Night After Night

The New York Times: Frank London profile.

Frank London (Photograph: Anna London)

New in The New York Times today: my feature about Frank London, a trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader who has played a major role in downtown jazz, the klezmer and Balkan music revivals of the ’80s, and a whole lot more. Today is his 66th birthday—which unfortunately he is spending in the hospital, where he was admitted late last week for treatment of a rare cancer he was diagnosed with four years ago.

Here is a gift link.

London spoke about his situation with candor and good humor. It was also a pleasure to interview his close associates Hankus Netsky and Steven Bernstein, and to exchange emails with Matt Darriau and Marcus Rojas.

A concert spanning the breadth of London’s career – focusing on two new albums and a third recent release, but also covering a variety of ambitious large-scale works – will be held at Roulette on Monday, June 3. “What, Carnegie Hall wasn’t available?” I asked him, anticipating obvious demand—and indeed, the show is sold out already. But a standby line will be available for any unclaimed tickets, and the concert will stream live on the Roulette website and YouTube.

Since London can’t be there now, he’s deputized comrades like Bernstein and Darriau to lead bands in his absence. Expect to hear from him, anyway.

As ever, there were far too many strong stories and anecdotes to share. For one, London told me how much it means to him that one of his new albums, Spirit Stronger Than Blood, is coming out on ESP-Disk’ since recordings on that label had exerted such a huge influence on his development. (The other new album, Brass Conspiracy, has an official street date of August 16, but Tzadik hopes to have copies on hand at Roulette.)

And another: Netsky recalled that many times after the Klezmer Conservatory Band played concerts during London’s tenure, when the time came to play an encore, the trumpeter was nowhere to be found—because he’d already sprinted off to some late-night Latin gig elsewhere. “It got to be a joke in our band: Where’s Frank?” Netsky said, laughing.

Here’s wishing Frank London happiness, comfort, and a swift, full recovery.

The New York Times: Jim Staley interview.

Jim Staley (Photograph courtesy Roulette)

"The Man Who Made Roulette Into New York’s Music Lab"
The New York Times
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Gift link

New in The New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure section: 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.

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 in feeling this way.

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 my Night After Night newsletter during the weeks to come.

WNYC: Weekend Arts Planner, July 29, 2023.

Endea Owens (Photograph courtesy Jazz at Lincoln Center and Bryant Park)

The latest Weekend Arts Planner segment for WNYC, which aired on Weekend Edition on Saturday, July 29, covered items selected from a Gothamist story published on Thursday: "25 free things to do in NYC this August."

David Furst and I talked about Free Shakespeare in the Park, happening now in Central Park; Beach Session Dance Series, coming up Aug. 26 on Rockaway Beach; and Live After Dark, a new concert series debuting Aug. 1 at Bryant Park. We closed with a quick mention of a 45th anniversary celebration for Roulette, featuring Immanuel Wilkins, 75 Dollar Bill, and Ka Baird, at Bryant Park on Aug. 26.

First up in that last series is fast-rising bassist, composer, and bandleader Endea Owens, who also plays a free Jazz at Lincoln Center showcase outdoors in Times Square on Aug. 31, part of the TSQ Live series. And a Gothamist reader quickly let me know I'd missed one more free gig featuring Owens, on Saturday, Aug. 26, at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, on day two of the annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival.

Listen above, and read more here.

Gothamist: 7 Picks a Week, July 28, 2023.

Endea Owens (Photograph courtesy of the artist)

My contributions to "7 Picks a Week," the weekly Gothamist guide of arts and culture events and happenings in and around New York City. The complete article can be found here.

Check out fast-rising bassist Endea Owens for free

Detroit bassist, composer and bandleader Endea Owens is making a big noise lately on the New York City jazz scene, and here's where you can find out why: On Tuesday, Owens and her soulful combo, The Cookout, will inaugurate "Live After Dark," a new weekly series at Bryant Park. It's not happening on the sprawling lawn, but instead on the more intimate L'OR Porch on the park's south side. The show starts at 8 p.m., and it's free. And if you can't catch Owens & Co. here, you'll get another chance on Aug. 31, when Jazz at Lincoln Center hosts the band smack-dab in the middle of Times Square; details here.

