this week in music

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO: INFLUENCE AND EXPERIENCE

Alejandro Escovedo pays tribute to some of his musical influences at City Winery this week (photo by Todd V. Wolfson)

City Winery
155 Varick St. at Vandam St.
January 21-23, $35-$50, 8:00
212-608-0555
www.citywinery.com
www.alejandroescovedo.com

Texas-based Mexican American guitar slinger Alejandro Escovedo will let his influences show this week at three special shows at City Winery. On January 21, Escovedo will be joined by guitarist Jason Victor, bassist Tony Shanahan, guitarist and keyboardist Derek Cruz, cellist Brian Standefer, drummer Randy Schrager, and singer Karla Manzur for “The Lou Reed Influence,” consisting of songs from Reed’s solo career as well as with the Velvet Underground. “It’s the best catalog to work with; it covers every thought and every emotion,” Escovedo explained in a statement. On January 22, Escovedo turns his attention to one of Canada’s greatest for “The Leonard Cohen Influence,” with guitarist Mitch Watkins; saxophonist Elias Haslanger, bassist Daniel Durham, pianist Sean Giddings, and drummer Scott Laningham from Church on Monday; and Standefer and Manzur. The three-night stand concludes January 23 with “Experience Retrospective,” in which Escovedo, who has released such albums as 2012’s Big Station, 2006’s The Boxing Mirror, and 1992’s Gravity, will go deep into his own catalog in addition to paying tribute to other influences, joined by Watkins, Haslanger, Laninghan, Durham, Giddings, Standefer, Manzur, and, perhaps, some surprise guests.

BROADWAYCON

Lin-Manuel Miranda and other members of the cast and crew of HAMILTON will take part in the first annual BroadwayCon (photo by Joan Marcus)

New York Hilton Midtown
1335 Sixth Ave. between 53rd & 54th Sts.
January 22-24, $50 Explorer Pass, $95 Day Pass
www.broadwaycon.com
www3.hilton.com

The first-ever BroadwayCon is being held January 22-24 at the Hilton in Midtown, with dozens of Great White Way stars participating in panels, workshops, autograph and Q&A sessions, meet and greets, and live performances. Weekend passes are sold out, but you can still get single-day tickets to see cast and crew members from such shows as Fun Home, Hamilton, Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Les Misérables, Rent, Wicked, School of Rock, and many others. Below are only some of the highlights.

Friday, January 22
Something Wonderful: A Look Behind The King and I, with Christopher Gattelli, Donald Holder, Scott Lehrer, Bartlett Sher, Michael Yeargan, and Catherine Zuber, moderated by Ted Chapin, Beekman, 2:00

The BroadwayCon 2016 Opening, with surprise guests, MainStage, 3:30

History Is Happening in Manhattan: The Hamilton Panel, with Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff, Christopher Jackson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., and Phillipa Soo, moderated by Blake Ross, MainStage, 5:00

Autograph Session: Rent, Nassau, 9:00

The BroadwayCon Jukebox, with Kerry Butler, Jenn Colella, Anthony Rapp, Ryann Redmond, Stark Sands, and Alysha Umphress, moderated by Ben Cameron, MainStage, 9:30

Saturday, January 23
Autograph Session: Fiddler on the Roof, Americas Hall I, 10:20 am

Master Class: Anthony Rapp, Gramercy West, 11:00 am

A Conversation with Sheldon Harnick, MainStage, 12:30

Dance, Ten: Broadway’s Choreographers, with Christopher Gattelli, Lorin Latarro, and Kathleen Marshall, moderated by Michael Gioia, Nassau, 3:00

Divas, Darlings, and Dames: Women in Broadway Musicals of the 1960s, with Stacy Wolf, Beekman, 4:00

Sunday, January 24
Audition Q&A with Bernie Telsey, Gramercy West, 9:00 am

Obsessed! Live: Disaster! Edition, with Roger Bart, Kerry Butler, Kevin Chamberlin, Max Crumm, Lacretta Nicole, Adam Pascal, Faith Prince, Jennifer Simard, and Rachel York, moderated by Seth Rudetsky, MainStage, 11:00 am

