Take note.
The future of music criticism continues to be written—or maybe not?—plus recommended live new-music events Aug. 12–19.
The superb new-music festival Time:Spans kicks into high gear during the next seven days. You’ve also got two more chances to catch Tim Berne in Brooklyn, and Bill Frisell is still in residence at the Village Vanguard in Manhattan. Pianist Brian Marsella is at The Stone playing John Zorn’s music for most of the week, and there’s an extraordinary Blacktronika Festival happening in midtown and uptown over the weekend. Don’t just sit there, get out and listen to something…
…and then maybe find a space and write a little something so that people who couldn’t be there, now and in the future, will know what went down. Conversations about the present and future of music criticism continue to swirl in the wake of The New York Times announcing the reassignment of four prominent critics nearly a month ago. Here are some of the more recent responses, worth reading whether you’re a participant or a consumer:
Ben Gambuzza, Evenings with the Orchestra: “Alt and Confused: Five young critics on the future of music criticism”
Emery Kerekes, All Ears: “August 2025: Shake-up”
Ann Powers: NPR Music Newsletter, Aug. 12, 2025
Max Tani, Semafor: “New New York Times culture section edges toward video”
Vaguely related to the above, as part of a vast, sluggish project I’m working on in my spare time (which is to say barely at all), I’m revisiting everything I wrote for The New York Times during a span of just over 20 years, from 2001 to 2023. To my surprise, I’m finding considerable joy in the exercise.
Mindful of recent traffic connecting myself and Gabriel Kahane – whose own Substack newsletter is a strongly recommended place of aesthetic elucidation, deep consideration, and generous spirit – I’m sharing the first three grafs from my New York Times review of his first Carnegie Hall headline billing, at Zankel Hall in October 2012:
Just off the coast of mainstream America is a land called Brooklyn, where life is devoted to creative pursuits, and cartographers are unemployed because residents — some native, but many settled in from far-flung origins — seem to reject the notion of boundaries.
Gabriel Kahane — born in California in 1981 and currently residing in Ditmas Park — is emblematic of a growing Brooklyn aesthetic that renders moot distinctions among so-called high and low forms of art. In a sense his “February House,” a recent musical-theater work concerning a Brooklyn home shared by Benjamin Britten, W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers and Gypsy Rose Lee, posits a prehistory for his milieu.
But Mr. Kahane understands that outside Brooklyn much of the world still relies on maps to determine location, whether geographical or aesthetic. For his first Carnegie Hall solo showcase, mounted on Thursday evening in Zankel Hall, he thoughtfully divided his program into four separate but roughly equal territories that provided a thorough overview of the State of Kahane.
What those paragraphs illustrate vividly to me is the utter joy I find in the art and craft of writing when it hums—abetted and enhanced immeasurably by the strong guidance of my then-editor and mentor, Jim Oestreich.
Here’s a gift link for the rest of the review.
The Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time
NOTAFLOF = no one turned away for lack of funds.
12
Tim Berne
Lowlands Bar
543 3rd Ave., Brooklyn
Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 9pm; pass-the-hat
instagram.com/berneornot
Barbès
376 9th St.; Brooklyn
Friday, Aug. 15 at 6pm; $20
instagram.com/auroranealand
Saxophonist and composer Tim Berne has been in residence at Lowlands on and off for many months now, a homespun residency he unpacked late last year in a New York Times feature (gift link) by Hank Shteamer. Tonight, Berne fields an embiggened version of his newest working outfit, the trio Capotosta with guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi and drummer Tom Rainey, adding two ace guests: multi-instrumentalist Aurora Nealand and bassist John Hébert. You can also catch this combo this Friday evening at Barbès.