Encounter a Sondheim hit in a whole new way.

Also happening at Lincoln Center on Wednesday is a new production of the Stephen Sondheim musical "Company," presented in collaboration with Deaf Broadway and performed by deaf actors in American Sign Language. The show is directed by James Caverly ("Only Murders in the Building") and stars Garrett Zuercher ("Law & Order: Criminal Intent") as Bobby, with a 2011 concert recording, featuring Neil Patrick Harris and Patti LuPone with the New York Philharmonic, serving as an auditory soundtrack. The show starts at 8 p.m. in Damrosch Park; learn more here.

7 Picks a Week, Nov. 25, 2022.

Raphael Payare (Photograph courtesy Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal)

My contributions to the latest installment of 7 picks a week, the arts and culture guide I compile weekly for Gothamist.

See mysticism and melancholy through a world-famous painter's eyes

"Exodus," an exhibition of recent works by the German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer, is so big one coast couldn't contain it. Part of the show is on view at Gagosian's space at 555 West 24th Street in Chelsea; the other part is housed at Gagosian at Marciano Art Foundation, in Los Angeles. Evoking themes from ancient mythology, the Book of Exodus and the writings of E.T.A. Hoffmann and Paul Celan, Kiefer conjures old gods, monuments and ruins in his characteristically haunting manner. Gagosian, through Friday, Dec. 23; gagosian.com

Be astonished by a jazz quartet's fiery flights

If you've ever had the experience of feeling so overwhelmed by the intensity of a group's cooperation that all you could do was smile and laugh in dumbstruck awe, you've got a good idea of what to anticipate in an encounter with John Zorn's New Masada Quartet. Playing material from Zorn's Masada songbooks – part Jewish theme, part free-jazz steam – the iconoclastic saxophonist's group with guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Kenny Wollesen is among the most joyous outfits he's ever led, and that joy is contagious. Roulette, Sunday, Nov. 27 at 8 p.m.; roulette.org

See a rising-star conductor lead the New York Philharmonic for the first time

Conductor Rafael Payare, like his world-famous colleague Gustavo Dudamel, came up through the fabled Venezuelan training program El Sistema, and sprang from the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra to a globe-spanning career. At age 42, he is music director of two outstanding ensembles, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and should make an electrifying first impression on New York Philharmonic audience members with Shostakovich's Symphony No. 12, subtitled "The Year 1917." David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, Thursday, Dec. 1 – Saturday, Dec. 3, times vary; nyphil.org

7 Picks a Week, Nov. 18, 2022.

Jason Moran and The Bandwagon (Photograph courtesy of the artists)

My contributions to the latest installment of 7 picks a week, the arts and culture guide I compile weekly for Gothamist.

See how the Great Migration inspired a cellist to make a move

Already known as one of the finest young cellists of his generation, Seth Parker Woods reveals himself to be considerably more in this original multidisciplinary performance piece. Taking the Great Migration as his theme, Woods serves as soloist, narrator, and motion artist in a program comprised of poetry by Amiri Baraka and Dudley Randall, choreography by dancer Roderick George, film and contemporary pieces created by a wide variety of composers — including, in this newest iteration, new music by Ted Hearne and Devonté Hynes (a.k.a. Blood Orange). And if you can’t attend in person, livestream tickets are available. Saturday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m.; 92ny.org

View new films from around the world without leaving your sofa

Whether you're eager to revisit the bounty of global cinema screened at this year's 12th annual Queens World Film Festival earlier this month or you missed the entire thing, you've got a second chance to see a slate of films from across the country and around the world during a virtual encore festival that starts this Sunday. Sign up for a smorgasbord of shorts or a single feature for $10, or indulge in an all-you-can-watch festival pass covering more than 100 offerings for $50. Sunday, Nov. 20 – Sunday, Dec. 4; FilmFestivalFlix.com