I Can Do That! Broadway Siblings, with Karmine Alers, Yassmin Alers, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Celia Keenan-Bolger, and Maggie Keenan-Bolger, Sutton, 12 noon

The “Pippins and Wickeds and Kinkies, Matildas, and Mormonses” Singalong, Sutton, 3:00

The First Annual BroadwayCon Cabaret, with Nick Adams, Alex Brightman, Jeremy Jordan, Lesli Margherita, and Krysta Rodriguez, moderated by Rob McClure, MainStage, 11:00 pm

MLK DAY 2016

Multiple venues
Monday, January 18
www.mlkday.gov

In 1983, the third Monday in January was officially recognized as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, honoring the birthday of the civil rights leader who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Dr. King would have turned eighty-seven this month, and you can celebrate his legacy on Monday by participating in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service project or attending one of numerous special events taking place around the city. BAM’s thirtieth annual free Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. includes a keynote address and book signing by Michael Eric Dyson, live performances by the Brooklyn Interdenominational Choir and Kimberly Nichole, the NYCHA Atlantic Terminal Community Center student exhibit “Picture the Dream,” master of ceremonies Eric L. Adams, and a special film screening. The JCC in Manhattan will host “Artists Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.,” with a screening of Aviva Kempner’s documentary Rosenwald at 5:00, followed by a Q&A with the director, and “Idealism and Activism: A Conversation with Bill T. Jones” at 7:30 ($5, benefiting Saturday Morning Community Partners).

The Harlem Gospel Choir will play a special matinee at B.B. King’s on MLK Day

The Harlem Gospel Choir will play special matinees at B.B. King’s and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan on MLK Day

The Children’s Museum of Manhattan will teach kids about King’s legacy with the “Heroic Heroines: Coretta Scott King” book talk at 10:00 and 2:00 and the World Famous Harlem Gospel Choir at 3:00 and 4:00, while the Brooklyn Children’s Museum hosts the special hands-on crafts workshops “The Art of Protest” and “Protest Prints,” a noon screening of Rob Smiley and Vincenzo Trippetti’s 1999 animated film Our Friend, Martin, and the toddlers program “Storytime & Civil Movements.” The Museum at Eldridge Street will be hosting a free reading of Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom’s picture book What Do You Do with an Idea? along with a mural workshop. The Harlem Gospel Choir will also give a special MLK Day matinee at 12:30 ($22-$26) at B.B. King’s in Times Square, while Big Daddy Kane will take the mic with a live band at 9:00 ($15-$30).

FELIX BERNSTEIN: BIEBER BATHOS ELEGY

Felix Bernstein and Luke Smithers, Bieber and the Elder (promotional photograph for Bieber Bathos Elegy), 2015. Photograph by Luke Smithers

Felix Bernstein and Luke Smithers, “Bieber and the Elder” (photo by Luke Smithers)

Who: Felix Bernstein, Shelley Hirsch, Gabe Rubin
What: Bieber Bathos Elegy
Where: Whitney Museum of American Art, Susan and John Hess Family Theater, third floor, 99 Gansevoort St., 212-570-3600
When: Friday, January 15, and Saturday, January 16, $10, 8:00
Why: Poet, essayist, and author Felix Bernstein has some artful fun at the expense of the Beeb in Bieber Bathos Elegy. Bernstein, a twenty-three-year-old performance artist who has written such tomes as Burn Book (due out February 2) and Notes on Post-Conceptual Poetry, incorporates cabaret, opera, poetry, and more as he deconstructs such notions as anticlimax and mawkishness, turning the twenty-one-year-old “Baby” singer into a prophetic angel. He’ll get help from Brooklyn-born composer and vocalist Shelley Hirsch, installation artist Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, and director Gabe Rubin, who made the short film Boyland with Bernstein last year. Be on the lookout for such tunes as “Tomorrow” from Annie and Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye.”

WINTER JAZZFEST 2016

James “Blood” Ulmer will be part of the Winter Jazzfest marathon this week

Multiple venues in downtown Manhattan
January 13-17, single-day marathon pass $45, two-day pass $75, full festival pass $145
www.winterjazzfest.com

While such January performance festivals as COIL, Under the Radar, Prototype, and American Realness go the multidisciplinary route, mixing things up with dance, experimental theater, installation art, opera, music, and various hybrids, Winter Jazzfest sticks to exactly what its name says it is: a winter festival of jazz music. The 2016 Winter Jazzfest takes place January 13-17, featuring more than 120 musicians, DJs, and bands playing at a dozen venues in downtown Manhattan, including the twelfth annual jazz marathon spread over two days. Below is a guide to help navigate some of the hottest shows.

