Oliver Lake Steel Quartet Oliver Lake Steel Quartet Fri. & ...
In terms of his free-and-funky avant-jazz soul skronk, the swift-fingered Lake has since 1970 fused the speedy, soulful precision of Eric Dolphy with the bluesy, JB bounce of latter-day Maceo Parker as no other has ever attempted, thus creating a fly-wheel elegance as prominent as his freak-a-deakiness. For his latest works?albums like the crispy, crunchy hard bop of Talkin' Stick and the Creole love songs of Cloth, done in tandem with his big band of the same name?Lake seems to leap back and forth into the flames of the funk while sledding the slopes of Ellingtonia. For this week's quartet gig, Lake's alto and soprano sax screechings are joined by Lyndon Achee (steel pan), Bill McClellan (drums) and Reggie Washington (bass) for something more reggae-ish than he's accomplished in some time. Leave your expectations in a hat by the door
Sweet Rhythm, 88 7th Ave. S. (Bleecker St.), 212-255-3626, shows at 8, 10 & 12, $20, $10 min.
?A.D. Amorosi
Josef von Sternberg's late silent Docks of New York (1928) showcases the docks as a proto-noir port of shadows. Von Sternberg's melodrama of a fallen woman (Betty Compson) who dreams of being saved by marriage is redeemed from silliness by the film's sharply conveyed sense of this working-class paradise's combination of grit and humor, tragedy and comedy. Dead End's world is one of close quarters and surprising juxtapositions?a swell's doorman-guarded palace next to the hangout of the bitter, petulant Dead End Kids. Wyler's film, a cousin to Mervyn LeRoy's I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang for its social convictions, features Gregg Toland's astounding cinematography and sterling performances by Joel McCrea (as an unemployed architect) and Humphrey Bogart (as a baddie). In its close-up portrait of urban poverty and violence, and its critique of wealthy indifference, Dead End is the quintessential FDR film.
Sam Fuller's lurid Pickup on South Street (1953) features Richard Widmark as a small-time crook who stumbles into major league Commie nefariousness when he swipes a handbag containing top-secret microfilm. Widmark's bachelor pad, overlooking the East River, avoids the need for one of those pesky refrigerators by keeping his brewskis cool in the water. Fuller, always fascinated by the seamier aspects of New York, and the world in general, revels in the pre-Giuliani tawdriness of the seaport area. What once housed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (their apartment was just down the block from Widmark's screen residence) is now home to Abercrombie & Fitch. As critic Clive James once put it, "There is never any harm in being reminded that the way we live now is not normal."
MOMA Gramercy Theatre, 127 E. 23rd St. (Lexington Ave.), 212-777-4900,call for times, $6.
?Saul Austerlitz
The other actors, too, take on several roles. Candy Buckley portrays the mother of both boys, Queen Marie and Margaret Avery, a young princess, as well as a Jewish tour guide with a Long Island accent. (Some of these stereotypes may make you shriek.) And with the two stories played simultaneously and congruently, the action on the stage looks more like the Carol Burnett Show than a production of Wagner's Lohengrin, the theatrical thread that ties the two stories together, and which is reflected in the symbolic Swan that James steals in the play's first scene.
Everything about Valhalla falls prey to grandiosity. The strongest and most consistent element in the production is the costumes by William Ivey Long, who's created the regal gowns of royalty as well as the everyday dress of Texans in the 30s with an eloquent sense of the traditional, innocent bride-to-be, Sally Mortimer (Samantha Soule).
Beauty and our obsession with it, both good and ill, are very much to the point of Rudnick's comedy. "I would like our nation to become a beacon of beauty," King Ludwig tells us at his coronation. "And so for my very first official act, I am going to the opera to see Lohengrin." So overcome by watching the opera night after night, Ludwig fails at affairs of state, even causing Bavaria's financial ruin by building opulent castles, including the titular Valhalla in which he is finally incarcerated.
That the curve of James' character inversely parallels Ludwig's is pretty clear. Still, most of the stuff that goes on here is confusing, a party of aimless and utterly silly behaviors.
New York Theatre Workshop, 79 E. 4th St. (betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.), 212-239-6200, call for times, $60.
?Isa Goldberg
Wed. 2/25
What did Jesus say as he was being crucified?
Oh, we got a million of 'em, and we plan to use every one when we give it up to the Original Messiah, the holy man with the holy plan, the earthbound third of the blessed trinity who gave us one federal holiday and a cool hairstyle ruined by those dirty hippies. Tonight, the man who was once a lethal weapon of some sort but then turned into a kee-razy Kristian rocks a big-budget, bloodfest homage to his savior. That's right, genteel motherfuckers, it's here. Mel Gibson's The Passion, the movie that promises to be the Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer of Jesus flicks. Expect wall-to-wall gore, Aramaic gibberish and some of the nastiest-looking Jews caught on film since Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. Check film listings for times. And most definitely call ahead for tickets, my child.
In New York it seems that everyone you meet is an artist of some kind in the off-hours?afterwork painter, weekend photographer, 6 a.m. composer. When faced with that predictable lull in conversation after introductions, I hesitate to ask new acquaintances what they do for a living when what I'm really curious about are the telltale paint smudges across the toes of their Converse.
