RECORD STORE DAY 2017
Multiple locations
Saturday, April 22
www.recordstoreday.com
“It is with deep honor and humility that I accept this ambassadorship. Rest assured I do not take my duties lightly,” says St. Vincent, the official ambassador for Record Store Day’s tenth anniversary event, taking place on April 22. Record stores all over the city will be participating, offering limited edition discs; the list includes Jazz Record Center, Record Mart, Rock and Soul Records, the various Academy stores, Second Hand Rose Music, Record Runner, Turntable Lab Storefront, Village Music World, Generation Records, In Living Stereo, Good Records NYC, Downtown Music Gallery, A-1 Records, Deadly Dragon Sound, and Record Grouch. Among the special 45s, twelve-inch singles, and LPs to watch out for is tunage by Prince, David Bowie, Sharon Jones, Peter Tosh, Ken Kesey, Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt — and some living people as well, like Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Drive by Truckers, David Crosby & the Lighthouse, Spoon, Bettie Serveert, Sting, Pokey LaFarge, Crooked Beat, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Mike Peters, and moe., in addition to tributes to Leonard Cohen and the Clash. There are also double-sided singles by Tegan and Sara / the Regrettes, the Flamin’ Groovies / Dylan Gardner, and Talking Heads / Wildling. Record stores keep going the way of the dinosaurs, so support your local music shop and listen to songs the way they were meant to be heard. Oh, and getting back to St. Vincent, who’s following in the footsteps of such previous ambassadors as Dave Grohl, Chuck D, and Iggy Pop, you can check out her preparation for her ambassadorial responsibilities here.
TICKET GIVEAWAY: THE DREYFUS AFFAIR
BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
April 27 - May 7, $55-$140
718-636-4100
romanticcentury.org
www.bam.org
With the current rise in hate crimes in America and around the world, particularly involving anti-Semitism, it is an excellent time to revisit one of the most famous military cases of the nineteenth century, when French artillery officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus was arrested for treason and faced a court-martial that could send him to Devil’s Island, chosen primarily because he was Jewish. Manhattan-based Ensemble for the Romantic Century will be telling the famous story in its own inimitable style in The Dreyfus Affair, at BAM Fisher, combining narrative with historical music; the company was previously at BAM with 2015’s Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon and 2016’s Akhmatova: The Heart Is Not Made of Stone. Tony nominee Max von Essen (An American in Paris) stars as Alfred Dreyfus, with Peter Scolari as Émile Zola, Mark Evans as Matieu, Alfred’s older brother, Meghan Picerno as Alfred’s wife, Lucie, and Timothy McDevitt as Lieutenant Georges Picquart. The cast also features Daniel Rowan, Dee Pelletier, Mark Andrew Coffin, Mark Light-Orr, and Richard Waddingham. The score will include works by Ravel, Franck, Halévy, Rameau, and Ligeti, performed by Grace Park and Daniel Cho on violin, Chieh-Fan Yiu on viola, Nico Olarte-Hayes on cello, Jake Chabot on flute and piccolo, Parker Ramsey on organ and harpsichord, and Max Barros on piano. The show is written by Eve Wolf and directed by Donald T. Sanders, with sets and costumes by Vanessa James, lighting design by Beverly Emmons, and projection design by David Bengali.
Ensemble for the Romantic Century will present THE DREYFUS AFFAIR at BAM
TICKET GIVEAWAY: The Dreyfus Affair runs April 27 through May 7 at BAM Fisher, and twi-ny has three pairs of tickets to give away for free. Just send your name, daytime phone number, and favorite play, movie, or book about Alfred Dreyfus to contest@twi-ny.com by Friday, April 21, at 12:00 midnight to be eligible. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; three winners will be selected at random.
