this week in music

NEW YORK CITY APPLE DAY

The New York apple will be celebrated at street fair on Orchard St. on Sunday



APPLES ON ORCHARD
Orchard St. between Broome & Grand Sts.
Sunday, September 26, free, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
212-226-9010
www.lowereastsideny.com

Some three hundred and sixty-three years ago, Peter Stuyvesant planted an apple tree on Thirteenth & Third, and New York has been identified with the healthy fruit ever since. On Sunday, the Lower East Side Business Improvement District will be sponsoring the annual New York City Apple Day, held in the general location where French farmer James De Lancey Sr.’s apple orchard thrived back in the eighteenth century. The afternoon will include live performances by Grandma Fantasy, Tyrone Noonan Band, Cows Like Shrimp with Sefton Stallard, and Stella Winkelman of Bell Book and Scandal; the Mark Miller Gallery will be sponsoring an art activities table for kids; and such restaurants as Café Katja, Bunny Chow, and Georgia’s Eastside BBQ will be serving dishes featuring apples. Among the other participants are An Choi, the Henry Street Settlement, Biscuits by Lambchop, the New Museum, the LES Ecology Center, Red Jacket Orchards, the Tenement Museum, and Newtown Pippin.

DELUSION

Laurie Anderson is back at BAM with another multimedia examination of the personal and the political (photo by Leland Brewster)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St.
Through October 3, $20-$60
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Examining the twenty years of her life she has spent sleeping, Laurie Anderson’s new show, DELUSION, running at BAM’s Harvey Theater through October 3, consists of approximately twenty short mystery plays that move smoothly between the personal and the poltical, an intimate multimedia work about dreams and the state of the nation. Commissioned for the 2010 Vancouver Cultural Olympiad, DELUSION features some of Anderson’s sharpest writing in years, performed in her unique talk-singing style either as herself or as deep-voiced alter ego Fenway Bergamot. Anderson glides between several microphones on a stage that includes video projections on a loveseat, shredded paper, a small scrim, and a large screen in back, depicting leaves flying in the wind, smoke drifting endlessly, a chalkboard filled with hard-to-decipher words and images, moonscapes, a child witnessing her mother’s death, and giant live shots of Anderson herself, playing her specially made violin. Joined by Colin Stetson on bass saxophone and Eyvind King on a more traditional violin, both men primarily seen in silhouette, Anderson, dressed in her trademark white shirt and thin black tie, tells jokes and stories about age, memory, Iceland, nineteenth-century Russian space theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, punctuation, and her own heritage. The centerpiece of the show is “Another Day in America,” from Anderson’s latest album, the just-released HOMELAND; “And so finally here we are, at the beginning of a whole new era, the start of a brand new world,” she sings as Bergamot. “And now what? How do we start? How do we begin again? . . . And so which way do we go?” Throughout the ninety-minute performance, Anderson, who has previously staged such pieces as THE END OF THE MOON, SONGS AND STORIES FROM MOBY DICK, EMPTY PLACES, and the seminal UNITED STATES: PARTS I-IV at BAM, is warmer and friendlier than ever, filled with charm and good humor, making strong eye contact with the audience as she delves into fascinating topics with a wink and a knowing smile.

NEW YORK GYPSY FESTIVAL

Drom and other venues
85 Ave. A
September 24 – October 3, free – $40
Festival Pass: $30
212-777-1156
www.nygypsyfest.com/2010

The sixth annual NY Gypsy Festival begins tonight with Selim Sesler and the NY Gypsy All-Stars at Drom. The ten-day celebration features performances by such individuals and groups as Mahala Rai Banda, the Veveritse Brass Band, Los Magnificos Impostores, Espiritu Gitano, Tecsoi, Stephane Wrembel, Zlatne Uste, Balval, and Yuri Yunakov, at Rumsey Playfield and Clipper City Tall Ship as well as at the home base, Drom. Past festivals have included such groups as Gogol Bordello, Beirut, Balkan Beat Box, Hazmat Modine, Slavic Soul Party! and Sway Machinery, so don’t be turned off if you don’t recognize any of the names in this year’s lineup just yet; next year everyone might know them, and tickets will be a lot harder to get.

