May 16, 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.

* AARKTICA, Galapagos, 70 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 782-5188. Aarktica's songs are extended reveries, built on loops of guitars and drums and occasional voices. The musical elements hover and circle, float by or bristle with distortion, as the songs drift through serenity and trouble. Tomorrow night at 7; admission is $8 (Jon Pareles).

* BACILOS, Supper Club, 240 West 47th Street, Manhattan, (212) 868-9102. Bacilos, from Miami, draws its rock en espaρol from across the Americas, switching gracefully and tunefully amid cumbia, salsa, bossa nova and pop ballads, and it has a Grammy Award (best Latin pop album) and hit singles to show for it. Sunday night at 7; tickets are $25 (Pareles).

THE BIG THREE PALLADIUM ORCHESTRA, Copacabana, 560 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-2672. In the 1950's all of New York danced the mambo at a club called the Palladium. The most celebrated bands of the time were led by Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez. Now their sons — Machito Jr., Toto Rodriguez Jr. and Tito Puente Jr. — are leading a group that revives the family repertories. Tomorrow night at 10; general admission is $25; table reservations, $35, plus a two-drink minimum (Pareles).

* ANDY BISKIN'S "GOLDBERG VARIATIONS," Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400. That's Goldberg as in Rube Goldberg. Andy Biskin, a jazz clarinetist with a patient, low-key sense of humor, admires the logic of Goldberg's inventions so much that he has composed a series of pieces around them. Basically, what's promised is a suite of jazz tone poems about how to grow hair on balding men or how to light a cigar in a speeding car — not the sort of thing you get to hear every day. There will be video accompaniment, and the music will be played by Mr. Biskin's able sextet, which includes the bassist Ben Allison and the drummer John Hollenbeck. Tonight at 8:30; tickets are $21, $18 for students, $16 for members (Ben Ratliff).

BROADCAST, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. This British band specializes in small pleasures, which isn't always a bad thing. "Haha Sound" (Warp), the group's forthcoming album, generally sticks to the formula, setting Trish Keenan's placid vocals atop gentle 60's-era arrangements, with occasional detours into electronic sound. Yes, the group still sounds a bit (or a lot) like Stereolab, but Stereolab fans probably won't complain. Sunday night at 9, with Electrelane; tickets are $15 (Kelefa Sanneh).

KEBA BOBO CISSOKO MEMORIAL CONCERT, West Park Presbyterian Church, 165 West 86th Street, Manhattan, (212) 505-2711. African dancers and musicians gather for a tribute to Keba Bobo Cissoko, a griot from Guinea who was a vital presence performing African music on New York City stages and subway platforms. His album, "Dougougna Boukalon" (Blue Monster), is being released posthumously; he died in February. The concert lineup includes the Fula Flute Ensemble, playing the rough-edged flute pieces of the West African Fulani people, and members of Les Ballets Merveilles of Guinea. Tomorrow night at 8; admission is $20 (Pareles).

* STEVE COLEMAN AND FIVE ELEMENTS, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063. By reputation, Mr. Coleman, the saxophonist, is a modernist warrior who travels the globe making prickly music. Yes, but Five Elements, his standard small-group setup, which here includes his trumpet-playing protégé Jonathan Finlayson, the chromatic harmonica player Grégoire Maret and the drummer Dafnis Prieto, doesn't necessarily require studious attention; you don't have to be a music student to love it. It's hard, funky, buoyed by Mr. Coleman's clear, beautiful alto saxophone tone. A three-night stand begins on Sunday night, with sets at 9 and 10:30; admission is $12 a set, $10 for members (Ratliff).

RAVI COLTRANE EXPERIMENT 2.0, RAVI COLTRANE QUARTET, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063. With a slightly withdrawn, low-affect style, Mr. Coltrane plays original music built on small motifs that work their way under your skin. When the band is at its peak, you never quite know where the music is leading. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9 and 10:30; admission is $12 a set, $10 for members (Ratliff).

