More, better.
Farewell to 2024, with a choice handful of strong recommendations for live new-music events Jan. 2–6.
The end of the year always seems to be a time of aspirational thinking: an exercise that can lead in equal measure to regret and resolutions. I’ve made a few of those already, mindful that they’re mostly the same ones I made last year and possibly the year before. Hit the gym. See more films. Read more, and better. Also, of course, write more, and better.
As I’m prone to do at times of overextension and existential concern about the state of the world, lately I’ve been questioning whether to continue this newsletter—on Substack, and at all. It’s hard to find sufficient time to do anything that meets my own approval, let alone is suitable for public consumption. Yet the compulsion to do the work – and the urge to hit send and keep right on moving to the next one – is always there.
A passing item I saw a few weeks ago in Paris Review Redux has stuck with me. This exchange concluded The Art of Fiction No. 133, for which Edward Hirsch interviewed James Salter in 1993:
INTERVIEWER
What do you think is the ultimate impulse to write?
SALTER
To write? Because all this is going to vanish. The only thing left will be the prose and poems, the books, what is written down. Man was very fortunate to have invented the book. Without it the past would completely vanish, and we would be left with nothing, we would be naked on earth.
All of this to say that while I wrestle with myself constantly about improving and expanding what I do in this forum – and likewise what I do in my “spare time” [sic] to foment an intellectual process – I still feel a strong impulse to document the performances I’m privileged to see, to share news pertinent to the communities in which I’ve thrived, and to direct eyes toward upcoming live-music events that merit attention—especially at a time when the mainstream media have mostly given up listings altogether.
And so it goes. Thank you to everyone who’s joined me on this ongoing journey. I wish you all a safe, prosperous and happy New Year. (Special thanks to Joel Harrison and Emery Kerekes for helpful, timely feedback.)
The Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
NOTAFLOF = no one turned away for lack of funds.
31
Please enjoy a safe and happy New Year’s Eve.
1
Happy New Year! Resolve to hear more live music in 2025.
2
Marta Sanchez
Glass Box Theatre, The New School
55 W. 13th St., Greenwich Village
Thursday, Jan. 2–Saturday, Jan. 4 at 8:30pm; $20 cash only
thestonenyc.com
Pianist-composer Marta Sanchez, one of the more formidable players to come into her own in the New York jazz scene over the last few years, comes to The New School for a slightly abbreviated but impactful Stone series featuring a triptych of trios: with saxophonist Nicole Glover and turntablist Val Jeanty on Thursday; with bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Savannah Harris (as heard on her fiery 2024 release, Perpetual Void) on Friday; and with vocalists Sara Serpa and Miriam Elhajli on Saturday.
3
New Ear Festival 2025
Fridman Gallery
169 Bowery; Lower East Side
Friday, Jan. 3–Sun, Jan. 5 at 7pm; $30, students $20, festival pass $70, students $50
new-ear.org
New Ear Inc. hosts its annual festival of experimental music, multidisciplinary creativity, and sound-art installations. Opening night features live performances by composer-performer Henry Threadgill, choreographer Justin Cabrillos, the otherwise unexplained Relatively Special Theories of Spacial Relativities, and medium., a project by multidisciplinary artists Yaz Lancaster and gg200bpm. Each evening also includes four-channel video and eight-channel audio installations. See also Sat 4 and Sun 5.
4
David Grubbs & Loren Connors + White Out with Chuck Bettis
Public Records
233 Butler St., Brooklyn
Saturday, Jan. 4 at 7pm; $25.75
dice.fm
David Grubbs and Loren Connors are idiosyncratic musicians of different generations, but unquestionably kindred spirits: a point made eloquently by Evening Air, the quiescent 2024 duo set on Room40 they’re celebrating here tonight. They’re sharing the bill with White Out, the seasoned duo of Lin Culbertson and Tom Surgal, augmented with “electronics enchanter” (their words) Chuck Bettis.
New Ear Festival 2025
Fridman Gallery
169 Bowery; Lower East Side
Sat, Jan. 4 at 7pm; $30, students $20
new-ear.org
See Fri 3. Tonight’s event includes performances by vocal improviser and curator Shara Lunon, members of the fiery liberation-music combo Irreversible Entanglements, and the duo of installation artist/sound designer Kamari Carter and electro-acoustic percussionist Gladstone Deluxe.
5
New Ear Festival 2025
Fridman Gallery
169 Bowery; Lower East Side
Sun, Jan. 5 at 7pm; $30, students $20
new-ear.org
See Fri 3. An especially intriguing closing-night lineup includes performances by Kyp Malone and Brian Chase, both experimentalists known for their more mass-market ventures, plus Post-Natural Pastorale, a project by media artists Sue Huang and Brian House involving the late bassist Robert Black, and ANIMAL, a visceral project by composer–sound artist Ash Fure that combines their longstanding architectural approach to sound with a gestural choreography and light-soaked presentation inspired by the Berlin techno club Berghain—a connection Jeffrey Arlo Brown related in a 2023 New York Times article (gift link).
Uncivilisation Festival II
Brooklyn Artery
1004 Cortelyou Rd.; Brooklyn
Sunday, Jan. 5 at 7pm; $10 suggested donation
uncivilisationfestival.com
Guitarist-organizer Tom Csatari and his “gothic, campfire freak jazz” cabal Uncivilized top the bill at this freewheeling celebration of the New Year’s arrival. Sharing the bill are Ryan El-Solh (billed on “solo keys”), the duo of tuba player Ben Stapp and soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome—and, if we’re reading correctly, “AI Michael Moore.”
6
JACK Quartet & Shai Wosner
Advent Lutheran Church
2504 Broadway; Upper West Side
Monday, Jan. 6 at 7:30pm; free admission, registration recommended
musicmondays.org
Appearing under the auspices of the generous Music Mondays series, JACK Quartet and pianist Shai Wosner share a rangy program including works by Henry Purcell, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Wolfgang Rihm, Amy Williams, George Benjamin, and JACK violinist Christopher Otto, culminating in Thomas Adès’s Piano Quintet. Admission is free, but reservations are recommended.
7
Watch this space next week—and catch your breath now, because PROTOTYPE and 2025 NYC Winter Jazzfest both start on Thursday, Jan. 9.
More vital directories of new-music destinations:
Find even more events in Night After Night Watch: The Master List, here.
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.
PLEASE keep it going Steve! Your hard work and dedication are most appreciated.
I appreciate your NYC gig and upcoming releases roundups so much! I hope they continue.