June 27, 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.

THE ABYSSINIANS, Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park Band Shell, Ninth Street and Prospect Park West, (718) 855-7882 extension 45. The Abyssinians have been singing dignified roots reggae for three decades. Tonight at 7:30, with Marcia Davis and Outro opening; free, with a $3 donation requested (Jon Pareles).

DICKEY BETTS AND GREAT SOUTHERN, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. Kicked out of a band that he founded, the Allman Brothers, the guitarist Dickey Betts wasted no time in going back on tour with his own group, returning to the name Great Southern from his first rift with the Allman Brothers. He has just made an acoustic album, and his chiming, symmetrical guitar solos and the weary but amiable voice from songs like "Blue Skies" should be intact. Tonight at 8 and 10:30; tickets are $32.50 (Pareles).

"BIRDLAND SALUTES THE ROYAL ROOST," JVC Jazz Festival, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-3080. In a nod to one of the great New York jazz clubs and the musicians who played there, Birdland is putting on a bebop blowout, including the pianist Michael Weiss, the Tadd Dameron Memorial Sextet including the saxophonist Jimmy Heath, and the Charlie Parker memorial quintet with the saxophonist Jesse Davis. Tonight at 9 and 11; cover charge is $30, $10 minimum for food or drink (Ratliff).

CARLA BLEY BIG BAND, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121. Ms. Bley, the pianist and composer, has nurtured a mischievous streak since the 1960's, and it's evident in "Looking for America" (Watt), a new record in which American anthems and marches keep dissonantly poking in to the tromping bustle of a swinging 18-piece orchestra. Tonight through Sunday night at 8 and 10, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $27.50, $10 minimum for food or drink (Ben Ratliff).

JANE IRA BLOOM QUARTET, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, above Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626. Ms. Bloom is one of the few saxophonists who stick exclusively to the soprano, and on it she has created a fine, whittled-down style. She'll play with her group, Chasing Paint. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, 10 and midnight; cover charge is $15, $10 minimum for food or drink (Ratliff).

* DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET, SHIRLEY HORN TRIO, JVC Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, (212) 247-7800. You can't argue with Mr. Brubeck's place in jazz: crowds still flock to his concerts, hanging in there through the recent stuff until he finally rewards them with "Take Five" or "Blue Rondo à la Turk." But Ms. Horn's place has only been recently staked out, since she started the second phase of her career in the late 80's, when she was well into middle age. She's not playing piano anymore, but on her new record, "May the Music Never End" (Verve), her singing is as slow and rhythmically shrewd as ever. Tonight at 8; tickets are $25 to $65 (Ratliff).

CINERAMA, Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. David Gedge has spent years in the Wedding Present, writing well-turned songs about the ways love can go painfully wrong. Cinerama eases back on the buzzsaw guitars but holds on to both the tunes and the depressive insights. Parker and Lily and Mark Burgess (from the Chameleons) share the bill. Tomorrow night at 10; admission is $12 in advance, $14 day of show (Pareles).

CLEM SNIDE, LISA GERMANO, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. Clem Snide's semirural sound belies its sense of humor and its punk underpinnings; the band can be morosely tuneful or smart and goofy. Sample song title: "Joan Jett of Arc." Lisa Germano writes ghostly waltzes and whispery ballads that probe intimate fears and memories. Tomorrow and Sunday night, with Ms. Germano at 10 and Clem Snide at 11, with the Pee Wee Fist opening tomorrow at 9 and Patrick Park opening Sunday at 9. Tickets are $15 (Pareles).

* THE LEONARD COHEN PROJECT, Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park Band Shell, Ninth Street and Prospect Park West, (718) 855-7882 extension 45. The producer Hal Willner has gathered a typicaly well-chosen lineup to sing the richly romantic and calmly cynical songs of Leonard Cohen. The performers include Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Rufus Wainwright (Kate's son), the guitarist Marc Ribot and others. Tomorrow night at 7:30; free, with a suggested donation of $3 (Pareles).

JULEE CRUISE, Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. In her introverted mode, Julee Cruise wafted her voice through the songs of Angelo Badalamenti, David Lynch's soundtrack composer. As an extrovert, she has sung with the B-52's. Tomorrow night at 7:30 and 9:30; tickets are $22 in advance, $24 at the door (Pareles).

