February 21, 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, Makor, 35 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 601-1000. 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 up the band, which recently released its second album, "Talkatif" (Ninja Tune). It's a show just watching more than a dozen musicians cram themselves onto a club stage and still find room to dance. Tomorrow night at 9 with Dub as a Weapon opening; admission is $12, with a $10 minimum at tables (Jon Pareles).

* JOSEPH ARTHUR, DAVID POE, MIKE VIOLA, Housing Works Used Book Cafe, 126 Crosby Street, SoHo, (212) 334-3324. In a voice that can sound as if it's been scraped against concrete walls, Joseph Arthur sings about characters who have been kicked around but are still struggling to believe. He's headlining a benefit for Housing Works, an AIDS service organization, with David Poe, whose sweetly sincere voice is more innocent than his songs, and Mike Viola, the passionate pop-rocker who leads the Candy Butchers. Tonight at 7; tickets are $20 (Pareles).

BLUE GRAMMY PARTY: COLDPLAY, PETE YORN, WYCLEF JEAN, Theater at Madison Square Garden, Seventh Avenue and 33rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 465-6741. Coldplay's anthems of self-pity, Pete Yorn's smoky seductions and Wyclef Jean's pan-Caribbean hip-hop are to be the postscripts for a closed-circuit viewing of the Grammy Awards happening next door at Madison Square Garden. Sunday night at 7; tickets are $50 to benefit Save the Music, which advocates music education in schools (Pareles).

DAMON AND NAOMI, DEVENDRA BANHART, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236; Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7503. Damon and Naomi used to be in Galaxie 500, and on their own they have held on to the old group's hushed tone and searching simplicity. At Southpaw tonight, Damon and Naomi share the bill with Devendra Banhart, whose wavery Marc Bolan voice matches the shaky grip on reality in his free-associative songs. Greg Weeks opens at Southpaw tonight at 9; admission is $8. At Tonic tomorrow night at 8, with the country-tinged duo Sue Garner and Angel Dean, and P. G. Six; admission is $8 (Pareles).

MATT DARRIAU'S QUINTET LATEEF, BAMcafé, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4139. The saxophonist Matt Darriau has been exploring Yusef Lateef's old records lately — a body of work that ranges from piquant mainstream jazz to long-form compositions and impressions of Africa and the East — and he has turned his findings into a new band's
repertory. Tomorrow night at 9:30. No cover charge; $15 food or drink minimum
(Ben Ratliff).

DIRTY VEGAS, Centro-Fly, 45 West 21st Street, Chelsea, (212) 627-7770. Dirty Vegas — the act responsible for "Days Go By," a sublime dose of hazy house music — comes to town. The bad news: Dirty Vegas doesn't seem to have any other great (or maybe even good) songs. The good news: this D.J. set can't possibly be worse than the group's live set. Tonight after 10; admission is $20 (Kelefa Sanneh).

DRIVER SINGS WALKER, Joe's Pub, at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. The songs Scott Walker wrote in the 1960's were strange, melodramatic rambles through innocence and despair, and David Driver is ready to lead their latest rediscovery. Mr. Driver's husky baritone is a good replica of Mr. Walker's youthful voice, and he'll be backed by the adept Loser's Lounge band. Tomorrow night at 9:30; tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door (Pareles).

* FELIX DA HOUSECAT, Centro-Fly, 45 West 21st Street, Chelsea, (212) 627-7770. Last year, PIAS America released a couple of Felix da Housecat albums from the mid-1990's: on "Rocketmann!" and "Metropolis Present Day? Thee Album," Felix brightens up atmospheric house tracks with synthesizer lines inspired by R & B. And what does this have to do with Felix's appearance at Centro-Fly tomorrow? Probably nothing: expect a typically casual (and entertaining) D.J. set full of robotic dance tracks and vocal-driven originals, with occasional forays into 1980's pop. Tomorrow night after 10, with Junior Sanchez and Princess Superstar; admission is $20
(Sanneh).

FLOETRY, S.O.B.'s (Sounds of Brazil), 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940. Cooing melodies meet socially conscious rapping in the English duo Floetry, which allies a rapper, Natalie Stewart, and a singer, Marsha Ambrosius. They boast, preach positive thinking and delve into love, articulating uncertainties along with lust. Tonight at midnight; tickets are $22 (Pareles).

FRENCH KICKS, Maxwell's, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 798-0406. The new wave gets a twisted revival in the songs of the French Kicks. Bouncing along on keyboards one moment, facing guitar barbs the next, the songs are as unstable as the romances they sketch. Tonight at 9:30 with the Sun opening; admission is $7 (Pareles).

