Live Music Calendar for July and August 2012 in New York City

New calendar for August and September (including late July dates) is here.

For directions and other information on the venues where these shows are happening, check the exhaustive guide to over 200 New York live music venues at NYMD’s sister blog, Lucid Culture.

Times listed here are set times, not the time doors open – if a listing says “9ish,” that means it’ll probably start later than advertised. Always best to check with the venue for the latest information on set times and door charges, since that information is often posted here weeks in advance. Weekly events first followed by the daily calendar:

Oldschool Chicago style blues guitarist Irving Louis Lattin has a lot of shows coming up.  He’s at  Terra Blues at 7 PM on 7/28, 8/9, 8/12, 8/28 and 8/31 and at Lucille’s on Aug 10 and 24 at 8.

Mondays starting a little after 7 PM Howard Williams leads his Jazz Orchestra from the piano at the Garage, 99 7th Ave. S at Grove St. There are also big bands here most every Tuesday at 7.

Most Mondays at Rock Shop, 9ish it’s the Gowanus All-Stars feat. brilliant guitarist Chris Erikson (who’s got a great new album out) with a rotating cast of characters from his Americana rock circle, free

Mondays at the Jazz Standard it’s all Mingus, whether with the Mingus Orchestra, Big Band or Mingus Dynasty: as jazz goes, it’s arguably the most exhilarating show of the week, every week. The first-rate players always rise to the level of the material. Sets 7:30/9:30 PM, $25 and worth it.

Also Monday nights Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, a boisterous horn-driven 11-piece 1920s/early 30’s band play Sofia’s Restaurant, downstairs at the Edison Hotel, 221 West 46th Street between Broadway & 8th Ave., 3 sets from 8 to 11, surprisingly cheap $15 cover plus $15 minimum considering what you’re getting. Even before the Flying Neutrinos or the Moonlighters, multi-instrumentalist Giordano was pioneering the oldtimey sound in New York; his long-running residency at the old Cajun on lower 8th Ave. is legendary. He also gets a ton of film work (Giordano wrote the satirical number that Willie Nelson famously sang in Wag the Dog).

Mondays at Tea Lounge in Park Slope at 9:30 PM trombonist/composer JC Sanford books big band jazz, an exciting, global mix of some of the edgiest large-ensemble sounds around. If you’re anybody in the world of big band jazz and you make it to New York, you end up playing here: what CBGB was to punk, this unlikely spot promises to be to the jazz world. No cover.

Mondays at the Vanguard the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra – composer Jim McNeely’s reliably good big band vehicle – plays 9/11 PM, $30 per set plus drink minimum.

Most Mondays in August (check the Barbes website for updates), 9:30ish Chicha Libre plays their home turf at Barbes. The world’s most vital, entertaining oldschool chicha band, they blend twangy, often noir Peruvian surf sounds with cumbia and other south-of-the-border styles along with swirling psychedelic jams and deep dub interludes. Show up early because they are insanely popular.

Mondays at 10 PM Gato Loco plays Zirzamin. One venues calls them a “psycho mambo band,” but that doesn’t translate their irrrestibly catchy but dark sound. Based in oldtime 1920s Cuban tunes and beats but with an irreverent current-day sensibility, they’re one of the funnest bands in town right now. Depending on who’s available, they may roll out their low-register unit which includes baritone sax, tuba, baritone guitar and bass.

Also Mondays in August Rev. Vince Anderson and his band play Union Pool in Williamsburg, two sets starting around 11:30 PM. The Rev. is one of the great keyboardists around, equally thrilling on organ or electric piano, an expert at Billy Preston style funk, honkytonk, gospel and blues. He writes very funny, very politically astute, sexy original songs and is one of the most charismatic, intense live performers of our time. It’s a crazy dance party til past three in the morning. Paula Henderson from Burnt Sugar is the lead soloist on baritone sax, with Dave Smith from Smoota on trombone, with frequent special guests.

Tuesdays in August clever, fiery, eclectic Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party play Barbes at 9. Get there as soon as you can as they’re very popular. $10 cover.