* JOHNNY CUNNINGHAM, Blarney Star, 43 Murray Street, Lower Manhattan, (212) 732-2873. The Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham is one of the treasures of Celtic music. His career has carried him from the band Silly Wizard to writing the music for "Peter and Wendy," and between fiery fiddle tunes he's a droll storyteller. His guests will include the Irish singer Susan McKeown. Tonight at 9 and 10:30; $15 admission covers two sets (Pareles).

DENDE, BAM Cafe, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100. A former member of the earthshaking Brazilian drum band Timbalada brings Bahian rhythms north. Tonight at 9; no cover, $10 minimum (Pareles).

* DRU HILL, Ritz Theater, 1148 East Jersey Street, Elizabeth, N.J., (908) 352-7469. With "Thong Song," Sisqo achieved more solo success than he ever could have imagined, but also more ridicule. So the loverman-turned-laughingstock returned to the relative anonymity of his R&B group, Dru Hill; last year, the group released a solid reunion album, "Dru World Order" (Def Soul/Island Def Jam). Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $25 to $42 (Kelefa Sanneh).

EARTH, WIND AND FIRE, Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 496-7070. During the 1970's, Earth, Wind and Fire was the glossy, horn-powered hit machine that covered all bases, from idealism ("Keep Your Head to the Sky," "Shining Star") to dance tunes ("Boogie Wonderland") to lover's pleas ("Reasons"). Philip Bailey's ethereal falsetto voice is still part of the group, and Maurice White, who founded Earth Wind and Fire, is making a rare appearance with the group. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $35 to $85 (Pareles).

GOLD CHAINS, GRAVY TRAIN, CHROMEO, the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. You may be amused by the over-the-top tongue-in-cheek hip-hop of Gold Chains and Gravy Train, but be sure to show up in time for Chromeo, a duo whose commitment to slow jams (and infatuation with vocal processing) goes well beyond satire. Tonight at 10; admission is $12 (Sanneh).

* TORD GUSTAVSEN TRIO, Joe's Pub, Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200.Mr. Gustavsen, a youngish Norwegian pianist, plays slow music that melts off the bandstand into puddles of feeling, backed by a low-key funk rhythm; it's séance music, and this show, coming right after the appearance of a smart album on ECM, will be his first American concert. Sunday night at 7:30; cover charge is $15 (Ratliff).

INDIA.ARIE, MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500. India.Arie is bursting with good intentions, calling for "strength, courage and wisdom" from herself and her listeners. She'd be a coffeehouse folkie, plucking her acoustic guitar, if not for the touches of funk that put her on the pop charts. 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 at 8; tickets are $25 to $65 (Pareles).

JALEO WITH LOUIS WINSBERG, Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. A fusion of flamenco, jazz and Indian music, with guitarists, singers and dancers. Tonight at 7; tickets are $15 (Pareles).

* NORAH JONES, GILLIAN WELCH, PNC Bank Arts Center, Garden State Parkway exit 116, Holmdel, N.J., (732) 335-0400. Norah Jones's voice may seem hesitant, but she has quietly defined an adult pop that is touched by jazz, folk and country but beholden to none of them. Gillian Welch sings melodies that sound as if they came from the backwoods and stark, death-haunted lyrics with a tight little Appalachian tremor in her voice. She can conjure the stoic perseverance, hard times and stubborn faith of a mythic rural America. Tonight at 8; tickets are $19.50 to $47.50 (Pareles).

JUNGLE BROTHERS, BLACK SHEEP, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, at Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236; the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. Two once-brilliant rap acts, both more than a decade removed from their finest moments. Neither has aged well, but if you set your expectations low enough, you may be pleasantly surprised. At Southpaw tomorrow night at 9, with Gold Chains; tickets are $15 in advance, $17 at the door. At the Knitting Factory Sunday night at 9; tickets are $15 (Sanneh).

LL COOL J, LIL' KIM, Arena at Harbor Yard, 600 Main Street, Bridgeport, Conn., (203) 345-2400. LL Cool J. has outlasted virtually all his hip-hop competition for the right reasons: he's articulate, funny, quick-tongued and charismatic, whether he's boasting about his triumphs or whispering romantic promises. Lil' Kim plays the hot-to-trot hip-hop gold digger with appropriate hyperbole. Sunday at 7; tickets are $40 and $55.50 (Pareles).