Jump on the Bandwagon at the world's most storied jazz club

Befitting his status as a MacArthur Fellow, Jason Moran is an impressively multi-hyphenate creative: pianist, composer, educator, curator, record-label impresario, visual artist and collaborator to formidable fellow artists like Joan Jonas, Glenn Ligon, Ragnar Kjartansson and Kara Walker. But every year (pandemic willing), in what's become a Thanksgiving-week ritual as welcome as pumpkin pie and the big parade, Moran brings it all back home to the Village Vanguard for a stint with The Bandwagon, his tight-knit trio with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits. Tuesday, Nov. 22 – Sunday, Nov. 27 at 8 & 10 p.m.; villagevanguard.com

Swing by a Greenwich Village gallery for jazz-infused art

Speaking of jazz artists who also engage in visual media, “The Art of Counterpoint: 8 Musicians Make Art” features works by creators better known as jazz performers. The show, just opened at Zürcher Gallery, on Bleecker Street in the heart of Greenwich Village, includes works by historic icons Marion Brown, Bill Dixon, and Ted Joans, as well as living innovators Douglas R. Ewart, Oliver Lake, Matana Roberts, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and Wadada Leo Smith. You can view the catalog in advance here. Through Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023; galeriezurcher.com

7 Picks a Week, Nov. 11, 2022.

Nina Chanel Abney exhibition (Photograph courtesy Pace Prints)

Here are my contributions to the latest installment of 7 picks a week, the arts and culture guide I compile weekly for Gothamist.

Celebrate a hard-working jazz trio's 10th anniversary

Serendipity had a hand in the formation of Thumbscrew, when bassist Michael Formanek filled in as a substitute player in a band that featured guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. A decade later, the well-traveled working trio celebrates 10 years of uncommon chemistry and sly, nimble music, as heard on "Multicolored Midnight," its recently released seventh album. The Jazz Gallery, Friday, Nov. 11 and Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.; jazzgallery.org (Steve Smith)

Gawk at the real trappings of royalty between episodes of "The Crown"

If you plan to queue up for a blockbuster exhibition this fall, “The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England” is the one to choose. The show covers a historic span from the ascent of Henry VII in 1485 to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, a time of creative fecundity and promiscuous patronage. The show includes more than 100 works – paintings, armor, manuscripts, and more – by gifted artists and craftsmen from throughout Europe, while also chronicling the emergence of a nascent British style. Metropolitan Museum of Art, through Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023; metmuseum.org (Steve Smith)

Hear dreamy music in the building Anna Delvey couldn't buy

Known as an adventurous cellist and founder of the American Chamber Music Ensemble, Clarice Jensen increasingly has turned her hand lately to writing mesmerizing solo and chamber compositions. She'll be joined by ACME colleagues this week to play music from her vivid, varied new album, "Esthesis," in the elegant building at 281 Park Ave South, made famous by the Netflix film "Inventing Anna." Fotografiska New York, Thursday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.; fotografiska.com (Steve Smith)

7 Picks a Week, Nov. 4, 2022.

David Lynch (Photograph: Josh Telles)

On Friday, Nov. 4, we rebooted the web post previously called Weekend Arts Planner. We moved it up to Friday, in hopes that it could serve to actually help folks plan their weekends and not just the days beyond. And we opened it up to more voices and perspectives from throughout the WNYC newssoom, as well as friends from WQXR and All of It.

