this week in music

TWI-NY TALK: MOLLY SURNO — CINEMA 16 AT THE MET

Molly Surno is keeping the spirit of experimental and avant-garde film alive by bringing back Cinema 16

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Friday, June 3, 7:00
Free with recommended admission of $20
212-570-3828
www.mollysurno.wordpress.com
www.metmuseum.org/collegegroup

In 1947, Amos Vogel founded Cinema 16 as an art community where film devotees could see and discuss experimental celluloid works. Vogel, who turned ninety this past April, later cofounded the New York Film Festival with Richard Roud, serving as its first director in 1963; the NYFF still features the “Views from the Avant-Garde” showcase every year. Since April 2008, photographer and curator Molly Surno has taken up the reins of Vogel’s initial call to arms, answering his question “Shall this audience continue unaware of these hundreds of thought-provoking, artistically satisfying, and socially purposeful films?” by bringing back Cinema 16. The L.A.-born, Brooklyn-based Surno puts together monthly programs that combine classic and contemporary avant-garde films with cutting-edge bands providing live scores. On June 3 at 7:00, she is presenting her latest gathering, being held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition “Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York.” Introduced by Met associate curator Jayson Kerr Dobney, the evening, part of the Met’s College Group initiative, will feature films by Andy Warhol, Rudy Burckhardt, Edgar Varèse and Le Corbusier, Gina Carducci, Herbert Kosower, and Francis Thompson and live music by Nick Zinner and Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Shahin Motia of Oneida, and MV Carbon. As she prepared for the event, Surno was able to sneak in a few minutes to discuss experimental cinema and more with twi-ny.

twi-ny: You’ve held previous editions of Cinema 16 at such venues as the Kitchen, Smack Mellon, Galapagos, the Bell House, and MoMA/PS1, but your next edition is taking place June 3 at the Met, in conjunction with the “Guitar Heroes” exhibition. How did that come about? Did the location impact how you curated the program?

Molly Surno: To my amazement the Metropolitan Museum contacted me to do a performance as part of the programming for the “Guitar Heroes” exhibit. Humbled and inspired, I tailored this program entirely to the current show. The band is composed of some of Brooklyn’s most incredible string players, echoing the three centuries of string instruments on display. The films I selected are all based on the idea of a cityscape being a muse for artistic expression. “Guitar Heroes” shows the journey of string instruments from Southern Italy to New York and the way the luthiers drew from their environments. I took that same premise and selected films that used one’s surroundings as the platform for creative influence. Francis Thompson’s film N.Y., N.Y. quite literally examines the day in a life of a New Yorker but through a kaleidoscope-type lens; Andy Warhol’s Screen Test of Salvador Dalí expresses the culture of an artistic community congregating in New York; Gina Carducci’s Stone Welcome Mat journeys from the Sicily of her grandfather’s home super-8 films to her own return to Southern Italy decades later from the eye of a New York–based artist, among other tales of our surroundings informing and motivating creative works.

Francis Thompson’s “N.Y., N.Y.” is among the avant-garde films Molly Surno will be presenting at the Met on June 3

twi-ny: What do you choose first when putting together a program, the films or the musicians?

MS: The selection process entirely depends on the commission. For the Met the “Guitar Heroes” exhibition completely dictated both the musical and film curation.

twi-ny: Where did your love of experimental films come from? Was there a “Eureka!” moment? For us, the Eureka! moment, for example, was taking a class with Amos Vogel back in college. Is he familiar with what you’re doing?

MS: I am actively trying to find my way uptown so that I can meet Amos and potentially do a program together. It’s on the wish list.

twi-ny: Are there certain films out there that you’ve been searching for but have been unable to find or gain access to? Who are the new artists making experimental films today who have a similar spirit to those made by such innovators as Maya Deren, Bruce Conner, Shirley Clarke, and Stan Brakhage?