* JOE LOVANO'S STREET BAND, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232. Formed for his last album, which paid a highly conceptual tribute to Enrico Caruso, Mr. Lovano's Street Band tries to evoke the kind of bands that turned opera arias into popular music all over Italy: ragtag groups playing melodies in raucous, not-perfect unison. (Sometimes you have to go backward to go forward.) The band has saxophone, clarinet, two basses, accordion, wordless singing, and percussion on drums and cookie tins. Yes, it sounds crazy on paper, and it's one of the most fascinating groups I've seen in recent years. Tonight through Sunday night at 7:30 and 9:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $25, $20 on Sunday (Ratliff).

NELLIE McKAY, Fez, 380 Lafayette Street, at Great Jones Street, East Village, (212) 533-2680. Nellie McKay is a whiz-kid teenage songwriter who plays piano and riffles through styles from Tin Pan Alley to rapping. Tomorrow night at 10:30; admission is $10 (Pareles).

* RICKY MARTIN, CARLOS VIVES, Madison Square Garden, 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, (212) 465-6741. Beyond his open-mouthed grin and his shaking bon-bons, the Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin has a mission: to unite the Americas as one giant commercial pop market. He's a trouper onstage, working hard to stoke the party, and since he has just released a Spanish-language album, he's going back to his original audience. Carlos Vives, a Colombian, was an actor until he took a role as a musician and decided to start performing la música vallenata, a rural accordion-driven style that's Colombia's answer to zydeco. His band now mixes rock and salsa rhythms with rural flute and accordion, in arrangements that set out to reach, like Colombia itself, from the Caribbean to the Andes. The bill also includes the Colombian singer Soraya. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $59.50 to $99.50 (Pareles).

* PAUL MOTIAN, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037. Tonight, Mr. Motian's Electric Bebop Band, with the saxophonists Tony Malaby and Chris Cheek, the guitarists Ben Monder and Steve Cardenas, and the bassist Jerome Harris. Tomorrow night, Trio 2000 Plus One, with Mr. Malaby, the pianist Masabumi Kikuchi and the bassist Drew Gress. Sunday night, a trio, appearing for the first time, with the saxophonist Bill McHenry and the bassist Charlie Haden. Sets each night are at 9 and 11; cover charge is $30 (Ratliff).

ONEIDA, Pianos, 158 Ludlow Street, below Stanton Street, Lower East Side, (212) 505-3733. Oneida, from New York, wants to put teeth back into minimalistic rock. It revs up frantic, obsessive patterns to carry thoughts about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. It's doing a benefit show for medical expenses for one of its founding members, Papa Crazee. Tonight at 8; sharing the bill, at 10 p.m., is the country-flavored band Company. Admission is $7 (Pareles).

* REGGAE CARI-FEST, U.S.T.A. National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Flushing, Queens, (718) 856-5946. Most of the leading dancehall reggae acts are scheduled to perform at this concert: the querulous virtuoso Bounty Killer, the ferocious Rastafarian fundamentalist Capleton, the manic showman Elephant Man, the smooth crooner Wayne Wonder and more. It should be a wild day, driven by avant-garde beats and cutthroat competition. Here's hoping for plenty of verbal warfare, and none of the other kind. Sunday at 1 p.m.; tickets are $45 to $60 (Sanneh).

KURT ROSENWINKEL AND PETER BERNSTEIN, Fat Cat, 75 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 675-6056. Two of the best guitarists to come along in the current generation of jazz players, Mr. Rosenwinkel and Mr. Bernstein may be cooking up a band together; here's a chance to catch their contrasting styles early. Tonight and tomorrow night at 10; cover charge is $15 (Ratliff).

ELLIOTT SHARP, Issue Project Room, 619 East Sixth Street, East Village, (212) 598-4130. Elliott Sharp, the composer and bandleader, plays compositions for solo acoustic guitar from his coming album "The Velocity of Hue" (Emanem), pulling together blues and raga, meditation and twang. For one piece, he's also bringing his laptop to process the guitar sounds. Tonight at 8; admission is $10 (Pareles).

* WAYNE SHORTER, JVC Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800. It is good to see Mr. Shorter — the greatest living composer of small-group music in jazz, and a pretty wonderful saxophonist — play music that he and audiences can both sink their teeth into. His return to prominence in the last few years, leading a first-rate acoustic jazz quartet playing the best of his music from his days as part of the Miles Davis Quintet to the present, has yielded incredible performances, full of stubbornly original tenor saxophone improvising. Here, aside from the quartet, a chamber orchestra will flesh out some of his new arrangements, and Herbie Hancock and Savion Glover will appear as guests, playing and dancing, respectively, in Mr. Shorter's world of gnomic melodies and genuinely stirring harmony. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $25 to $65 (Ratliff).

