The rhythm we made.
King Crimson veterans make a 40-year-old canon sound vital and new at the Beacon Theatre—plus recommended musical events for the week ahead.
The word that comes to mind most readily concerning the concert Adrian Belew, Steve Vai, Tony Levin, and Danny Carey presented last Saturday night at the Beacon Theatre, in the first local stop of what’s been designated the BEAT Tour, is cathartic. Nothing this all-star quartet performed during its two generous sets was less than 40 years old. Yet the music felt alive, present, vital, and fresh, its impact as emotional as it was visceral.
I’ve spent perhaps too much time thinking about the idea of rock music settling into repertoire status, comfortably or otherwise. Living in the concert-music world, you take it for given that most musicians are performing music they didn’t compose. Jazz is a different matter: musicians are expected to master a “songbook” comprising pop standards – “I Got Rhythm,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Hallelujah,” “Paranoid Android” – as well as pieces composed by specific composers, like Thelonious Monk or Carla Bley, that have become lingua franca. But most jazz artists – though not all – also write their own original material.
Rock artists have covered each other’s tunes pretty much from the start, and still do. But authenticity in rock tends to be gauged by generating new material, even in the case of older acts that make their living playing aged hits to aging fans who only want to hear those aged hits, and wander off to buy beers in the meantime.
As a fan of the band Yes, to cite one example, my desire to hear Yes songs played well live has outlasted the band members’ civil relationships. Right now I can choose between a version of Yes with no original members, or I can hear a group called the Band Geeks with Yes founding singer Jon Anderson. (Both factions have recorded new music, too.) Or I can opt to see tribute acts like Awaken and Total Mass Retain, groups who – like the Band Geeks pre-anointment – devoted time and effort to mastering another band’s canon to play for geeks like me.
I’m not hugely fussy about who’s in a group, so long as everyone’s honest about their connection to legacy and canon. The Tangerine Dream lineup I admired so much at Knockdown Center last year included no original members; likewise the version of Soft Machine I caught at Iridium.
I’m still kicking myself for missing tours this year by Uriah Heep and Asia, both bands anchored by a single original member. And several of the most thrilling accounts I’ve personally witnessed of music created by the band Genesis were by an astonishing tribute act, The Musical Box—whose website prominently displays something I wrote about them.
The music Belew, Vai, Levin, and Carey played on Saturday night – and are playing throughout this tour – was made by King Crimson during the years of its unanticipated, groundbreaking incarnation of 1981–84. Belew and Levin were among the original authors of this canon, along with King Crimson founder-guitarist Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford, a rock drummer with the fastidiousness of a classical interpreter and the urge to spontaneity of a jazz improviser.
The music they made remains unprecedented and never duplicated. Guitars were layered and phased in interlocking pinwheels inspired by Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Bassist Levin thickened the counterpoint with the treble strings of his Chapman Stick. Bruford eschewed cymbals in favor of burbling tube toms, clamorous non-rhythms, and melodic lines on electronic pads. Belew extended the guitar’s range into industrial noise and animal cries while ranting like David Byrne and crooning like John Lennon. Fripp, architect of the band’s premise and model, suffered aloud as the democracy he envisioned grew anarchic.
Unlike the aforementioned Yes, and unlike most other popular rock groups, each distinct iteration of King Crimson largely refrained from playing music associated with its predecessor(s), focusing instead on new work. The 1971 band retained several of the 1969 band’s songs. The 1973 band retained two songs from 1969-70, and nothing from 1971-72. The ’80s band adopted two songs from its 1974 predecessor, mainly because its own book was so limited at the start.
Much of the actual music this quartet made survived into subsequent Crimson incarnations: the juggernaut Double Trio of the ’90s, which included all four ’80s members; the driven, riven Double Duo of the oughts, which featured Fripp and Belew; and the underwhelming 2008 quintet, which added Levin but failed to ignite due to mounting tensions.
The regal King Crimson Fripp started in 2014 – the first-ever lineup explicitly tasked with interpreting the band’s entire historical oeuvre, including new original material – was the first since 1981 not fronted by Belew. Frictions mounted, arguments about authorship arose, and relations grew strained in public view. Only a few songs from 1981-84 made their way into Radical Action-era setlists, one so distorted it barely registered.
