January 31, 2003

Pop and Jazz Listings

selective listing by critics of The Times of noteworthy pop and jazz concerts in the New York metropolitan region this weekend. * denotes a highly recommended concert.

* ANTIBALAS, SUGARMAN 3, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. Antibalas gives a New York makeover to Fela Kuti's Afro-beat, a Nigerian funk propelled by burly saxophones, fierce percussion and righteous anger, by updating both the funk and the political messages. Regular local appearances keep tightening the band, and it's a show just watching more than a dozen musicians cram themselves onto a club stage and still find room to dance. Sugarman 3 sets out to recreate 1960's and 70's funk. Tomorrow night at 9; admission is $12 (Jon Pareles).

* JOE ARROYO, Copacabana, 560 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-2672. Joe Arroyo, who's from Colombia, mixes local and pan-American rhythms into exuberant salsa that's conscious of African, American Indian, Caribbean and jazz roots. In a voice that holds a raw, rural cry, he takes on social issues as well as the ups and downs of romance. Tonight after 10, with Doble Filo opening; tomorrow night after 10, with Son de Azúcar opening. Admission is $20, or $30 and a two-drink minimum for table reservations (Pareles).

* "AS OF NOW: TOSHIKO AKIYOSHI AND MARIA SCHNEIDER," Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500. Two new pieces commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center, and both are big-band works. Ms. Akiyoshi, who was born in Manchuria, has been playing jazz since the early 1950's; she's been a New Yorker since the early 80's and a fixture on the modern big-band circuit. Her compositions are rich with the influences of Gil Evans, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. But her music is also distinguished by touches that come from her culture and her own individual way of writing, and this weekend's piece will feature the Japanese taiko drummer Eitetsu Hayashi. Ms. Schneider's work also comes from the Evans-Jones-Lewis line; she's easily the best new composer of that stripe, turning out lush, harmonically complex and idea-rich records like "Allegresse" (Enja). Tonight and tomorrow at 8; tickets: $25 to $45 (Ben Ratliff).

ASHFORD AND SIMPSON, Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street, Harlem, (212) 749-5838. Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson have a songwriting career that stretches back to Ray Charles's "Let's Go Get Stoned," and through the decades they have infused love songs with gospel certainty, writing hits that include "You're All I Need to Get By," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "I'm Every Woman." As a performing duo, they praise long-term love in their own hits, like "Solid." They're headlining this Black History Month concert, a benefit for the programs of the Office of Black Ministry of the Archdiocese of New York. Dancers, a chamber orchestra and a high school choir are also performing. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $23 to $123 (Pareles).

* BEAUSOLEIL, Community Theater, 100 South Street, Morristown, N.J., (973) 539-8008. Michael Doucet's band, Beausoleil, is the Cajun revival incarnate, determined both to preserve and extend bayou traditions. Mr. Doucet learned the scratch and drone of his fiddle style from the masters of Cajun and Creole music, and he's equally at home playing an old-fashioned two-step or rowdy swamp rock. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $28 to $42 (Pareles).

* BONGA, D. D. JACKSON, LUCKY NGEMA, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400. The civil wars that tore apart Angola left behind famine and unexploded mines. They also left music that mixes sorrow and sweetness with a danceable lilt: the semba, an Angolan relative of the Afro-Brazilian samba. Bonga, whose thoughtful, husky voice carries tidings of peace, hope and history, has been one of Angola's most important musicians since the 1970's. He is headlining a benefit concert for Action Against Hunger's clean-water program in Angola. The event also includes the probing jazz pianist D. D. Jackson, South African music by Lucky Ngema, a band featuring musicians from "The Lion King" and a performance by the Dunia Dance Theater with the choreographer Harold George, who is from Sierra Leone. Sunday at 5 p.m.; tickets are $26 to $136 (Pareles).

CORY BRANAN, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700. Cory Branan, from Memphis, has women on his mind throughout his debut album, "The Hell You Say" (Madjack). His songs, which recall his various crushes, are backed by raw-boned country rock or stripped-down acoustic guitar, with a blunt economy that hints at both Steve Earle and Loudon Wainwright III. Sunday night at 10, with the Blank Stares at 7, the Spoils at 8 and the Newborn Naturals at 9; tickets are $8 (Pareles).

* JAMES BROWN, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. One of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, James Brown redefined dance music as a precisely calibrated sex machine. He may not do as many splits as he did in his physical prime, but he's still one of the most unpredictable performers around. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $80 in advance, $85 at the door (Pareles).