DATSUNS, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. By this point, you need a cross-indexed chart to tell all the semipopular rock revivalist bands apart, and it's easy to admire any listener who is wise enough to ignore the whole lot. The Datsuns — which band is that, again? A cheat sheet: Do they have a bass player? Yes. Where do they come from? New Zealand. What style do they re-create? Rock 'n' roll from the 70's. Sunday night at 7, with the Star Spangles and the Paybacks; tickets are $16.50 in advance, $17 at the door (Sanneh).

JOHN EDDIE, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700. John Eddie has been a journeyman rocker since the 1980's, mixing the New Jersey bar-band basics with a good-natured sense of humor. He has just released an album, "Who the Hell Is John Eddie?" (Lost Highway), that shows there's substance within his wry songs. Tonight at 10:30 (the early show is sold out); admission is $15 (Pareles).

* ESSENTIALLY ELLINGTON COMPETITION AND FESTIVAL, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500. Jazz at Lincoln Center puts on this annual competition of high school jazz orchestras, giving them access to freshly transcribed Ellington scores (and, in the process, reseeding the libraries of high school music departments all over the country); the bands play the same Ellington tunes and vie for first place. This year they are coming from all over North America, including Winnipeg, Miami and Interlochen, Mich.; the tunes include "Harlem Airshaft," "Ko-Ko" and "Rockin' in Rhythm." The semifinals are broken into two parts: Sunday from 4 to 7 p.m., and Monday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. On Monday night, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will play a short set, followed by performances by the top three finalist bands, with Mr. Marsalis as guest soloist. The winner is announced at the end of Monday's show. It's an inspiring and surprisingly engrossing process to watch, and some of these bands are good enough to have yielded musicians who now play with the Lincoln Center band itself. The semifinals on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning are free; tickets to the show on Monday evening are $20 (Ratliff).

THE FLESHTONES, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, at Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236. Year in and year out, the Fleshtones have held on to the sound of 1960's garage-rock, with its distortion-edged guitars and hoarsely exuberant vocals. Once it sounded like punk; now it's starting to sound like diehard purism. The Cherry Valence and Rocket Science open tonight at 9; admission is $10 (Pareles).

T-MODEL FORD, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700. T-Model Ford is one of the juke-joint bluesmen introduced to the world by Fat Possum Records. He plays his blues raw, blunt and pugnacious. Sunday night at 10, with Robert Belfour at 8 and Jim Mize at 7; admission is $12 (Pareles).

* VON FREEMAN WITH BARRY HARRIS TRIO, TriBeCa Performing Arts Center, Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers Street, (212) 220-1460. What a fresh style the tenor saxophonist Von Freeman has, and he has been polishing it in Chicago, his hometown, for 50 years. He's not a pattern player; as he takes his tempos slowly and vocalizes idiosyncratically through the horn, he's a nuancer, a finesser, a luxuriator. An awful lot of jazz makes you feel intelligent if you follow it; his makes you feel good as well. He doesn't come through New York often, and to make tonight even rarer, he'll be backed by the pianist Barry Harris and his trio. Tonight at 8; tickets are $35 (Ratliff).

JON GORDON, Fat Cat, 75 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 675-6056. Mr. Gordon is a smart, self-assured young jazz alto saxophonist, a wizard in the post-bop language. Tonight and tomorrow night at 10; admission is $15 (Ratliff).

JOHN WESLEY HARDING, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, Manhattan, (212) 864-5400. John Wesley Harding, who named himself after a Bob Dylan song about an outlaw, sounds like Elvis Costello enamored of folk-rock, gruffly revealing his ruefulness and cynicism in stolidly tuneful songs. In a concert sponsored by the folk-rock-loving public radio station WFUV, he shares the bill with the songwriters Lucy Kaplansky and the sisters Katryna and Nerissa Nields. Tomorrow night at 7; tickets are $26; $23 for students and 65+; $21 for members (Pareles).
* LINCOLN CENTER JAZZ ORCHESTRA ET AL., Verizon Music Festival, Josie Robertson Plaza, Lincoln Center, (212) 501-1390; www.verizon.com/musicfestival. The band, led by Wynton Marsalis, is playing as strongly as ever; it has a new pianist, Richard D. Johnson, with a firm touch and clear, curious improvising ideas. It's headlining a concert that also includes Sherrie Maricle and the Diva Jazz Orchestra, Donald Harrison's Quintet and Ray Vega's Latin Jazz Sextet. Sunday from 4 to 9 p.m.; free (Ratliff).

