this week in music

COIL 2014

Multiple venues
January 3 – February 1, $15-$20
212-352-2101
www.ps122.org

PS122’s East Village home might be under renovation, but that isn’t stopping the organization from presenting the ninth annual incarnation of its winter performance festival, Coil. This year’s festivities comprise nine cutting-edge works in various disciplines, with tickets for all shows only $20, so there’s no reason not to check out at least one of these unique, unusual productions. Reid Farrington stages the ultimate heavyweight match in the world premiere of Tyson vs. Ali at the 3LD Art & Technology Center (January 3-19), in which live action and multiple screens pit Mike Tyson against Muhammad Ali. Mac Wellman’s Muazzez at the Chocolate Factory (January 7-17), from “A Chronicle of the Madness of Small Worlds,” transports the audience, and actor Steve Mellor, into outer space. Heather Kravas’s a quartet at the Kitchen (January 8-12) consists of four dancers performing four dances in four parts each. Director Phil Soltanoff, systems designer Rob Ramirez, and writer Joe Diebes boldly go where no one has gone before in An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk at the New Ohio Theatre (January 9-12), creating a hybrid work highlighted by humans interacting with video clips of words spoken by Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek but strung into new thoughts and statements. Tina Satter’s highly stylized House of Dance at Abrons Arts Center (January 9-13) investigates a tap-dance contest and the relationship between a teacher and his student. The performance series CATCH 60 celebrates its tenth anniversary with the one-night-only CATCH Takes the Decade at the Invisible Dog Art Center (January 11), with works by Cynthia Hopkins, Molly Lieber & Eleanor Smith, Anna Sperber, Ivy Baldwin, and others. Okwui Okpokwasili’s solo Bronx Gothic at Danspace Project (January 14 – February 1) is a song-and-movement-based coming-of-age story about two eleven-year-old girls. All three parts of Jeremy Xido’s solo piece The Angola Project will take place at the Invisible Dog (January 14-17). And family tragedy lies at the center of Brokentalkers’ Have I No Mouth at Baryshnikov Arts Center (January 14-26), with company director Feidlim Cannon and his mother trying to put things back together. In addition, the Red + White Party will get folks mingling as SPIN New York on January 12 ($30 and up) with Elevator Repair Service, and the SPAN conversation series will be held at NYU on January 18.

RINGO STARR’S SHEA STADIUM DRUM KIT

Ringo Starr’s drums are on view at Bloomingdale’s, along with George Harrison and John Lennon guitars (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Bloomingdale’s
1000 Third Ave. at 59th St.
Through December, free
212-705-2098
www.ringosbeatlekits.com
www.bloomingdales.com

Fifty years ago this February, four mop-topped Liverpudlians landed in New York City and changed the world when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. In honor of that event, as well as the release of new Beatles merchandise, Bloomingdale’s is displaying Ringo Starr’s Shea Stadium drum kit, consisting of the Ludwig 22-inch bass Richard Starkey played at Shea on August 15, 1965; floor and rack toms from the Fab Four’s 1964 and 1966 tours, which stopped at the home of the Mets on August 23, 1966; a Jazz Festival snare drum from Ringo’s second Oyster Black Pearl kit, used by Paul McCartney on Macca’s solo debut and various early Wings tunes and purchased at Manny’s Music Store on February 9, 1964; and Ringo’s original bass drum travel case. The display, inside a Plexiglas case in the men’s department next to Magnolia Bakery at the Third Ave. entrance, also includes a new model of George Harrison’s Signature Duo Jet Guitar, which the Quiet Beatle used on “Please Please Me” and appears on the cover of his 1987 album, Cloud Nine, as well as a John Lennon electric model. The memorabilia will be moving shortly to Los Angeles, but a whole lot more paraphernalia will be heading this way in February when Beatles Fest comes to town.

CHÉRI

ABT veterans Alessandra Ferri and Herman Cornejo play passionate lovers in Martha Clarke’s unique adaptation of Colette’s CHÉRI (photo by Joan Marcus)

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Irene Diamond Stage
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Extended through December 29, $75
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org

In 1920, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette published the short novel Chéri, the story of a love affair between a young man and an older woman that she had first told in a series of short stories for Le Matin. Baltimore-born director and choreographer Martha Clarke (The Garden of Earthly Delights) has now transformed the beloved tale into a minimalist performance piece that is the first of her three Residency Five productions for the Signature Theatre. Chéri stars current American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Herman Cornejo as the title character, a twenty-four-year-old man in the midst of a torrid six-year affair with Lea (former ABT principal dancer Alessandra Ferri), the forty-nine-year-old best friend of his mother, Charlotte (Amy Irving); both women are courtesans in Belle Époque France. “Was he my gift to her? Or did she take him from me?” Charlotte says to the audience in one of four monologues adapted by Tina Howe (Painting Churches, Coastal Disturbances) from Colette’s Chéri and its sequel, The Last of Chéri. Over the course of sixty-five minutes, Cornejo and Ferri perform a series of solos and pas de deux that display their fiery emotions, which grow ever more complicated when Charlotte marries her son off to a virgin from a wealthy family. Chéri and Lea move passionately in rhythm, as if they are the only two people in the world, but when he comes back from fighting in WWI, nothing is quite the same. Although much of the dancing is splendid, particularly when Cornejo lifts Ferri against a wall and his face makes its way down her body, it becomes repetitive, an at-times confounding mix of silent-film acting and operatic panache. Irving is calm and steady as Charlotte, but her words feel unnecessary, as if they could have been trimmed down to spare surtitles instead. Set and costume designer David Zinn’s stage melds the colorful lightness of Bonnard with a Caligari-like German Expressionism, highlighted by long, slanted doorways and mirrors that more than hint at an approaching darkness. The gentle, tender score is played live by pianist Sarah Rothenberg and features selections from Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Richard Wagner, Morton Feldman, and, most prominently, Federico Mompou. Unfortunately, Clarke’s Chéri winds up being less than the sum of its parts, a collaboration that never reaches its potential.