I'm very happy with the overall mix. The following are my own contributions…

Get creeped out by David Lynch’s visual art

If you’re a fan of the idiosyncratic filmmaker David Lynch, then you’ve got a strong idea of what to anticipate in “Big Bongo Night,” his first exhibition since signing with Pace Gallery. The show includes mixed-media sculptures, paintings, and a work on paper, all infused with the same qualities of creeping dread and disorientation that saturate his cinematic oeuvre. Pace Gallery, through Dec. 17; pacegallery.com (Steve Smith)

Hear elemental sounds from a band featuring two MacArthur geniuses

Jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader Myra Melford has been assembling impressive bands for decades now — but her newest ensemble is a head-turner all the same. The group, called Fire and Water, features two recent recipients of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (a.k.a. “Genius Grant”), guitarist Mary Halvorson and cellist Tomeka Reid. Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Lesley Mok complete the lineup when the band comes to Roulette in Brooklyn to celebrate its debut CD, “For the Love of Fire and Water.” Roulette, Monday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.; roulette.org (Steve Smith)

Check out the first-ever solo museum show by Theaster Gates

It’s hard to believe that “Young Lords and Their Traces” is the first-ever solo museum survey devoted to the art of Theaster Gates, so widespread and pervasive are the Chicago artist’s work and influence. Active in the fields of sculpture, installation art and collaborative performance, Gates elevates the thinkers who shaped society, in his hometown and in the U.S., through paintings, sculptures, videos, and performances. New Museum, Thursday, Nov. 10–Feb. 5, 2023; newmuseum.org (Steve Smith)

Weekend Arts Planner (not), Oct. 29, 2022.

Mali Obomsawin (Photograph courtesy Jazz Gallery)

Weekend Arts Planner took a break during the last weekend of October, chiefly due to on-air scheduling issues. But these are the items I prepared for the occasion, as they appeared in the Gothamist article "11 fun things to do in NYC that have nothing to do with trick-or-treating" – and as I write this on Tuesday morning, only one of these things (the David Geffen Hall open house) is over and done.

Watch acrobats rappel down the face of David Geffen Hall

This weekend, Lincoln Center welcomes visitors for a two-day open house boasting a dizzying array of artistic talent. Musical acts include Brian Stokes Mitchell, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Justin Vivian Bond, Grand Wizzard Theodore, the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, and dozens more – even Kermit the Frog, appearing with Canada’s participatory Choir!Choir!Choir! Hands-on workshops include a puppetry session with Basil Twist, and the aerial company Bandaloop will dance across the facade of David Geffen Hall. Best of all: it’s free! It happens on Saturday, Oct. 29 and Sunday, Oct. 30, starting at 10 a.m. both days. You can learn more and see the lineup here.

Discover the artist behind one of the world’s most famous works

Even if you don’t recognize the name Meret Oppenheim, you're probably familiar with the Swiss artist’s best-known work: “Object,” a modest cup, saucer, and teaspoon wrapped in gazelle fur, resulting in a Surrealist icon. Beyond her signature work, she was one of the most accomplished artists working in Surrealism, a style dominated by brash men, and “Meret Oppenheim: My Exhibition,” a thorough new career retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, showcases her range with a collection of nearly 200 objects. It’s on through March 4 and you can learn more here.

Listen to a rising jazz star

“Sweet Tooth,” released today by bassist, composer, and bandleader Mali Obomsawin, isn’t your typical debut by a promising jazz up-and-comer. Her album is filled with catchy tunes, rich harmonies, and vibrant improvisations, played by a band in which women musicians are uncommonly well-represented. But Obomsawin, a member of the New England-based Wabanaki Confederation, weaves elements of legend, lore, and contemporary issues into the half-dozen tracks of her album, which she’ll celebrate with a record-release concert at the Jazz Gallery on Wednesday, Nov. 2. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. and tickets start at $20. Learn more at the Jazz Gallery.

Weekend Arts Planner, Oct. 8, 2022.

Etienne Charles (Photograph: Lawrence Sumulong for Lincoln Center)

The latest episode of Weekend Arts Planner, my weekly chat with Weekend Edition host David Furst that airs every Saturday morning on WNYC, covers noteworthy doings presented by the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, and the New York Philharmonic. Have a listen, or just read the text and follow the links, here.

As many of you might know, these posts until recently also appeared on Gothamist. They will again, soon, but in a revised and expanded format. Stay tuned…