February 20, 2004

Pop and Jazz Listings

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

RASHIED ALI QUINTET, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, above Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626. Best known as John Coltrane's drummer in his last few years and his foil on the duet album "Interstellar Space," Mr. Ali has never stopped collaborating with up-and-coming musicians. This band includes Greg Murphy, Joris Teepe, Jumaane Smith and Lawrence Clark. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, 10 and midnight; cover charge is $20, minimum, $10 (Ben Ratliff).

MOSE ALLISON, PAULA WEST, Kaplan Penthouse, 10th floor, Rose Building, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500. Two singers: Mr. Allison, a witty Southerner with a dry sense of humor and swing, and the younger Paula West, who brings a great sense of old-school craft and soul to the world of jazz and cabaret. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $55 (Ratliff).

* ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. The Animal Collective, featuring Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deaken, has been making whimsical, convoluted studio albums full of odd electronic noises and childlike delight. Onstage things get a lot more raucous. Tomorrow night at 10, with Numbers and Trin Tran; admission is $10 (Jon Pareles).

BABY DAYLINER, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700. Baby Dayliner, the stage name of Ethan Marunas, is a keyboard driven one-man band. He sets up percolating electropop patterns to back neo-cabaret songs that can be droll and cynical or stylishly heartsick. Tonight at 11:30, with Dufus at 10:30, Eggplant Queens at 9:30 and the Victoria Lucas at 8:30; admission is $8 (Pareles).

MARCIA BALL, Inter-Media Art Center, 370 New York Avenue, Huntington, N.Y., (631) 549-2787; Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. Marcia Ball plays two-fisted New Orleans barrelhouse piano and sings in a husky, knowing voice about all the trouble men and women can get into on the way to a good time. At Inter-Media Art Center tonight at 9; tickets are $37.50, or $28.50 for members. At Joe's Pub Sunday night at 7:30 and 9:30; admission is $25 (Pareles).

* RAY BARRETTO AND THE CONGA KINGS, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121. Mr. Barretto will tell you that he plays jazz and usually plays it with a jazz group, full stop. But here he is connecting with conga players who come from 60 years of Afro-Cuban roots music as well as Latin jazz: Candido Camero, Patato Valdes and Giovanni Hidalgo. Tonight through Sunday night at 8 and 10, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $30 tonight and tomorrow night, $32.50 on Sunday, with a $10 minimum all nights (Ratliff).

* BRUCE BARTH TRIO, Up Over Jazz Cafe, 351 Flatbush Avenue, near Seventh Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, (718) 398-5413. Now in his early 40's, Mr. Barth is perfectly emblematic of his generation in New York's mainstream jazz underground: the man has breadth. He is wide-ranging, an adept piano soloist with a fine touch, a sympathetic rhythm section player and an especially good accompanist for singers. Working with musicians like Steve Wilson and Leon Parker, he has put subtle new wrinkles on the small-group concept, and since his stint with David Sanchez in the late 90's he has dug into Latin rhythms in earnest. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9, 11 and 12:30; cover charge is $18 and there is a $5 minimum (Ratliff).

BIO RITMO, the Knitting Factory Tap Bar, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. As America rediscovers Afro-Cuban music, Bio Ritmo — a band from Richmond, Va., led by a Cuban, René Herrera — mixes straightforward big-band salsa with tinges of jazz, Mozart and, for the gringos, some lyrics in English. Tonight at 9; admission is $8 (Pareles).

* BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO, MEM SHANNON, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. Stanley (Buckwheat) Dural Jr. is a zydeco accordionist that rockers can love. He bolsters the hefty sound of his accordion with a horn section, and his sets include plenty of gutsy blues tunes along with Cajun two-steps and waltzes. The band is an indefatigable party generator. Mem Shannon is a former New Orleans cabdriver whose spare-time love for the blues turned into a career. He built some of his songs on the stories he heard from the back seat. Tonight at 8 and 10:30; tickets are $25.50 (Pareles).

* MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER, GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS, EASTMOUNTAINSOUTH, Housing Works Used Book Cafe, 126 Crosby Street, SoHo, (212) 334-3324. The intimate songwriters' series that benefits Housing Works features singers with a streak of country. Mary Chapin Carpenter reflects on grown-up loves, losses, frustrations and wry revelations with songs that meld folk-rock and country. Grant-Lee Phillips harks back to the earnest ambitions and expansive melodies of John Lennon and Bob Dylan, singing with the conviction that rock can still be heroic. Eastmountainsouth is working, with mixed results so far, on a way to merge rural harmonies and bluegrass picking with a slicker modern approach. Tonight at 7:30; limited tickets, $25 (Pareles).

BILL CHARLAP, CYRUS CHESTNUT, JAMES WILLIAMS, Birdland, 351 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-3080. Three jazz pianists with different strengths, but all of them song connoisseurs and great improvisers. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9 and 11; cover charge is $35 and there is a $10 minimum (Ratliff).