Wednesday, January 13
The Ex, Bill Laswell, Colin Stetson, Happy Apple, (le) poisson rouge, $20-$25, 8:00

Thursday, January 14
Jazz Legends for Disability Pride, with Wynton Marsalis, Benny Golson, Christian McBride, Jimmy Cobb, Harold Mabern, George Coleman, Buster Williams, Louis Hayes, Bill Charlap, Monty Alexander, and others, the Quaker’s Friends Meeting House, $100, 6:30

Friday, January 15: Winter Jazzfest Marathon
Joey Arias: Basic Black, (le) poisson rouge, 6:20
Roy Hargrove, the New School Auditorium, 7:40
James “Blood” Ulmer, the New School Auditorium, 9:00
Dr. Lonnie Smith’s Evolution, Judson Memorial Church, 9:20
The Ex, the Greene Space, 11:00
Vijay Iyer Trio, the New School Tishman Auditorium, 11:20
Jeff Lederer’s Brooklyn Blowhard, Subculture, 12:20 am
Theo Croker, the Bitter End, 1:40 am

Saturday, January 16: Winter Jazzfest Marathon
Don Byron Quartet, the New School Auditorium, 6:20
Theo Bleckmann Elegy, the New School Tishman Auditorium, 7:20
Cyrus Chestnut’s African Reflections, the Greene Space, 8:20
Will Calhoun Celebrating Elvin Jones, New School Jazz Building Fifth Floor Theater, 9:40
Samy Daussat “Gypsy Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg,” the Django at the Roxy Hotel, 11:00
Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen, Judson Memorial Church, 12 midnight

Sunday, January 17
Channeling Coltrane: Rova’s Electric Ascension, with Nels Cline, Charles Burnham, Gerald Cleaver, Trevor Dunn, Jason Kao Hwang, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, and Nate Wooley and an opening set by Julian Lag, (le) poisson rouge, $25-$30, 6:00

THE NO PANTS SUBWAY RIDE

Multiple locations
Sunday, January 10, $2.75 (subway fare), 3:00-5:00
improveverywhere.com

A few weeks ago, it looked like this year’s No Pants Subway Ride would be no big deal, as it felt like spring outside. The temperature has soared downward since then, but it’s expected to be back up to fifty-one degrees on Sunday, with rain, for the fifteenth annual event, in which New Yorkers head underground in their boxers, panties, and tighty-whities. Started as a prank by seven guys in 2002, the ride — staged by Improv Everywhere, the group behind such other unusual events as Reverse Times Square, Car Alarm Symphony in Staten Island, and Carousel Horse Race in Bryant Park — hit a small bump in 2006, when 150 people participated and 8 were arrested and handcuffed, but the charges were shortly dismissed. As it turns out, it’s technically not illegal as long as the exposure doesn’t get too indecent. (Of course, we have also recently discovered that it is not against the law for women to be topless in Times Square.) Participants should gather, with their clothes on, at one of seven meeting points around the city (Hoyt Playground in Astoria, the Old Stone House in Brooklyn, Foley Square in Downtown Manhattan, Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side, the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park, the Great Hill in Central Park, and Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick); the main rule is that you must be willing to take your pants off on the subway while keeping a straight face — and hopefully having someone around to document it for social media. (You should not document it yourself, and you need to act like you merely forgot to put your pants on and that it is a coincidence so many others did as well.) When it’s over at about five o’clock, you should head over to the after-party at Webster Hall ($10 in advance, $15 at the door, 4:15 – 12 midnight), keeping your pants off (pants check is available); the festivities include DJs Dirtyfinger, Shakey, Dirty Stay Out, Jason Smith, Chris Landry, and SPLURT, live performances by the Flying Pants Brigade, the Gnomes, Helgatude, and AgroAcro, art installations by Chelsea and Melissa Brankx, Jaclyn Atkinson, and Lindsay Arden, performance art by YSLauran and Piñata Party, and more. And it should be comforting to know that the No Pants Subway Ride has spread to dozens of cities across the globe, including Adelaide, Berlin, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Madrid, Prague, Stockholm, and Vancouver.

