Avant Music News

Friday, June 3 // Tomas Fujiwara & the Hook Up w/the Brian Settles Trio ($15)
Saturday, June 4 // The Jolley Brothers w/the Amy K. Bormet Trio ($10)
Friday, June 10 // Darius Jones Trio w/OOO ($12)
Saturday, June 11 // JD Allen Trio w/the Elijah Jamal Balbed Quartet ($16) // discounted midnight show ($8)

Saturday, May 28th
9pm – 2 sets
$8 admission
Project Lodge 817 East Johnson Street

Joe McPhee is a free jazz giant. At 71, he is something of a patron saint of the scene, having emerged during the first wave of post-Ayler wailers as a distinct voice on both tenor and pocket trumpet. His debut on Clifford Thornton’s 1967 album Freedom and Unity saw McPhee on trumpet in the company of Jimmy Garrison and Karl Berger, among others. His career cuts across a broad swath of the improvised music landscape, having established himself as a master improviser in settings ranging from free improv with U.K. originators Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Paul Lytton; to masta’ blasta’ free jazz skronk with Mats Gustavson’s The Thing and Ken Vandermark; to uber-sparse sound explorations with Pauline Oliveros’s Deep Listening Band. Joe McPhee appears on over 60 recordings; many of which are on the the excellent Hat Hut label, which Werner Uehlinger founded specifically to release McPhee’s music.

Look & Listen Festival (Thursday) Both eyes and ears are catered to at the 10th annual Look & Listen Festival, which offers new music in galleries. Nadia Sirota hosts the opening-night event on Thursday in the Chelsea Art Museum, where the exciting JACK Quartet performs works by Julia Wolfe and Philip Glass; the percussionist Doug Perkins plays a piece by Michael Gordon; and the pianist Tanya Bannister performs a selection by Sofia Gubaidulina. The festival runs through May 22. At 8 p.m., Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 22nd Street , (718) 622-3005, lookandlisten.org; $15; $10 for students and 65+. (Schweitzer)

Microfest 2011 (Sunday) The American Festival of Microtonal Music explores music written for the many tuning systems beyond the standard 12-note octave. This year’s opening program includes an appealing mix of old and new, with music by Stravinsky, Louis Andriessen, Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols, Jacob Druckman, Mark Enslin, Mari Kimura, Joshua Morris, and Johnny Reinhard. At 7 p.m., Church of St. Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson Street, at Grove Street, West Village , (212) 517-3550, afmm.org; $12, $10 for students and 65+. (Kozinn)

Monday, May 23 at 8PM
Merkin Concert Hall
129 West 67th Street (Broadway & Amsterdam)

ETHEL
HomeBaked commissioning project

Cornelius Dufallo, Mary Rowell, violins
Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello
Guest artists: Andy Akiho, percussion; Corey Dargel, voice;
Kathleen Supové, piano

Join us as ETHEL, the stunning string quartet phenom, performs a
fresh batch of excitng world premieres as part of their HomeBaked
commissioning project. (photo by Steve J. Sherman)

World premieres by:
Andy Akiho
Rick Baitz
Anna Clyne
Judd Greenstein
Matt Marks
Randal Woolf
and music of Corey Dargel

Tickets $25/$30 at Merkin Concert Hall.
Your ticket price helps support this ambitious project.
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Thursday, May 26 at 8PM
Merkin Concert Hall
129 West 67th Street (Broadway & Amsterdam)

DITHER and REDHOOKER

Two cutting-edge bands take the stage for this double bill evening.
World premieres by Stephen Griesgraber and
Tristan Perech with music by Lisa R. Coons

Dither
Entropion (from Cross-Sections) by Lisa R. Coons
Interference Logic by Tristan Perich (world premiere)

Redhooker
with works by Stephen Griesgraber:
Stand Still
Bedside
Friction
Trip and Fall
Amnesic Swim (world premiere)
The Middle Three (world premiere)

Tickets $25/$30 at Merkin Concert Hall.
Your ticket price helps support this ambitious project.
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Tuesday, May 31 at 8PM
Galapagos Art Space
16 Main Street, DUMBO Brooklyn

TRIBECA MONSTERS!