The BEAT Tour – named after the 1982 King Crimson album Beat and the spirit embodied by its emblematic song “Neal and Jack and Me” – was born from Belew’s expressed desire to reunite the 1981 band for its 40th anniversary. Levin, as ever, was game. Bruford, then assertively retired if perhaps less so now, declined. So did Fripp, whose savage assessment of one particular Crimson satellite-group performance involving Belew and Levin hovered unforgotten.
This time, though, Fripp not only gave his approval, but also provided an electronic Soundscape the new group could play before, during, and after the show to signal his blessing aloud. Part of this had to do with his esteem for Vai, a superlatively chopsy Frank Zappa-honed lead guitarist, and Carey, the Tool drummer who held up ’80s-era Bruford as a revelatory inspiration.
Belew acknowledged the two missing architects aloud in introducing the encore-opening selection, “Red,” an instrumental recorded by Fripp and Bruford in the King Crimson of 1974 and a staple of the 1981 repertoire.
Whatever slight skepticism I may have felt regarding this initiative vanished long before BEAT rolled into the Beacon, vanquished by a plethora of YouTube videos and torrents that proved not only the seriousness of this undertaking, but the way Vai and Carey played in a manner that extended what Fripp and Bruford had created in unexpected and invigorating ways.
I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by how powerfully emotional it felt to hear these songs played live in more-or-less their original arrangements for the first time since I heard King Crimson in Houston’s Cullen Auditorium at age 15. But surprised I was, moved nearly to tears to hear a canon so dear played loud and clear through big speakers in a big room among devotées and newcomers alike.
Yes, I’ll confess that once or twice during the evening, I wished Fripp and Bruford had elected to join Belew and Levin on a well-deserved victory lap. But I won’t soon forget how Vai took signature Fripp vehicles like “The Sheltering Sky” and “Frame by Frame” and made them his own, or how Carey gave Bruford’s skeletal tribal-funk beats a stadium-worthy presence without compromise. Levin was, as ever, the consummate musician—and I have never seen Belew more energized and engaged than he was here.
I’ll be counting the days now until BEAT comes back to town for a second visit, on Sunday, December 8 at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. (Details here.)
Pleased to meet me.
If you’ve just arrived here during the last few days, welcome! I imagine what you just read might not have been what you expected.
The main thrust of Night After Night in its current iteration on Substack is to address an almost comprehensive lack of concert listings and announcements of new and upcoming recordings in our legacy media—something that means a great deal to me personally as a music aficionado, as well as vocationally as a former freelance contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker, as well as an editor at Time Out New York and the Boston Globe, among other media outlets.
My explicit purpose is to platform and advocate for new work, whether that’s contemporary concert music, jazz, electronic composition, sound art, or some hybrid involving some or all or none of the above. The shows I list are events I endorse explicitly. My lists of recordings are more comprehensive, and regularly include new releases by artists whose work I don’t resonate with personally.
What you won’t find here is coverage of events and recordings hewing primarily to standard repertoire: this is not an outlet concerned with J.S. Bach or Charlie Parker, Milton Babbitt or Albert Ayler, except where their music is incorporated into chiefly contemporary contexts. I love the historical canon unreservedly; it’s just not what I cover here. Where I draw the line is admittedly subjective: I might include Pauline Oliveros or Morton Feldman, but not Charles Ives or Arnold Schoenberg. For John Cage, I flip a coin. (Yes, that’s a joke.)
Night After Night arrives twice a week, barring extenuating circumstances. The first installment to arrive, as in the one you’re reading now, includes a week’s worth of concert and event listings, along with news and reviews. The Friday newsletter is devoted to recordings released on that specific date and in the weeks and months to follow; regrettably, because of time limitations I almost never look back to recordings issued prior to any given deadline. I maintain a comprehensive tally of forthcoming recordings I’ve announced here, and have attempted less successfully to stockpile upcoming live events here.
All of this speaks to an aspirational rigor that has yet to materialize, given the demands of a still-new full-time job outside of the mass-media world—a break that happened in late July. (I explained that change and what prompted it here.) I’m still laboring in the aftermath of that transition, trying to fit my continued need to communicate with the divergent obligations of life and career.
And sometimes, like today, I can veer quite a ways off road.
It’s a work in progress, for sure. But again: welcome! I hope you find something useful and illuminating.