BEYOND GODZILLA: ALTERNATIVE FUTURES & FANTASIES IN JAPANESE CINEMA
Gamera marches into Japan Society for conclusion of “Beyond Godzilla” film series
GLOBUS FILM SERIES
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Saturday, April 8, $13, 4:00 & 7:00
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org
Japan Society’s three-weekend, seven-film “Beyond Godzilla: Alternative Futures & Fantasies in Japanese Cinema” Globus Film Series concludes on Saturday, April 8, with two more tokusatsu kaiju eiga (special-effects-heavy monster movies) that are not about that fire-breathing superstar of postwar madness. At 4:00, Kihachi Okamoto (Sword of Doom, Japan’s Longest Day) goes sci-fi with 1978’s socially conscious Blue Christmas, as UFOs land on earth and have an unusual plan. Then, at 7:00, Gamera, who first trashed cities in 1965, returns in the third film in Shusuke Kaneko’s 1990s reboot, Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, involving a cool cat and special effects by Shinji Higuchi (Shin Godzilla). “Ever since Ishiro Honda’s 1954 Godzilla first rampaged across screens around the world, its title monster has become both Japan’s best-known pop culture export and a universal symbol of mass destruction. But Godzilla has also cast a long, scaly shadow obscuring Japan’s other live-action contributions to the sci-fi/fantasy genre,” guest curator Mark Schilling says in a program note in which he also explains, “I curated a section of classic sci-fi and fantasy films sourced from Toho and elsewhere to show that the Japanese cinematic imagination extended beyond Godzilla in ways entertainingly rich and strange.” The series previously screened such cult classics as The H-Man, Invisible Man, and Latitude Zero (with Joseph Cotten!). On April 28, “Godzilla Legend — Music of Akira Ifukube” will feature Hikashu and guest musicians such as Charan-Po-Rantan performing works by Akira Ifukube, who composed scores for tons of films, including Godzilla, The Burmese Harp, Rodan, 13 Assassins, Frankenstein Conquers the World, King Kong Escapes, and Zatoichi the Fugitive, which Japan Society is showing April 7 in its Monthly Classics series.
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2017 SPECIAL EVENTS
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
Multiple locations
April 20-30, free - $365 (most events $23.88 - $43.45)
tribecafilm.com/festival
Tickets are still available for most of the special screenings, talks, and live performances at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, taking place at such locations as the BMCC Tribeca PAC, the SVA Theatre, the Beacon, Regal Cinemas Battery Park, Radio City, the Town Hall, Cinépolis Chelsea, and the Festival Hub at Spring Studios. The guest list is pretty impressive, including Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Philip Glass, Common, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Moore, Kathryn Bigelow, Johnny Lydon, Lena Dunham, Kobe Bryant, Aretha Franklin, Errol Morris, Faith Evans, Zac Posen, Lil’ Kim, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Julian Schnabel, a Flock of Seagulls, Christopher Plummer, Taj Mahal, Jennifer Hudson, Quentin Tarantino, and Bruce Springsteen with Tom Hanks (which is sold out), among many others. Oh, and how about this gathering, celebrating the forty-fifth anniversary of The Godfather: Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and Robert De Niro.
Wednesday, April 19
Gala — Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives (Chris Perkel, 2017), followed by live performances by Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, Earth Wind & Fire, Barry Manilow, Carly Simon, and Dionne Warwick, Radio City Music Hall, $56-$281, 7:00
Thursday, April 20
After the Movie: Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002), followed by fifteenth anniversary conversation with Michael Moore and others, SVA Theatre 2 Beatrice, $23.88, 7:00
Retrospective Special Screenings: La Belle et la Bête (Jean Cocteau, 1942), with live musical accompaniment by members of the Philip Glass Ensemble, preceded by a conversation with Philip Glass and Errol Morris, Town Hall, $55-$85, 8:00
Friday, April 21
Tribeca Talks: Directors Series — Jon Favreau with Scarlett Johansson, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, rush, 5:00
Special Screenings: The Public Image Is Rotten (Tabbert Fiiller, 2017), followed by a conversation with director Tabbert Fiiller and John Lydon, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, $23.88, 8:45
Saturday, April 22
Shorts: Blues Planet: Triptych (Wyland, 2017), with live performance by Taj Mahal and the Wyland Blues Planet Band, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, $23.88, 2:00
Tribeca Talks: Directors Series — Alejandro González Iñárritu, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, rush, 2:30
