Home / Arts & Life / Pop, Rock and Jazz in NYC This Week

Pop, Rock and Jazz in NYC This Week

KAKI KING at the Iridium (Aug. 19, 8 p.m.). The virtuosic guitarist Kaki King has done session work with mainstream acts from Foo Fighters to Timbaland, all while cultivating a dedicated audience for her own solo compositions. Ms. King is currently preparing a live album of orchestral reinterpretations of that solo work, but first she’s stopping by the Iridium, in Midtown Manhattan, for this Saturday night show.
866-777-8932, theiridium.com

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW at Brooklyn Steel (Aug. 21, 8 p.m.). Bob Dylan is something of a guiding light for this folk and country group, which repurposed a decades-old song fragment by Mr. Dylan for its biggest hit, “Wagon Wheel,” and which recently released a full-length live cover of his 1966 double album, “Blonde on Blonde.” Next week, Old Crow Medicine Show will perform songs from that LP, as well as preview a coming studio album. With Joshua Hedley.
bowerypresents.com/brooklyn-steel

LIONEL RICHIE AND MARIAH CAREY at Madison Square Garden (Aug. 19, 7 p.m.). Mr. Richie and Ms. Carey are being candid about what concertgoers can expect from their tour this summer: “All the Hits.” Given that the pair have sung on nearly 50 Billboard top 10 singles between the two of them, that’s no small promise. And although recent set lists haven’t had room for every last hit, they have included more than enough to satisfy fans of Ms. Carey’s vocal bravado and Mr. Richie’s unflappable suavity.
866-858-0008, thegarden.com

SIMON VOZICK-LEVINSON

Photo

The psychedelic collective Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber will play selections from its new album, “All You Zombies Dig the Luminosity,” at the second of two Wednesday night performances at National Sawdust. See listing below.

Credit
Petra Richterova

Jazz

BURNT SUGAR THE ARKESTRA CHAMBER at National Sawdust (Aug. 23, 7 and 10 p.m.). If you’ve read Greg Tate’s writing, you have a sense of what to expect from Burnt Sugar: psychedelic, groove-entrenched, blissfully Afropolitan catharsis. The collective pledges spiritual allegiance to Sun Ra, Prince and Betty Davis, and makes its intentions clear with prolix verbiage as well as tousled funk. Its new album is called “All You Zombies Dig the Luminosity.” Word. Mr. Tate will conduct a 15-piece synod on Wednesday. At 7 p.m., the group will perform a version of Max Roach, Oscar Brown Jr. and Abbey Lincoln’s “We Insist! Freedom Now” suite; at 10, it will play selections from the new album.
646-779-8455, nationalsawdust.org

KENNY BARRON AND RAY DRUMMOND at Mezzrow (Aug. 18-19, 8 and 9:30 p.m.). The pianist Kenny Barron, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, has a subtly instigative style, full of allusions to the broad-shouldered swing of Oscar Peterson, Hank Jones’s eloquent bounce and, from time to time, the tart cubism of Thelonious Monk. For 50 years, he’s been one of jazz’s most relied-upon sidemen, all while releasing a string of masterly albums with his own combos. Here he appears with the bassist Ray Drummond, a longtime associate.
646-476-4346, mezzrow.com

INNOV GNAWA at Barbès (Aug. 19, 10 p.m.). This sextet of Gnawa musicians from Morocco plays songs of devotion and praise, rendered by a cluster of voices over mixed percussion and sintir, a three-stringed bass. Hassan Ben Jaafer is the group’s oldest member and de facto leader; he plays the sintir and performs the call to the chorus’s response. Innov Gnawa is based in Brooklyn and has developed a formidable following over the past few years, often playing large stages; it will be a particular treat to hear the group in the intimate room at Barbès.
347-422-0248, barbesbrooklyn.com

AZAR LAWRENCE at Smoke (Aug. 18-20; 7, 9 and 10:30 p.m.). Mr. Lawrence worked in the 1970s with both McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, very nearly touching the hem of John Coltrane’s garment (Jones and Mr. Tyner were half of Coltrane’s classic quartet). He was known then, as he is now, as one of Coltrane’s direct descendants on the tenor saxophone. Here he offers a program titled “A Love Supreme,” celebrating Coltrane’s repertoire. He’ll appear with a quartet, to include his frequent collaborators Benito Gonzalez on piano and Essiet Okon Essiet on bass.
212-864-6662, smokejazz.com

TODD MARCUS QUINTET at ShapeShifter Lab (Aug. 20, 7 p.m.). Mr. Marcus is probably the most inventive bass clarinetist working in straight-ahead jazz today, but he’s rarely heard from in New York City. He lives in Baltimore, where he is a guiding light on the city’s jazz scene who doubles as an activist and organizer. He appears here with a quintet featuring four of the strongest jazz musicians to emerge from his home state: the vibraphonist Warren Wolf, the pianist George Colligan, the bassist Kris Funn and the drummer Eric Kennedy.
shapeshifterlab.com

ANAÏS MAVIEL, LEONID GALAGANOV AND ALEXIS MARCELO at the Cornelia Street Café (Aug. 22, 9:30 p.m.). It’s impossible to know where this trio will take things — not just because this show will be its debut, but because all three of its members are dauntless renegades. Ms. Maviel, a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, doesn’t work like a typical singer; her process is so deeply rooted as to be almost subliminal. She seems to throw herself at her notes, as if seeking a sound that might convey pure energetics. She appears here with Mr. Galaganov, a percussionist who builds structures sparingly, and Mr. Marcelo, a pianist.
212-989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com

GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

Continue reading the main story

About admin

Check Also

Hear the Best Albums and Songs of 2023

Dear listeners, In the spirit of holiday excess and end-of-the-year summation, we’re about to make …