Wednesdays at 9 PM Feral Foster’s Roots & Ruckus takes over the Jalopy, a reliably excellent weekly mix of oldtimey acts: blues, bluegrass, country and swing.

Wednesdays at 9:30 Roosevelt Dime plays their unique mix of oldtimey string band music with a dash of classic 60s soul at Brooklyn Winery, 213 North 8th Street, Williamsburg.

Wednesdays at 10 PM Avi Fox-Rosen plays the Way Station in Ft. Greene. He’s one of the two lead guitarists in the completely over-the-top Yiddish Princess, a funky original songwriter with a lyrical bite, and fluent in klezmer as well. One of NYC’s smartest, most original talents

Wednesdays at midnight snarling imaginative lo-fi Bollywood rock band Yankee Bang Bang – who’ve got an intriguing new album out – play Broomies, 921 Broadway in Bushwick.

Thursdays and Fridays in August Bulgarian alto sax star Yuri Yunakov and band play Mehanata starting around 10. One of the most intense and gripping improvisers in gypsy music.

Thursdays in September (that’s September not August), 1 PM Julian Wachner conducts Novus NY performing works by a dozen recent Pulitzer winners in composition at Trinity Church, free.

Fridays in August at 9 Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens play oldschool 1960s style gospel at the Fat Cat.

Two Fridays in July, 7/12 and 20 at midnight plus 7/24 at 9 PM, an electroacoustic performance of Antonin Artaud’s 1947 radio piece Devenir by vocalist Laura Lona at Mandragoras Art Space, 36-01 36 Ave. 3rd Fl., Long Island City, free.

Saturdays at 3 PM at Bargemusic there are impromptu free classical concerts, usually solo piano or small chamber ensembles: if you get lucky, you’ll catch pyrotechnic violinist/music director Mark Peskanov and/or the many members of his circle. Early arrival advised.

Saturdays eclectic compelling Brazilian jazz chanteuse Marianni and her excellent band at Zinc Bar, three sets starting at 10 PM.

Sundays there’s a klezmer brunch at City Winery, show starts around 11:30 AM – 2 PM, $10 cover, no minimum, lots of good bands.

Sundays from half past noon to 3:30 PM, bluegrass cats Freshly Baked (f.k.a. Graveyard Shift), featuring excellent, incisive fiddle player Diane Stockwell and an A-list of players play Nolita House (upstairs over Botanica at 47 E Houston). Free drink with your entree.

Sundays in August jazz guitarist Peter Mazza – a subtle and soulful player whom Gene Bertoncini has endorsed – leads a series of intriguing trios at the Bar Next Door, 7:30 PM

Every Sunday the Ear-Regulars, led by trumpeter Jon Kellso and (frequently) guitarist Matt Munisteri play NYC’s only weekly hot jazz session starting around 8 PM at the Ear Inn on Spring St. Hard to believe, in the city that springboarded the careers of thousands of jazz legends, but true. This is by far the best value in town for marquee-caliber jazz: for the price of a drink and a tip for the band, you can see world-famous players (and brilliant obscure ones) you’d usually have to drop $100 for at some big-ticket room. The material is mostly old-time stuff from the 30s and 40s, but the players (especially Kellso and Munisteri, who have a chemistry that goes back several years) push it into some deliciously unexpected places.

Four Sundays in July: 7/1, 7/15, 7/22 and 7/29, 8:30 PM Marcellus Hall plays Pete’s. Wickedly tuneful, slyly literate, charismatic Americana punk songwriter who draws on his indie roots fronting Railroad Jerk as much as from the surreal Woody Guthrie stuff he did in White Hassle – and he’s never sounded better.

Sundays in July at 9 gypsy guitar genius Stephane Wrembel plays Barbes. He’s holding on to the edgy, danceable spirit of Django Reinhardt while taking the style to new and unexpected places. He’s also very popular: get there early.

Sundays in August, 9/11 PM the cutting-edge Arturo O’Farrill Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra – a mighty beast that ranks with the Mingus bands as one of the city’s most fascinating jazz orchestras – at Birdland, $30 seats avail., res. req.

