March 19, 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.

* ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND, Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 496-7070. The archetypal Southern rock band is still on the road. Gregg Allman, its keyboardist and main singer, is more than ever the band's center, since one of its founders and defining voices, the guitarist Dickey Betts, is estranged from the group. His replacement is Warren Haynes, who has been in and out of the Allmans while also touring with a spinoff, Government Mule. He'll be sharing the twin-guitar passages with Derek Trucks, the nephew of the band's drummer Butch Trucks. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8 and next

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Sunday nights at 8; tickets are $55 to $75

(Jon Pareles).

COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080. Post-Basie himself, the orchestra goes on, playing some of his great charts and those developed over time through the leadership of Thad Jones, Frank Foster and Grover Mitchell. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9 and 11; cover charge is $40 (Ben Ratliff).

DAN BERN, Joe's Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. Dan Bern has the Dust Bowl nasality of the young Bob Dylan, a mobile face, a slyly quizzical demeanor and a gift for transforming off-center observations into telling insights. Some of his songs are topical numbers that will evaporate before the next show; others will linger. Sunday night at 9; admission is $20 (Pareles).

BLACK HEART PROCESSION, ENON, COCOROSIE, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. The headliners at this indie-rock show are the gloomy storytellers the Black Heart Procession and the electronic art-rock trio Enon, but be sure to arrive in time to catch

CocoRosie, an unlikely sister act that specializes in whispery, gospel-tinged experiments. CocoRosie's debut album, "La Maison de Mon Rêve" (Touch and Go), is full of unanswerable questions: "Why does butterscotch taste so good?/But we can't have any/We must, we should." Tomorrow night at 9; tickets are $14 (Kelefa Sanneh).

* JONATHA BROOKE, Anspacher Theater, Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. Jonatha Brooke has dedicated herself to the well-made song, carving an independent career by releasing her own albums and building a loyal following on tour. She is raising her profile with her new album, "Back in the Circus" (Bad Dog/Verve), distributed by a major label. Her songs are plainspoken visions of romantic setbacks — "You're gone/and there's another song" — with melodies the Beatles wouldn't disown. Tonight through Sunday night at 7:30; admission is $37 (Pareles).

* CABAS, Stone Pony, 913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park, N.J., (732) 502-0600. The Colombian songwriter Andrés Cabas leads a band that brings rock exuberance to styles from across Colombia and beyond. His hybrids are rarely predictable and always vibrant. Tomorrow night at 8; admission is $20 (Pareles).

JIM CAPALDI, AL STEWART, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. Jim Capaldi was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame this week as a member of Traffic, for whom he played drums and wrote lyrics. Al Stewart's 1976 hit, "Year of the Cat," distilled the virtues of his songwriting: romantic fantasies, a fascination with history, hints of Celtic folk tunes and a gently insistent voice. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $25.50 in advance, $27.50 tomorrow (Pareles).

EUGENE CHADBOURNE, MARC RIBOT, Issue Project Room, 619 East Sixth Street, East Village, (212) 598-4130. Two guitarists, both particularly good in scaled-down situations like solo or duet performances. Both of them are revisionists, and improvisers above all else: they love to take American music, be it honky-tonk, labor-union protest songs or Albert Ayler, and push it through their rough, affectionate sensibilities. Tomorrow night at 8; admission is $10 (Ratliff).

MIKE CLARK, the Knitting Factory Tap Bar, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. Mike Clark was the drummer in Herbie Hancock's band the Head Hunters; joining him for this show is Fred Wesley, the trombonist who was the musical director for James Brown's JB's and then joined George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic; the keyboardist George Colligan, who has played in Cassandra Wilson's band; and the saxophonist and guitarist Casey Benjamin, who has been in DJ Logic's Project Logic. It's a jazz-funk caucus. Tonight at 8; tickets are $15 (Pareles).

RAVI COLTRANE QUARTET, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, below 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 heading. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9 and 10:30; admission is $15 a set (Ratliff).

