It's all happening now.
Live music highlights for the next seven days.
There’s so much I’d like to say this week, prompted by the lovely and compelling words Nate Chinen wrote last weekend in a post titled “Check Local Listings.”
Unfortunately, time and circumstance have conspired to delay my thoughts. Better for now to hurry up and get the latest batch of gig listings shared while they’re still useful. Since it’s all I’m sending today, I’ll include more than the customary five.
Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
20
Anna Webber
The Stone at The New School
55 W. 13th Street, Greenwich Village
Wednesday, Sept. 20–Saturday, Sept. 23 at 8:30pm; $20
thestonenyc.com
Recently appointed co-chair of the Jazz Studies Department at the New England Conservatory, composer, bandleader, and woodwinds player Anna Webber is releasing no fewer than three new albums this fall—one this Friday, and two more on October 20. Her Stone series stint at The New School shows off her range across a variety of projects: her Clockwise septet (Sept. 20), Simple trio (Sept. 21), a fascinating quartet with Doyeon Lee on gayageum (Sept. 22), and the versatile quintet featured on one of those upcoming albums, the fascinating Shimmer Wince (Sept. 23).
22
New York All-Star RivBea Orchestra
Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church
15 Mount Morris Park West at 122nd St., Harlem
Friday, Sept. 22 at 7pm; $20
harlemjazzboxx.com
A star-studded big band celebrates the 100th birthday of the late saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and community organizer Sam Rivers, anchored by a thundrous low-end triumvirate of Joseph Daley on euphonium, Bob Stewart on tuba, and Doug Matthews on bass.
The Rhythm Method
Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Midtown Manhattan
Friday, Sept. 22 at 7:30pm; free admission
gcmusic.commons.gc.cuny.edu
The Rhythm Method, the iconoclastic string quartet of violinists Marina Kifferstein and Leah Asher, violist Carrie Frey, and cellist Meaghan Burke opens its season with a free concert featuring the world premiere of Frey’s a chorus like distant screaming and the local debut of Rose Path by Mischa Salkind-Pearl, along with Asher’s and all and one and The Stretching Cycles of Years by Tim Crist.
23
William Parker: “In Search of Enlightenment”
FourOneOne
411 Kent Ave., Williamsburg
Saturday, Sept. 23–Friday, Sept. 29 at 7pm; $20
withfriends.co
FourOneOne, David Watson’s sound laboratory on the Williamsburg waterfront, has become one of New York City’s most vital spaces, and here’s one more reason why: William Parker, longtime father figure to the city’s ecstatic-music scene, has taken up residence here for the month of September. On Sept. 23 he leads LIGHT Ensemble, a sextet of saxophonist Rob Brown, drummer Juan Pablo Carletti, vocalist Ellen Christi, violinist Jason Kao Hwang, and vocalist, choreographer, and fellow pathfinder Patricia Nicholson. For the last two concerts, Sept. 28 and 29, Parker’s going to break out a big band and vocal choir—sure to make a real impression in this relatively intimate space.
24
Lori Goldston + The Ghost
The P.I.T.
411 S. 5th St., Williamsburg
Sunday, Sept. 24 at 8pm; $20
instagram.com/outlierpresents
Outlier, saxophonist Michael Foster’s curatorial program, returns to active duty with a pairing of cellist Lori Goldston in a solo set, plus The Ghost, Foster’s assertively queer noise-jazz trio, here featuring bassist Brandon Lopez and drummer Joey Sullivan.
26
Dead Man Walking
Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side
Tuesday, Sept. 26–Saturday, Oct. 21, times vary; $47–$470
metopera.org
This operatic treatment of the 1995 Tim Robbins film about death row abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean, by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally, is among the most successful operas of the 21st century for good cause: it just works. The Met’s new Ivo van Hove production has a solid cast built around the arresting Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen; a coup in Susan Graham (the original Sister Helen) playing Mrs. Patrick De Rocher, the killer’s mother; and two compelling conductors, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Steven Osgood.
Larum with Taylor Deupree + Lesley Flanigan + Arovane
Public Records
233 Butler St., Brooklyn
Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 7pm; $25.75
dice.fm
Larum, the electroacoustic duo of Chet Doxas and Micah Frank, teams up with Taylor Deupree to perform music from Cornelius Cardew’s Treatise. Vocalist and composer Lesley Flanigan performs her own Subtonalities, and German electronic music artist Uwe Zahn performs as Arovane.
John Zorn New Masada Quartet
Village Vanguard
178 Seventh Ave. S., Greenwich Village
Tuesday, Sept. 26–Sunday, Oct. 1 at 8 & 10pm; $40
villagevanguard.com
The newest John Zorn aggregation to bear the Masada monicker – a quartet with guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Jorge Roeder, and drummer Kenny Wollesen – is one of those rare bands so jaw-droppingly virtuosic and tight that its feats might make you laugh out loud in disbelief. (I certainly did.) This newest week-long prime-time engagement is part of the ongoing celebrations of the leader’s 70th birthday.
For even more listings, see the Night After Night Watch master list, here.
Thank you.
(Photographs by the author, except where indicated otherwise.)