this week in music

TRIANGLE FIRE TRIBUTE: 100th ANNIVERSARY EVENT

Centennial tribute honors victims through music and poetry

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Sunday, March 27, $15-$20, 3:00
212-219-0302
www.eldridgestreet.org

On March 25, 1911, a devastating fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory at 29 Washington Pl. took the lives of 146 garment workers. The fire in the Asch Building led to significant changes in labor laws and to the creation of the American Society of Safety Engineers. There are special memorial events being held all over the city in conjunction with the centennial, including a commemoration on March 26 at the Museum at Eldridge St. that will include live music by Deborah Strauss and Jeff Warschauer, poetry inspired by the tragedy, and actors portraying the 146 victims, who were primarily Jewish and Italian immigrants. The event will be moderated by Caraid O’Brien and is cosponsored by the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition and the National Yiddish Book Center.

BIG STAR THIRD

Jody Stephens will take part in re-creation of BIG STAR THIRD at Baruch on March 26 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Baruch Performing Arts Center, Mason Hall
17 Lexington Ave. at 23rd St.
Saturday, March 26, $35-$100, 7:00
646-312-4085
www.bigstarthird.com
www.baruch.cuny.edu/bpac

Big Star is one of those highly influential bands that the musical cognoscenti worships but most people don’t know too much about, except that the group’s “In the Streets” was the theme song for the popular sitcom That ’70s Show. Formed in 1971 in Memphis by guitarists Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, bassist Andy Hummel, and drummer Jody Stephens, Big Star released #1 Record in 1972 and Radio City in 1974 and went through several lineup changes before breaking up. Their third record, Third/Sister Lovers, was released four years later. Made primarily by Chilton and Stephens with numerous guest musicians, including singer Lesa Aldridge and producer Jim Dickinson, Third/Sister Lovers featured such songs as “You Can’t Have Me,” “Holocaust,” and “Kanga Roo.” There’s been renewed interest in Big Star since Chilton died last March of a heart attack at age fifty-nine, shortly before the band, which had re-formed in 1993 with Jon Auer on guitar and Ken Stringfellow on bass, was going to play SXSW in Austin. There’ve been a series of tribute shows since Chilton’s death, including “Channeling Chilton,” held in July at City Winery with such participants as Yo La Tengo, Marshall Crenshaw, Alan Vega, Jon Spencer, Chris Stamey, Evan Dando, Jesse Malin, and Ronnie Spector as well as Stephens, Auer, and members of Chilton’s earlier band, the Box Tops. On March 26 at Baruch College’s Mason Hall, another group of musicians will gather together to honor Big Star by playing Third/Sister Lovers in its entirety, in addition to other songs by Big Star, Chilton, and Bell, who died in a car accident in 1978. The impressive lineup includes Stephens, Stamey, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe, Will Rigby, Charles Cleaver, Mitch Easter, Ira Kaplan, Tift Merritt, Matthew Sweet, M. Ward, Norman Blake, the Rosebuds, Fan Modine, and the twenty-piece Lost in the Trees Orchestra, with proceeds benefiting the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and El Sistema NYC. The show was previously performed in December 2010 and February 2011 in North Carolina and is being filmed as part of the documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me: The Big Star Story.

JAMES BLOOD ULMER WITH THE MEMPHIS BLOOD BLUES BAND FEATURING VERNON REID

James Blood Ulmer will be at the Jazz Standard celebrating tenth anniversary of Memphis blues album

Jazz Standard
116 East 27th St. between Lexington and Park Aves.
March 24-27, $25-$30
212-576-2232
www.jazzstandard.com
www.myspace.com/jamesbloodulmer

Ten years ago, South Carolina–born jazz and blues legend James Blood Ulmer released Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions, a collection of fourteen classics recorded in Sun Studio in Memphis with Ulmer on guitar and vocals, Vernon Reid on guitar, Charles Burnham on violin, David Barnes on harmonica, Rick Steff on keyboards, Mark Peterson on bass, and Aubrey Dale on drums. Ulmer, who recently turned sixty-nine, will be celebrating the Grammy-nominated album’s tenth anniversary by reuniting the band — except for Steff, who is being replaced by Leon Gruenbaum — for a series of shows at the Jazz Standard. It should be quite a time, as the album features such tunes as Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful,” “Little Red Rooster,” and “Back Door Man,” Muddy Waters’s “Evil,” Son House’s “Death Letter,” John Lee Hooker’s “Dimples” and “Money,” Otis Rush’s “Double Trouble,” and Chester Burnett’s “I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline).”

HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT

Galapagos Art Space
16 Main St., DUMBO
Wednesday, March 23, $10-$40, 7:30 & 9:00
718-222-8500
www.galapagosartspace.com

An all-star lineup has teamed up for a one-night-only presentation of a new English-language production of Igor Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) on March 23 at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. The 1918 work, based on a parable about a Russian soldier who makes a deal with the devil, will be conducted by flutist Ransom Wilson for his Le Train Bleu ensemble, which will be making its highly anticipated debut. The choreography is by Lars Lubovitch and lighting by Jennifer Tipton, with New York City Opera stage director A. Scott Parry serving as dramaturge. Le Train Bleu consists of Brian Ellingsen on double bass, Alexey Gorokholinsky on clarinet, Shelley Monroe on bassoon, Hugo Moreno on trumpet, Jennifer Griggs on trombone, Ian Rosenbaum on percussion, and Tim Fain on violin. The world-premiere production features Lars Lubovitch Dance Company members Reid Bartelme as the soldier, Nicole Corea as the princess, and Attila Csiki as the devil, with Reed Armstrong acting the part of the devil and John Arnold the soldier; William Ferguson will serve as narrator. Histoire du Soldat will be performed at 7:30 and 9:30, with tickets ranging from $10 for students to $40 for reserved Island Seating that comes with an open bar. In addition, Friend tickets ($140/$100 tax deductible) include a preshow reception, while Patron tickets ($500/$460 tax deductible) include a postperformance reception with the artists as well, benefiting the Lars Lubovitch Dance Company.