THE BREEDERS LAST SPLASH 20th ANNIVERSARY TOUR / SPEEDY ORTIZ

Breeders are back for twentieth anniversary of LAST SPLASH

Webster Hall
125 East 11th St. between Second & Third Aves.
Thursday, December 19, and Friday, December 20, $30, 8:00
www.websterhall.com
www.breedersdigest.net
www.speedyortiz.bandcamp.com

Twenty years ago, indie supergroup the Breeders exploded onto the scene with their second full-length album, The Last Splash, which featured the monster hit “Cannonball,” reaching platinum heights propelled by an ultracool video directed by the impossibly hip team of Spike Jonze and Kim Gordon. Consisting of bassist Josephine Wiggs from the Perfect Disaster, drummer Jim Macpherson, and twin-sister guitarists Kim and Kelley Deal from the Pixies (Kelley replaced original Breeder Tanya Donelly of the Throwing Muses, who went on to form Belly), the band created a punchy, infectious sound that influenced such other groups as Nirvana, whom the Breeders opened for on a European stint. The Breeders are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of The Last Splash, which also includes such gems as “Invisible Man,” “Flipside,” “No Aloha,” and “Drivin’ on 9,” with the release of the deluxe box set LSXX (4ad, May 2013) and a tour in which they are playing the record in full. They’ll be doing so at Webster Hall on December 19 & 20, adding all of 1990’s Pod as well. But be sure to get there early, because you won’t want to miss Northampton’s Speedy Ortiz, a band whose music evokes the heyday of the Breeders.

Speedy Ortiz will open Breeders shows at Webster Hall (photo by Noe Richards)

Named after a street-gang punk in Jaime Hernandez’s Love and Rockets comics, Speedy Ortiz is currently on the road in support of its debut album, Major Arcana (Carpark, July 2013), a ten-song treat in which the band is constantly changing tempos and volume, offering tantalizing surprises every step of the way. Guitarist and lead singer Sadie Dupuis writes the music first, then adds lyrics that fit into her shifting melodies. “Was it the teeth or my tongue that said / ‘Go shut your lips, let us take a rest’? / Oh, my mouth is a factory / for every toxic part of speech I spew,” she begins on “Tiger Tank,” adding, “Oh, my face is a label / to convey how very awfully I’m doing.” In its short three-year history, Speedy Ortiz hasn’t been doing awfully at all, releasing the cult hit “Taylor Swift” (“Blood-shaking, clot-making viper that feeds on a mouse / Poaching the eggs of the snakes that I slayed in the South), an EP called Sports that includes songs about basketball, indoor soccer, and curling, and the speaker-rattling Major Arcana and have the EP Real Hair, featuring “Everything’s Bigger,” scheduled for early 2014, reteaming them with Pixies producer Paul Q. Kolderie, who worked on the “Taylor Swift” / “Swim Fan” single. Dupuis, shredding guitarist Matt Robidoux, Christmas-born bassist Darl Ferm, and drummer Mike Falcone will be opening for the Breeders at the Webster Hall shows before going off on their first European tour.

OPEN MIC NIGHT SERIES AT GTR SHOWROOM

new GTR Store Showroom hosts open mic nights on Monday and Tuesday

new GTR Store Showroom hosts open mic nights on Monday (jazz) and Tuesday (acoustic)

GTR Store Showroom
141 West 28th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves., fourth floor
Monday & Tuesday nights, free, 5:00 to 7:00
646-460-8472
www.gtrstore.com

Forget about karaoke or Rock Band. If you want to be a star, you’ve got to get up in front of an audience, with a real instrument, and play and sing your heart out. You can do that every Monday and Tuesday at the brand-new deluxe showroom at the GTR Store on West Twenty-eighth St. Last month they started the Open Mic Night Series, featuring jazz on Mondays and acoustic music on Tuesdays, both from 5:00 to 7:00. Admission is free whether you’re just watching or playing. And don’t worry if you’re new to open mic nights; GRT professionals will take care of the sound and light, and you can even borrow a guitar or other instrument when you’re ready to strut your stuff. There’s also a bar made out of Marshall amp stacks, and the event is open to all ages. “Finally there is a home for artists, as well as band representatives, to present their talents and gear in the heart of New York City,” GTRstore.com president Steve Pisani said in a statement. So grab a guitar and a harmonica, or take a seat behind the drum kit, and blast away, singing your own songs or your favorite covers. And there’ll be no silly celebrities there to attack — er, we mean judge — your performance.