Not that you asked, but I moonlight as a musician and photographer, which perhaps explains why the latest two-for-one Sound/Image Event at Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art caught my attention. On Thursday, the International Contemporary Ensemble with tenor Peter Tantsits will perform the premiere of composer Du Yun's Zollè against a backdrop of the Frank Dituri photographs currently on display.
The event is the fourth in the six-concert series that debuted this season, pairing the music in the room with the art on the walls. Sound/Image curator David Schotzko (who multitasks as ICE percussionist and Fine Art employee) has already featured works by Reich, Berio and a mix of young women composers in the space.
The premiere of Zollè will take the concept further. "At one point during this series, rather than just find music to go with the work I wanted to have music written to go specifically with the art," explains Schotzko. As one of ICE's founding composers, Du Yun was an obvious choice for the commission and was excited about tackling the project.
At first, Du Yun and Frank Dituri seem unlikely collaborators. She is a young Chinese-American composer finishing her Ph.D. at Harvard. He is first-generation Italian-American well into an established career. Still, says Schotzko, the two struck up a correspondence "and had a very interesting interaction that I think kind of intrigued both of them."
The starting place was Dituri's ethereal b&w photography, which often explores ideas about landscape and shadow. His unique style achieves a haunting, though not automatically menacing, effect.
"There's not necessarily an articulated theme, but there's always a connection in Frank's work," explains Schotzko. "It's got a strong spirituality to it and a certain connection and interest in the land." The Italian word zollè, adopted by the composer to title her piece, is a very specific term that refers to the clods of earth that are kicked up when the soil is turned in the fields of Tuscany.
The two artists seem to have bonded over a shared sense of a split national identity, the reality of being half American and half other, and a fascination with the symbolism of earth and homeland. The resulting composition is a half-hour song cycle with narrator for tenor and mixed ensemble. The tenor's lines are drawn from the poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolini, an Italian artist perhaps better known in the U.S. as a filmmaker. Pasolini's work has had a significant impact on Dituri?a traveling exhibition in 2001 pairing the poems and photographs of the two men was a major point in Dituri's career. The selected Pasolini lines are juxtaposed against the narration that Du Yun has written specifically for this piece in response to the photographer's work. This text is also rooted in questions of memory and origin, a mix of stories taken from her own childhood and recast as a kind of wistful narrative.
Zollè will be performed in the second half of the program. The first part of the concert will be devoted to a smaller recent composition by Du Yun scored for harp, Chinese zither and off-stage cello drone.
Both Dituri and Du Yun will be in attendance at the performance if you'd care to lavish praise or accost either with questions after the show.
Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, 115 Wooster St. (betw. Prince and Spring Sts.) 212-696-6561, 7:30, $15, $10 s.t.
An aristocrat in an apartment overlooking the Roman Forum, an autodidact bridging the Second Viennese School to tone maestro La Monte Young, Scelsi was also a man who never heard again from the wife who left him early. Therapy for the ensuing breakdown included playing one piano note in extended succession, which may've helped launch his own music from post-Scriabin piano pieces of the 40s and 50s, to the powerful 60s works for winds, strings and voice. He traveled extensively in India and Nepal and ultimately considered himself to be a medium for the musical message. He didn't even want his photo attached to his music?instead providing a circle drawn over a line segment as a self-portrait.
Scelsi spent his last decade working rigorously with instrumentalists of the caliber of the Arditti Quartet to achieve definitive recordings. Soprano Michiko Hirayama's "Canti del Capricorn" (Wergo) are eerie, harsh. Frances-Marie Uitti, to whom Scelsi dedicated his works for solo cello, recalled first hearing his music and finding that "it had no melody, no harmony, no rhythm" and "was among the most powerful music I'd ever heard." Her "Trilogia" (Etcetera), regarded as the composer's own transit of life, is a summit of contemporary cello art.
Sequitur's Miller Theatre program focuses on work Scelsi wrote from the late 50s into the 60s, a period during which he also wrote brilliant string quartets, a trio of daunting orchestral pieces and the orchestral/choral masterwork Uaxuctum. Sequitur will perform music for ensemble with violin ("Anahit"), with clarinet ("Kya") and with soprano ("Khoom"), plus music for harp trio and solo guitar.
"Scelsi is one of those cult figures," says Miller's director George Steel, "whose music amazes and delights with equal measures of audacity and beauty." Blair McMillen played Scelsi piano pieces at Miller last week, with those of Luciano Berio. The innovative venue also had a recent recital by avant garde bassoonist Pascal Gallois, and their Composer Portraits continue in early March with Iannis Xenakis's percussion music. Director Steel conducted the Vox Vocal Ensemble in early music of Tallis and Byrd this month, as well as playing John Cage's "Music for Carillon" from the bell tower at Fifth Ave. and 53rd St. back in October.
Miller Theatre at Columbia University, 2960 B'way (116th St.), 212-854-7799, 8, $20, $12 st.
