Tag Archives: joe’s pub

ALICIA JO RABINS: A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADOFF

Alicia Jo Rabins investigates a yearlong obsession with Bernie Madoff in one-woman show at Joe’s Pub (photo by Jason Falchook)

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
Thursday, November 8 & 15, $15-$20, 7:00 pm
212-539-8778
www.aliciajo.com
www.joespub.com

Brooklyn-based musician, composer, poet, and fiddler extraordinaire Alicia Jo Rabins is also a Torah and Kabbalah scholar whose duo, Girls in Trouble, writes and performs songs about overlooked women in the Old Testament. A former member of local Klezmer favorites Golem, with whom she still occasionally plays, Rabins is now turning her attention to a different kind of Jewish character: seventy-four-year-old imprisoned business fraud Bernard Lawrence Madoff, whose Ponzi-scheme scandal rocked the world and who became the new symbol of selfishness and greed as the economic crisis reached epic proportions. Rabins has turned the story into the one-woman show A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, taking place at Joe’s Pub on November 8 and 15 at 7:00. Violinist and vocalist Rabins, who is also a poet and has served as a cultural ambassador for the State Department, will be backed by cellist and musical director Colette Alexander, percussionist David Freeman, and guitarist Lily Maase. The show, which promises an evening of mysticism and finance, is directed by Jessi D. Hill, with lighting by Jon Harper. “Everyone likes to think of Madoff as a monster, an aberration — but are we really so different?” Rabins wonders. “Markets go up, markets go down. But Madoff’s returns went up, more or less. In a straight line. For forty years. Who wouldn’t want that kind of security — no downturns, just growth? No failure, no loss, no death. It’s beautiful. But it’s impossible.”

RAQUEL CION: GILDING THE LONELY

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
Thursday, October 4, $15, 9:30
212-967-7555
www.joespub.com

We’ve been following the exciting transformation of Raquel Cion’s cabaret show Gilding the Lonely over the past few years, as it has traveled from the crowded confines of the Dixon Place lobby to the intimate stage at Joe’s Pub, each performance turning it into something more. For Thursday night’s encore presentation at Joe’s Pub due to popular demand, Cion (Cou-Cou Bijoux: Pour Vous) is promising another big step up. “Gilding the Lonely’s move to Joe’s Pub has been a huge joy. It’s such a beautiful room, and it has given us the chance to expand the show musically and theatrically,” Cion told us in a follow-up to June’s twi-ny talk. “The space itself is playful and can be very expansive while still being very intimate. The skill of the technicians and the staff allows artists to play and be free, and you know you’re lit and heard.” Among the songs people will hear in the show, which is directed by Amanda Duarte, are uniquely interpreted covers of David Bowie, Prince, the Rolling Stones, Dwight Yoakam, Tom Waits, and others, accompanied by Zecca Esquibel (Get Wet) on piano, Bill Gerstel (3 Teens Kill 4) on drums, and Ken “Kenball” Zwerin (Gigi & Pop) on upright bass. “So we can do grand gestures, like crawl on pianos, have hot men in gold hot pants, and give prizes to the audience — for August’s show they gave everyone in the audience birthday cake,” Cion notes. “We can be supremely glittery, silly, and showbiz while still opening one’s heart and making you feel like you are in conversation with each and every person in the audience. It is pure joy!”

DANCENOW JOE’S PUB FESTIVAL

Irish dancer and choreographer Luke Murphy is among the forty participants in this year’s DanceNow festival at Joe’s Pub (photo by John Altdorfer)

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
September 5-8, $15-$20, 7:00
212-539-8778
www.joespub.com