* BURNSIDE PROJECT, Luxx, 265 Grand Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-1000. An intriguing group that emphasizes the odd angles in its deceptively gentle songs by adding electronic noises and rhythms. This concert celebrates the release of the group's new album, "The Network, the Circuits, the Streams, the Harmonies" (Bar/None). Tomorrow night at 8, with Brasilia and Heala Monster & Tarsier; admission is $10 (Kelefa Sanneh).

VINCENT CHANCEY, Sista's Place, 456 Nostrand Avenue (entrance on Jefferson Avenue), Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, (718) 398-1766. Mr. Chancey is one of jazz's rare French hornists and tends to be involved in interesting projects related to the experimental side of the music. Tomorrow night at 9 and 10:30; admission is $15 (Ratliff).

CODY CHESNUTT, S.O.B.'s (Sounds of Brazil), 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940. The rock songwriter Cody Chesnutt has all the chutzpah he needs, slinging his guitar and delivering sermons between songs; someday, perhaps, his songs will live up to his self-image. Tonight at 8; tickets are $12 (Pareles).

JAY COLLINS QUARTET, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063. Mr. Collins, an agile, persuasive young saxophonist, has split his time between jazz and Latin bands in New York; he's a bandleader, too, in several different guises, including singer-songwriter. This is more a straight jazz quartet. Tonight at 9 and 10:30; cover charge is $12, $10 for members (Ratliff).

SANDRA COLLINS, Centro-Fly, 45 West 21st Street, Flatiron District, (212) 627-7770. The floating chords, bouncing-octave basslines and sudden rushing crescendos of trance may be one of electronica's most obvious formulas, but Sandra Collins uses them to give dancers exactly what they came to hear. Tomorrow night after 10, with Chris Fortier warming up; admission is $20 (Pareles).

OLU DARA, MADELEINE PEYROUX, the Bottom Line, 15 West Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 228-6300 or (212) 502-3471. Olu Dara is a cornetist and guitarist from Mississippi who has soaked up jazz, blues, funk and a world of vamps and rhythms over a long career. He turns them all into good-natured, crowd-pleasing grooves that carry Afrocentric lore from herbal healing to juke-joint etiquette. Before Norah Jones, there was Madeleine Peyroux, a jazz-tinged singer whose voice has a touch of Billie Holiday. Tonight at 7:30 and 10:30; tickets are $22.50 (Pareles).

EITHER/ORCHESTRA WITH JOHN TCHICAI, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501. This nearly 20-year-old big band from Boston, blending jazz nostalgia of the 1950's and 60's with rock and a fizzy, prankish sense of humor, brings in a guest: the Danish-Congolese saxophonist John Tchicai, whose appearance on albums by John Coltrane and Archie Shepp made his name among the 1960's free-jazz movement. Sunday night at 8 and 10; admission is $12 (Ratliff).

* SONNY FORTUNE-GARY BARTZ-CECIL McBEE-BILLY HART, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, above Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626. An impressive lineup of musicians who have enlivened jazz in New York for quite some time, but their special period was the late 1970's and early 80's, when the energy of free jazz was reconnecting with lyricism and traditional technique. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, 10 and midnight; Sunday at 8 and 10 p.m. Cover charge is $20, with a $10 minimum all nights (Ratliff).

GLASSEATER, the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. Yet another band playing simple, tuneful punk rock songs, although Glasseater is less slaphappy than many of its contemporaries: on "Glasseater" (Fearless), released last summer, the tempos are rarely breakneck, and the singer Jason Calleiro has a disconcerting habit: he croons. Sunday night at 6:30, with Beautiful Mistake and Northstar; admission is $8 (Sanneh).

* DAVID GRAY, Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741. The raspy edge of David Gray's voice brings a startling immediacy to songs that might otherwise sound familiar. His reflections on love and longing are rooted in Bob Dylan and Van Morrison but renewed by nerve and passion. Tonight at 8; tickets are $25 to $45 (Pareles).

* FRED HERSCH TRIO, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037. Mr. Hersch, the pianist, performs sets that are unusually wide stylistically. This new trio — with Drew Gress and Nasheet Waits — navigates the extraordinary ballads that are Mr. Hersch's greatest strength, as well as more helter-skelter, fragmented pieces using the rhythm section's full ingenuity. Tonight through Sunday night at 9 and 11, with a 12:30 set tomorrow; cover charge is $20 tonight and tomorrow night, $15 on Sunday, with a $10 minimum all nights (Ratliff).