7/1-31 it’s the CBGB Festival and somehow every band playing every club in town at every hour all month long is part of it. Woody Allen at Cafe Carlyle? Yup, that too is the CBGB Festival (if you saw Hannah & Her Sisters, you get that one). Same applies to Justin Bieber at Madison Square Garden, Dave Matthews at the Meadowlands (honorary New Jersey membership in the CBGB Festival) and the long-awaited Bread reunion at City Winery. Likewise, every band playing every club in Williamsburg for the next decade and a half is part of the Northside Festival. Backstreet Boys at McCarren Pool – it’s gonna happen!

7/1, 1 PM relevant, satirical Reverend Billy & the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir – whose mighty sound will move you to action against eco-destroyers and corporate criminals – at Highline Ballroom.

7/1, 7 PM fearless resonator guitar powerhouse/torchy oldtime bluesmama Mamie Minch at Barbes followed at 9 by another killer guitarist, Stephane Wrembel.

7/1, 8 PM John Clark (french horn) and Michael Rabinowitz (bassoon) plus Trio Amalgamate (Gene Pritsker, Dan Cooper & Gernot Bernroider) and guitarist Greg Baker play original compositions and new jazz arrangements of classical works at Shapeshifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Pl., Park Slope, R to Union St, $10

7/1, 8:30 PM pianist Dave Restivo leads a trio with Lauren Fall, bass and Owen Howard, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe $10 + $10min, followed at 10 by “Canadian Club” i.e. Tony Malaby, tenor sax; Kris Davis, piano; Nick Fraser, drums.

7/1, 9 PM soul rockers Mighty Fine plus the oldtimey Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band or whatever they call themselves at the Brooklyn Bowl, $10.

7/1, sets 9/11 PM, trumpeter Tim Hagans leads his quartet through scorchingly melodic postbop compositions from his latest album The Moon Is Waiting at Birdland, $30 seats avail.

7/1, 9 PM pensive, thoughtful indie acoustic band Colorform– whose live show features live painting in addition to the songs followed by NYC’s only all-female mariachi band, Flor de Toloache at Arlene’s.

7/1, 9ish soaring guy/girl harmony-driven bluegrass with the NYCity Slickers at Rodeo Bar.

7/2, 8/10 PM compelling up-and-coming jazz chanteuse Molly Ryan and Her Debonaires at Birdland, $25

7/2, 9 PM wild, intense, improvisational ten-piece Veveritse Brass Band opens for cumbia powerhouse Very Be Careful at Littlefield, $10.

7/2, 9 PM legendary freak-guitarist/banjo player Eugene Chadbourne is getting ready to record a new Merle Haggard tribute album with twisted jazzcats Bryan & the Haggards (i.e. most of the guys from Mostly Other People Do the Killling) and they’re doing essentially a live rehearsal at Vaudeville Park before they hit the studio. Should be stupendously strange. Bryan & the Haggards are also at Zirzamin on 7/18 at 11.

7/2, 9 PM the 18-piece Cecilia Coleman Big Band at Tea Lounge in Park Slope

7/2, 10 PM NYC’s #1 creepy noir punk jazz monsters, Beninghove’s Hangmen at Shrine.

7/2, 11 PM a rare duo performance by smart, eclectic powerpop chanteuse Charlene Kaye & Dave Scalia at the big room at the Rockwood.

7/3, 1 PM funky brass bandthe Underground Horns at the intersection of Canal and 6th Ave. free

7/3, 5:30 PM mighty, funky, horn-driven 25-piece New Orleans band Brother Joscephus & the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra in the parking lot behind City Winery, free

7/3, 7:30 PM Pakistani crooner/guitarist Arieb Azar at the Schimmel Auditorium at Pace University on Spruce St; free tix available 2 per person starting at 5 PM day of show.

7/3, 7 PM David Bowie collaborator/ambient guitar wizard Spooky Ghost at the small room at the Rockwood

7/3, 8:30/10:30 PM sax powerhouse Jon Irabagon with Gary Versace on organ and EJ Strickland on drums at the Bar Next Door, $12.

7/3-8, 9/11 PM Kenny Barron, the powerhouse jazz pianist of the last couple of decades, leads a quintet at the Vanguard, $25.