* THE DEF JUX TOUR, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. A showcase for the Brooklyn-based underground hip-hop label Definitive Jux. The headliner is Aesop Rock, whose current album, "Bazooka Tooth," is so dense you might sometimes think you're hearing two songs at once; free-associative lyrics pile up atop muck-ridden beats. The new album by Murs, "Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition," goes the other direction, with straightforward rhymes and wistful, soul-sampling beats, produced by 9th Wonder. Sunday night at 8, with RJD2, the Perceptionists (an indie supergroup composed of Mr. Lif, Akrobatik and DJ Fakts One), C-Rayz Walz, S. A. Smash and more; tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door (Sanneh).

ELI DEGIBRI QUINTET, Fat Cat, 75 Christopher Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 675-7369. A young tenor saxophonist from Israel, Mr. Degibri is just starting to be known in New York; he commanded attention when he toured with Herbie Hancock several years ago. Don't miss him. He is a very modern improviser, super-artful; his creations are spiky and fractured, but immaculately sculptured. Tonight and tomorrow night at 10; cover charge is $15 (Ratliff).

* THE FIGGS, Maxwell's, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 798-0406. Joining the pop-punk lineage that stretches back to the early, rowdy Beatles and any number of 1960's garage bands, the Figgs make their guitars blare through the neat constructions of their songs. They sing about rejects and romantic also-rans, with a streak of resentment that's as strong as their melodic skills. Tonight at 9:30; admission is $10 (Pareles).

GOGOL BORDELLO, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. The extravagantly mustached, manically energetic singer Eugene Hutz growls and grins as he leads Gogol Bordello, which plays rowdy, oom-pah songs that transplant Ukranian cabaret to the Lower East Side. Tomorrow night at 8, with Chin Chin and Service opening; tickets are $20 in advance, $22 tomorrow (Pareles).

* MILFORD GRAVES-PETER BRÖTZMANN DUO, St. Nicholas of Myra Church, 288 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 696-6681.Two of the powerhouse musicians in free jazz, playing together as a duo for the first time: the drummer Milford Graves and the German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. Saturday at 8 and 10; admission is $20 (Ratliff).

* BUDDY GUY, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. The blues arrive in burst after burst of adrenaline when Buddy Guy plays his songs, full of gut-level belting and speedy guitar curlicues. He makes nearly every excess sound heartfelt. He recently added songs gleaned from the juke joints of northern Mississippi to his tough Chicago blues, and whatever he takes on, he can have listeners hanging on every note. For this show he'll be playing acoustic blues, probably with no less intensity. Sunday night at 8; tickets are $48

(Pareles).

LOUIS HAYES-BUSTER WILLIAMS QUARTET, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, Manhattan, (212) 864-6662. Mr. Hayes, whose drumming you may know from the Blue Note hard-bop records of the mid-1960's (he played with Horace Silver and Lee Morgan, among others), is a standard-bearer of this music as an almost classical entity. He shares the band's leadership with the first-rate bassist Buster Williams; the pianist John Hicks and the alto saxophonist Vincent Herring are also in the band. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9, 11 and 12:30; cover charge is $20 (Ratliff).

"THE LATIN SIDE OF MILES DAVIS," Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592. The trombonist Conrad Herwig has played in a great number of salsa and jazz bands, and he has also put together two smart projects combining the two: arrangements of music associated with John Coltrane and arrangements of music associated with Miles Davis. Tonight through Sunday night at 8 and 10:30; cover charge is $15 to $25 (Ratliff).

LIFETIME VISIONS ORCHESTRA, Metropolitan A. M. E. Church, 58 West 135th Street, Harlem, (212) 663-3564. A band led by the saxophonist Joseph Jarman, one of the founders of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and the pianist and composer Chris Chalfant. It's a big, freewheeling, vamp-crazy band, with vocals about peace and harmony. Tomorrow afternoon at 3; tickets are $10 (Ratliff).

GLORIA LYNNE, Le Jazz au Bar, 41 East 58th Street, Manhattan, (212) 308-9455. Since the 1960's, Ms. Lynne has been one of the singers who naturally cross pop, soul and jazz; her attitude was prescient. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8 and 10; cover charge is $50

(Ratliff).