LOST SONGS OF LENNON AND McCARTNEY, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. The Beatles didn't record all of the songs of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who also handed over potential hits to Mary Hopkin, Cilla Black, Badfinger and Billy J. Kramer. After singing on an album, "From a Window: Lost Songs of Lennon and McCartney" (RPH Productions), Kate Pierson from the B-52's, Graham Parker and Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom will be performing songs like "Come and Get It" (from Badfinger) and "A World Without Love" (from Peter and Gordon). Tonight at 8; tickets are $25 (Pareles).

NELLIE McKAY, Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103. Nellie McKay is a whiz-kid teenage songwriter who plays piano and riffles through styles from Tin Pan Alley to rapping. Tonight at 8, on a bill with the punky anti-folk songwriter Lach and the Secrets, along with Testosterone Kills and Prewar Yardsale. Admission is $10 (Pareles).

JACKIE McLEAN QUINTET, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121. You can't underestimate Mr. McLean, the alto saxophonist; in the 1950's and 60's he was known as one of the most passionate of the players who arrived after the first cannon fire of bebop, and when he's playing well, word gets around. What keeps him fresh is his exposure to the steady stream of young talent at the Hartt School in Hartford, where he has been teaching for more than 30 years. Tonight through Sunday night at 8 and 10, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $27.50 (Ratliff).

* MATCHBOX TWENTY, SUGAR RAY, Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, N.J., (201) 935-3900. This concert, rescheduled because of the N.B.A. playoffs, brings two of the most maligned mainstream rock bands to town. It's easy enough to mock Matchbox Twenty's earnest ballads, but Sugar Ray's charms are much harder to resist: the band has released a string of sweet, breezy singles that will probably sound just as good when you hear them on the radio 20 years from now. Tonight at 7, with Maroon 5; tickets are $37.50 to $49.50 (Sanneh).

MAYDAY, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700. Mayday is the project of the singer-songwriter Ted Stevens, a senior member of Omaha's booming indie-rock scene; he currently plays with Cursive. Mayday's new album, "I Know Your Troubles Been Long" (Bar/None), is a collection of literate laments meant to evoke a bygone America. The group occasionally achieves the pastoral sound it is aiming for, but Mr. Stevens's voice often isn't strong enough to bring all the elements together. Tomorrow night at 8, with the Mendoza Line, Scobee, Sam Champion and Pale Horse & Rider; admission is $8 (Sanneh).

* TED NASH'S ODEON, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037. Mr. Nash is a saxophonist and clarinetist with an almost classical sense of control, and his cool disposition sets the tone for his groups. Odeon features Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, Natalie Bonin on violin, Bill Schimmel on accordion and Matt Wilson on drums. This is jazz that blends idioms and players from those idioms. Tonight through Sunday night at 9 and 11; cover charge is $30 tonight and tomorrow night, and $20 on Sunday (Ratliff).

JOEY RAMONE'S BIRTHDAY BASH, the Ritz (Webster Hall), 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600. The third annual commemoration of Joey Ramone's birthday brings together punks of various generations: a lineup of the Misfits that includes Gerry Only, Dez Cadena from Black Flag on bass and Marky Ramone on drums; Rocket From the Crypt, a manic garage-rock band pumped up by a horn section; and Mickey Leigh (Joey's brother) in a band with Andy Shernoff of the Dictators and Richie Stotts of Plasmatics, along with bands that include Collider, Coyote Shivers and Suffrajett. Tonight, doors open at 7; tickets are $25 (Pareles).

* SHIVKUMAR SHARMA AND ZAKIR HUSSAIN, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400 or (212) 545-7536. Shivkumar Sharma plays the santur, India's hammered dulcimer, and he has transformed it from an accompanying instrument into a solo instrument that brings shimmering resonances to the classical Indian raga repertory. He will be accompanied by Zakir Hussain on tabla, who can suppy suble propulsion and percussive fireworks over the course of a raga. Sunday night at 7; tickets are $25 to $45; $21 to $40 for members, $15 for students (Pareles).