7/3, 9 PM Middle Eastern tinged jazz with bass titan Omer Avital & the Band of the East: Greg Tardy – tenor sax , Nadav Remez – guitar , Jason Lindner – piano , Daniel Friedman – drums at Smalls. They’re also here on 7/10

7/3, 10 PM a rare live show by esteemed Americana/soul chanteuse Dina Regine at 68 Jay St Bar.

7/3, 11ish entertainingly assaultive noiserockers the Sediment Club at Death by Audio

7/4 harmony-driven oldtimey honkytonk hellraisers the Sweetback Sisters followed by the oldtimey high-energy sounds of Spuyten Duyvil at Madison Square Park, 4 PM.

7/4, 6 PM smart female-fronted retro 80s anthemic rockers AwShocKiss in the back courtyard at LIC Bar.

7/4, 7 PM literate Tom Waits-ish alt-country rockers Fist of Kindness at Local 269.

7/4, 8 PM fiery paisley underground/country-punk band Girl to Gorilla at Otto’s.

7/4 9 PM the Matt Cross Gypsy Trio at Radegast Hall

7/4, 9 PM Khaled’s funky Middle Eastern-flavored worldbeat instrumentals at Shrine.

7/5-6, 7 PM at Joe’s Pub, Willie Nile and band play songs from his underrated and brilliant repertoire as downtown NYC’s #1 anthemic rocker: 7/5 from his debut album; his 1990 release Places I Have Never Been; the recent House Of A Thousand Guitars; and the newest album, American Ride. The 7/6 show features material from Golden Down, Beautiful Wreck Of The World, Streets Of New York, and The Innocent Ones which on the whole are a little stronger. $25 adv tix very highly rec.

7/5, 7 PM chanteuse/actress Abena Koomson sings Croatian folk music at the Kitchen, free.

7/5, 7:30 PM Steve Wynn’s jangly, historically rich Baseball Project – a band every diehard Twins, or Mets, or Cubs, or Red Sox  fan should see at least once – at City Winery, $25 standing room avail.

7/5, 7:30 PM dark female-fronted new wave/punk band Ingrid & the Defectors followed eventually by punk-era powerpop legend Bebe Buell and her band at Highline Ballroom, $15.

7/5-8, 7:30/9:30 PM B3 jazz groovemeister Dr. Lonnie Smith plays a 70th birthday stand at the Jazz Standard, $25, expect a parade of special guests

7/5, 8 PM intense, inscrutable, charismatic multi-keyboardist songwriter chanteuse Rachelle Garniez at Barbes followed at 10 by Kamala Sankaram’s surfy Bombay Rickey Bollywood band.

7/5, 8 PM charismatic, ferocious bandleader/keyboardist Vera Beren’s Gothic Chamber Blues Ensemble followed eventually at 11 PM by revitalized psychedelic twin-guitar CBGB legends Band of Outsiders at the Delancey, $8.

7/5, 9 PM Tracy Island – the catchy, smart, literate new wave/psychedelic rock project from Ian and Liza of the WonderWheels and the Larch – at Freddy’s.

7/5, 9 PM anthemic, socially aware, lushly intense art-rockers My Pet Dragon at Littlefield, $10.

7/5, 9 PM irreverent oldschool Williamsburg vocal jazz crew the Old Rugged Sauce at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club. They’re also here on the 19th, same time.

7/5, 9 PM indie chamber ensemble Small Dream Ida, who shift “between influences such as Leonard Cohen, Steve Reich, and Led Zeppelin” at Tea Lounge in Park Slope

7/5, 9 PM oldschool country band the Gentlemen Callers at Arlene’s.

7/5 haunting original bluegrass/hard country band Frankenpine play new tunes off their highly anticipated forthcoming second album In That Black Sky at Matchless, 9:30 PM

7/5, 10 PM brilliantly sardonic psychedelic pop/janglerock songwriter Ward White at Fontana’s. That the CBGB Festival would include this guy, whose contempt for CB’s Gallery, “a place I always hated,” attests to how pathetically absurd this “festival” is.