* BAABA MAAL, S. O. B.'s (Sounds of Brazil), 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940. Baaba Maal, one of the great singers and bandleaders from Senegal, merges the incantatory vocals and twinkling guitar lines of griot songs with elements of rock, reggae and Afro-Cuban music. His fusions embrace the world without leaving Senegal behind. Sunday and Monday nights at 9; tickets are $30 (Pareles).

VICTOR MANUELLE, AVENTURA, HECTOR Y TITO, Theater at Madison Square Garden, Seventh Avenue and 33rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 465-6741; Copacabana, 560 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-2672. Latin music's younger audience is finding its own fusions of salsa and merengue with hip-hop and reggae. Victor Manuelle, who holds on to the trumpet-voiced tradition of salsa's soneros, also has a pop side and is willing to collaborate with the Spanish-language rappers, like Hector y Tito, who have borrowed a dancehall beat to create the Puerto Rican style called reggaeton. Aventura, which brings a pop veneer to the crisp syncopations of the Dominican bachata, sings playful love songs alongside compassionate observations of hard lives. The bill also includes El Krisspy, Los Toros Band, Frank Reyes and Yoscar Zarante. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $64 to $94. After the show, Mr. Manuelle, Los Toros Band and Krisspy move west on 34th Street on to play a late show at the Copacabana after 11:30; admission is $30 (Pareles).

DAN MELCHIOR'S BROKE REVUE, Lit Lounge, 93 Second Avenue, at Sixth Street, East Village, (212) 777-7987. The title of Dan Melchior's current album, "Bitterness, Spite, Rage and Scorn" (In the Red Records), doesn't quite sum up his songs, which also have the exuberance of garage-rock and a streak of art-rock drone. Tomorrow night at 9, with Gym Class opening; admission is $7

(Pareles).

* "MONKSILAND": STEVE LACY, ROSWELL RUDD, DAVE DOUGLAS, JEAN-JACQUES AVENEL, JEAN BETSCH, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121. Forty years ago the great soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy and the trombonist Roswell Rudd had a band in New York that played Thelonious Monk's music exclusively; since then, both musicians have gone ever deeper into Monk's playful melodies, rich harmony and dance rhythms. They are joined by the trumpeter Dave Douglas, who as a jazz musician in his 40's has grown up with Monk's historical weight, and by Mr. Avenel and Mr. Betsch, the bassist and the drummer for Mr. Lacy's regular trio. Tonight through Sunday night at 8 and 10, with an 11:45 set tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $30 Saturday, $27.50 Friday and Sunday (Ratliff).

* "THE MUSIC OF MARY LOU WILLIAMS": GERI ALLEN, BUSTER WILLIAMS, BILLY HART, Kaplan Penthouse, 10th floor, Rose Building, 165 West 65th Street, Manhattan, (212) 721-6500. Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981) spent a career playing every style of jazz, from swing to free. She was visionary about jazz, seeing it in different contexts as serving various needs, from dance music to supper-club music to religious music. These shows, the first of several Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts dedicated to her work, offer her music through the lens of a sturdy, modern jazz trio, with Geri Allen on the piano bench. Tonight and tomorrow at 8; tickets are $55 (Ratliff).

* NO FUN FEST, Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103. Noise, improvisation and Sonic Youth splinter groups are on the bill of the No Fun Fest, which takes over Northsix for the weekend. Tonight's lineup includes Sonic Youth's guitarists Thurston Moore and Jim O'Rourke in a group with Chris Corsaro, along with Pita, the Carlos Giffoni-Dylan Nyoukis Duo, the Arthur Doyle Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, Rubber-O-Cement and Burning Star Core. Tomorrow night, Sonic Youth's bassist, Kim Gordon, leads the Sweet Ride, which also includes Mr. O'Rourke, the drummer Ikue Mori and DJ Olive, sharing a bill with Alan Licht, To Live and Shave in L.A., Gert-Jan Prins, Hair Police, Laundry Room Squelchers and a collaboration of Nmperign and Due Processs. And on Sunday, Sonic Youth's other guitarist, Lee Ranaldo, joins the keyboardist Roger Miller (from Birdsongs of the Mesozoic) and the drummer William Hooker in a trio, on a bill with Wolf Eyes, Massimo, Monotract, Sightings, Nautical Almanac and Double Leopards. Tonight at 8, tomorrow and Sunday at 6:30; admission is $12 a night (Pareles).

