a program that includes Azmeh’s Ibn Arabi Postlude, Wijeratne’s Clarinet Concerto (with Azmeh as soloist), Kareem Roustom’s Dabke, and Leoš Janáček’s Idyll.
Find even more events in Night After Night Watch: The Master List, here.
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.