DUMBO ARTS FESTIVAL

“Sushi” is performed in the windows of the BoConcept furniture store at 79 Front St. hourly between 2:00 & 5:00 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations
September 24-26
www.dumboartsfestival.com

The 2010 DUMBO Arts Festival will feature hundreds of events Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, three days of open studios, juried exhibitions and installations, concerts, dance, a digital summit, book signings, walking tours, performance art, a visual poetry marathon, children’s activities, and more, much of it free. The New York Photo Festival is premiering “Capture Brooklyn” at the powerHouse Arena, No Longer Empty will take over a suite in 111 Front St. as well as scaffolding outside 25 Washington St., Tom Verlaine will be playing at Galapagos with Billy Ficca and Patrick Derivaz, and Jonathan Lethem will be celebrating the launch of the paperback version of CHRONIC CITY. Among the other myriad participants and special events are the Brooklyn Ballet, Jane’s Carousel, storyteller LuAnn Adams, E. J. Antonio, the Strung Out String Band, Daniel Fishkin, Crystal Gregory, Mighty Tanaka, Bubby’s seventh annual Pie Social, a Steampunk Salon Saloon, and a bug-eating discussion with chef and artists Marc Dennis.

Anyone can be a star in Nelson Hancock’s two-part “That’s (not) Me” at DUMBO Arts Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

We particularly recommend Nelson Hancock’s “That’s (not) Me” outside on Main St. and inside at 55 Washington St., an August Sander-inspired project in which you can take a photograph of a friend or stranger, then switch places, then take a self-portrait, and you get to take home each photo of yourself; “Sushi,” in which Felisia Tandiono, Kashimi Asai, and Nung-Hsin Hu perform as three pieces of sushi in the windows of BoConcept at 79 Front St.; Andrea Cote and Michael Drisgula’s “Clay,” in which Cote will sculpt your head in clay while Drisgula documents it on video, with the same piece of clay used for all sitters; Fountain Art Fair favorite Allison Berkoy’s creepy projection “Asleep #3,” hidden away in a loading dock at 30 Washington St.; eteam’s “Gallery Cruise” at Smack Mellon on 92 Plymouth St., where you can relax at a table in the Tea Room, which offers a view of the Atlantic Ocean through a pair of windows; and Demetria Mazria’s “Take-Less” at 30 Washington St., composed of plastic take-out containers that form the number 2629, representing the number of such containers used (and then thrown out) every second in the United States. (We were looking forward to Janet Biggs’s “Wet Exit,” but it was canceled at the last minute.)

JP, CHRISSIE AND THE FAIRGROUND BOYS

Chrissie and JP share their unusual relationship in song (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Irving Plaza
17 Irving Pl.
Saturday, September 25, $34.50, 8:00
212-777-6800
www.myspace.com/chrissiehyndejpjones

Last month, longtime Pretender Chrissie Hynde gave New Yorkers a sneak peek at her her latest project, previewing songs from FIDELITY! (Rocket Science, August 2010), the debut album of JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys. Hynde, Welsh singer-songwriter JP Jones, and Big Linda guitarist Patrick Murdoch performed an intimate show at Rockwood Music Hall, with Hynde looser than ever, joking about her age and calling herself dirty names, immediately setting up a warm, friendly rapport with the audience, a few of whom spoke a little too much to Hynde, who eventually had to only somewhat playfully call for security. Meanwhile, Jones could barely take his eyes off Hynde, amazed that they were together, in one way or another. The new album is centered around the are-they or aren’t-they relationship between the fifty-nine-year-old Hynde and the thirty-one-year-old Jones. “His time is tomorrow / mine was yesterday,” Hynde sings on “Perfect Lover,” the opening track of the album. “I found my perfect lover / but he’s only half my age / He was learning how to stand / when I was wearing my first wedding band/ I found my perfect lover / but I’ll have to turn the page / I want him in my kitchen / and standing on my stage.” JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys will be standing together onstage with their full band on September 25 at Irving Plaza, playing their songs of unrequited love and love gone wrong, including such beautiful numbers as “If You Let Me,” “Courage,” and “Leave Me If You Must.” They ended the Rockwood Music Hall show with a funny, improvised version of Moby Grape’s “Murder in My Heart for the Judge,” by the 1960s group that Hynde said was the major influence on her new group, so look out for that one as well. Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter Amy Correia opens up.