ART GARFUNKEL, Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 840-2824. He used to sing high harmonies with a guy called Simon; now, Art Garfunkel wafts his high voice over songs he treats as precious revelations. Tonight at 8; tickets are $40 and $60 (Pareles).

C. GIBBS AND THE CARDIA BROS., THE SILOS, CBGB, 315 Bowery, at Bleecker Street, East Village, (212) 982-4052. Christian Gibbs, who played lead guitar for Modern English and Foetus before starting his own bands, never settles down. As his lyrics detail surreal and troubled visions, with titles like "Oversized Pin Cushion" and "Superficial Flesh Wound," the music wanders amid countryish rock, cracked cabaret oompah and elaborate, Beatles-flavored ballads. Walter Salas-Humara, the leader of the Silos, learned a lot from Bob Dylan, the Band and the Velvet Underground. The Silos brought a stately touch of country to their New York rock in the 1980's and have grown noisier since then. Tonight at 8, sharing the bill with the Ginger Sol and the Apollo Sunshine; admission is $10 (Pareles).

CRAIG HANDY QUINTET, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-3080. A saxophonist with power and sass, and one of the joys of the Mingus Big Band when it began its residency at Fez all those years ago. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9 and 11; cover charge is $25, plus $10 minimum (Ratliff).

LOUIS HAYES ALL-STARS, Kaplan Penthouse, 10th floor, Rose Building, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500. You know Louis Hayes if you know some of the classic hard-bop records by Horace Silver and Cannonball Adderley; his current quintet, featuring the tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, is swinging, loud, hard-edged, classically New York. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $45 (Ratliff).

LEVON HELM AND THE BARNBURNERS, the Bottom Line, 15 West Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 228-6300. The Band's brilliantly terse drummer, and the voice of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," emerges with his current group, the Barnburners, which includes his daughter, Amy, on vocals. Tonight at 7:30 and 10:30, with Bill Perry opening; admission is $20 (Pareles).

EDDIE HENDERSON, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662. A trumpeter with a tough-as-nails sound, whose style was forged in the 1970's when Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan were still the ones to beat. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9, 11 and 12:30; cover charge is $18 (Ratliff).

* JAZZ COMPOSER PORTRAITS: DONALD BROWN, Miller Theater, Broadway at 116th Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 854-7799. Donald Brown — a member of Art Blakey's band in the early 80's, a composer whose bright, earthy work is held in reverence among mainstream jazz players of the Wynton generation, and a pretty wonderful pianist — won't be present tonight. But his music will be played, celebrated and explained by Eric Reed (the host of the Composer Portraits series) and an A-list band: the pianist Mulgrew Miller, the bassist Robert Hurst, the drummer Carl Allen, the alto saxophonist Gary Bartz and the trumpeter Jeremy Pelt. Tonight at 8; tickets are $30 (Ratliff).

HOWARD JOHNSON AND THE HO-JO FOUR, Lenox Lounge, 288 Lenox Avenue, near 125th Street, Harlem, (212) 427-0253. One of the principal tuba players in jazz since the 1960's and a sideman with Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Gil Evans and others. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8 and 10; cover charge is $20 with a one-drink minimum per set (Ratliff).

VICTOR JONES, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, above Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626. This drummer and bandleader, who has worked in jazz alongside Lou Donaldson, Stan Getz and others, has crossed over into jazz and funk. Tonight and tomorrow at 8, 10, and midnight; Sunday night at 8 and 10; cover charge is $15, plus $10 minimum (Ratliff).

L.A. GUNS, L'Amour, 1545-63rd Street, near 15th Avenue, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, (718) 837-9506. If you were bored by "Let's Roll," Neil Young's earnest ballad about the passengers who thwarted the hijacking of Flight 93, then perhaps you should hear the L.A. Guns song on the same topic. It's called "O.K., Let's Roll," and although it's no less simplistic, it's a good deal more rousing: if anyone can turn "Are you ready? O.K., let's roll!" into a sneering hard-rock rallying cry, it's Phil Lewis, lead singer of this long-running act. Tonight at 8, with Nia, the Abused and more; tickets are $12.50 (Sanneh).

PATTY LARKIN, Bottom Line, 15 West Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 228-6300. Patty Larkin's friendly alto and intricate, Celtic-tinged guitar parts carry songs that are determined to stay level-headed through good times and setbacks, heartache and political disillusionment. Tomorrow night at 7:30 and 10:30, with Kenny White opening; tickets are $20 (Pareles).

STEVE LEHMAN QUINTET, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063. A young saxophonist who has studied at length with both Jackie McLean and Anthony Braxton — an interesting pair of methodological influences — Mr. Lehman has been composing in both jazz and contemporary classical music idioms. In New York, he has hooked up with some of the great young musicians around, and the band here includes the saxophonist Mark Shim, the vibraphonist Chris Dingman, the bassist Steve Kirby and the drummer Eric McPherson. Tonight at 9 and 10:30; admission is $12 (Ratliff).