Special Screenings: The Third Industrial Revolution (Eddy Moretti, 2017), followed by a conversation with director Eddy Moretti and Jeremy Rifkin, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, limited, 5:00
Special Screenings: House of Z (Sandy Chronopoulos, 2017), followed by a conversation with director Sandy Chronopoulos and film subject Zac Posen, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, $43.45, 8:00
Tribeca Talks: Virtual Reality — Kathryn Bigelow & Imraan Ismail: The Protectors: A Walk in the Ranger’s Shoes, screening and conversation with Kathryn Bigelow and Imraan Ismail, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, $43.45, 8:15
After the Movie: Awake, a Dream from Standing Rock (2017), followed by a conversation with filmmakers Josh Fox, James Spione, and Myron Dewey and special guests, Cinépolis Chelsea 7, rush, 8:30
Nelson George will team up with Common for a screening, discussion, and live performance at Tribeca on April 23
Sunday, April 23
Tribeca Talks: Master Class — Dolby: Image and Sound Master Class with Imogen Heap, Dolby Cinema at AMC Empire 2, free, 12 noon
Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Kobe Bryant and Glen Keane with Michael Strahan, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 4:30
Tribeca Talks: Podcasts — Live from the Tribeca Film Festival: Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast!, with Gilbert Gottfried and Frank Santopadre, Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11-4, $43.45, 5:30
Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Common with Nelson George, screening of Letter to the Free, followed by a conversation with Nelson George and a live performance by Common, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, $43.45, 8:00
Monday, April 24
Tribeca Talks: Directors Series — Noah Baumbach with Dustin Hoffman, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 6:00
Tuesday, April 25
Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, $43.45, 6:00
Tribeca Talks: Directors Series — Paul Feig, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 6:00
Special Screenings: Paris Can Wait (Eleanor Coppola, 2016), followed by French food pairings inspired by the film, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 8:00
Pen pals Barbra Streisand and Robert Rodriguez will join together in conversation at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 29
Wednesday, April 26
Special Screenings: The Exception (David Leveaux, 2017), followed by a conversation with director David Leveaux and actor Christopher Plummer, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $23.88, 6:00
Special Screenings: From the Ashes (Michael Bonfiglio, 2017), introduced by Michael Bloomberg and followed by a discussion with director Michael Bonfiglio and special guests, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, rush, 6:00
Thursday, April 27
Gala — Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: The Bad Boy Story (Daniel Kaufman, 2017), followed by a live concert featuring Combs and Mase, Lil’ Kim, and Faith Evans, Beacon, $71-$356, 8:00
Special Screenings — Warning: This Drug May Kill You (Perri Peltz, 2017), followed by a conversation with Dr. Nora Volkow, Dr. Andrew Kolodny, film subject Gail Cole, and producer Sascha Weiss, moderated by director Perri Peltz, SVA Theatre 2 Beatrice, $23.88, 8:45
Friday, April 28
Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Bruce Springsteen with Tom Hanks, Beacon Theatre, 5:00
After the Movie: Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992), followed by twenty-fifth anniversary conversation with Quentin Tarantino and members of the cast, Beacon Theatre, $71-$356, 8:00
Special Screenings — Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait (Pappi Corsicato, 2017), followed by a a conversation with director Pappi Corsicato and Julian Schnabel, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, $43.45, 8:30
The forty-fifth anniversary of THE GODFATHER will be celebrated at Radio City as part of the Tribeca Film Festival, with James Caan, Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, and others
Saturday, April 29
Before the Movie: Aladdin (Ron Clements & John Musker, 1992), twenty-fifth anniversary, preceded by a live performance by Aladdin singing voice Brad Kane, BMCC Tribeca PAC, free, 10:00 am
After the Movie: The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) and The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974), followed by a forty-fifth anniversary conversation with Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and Robert De Niro, moderated by Taylor Hackford, Radio City Music Hall, $46-$131, 1:00
Tribeca Talks: Master Class — Production and Costume Design, with Kristi Zea, SVA Theatre 2 Beatrice, free, 3:00
Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Barbra Streisand with Robert Rodriguez, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 6:00