The tenth annual DanceNOW presentation at Joe’s Pub will take place at the tiny, intimate downtown theater September 5-8, with all tickets a mere $15 in advance and $20 at the door. One of the primary elements that makes this series different from other fall dance festivals is that this event is competitive; each night, a weeklong residency on a Pennsylvania farm will be awarded by the audience to one of the companies, and one company from the entire run will win a $1,000 creative development stipend, a weeklong residency, and a twenty-hour space grant at the Gibney Dance Center, selected by festival producers and advisers. Following the festival’s “less is more” credo, each performance is limited to no more than five minutes in which to make an artistic statement. The lineup is wide-ranging, offering dance fans a little bit of everything every night. Wednesday’s rosters features Adam Barruch Dance, binbinFactory/satoshi haga & rie fukuzawa, Maura Nguyen Donohue/inmixed company, Marjani Forté, Shannon Hummel/Cora Dance, Donnell Oakley, Rainwater Dances/Nellie Rainwater, Erika Randall, and RG Dance Projects – Rubén Graciani, while Thursday consists of alex|xan: the Median Movement, the Anata Project/Claudia Anata Hubiak, Janis Brenner & Dancers, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Luke Murphy, Portables/Claire Porter, Molly Shanahan, Bryan Strimpel, Makiko Tamura/Small Apple co., and Simone Sobers Dance. Friday night brings together Jane Comfort & Company, the DASH/Gregory Dolbashian, SARA du jour, Erica Essner Performance Co-Op, the Good to Go Girls, Jamal Jackson Dance Company, Sara Joel, Kawamura the 3rd, Amy Larimer, LOVE|FORTÉ A COLLECTIVE, and Amber Sloan, with Saturday night anchored by the Bang Group, Christal Brown/INSPIRIT, Loni Landan, Deborah Lohse, Khaleah Londons/LAYERS, MADboots dance co., Christopher K. Morgan & Artists, TAKE Dance, and Megan Williams. An encore performance on September 15 will feature the audience’s top ten favorites from all four programs.

RAQUEL CION: GILDING THE LONELY

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
Saturday, August 18, $15, 9:30
212-967-7555
www.joespub.com

There’s no reason sexy chanteuse Raquel Cion should be lonely any longer. Her Gilding the Lonely is an intimate portrait of longing that deserves to be seen by many. In June, it was standing-room only for two shows at the Lounge at Dixon Place, where the native New Yorker triumphed with her engaging mix of music and tragicomic tales of looking for love in the big city. On Saturday, August 18, she’s moving slightly uptown to Joe’s Pub, where she’ll be wearing a glittering gown, performing songs by David Bowie, Prince, the Rolling Stones, Dwight Yoakam, Tom Waits, and others, accompanied by Zecca Esquibel (Get Wet) on piano and Bill Gerstel (3 Teens Kill 4) on drums. “Being lonely in NYC is different,” Cion (Cou-Cou Bijoux: Pour Vous) told us in a June twi-ny talk. “Though loneliness is universal, no one is immune. But there is something about feeling lonely in New York that has its own particular flavor. Sometimes it feels like an everlasting gobstopper in how it can change flavor and how you gotta just suck it (up).”

SIDI TOURÉ

Saturday, August 4, Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St., $18, 9:30
Monday, August 6, SummerStage, Marcus Garvey Park, free, 7:00
www.myspace.com/siditoure

Amadou & Mariam might be the most well known Malian musicians around the world, but there’s another guitarist from that country who is also making a much-deserved name for himself, and both will be playing in New York City on August 4. The Blind Couple from Mali, who hail from Bamako, are headlining a free SummerStage show in the afternoon in Central Park, while Sidi Touré, an extraordinary guitarist from Gao, will be at Joe’s Pub at 9:30, followed by a free show Monday night in Marcus Garvey Park with Afro-Cuban specialists the Pedrito Martinez Group and South Africa’s Wouter Kellerman. On his full-length debut, 2011’s Sahel Folk, Touré recorded duets in his sister’s Gao home, but on his follow-up, Koïma (Thrill Jockey, April 2012), which means “Go hear,” Touré has opted for a fuller sound, heading into a Bamako studio with a quintet and coming out with ten pristine tunes built around traditional Songhaï music blended with Western folk and blues, featuring Touré and Oumar Konaté on guitar, Alex Baba on calabash, Charles-Eric Charrier on bass, and Zumana Téreta on sokou. Touré, who was born into a noble Malian lineage, is joined by female vocalist Leïla Gobi for sweet harmonies and beautiful conversational back-and-forths on such standout tracks as “Maïmouna,” “Woy tiladio (Beautiful Woman, Goddess of Water),” and “Ishi tanmaha (They No Longer Hope).” Although not related to his late fellow countryman Ali Farka Touré, Sidi Touré is well on his way to establishing himself as another Malian musician making his mark on the world music scene.