COSMOPOLIS: 49 WALTZES FOR THE WORLD

Roberta Friedman and Daniel Loewenthal follow John Cage’s advice and take a waltz around the world in COSMOPOLIS

A VIDEO INSTALLATION BY ROBERTA FRIEDMAN + DANIEL LOEWENTHAL
Baryshnikov Arts Center, Studios 4A + 4B
450 West 37th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
December 11-15, free, times vary
866-811-4111
www.bacnyc.org

In 1977, avant-garde composer John Cage published the graphic score 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs: For Performer(s) or Listener(s) or Record Maker(s), a map of forty-nine triangles marking locations in New York City where people were encouraged to go to experience, take part in, or record the natural, everyday sounds there. The score also offered the following enticement: “Transcriptions may be made for other cities (or places) by assembling through chance observations a list of 147 addresses and then, also through chance operations, arranging these in 49 groups of three.” Experimental filmmaker Roberta Friedman and documentarian Daniel Loewenthal have done just that to create the video installation Cosmopolis: 49 Waltzes for the World, on view December 11-15 at Baryshnikov Arts Center. Friedman and Loewenthal visited such cities as Cairo, Beijing, Graz, Detroit, and New York, filming street scenes, capturing pure, unadulterated human life, then bringing them all together in an installation designed for BAC by Andrew Matusik that immerses the viewer into multiple cultures, sort of a day in the life of the world. Also on display will be Friedman and Loewenthal’s 49 Waltzes for the Gated City, 49 Waltzes for Graz, 49 Waltzes for the Motor City, the work-in-progress 49 Waltzes for Al-Qahira, and the original 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs. Admission is free, and no advance reservations are required.

THE FEST FOR BEATLES FANS 2014

Lots of Fab Four memorabilia will be on sale and on view at the fortieth anniversary of the Fest for Beatles Fans

Lots of Fab Four memorabilia will be on sale and on view at fortieth anniversary of the Fest for Beatles Fans

Grand Hyatt
109 East 42nd St. at Lexington Ave.
February 7-9, adults $55 – $195 (through January 17)
www.thefest.com

When we were mere lads, we got our post-breakup, pre-iTunes Beatles fix by checking out Beatlemania on Broadway, seeing Paul McCartney and Wings at Madison Square Garden, and going to a Beatles Fest convention on Long Island, where we finally got to watch Magical Mystery Tour and went home with all kinds of little trinkets; we still have that Shea Stadium Beatles coin that nearly bankrupted us at six bucks. The elephant in the room back then was the constant speculation of a possible Beatles reunion, with all four Moptops still alive and well. But that all came to a startling end thirty-three years ago today, when John Lennon was assassinated at the age of forty. George Harrison’s death at the age of fifty-eight on November 29, 2001, closed another chapter in the continuing Fab Four saga. Paul and Ringo are still around, touring, making records, and playing new and old songs, but it will never be the same. Even Shea Stadium, where the Beatles played on August 15, 1965, is gone.

Longtime Beatles cover band Liverpool will be at NYC fest honoring fiftieth anniversary of Beatels' arrival in America

Longtime Beatles cover band Liverpool will be at NYC fest honoring fiftieth anniversary of Beatles’ arrival in America

But the memories will come flooding back February 7-9 when the Fest for Beatles Fans, which began in 1974, takes place at the Grand Hyatt, held in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles’ arrival at JFK airport on February 7, 1964, and one of the most famous television appearances of all time, when the Fab Four played on The Ed Sullivan Show. (The Fest will also be in Chicago August 15-17, then move on to Los Angeles October 10-12, cities that actually got two shows back in 1965.) The three-day Manhattan party will feature dozens of special guests giving talks, signing memorabilia, presenting videos and art exhibitions, participating in panel discussions, and playing live sets. Among those confirmed are Peter & Gordon’s Peter Asher; photographers Bob Gruen, Allen Tannenbaum, and Rob Shanahan; “Breakfast with the Beatles” DJ Ken Dashow; Beatles scholar Martin Lewis, who will serve as MC; newscaster Larry Kane; producer Mark Hudson; animator Ron Campbell; and lots of authors, historians, and cover bands. Performers include Chad & Jeremy, Billy J. Kramer, the Smithereens (re-creating the Beatles’ February 11, 1964, concert at the Washington Coliseum), and Donovan, who will also give a meditation lecture. There will be a Beatles marketplace, screenings of the documentary Good Ol’ Freda (with Freda Kelly), an auction, a dance party, costume and trivia contests, a parade, a walking tour, a tribute to the late Sid Bernstein, and much more. Ticket prices through January 17 range from $55 for Friday night to $79 for Saturday or Sunday to $195 for an all-access three-day pass; children six to sixteen are half price and those five and under free.