News to note.
The 2025 NYC Winter Jazzfest has announced its initial lineup of artists, and early-bird Marathon tickets are on sale now; go here for more.
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim has announced on Substack her return to freelance journalism and criticism for The New York Times.
Reviews to read.
Alex Ross on The Listeners, by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek, and Grounded, by Jeanine Tesori and George Brant, in The New Yorker.
Daniel Johnson on Silent Light, by Paola Prestini and Royce Vavrek, on Parterre.
The Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
NOTAFLOF = no one turned away for lack of funds.
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Marcos Balter
Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center
129 W. 67th St.; Upper West Side
Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 7:30pm; $30
kaufmanmusiccenter.org
Amazing things are threatening to fly under the radar at Merkin Hall just lately… and you don’t want to miss the incredible “Artist as Curator” program assembled by composer Marcos Balter. Cellist Jay Campbell and pianist Conor Hanick will play selections from Balter’s Three Enigmas, after which an all-star gaggle featuring Maria Chávez, Ikue Mori, Senem Pirler, and Gladstone Deluxe will join in for a live electroacoustic remix set.
Michael Formanek Drome Trio
Lowlands Bar
543 3rd Ave., Brooklyn
Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 8pm; pass-the-hat
lowlandsbar.com
Sightings of bassist, composer, and bandleader Michael Formanek have become more infrequent since he moved abroad, so you don’t want to sleep on this week’s two opportunities to hear his Drome Trio with reedist Chet Doxas and drummer Vinnie Sperazza (who cites his work with Formanek in the newest post on his excellent newsletter, Chronicles). Tonight’s show features guest saxophonist Tim Berne, a longtime Formanek collaborator and recent Lowlands fixture. Then on Thursday, Oct. 10, Drome Trio is at Brooklyn Artery in Ditmas Park/Flatbush, playing one set at 7:30pm, followed by an 8:30pm set by the David Smith Quintet. Suggested donation is $10–$20, and all the details you need are here.
9
Breathing of the Sound Itself
New York Studio School
8 W. 8th St.; Greenwich Village
Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 6:30pm; suggested donation $60, students $30
nyss.org
Celebrating composer Morton Feldman, dean of the New York Studio School from 1969 to 1971, Trio Fadolín – violinist Sabina Torosjan, Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin on fadolín, and cellist Valeriya Sholokhova – and pianist Dan Tepfer perform Feldman’s final composition, Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello. (See AMOC* in Tuesday’s listings for another major Feldman performance.)
Cutting Edge Concerts
Leonard Nimoy Thalia, Symphony Space
2537 Broadway, Upper West Side
Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 7:30pm; $20
symphonyspace.org
Composer, conductor, and curator Victoria Bond has overseen the Cutting Edge Concerts series since 1998, showcasing a broad range of composers, performers, and styles. Tonight’s event features two arias from Bonds’s opera Mrs. President, performed by soprano Amy Justman and pianist Mila Henry, and a multimedia project by violinist Irina Muresanu titled Four Strings Around the World, featuring music by Bond, Jerod Impichaachaaha’ Tate, Reza Vali, Violeta Dinescu, Shirish Korde, and others.
Grounded
Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center
70 Lincoln Center Plaza; Upper West Side
Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 7:30pm, Saturday, Oct. 12 at 8pm; through Oct. 19; $35–$460
metopera.org
The Metropolitan Opera opens its 2024–25 season with the local premiere of Grounded, the new opera by composer Jeanine Tesori with a libretto by George Brant, based on his award-winning play. The excellent Canadian mezzo Emily D’Angelo portrays a military fighter pilot forced by unexpected pregnancy to transition to a ground-based drone unit. The play is a powerful meditation on modern warfare, with lines that practically sing off the page. Michael Mayer’s production involves extensive use of video screens – certainly appropriate given details of the story – and Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts all performances apart from Oct. 5, led by Steven Osgood. (The New York Times review of last year’s Washington National Opera premiere is here, and a discussion with Tesori and Brant about what’s been changed for the Met, also from the Times, is here.)