Pianist Geoffrey Burleson, violinist Mary Rowell, cellist Wendy Law,
percussionist John Ferrari perform

Music of:
Steward Copeland (The Police)
Michael Gandolfi
Ed Harsh
Dylan Mattingly (2011 Young Composer Competitioin Winner)
Marc Mellits
Daniel Bernard Roumain
Jacob TV

Tickets $15/$10 available at Galapagosartspace.com
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Sunday, June 5 at 8PM
Galapagos Art Space
16 Main Street, DUMBO Brooklyn

ANTI-DEPRESSANT

VIolinist Jennifer Choi, pianist Kathleen Supové
with composer/performers Gregor Huebner and Jonathan Zalben

Music of:
Orlando Jacinto Garcia
Gregor Huebner
Preston Stahly
Erkki-Sven Tüür
Jonathan Zalben

Tickets $15/$10 available at Galapagosartspace.com
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Thursday, June 9 at 8PM
The Cell—A Twenty First Century Salon
338 West 23rd Street (8th & 9th Ave.)

GYAN RILEY QUARTET

Gyan Riley, guitar; Zach Brock,violin;
Matt Wigton, bass; Martin Urbach, percussion

Works include:
Sinspiration
Progression of the Ancestors
New works TBA

Tickets $20 available at BrownPaperTickets.com
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Friday, June 10 at 8PM
The Cell—A Twenty First Century Salon
338 West 23rd Street (8th & 9th Ave.)

SWARMIUS

Saximus, aka Todd Rewoldt; Fiddlus El Gato, aka Felix Olschofka;
Crotalius, aka Joel Bluestone; Jozefius Vaatierz Rattus,
aka Joseph Waters
The San Diego avant-pop band performs new works by Joe Waters

On the program:
Cali’ Karsilama
Drum Ride
Moonlight Beach Chaconne (The Beach Boys, J.S. Bach and Stevie
Wonder Take A Trip To NIgeria, Where They Encounter The Ghost
Of Richard Wagner, Impersonating A Shaman)
Dragon; Lucas — the Bringer of Light
Grand Larceny
Amphibeous Dub (world premiere)

Tickets $20 available at BrownPaperTickets.com

Flat Earth Society (Thursday) This Belgian big band, which traffics partly in absurdist enthusiasm, is on its first United States tour, up and down the East Coast. Here the band, led by the clarinetist Peter Vermeersch, plays its first of three consecutive New York shows, each in a different location. At 8:30 p.m., David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center , (212) 875-5350, lincolncenter.org; free. (Chinen)

Oliver Lake Big Band (Saturday) Oliver Lake, a well-traveled alto saxophonist with a robust and piercing sound, features his own music for this large ensemble, with help from strong improvisers like the saxophonist Darius Jones and the trumpeter Freddie Hendrix. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village , (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; $20; $10 for members. (Chinen)

Steve Lehman Trio (Wednesday) The saxophonist-composer Steve Lehman has made a strong impression in experimental circles in recent years, at the helm of a striking octet and in assorted collaborative settings. But he has deep experience in the trio format, like the one featured here, with Matt Brewer on bass and Damion Reid on drums. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village , (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; $20; $10 for members. (Chinen)

Paul Motian Quartet (Tuesday through Thursday) Paul Motian, a drummer of stubborn mystery, might seem an unlikely fit for a tribute to the fastidious Modern Jazz Quartet. But that’s his objective here, as he leads a group full of intriguing sidemen: the vibraphonist Steve Nelson, the pianist Craig Taborn and the bassist Thomas Morgan. (Through May 22.) At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village , (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; $25 cover, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen)

Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors / Mary Halvorson Trio (Wednesday) Two bands of different sizes and processes but similar temperaments, each combining dissonance and groove to seductive ends. In Tiny Resistors, Mr. Sickafoose, a bassist, employs a chamberlike setup of trombone, saxophone, violin, two electric guitars and drums; the band’s roster here will include the violinist Andrew Bird, an emissary from the realm of craft-obsessed indie-rock. And the guitarist Mary Halvorson applies similar tensions in her always compelling working trio with the bassist John Hébert and the drummer Ches Smith; at 10 p.m. Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, near Thompson Street, Greenwich Village , (212) 505-3474, lepoissonrouge.com; $15; students $10. (Chinen)