GARLAND JEFFREYS, Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. The songwriter Garland Jeffreys is a longtime voice of multiethnic New York, mixing rock, reggae and touches of everything from doo-wop to samba. Along with love songs and reminiscences of running "Wild in the Streets," he doesn't flinch from tough topics like racism. Tonight at 9; admission is $25 (Pareles).

* FREEDY JOHNSTON, MARK EITZEL, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, at Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236. Freedy Johnston's finely turned country-rock songs have carefully balanced melodies that he sings in a winsome tenor. But for all their classic symmetry, they're the confessions of some desperate, unsavory and unbalanced characters. Depression is Mark Eitzel's element; as leader of the American Music Club and through a solo career, he has anatomized melancholy down to the molecular level. It's easy to believe him when he sings, "I'm tired to the bone of always telling you goodbye." Tonight at 9, with Amy Miles opening; admission is $12 (Pareles).

JUDGE JULES, Arc, 6 Hubert Street, near Hudson Street, TriBeCa, (212) 226-9212. The popular London-based D.J. comes to town for a night of straightforward, energetic dance music. Tomorrow night at 10; admission is $25 (Sanneh).

AL KOOPER, the Bottom Line, 15 West Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 228-6300 or (212) 502-3471. The keyboardist Al Kooper has a résumé full of unlikely connections. He was a founder of the Blues Project and Blood, Sweat and Tears; the organ player who helped define the sound of folk rock when he backed Bob Dylan on "Like a Rolling Stone"; and the producer of Lynyrd Skynyrd. He has always been happiest on the cusp of blues, jazz and pop. He's celebrating his 59th birthday with a solo show. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $25 (Pareles).

CHARLES LLOYD QUINTET, Blue Note, 131 West Fourth Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592. Mr. Lloyd has had moments of extraordinary playing in recent years, and an association with ECM Records over the last decade has been good for him, positioning him as a modern master as he takes John Coltrane's influence and refashions it with new graces. This band includes the guitarist John Abercrombie, the pianist Geri Allen, the bassist Bob Hurst and the drummer Eric Harland. Tonight through Sunday night at 8 and 10:30; cover charge at the tables, $25 with a $5 minimum; $15 cover at the bar, no minimum (Ratliff).

* JAMES MERCER, ROSIE THOMAS, SAM BEAM AND SAM JAYNE, the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. This appealing tour brings together four performers affiliated with Sub Pop Records; it's yet another sign that indie rock is increasingly dominated by singer-songwriters, not bands. Rosie Thomas records using her own name; James Mercer records with the Shins; Sam Beam records as Iron & Wine; and Sam Jayne records with Love as Laughter. Tomorrow night at 8; admission is $10 (Sanneh).

* MULGREW MILLER TRIO, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662. One of the great mainstream jazz experiences of the 90's was hearing Mulgrew Miller on piano, accompanying the great drummer Tony Williams, smoothly negotiating the restive, knockabout energy of Mr. Williams's vision. Mr. Miller applies himself to the present situation, mixing standard romanticism with Monk-like hesitations and changing harmonies. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9, 11, and 12:30; cover charge is $18 (Ratliff).

* BUTCH MORRIS'S CONDUCTION 131, heated tent in Columbus Park, Bayard and Mulberry Streets, Chinatown, (646) 456-7361. He never stops: Mr. Morris has been performing his abstract and exotically beautiful conductions (conducted improvisations) all over the world, and even in New York, all over town, with completely different groups of musicians. This one, titled "The Year of the Ram," celebrates the Chinese New Year and includes a number of Asian and African improvisers living in New York, among them the oud player Tarik Benbrahim and the pipa player Min Xiao-Fen. Tomorrow at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.; free (Ratliff).

* MY MORNING JACKET, CANYON, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700. My Morning Jacket, from Louisville, Ky., plays richly wistful songs that emerge from somewhere between Neil Young and Merseybeat. Amid garage-rock drumbeats and reverbed guitar, Jim James plaintively wonders, "Why does my mind go to bits every time they play that song?" Canyon's songs brood amid stately chords and floating pedal-steel guitar. Tomorrow night, with Stewart Lewis at 7:15, Reed Foehl at 7:45, Canyon at 9:30 and My Morning Jacket at 10:30; tickets are $10 (Pareles).