AMERICAN REALNESS

Keyon Gaskin’s IT’S NOT A THING is part of American Realness festival at Abrons Arts Center (photo by Duncan Gray)

Abrons Arts Center and other venues
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
January 7-17, $20 unless otherwise noted
212-598-0400
www.americanrealness.com
www.abronsartscenter.org

The seventh American Realness festival consists of twenty cutting-edge theatrical presentations ($20 each), a movement workshop ($90), and four free lectures and discussions over the course of eleven days, January 7-17, almost exclusively at Abrons Arts Center. There’s so much going on that every day features between six and ten events spread throughout the venue, which includes the Experimental Theater, the Playhouse, the Underground Theater, and room 201. Two performances take place at other venues: The great Jack Ferver, who has a well-deserved rabid fan base for his deeply personal and intimate, often confessional multidisciplinary works, returns to American Realness with Mon, Ma, Mes (Revisité) at Gibney Dance (January 13-16), an updated version of a piece that debuted in 2012 at FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival and in which the audience becomes part of the action. And Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen also employs interactivity in her multimedia 69 Positions (January 15-17, $15), which connects sexuality and public space in MoMA PS1’s VW Dome. Back at Abrons, the New York premiere of Heather Kravas’s dead, disappears (January 7-11) integrates Richard Serra’s Verb List into a solo work about words and movement, woman and object. In choreographer Larissa Velez-Jackson’s Star Crap Method (January 9-17), performers Tyler Ashley, Talya Epstein, and Velez-Jackson and lighting designer Kathy Kaufman improvise as they examine the role of sound, light, music, and movement. In the world premiere of Erin Markey’s A Ride on the Irish Cream (January 13-17), Markey and Becca Blackwell bring to life the love between a girl and a pontoon boat/horse. M. Lamar’s Destruction (January 13-16) investigates the white supremacist world order using Negro spirituals. Sadness is at the heart of the New York premiere of Ligia Lewis’s Sorrow Swag (January 7-10), performed by Brian Getnick with live musical accompaniment by George Lewis Jr. Antonija Livingstone, Jennifer Lacey, Dominique Pétrin, Stephen Thompson, Dana Michel, and Brendan Dougherty collaborate on Culture Administration & Trembling (January 7-8), which explores the nature of spectatorship.

The festival also includes Jaamil Olawale Kosoko’s #negrophobia (January 8-17), Keyon Gaskin’s it’s not a thing (January 8-11), Fernando Belfiore’s AL13FB<3 (January 9-12), Keith Hennessy and Jassem Hindi’s future friend/ships (January 9-12), Sara Shelton Mann, Hennessy, and Norman Rutherford’s Sara (The Smuggler) (January 11-13), Yvonne Meier’s Durch Nacht und Nebel (January 11-16), Antonio Ramos and the Gang Bangers’ Mira El! (January 12-15), choreographer Milka Djordjevich and composer Chris Peck’s Mass (January 13-15), the world premiere of the Bureau for the Future of Choreography’s Score for a Lecture, and James & Jen | McGinn & Again’s Over the River | Through the Woods diptych (January 16-17). In addition, Kravas, Lewis, Jenn Joy, and Kelly Kivland will discuss “Melancholia and Precarious Virtuosity” on January 8 at 3:30, Claudia La Rocco, Lane Czaplinski, Annie Dorsen, Yelena Gluzman, Katherine Profeta, and others will explore the question “How Should the Present Think About the Future?” on January 9 at noon, Joshua Lubin-Levy, Thomas J. Lax, Soyoung Yoon, and Cassie Mey will delve into “A Charming Uproar: On Documenting Dance” on January 10 at 3:30, Professor Thomas F. DeFrantz will lecture on “I Am Black (You Have to Be Willing to Not Know)” on January 17 at 11:00 am, and Movement Research will host the workshop “Creative Differences” with La Rocco on January 7, 10, and 12 ($90).