7/6, 7ish the Dust and Grooves project – chronicling record collectors around the world via photo and film – puts on a photo show/celebration featuring shots by photographer Eilon Paz of various vinyl collectors taken across the world, plus a secret show by a famous band (can’t divulge it sorry) at Tropicalia in Furs record store, 304 E 5th St – show some love for a local vinyl emporium and us crazy people who shop there!

7/6, 7 PM a night of of poetry and music with Romanian screen star Ion Caramitru and clarinetist Aurelian Octav Popa at Symphony Space, free, early arrival advised

7/6 the queen of Coney Island phantasmagoria, Carol Lipnik & Spookarama – with the amazing Dred Scott on piano – at Barbes, 8 PM.

7/6, 8/10 PM lyrical inventive jazz piano improviser Matthew Shipp leads a trio at the Stone, $10

7/6, 8 PM Egyptian-American singer/songwriter Omnia joins slinky, intoxicating Egyptian film music rivalists Zikrayat for an eclectic night of music and bellydance at Yippie Cafe, 9 Bleecker St., $10/$8 stud.

7/6, 8/10 PM psychedelic funk legeneds Groove Collective at Iridium, $20.

7/6, 8:30 PM a good soul/funk doublebill: Empire Beats featuring chanteuse Camille Atkinson followed by Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds at the Knitting Factory, $15.

7/6, 9 PM intense, dramatic, cleverly lyrical songwriter Elaine Romanelli at the Path Cafe.

7/6, 11 PM House of Waters plays psychedelic worldbeat dulcimer music at the small room at the Rockwood.

7/6-7, 11 PM Afrobeat band Emefe plays the album release show for their new one Good Future at the 92YTribeca, $10 adv tix rec; 7/6 Burnt Sugar opens the night at 10.

7/6, 11:30 PM the Highway Gimps -the missing link between Motorhead and My Bloody Valentine – followed by noisy intense indie duo Eleanor at Matchless, $5

7/7, sets at 1 and 3 PM, PM eclectic, clever Russian/Gypsy/tango/cinematic soundtrack string band Ljova and the Kontraband at Fort Jay on Governors Island, free

7/7, 3 PM, in order to get into Central Park Summerstage to see Guided by Voices when they hit the stage around 5, you’ll have to stand through a whole set by at least one of the world’s suckiest bands. You might want to show up at 5 instead and take this one in from outside the arena.

7/7, 7 PM the Latin Jazz Coalition big band at Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City, free

7/7, 7:30 PM intense, virtuoso oudist and violinist Simon Shaheen and group kick off what will probably be a transcendent doublebill with politically fearless Algerian siren Souad Massi at Prospect Park Bandshell.

7/7, 7:30 PM indie classical ensemble ACME performs the darkly ambient Winged Victory For the Sullen, the first installment of the new collaboration between Stars of the Lid founder Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie and composer Dustin O’Halloran at le Poisson Rouge $15 adv tix highly rec.

7/7, 8 PM ferocious but smartly terse electric blues guitarist Bobby Radcliff at Terra Blues

7/7, 8 PM oldschool conscious hip hop lyricist Chubb Rock at Crotona Park in Queens.

7/7, 8 PM legendary synth band Tangerine Dream – who claim to have invented techno – at the Nokia Theatre, $35 tix avail.

7/7, 9 PM Unsteady Freddie’s surf rock show at Otto’s kicks off with ferocious Dick Dale-inspired trio 9th Wave, intense original sci-fi/surf rockers Mister Neutron at 10, Las Vegas trio Thee Swank Bastards at 11 and sometime after midnight excellent Link Wray cover band the WrayCyclers feat. members of the Octomen.

7/7, 9 PM haunting western noir songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Karen Dahlstrom at 68 Jay St. Bar.

7/7, 9 PM East Village Pharmacy and their psychedelic reggae/dub grooves followed by Unlimited Force playing more roots reggae at Shrine.

7/7, 9ish high-energy oldtime country blues chanteuse Jessy Carolina & the Hot Mess at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club

7/7, 10 PM Bad Buka and their gypsy punk meltdown at Mehanata

7/7, 11 PM high-energy virtuoso barrelhouse blues with the 4th St. Nite Owls at Freddy’s.

