Happy Pride Weekend to everyone—though as I heard ESG bassist Nicole Nicholas exclaim last Saturday, “Every day is Pride!”
Over only the five years of writing this newsletter, I’ve witnessed the size and scope of Pride events around the musicking parts of New York City grow in extraordinary leaps. Yet the degree to which it has grown this year, which I encountered when putting together this week’s list, for the first time the volume of events got overwhelming. And also, frankly, it became embarrassing for me, a CIS straight white dude in his 50s, to be choosing recommendations for Pride events. That had a bit of precedent: Contributing a piece of writing to a recent Pride package in a music magazine, I realized that, even as a lifelong ally, someone who’s been musically, socially and politically aligned with the queer community since attending middle-school in Greenwich Village in the early ‘80s, my aesthetics are just not keeping up. And that’s OK. (Shout-out to my editor on that contribution, Barry Walters, who just published Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music, 1969-2000, which, from all reports and my readings of excerpts, is a crucial edition to the canon.)
So instead of me choosing a whole bunch of (mostly dance-oriented) Pride music events, here’s a list of links to “trusted” and LGBTQI+ community venues hosting parties this weekend (some, starting Thursday). Bossa Nova Civic Club / Cafe Erzulie / Chocolate Factory / C’Mon Everybody / Elsewhere / Good Room / Honey’s / House of Yes / h010 / Knockdown Center / Lo Hi Rooftop / Market Hotel / Mood Ring / Nowadays / Paragon / Pianos / Refuge / Signal / Silo .
Everyone have fun, please be safe out there, and please stay on the look-out for all your gay, queer and trans friends and neighbors. Like Pride, community responsibility is also every day
Thank you for reading, listening, following, and supporting the work; and thank you for living through this with me, and with each other.
Over just a couple of years of existence, vocal improviser Charmaine Lee and heavy noise producer Randall Dunn’s Kou Records has established an excellent fresh outlet for veteran sonic leftfielders. And this week’s two-fer at Roulette celebrates their early achievements. Thursday’s second night is headlined by the inimitable modular synthesist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, post-hardcore indie-art rocker (Lichens, 90 Day Men) turned atmospheric sound-designer and composer of wonderful film scores. He’s joined by violist Eyvind Kang and vocalist Jessika Kenney, performing separately and as a duo. (Thurs 6/25, 8p @ Roulette, Downtown Bklyn - $25)
ART + MUSIC: Over the weekend, the producer, performance artist and sonic sculptor Ash Fure opened a physical manifestation of her 2025 post-techno masterwork, Animal, as an installation at Pioneer Works. Built in collaboration with architect Xavi L. Aguirre, the piece is a “listening gym,” which fits well with the extremely physical nature of Fure’s live performances, which mix choreography, light-show and sound-making in idiosyncratic but arresting ways. Chances are, this will be the live set Fure will present on Thursday, in a great contemporary post-techno double-bill with Laurel Halo, whose dark synthetic ambiance is a lure for many. (Thurs 6/25, 8p @ Pioneer Works, Red Hook - $25-$40)
On Friday, the mighty Team Love Injection—DJs, ’zine publishers, party producers, label honchos, Bklyn musicking cheerleaders, and rave parents Barbie Bertisch and Paul Raffaele— is set to drop 10 Years of Love Injection: A Declaration of Universal Love, an amazing new compilation on BBE, full of tunes that continue pushing the diverse, classic NYC sound. (Full disclosure: I was honored to write liner notes for this beauty.) Paul and Barbie debut the whole thing with a listening party/hang at Joe Claussell’s great record-shop/clubhouse in Bushwick. (Thurs 6/25, 8p @ Cosmic Arts, Bushwick - FREE w/RSVP) Then, on Saturday, to continue the celebration, Love Injection is throwing one of its Universal Love jams at Nari’s intimate loft in Ridgewood. Join us! (Sat 6/27, 5p @ private loft, Ridgewood - $25-$$$)