GARY LUCAS'S GODS AND MONSTERS, Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, Tribeca, (212) 219-3006. Once the guitarist for Captain Beefheart's Magic Band in its 1980's incarnation, and then for the rest of his career a downtown New York omnivore musician, Mr. Lucas has been known to rummage around blues, television theme songs and old Chinese folk music for his material; he's a flashy guitarist with a vast record collection in his head. This is a record-release show, in honor of "Operators Are Standing By: The Essential Gary Lucas, 1986-1996," on the Knitting Factory Works label. Tonight at 9; tickets are $12 (Ratliff).

MAT MANERI AND MATTHEW SHIPP, 5C Jazz Cafe, 68 Avenue C, at Fifth Street, East Village, (212) 477-5993. The violinist Mat Maneri and the pianist Matthew Shipp are two of the big guns in the Lower East Side free-jazz scene, who — not coincidentally — have made some of their best music in each other's company. One set only, tomorrow night at 7:30; admission is $9 (Ratliff).

THE MOONLIGHTERS, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7503. Few would expect former members of Helmet and the Pain Teens to play ukulele-strumming, steel-guitar-sliding, sweetly harmonized, optimistic Hawaiian-style songs. But the Moonlighters do just that, writing anachronistic ballads and swing-style tunes that Bliss Blood sings without a hint of campiness. Tomorrow at midnight; admission is $5 (Pareles).

* ODETTA, Joe's Pub, at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. Odetta has been a blues powerhouse since the 1950's, strumming hard and singing with a deep, leathery voice that harks back to field hollers and sprituals. She gives her songs the authority of archetypes. For this show, she'll feature songs by Lead Belly. Tonight at 9:30; admission is $30 (Pareles).

* OTEP, L'Amour, 1545-63rd Street, near 15th Avenue, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, (718) 837-9506. A wild-eyed heavy-metal band led by Otep Shamaya, an extraordinary screamer. Her group's debut album, "Sevas Tra" (Capitol), starts quietly: she whimpers a story of sexual abuse ("He smelled of sweat and regret, and he said, `Shh . . .' "). Then a brutal guitar riff hits, and it sounds like retribution. Tomorrow night at 8, with Sworn Enemy and more; tickets are $10 (Sanneh).

ROCK THE VOTE BENEFIT, Roseland, 240 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, (310) 491-1401. It's not an election year, but Rock the Vote is still trying to persuade young voters to register, and for its 10th-anniversary benefit it has gathered a lineup unlikely to share the same bill ever again: the English pop belter Robbie Williams, the politically conscious rap group Public Enemy, the songwriter Vanessa Carlton and the neo-psychedelic rockers the Flaming Lips. Peter Gabriel, Alanis Morissette and Public Enemy's Chuck D will be picking up awards. Tomorrow night at 7; tickets are $150 to $500 (Pareles)

PATTI ROTHBERG, Fez, 380 Lafayette Street, at Great Jones Street, East Village, (212) 533-2680. On her current album, "Candelabra Cadabra" (Cropduster), Patti Rothberg has moved from the folky songs and blues-rock she used to play in the subway to songs that hark back to psychedelic California circa 1967. Her girlish voice sails over shimmering guitars and an occasional sitar; she also dips into punk and glam-rock. Live, she'll make do with a less elaborate palette. Tomorrow night, with Alison Oracle and Emily Curtis opening; doors open at 7. Admission is $12 (Pareles).

GILBERTO SANTA ROSA, EL GRAN COMBO,
INDIA, Continental Airlines Arena, the Meadowlands, Route 120, East Rutherford, N.J., (201) 935-3900. It's never too late for love. Eight days after Valentine's Day, this is billed as the Concierto del Amor, and it brings together some of the most dynamic performers in salsa and Latin pop: the trumpet-voiced, improvisatory singer Gilberto Santa Rosa; El Gran Combo, a Puerto Rican salsa institution since 1962; and India, who sings and growls about love in pop ballads and driving salsa tunes. The lineup also includes Toto Rojas and Los Hermanos Moreno. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $85 (Pareles).

* THIONE SECK, S.O.B.'s (Sounds of Brazil), 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940. Expect this Senegalese star to stroll out onstage in a suit and tie, chewing gum and crooning. Expect his band — which includes three synthesizer players and three percussionists — to bash out hectic mbalax grooves, with polyrhythms so dense it's hard to find the downbeat. Expect Mr. Seck's dancer to lift his shirt and make his belt buckle jump. And expect the concert to last well into Monday morning. Sunday night at 9; admission is $20 in advance, $25 on Sunday (Sanneh).