DIFRENT LAUNCH PARTY

Brooklyn’s Blitz the Ambassador will join Pete Seeger and Stephan Said for a night of peace, activism, and music

(le) poisson rouge
158 Bleecker St.
Monday, September 20, $20-$25, 7:30
212-505-3474
www.difrent.org
www.stephansaid.com

On the eve of the International Day of Peace, Pete Seeger, Stephan Said, and Blitz the Ambassador are teaming up to celebrate the launch of difrent, “the global broadcasting platform for music for social change, a one-stop where artists, activists, and organizations come together to advance local initiatives around the world on a constant basis through music and video releases.” The performers will be backed by an all-star band featuring Cindy Blackman on drums, Kevin Hunter on mandolin and guitar, Yousif Sheronick on percussion, and Art Baron, Earl Gardner, Lenny Pickett on horns, with surprise guests expected. Born in Cleveland, Said is an avid activist for interfaith dialogue, his own heritage a mix of the Muslim, Catholic, and Jewish faiths. Seeger isn’t about to let his age (ninety-one) stop him from fighting for the truth; he recently decried efforts to get him to pull out of the Friends of the Arava Institute Israel-friendly program “With Earth and Each Other: A Virtual Rally for a Better Middle East,” telling the organization’s leader, “I could understand why someone might want to boycott something financially, but why would anyone want to boycott talking with each other?” Born in Ghana and based in Brooklyn, hip-hop genre bender and visual artist Blitz the Ambassador seeks to present to the world a different side of Africa.

JCC OPEN HOUSE: THE LOTTERY AND MORE

Screening of THE LOTTERY is part of all-day open house at the JCC



THE LOTTERY (Madeleine Sackler, 2010)
JCC in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St.
Sunday, September 19, free, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm (film screens at 3:30)
646-505-4444
www.jccmanhattan.org
www.thelotteryfilm.com

After celebrating the Jewish New Year, the JCC in Manhattan is holding its annual open house, a free day to get to know the very busy Upper West Side institution. The myriad activities include a Kidzapalooza concert, a children’s sports expo, a postnatal Pilates boot camp, a video contest, skin cancer screenings, and workouts, demonstrations, and lessons in yoga, meditation, self-defense, Gypsy dance, indoor cycling, life coaching, Hebrew, low-flying trapeze, sand art, time management, cooking, dating, salsa, and much more, with special classes for kids, new mothers, and seniors, along with prizes and membership discounts. The afternoon ends with a screening of the eye-opening film THE LOTTERY.

The debate over charter schools reaches a fever pitch in Madeleine Sackler’s heart-wrenching documentary, THE LOTTERY. Sackler follows the hopes and dreams of four families who have entered their children in the annual lottery for placement in Harlem Success Academy, a free public elementary school founded by former city councilmember Eva Moskowitz. Some three thousand kids are vying for 475 coveted spots at the institution, which has an outstanding track record while doing things its own way, including not playing by the complex rules of the powerful teachers union. Sackler speaks with Moskowitz, Newark mayor Cory Booker, Harlem Children’s Zone president and CEO Geoffrey Canada, New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, and several Harlem Success Academy parents, principals, and teachers, who have only glowing things to say about the charter school, especially as it fights to open another location inside PS 194, leading to an angry battle with the community that is simply mind-blowing. Also mind-blowing are many of the statistics Sackler shares about the sorry state of public education in New York City and across the country, specifically in regard to blacks and Latinos. The final scene, in which the families sit inside the Fort Washington Armory, praying that their child’s name will be called as if their entire future is dependent upon it, is not only heartbreaking but also beyond frustrating, revealing how difficult it can be for parents to find quality schooling in certain parts of the city and offer their children opportunities that they never had.