“Say what you want to say / Say what you mean out loud,” Luz Elena Mendoza sings on the title track of the latest EP, Oh February (Tender Loving Empire, January 29), by her enchanting group, Y la Bamba. The tall, heavily tattooed Mendoza has been saying what she wants and means since her solo debut, 2008’s Alida St., after which she formed a full band named after her six-toed white cat. On such previous albums as 2010’s Lupon, produced by Decemberists guitarist Chris Funk, and 2011’s Court the Storm, produced by Los Lobos sax man Steve Berlin, the Portland, Oregon-based Y la Bamba created a unique blend of various genres that come together beautifully on Oh February, which reunites them with Funk. Mendoza’s ethereal voice has never been better as she leads the way through a half dozen English-language songs (previous albums included a mix of English and Spanish tunes), her vocals serving as another instrument, complemented by guitarists Sean Flinn and Paul Cameron, bassist Ben Meyercord, accordionist Eric Schrepel, drummer Mike Kitson, and percussionist-clarinetist Scott Magee. Mendoza, who suffered a debilitating case of amoebic dysentery ten years ago during a spiritual journey to India that led her to reevaluate her strict Catholic upbringing headed by her Mexican immigrant father, incorporates elements of traditional Mexican and Latino music, jazz, indie pop, depression-era Tin Pan Alley, and more into such beguiling songs as “A Poet’s Tune,” “Death on the Road,” and “River in Drought.” The EP culminates in the mesmerizing “Oh February Part 2 (Mad as We Are),” a duet with Cameron that encapsulates everything that Y la Bamba stands for: “We are changing . . . Got nowhere to go / Don’t look back,” Mendoza sings. The continually evolving Mendoza and Y la Bamba should have plenty of places to go, including Terminal 5 on February 1-2 opening for the Lumineers. The show is sold out, but you can check out their dazzling new EP above now for free.
twi-ny recommended events
KOCH
Edward I. Koch proves himself once again to be both mensch and meanie in revealing documentary
KOCH (Neil Barsky, 2012)
Lincoln Plaza Cinema, 1886 Broadway at 63rd St., 212-757-2280
Angelika Film Center, 18 West Houston St. at Mercer St., 212-995-2570
Opens Friday, February 1
www.kochthemovie.com
A bunch of people have a whole lot to say about Ed Koch in a new documentary about the charming yet irascible former three-term mayor of New York City, but none of them goes on quite so eloquently as Hizzoner himself. Longtime journalist and first-time filmmaker Neil Barsky delves into the man behind the legend, the upstart politician who helped save New York from the debt- and crime-ridden 1970s through, among other things, the sheer force of his immense will. Barsky combines new interviews with such political journalists as Michael Goodwin, Sam Roberts, and Wayne Barrett, along with former comptroller Carl McCall and the Rev. Calvin O. Butts, to paint a portrait of Koch as both mensch and meanie, a bully who always speaks his mind and never backs down from a challenge. Barsky and editor Juliet Weber include archival photographs and old film footage of Koch in the 1960s and early 1970s as he first takes on Democratic Party boss Carmine DeSapio, then runs for city council and Congress before getting into a heated seven-person race for mayor in 1977, continually asking along the way, “How’m I doing?” The present-day Koch is filmed tinkering around in his small kitchen, breaking the Yom Kippur fast with his family, and relaxing in his office, sharing his views on his legacy, his battles with the black community over Sydenham Hospital, and even questions of his sexuality — but only up to a point — that have followed him throughout his career. Although Barsky claims in his director’s statement that “with the exception of one former governor and one former mayor, virtually everyone we reached out to agreed to be interviewed,” the film suffers in that it does not exactly boast an all-star lineup of pundits talking about Koch — but it of course has Koch himself, and that is more than enough. And finally, in true Ed Koch fashion, the man who always had to be the center of attention has managed to do so one last time, passing away on the opening day of the film, dying at the age of eighty-eight on February 1.