* NICK OLIVERI, Lit, 93 Second Avenue, near Sixth Street, East Village, (212) 777-7987. Mr. Oliveri, the leader of Mondo Generator (and until recently, a core member of the mesmerizing hard-rock band Queens of the Stone Age), is to stop by this East Village bar for a solo set. Mr. Oliveri is known for his enthusiastic embrace of rock 'n' roll abandon, but recent reports say his solo set is relatively

restrained, if not ruminative. Tonight at 9, with Brant Bjork (a former member of Kyuss) and Trans Love Airways; admission is $7 (Sanneh).

THE PROCLAIMERS, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144. The Proclaimers, the bespectacled, hard-strumming Scottish twin brothers who had a hit in 1993 with "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)," are back with more tales of Scotland's joys and woes. Tonight at 8; tickets are $20.50 (Pareles).

* MICHELE ROSEWOMAN QUINTET, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, above Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626. Ms. Rosewoman, a pianist, was one of the earliest members of the contemporary jazz scene to find ways to integrate Cuban religious music into her own post-bop training; in this Afro-Cuban-mad moment of jazz, she is something of a mother figure. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, 10 and midnight; cover charge is $20 (Ratliff).

THE SAW DOCTORS, Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-1224. St. Patrick's Day isn't over yet. The Saw Doctors sing earnest, folk-rocking anthems of small-town life "for those who feel they've been mistreated/discriminated, robbed or cheated." In Ireland their populism has brought them a huge national following; even in New York City, there should be plenty of voices with brogues singing along. Tomorrow night at 8, with the Shambles opening; tickets are $29 (Pareles).

* THE SPANISH HARLEM ORCHESTRA, Copacabana, 560 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-2672. Just about anyone who has ever heard a top salsa band in New York City has seen members of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. They have been the hard-working sidemen for the likes of Tito Puente, Rubén Blades, Celia Cruz and Ray Barretto. Banded together, they revive favorite 1970's salsa songs chosen for rhythm and their community spirit. Tonight after 10; admission is $20

(Pareles).

SUN KIL MOON, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. Mark Kozelek, who led the Red House Painters, has re-emerged as a folk-rocker to lead Sun Kil Moon, a band that seeks the common ground between Neil Young and Jeff Buckley — sometimes folksy, sometimes shimmering, occasionally stomping and distorted — as Mr. Kozelek sings about endless yearning. Sunday night at 8; admission is $17 (Pareles).

CHARLES TOLLIVER BIG BAND, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232. Mr. Tolliver, the trumpeter, left behind a worthwhile trail of music in the 1970's, writing and playing post-bop with a new complexity, recording on the independent label Strata-East. He is becoming a presence in the New York clubs again. Tonight through Sunday night at 7:30 and 9:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $25 on Friday and Saturday, $20 Sunday (Ratliff).

* KANYE WEST, Paramount Theater, 1300 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park, N.J., (732) 502-4581. Right now Mr. West is the hip-hop star to beat, an irresistible rapper and producer who just released his near-perfect debut album, "The College Dropout" (Roc-a-Fella/Island Def Jam). He has perhaps the best punch lines in the business ("She's so precious/With the peer pressures/Couldn't afford a car, so she named her daughter A-lexus"), but at this sure-to-be-raucous concert, the wordplay will probably be drowned out by the shout-along choruses. Tonight at 9; tickets are $30

(Sanneh).

* NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE, Radio City Music Hall, 1260 Avenue of the Americas, at 50th Street, (212) 632-4000. "Greendale," Neil Young's self-described "musical novel," reflects on family, art, crime, love, idealism and the media, in rolling three-chord songs that accompany the most elaborate stage production of Mr. Young's long career. Then Crazy Horse straps on electric guitars and blasts through older songs that prove Mr. Young isn't settling down yet. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $44.50 to $129.50 (Pareles).