DECAHEDRON, Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103. Decahedron is led by two former members of the post-punk act Frodus, and the band's debut CD, "Disconnection — Imminent" (Lovitt), is full of expansive, twisty guitar-driven songs that unfold at varying speeds: some roar, some meander. The bassist Joe Lally, from Fugazi, sometimes adds leisurely, reggae-influenced basslines, but Mr. Lally has been replaced since the band recorded the album. Tomorrow night at 9, with the Deep Six, Pink Noise and Dodgeball Bullys; tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door (Kelefa Sanneh).

FRANKIE FORD, SHIRLEY ALSTON REEVES, THE MARCELS, WILLIE WINFIELD AND THE HARPTONES, JAY SIEGEL AND THE TOKENS, EDDIE HOLMAN, JIMMY BEAUMONT AND THE SKYLINERS, Westbury Music Fair, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, N.Y., (516) 334-0800. The latest oldies revue assembled by Dick Fox includes Frankie Ford, the New Orleans shouter with the hit version of "Sea Cruise"; Shirley Alston Reeves from the Shirelles; the Tokens singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"; the doo-wop harmonies of the Harptones and the Marcels; and Eddie Holman, who had hits in 1970 with "Hey There Lonely Girl" and "Since I Don't Have You." Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners, who recorded "Since I Don't Have You" in 1959, are also on the bill. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $41.50 (Pareles).

NANCI GRIFFITH, OLLABELLE, Town Hall, 123 West 43d Street, Manhattan, (212) 840-2824. Nanci Griffith comes from the school of Texas songwriting that finds little epiphanies amid small-town lives and loves. But she has a tendency to sugarcoat her character studies with a little-girl voice and determinedly heartwarming endings that her fans find endearing. Go early for Ollabelle, a group that reaches back to rural gospel and blues for songs like "John the Revelator" and "Elijah Rock," setting out to modernize them without losing the spirit. Tonight at 8; tickets are $25 to $37.50 (Pareles).

* HIGH LLAMAS, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700. Brian Wilson is the touchstone for Sean O'Hagan, the leader of the High Llamas and a songwriter who reaches back to the whimsical, elaborate fantasies that wafted through pop in the late 1960's, full of la-las and bridges that turn into detours. Mr. O'Hagan doesn't get out of the studio much, so this is a rare chance to hear the band live. Sunday night at 10, with PG Six at 9 and Coco Rosie at 8; admission is $12 (Pareles).

* KARSH KALE, Sin-e, 148 Attorney Street, Lower East Side, (212) 388-0077. Karsh Kale is a tabla player, disc jockey and producer who layers East and West into his own version of the Asian Underground blend of dance beats and South Asian rhythms and melodies. Tomorrow night at 11, on a bill with DJ Zakhm at 10, the Beeps at 9 and Asian Orange Sound System at 8; call for admission (Pareles).

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO, Bardavon Opera House, 35 Market Street, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., (845) 473-2072. The 10-man choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo is one of South Africa's long-running musical treasures, melding a tradition of Zulu harmony with imported gospel and soul. In the group's dynamic "stalking style," Joseph Shabalala's companionable tenor voice hovers above the group's resonant, bass-heavy harmonies, which build from a cavernous hush to fervent, driving peaks. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $28.50 (Pareles).

MULGREW MILLER AND WINGSPAN, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232. Mr. Miller, the pianist, has a soulful sensitivity that made him the reliable standard for mainstream jazz piano over the last 20 years. He's not a housewrecker; he just sets his music in order and knows what to do. Tonight through Sunday night at 7:30 and 9:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $25 and $20 on Sunday (Ratliff).

* THE MUSIC OF ORNETTE COLEMAN FEATURING DEWEY REDMAN, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500. No appearances by Ornette himself, but it's the first time Jazz at Lincoln Center has put on a program dedicated to his work, which has influenced countless musicians, jazz and not. The next best thing to having Mr. Coleman is having Dewey Redman, the at times brilliant tenor saxophone player who functioned as his improvisational shadow in records like "New York Is Now!" He will perform with various permutations of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Tomorrow night at 8; ticekts are $65 and $75 (Ratliff).

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALL-STARS, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. Asymmetrical, cantankerous blues from the Mississippi Delta and the hill country nearby are at the core of the North Missisippi All-Stars, a jamming Southern rock band that learned its songs from Mississippi's older generation of juke-joint bluesmen and has lately been adding touches of 1960's folk-rock. Tomorrow night at 9, with MoFro opening; tickets are $21 (Pareles).

DON OMAR AND MICHAEL STUART, Copacabana, 560 West 34th Street, at 11th Avenue, (212) 239-2672. Reggaeton, the Puerto Rican hybrid of Spanish rapping, dance hall reggae, salsa and hip-hop, is making inroads on New York City radio playlists and dance floors. Don Omar is one of reggaeton's current kingpins, and he has the skillful salsa and Latin pop singer Michael Stuart to help out with hooks and perform some of his own songs. Tonight after 10; admission is $30 (Pareles).