Now in its 30th year, Arts for Art’s Vision Festival is the city’s great “free jazz” creative music festival. Though born in the East Village, Vision has been a Bklyn thing for a few years, yet now returns to the LES, to Abrons Arts Center, where it is presenting a typically mind-boggling few days of improvised music. In full swing since Tuesday, there are still sets to be had from, among others, pianist Craig Taborn and cellist Tomeka Reid (Thurs 7p); Marshall Allen & the Cosmic Future All Stars (including Dave Burrell, Darius Jones, William Parker and Andrew Cyrille - Fri 6p); Hamid Drake and William Parker (joined by Joshua Abrams - Fri 8:30p); Alan Braufman Quartet (Sat 7p); and Daniel Carter Black Octopus (in a large ensemble that includes Drake, Parker and Matthew Shipp - Sun 5:15p). That’s only the tip of the musical joy on display. Not an inexpensive venture, but access to legendary evenings rarely is. (Thurs 6/25—Sun 6/28 @ Abrons Art Center, Manhattan - $$$)
Speaking of anniversary celebrations, Party Line, one of the city’s great secret roving “warehouse”-/”loft”-location dance-parties is marking 10 years in 2026. I’ve been privileged to enjoy it from the get-go (s/o Shake, Joey Anderson and Jorge Velez in a pre-hip Ridgewick warehouse), and am overjoyed to return for the great tunes, comfy settings and throbbing dance-floors. Party Line only comes out two or three jams a year, so it’s always an occasion. And they sell-out, so don’t sleep. This edition presents Ge-ology, one of Bklyn’s house/hip-hop/disco/soul selector dons, spinning alongside one of my favorite Detroit young princes, Deeon Jamar. Additionally: there’s a Dada Strain discount code for the first 25 readers interested in jumping onboard. Use the code “dadaphone” at check-out for ½ price tix. See you on the dance-floor. (Fri 6/26, 10p @ loft location revealed to ticket purchasers day-of, Bklyn - $40)
Two great NYC artists, for free in the Park! Because I have my head a little too deeply in the clubs and DIY space, I did not realize that the legendary Downtown composer/performance artist Laurie Anderson and the Steven Bernstein-led brass fantasia SexMob had been playing shows together. The excellent live album they just dropped exhibits how wonderful Anderson’s compositions can be in more playful arrangements, expanding on their humor and dread; and a reminder of the sheer small-band power of the Mob. At Summerstage, they perform a show entitled Republic of Love, with amita opening. (Fri 6/26, 8p @ Summerstage, Central Park, Uptown - FREE) The following night, Bernstein brings another band, the ResoNation Trio with bassist Scott Colley and drummer Nasheet Waits, into National Sawdust to mark the release of a new album, ResoNation Trio / Ultra Resonance. The later part of the LP includes a handful of exploratory brass and electronics improvisations between the horn player and producer Scotty Hard, which I’ll be revisiting all summer. (Sat 6/27, 7:30p @ National Sawdust, W’burg - $35)
Over the past few months, I’ve kept encountering the experimental cellist rocío sánchez in a variety of musical and social circumstances, amongst friends and trusted smarties, listening to them play straight cello lines, but also manipulate strings into rare improvised shapes. Currently an artist-in-residence at Issue Project Room, rocío is presenting their new work Monarch Butterfly, which scores the lepidoptera’s famed migration to Mexico. sanchez’s performance will feature two of those friends and trusted smarties, tap-dancer Melissa Almaguer and bassist Kenneth Jimenez. (Sat 6/27, 8p @ Issue Project Room, Downtown Bklyn - FREE w/RSVP)
