Just the facts and pass the bucket.
Celebrating Jim Staley and Roulette, plus live-music picks for the next seven days.
New in The New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure section two days ago: my exit interview with the great trombonist and composer Jim Staley, who co-founded the essential new-music institution Roulette in 1978, and replanted it in his NYC loft in 1980, as he prepares to step away from leadership in June after 45 years.
Here is a gift link.
From my first visit to Roulette in 1993 – the first time I saw Derek Bailey perform in person, a literally life-changing experience – to my latest encounters there with Du Yun’s OK Miss and Robert Ashley’s opera Foreign Experiences, this has been a venue special and dear to me. When I interviewed Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori about their new Phantom Orchard project in 2004 for my sole cover story for The Wire, the interview took place at the original loft.
I know that I’m far from alone.
I’m very grateful to Jim for sharing his thoughts about what’s happened and what’s to come—obviously what’s in the Q&A is only the tip of the iceberg. My thanks, too, to Zeena, Matt Mehlan, Jamie Burns, Joanna Mattrey, and the incredibly generous David Weinstein for crucial insights; and to Rachel Saltz and Emily Brennan at The New York Times for a smooth and illuminating edit.
You can help to send Jim off in style at this year’s Roulette Gala on Thursday, June 6, featuring a suitably dazzling constellation of artists: Zeena and Ikue, Henry Threadgill, Yuka Honda and Nels Cline, Immanuel Wilkins and Joel Ross, Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon, and John Zorn with Staley himself. You’ll find all the details here.
Until then, since I couldn’t use a lot of what I was provided in interviews, I plan to share exclusive outtakes in this newsletter during the weeks to come.
The Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
NOTAFLOF = no one turned away for lack of funds.
21
TAK Ensemble
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Tuesday, May 21 at 8pm; $10–$50 sliding scale, NOTAFLOF
roulette.org
The versatile, multifarious TAK Ensemble presents the world premiere of when the great fires were lit on the other side of the ocean by Weston Olencki, described as a “journey through real and imagined histories of electricity, using myriad perspectives and mythologies around electrical force to re-enchant its ubiquitous presence throughout American industrial, spiritual, and vernacular narratives.” A free livestream will be accessible and archived for future viewing on the Roulette website and YouTube. (While you’re looking, mark your calendar for May 24, when Olencki and TAK flutist Laura Cocks will celebrate their arresting recent album, Music for Two Flutes, presented by Qubit New Music at Mise-En Place.)
22
JACK Quartet + Taylor Deupree + Joseph Branciforte & Theo Bleckmann
Public Records
233 Butler St., Brooklyn
Wednesday, May 22 at 7pm; $25.75
dice.fm
Electronic composer and producer Joseph Branciforte’s greyfade label throws a release party for two acts with recent releases: Taylor Deupree, whose 2002 electronic album Stil. is revisited on Sti.ll, in an acoustic arrangement by Branciforte; and the label head himself in his evanescent duo with vocalist Theo Bleckmann. And JACK Quartet, represented in the greyfade catalog with a mesmerizing LP of violinist Christopher Otto’s compositions, plays an Otto original, plus early music arranged by him and fellow violinist Austin Wulliman.
Yarn/Wire
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Wednesday, May 22 at 8pm; $25, advance $20, seniors and students $15
roulette.org
The newest installment in the long-running, consistently inspiring Yarn/Wire/Currents series, in which the intrepid piano/percussion quartet Yarn/Wire expands the canon for its distinctive configuration, includes premieres by Jad Atoui, Bryan Jacobs, and Seong Ae Kim. If you can’t attend in person, the concert will stream live, and the video will be archived for on-demand viewing.
23
Patricia Brennan & Sylvie Courvoisier
The Jazz Gallery
1158 Broadway, 5th floor, Midtown East
Thursday, May 23 at 7:30 & 9:30pm; $25–$35, livestream tickets $20
jazzgallery.org
Mallet percussionist Patricia Brennan and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier – each a distinguished, persuasive composer, improviser, and bandleader – join forces in Talamanti, a beguiling electronically enhanced project they presented previously at Roulette last December (archived here). Livestream tickets are available for those who can’t attend in person.
The League of Composers/ISCM
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St., Midtown West
Thursday, May 23 at 7:30pm; $25, seniors and students $15
tickettailor.com
Louis Karchin and Luke Poeppel conduct the Orchestra of the League of Composers in the world premiere of as the light begins to drift by Paul Novak, winner of this year’s League/ISCM Competition, plus new chamber-orchestra arrangements of works by Robert Carl (White Heron), Allen Cohen (Voices of Earth and Sky), and Cynthia Wong (Carnival Fever).
The Rhythm Method
Mise-En Place
341 Calyer St., Brooklyn
Thursday, May 23 at 7pm; free admission
therhythmmethod.nyc
The Rhythm Method, a string quartet that prizes originality, spontaneity, and collaboration, presents its annual wide-angle celebration of music by women, non-binary, and gender-expansive people. The program includes performances by gayageum player DoYeon Kim, improvising vocalist and composer Kavita Shah, and multimedia artist Mobéy Lola Irizarry, as well as new compositions by Victoria Cheah and inti figgis-vizueta.
24
John Zorn New Masada Quartet
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Friday, May 24 at 8 & 10pm; $40, advance $35, seniors and students $30
Zorn Devotee Ticket Package: $80 for both shows, premium seating
roulette.org
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.
25
Ekmeles
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St., Midtown West
Saturday, May 25 at 7:30pm; $15–$20
ekmeles.simpletix.com
The stellar new-music vocal sextet Ekmeles takes on additional voices for an ambitious program featuring works by Ben Johnston, Cassandra Miller, Josh Levine, Elaine Mitchener, Dai Fujikura, and Eric Dudley.
Philip Glass Ensemble
The Town Hall
123 W. 43rd St., Midtown West
Saturday, May 25 at 6pm; $68–$89.50
thetownhall.org
If you’ve never had the otherworldly experience of attending a performance of Philip Glass’s minimalist magnum opus Music in 12 Parts in a single evening, your next chance is this Saturday at The Town Hall—which happens to be where the piece had its world-premiere complete traversal on May 25, 1974. Glass won’t be performing, but his namesake band does his canon honor. The concert will include two 15-minute intermissions and an hour-long dinner break.
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.