EIVIND OPSVIK GROUP, 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883. Mr. Opsvik, a young Norwegian bassist and bandleader, has an unusual gift for writing small, poignant pieces of music. His melodic shards are strong, as are the chord sequences moving underneath them; he has the distinction, in a time when jazz compositions are becoming increasingly opaque, of writing catchy tunes, his fat-toned, unfussy bass sound enhances them. Sunday night at 9:30; admission is $7 (Ratliff).

* HOUSTON PERSON, Lenox Lounge, 288 Lenox Avenue, near 125th Street, Harlem, (212) 427-0253. A veteran tenor saxophonist who keeps things pleasurable. His background is in the 1950's, when a good deal of jazz was completely submerged in rhythm and blues, and he's one of the few mainstream jazz performers today who can routinely find access to the deep language of pleasure from that time. (Most of the others became session musicians, went deeper into the studiousness of jazz or into the meat and potatoes of rock 'n' roll or disappeared.) Mr. Person has an elastic, sequential solo-building style that links him to Sonny Rollins, and occasionally a fat, breathy tone that links him to Ben Webster. Enjoy him. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8:30, 10, and 11:30; cover charge is $20 and there is a one-drink minimum (Ratliff).

* PERU NEGRO, Town Hall, 123 West 43d Street, Manhattan, (212) 840-2824 or (212) 545-7536. Africans went to Peru as well as the Caribbean and North America, and their traditions spawned a vigorous hybrid of African, Spanish and native influences; in the drums and voices, and the dancers in white, it's easy to see and hear connections to Puerto Rican plena, Haitian vodou and other African-American hybrids. This 20-member troupe of singers and dancers, founded 35 years ago, is one of Peru's most celebrated groups, with music that builds passion, melody and momentum. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $25 to $40 (Pareles).

ARCHER PREWITT, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7503. Archer Prewitt, of the Sea and Cake, treats disorientation as a second home. His music wafts by, circling inconclusively through carefully orchestrated allusions to music on pop's fringes; he often sings about being stranded somewhere, watching headlights go by. He's performing solo tomorrow night at 8; admission is $8 (Pareles).

JENNY SCHEINMAN, Barbes, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177. Ms. Scheinman, a violinist who has recorded with Bill Frisell and Norah Jones, among others, is also a composer of sinuous, elegant miniatures, a kind of chamber pop with hints of classical and jazz and various kinds of musical languages from around the world. Her fine new album is "Shalagaster," on the Tzadik label. Sunday night at 9; call for admission (Ratliff).

SECRET MACHINES, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7503. Secret Machines, a New York band about to release its first major-label album, creates slowly evolving songs from carefully layered, minimalist patterns and songs tinged with country: somewhere between Wilco and Pink Floyd. Tomorrow night at 10, with the Wounded Knees (plus J Mascis, from Dinosaur Jr., as guest guitarist) and Tomorrow's Friend; admission is $8 (Pareles).

GEORGE SHEARING TRIO, Le Jazz au Bar, 41 East 58th Street, Manhattan, (212) 308-9455. George Shearing in his 80's isn't a far throw from George Shearing in his 30's: the structure of his sound, with his parallel-hands chording style, is as light and sturdy as ever. Tonight at 8 and tomorrow night at 8 and 10; cover charge is $75 (Ratliff).

TERRANCE SIMIEN, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-1155. Terrence Simien has been pumping his accordion with his band, the Mallet Playboys (from Mallet, La.), since the early 1980's, adding songs like "500 Miles" and Peter Tosh's "Stop This Train" to the Gulf Coast zydeco repertory of hard-charging two-steps and waltzes. Tonight at 8 and 10; admission is $20 (Pareles).

* JACKY TERRASSON TRIO, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 255-4037. With his new group (Sean Smith on bass and Eric Harland on drums), Mr. Terrasson has gotten back to what he does best: creating stunning, fizzy trio music, absolutely flexible in form as it breaks up into pieces and then coheres again; it has a low-impact virtuosity and a likable enthusiasm. Tonight through Sunday night at 9 and 11; cover charge is $30 (Ratliff).

* MARY TIMONY, the Knitting Factory Tap Bar, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. Ms. Timony, the former lead singer for the indie-rock band Helium, writes weird, insinuative songs full of odd twists and mystical imagery that evoke progressive rock. Tomorrow night at 9, with Garland of Hours, Dame Fate and Les Georges Leningrad; admission is $8 (Sanneh).

UMPHREY'S MCGEE WITH JOSHUA REDMAN, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. When jam bands feel ambitious, they hook up with jazz musicians. Umphrey's McGee has twin guitars and plenty of the Dead and Allman Brothers jam-band roots, but its jams also delve into jazz and funk, and the calmly authoritative saxophonist and composer Joshua Redman should push them even further. Tonight at 9, with Om Trio opening; tickets are $15 (Pareles).

EDGAR WINTER BAND, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. The keyboardist, saxophonist and singer Edgar Winter had a string of hopped-up early-1970's hits, including "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride"; recently, Eminem sampled his song "Dyin' to Live" to back up a posthumous reconciliation of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $25.50 in advance, $30 tomorrow (Pareles).