Bill Frisell Four
Village Vanguard
178 Seventh Ave. S.; West Village
Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 8 & 10pm, through Aug. 17; $40
villagevanguard.com
Having wrapped up his week with drummer Andrew Cyrille, guitarist Bill Frisell sticks around for a two-week stint of his own. Throughout the first week he’ll be playing with saxophonist Greg Tardy, pianist Gerald Clayton, and drummer Johnathan Blake, the group featured on his richly ruminative 2022 Blue Note album, Four. On Sunday night Clayton drops out, but the other three play on; next Tuesday, the leader returns with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire (on whose 2023 album Owl Song Frisell played beautifully), bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Rudy Royston.
Time:Spans – JACK Quartet
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St.; Midtown West
Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 7:30pm; $20, seniors and students $10
timespans.org
For its second Time:Spans program, JACK Quartet presents the world premiere of Introspective Trilogy, a series rooted in personal responses to distressing global events, by San Diego-based composer, pedagogue, and electroacoustic visionary Rand Steiger. This three-part sequence combines two recent works, Undone (2016) and Inward (2017), with a new finale, Rage/Resolve (2024). (You can watch JACK play Rage/Resolve here.)
13
John Zorn + Brian Marsella
Glass Box Theatre, The New School
55 W. 13th St., Greenwich Village
Wednesday, Aug. 13–Saturday, Aug. 16 at 8:30pm; $30 cash only
thestonenyc.com
An estimable pianist, composer, and bandleader in his own right, Brian Marsella has also become one of the most crucial collaborators in the community surrounding John Zorn. This week’s Stone series residency focuses on that connection: Marsella plays Zorn’s compositions for piano trio, joined on Wednesday and Thursday by bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Ches Smith, and on Friday and Saturday by bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Kenny Wollesen.
Time:Spans – Ensemble Nikel
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St.; Midtown West
Wednesday, Aug. 13 at 7:30pm; $20, seniors and students $10
timespans.org
Ensemble Nikel, the quartet of saxophonist Patrick Stadler, electric guitarist Yaron Deutsch, percussionist Brian Archinal, and pianist Antoine Françoise, joins forces with contralto Noa Frenkel in a world premiere by Christopher Trapani and recent pieces by Bekah Simms and Rebecca Saunders. Preceding the concert at 6pm is a screening of Shadow Axe, a film portrait of Deutsch directed by H. Paul Moon; admission is free but reservations are urged.
14
Time:Spans – Sixtrum Percussion
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St.; Midtown West
Thursday, Aug. 14 at 7:30pm; $20, seniors and students $10
timespans.org
In the first of two Time:Spans programs, Montréal sextet Sixtrum Percussion performs new and recent works by Ondrej Adámek, Pierre Jodlowski, Juri Seo, Dominic Thibault, Léa Boudreau, and Samuel Bobony. See Thursday 16 for a related event.
15
Wesely/Wallace/Newsome + Bhob Rainey + Katie Porter
Prospect Series
1923 8th Ave.; Brooklyn
Friday, Aug. 15 at 8pm; $20 suggested donation
Instagram
Saxophonist Jonathan Moritz has been hosting intimate concerts in his home just off Green-Wood Cemetary since 2005. Marking the 20th anniversary of the series and its 50th show, two longtime collaborators, guitarist Drew Wesely and pianist Eli Wallace, perform with soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome. Improvising saxophonist-composer Bhob Rainey plays solo; so does bass clarinetist Katie Porter, who’s celebrating her newest album, Conversation No. 1/Collecting Rocks from the Places We’ve Been, due Aug. 22 on Relative Pitch.
Time:Spans – Quatuor Bozzini
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St.; Midtown West
Friday, Aug. 15 at 7:30pm; $20, seniors and students $10
timespans.org
Performances by Montréal’s brilliant Quatuor Bozzini have become highlights of each Time:Spans season in which they’ve appeared. This year’s program includes the substantial added benefit of a U.S. premiere by a composer this group has championed to mutual benefit: Cassandra Miller, a Canadian-born, London-based creator whose works mix technical ingenuity with arresting emotional directness. Miller’s Three Songs, recently premiered to substantial acclaim at this year’s Darmstadt International Summer Course, shares the bill with commissioned world premieres by Taylor Brook and Zosha Di Castri.