7/8, 3 PM pioneering, protean, recently reconfigured indie classical string quartet Ethel at at the Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, free w/museum adm ($10/$5 stud). N/Q to Broadway or F to Queensbridge/21st St.

7/8, 4 (four) PM dark torchy noir songwriter Jessie Kilguss at the small room at the Rockwood; she’s also at Caffe Vivaldi on 7/21 at 10:30

7/8, 6 PM smart, tuneful, counterintuitive Persian jazz/dub instrumentals with Sohrab’s SoSaLa featuring Brian Prunka on oud and Damon Banks on bass at Downtown Music Gallery.

7/8, 7 PM the Famous Accordion Orchestra followed at 9 by Stephane Wrembel. What? You don’t know them?

7/8, 8 PM the Haymarket Squares play punkgrass at Shrine.

7/8, 9 PM intense southwestern gothic rockers the Downward Dogs at Bowery Electric, free

7/9, 6:30 PM pianist/crooner Peter Mintun sings popular songs about New York from across the decades (emphasis on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, heavy on the cheese) at the Museum of the City of New York, $15.

7/9, 8 PM smart, guitarishly excellent, historically-inspired rock songwriter Elisa Flynn at Pete’s followed at 9 by Austin alt-country star Jarrod Dickenson.

7/9, 8:30 PM jazzy, improvisational, exhilarating all-female klezmer powerhouse Isle of Klezbos plays Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min., 7/12, 1 PM they’re outdoors at 6th Ave. and Canal St., free

7/9, 9 PM the Erica Seguine/Shannon Baker Jazz Orchestra play elegantly shapeshifting original compositions with a quirky sense of humor (and a Bach tango), a pleasant change from your usual big band fare, at Tea Lounge in Park Slope.

7/9, 9ish the Van Allen Belt play noirish girl-group indie pop at the Cameo Gallery, $5

7/9, 9 PM two-bass punk/indie band Sister Anne at Arlene’s, free; they’re also here on the 16th, same time.

7/9, midnight the wild and crazy retro 60s country Jack Grace Band at the Ear Inn.

7/10 5:30 PM stoner cumbia funk with Locos Por Juana outdoors out back of the World Financial Center, free

7/10, 6:30 PM up-and-coming saxophonist Lucas Pino leads a trio at the Bar Next Door, free.

7/10, 7 PM the self-explanatory, beguiling, atmospheric Erin Hill & Her Psychedelic Harp at Arlene’s

7/10, 7 PM perennially popular salsa chanteuse La India at Rockefeller Park.

7/10, 7:30 PM Magges put their own deliriously rocking spin on intense, often haunting traditional Greek rebetika music at Athens Square Park, 30th Ave (at 30th St.), Astoria, N/Q to 30th Ave. and walk one block.

7/10, 7:30 PM powerhouse lyricist, subtle acoustic rock singer Linda Draper with the excellent Rob Woodcock on bass at the Bitter End, $5

7/10, 7:30 PM jazz guitar virtuoso and archivist par excellence Matt Munisteri leads his band playing tracks from his new album Still Runnin’ Round in The Wilderness – The Lost Music of Willard Robison Vol I at Joe’s Pub

7/10, 7:30 PM well-loved indie classical orchestra the Knights play Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, Op 129, Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Thomas Ades’ Three Studies from Couperin and Colin Jacobsen’s arrangement of the classic Persian theme Ascending Bird at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, early arrival advised if you want a seat.

7/10, 8 PM Shenandoah and the Night play female-fronted noir soul music at the Cameo Gallery, $5

7/11, half past noon purist Britfolk songwriter Ian Link at 1 Liberty Plaza downtown

7/11, 6 PM electric blues stars from the 60s: John Mayall followed eventually at around 8 by Buddy Guy on the water out back of the World Financial Center, free.

7/11, 6:30 PM the Wiyos – whose psychedelic Wizard of Oz-inspired new album is killer – outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza. Raindate: 7/12.

7/11 edgy eclectic nouveau-cabaret chanteuse Nellie McKay at Madison Square Park, 7 PM.

