The isle is full of noises.
January has been a big box-office month in New York City for decades now—but don't let this handful of special non-affiliated shows slip between the cracks.
“Once upon a time, not so very long ago, January felt like a dull, dark break in the performing arts calendar, a null zone between fall and spring offerings as the echoes of holiday programming faded into memory.”
I wrote that sentence last year, in an article published by Gothamist, to preface a story addressing the massive convergence of indie arts showcases that have proliferated in New York City – much of it, almost surprisingly, in Manhattan. This mostly started to take advantage of the annual Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) conference, where curators from across the country coverage to plan and populate their own future seasons back home. This year’s conference opens on Friday and runs through Tuesday.
These annual events are household names now. Winter Jazzfest starts tonight with a massively sold-out tribute to Max Roach anchored by Tyshawn Sorey—part of the innovative Take Two concert series, which I tapped Piotr Orlov, of Dada Strain renown, to cover for Gothamist and WNYC last year. Orlov, by the way, is overseeing an especially choice Winter Jazzfest showcase this Saturday at Union Pool, part of the festival’s now-customary Brooklyn Marathon.
Also starting tonight is PROTOTYPE, the essential new opera and music-theater showcase produced by Beth Morrison Projects and the downtown Manhattan arts center HERE, this year offering six distinctive live events and three streaming presentations. Included in this year’s lineup is the NYC premiere of Angel Island, a Huang Ruo work about an immigration facility in San Francisco Bay, where hundreds of thousands of Chinese immigrants were detained under harsh conditions during the early decades of the 20th century—a story I learned more about when I assigned my friend and colleague Chloe Veltman to cover it at NPR in 2021. Naturally, there’s plenty more worth seeing, but note that Angel Island is only being presented three times.
The estimable international-music celebration globalFEST is back at Lincoln Center again this Sunday with a characteristically rich and wide-ranging lineup. And Under the Radar, the vital new-theater festival that lost its longtime home at the Public Theater late last year, was resuscitated by a village of presenters and venues, and splashed itself across spaces all over town starting last week.
All of those productions obviously are well worth your time and money. That said, I’m using the remainder of this newsletter to highlight a few special upcoming engagements that might otherwise be overlooked in a crowded field.
The Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
10
Kris Davis Trio
Village Vanguard
178 Seventh Ave. S., Greenwich Village
Through Sunday, Jan. 14 at 8 & 10pm; $40
villagevanguard.com
Pianist Kris Davis turned heads and topped charts with her most recent album, Diatom Ribbons Live at the Village Vanguard, taped at the city’s most hallowed jazz room. She returns now with a rock-solid trio featuring bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Johnathan Blake.
12
Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society
The Jazz Gallery
1158 Broadway, 5th floor, Midtown East
Friday, Jan. 12 and Saturday, Jan. 13 at 7:30 & 9:30pm; $39–$50
Livestream tickets $22
jazzgallery.org
Composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue convenes his Secret Society for two evenings at The Jazz Gallery, celebrating the crack ensemble’s latest audacious achievement, Dynamic Maximum Tension, issued by Nonesuch in September and a staple on critics polls at the end of the year. Livestream tickets are available for anyone who can’t attend in person.
Dither with Lee Ranaldo
Public Records
233 Butler St., Brooklyn
Friday, Jan. 12 at 7pm; $25.75
dice.fm
Joined by Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo on keyboards, the electric guitar quartet Dither performs its unique, effects-enhanced arrangements of pieces from The Expanding Universe, a foundational electronic-music album by Laurie Spiegel. Ranaldo also performs his own Hurricane Sandy Transcriptions with Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase.
Tony Malaby Birthday Quartet
Barbès
376 9th St., Brooklyn
Friday, Jan. 12 at 8pm; $20
viewcy.com
Bar LunÀtico
486 Halsey St., Brooklyn
Sunday, Jan. 14 at 9pm; $10 cash suggested donation
barlunatico.com
For a couple of decades you could start to believe that somewhere in New York City on any given night, the versatile saxophonist, bandleader, and composer Tony Malaby was playing a gig somewhere. But nowadays he’s based in Boston, so events like this two-night 60th birthday celebration at two of his regular Brooklyn haunts are that much more special. He’ll be working with three of his surest longtime collaborators – guitarist Ben Monder, pianist Angelica Sanchez, and drummer Tom Rainey – offering brawny tunes and freewheeling revelry.
13
Magdalene: I am the utterance of my name
TheaterLab
357 W. 36th St., third floor; Midtown West
Saturday, Jan. 13 and Monday, Jan. 15 at 7:30pm, Sunday, Jan. 14 at 3pm; $35, students $15
theaterlabnyc.com
Presented in what’s billed as a “pre-premiere” ahead of a formal engagement at HERE in June, Magdalene: I am the utterance of my name, a new work by Little Matchstick Factory – writer, director, and actor Sylvia Milo and composer, sound designer, and performer Nathan Davis – has a quick Manhattan run. The second outing from the team behind the award-winning phenomenon The Other Mozart, this new show taps ancient texts and contemporary sources to investigate 2,000 years of controversy surrounding the biblical figure of the title.
PUBLIQuartet + Harlem Quartet
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Ave., Midtown East
Saturday, Jan. 13 at 7pm; $45 plus $5.05 fee
ovationtix.com
Two enterprising young string quartets team up for a double bill that shows common threads and points of departure. PUBLIQuartet will play compositions by Daniel Bernard Roumain and Rhiannon Giddens, as well as improvisatory spins on Tina Turner, Ornette Coleman, and Alice Coltrane tunes. The Harlem Quartet counters with Ludwig van Beethoven, Fanny Mendelssohn, William Grant Still, Dizzy Gillespie, and Caroline Shaw. And, it probably will come as no surprise, each group is playing a piece by former PUBLIQuartet violinist turned powerhouse composer Jessie Montgomery.
Unheard-of//Ensemble
Alchemical Studios
50 W. 17th St., 12th floor, West Village
Saturday, Jan. 13 at 8pm; free admission (RSVP encouraged)
eventbrite.com
Unheard-of//Ensemble opens its 2024 season with a “Dialogues” program that pairs Blackwing, a bass clarinet soliloquy by Linda Catlin Smith, with For Linda Catlin Smith, a new piece by Lila Meretzky. Also on the bill are works by Jessica Meyer, Reiko Fueting, Geli Li, Brian Brown, and ensemble cellist Iva Casian-Lakos.
For even more listings, see the Night After Night Watch master list, here.
Thank you.
(Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated otherwise.)
As always, thank you for your support Steve! Full Dada Strain guide to the WJF Marathons (with discount codes for reader) here: https://dadastrain.substack.com/p/bklyn-sounds-11020241162024-winter