LITTLE FUGITIVE
Joey Norton goes on the adventure of a lifetime in Coney Island in underground indie classic LITTLE FUGITIVE
LITTLE FUGITIVE (Morris Engel, Ray Ashley, and Ruth Orkin, 1953)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
February 1-7
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
Film Forum’s excellent “New Yawk New Wave” series, consisting of more than three dozen independent shorts, features, and documentaries made in and about the Big Apple, came to a close on January 31, setting the stage for one of the most influential and important — and vastly entertaining — works to ever come out of the city, Morris Engel’s charming Little Fugitive. In celebration of the film’s sixtieth anniversary, Film Forum is screening a newly restored 35mm print of the underground classic, which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1953, was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar, and was entered into the National Film Registry in 1997. Written and directed with Ray Ashley and Ruth Orkin, Engel’s future wife, Little Fugitive follows the gritty, adorable exploits of seven-year-old wannabe cowboy Joey Norton (Richie Andrusco, in his only film role), who runs away to Coney Island after his older brother, Lennie (Richard Brewster), and his brother’s friends, Harry (Charlie Moss) and Charley (Tommy DeCanio), play a trick on the young boy, using ketchup to convince Joey that he accidentally killed Lennie. With their single mother (Winifred Cushing) off visiting their ailing mother, Joey heads out on his own, determined to escape the cops who are surely after him. But once he gets to Coney Island, he decides to take advantage of all the crazy things to be found on the beach, along the boardwalk, and in the surrounding area, including, if he can get the money, riding a real pony.
A no-budget black-and-white neo-Realist masterpiece shot by Engel with a specially designed lightweight camera that was often hidden so people didn’t know they were being filmed, Little Fugitive explores the many pleasures and pains of childhood and the innate value of home and family. As Joey wanders around Coney Island, he meets all levels of humanity, preparing him for the world that awaits as he grows older. Meanwhile, Engel gets into the nooks and crannies of the popular beach area, from gorgeous sunrises to beguiling shadows under the boardwalk. In creating their beautifully told tale, Engel, Ashley, and Orkin use both trained and nonprofessional actors, including Jay Williams as Jay, the sensitive pony ride man, and Will Lee, who went on to play Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street, as an understanding photographer, while Eddie Manson’s score continually references “Home on the Range.” Rough around the edges in all the right ways, Little Fugitive became a major influence on the French New Wave, with Truffaut himself singing its well-deserved praises. There’s really nothing quite like it, before or since. Little Fugitive is running at Film Forum February 1-7, with Andrusco and Mary Engel, the daughter of Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin, on hand for Q&As following the 6:00 and 7:40 shows on Friday night. The film will be preceded by D. A. Pennebaker’s whirlwind 1953 short, Daybreak Express, a wild ride on the Third Avenue El, set to the title song by Duke Ellington.
FIRST SATURDAYS: AFRICAN INNOVATIONS
Unidentified Lega artist, “Three-Headed Figure (Sakimatwemtwe),” South Kivu or Maniema province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, wood, fiber, kaolin, nineteenth century (Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1922, Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund)
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, February 2, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org
The Brooklyn Museum celebrates Black History Month at February’s free First Saturdays program with a focus on the long-term installation “African Innovations,” which comprises approximately 200 works spread across 2,500 years. The evening will include live music by the Republic of Cameroon’s Kaïssa, the multinational Akoya Afrobeat, and Sierra Leone’s Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew, guided pop-up gallery tours, the debut of Zimbabwe dancer-choreographer Rujeko Dumbutshena’s Jenaguru, children’s workshops on traditional West African instruments and linguist staffs, a curator talk on “African Innovations” with Kevin D. Dumouchelle, the multimedia Afrika21 project, a screening of Africa Straight Up preceded by a discussion with Applause Africa, a fashion show with designs inspired by African textiles and music by Ethiopian DJ Sirak, and a book club discussion of Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel Things Fall Apart. Also on view at the museum now are “GO: a community-curated open studio project,” “Raw/Cooked: Duron Jackson,” and “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company” as well as long-term installations and the permanent collection.