MIKE AND MARY RAFFERTY, Blarney Star, 43 Murray Street, TriBeCa, (212) 732-2873. A father-and-daughter team plays Irish traditional music with a repertory centered on East Galway. Mike Rafferty plays flute and uileann pipes; his daughter Mary, on flute and button accordion, is also a member of Cherish the Ladies. Tonight at 9 and 10:30; $12 admission covers both sets (Pareles).

* SKELETON KEY, Village Underground, 130 West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 777-7745. Skeleton Key's music recalls the pregentrified Lower East Side. The band writes snappy, tightly wound riffs that pack the musicianly games of progressive rock into the terse time frame of punk. Stereobate and Heston Rifle are the opening acts. Tonight at 8; admission is $10 (Pareles).

TONY TRISCHKA, Makor, 35 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 601-1000. Bluegrass and jazz, two styles that make ample room for instrumental improvisation, have long been mingling in the music of Tony Trischka, the daring and quick-fingered banjoist who fomented what came to be known as "new acoustic music." Tomorrow night at 8:30; tickets are $12 (Pareles).

* CHUCHO VALDÉS, CHARLIE HADEN'S NOCTURNE, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5722. Mr. Valdés, the Cuban pianist, returns to New York after being denied entry to the United States in September. He is a rare musician, a strong pianist steeped in Cuban music and jazz, whose strong, virtuosic hands can stun you and instantly set you inside the music. His group plays on a double bill with Charlie Haden's Nocturne, a bewitching quartet including the Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, whose repertory is made of reworked Cuban and Mexican boleros. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $12 to $48 (Ratliff).

* CHUCHO VALDÉS AND ROBERTA GAMBARINI, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, below Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063. When Mr. Valdés blows through town (see above), he tends to show up in several places over the course of a week, either as a casual sit-in guest somewhere or as a featured attraction at the Jazz Gallery, a club that has always been friendly to him. Here he will perform duets with the Italian jazz singer Roberta Gambarini. Sunday night at 9 and 10:30; admission is $15 (Ratliff).

* WACO BROTHERS, SADIES, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700; Maxwell's, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 798-0406. Jon Langford of the Mekons indulges his country side even more strongly in the Waco Brothers, where he trades off lead vocals with Dean Schlabowske and ricochets between revolution and beer-soaked self-pity while letting his electric guitar blare. He has also just made an album with the Sadies, a Toronto roots-rock band, that's a little calmer about disappointments large and small, personal and historical. At the Mercury Lounge tonight, Mr. Langford and the Sadies at 8:30, the Sadies on their own at 9:30 and the Waco Brothers at 10:30; tickets are $12. At Maxwell's on Sunday night at 8:30; tickets are $8 in advance, $10 Sunday (Pareles).

* HEZEKIAH WALKER AND THE LOVE FELLOWSHIP CHOIR, Radio City Music Hall, (212) 247-4777. Hezekiah Walker is a Brooklyn preacher whose Love Fellowship Tabernacle Choir borrows freely from hip-hop and R&B. He is to be joined by a number of leading gospel-influenced acts, including CeCe Winans, Love Unlimited and Michelle Williams (from Destiny's Child). The best (and funniest) performance may come from John P. Kee, whose New Life Community Choir expands simple praise songs into tragicomic operas. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $25 to $50 (Sanneh).

BUSTER WILLIAMS'S SOMETHIN' MORE QUARTET, T. S. MONK SEXTET, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121. Two straight-ahead jazz groups, one led by a bassist, one by a drummer; Mr. Williams's band includes Steve Wilson, George Colligan and Lenny White. Tonight at 8, 10:30 and 11:30; tomorrow night at 8, 10:30 and midnight; and Sunday night at 8 and 10. Cover charge is $25, with a $10 minimum for all nights (Ratliff).

YEAH NO, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501. A relatively new band cooked up by four important parts of the downtown jazz scene: the saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Speed, the trumpeter Cuong Vu (who has recently been playing with Pat Metheny), the bassist Skuli Sverrisson and the drummer Jim Black. Tomorrow at midnight; admission is $7 (Ratliff).

* MIGUEL ZENON QUARTET, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063. "Looking Ahead" (Fresh Sound), the recent album by Mr. Zenon, the young Puerto Rican alto saxophonist, was a stunner, full of shifting instrumentation and composition ideas; it was one of several recent albums that proclaimed a major shift in Latin jazz. He performs this weekend with his regular band: Luis Perdomo on piano, Hans Glawischnig on bass, Antonio Sanchez on drums. Tomorrow night at 9 and 10:30; admission is $12, $10 for members (Ratliff).