7/11, 7:15 PM Persian-American chanteuse Mamak Khadem sings her new arrangements of Sohrab Sepehri poetry at Drom with her worldbeat ensemble, $20

7/11, 7:30 PM Missy Mazzoli and her moody, swirling, lushly artsy rock band Victoire at the Schimmel Auditorium at Pace University on Spruce St; free tix available 2 per person starting at 5 PM day of show.

7/11, 8 PM the NY Philharmonic plays Prospect Park, program TBA, enter south side of the park and get there early if you want a space on the lawn

7/11, 9 PM the Byzan-tones return with a bang at Zebulon – electric steampunk oud surf music par excellence followed at 11 by the “the mind-expanding exotic oriental/Greek/Istanbul madness” of George Stathos’ Karavani Orchestra.

7/11, 9 PM the self-explanatory NY Funk Exchange at Groove; they’re also here on 7/17, same time

7/11, 9ish high-energy acoustic vintage Americana with PartyFolk at Rodeo Bar.

7/11, 10ish creepy but upbeat Chicago synth/noise band Wolf in a Spacesuit at Glasslands, $10

7/11, 11ish the Gogol Bordello of rock en Espanol, Outernational at Bowery Electric, $10, early arrival advised.

7/11, 11 PM Guantanamo Baywatch – whose creepy ghoulabilly punk reminds a little of the Dead Kennedys – at Cake Shop, $8

7/12, noon, newschool blues powerhouse Shemekia Copeland at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free, opening for what’s left of NRBQ.

7/12, 2 PM oldtime swing archivist/bandleader Michael Arenella & His Hot Eight out in front of Cercle Rouge 241 West Broadway (btw Walker & White St.), free

7/12, 5 PM the Wailers or what’s left of Marley’s old backup band in Theatre Square outside NJPAC in Newark, free

7/12, 7 PM oldschool/newschool soul spectacular: Charles Bradley & the Extraordinaires and then Neko Case on the water out back of the World Financial Center, free.

7/12, 7 PM George Clinton & P-Funk at Rockefeller Park – 71 and still at it!

7/12, 7 PM powerhouse violin metal group Stratospheerius at Shrine.

7/12-15 7:30/9:30 PM bass legend Christian McBride and his reliably amazing Big Band at Dizzy’s Club, $35 seats avail.

7/12, 8 PM a rare US appearance by French klezmer band Nigun followed at 10 by another more local klezmer legend, Andy Statman ($10 cover) at Barbes.

7/12, 8:30 PM dazzling klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and her band on the roof of the Manhattan JCC, Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St., $12.

7/12, 9 PM invigorating oldtime swing with Gordon’s Grand Street Stompers at Radegast Hall.

7/12, 9ish catchy, slinky rock en Espanol crew Ernesto at Local 269

7/12, 10 PM a killer triplebill of Barbes bands at SOB’s: the psychedelic surfy Chicha Libre, gypsyish ska-minded Karikatura and the psychedelically funky People’s Champs, $12 adv tix highly rec. Order of bands is unknown but they’re all good.

7/12, 10 PM dark original bluegrass paradigm-shifters Frankenpine at Union Hall, $8.

7/12, 10 PM wickedly tuneful, fearless, funny, socially aware all-girl janglerock/folk band Left on Red play the Bitter End, $10.

7/12, 10 PM trumpeter Steven Bernstein’s perennially funky Sex Mob at 55 Bar

7/12, 10:30 PM dark psychedelic Ethiopian funk grooves with the Funk Ark at Sullivan Hall, $10.

7/13, 7 PM the legendary and exhilarating Kálmán Balogh Gypsy Cimbalom Trio at Joe’s Pub, $15.

7/13, 7:30ish scorching Radio Birdman-style garage punk band the Mess Around at Grand Victory in Williamsburg

7/13, better get to the lawn at Central Park by 7 PM (use the W 72nd St. entrance) to see the NY Phil playing Tschaikovsky’s 4th Symphony plus Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome at 8.

7/13, 7 PM trippy intense Persian jazz with SoSaLa featuring saxophonist Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi. followed at 8 by Louie Belogenis + Lukas Ligeti at Ange Noir Café, 247 Varet St (between White St & Bogart St), Williamsburg, L to Morgan Ave.