VIDEO OF THE DAY: “AMERICAN SUN” BY THE RIVERBREAKS
Washington, DC’s the Riverbreaks take listeners on a rousing cinematic journey on their second album, Wildfire. Releasing February 1, the twelve-song disc shows off the band’s engaging blend of alt-country Americana indie pop, referencing classic southern rock along the way. Produced by the Riverbreaks with DBs cofounder Chris Stamey, Wildfire was recorded in Chapel Hill, where lead singer and acoustic guitarist Ryan Bailey, electric guitarist Jesse Prentice-Dunn, keyboardist Andrew Satten, and violinist Neela Rajendra went to college. They are joined by bassist Drew Ball and drummer Kirk Anderson as they traverse the open roads of America, speaking up for marginalized indigenous cultures, fighting to save the environment, and falling in and out of love. Much of the album was written by Bailey in Costa Rica, an influence perhaps most evident on the opening song, “Wild Fruit,” in which Bailey sings about the Ayoreo, a Paraguayan tribe battling for survival, declaring, “You can slash and burn these woods until this land is clear / Until the creek beds are dry and the birds have disappeared / You can smoke me from the hills but you can’t bribe me to leave / You’ll never tame the lost ones and you’ll never take their spirit from me.”
The album also features sweet guitar wailing at the end of the visually evocative “Paper Moon,” an infectious organ groove that powers “American Sun,” a memorable riff tailor made for a Western movie theme in the bluesy “Corn Blue Night,” a touch of the Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” on “El Dorado,” and a jaunty bounce on “Waiting for the Rapture,” on which Bailey actually repeats, “I pray it don’t come.” Wildfire is like the soundtrack to an indie Western you’ve heard about for a while but have yet to see. You’ll get your chance this week when the Riverbreaks will be holding album release parties at the Kennedy Center on February 1 before making their way to the Living Room on February 2, where they’ll play at 7:00, followed by Tam Lin, NICKCASEY, the Ramblers, and Rocket & the Ghost. Be ready for a down-home celebration, as they explain on “Tell the Girls”: “Tell the girls to wear their dancing shoes / Tell the girls to show up dressed to kill / And the band will play too / until the night is through / until the light shines through.”
OUTSIDER ART FAIR 2013
The Outsider Art Fair will include a special exhibition dedicated to Renaldo Kuhler’s fantastical Rocaterrania
Center 548
548 West 22nd St, between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
January 31 – February 3, Thursday preview (6:00 – 9:00) $50, Friday – Sunday $20 per day, $30 run-of-show
www.outsiderartfair.com
For its twentieth anniversary, the Outsider Art Fair promises to be significantly different. Since 1993, the fair, dedicated to the work of emerging and well-known self-taught folk artists, was run by show master Sanford Smith, but art dealer Andrew Edlin, who runs his eponymously named gallery in Chelsea and whose uncle Paul Edlin was an outsider artist himself, has bought the fair with his new company, Under Wide Open Arts, and moved it from such previous locations as the Puck Building and 7 W 34th St. to the Dia Center of the Arts on West 22nd St., where NADA New York and the Independent now take place. More than three dozen galleries from around the world will be participating, including Haiti’s Galerie Bourbon-Lally, London’s Henry Boxer Gallery and Rob Tufnell, Tokyo’s Yukiko Koide Presents, Switzerland’s Galerie du Marché, Baton Rouge’s Gilley’s Gallery, Chicago’s Carl Hammer Gallery, Virginia’s Grey Carter-Objects of Art, Berkeley’s Ames Gallery, Dallas’s Chris Byrne, Miami’s Pan American Art Projects, and Iowa City’s Pardee Collection, along with such local mainstays as Ricco Maresca, Fountain Gallery, American Primitive, Feature Inc., Gary Snyder, Vito Schnabel, Galerie St. Etienne, and, of course, Andrew Edlin. Among this year’s special programs are a series of talks and panel discussions, including “Voyages” with Geneviève Roulin Tribute recipient Mario Del Curto on Friday at 4:00, “Rewriting the History of Art Brut: The Case of Gaston Chaissac” with Dr. Kent Minturn on Friday at 4:45, a Saturday-morning “Uncommon Artists” symposium at the American Folk Art Museum, “Women’s Mad Art” with Dr. Thomas Röske and “Agnes Richter’s Jacket: Enigma, Talisman, Narrative” with Dr. Gail A. Hornstein on Saturday at 4:00, and “A Bridge Between Art Worlds” with Daniel Baumann, Massimiliano Gioni, and Ralph Rugoff on Sunday at 4:00. In addition, the Geneviève Roulin Tribute to Mario Del Curto will take place Thursday at 6:00 as part of the early preview; an exhibition of twelve of Del Curto’s photographs will be on view on the second floor during the fair, along with the special exhibition “Renaldo Kuhler & Rocaterrania.”