16
Blacktronika Festival
Rumsey Playfield, Central Park
E. 71st St and East Drive; Manhattan
Saturday, Aug. 16 at 4pm; free admission
cityparksfoundation.org
Not to sell my efforts here short, but trust me, you’re going to want to read what Dada Strain has to say tomorrow on the subject of this extraordinary summit meeting, hosted by City Parks Foundation SummerStage, a venerable presenter whose current season has been rocked by political conflict. Saturday’s Central Park boasts heavy hitters in contemporary electronica, including pioneering British artist Charlie Dark and Philly-born King Britt, the producer, composer, and scholar who introduced Blacktronika to academia. See Sunday 17 for a related event.
Time:Spans – Sixtrum Percussion
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St.; Midtown West
Saturday, Aug. 16 at 7:30pm; $20, seniors and students $10
timespans.org
See also Thursday 14. In its second Time:Spans appearance this week, Sixtrum Percussion mixes Balinese ceremonial music, arranged by Sixtrum founding member Fabrice Marandola, with Steve Reich’s classic Six Marimbas and recent pieces by Jennifer Higdon, Éric Champagne, and Jordan Nobles.
Tribeca New Music
Christ & St. Stephen’s Church
120 W. 69th St.; Upper West Side
Saturday, Aug. 16 at 7pm; $40, advance $35, seniors and students $35, advance $30
tribecanewmusic.org
Tribeca New Music joins forces with the Alternative Guitar Summit for an evening of contemporary music by and for guitarists whose practices transcend musical borders. Known best as a jazz virtuoso, Wolfgang Muthspiel presents the U.S. premiere of his concert work Etudes/Quietudes, while versatile players Fareed Haque and Dan Lippel join forces in compositions by guitarist, composer, and Alternative Guitar Summit founder Joel Harrison from his recently released album, Guitar Talk, Vol. 2.
17
Blacktronika Festival
Marcus Garvey Park
18 Mt. Morris Park West; Harlem
Sunday, Aug. 17 at 5pm; free admission
cityparksfoundation.org
See Saturday 16, above. Sunday’s program, uptown at Marcus Garvey Park, digs into the creative-music community embracing Blacktronika, including Shana Redmond, Vijay Iyer, and LaFrae Sci in a tribute to Paul Robeson; a live hit by Black Quantum Futurism (Camae Ayewa a.k.a. Moor Mother and Rasheedah Phillips); sets by trailblazers Joy Guidry and Niecy Blues, and more.
19
Bill Frisell Four
Village Vanguard
178 Seventh Ave. S.; West Village
Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 8 & 10pm, through Aug. 24; $40
villagevanguard.com
For his third consecutive week in jazz’s most famous basement, guitarist, composer, and bandleader Bill Frisell returns with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire (on whose 2023 album Owl Song Frisell played beautifully), bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Rudy Royston.
Time:Spans – Talea Ensemble
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St.; Midtown West
Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 7:30pm; $20, seniors and students $10
timespans.org
Hard on the heels of its world premiere at this year’s Darmstadt International Summer Course, The Divine Thawing of the Core by Chaya Czernowin has its U.S. debut performance by dynamic soloist Claire Chase on contrabass flute with Talea Ensemble, conducted by James Baker. Composed in Barcelona and multiply inspired by the Sagrada Familia, Galina Ustvolskaya’s Second Symphony, and the world’s perilous state, this may be the most urgent piece of music New York City will hear this summer, if not all year.
To submit listings for consideration, email nightafternight [at] icloud [dot] com.
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.
Extremely useful post on multiple levels.
Your lead for the Kahane/Carnegie Hall review is fire.
Hear, hear! And I hope we'll see you at the Talea show.