MS: Certainly films are hard to access because they weren’t preserved properly. For example, I wanted to show some Italian experimental film for this program, but there is so little that was properly archived (or archived at all). There is a community that is vibrant and active around the preservation of experimental films, and through them I have met some incredible contemporary avant-garde artists, including Joel Schlemowitz, Gina Carducci, MM Serra, and Mark Street, to name a few. A few years back I showed a piece by an artist named Ezra Johnson, who also works with animation. His work blows my mind.

twi-ny: You’re constantly surrounded by avant-garde film and music. Do you ever just push it all to the back of your mind and spend a Saturday night checking out The Hangover Part II, Thor, or the latest Twilight or Pirates of the Caribbean flick?

MS: This might be my favorite question any journalist has ever asked me. Oddly enough, the more experimental films I watch, the harder it is for me to sit through big-budget films. I mean, let’s put it this way: For me, a Saturday night spent among purely escapist entertainment would include The Godfather or The French Connection. . . . That is about as mainstream as I like to get.

AKIKO YANO SOLO: REVEALING HER MAGIC

Akiko Yano will present a unique program of words and music at Japan Society on June 3 (photo © Toshikazu Oguruma)

TRANSFORMING KOTOBA (“J-WORDS”) INTO MUSIC
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, June 3, $28, 8:15
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org
www.akikoyano.com

A child piano prodigy in her native Japan, New York City-based jazz musician and singer Akiko Yano has released more than two dozen records since her debut, 1976’s Japanese Girl, collaborating with such producers and performers as Pat Metheny, Marc Ribot, T-Bone Burnett, Thomas Dolby, Lowell George and Little Feat, Hayao Miyazaki, John Zorn, Hiromi, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, whom she married and has a daughter with. (They divorced in 2006.) Her most recent release is 2010’s Ongakudo, a solo project that features twelve cover songs and three new originals. The fifty-six-year-old Yano, a regular at Joe’s Pub, bends, twists, expands, and contracts Japanese words in her songs, incorporating poems and folktales into her storytelling. She’ll be at Japan Society on June 3, performing solo and discussing her working process in a special one-time-only presentation. (Half of all ticket sales will go to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund, which to date has raised more than eight million dollars.)

NICK ZINNER

Nick Zinner, “Crowd, Paris, April 2009,” archival ink jet print on resin coated paper, 2009 (© Nick Zinner)

Anastasia Photo
166 Orchard St. between Stanton & Rivington Sts.
Through June 4, free, 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
212-677-9725
www.anastasia-photo.com

Musician, producer, photographer, and Creators Project renaissance man Nick Zinner has been performing as a member of the popular indie band Yeah Yeah Yeahs since the group’s founding in September 2000, releasing the Grammy-nominated records Fever to Tell (2003), Show Your Bones (2006), and It’s Blitz! (2009). Although Zinner, who was born in Massachusetts and has been based in New York City for more than a decade, is used to the camera being turned on him, he has been taking pictures for many years, having studied photography at Bard and released several books, both solo and in collaboration with others, including No Seats in the Party Car (2001) and Please Take Me Off the Guest List (2010). His latest exhibit, on view at Anastasia Photo on the Lower East Side through June 4, consists of half a dozen shots he took of crowds at Yeah Yeah Yeahs shows between 2003 and 2009, taken from the stage. The audience is either grooving to the band or waiting for them to go on; sometimes the crowd recognizes that Zinner is taking a photo and poses for it, and other times they are just caught up in the frenzy of the performance. In one picture, fans reach out to him with sheer joy; in a second, a group of young women dressed in black, wearing black eye masks, are too cool to show any emotion at all; and in a third, one woman makes a crazy face while others smile away. Of course, pictures of crowds at concerts are not unusual, but it is rare for the shots to have been taken by one of the band members, offering a different perspective from photos snapped by hired music photographers. The photos were taken at concerts in Paris, Beijing, Brooklyn, Tuscon, Warsaw, and Tokyo; see if you can guess which is which before looking at the titles. (Zinner will also be playing alongside experimental films with fellow YYY Brian Chase, Oneida’s Shahin Motia, and MV Carbon at Molly Surno’s latest Cinema 16 presentation, June 3 at 7:00 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