* SIMON AND THE BAR SINISTERS, Rodeo Bar, 375 Third Avenue, at 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 683-6500. Simon Chardiet is the kind of guitarist bar-band fans dream of finding: a one-man twang meltdown who knows where surf meets blues, rockabilly meets klezmer, country meets punk. His songs are wryly frustrated; his guitar solos assuage his troubles with the grand sweep of American music. Tonight at 10; free (Pareles).

* SONNY ROLLINS, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5722. He's a thrilling improviser, one of the greatest ever to have played jazz, and his saxophone playing can reach giant proportions, spilling all over the tunes, which are often strange choices: old Hawaiian songs, calypsos, obscure songs that Billie Holiday sang. Tonight at 8; tickets are $14 to $54 (Ratliff).

* ROGER SANCHEZ, Centro-Fly, 45 West 21st Street, Manhattan, (212) 627-7770. Mr. Sanchez, a local D.J. and producer, helped invent contemporary New York dance music, occasionally adding Latin rhythms to his clattering house-inspired beats. This year he won a Grammy Award for his remix of "Hella Good," by No Doubt. Tomorrow night after 10, with Mark Ronson and Stretch Armstrong; admission is $20 (Sanneh).

SOULIVE, MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. Soulive is an organ-guitar-drums trio that harks back to the 1950's and 60's, playing meaty, blues-centered jazz for dancers who like straightforward funk. Meshell Ndegeocello has a lot on her mind — funk, social conditions, lust and self-determination — and she backs it all up with charisma, an assured voice and deep grooves that she knows from the inside out, starting with her own bass lines. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $26 (Pareles).

THE SPUNK LADS, GAIJIN À GO-GO, THE BEEPS, BATISTA, Galapagos, 70 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 782-5188. The Spunk Lads, punk-rock preservationists, headline this evening of high-concept (although not necessarily high-quality) rock 'n' roll. The most infamous act is probably the gleefully ersatz Gaijin à Go-Go, a faux-Japanese pop band that has — inevitably — earned a following in Japan. Tonight at 9:30; admission is $6 (Sanneh).

TIESTO, the Roxy, 515 West 18th Street, Chelsea, (212) 645-5156. How did this Dutch D.J become one of the world's most popular? By spinning smooth sets of trance tracks, energetic and sentimental. His latest release is "Nyana" (Nettwerk), a mix CD that begins with an uncharacteristically severe track — "Love Is Stronger Than Pride," a bare-bones composition by Michael Mayer — before moving into more familiar territory. Tonight after 11; tickets are $40 (Sanneh).

* DAVE VAN RONK DAY, the Bottom Line, 15 West Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 228-6300. Dave Van Ronk, who died last year, was central to the musical and social whirl of the Greenwich Village songwriting scene. This tribute concert brings together friends, fans and fellow songwriters, including Oscar Brand (at the afternoon show only), David Bromberg, Odetta, Richie Havens, Paul Geremia and Danny Kalb (all at the evening show only), along with Suzanne Vega, Tom Paxton, Rosalie Sorrels, Bill Morrissey, Patrick Sky, Jack Hardy, Terre Roche and many others. It should be a living history of Greenwich Village, from the folk revival to the present. Sunday at 3 and 8:30 p.m.; tickets are $25 (Pareles).

* SVEN VÄTH, Arc, 6 Hubert Street, near Hudson Street, TriBeCa, (212) 226-9212. The veteran German D.J. Sven Väth comes to town for a night of hard, adventurous techno. He recently released an import-only compilation called "Fire Works Remix" (EMI International), which includes collaborations with Losoul, Ricardo Villalobos and other leading electronic producers. Tomorrow night after 11, with the first-rate techno D.J.'s John Selway and Christian Smith; tickets are $20 (Sanneh).

CEDAR WALTON TRIO, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, Manhattan, (212) 864-6662. With powerful hands and tidy arranging impulses, Cedar Walton has always been one of the best pianists in New York and one of the relatively few musicians alive to have written a few tunes known by each fresh class of jazz students. But perhaps the strongest reason to see him is the masterly way he functions in a rhythm section. With David Williams on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9, 11 and 12:30; cover charge is $20 (Ratliff).