this week in music

JOHN CHAMBERLAIN: CHOICES

John Chamberlain, “SPHINXGRIN TWO,” aluminum, 2010 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
Friday – Wednesday through May 13, $18 (pay-what-you-wish Saturday 5:45-7:45)
212-423-3587
www.guggenheim.org

It is a shame that Indiana-born, Chicago-raised sculptor John Chamberlain didn’t live long enough to see the revelatory career retrospective at the Guggenheim, on view through May 13. While working with the museum on the exhibition, Chamberlain passed away in December at the age of eighty-four, but he left behind a legacy that flourishes at this outstanding show. Chamberlain’s most familiar oeuvre, twisted metal sculptures made from car parts, along with splendid works made from other materials, are laid out chronologically through Frank Lloyd Wright’s twisting passageway, with the first thing that jumps out at visitors being the color. Chamberlain’s automobile sculptures are like three-dimensional Abstract Expressionist and Pop paintings that have jumped off the canvas, breathing with an inner life that is intoxicating. The works, lush with blues, greens, yellows, and reds, are not mere mash-ups of fenders and front quarter panels but are carefully constructed and painted steel sculptures with such playful names as “Lord Suckfist,” “Miss Lucy Pink,” “Hatband,” “Sugar Tit,” and “Rooster Starfoot.” Chamberlain said, “It’s all in the fit,” and the works at the Guggenheim fit together extremely well. “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” resembles a quartet of Balzac-like figures. A series of untitled square collages from the early 1960s hang on the walls like oil canvases, except their various elements jut out into space.

John Chamberlain takes a seat in his studio (photo by Robert McKeever, courtesy Gagosian Gallery)

In the mid-1960s, Chamberlain began experimenting with lacquer, Formica, and foam, resulting in such works as “Untitled #7,” a sculpture of fruit made from urethane foam, cord, cloth, paint, and wooden beads, and “Couch,” a foam installation on which visitors can take a seat or lie down. Chamberlain continued working through to the very end, using materials from vintage cars to create such pieces as “HAWKFLIESAGAIN” and “PEAUDESOIEMUSIC” over the last two years, in addition to the twisted aluminum “SPHINXGRIN TWO,” which stands in the museum’s rotunda, and the steel “C’ESTZESTY” that rises outside on Fifth Ave. In some ways Chamberlain can also be seen as an early recycler, his works reusing materials that were not merely found objects but specifically chosen, now gathered at the Guggenheim in a dazzling display that justly celebrates this great American artist. In conjunction with “John Chamberlain: Choices,” on May 8 artist Amy Sillman will lead an Eye to Eye private gallery tour of the show, on May 10 the Divine Ricochet Music Series concludes with a performance in the rotunda by Zola Jesus with JG Thirlwell, and on May 12 artist and conservator Corey D’Augustine will teach the all-day workshop “AbEx3D: Abstract Expressionism in Sculpture.”

FIRST SATURDAYS: CONNECTING CULTURES

Brooklyn Museum director Arnold Lehman mans the staff desk at new long-term “Connecting Cultures” installation

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, May 5, 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 will celebrate the opening of its latest long-term installation, “Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn,” at this month’s First Saturdays program. The exhibit juxtaposes works in three sections, “Connecting Places,” “Connecting People,” and “Connecting Things,” with a desk where people can interact with a museum staffer. Saturday night features live performances by Los Colombian Roots, Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, Brown Rice Family, and Stone Forest Ensemble. Ann Agee will discuss her period room in “Playing House,” chief curator Kevin Stayton will give a talk on “Connecting Cultures,” and visitors can climb the rooftop of Heather Hart’s “Raw/Cooked” installation “The Eastern Oracle: We Will Tear the Roof Off the Mother.” (Be sure to wear flat, rubber-soled shoes.) Haley Tanner will read from and sign copies of her debut novel, Vaclav & Lena, and DJ Spooky will lead the traditional dance party. As always, the galleries will be open late, giving visitors plenty of opportunity to check out “Keith Haring: 1978-1982,” “Playing House,” “Rachel Kneebone: Regarding Rodin,” “Raw/Cooked: Heather Hart,” “Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919,” “Question Bridge: Black Males,” and “Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and Amulets.”