POUNDCAKE

Poundcake will be at the Bowery Electric on June 1, featuring singer-guitarist Teddy Thompson, drummer Ethan Eubanks, and stand-up bassist Jeff Hill (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Bowery Electric
327 Bowery between Bond & Great Jones Sts.
Wednesday, June 1, $8, 10:00
212-228-0228
www.theboweryelectric.com
www.teddythompson.com
poundcake live at city winery
On May 21 at City Winery, as Teddy Thompson fans were escorted to their reserved seats and ordered their food and drinks (including special bottles of Teddy Thompson wine), a surprisingly familiar face took the stage as part of the opening act. Announced as “Poundcake,” the three-piece band — consisting of guitar, stand-up bass, and drums — rambled through a good-time set of classic and obscure country and early rock covers, with the lead singer and the backup band making continuous tongue-in-cheek remarks about Teddy Thompson and how much the lead singer resembled the British-born, New York City-based son of Richard and Linda Thompson, who is currently touring behind his latest record, Bella, a deeply personal, poignant examination of a shattered relationship. Last year, Teddy Thompson, along with his drummer, Ethan Eubanks, and bassist, Jeff Hill, started doing gigs as Poundcake, without officially admitting who their ersatz leader was. Poundcake plays engaging sets that feature such tunes as Patsy Cline’s “Why Can’t He Be You,” the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie,” Elvis Presley’s “That’s All Right, Mama,” Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” and Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy” and “Every Day,” the latter, on May 21, sung by Eubanks after several starts in which the drummer mangled the words and Thompson harassed him for it. The trio engages in funny, self-deprecating between-song banter, making for an extremely entertaining show. Poundcake will be headlining the Bowery Electric on June 1 at 10:00, preceded by Erik Deutch Band (9:00), Amy Miles (8:00), and Jem Warren (7:00).

MAN MAN

Man Man will trip the life fantastic at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 31 and June 1

Music Hall of Williamsburg
66 North Sixth St.
Tuesday, May 31, and Wednesday, June 1, $16, 8:00
www.myspace.com/wearemanman
www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com

Man Man’s idea of a fantastic life is probably a lot different from yours. “And the scene, it turns so grisly / and the children, they are crying / You hand them black umbrellas / tell ’em that the world is dying,” they sing on the title track to their fourth album, Life Fantastic (Anti-, May 2011), continuing, “It’s how you hide your cards / It’s how you dress your scars / and let them breathe (breathe) / Life, fantastic… / Life, so tragic… / Life, fantastic…” Man Man has been displaying its unique worldview and unusual experimental sound since it formed in 2003, releasing such discs as 2008’s Rabbit Habits (with such fine tunage as “Mister Jung Stuffed” and “Mysteries of the Universe Unraveled”), 2006’s Six Demon Bag (“Black Mission Goggles,” “Van Helsing Boombox”), and 2004’s The Man in a Blue Turban with a Face (“Against the Peruvian Monster,” “10lb Moustache”), but they’ve gone a whole lot darker on their latest. Led by keyboardist and lyricist Honus Honus (Ryan Kattner), who seems to have emerged from his time in Los Angeles not exactly the happiest of campers, the Philly band also includes Pow Wow (Christopher Powell), Critter Cat (Russell Higbee), and Chang Wang (Billy Dufala). Life Fantastic is like a wild Brecht/Weill Gypsy carnival, with sweet musical flourishes from an endless array of horns, strings, xylophones, and various other forms of percussive and computerized madness, evoking a bit of David Bowie here, a shot of Frank Zappa there, and even Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart in places. “I’m racing through the dark / a headless Saint Bernard / to cauterize the scars / that line your dirty heart,” Honus proclaims on the album opener, “Knuckle Down.” On “Piranhas Club” he asks, “Is it all about the ebb and the flow / of losing your mind sometimes and letting go? / You feel like you can’t breathe / You’re outta control / The world is a shitshow / you barely can handle.” Man Man is well known for not putting on shit shows, instead driving crowds crazy with their exuberance, their face paint, and their constantly changing tempos and rhythms, giving audiences all they can handle and more. “Can you feel it? / It’s like a warm atomic cloud that’s raining down, washing over us,” Honus Honus sings on “Dark Arts.” You’ll be able to feel it when Man Man plays the Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 31 and June 1 with Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers; the first night is sold out, but tickets are still available for Wednesday night.