BARE THE MUSICAL
Revamped BARE musical explores relationships among a group of teenagers at a Catholic boarding school
New World Stages
340 West 50th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Through February 3, $92.50
www.baremusicalnyc.com
Bare has been around since October 2000, appearing in various versions around the world, usually billed as a pop opera. But in its latest incarnation, it has been transformed into a straightforward musical, presented by an energetic cast in an extremely entertaining production. The story takes place in St. Cecilia’s co-ed boarding school, where the shy, nerdy Peter (Taylor Trensch) has fallen for beautiful blond basketball star Jason (Jason Hite). While Peter is not ashamed of being gay, Jason is determined to hide their secret relationship, no matter the cost. Wanting to spend more time with Peter, Jason auditions for the school production of Romeo and Juliet, run by the controversial Sister Joan (Missi Pyle), who tends to bend the rules when it comes to certain religious practices, which does not make Father Mike (Jerold E. Solomon) happy. Soon jealousy and envy take center stage as Jason is cast as Romeo opposite supposed slut Ivy (Elizabeth Judd), who Matt (Gerard Canonico) thinks he is dating, while Jason’s sister, wry, cynical drug dealer Nadia (Barrett Wilbert Weed), has the hots for Matt. Comic relief is provided by Alice Lee as ditzy Asian Valley Girl Diane and Alex Wyse as Alan, the only Jew at St. Cecilia’s. Jon Hartmere, who wrote the original book and lyrics, has updated the show, with Lynne Shankel adding new songs to Damon Intrabartolo’s score to make the show more relevant to current events.
Jason (Jason Hite) and Peter (Taylor Trensch) share a forbidden kiss in BARE THE MUSICAL
Director Stafford Arima (Carrie, Altar Boyz) and choreographer Travis Wall (All the Right Moves) keep things moving fast on Donyale Werle’s hip set as the company performs such numbers as “A Million Miles from Heaven,” “Drive You Out of Your Mind,” “Kiss Your Broken Heart,” and “Pilgrims’ Hands.” One of the new songs, “Hail Mary,” is meant to be a showstopper, with Pyle portraying Mother Mary camping it up in a Vegas-style romp, but although it revs up the audience, it ends up detracting from the developing story. Otherwise, the first act unfolds beautifully, with well-developed characters and a smart use of Shakespeare’s classic romance as it relates to what is going on between Peter, Jason, Matt, Ivy, and Nadia. The shorter second act is not quite as crisp, wandering too much as it tries to make its points about forbidden love and religion, still not quite there after all these years. An engaging night of theater, Bare continues at New World Stages through February 3. There are various ways to get tickets besides buying them in advance, including $26.50 same-day general rush, “30 at 30” $30 tickets available thirty minutes before showtime for people under thirty, and “20at20” $20 tickets twenty minutes prior to curtain.