?Alan Lockwood
In this regard, it's still reassuring to see that the man can switch gears between the rock of 2002's When I Was Cruel?largely hailed as a less vitriolic, though no less bruising, return to form?and this stuff. On North, Costello's smooth voice and cracked, idiosyncratic, wounded delivery both fit and complement perfectly the material's restrained elegance, where subtle orchestration plays silence and space to its maximum potential.
"My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant," Costello once said. Well, in the case of North, then, he's failed beautifully. As the album is intended for complete run-through listening, beginning somberly and lifting in spirit as it progresses, the prospects for live re-interpretation are quite promising. Steve Nieve, keyboardist in the Attractions, Costello's vaunted backing band of old, does an unbelievably fine job on piano. Though mostly a piano-vocals vehicle, North also features, in places, a 48-piece ensemble arranged and conducted by Costello himself.
The line-up for the Beacon show consists exclusively of Nieve, whom Costello has played with frequently since the 1994 Brutal Youth Attractions reunion, Costello and, for some numbers, the Brodsky Quartet, with whom Costello has also collaborated repeatedly.
Beacon Theatre, 2124 B'way (74th St.), 212-307-7171, 8, $30, $45, $55.
?Saby Reyes-Kulkarni
Had he never played another note after 1976, Paco de Lucía would still have gone down in history as the man who revolutionized flamenco guitar. Fortunately, the release of Almoraima was only the beginning of a musical journey that transformed the genre from its limited appointment as vocal and dance accompaniment to an instrument that could stand alone and flourish under the flamenco name, paving the way for current virtuosos like Tomatito, Vicente Amigo and Gerardo Nuñez.
Paco de Lucía continued to break flamenco music from the rigid confines of its past, and in doing so he became the first to incorporate the cajón drum, an instrument that has since gone on to become an integral part of the flamenco idiom. His collaborations with Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea and Larry Coryell expanded flamenco's borders with jazz textures, not only opening flamenco to the rest of the world, but encouraging other artists to begin exploring new fusions that have only recently begun bearing their sweetest fruit (Pepe Habichuela & the Bollywood Strings, Bebo Valdés & Diego 'El Cigala' come to mind).
Now 56 and disillusioned by the prospects of continuing on the basis of past merits, de Lucia parted ways with the sextet that brought him international success, releasing Cositas Buenas, an unsuspected departure from his characteristically dazzling, technique-laden guitar work. The focus now is on emotion, rhythm and counterpoint. His choice of guests on the record, and his revamped touring sextet, prove he's in tune with the most exciting recent developments in flamenco as he's joined by the hottest percussionist around, el Piraña, Cuban bassist Alain Pérez and the singer/one-man band, el Negri.
Where will Paco go from here? Well, he claims that the future of flamenco singing is in vocal syncopation. He's also saying that this will be his last world tour as he is going to be devoting his time and energy to composing. This promises to be a spectacular finale to the New York Flamenco Festival and Paco de Lucía's touring career.
Beacon Theatre, 2124 B'way (74th St.), 212-307-7171, 8, $30-$55.
?Antonio Moreno
If all of the above sounds too bizarre, don't worry; Moustache McFadden bring enough energy to the stage to pull it off, quirky storyline notwithstanding. With more than two years together as a group, the four are serious actors but closet goofballs. Holt Bailey wears a "I'd rather be masturbating" t-shirt, Will Nunziata has an eye patch; Eric Zuckerman could win a Jack Black look-a-like contest; Brian Steele's voicemail features a real-life Mr. T barking at callers to leave a message. (The two Chicago-natives met at a party.)
Sketches cover lots of ground, veering between pop culture and political satire: God and Ashton Kutcher hold a press conference and guess who gets all the questions; Fidel Castro and a little American girl become pen pals, writing about, of all things, Saved by the Bell; a man wishes his wife were Asian or at least more Asian; and Zuckerman utters what may be the show's best line before being killed onstage: "It's time for this virgin to go to that awkward school dance in the sky."
People's Improv Theater, 154 W. 29th St. (betw. 7th & 6th Aves.), 212-563-7488, 7, $8.
?Lionel Beehner
All the eerie clanging Frykdahl places onto SGM is winnowed into bittersweet, atmospheric song for Faun Fables?letting his reed-thin melodies be guided by the muse in McCarthy; a dramatic, yelping diva whose take on showy, gauzy folk ("Eyes of a Bird," "A Mother and a Piano") and slushy, religious-tinged opera ("Higher") is akin to an aural version of Rosemary's Baby. This is no dreaaaaam. Somewhere in between Frykdahl's Christopher Lee and Roman Polanski nonsense is the Boston-based duo, the Dresden Dolls. White-faced, lingerie-drenched singer-pianist Amanda Palmer and derby-wearing percussionist Brian Viglione turn punkish cabaret-noir on its ear with live performances more ferocious and tender than that of the tortured soul, caustic lyricism and happily hammy jazz piano licks that lie within their eponymous debut CD. Be afraid.
Tonic, 107 Norfolk St. (betw. Delancey & Rivington St.), 212-358-7501, 8, $12, $10 adv.
?A.D. Amorosi
Tues. 3/2