DANCEAFRICA2011 — EXPRESSIONS AND ENCOUNTERS: AFRICAN, CUBAN, AND AMERICAN RHYTHMS

Cuba’s Ballet Folklórico Cutumba are part of the annual Memorial Day weekend DanceAfrica celebration at BAM

Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Through May 30, free – $50 (dance $20-$50, films $12, music and street fair free)
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Held in conjunction with the ¡Sí Cuba! Festival, BAM’s thirty-fourth annual celebration of African dance continues through Memorial Day with a bevy of great events centered around performances by Cuba’s Ballet Folklórico Cutumba, the Brooklyn-based BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble, the Bronx’s Bambara Drum and Dance Ensemble, and Philadelphia’s Kùlú Mèlé African Dance & Drum Ensemble in the Howard Gilman Opera House and led by the ever-welcome presence of Baba Chuck Davis; the Sunday show will be followed by an Artist Talk with Davis, Idalberto Banderas, and Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, moderated by Fernando Sáez (after which dancers will take to the streets in impromptu performances). BAMcinématek’s “FilmAfrica” series will screen such works as Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner A Screaming Man (Un homme qui crie) (2010), Souleymane Cissé’s Yeelen (Brightness) (1987), and Andrew Dosunmu’s 2011 New York-set Restless City (followed by a Q&A with the director). BAMcafé Live will host a free show by Miami’s the Nag Champayons on Saturday at 9:00, followed by a DanceAfrica Late-Night Dance Party with DJ Cato. And on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, beginning at noon each day, one of the best street fairs of the year will be held on Ashland Pl., the DanceAfrica Bazaar, featuring great food and drink, booths selling statues, clothing, shea butter, arts & crafts, and other cool goods, live music, and much more.

BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL 2011

The McCoy Tyner Trio will kick off the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival with special guest Savion Glover at the Highline Ballroom on June 1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Blue Note, 131 West Third St., 212-475-8592
Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th St.
B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd St., 212-997-4144
June 1-30
www.bluenotejazzfestival.com

It might feel like the Blue Note has been around forever, but the intimate jazz nightclub only opened in 1981. It’s celebrating its thirtieth anniversary throughout the month of June with the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival, thirty days of shows at the Blue Note, the Highline Ballroom, and B.B. King’s Blues Club in Times Square, featuring legendary and emerging musicians who have graced the stage of the West Third St. venue. The festivities get under way June 1 with the McCoy Tyner Trio and Savion Glover at the Highline and continues with such stellar evenings as Bobby McFerrin with the Yellowjackets at the Highline (June 2), Larry Graham and Graham Central Station at B.B. King’s (June 3), Jim Hall & Ron Carter in the program “Alone Together, Again,” at the Blue Note (June 6), Eric Burdon & the Animals at B.B King’s (June 7), Hiromi’s Trio Project with Anthony Jackson and Simon Phillips at the Blue Note (June 7-12), Dengue Fever at the Highline (June 10), “Brian Wilson ‘Reimagines Gershwin’” at the Highline (June 11-13), Dave Brubeck at the Blue Note (June 13-15), Johnny Winter & Roomful of Blues at B.B. King’s (June 14), Meshell Ndegeocello covering Prince at the Highline (June 15) — and that’s only the first half of the month. The rest of June includes performances by Diane Schuur, Delbert McClinton, the Manhattan Transfer, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Roy Ayers with Pete Rock, Chris Botti, Eddie Palmieri & La Perfecta II, Youssou N’Dour, Milton Nascimento, Roberta Flack, Nancy Wilson, Kathleen Battle, Bootsy Collins, the Dave Holland Quintet, Jonny Lang, Joe Lovano, Al Kooper, an eighty-fifth birthday celebration with Jimmy Scott, a ninetieth-birthday party for Jon Hendricks (with Annie Ross), and various other special musical tributes with very cool multiple guests.