CONCERT FOR JAPAN

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Tickets available beginning Tuesday, March 22, 11:00 am
Event takes place Saturday, April 9, $5-$100, 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

As the horrific devastation continues in Japan, people around the world are gathering together to help. Here in New York City, many institutions are holding benefits and donating proceeds to disaster relief. Japan Society has already raised nearly a million and a half dollars, and on April 9 they will host one of the biggest charity events yet, the twelve-hour Concert for Japan. The show centers around two $100 gala blocks, featuring Philip Glass with Hal Willner and the trio of Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, and John Zorn at 1:00 and a solo performance by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Bill Laswell with gigi band at 6:00. Admission at other times is only five dollars at the door, first come, first served, with all proceeds going to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. Scheduled to appear are Masayo Ishigure, Mutsumi and Masumi Takamizu, James Schlefer, Sadahiro Kakitani, Taikoza, Taka Kigawa, and Yumi Kurosawa playing traditional Japanese instruments and music, in addition to such bands as Echostream, Hard Nips, the Suzan, and Me & Mars, with many more to be announced. There will also be special activities all day long, including ticketed classes in basic Japanese, origami, and calligraphy, Kamishibai storytelling, and the splendid new exhibit “Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven & Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art” will be open until 8:00. Tickets for the gala blocks and classes go on sale this morning at 11:00 am, limited to two per person. They’ll go quickly, so don’t hesitate to help while seeing a great show as a bonus.

TWI-NY TALK: RICHARD THOMPSON

Richard Thompson will reach into his bottomless bowl of tricks tonight at Zankel Hall (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

WFUV LIVE AT ZANKEL HALL
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
Fifty-seventh St. at Seventh Ave.
Saturday, March 19, $42-$48, 10:00
Series concludes April 8
www.carnegiehall.org
www.wfuv.org/event/zankel
www.richardthompson-music.com

Over the last decade, masterful British musician Richard Thompson has played all over New York City, from the cozy confines of Joe’s Pub and City Winery to the pouring rain of Prospect Park, from the Town Hall and Irving Plaza to the shores of the Hudson and East Rivers. Tonight, one of folk rock’s greatest singer-songwriters and guitarists heads uptown to play a solo set as part of the annual WFUV Live at Zankel Hall series. “I’ve never been to Carnegie Hall, and certainly not played it, but it does have an international reputation, and I’m thinking some of that cachet should rub off on the lesser Zankel,” Thompson told twi-ny. “It seems an exciting prospect, and I really look forward to it.” The series, curated by longtime radio host and WFUV music director Rita Houston, began with the Indigo Girls on October 23, followed by Martin Sexton’s Solo Holiday Show on December 11; it concludes April 8 with Edie Brickell and her new band, the Gaddabouts. Thompson, a founding member of Fairport Convention and half of the seminal Richard & Linda Thompson duo, is touring behind his latest album, Dream Attic (August 2010, Shout Factory), primarily playing in the Richard Thompson Electric Trio, with bassist Taras Prodaniuk and drummer Michael Jerome. But he’ll be going it alone tonight. “I’ve played very little solo in the last six months, so I don’t have a ‘plan’ at this point, but I hope the set will be a reflection of the last forty-five years — selections from the decades, and a few newer things,” he explained. Thompson has quite an old kit bag of songs to choose from; he’s released more than fifty albums, including 1000 Years of Popular Music, which takes listeners on a stirring journey through the centuries, not just the decades. The first two hundred ticket holders to show up tonight will get a free drink as part of Late Nights at Zankel Hall, with doors opening at 9:00.

ECHOSYSTEM: PROTECTING OUR WATER

The Great Hall of the Cooper Union
7 East Seventh St. at Third Ave.
Saturday, March 19, $15, 8:00
212-362-4745
www.ensemble-pi.org

Ensemble Pi’s Sixth Annual Peace Project concert, Echosystem: Protecting Our Water, will once again look to the environment for inspiration. Introduced by investigative journalist Karen Charman, the evening will feature performances of George Crumb’s 1971 “Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale)” for three Masked Players, the world premiere of Kristin Norderval’s “Echo Systems,” inspired by the BP and Exxon Valdez environmental disasters, Karl Kramer’s new arrangement of Pete Seeger’s 1971 ecology-minded “Rainbow Race,” and Christopher Kaufman’s multimedia “Hudson Valley,” which incorporates sound and image from the Hudson River Valley. Since 2005, Ensemble Pi has been hosting the Peace Project concert, seeking to combine music with eco-conscious issues. The 2011 event will include Norderval on voice and laptop, Airi Yoshioka on violin, Idith Meshulam on piano, Clair Bryant on cello, Kramer on French horn, Barry Crawford on flute, and Nick Gallas on clarinet.