Jon Madof
Glass Box Theatre, The New School
55 W. 13th St., Greenwich Village
Wednesday, Oct. 9 & Thursday, Oct. 10 at 8:30pm; $20 cash only
thestonenyc.com
Guitarist, composer, and bandleader Jon Madof, the driving force behind of Zion80 and Rashanim, follows the recent release of a beautiful new digital EP, Urim, with a two-night Stone series engagement introducing his newest band, a trio featuring Yoshie Fruchter on bass and Nate Rappaport on drums.
10
Michael Formanek Drome Trio
Brooklyn Artery
1004 Cortelyou Rd., Brooklyn
brooklynartery.com
See Tuesday, Oct. 8.
11
Billy Martin
Glass Box Theatre, The New School
55 W. 13th St., Greenwich Village
Friday, Oct. 11 & Saturday, Oct. 12 at 8:30pm; $20 cash only
thestonenyc.com
Versatile, prolific percussionist Billy Martin, of Medeski Martin and Wood renown, presents two venturesome nights under The Stone banner at The New School. On Friday he’ll drive a quartet with saxophonist Nathan Nakadegawa-Lee, keyboardist Henry Plotnick, and bassist Anna Abondalo, and on Saturday he plays duets with Shinya Lin on electronics and prepared piano.
John Zorn’s Cobra
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Friday, Oct. 11 at 8pm; $45, advance $40, seniors and students $35
roulette.org
On Saturday, Oct. 13, 1984 at the original Roulette loft in downtown Manhattan, improvising composer John Zorn introduced what would emerge as his most successful and most widely performed game piece: Cobra, in which a dozen or more musicians improvise alone and together coordinated with signals from cue cards, hand gestures, and other on-the-fly prompts. Marking the work’s 40th anniversary at the grand Roulette in Brooklyn, Zorn is the prompter for an all-star aggregation spanning three generations of NYC creative musicians.
12
The Orchestra Now (TŌN)
Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Ave.; Midtown West
Saturday, Oct. 12 at 7:30pm; $29–$70
carnegiehall.org
The 7th China Now Music Festival, produced by the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music in collaboration with China’s prestigious Central Conservatory of Music, presents The Orchestra Now conducted by Jindong Cai. The program includes AI Suite, created for the occasion by CCOM’s Department of Music Artificial Intelligence, alongside orchestral works by Du Yun, Peng-Peng Gong, Qin Wenchen, Yao Chen, and Sun Yuming.
13
Ensemble of the League of Composers
OPERA America's National Opera Center
330 Seventh Ave., 7th floor; Midtown West
Sunday, Oct. 13 at 7pm; free admission with R.S.V.P.
leagueofcomposers.org
The League of Composers/ISCM presents a New Orleans-themed concert featuring arias and duets from Imoinda: Story of Love and Slavery, an opera by composer Odaline de la Martinez and librettist Joan Anim-Addo, and three chamber works by Barbara Jazwinski.
15
Ainadamar
Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center
70 Lincoln Center Plaza; Upper West Side
Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 7:30pm; through Nov. 9; $35–$460
metopera.org
The brief, arresting opera by composer Osvaldo Golijov and playwright David Henry Hwang, concerning the life and work of poet-playwright Federico García Lorca, comes to the Met in a production by Deborah Colker with all-important sound design by Mark Grey. Angel Blue portrays Margarita Xirgu in most performances, Daniela Mack is García Lorca, and conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya makes his house debut.
AMOC*
Hauser and Wirth
443 W. 18th St., Chelsea
Thursday, Oct. 15 at 5pm; free with R.S.V.P.
hauserwirth.com
In conjunction with the current exhibition Philip Guston: Room, Sea & Sky, the artists collective AMOC* presents a rare traversal of Morton Feldman’s epic For Philip Guston performed by flutist Emi Ferguson, pianist Adam Tendler, and percussionist Nathan Davis. The R.S.V.P. list is closed already, but you can sign up to join the wait list on Eventbrite.
The Stone Student Concerts
Glass Box Theatre, The New School
55 W. 13th St., Greenwich Village
Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 8:30pm; free admission
thestonenyc.com
Cellist Julie Kim and percussionist Paul Sakai inaugurate a brand-new series of Stone series concerts curated and played by New School student artists. Further free performances in the series are scheduled for November, February, March, and April.
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.
Beautiful write-up, Steve - I know how much this music means to you, and I could feel that in your words. Hope I’ll be able to make the Brooklyn gig!
That was incredibly enjoyable, reading your review of Beat. Thank you for your passion!