DanceNOW 2011 JOE’S PUB FESTIVAL

Annual DanceNOW festival will take place in newly renovated Joe’s Pub

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. between East Fourth St. & Astor Pl.
October 19-22, $15-$20, 7:00
212-967-7555
www.joespub.com
www.dancenownyc.org

Encouraging innovative dance by giving companies five minutes on a tiny stage, DanceNOW returns to a newly redesigned Joe’s Pub this week for four nights of specially created presentations from some forty choreographers. The ninth season features new names as well as more familiar groups offering unique, intimate experiences; the lineup includes, among others, Camille A. Brown, Dash/Gregory Dolbashian, Sean Curran, and Sidra Bell Dance on Wednesday, Jamal Jackson Dance Company, Luke Murphy/Movement Underground, binbinFactory, and small apple co. on Thursday, Hilary Easton + Company, Gina Gibney Dance, Nicholas Leichter Dance, Amber Sloan, and TAKE Dance on Friday, and BANGdance, Jane Comfort and Company, Doug Elkins Choreography, Liberation Dance Theater, Ellis Wood Dance, and zvidance on Saturday. The companies will be competing in a nightly DanceNOW Challenge, complete with audience voting, with the winners receiving $1,000 for development, a week-long residency, and a twenty-hour space grant.

VICTOIRE

Victoire will celebrate release of their debut CD at Joe’s Pub on October 2

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. between East Fourth St. & Astor Pl.
Saturday, October 2, $14, 7:30
212-967-7555
www.myspace.com/victoiremusic
www.joespub.com

Atmosphere is everything when it comes to Victoire, and what an atmosphere they create. Led by Brooklyn-based keyboardist and composer Missy Mazzoli, Victoire is a five-piece all-woman avant-garde chamber ensemble that tests the limit of classical music by incorporating elements from a myriad of genres, along with haunting vocal samples and pure noise. Mazzoli, violinist Olivia de Prato, clarinetist Eileen Mack, keyboardist Lorna Krier, and double bassist Eleonore Oppenheim have followed up their 2009 EP, A DOOR INTO THE DARK, with their debut full-length, CATHEDRAL CITY (New Amsterdam, September 2010), a stunning collection of eight forays into the unknown. Throwing in a hint of jazzy percussion in the title track, some German Expressionism with Irish tinges in “A Song for Mick Kelly” (featuring the National’s Bryce Dessner on guitar and soprano Mellissa Hughes on vocals paying tribute to the American peace activist) and more than a touch of Coldplay-esque piano in “A Door into the Dark,” Victoire glides along on a cloud of mystery. Things turn rather melancholy on “I am coming for my things,” while “India Whiskey” ends the record in an exciting blur of experimentalism. CATHEDRAL CITY is like a journey through the dark, daring world of the Brothers Quay. Victoire will be celebrating the release of the new record with a launch party at Joe’s Pub on October 2, promising that there will be “special secret guests.” The band will also be playing at the Brooklyn gallery Smack Mellon on November 4 at 7:00. (In addition, “Missy Mazzoli and Sarah Snider: A Night of Chamber Music” will take place October 5 at Galapagos in Brooklyn, featuring the New York premiere of Mazzoli’s “Death Valley Junction,” performed by the MIVOS Quartet.)