Tribeca N.O.W. Special Screenings — Out of This World: Female Filmmakers in Genre, screening and conversation with filmmakers Nicole Delaney, Vera Miao, and Arkasha Stevenson, Cinépolis Chelsea 7, $23.88, 6:00
After the Movie — Chris Gethard: Career Suicide (Kimberly Senior, 2017), followed by a conversation with Chris Gethard and fellow comedians Pete Holmes, Abbi Jacobson, and others, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, $23.88, 8:15
Sunday, April 30
Tribeca Talks: Master Class — Cinematography, with Ellen Kuras, SVA Theatre 2 Beatrice, free, 4:00 PM
Special Screenings: Dare to Be Different (Ellen Goldfarb, 2017), followed by live tribute to WLIR with a Flock of Seagulls, Dave Wakeling of the English Beat, and the Alarm, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, rush, 6:00
Tribeca N.O.W. Special Screenings: The New York Times’ Op-Docs (2017), followed by a conversation with filmmakers Andrea Meller, Megan Mylan, Marisa Pearl, and Gina Pollack, SVA Theatre 2 Beatrice, $23.88, 6:15
Tribeca Talks: Podcasts — Live from the Tribeca Film Festival: Slate’s Trumpcast, with Jamelle Bouie and Virginia Heffernan, hosted by Jacob Weisberg, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, $43.45, 8:15
TICKET ALERT — MASTERVOICES: BABES IN TOYLAND
Who: Kelli O’Hara, Bill Irwin, Lauren Worsham, Christopher Fitzgerald, Jonathan Freeman, Chris Sullivan, Jeffrey Schecter, Ted Sperling, singers from MasterVoices and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s
What: Rare revival of Babes in Toyland
Where: Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, 881 Seventh Ave. at West 57th St., 212-247-7800
When: Thursday, April 27, $10-$150, 7:00
Why: Formerly known as the Collegiate Chorale, MasterVoices is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary with a one-night-only revival of Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough’s 1903 operetta, Babes in Toyland, with the full original score and orchestrations. Singing such songs as “Toyland,” “March of the Toys,” and “I Can’t Do the Sum,” some of which never made it to the 1929 and 1930 Broadway revivals, will be Kelli O’Hara as Contrary Mary, Bill Irwin as Master Toymaker, Lauren Worsham as Jane, Christopher Fitzgerald as Alan, Jonathan Freeman as Uncle Barnaby, Michael Kostroff as Chief Inspector Marmaduke, Chris Sullivan as Gonzorgo, Blair Brown as the Narrator, Jay Armstrong Johnson as Tom Tom, and Jeffrey Schecter as Roderigo, in addition to the 130 members of MasterVoices and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, directed and conducted by MasterVoices artistic director Ted Sperling. The 1903 operetta was turned into a classic Laurel & Hardy film (also known as The March of the Wooden Soldiers) as well as a 1961 Disney musical starring Ray Bolger, Annette Funicello, Tommy Sands, and Ed Wynn, a 1986 television movie with Keanu Reeves, Richard Mulligan, Eileen Brennan, Drew Barrymore, Jill Schoelen, and Pat Morita, and a 1997 animated film with Raphael Sbarge, Christopher Plummer, Charles Nelson Reilly, Jim Belushi, and Bronson Pinchot, so it’s always attracted a rather diverse cast.
BROOKLYN MUSEUM FIRST SATURDAY: BEYOND THE BLUES
Joseph Kosuth, “276 (On Color Blue),” neon tubing, transformer, and electrical wires, 1993 (© 2016 Joseph Kosuth / Artists Rights Society, New York. Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, April 1, free, 5:00 - 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org
The Brooklyn Museum focuses on numerous aspects of the word “blue” in its April First Saturday program, “Beyond the Blues.” There will be live music and dance by the Martha Redbone Roots Project, Geko Jones and Chiquita Brujita with Fogo Azul and Aina Luz, the Brooklyn Dance Festival (with a workshop), and Queen GodIs with special guests; the pop-up poetry event “An Address of the Times” with Pamela Sneed, Heather Johnson, t’ai freedom ford, and Timothy Du White; a screening of Marcie Begleiter’s Eva Hesse, followed by a discussion with Helen Charash (Hesse’s sister) and producer Karen Shapiro; a hands-on art workshop in which participants can make marbled paper using the Japanese suminagashi (“floating ink”) technique; an Emerging Leaders of New York Arts booth where participants can write postcards in support of the arts, take part in a public art project, and take a #SaveTheNEA selfie; the lecture performance #sky #nofilter by Chloë Bass exploring racial trauma; and a “New York City Participatory Budgeting” program where people can propose and vote on projects in their community. In addition, you can check out such exhibits as “Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller,” Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty,” “Infinite Blue,” “A Woman’s Afterlife: Gender Transformation in Ancient Egypt,” and, at a discounted admission price of $12, “Georgia O’Keefe: Living Modern.”