CINCO DE DERBY

New York City farm band will lead the festivities at Cinco de Mayo / Kentucky Derby party at Pine Box Rock Shop

Pine Box Rock Shop
12 Grattan St., Bushwick
Saturday, May 5, free, 2:00
718-366-6311
www.pineboxrockshop.com

Mint juleps and margaritas converge this weekend as the 138th Kentucky Derby takes place on May 5, Cinco de Mayo, which celebrates the outmanned Mexican army’s heroic stand against the French in the 1862 Battle of Puebla. Twenty horses will be running for the Roses, including the aptly named I’ll Have Another, with Mario Gutierrez aboard, and you can catch all the action at the Pine Box Rock Shop in Brooklyn, which is hosting Cinco de Derby beginning at 2:00. The festivities will feature such specialty drinks as the Pine Box Derby, Thriller Jesus, Kentucky Cough Syrup, and Louisville Lemonade in addition to flights of tequila and bourbon and vegan snacks from Champs Family Bakery. While Kentucky natives will be spinning such tunes as “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Eight More Miles to Louisville,” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky” as well as “Tequila,” “Banditos,” and “La Bamba” in the front, there will be live music in the back room, highlighted by New York City’s own metrobilly farm band, 2/3 Goat. Consisting of Kentucky native Annalyse McCoy on lead vocals and mandolin, Ryan Dunn on vocals and guitar, Ryan Guerra on fiddle, Jon Cavendish on bass, and Andy Wilmoth on drums, 2/3 Goat has several songs that would fit in nicely during Cinco de Derby: “Band of Gold,” “Ride On,” and “Lay It on the Line” from their 2011 EP, Stream of Conscience. There will also be a Derby hat contest, and a portion of the day’s proceeds will go to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. Post time is 6:24. Good luck!

SONG OF THE DAY — PARALLELS: “MOONLIGHT DESIRES”

On June 26, Toronto electro-pop dance band Parallels will release its new album, XII, the follow-up to 2010’s Visionaries. The group is promising a brighter sound on the summer disc, as evidenced by the first single, “Moonlight Desires,” which can be dowloaded for free here or above. Vocalist Holly Dodson, keyboardist Artem Galperine, and drummer Nick Dodson will be at Public Assembly in Brooklyn on May 4, with Win Win opening and a DJ set by former LCD Soundsystem member Matt Thornley, who is currently in the Crystal Ark. Be sure to get there at 9:00 for the Asahi beer open bar.

RICHARD BARONE: COOL BLUE HALO 25th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Richard Barone will re-create his classic COOL BLUE HALO album at City Winery on May 4

City Winery
155 Varick St.
Friday, May 4, $25-$45, 8:00
212-608-0555
www.citywinery.com
www.richardbarone.com

On May 31, 1987, Richard Barone gathered a group of his friends at the Bottom Line and recorded the instant downtown classic Cool Blue Halo. The Tampa-born Barone, a longtime Greenwich Village resident, will be re-creating that amazing performance on May 4 at City Winery when he and the same musicians, in addition to special guests, will celebrate the album’s twenty-fifth anniversary by playing it in full one night only. Barone will reunite with Jane Scarpantoni on cello, Nick Celeste on guitar, and Valerie Naranjo on percussion and keyboard, with such special guests as Fred Schneider, Tony Visconti, Garth Hudson, the Bongos’ Rob Norris on bass, Deni Bonet on violin, Richard Kerris on drums, and Candy John Carr on bongos. A mix of old and new songs and a few covers, Cool Blue Halo features eleven tracks filled with gorgeous melodies, beautiful harmonies, and lush arrangements. Barone kicks things off with the Bongos’ “The Bulrushes” and his own mesmerizing “I Belong to Me”: “I am a face in the window / passing through another day,” he sings, continuing, “I’ve heard the cool cool music of Mingus and Miles in the afternoon / in the afternoon / I’ve felt the cold blue halo / gotten by an angel in my room / in my room.” Barone delivers lovely renditions of the Beatles’ “Cry Baby Cry” and David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” along with such other originals as the yearning “Flew a Falcon” and the lilting “Love Is a Wind That Screams” before concluding with the Bongos favorite “Numbers with Wings.” Barone is putting together a limited edition box set that will include a remastered version of the original album, a live DVD of the May 4 concert, and never-before-released bonus material that you can preorder here to help fund the project’s completion; various deluxe packages also come with tickets to the concert, handwritten lyrics, signed CDs, and other paraphernalia. Barone will be back at City Winery on May 8 for the fundraiser “Occupy This Album: a compilation of music by, for and inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement and the 99%,” for which Barone contributed “Hey, Can I Sleep on Your Futon?”

CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY

Brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner have put together quite a multimedia festival at BAM (photo by David Kressler)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Bam Rose Cinemas, BAMcafe
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
May 3-5, $45
718-636-4100
www.crossingbrooklynferry.com
www.bam.org

In his poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” from Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman wrote, “Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers! / Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta! — stand up, beautiful hills of Brooklyn! / Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers! / Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution! / Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house, or street, or public assembly!” BAM is now inviting Manhattanites — and everyone else — to once again dare to venture across the river for “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” a three-day film and music festival curated by Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National. The festivities begin May 3 with live performances by the Walkmen, Sharon Van Etten, Twin Shadow, Jherek Bischoff, ZS, Callers, People Get Ready, yMusic, JACK Quartet, Heather Broderick, and Yellowbirds, with nine short films (which will be screened each night) by Poppy de Villeneuve & Missy Mazzoli; Jonas Mekas, Dalius Naujo, and friends; Michael Brown & Glenn Kotche; Bill Morrison & William Basinski; Justin Davis Anderson & Juan Comas; Tunde Adebimpe & Ohal Grietzer; Matthew Ritchie & Bryce Dessner; Su Friedrich; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt & wirrow. On May 4, the musical lineup features St. Vincent, the Antlers, Tyondai Braxton, Sō Percussion, Buke and Gase, Sinkane, Ava Luna, Missy Mazzoli and Victoire, NOW Ensemble, Hubble, and Nadia Sirota, followed by DJ sets by Chris Keating and Joakim. The May 5 show is sold out, but in case you can still score a ticket somehow, it includes Beirut, Atlas Sound, My Brightest Diamond + yMusic, Caveman, Oneohtrix Point Never, Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang, Skeletons, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the Yehudim, Benjamin Lanz, and Thieving Irons, with late-night / early-morning DJ sets by Pat Mahoney and Nancy Whang.

PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

Salman Rushdie will deliver the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture at this year’s PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations
April 30 – May 6, free – $75
www.pen.org

This year’s PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature celebrates the ninetieth anniversary of the organization, which is dedicated to freedom of speech and human rights around the globe, with a bevy of events beginning April 30 and continuing through May 6. Here are just some of the many highlights: On Monday night, Graydon Carter, Victor S. Navasky, George Packer, and Katha Pollit will pay tribute to the late Christopher Hitchens at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, and Hank Dutt, Onome Ekeh, Emily Howard, and Beth Levin will take part in the U.S. premiere of Kevin Malone’s thirty-five-minute Clockwork Orange operetta at the Top of the Standard. On Tuesday, Mike Daisey will host “Revolutionary Plays Since 2000: The Future of Political Theater” at the CUNY Graduate Center, an evening of readings, discussion, and live music with Lasha Bugadze, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Laila Soliman, and the Civilians. On Wednesday, the amazing trio of Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, and E. L. Doctorow will gather together for a TimesTalk at the Times Center, while the Kronos Quartet presents “Exit Strategies” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Rula Jebreal, Tony Kushner, and Marjane Satrapi. There are more than a dozen programs on Thursday, including Elevator Repair Service performing the site-specific Shuffle, a mash-up of classic novels at NYU’s Bobst Library, screenings of Satrapi’s Persepolis and Chicken with Plums at MoMA, and “Herta Müller on Silence” at Deutsches Haus. On Friday, Jennifer Egan will talk about “How to Create Your Own Rules” with Jacob Weisberg at the New School, seventeen writers will come together for “A Literary Safari” at the Westbeth Center, and the all-day “John Cage: How to Get Started” at Symphony Space will feature David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet, Aleksander Hemon, Etgar Keret, Sonia Sanchez, and audience performers. On Saturday, “An Evening with Doon Arbus, Francine Prose, and Michael Cunningham — and Diane Arbus” consists of readings from the recent biography Diane Arbus: A Chronology and a screening of A Slide Show and Talk by Diane Arbus at MoMA, author-illustrator Brian Selznick will be in conversation with David Levithan at the New School, Egan, Teju Cole, Karl O. Knausgaard, Riikka Pulkkinen, Luc Sante, and others will interact with R. Justin Stewart’s art installation at the Invisible Dog Art Center for “Messiah in Brooklyn,” and Sanchez, Keret, Adam Mansbach, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Marcus Samuelsson, and Tracy K. Smith will discuss “Memory in Harlem” at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The festival concludes on Sunday with Cunningham, Deborah Eisenberg, Daniel Kehlmann, and Edmund White at the Museum of Jewish Heritage for “A Place Out of Time: Gregor von Rezzori’s Bukovina Trilogy” and Salman Rushdie delivering the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture at the Cooper Union, followed by a pop Q&A led by Gary Shteyngart.