I first became smitten with Isaac Matük’s live electronics when encountering his contributions to the mighty A.B.E.L.A., which led me to dig up his first extended solo work, 2023’s Palmas, an EP I can’t recommend highly enough. Then after seeing Isaac at one of Bliss Point’s L&SD parties, delivering a sweat-drenching solo set of live hardware techno that fluidly incorporated Afro-Colombian rhythm and power, I was full-on bandwagon-eering. Saturday’s Bed-Stuy loft party—an amazing Bliss Point-heavy line-up of Max In The World & Kroba, DJ SYNCLAIRE (aka aka-Sol & Nema Hän), and the mighty Lollise—celebrates Matük’s newest Sendero EP, which adds vocals and nods to increasingly mainstream Afro-Caribbean riddims just enough that I could easily see Isaac crossing all the way over. If he wants. Catch him before he does. One of the best we’ve got. (Sat 6/27, 9p @ DIY loft, Bed-Stuy - $35sliding scale)
FILM: As long as Melissa Lyde and Alfreda’s Cinema keeps on putting on these great jazz movies on in wonderful public spaces, Imma keep promoting the sh*t out of them. Next up is 1983’s Black Wax, another Robert Mugge-directed special that not only captures Gil Scott-Heron and his Midnight Band at one of its creative live peaks, but presents a documentary narrative in which Gil, an exceptional wordsmith and narrator (you already know), acts as tour guide to his then-home of Washington D.C. It’s a unique (almost) self-portrait of one of the great American artists of our time. It it’s a beautiful evening, treat yourself. (Sun 6/28, 8p @ Herbert Von King Park, Bed-Stuy - FREE)
There should be a name for what’s going on in the current overlap of creative music/ improvisation, contemporary composition, and electronics’n’rhythm—but then someone would fuck it up by calling it a “genre.” A lot of very talented folks on the Bklyn Sounds radar write and perform unusual, uncategorizable music encompassing all these values, a kind of (forgive me) Dada Strain-core that I am always drawn to. This is a magnificent tripel-bill of that overlap, with keyboardist Eliot Krimsky, cellist Kirin McElwain and drummer Matt Evans‘ Aquatic House project all presenting current work. Don’t call it “the future” cause it’s already here. (Tues 6/30, 7p @ Union Pool, W’burg - $18adv/$20)
Klub Kaje launch membership drive (Thurs 6/25, 7p @ Klub Kaje, Gowanus - $TK) - a new promising Gowanus DIY arts space is coming, and needs your help, the party this evening will include sound by experimental DJ Maria Chávez.
TALK: “This Used to Be a Club” (Thurs 6/25, 6p @ Pratt Manhattan - FREE w/RSVP) - a panel conversation that introduces the mighty DJ Tara’s project about documenting and archiving NYC neighborhood nightlife, to remember what is gone and to learn from the (race and class-based) patterns.
Tortoise + L’Rain (Thurs 6/25, 6p @ Ruins, Knockdown Center, Maspeth - $48) - I mean…I mean…instantly legendary double-bill.
Julie Beth Napolin + Nathan O’Flynn-Pruitt + Drew Gardner (Thurs 6/25, 7p @ Mama Tried, Sunset Park - $uggested) - amazing triple-bill of guitarists in the, vaguely speaking, American primitive folk and noise tradition.
Martin Rev (Thurs 6/25, 7:30p @ TV Eye, Ridgewood - $25) - the one-half of Suicide who remains with us, still an industrial punk (but also pop) force to be reckoned with
DJ Max Glazer (Fri 6/26, 6p @ Central Library Plaza, Grand Army Plaza - FREE) - one of the city’s reggae/dancehall all-timers (once, Rihanna’s tour DJ) plays his annual freebie at the library
Patti LaBelle (Fri 6/26, 7p @ Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park - $$$) // Nightbirds: The Music of Labelle (Sun 6/28, 7:30p @ David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, Uptown - choose what you pay) - Ms. LaBelle’s park jam is a fundraiser for BRIC, the uptown celebration of her namesake band (which will definitely include former singing partner Nona Hendrix) is not.
Found Sound Nation pres. Chris Williams & Jess Tsang (Sat 6/27, 4p @ Barbés, Park Slope - $20suggested) - FSN’s cross-cultural ethos brings together a creative music trumpeter with a drumming multi-media artist.
Jubilee + Ultra Violet (Sat 6/27, 5p @ Herbert Von King Park, Bed-Stuy - FREE) - two of the city’s great femme DJs unite their parties—Jubilee’s Magic City and Ultra Violet’s Bodega Jams—in the park.
Savannah Harris & Marvin Sewell (Sat 6/27, 6:30p @ CloseUp, Manhattan - $25) - a potentially wonderful improvising drums (Harris) and electric guitar (Sewell) pairing.