I CALLED HIM MORGAN
I CALLED HIM MORGAN details the complicated relationship between jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife, Helen
I CALLED HIM MORGAN (Kasper Collin, 2016)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Francesca Beale Theater
144 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Opens Friday, March 24
212-875-5601
icalledhimmorgan.com
www.filmlinc.org
On February 19, 1972, during a massive blizzard, thirty-three-year-old jazz trumpeter extraordinaire Lee Morgan was shot to death by his common-law wife, Helen, in Slugs’ Saloon on the Lower East Side. Swedish director, writer, and producer Kasper Collin takes viewers behind the scenes of the tragedy in the sensational documentary I Called Him Morgan. The Philadelphia-born Morgan was a young prodigy, studying with Clifford Brown, playing with Dizzy Gillespie’s orchestra when he was eighteen, and joining Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers at twenty. Preferring the term “black classical music” to “jazz,” Morgan was caught up in a lifestyle of fast cars and drugs, ultimately hitting rock bottom until he was rescued by Helen Moore, thirteen years his elder, a farm girl from North Carolina who loved throwing parties in her adopted hometown of New York City and was a beloved fixture in the jazz community. Collin amasses an impressive roster of jazz greats who share their insights, including saxophonists Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, and Billy Harper, drummers Albert “Tootie” Heath and Charli Persip, and bassists Larry Ridley, Jymie Merritt, and Paul West, along with Morgan neighbor Ron St. Clair, Helen’s son Al Harrison, and Morgan’s very close friend, Judith Johnson, many of whom are going on the record for the first time. “There was never no doubt in anybody’s mind: Lee was gonna be a star, Persip remembers. “They cared about each other. They loved each other,” Maupin says about Lee and Helen. There are also rare audio clips from an interview British writer and photographer Val Wilmer conducted with Morgan in October 1971 in Lee and Helen’s Bronx apartment. The film is anchored by a remarkable interview Helen gave writer, teacher, and jazz radio announcer Larry Reni Thomas in February 1996, a month before she died. “I will not sit here and tell you that I was so nice, because I was not,” she tells Thomas, speaking often in broken phrases. “One of the . . . will cut you. I was sharp. Yeah . . . I had to be. And I looked out for me.” It all culminates in a spellbinding, detailed account of the murder itself, told by numerous eyewitnesses with “Stagger Lee”-like swagger.
Jazz greats Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter take a break in Kasper Collin’s I CALLED HIM MORGAN
“He knew how to tell a story,” 2016 Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame inductee Shorter says of Morgan, who released more than two dozens albums (among them The Sidewinder, Search for the New Land, and Lee-Way) in his too-brief career, primarily for Blue Note, while also appearing on records by John Coltrane, Blakey, Gillespie, Quincy Jones, and many others. With I Called Him Morgan, Collin (My Name Is Albert Ayler) proves that he knows how to tell a story too. Initially inspired by a YouTube clip of Morgan performing, Collin spent seven years putting the documentary together, combing through archives and convincing people to participate. The film unfolds like an epic jazz composition as Collin and editors Hanna Lejonqvist, Eva Hillström, and Dino Jonsäter interweave amazing archival footage, a wide range of personal and professional photographs (mostly by Wilmer and Blue Note cofounder Francis Wolff), new interviews, and poetic, atmospheric shots of snow, sunsets, cityscapes, and other outdoor scenes by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Bradford Young (Selma, Arrival). Throughout, Morgan’s glorious music is heard, front and center or in the background, including such songs as “Gaza Strip,” “Tom Cat,” “New-Ma,” “Lament for Stacy,” “The Procrastinator,” “Absolutions,” “Angela” (for Angela Davis), and “Helen’s Ritual,” tunes that are not only revelatory but also a constant reminder of the talent the world lost in 1972. “I find that the essence of creativity is the newness of things,” Morgan told Wilmer in 1971. “And the only way to keep things new is to have constant changes in environment and surroundings and people, and all that, you know. And that’s the thing that makes it so exciting about being a jazz musician.” It’s also what makes Collin’s film so exciting. I Called Him Morgan opens March 24 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Francesca Beale Theater, with Collin participating in Q&As on March 24 at 6:00 (with jazz critic Gary Giddins) and 8:15 and March 25 at 6:00 with jazz historian Ashley Kahn; it will expand to Metrograph on March 31.