SINGAPORE SLING, APPARAT ORGAN QUARTET/TRABANT, Central Park Summerstage, mid-park at 69th Street, Manhattan, (212) 360-2777. Three bands from Iceland, where avant-rock intersects the mainstream, share this bill: Singapore Sling, a band that has been listening to glam-rock and Jesus and Mary Chain; Apparat Organ Quartet, a quintet (four organists and a drummer) that rejiggers old analog keyboards into its own strange devices for minimalist stomps; and Trabant, whose fondness for analog electronics leads the band in retro directions. Tomorrow at 3 p.m.; free, with donations requested (Pareles).

SLOBBERBONE, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, at Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236. Hard drinking, heartbreak and honky-tonk guitars run into the self-doubt and fuzz-tone of grunge in Slobberbone, a Texas band that creates the soundtrack to a Saturday night as it goes way off the rails. Tonight at 8:30, with Gingersol and Jason Lewis and His Band of Gold opening; admission is $10 (Pareles).

HELEN SUNG QUARTET, Cleopatra's Needle, 2485 Broadway, at 93rd Street, (212) 769-6969. An impressive pianist in the post-bop mainstream, who has played with Wayne Shorter on occasion. Tonight at 8; $10 minimum for food or drink (Ratliff).

BILLY TAYLOR TRIO WITH JON FADDIS, Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592. Mr. Taylor, the pianist and indefatigable jazz educator, is rebounding from a stroke; he'll play his genial turn on bebop and everything that came after it with the trumpeter Jon Faddis, who plays laser-beam high notes like a bionic version of Dizzy Gillespie. Tonight through Sunday night at 8 and 10:30; cover charge is $30 for table seating; $20 for bar seating; $5 minimum for food or drink. (Ratliff).

* DANNY TENAGLIA, DANNY HOWELLS, Arc, 6 Hubert Street, near Hudson Street, TriBeCa, (212) 226-9212. The downtown nightclub Arc celebrates its first anniversary (before last summer, the space was known as Vinyl) with — what else? — another all-night party. Expect Mr. Howells to spin a sharp set that alternates between uplifting house music and severe techno, but the main draw is Mr. Tenaglia (the club's Friday night resident), who is sure to spin one of the energetic marathon sets he's known for, using house music as a starting point. Tomorrow night after midnight; admission is $30, $25 with a flyer (Sanneh).

* RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, DANIEL LANOIS, Central Park Summerstage, midpark at 69th Street, Manhattan, (212) 360-2777. Imported from exotic Canada are Rufus Wainwright, whose songs swings from operatic sensitivity to jaded humor, and Daniel Lanois, the producer (U2, Bob Dylan) whose own songs have a spacious, yearning quality that hovers in his slide-guitar lines. The lineup also includes Sarah Slean and the Dears. Sunday at 3; admission is free, with donations requested (Pareles).

* DOUG WAMBLE QUINTET, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, below Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063. On a curious new record, "Country Libations" (Marsalis Music), Mr. Wamble, the guitarist who has been heard with Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson and Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, blends bebop, country, blues, gospel, soul and his own blue-eyed soul singing. Tonight at 9 and 10:30; cover charge is $12 a set (Ratliff).

WIRE, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. Patterns, disruptions and tersely ominous thoughts have been the makings of Wire's songs since the late 1970's. It made one of the great art-punk albums, "Pink Flag," in 1977, turned to keyboards and experiments for more than a decade, and has lately reclaimed its noisier side. Tonight at 11, with the Harlem Shakes opening at 10; admission is $20 (Pareles).

NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, N.Y., (516) 221-1000. The intertwined small-town stories of a cop-killer, an artist, an idealist and the Devil are the basis of "Greendale," Neil Young's new "musical novel." He's staging it with actors, video and the crude three-chord splendor of his longtime band, Crazy Horse. With homely details and the names of Southern cities, Lucinda Williams maps a geography of loss and longing in her songs. The twang and determination in her voice, along with her rock-ribbed, country-rooted melodies, insist that she won't crumble. Sunday night at 7; tickets are $30 to $85 (Pareles).