DUNCAN SHEIK, Stone Pony, 913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park, N.J., (732) 502-0600. Duncan Sheik deals in romance and repentance, pondering all the things he could have done better in songs that never grow so introverted that they forget to offer a well-turned melody. Tonight at 8; tickets are $12.50 in advance, $15 at the door (Pareles).

* ARCHIE SHEPP, ROSWELL RUDD, Alice Tully Hall, 1941 Broadway, at 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 258-9800. Two jazz heroes of the 1960's, Mr. Shepp, the saxophonist, and Mr. Rudd, the trombonist, made records together back then like "Mama Too Tight" and "Live in San Francisco," full of arranged wildness and originality. They had wide-ranging intellectual appetites and were committed simultaneously to two ideals: jazz as an evolved, self-conscious late-20th-century art music, in which a jeering satirical sense of humor could come into play, and jazz as a popular black music that could hold its own against soul and rock. (One area in which they came together particularly well was New Orleans jazz. Mr. Shepp once said he wanted "the irreverence of a marching band returning from a funeral" in his music, and Mr. Rudd glories in playing funeral-style trombone.) Their careers went over some bumpy roads in the intervening decades, but they're back, playing in a quartet with the bassist Reggie Workman and the drummer Andrew Cyrille, in a concert presented by the World Music Institute. Tonight at 8; tickets are $25 to $35 (Ratliff).

SOLEDAD BROTHERS, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700. Think the White Stripes are getting too fancy? Their Detroit compatriots, the Soledad Brothers, stick to raw, bluesy garage-rock in a tangle of guitar distortion and bluesy boasts. Tonight at 11:30, with Elefant at 8:30, K. O. and the Knockouts at 9:30 and the Witnesses at 10:30; tickets are $10 (Pareles).

STAR SPANGLES, Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103. Yet another local group aiming to turn punk rock into something less adventurous and more appealing; in other words, they want to play traditional rock 'n' roll. It goes (almost) without saying that the odds are against them, but who knows? Tonight at 9, with Bantam and others; admission is $10 (Sanneh).

TRIPTYCH MYTH, Brecht Forum, 122 West 27th Street, 10th floor, Chelsea, (212) 242-4201. A trio of the pianist and knockabout musical inventor Cooper Moore, the bassist Tom Abbs and the drummer Chad Taylor. These three members of New York's avant-jazz scene manage to get outside the genre's own self-definitions, in part because all of them double (and triple) on other instruments within a set. Sunday night at 7; admission is $10 (Ratliff).

* MARK TURNER-LARRY GRENADIER-JEFF BALLARD TRIO, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037. When this band played its first New York concert last summer, on a one-nighter at the Vanguard during the JVC Festival, it was revelatory, but I'm still not sure what it revealed, whether it was jazz per se, or even how indicative it was of their future. A great little cooperative band it surely was, with each member contributing one-third of the writing, but the substantial thrill was in hearing the saxophonist Mark Turner — one of the most influential players of the last decade — in a trio without guitar or piano to support him. Some of it sounded like chamber music; some sounded Latin; some, with breathtaking long-line improvisations and tight group communication, sounded like a new standard for saxophone trios. The band has just been signed to the reactivated Savoy label, but what it plays this week will still be new to everyone. Tonight through Sunday night at 9 and 11; cover charge is $30, $25 on Sunday (Ratliff).

PAUL VAN DYK, Roxy, 515 West 18th Street, Chelsea, (212) 645-5156. Paul Van Dyk is sometimes billed as "the world's biggest D.J.," and it's true, or close enough, even if one is not exactly sure why. This party celebrates the release of his new compilation CD and DVD, "Global" (Mute). Tonight after 11; tickets are $40 (Sanneh).

YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. Yonder Mountain String Band, from Colorado, carries a traditionalist bluegrass lineup — banjo, guitar, mandolin and bass, with high vocal harmonies and no drums — onto the jam-band circuit, picking its way through songs of wanderlust and thwarted love. Tonight at 9, playing two sets; tickets are $20 (Pareles).

PAUL WELLER, Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 564-4882. Back in the 1970's, Paul Weller led the Jam, which was the new wave answer to the Who. Since then, he has calmed down and looked into American roots-rock, developing a husky voice and a songwriting style that looks toward the Band and early Rod Stewart. Tonight at 7:30, with Fiction Plane opening; tickets are $30 (Pareles).

LIZZIE WEST, Stinger, 241 Grand Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 218-6662. Lizzie West sings folksy but telling songs about love, family and wanderlust, with a warm, reedy voice reminiscent of Natalie Merchant. She's appearing at Stinger every Friday in February before releasing an album in April. Tonight at 10; admission is $3 (Pareles).