Cymande (Sat 6/27, 8p @ Sony Hall, Manhattan - $$$) - one of London’s all-time great 1970s funk groups, continues its reunion victory lap.
Circles Around the Sun feat. Mikaela Davis (Sat 6/27, 8p @ Brooklyn Bowl, W’burg - $40) - my favorite post-Dead instrumentalists don’t offer obvious jam-band thrills but something adjacent to the original magic with a perspective all their own—with Davis, an exquisite harpist and vocalist.
Bulla en el Barrio (Sat 6/27, 9p @ Barzakh Cafe, Crown Heights - $20) - listening to the NYC bullerengue collective led by Combo Chimbita’s Carolina Oliveros is an entrancing experience.
AMAYO & Friends play “Lion Awakes” (Sat 6/27, 9p & 10:15p @ Bar LunAtico, Bed-Stuy - $10suggested) - among the city’s premiere Afrobeat vocalist (one of the voices of Antibalas) presents his 2025 album.
DJ Reborn: “Sincere Light: A Tribute to D’Angelo” (Sat 6/27, 9p @ Josie Robertson Plaza, Lincoln Center, Uptown - FREE) - great DJ meets the legacy of a legendary artist—maybe not the right space for it, but who knows…
Louie Vega: Elements of Life (Sat 6/27 - Sun 6/28, 8p & 10:30p @ Blue Note, Manhattan - $$$) - NYC house and Latin music royalty brings his live band back into the tourist jazz club he adores playing—Saturday night’s guest vocalist is the legendary 70s man Leroy Burgess.
Tyrone Allen II, Chris Williams & Miguel Russell (Sun 6/28, 8:30p @ CloseUp, Manhattan - $25) - one of the city’s pre-eminent young jazz bassists, Allen leads an excellent new trio with trumpeter Williams and drummer Russell.
Tim Berne, Gregg Belisle-Chi, Hery Paz, John Hebert & Tom Rainey (Tues 6/30, 9p @ Lowlands, Gowanus - $uggested) - remember a couple of weeks ago when alto saxophonist Berne said that Tuesday night at Lowlands was the last one for a while? Uh-huh… Still the best free-jazz “dive”-bar pop-up I know of in the city.
Makaya McCraven (Tues 7/28 - Sun 8/2, 8p & 10p @ Village Vanguard, Manhattan - $40) - With the exception of Shabaka, Jeff Parker and the late jaimie branch, the Chicago-based drummer has, for me, embodied the decade-long turn that the improvised music sometimes called jazz has made towards popular embrace. Makaya helped front-and-center its groove. Now he’s making his leader debut at one of New York’s remaining jazz temples. You know the band will swing and stomp.
Bex Burch: as yet untitled + Tomin (Fri 7/31, 8p @ Judson Church, Manhattan - FREE w/RSVP) - The good folks at FourOneOne are presenting two of my favorite musical humans as a double-bill. Burch is bringing her conceptual work-in-progress, “as yet untitled,” back to NYC (it debuted at Dada Strain’s Winter Jazzfest showcase) with an exquisite ensemble that includes Peter Zummo, Mikel Patrick Avery, Lia Kohl, Gabriel Birnbaum, Evan Ziporyn and Carmen Quill. Opening the evening is my woodwind brother Tomin.
Cécile McLorin Salvant (Sat 8/15 - Sun 8/16, 8:30p @ Little Island Amphitheatre, Manhattan - $25) - A late but welcome announcement that Little Island is indeed hosting performances this summer, was made even cooler by the news that Salvant, one of today’s indisputable vocal queens, is curating a weeklong program of Tin Pan Alley songs, and playing two of those shows. Jump on these!
Dada Strain @ L&SD (Sat 8/22, 7p @ Light & Sound Design Studios, Greenpoint) - SAVE The DATE! I have another great #rhythm #improvisation #community line-up for you.
Haruomi Hosono (Wed 9/16, 8p @ Radio City Music Hall, Midtown - $$$) - The 78 year-old co-founder of Yellow Magic Orchestra, and one of the great figures in 20th century Japanese popular, electronic and experimental music, is returning to the U.S. to support a new album also dropping in September.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.