7/13, 8 PM Uruguayan composer/performers: the haunting Ernesto Diaz and Yisela Sosa at Barbes followed at 10ish by the incomparable, psychedelic, dubwise Chicha Libre, whose new album Canibalismo is one of the year’s best.

7/13, 8:30 PM entrancing cello/marimba duo Goli at Caffe Vivaldi.

7/13, 8:30 PM drummer and Paul Motian devotee Jeff Cosgrove leads a really killer quintet with Noah Preminger – sax; Mat Maneri – viola; Frank Kimbrough – piano; Joe Martin – bass at I-Beam, $10.

7/13, 9/10:30 PM amazing Persian-American saxophonist/composer Hafez Modirzadeh plays the album release for his new album Post-Chromodal with an all-star lineup: Amir ElSaffar – trumpet; Vijay Iyer – piano; Ken Filiano – bass; Royal Hartigan – drums at the Jazz Gallery, $20

7/13, 9 PM original Ethiopian-flavored funk with Debo Band at the Bell House, $15.

7/13, 9 PM, 3/4 of oldtime close harmony hillbilly group the Weal and the Woe followed at 10 by the high-powered barrelhouse blues of the 4th St. Nite Owls at the Jalopy, $10.

7/13, 9:30 PM slashing Balkan party jams with Raya Brass Band at the Cameo Gallery, $10.

7/13, 10 PM charismatic powerhouse southwestern gothic bandleader Julia Haltigan at the big room at the Rockwood.

7/13-14, 10 PM soulful low-key veteran reedman Ken Peplowski leads his Quartet with Ehud Asherie – piano , Martin Wind – bass , Matt Wilson – drums at Smalls followed at 1 AM by the smart ragtime-infused Spike Wilner Trio

7/13, 11 PM the funky Deathrow Tull (gotta love that name) open for P-Funk keyboard legend Bernie Worrell at the Mercury, $10 adv tix onsale 6/1.

7/13, midnight Afrobeat grooves with Zongo Junction at Sullivan Hall

7/14 Argentinian ska-punk rockers Los Auténticos Decadentes at 5ish at Central Park Summerstage.

7/14, 5 PM a huge jazz ensemble celebrates the music of eclectic composer Hyeseon Hong at Something Jazz Club, $10+$10 min

7/14, 7 PM careening paisley underground/oldschool country band the Newton Gang followed by Her & Kings County at Highline Ballroom, $12 adv tix rec. First discovered this twangy, excellently tuneful country-rock band at a show at Hank’s one cold night back in the zeros. Frontwoman Monique Staffile was genuine and down-to-earth, and still is, and the band has gone on to be a big touring act.

7/14, 7:30 PM eclectic, intense, improvisational ex-Soviet Georgian guitarist Ilusha Tsinadze with his group at Joe’s Pub, $15

7/14, 7:30/9:30 PM tuneful, edgy jazz saxophonist Tom Tallitsch leads a trio at at the Bar Next Door, free.

7/14, 8 PM Pierre de Gaillande’s Bad Reputation plays witty English translations of Georges Brassens classics followed at 10 by the self-explanatory Cumbiagra at Barbes

7/14, 8/11 PM Debbie Davies – one of the world’s most exhilarating blues guitarists – at Lucille’s, $10 adv tix rec.

7/14, 8 PM edgy politically-fueled hip-hop with Jedi Mind Tricks and La Coka Nostra at the Gramercy Theatre, $26.50 adv tix avail. at the Irving Plaza box ofc.

7/14, 10 PM diverse Americana songwriter/blues guitar genius Will Scott at 68 Jay St. Bar

7/15, 4:45 PM organist William H. Atwood plays a recital at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

7/15, 7:30 PM well-respected avant garde ensemble Alarm Will Sound play a program of new music TBA at the Schimmel Auditorium at Pace University on Spruce St; free tix available 2 per person starting at 5 PM day of show.

7/15, 8 PM charismatic, intense, slyly literate oldtime Americana ukulele songwriter/chanteuse Kelli Rae Powell -“wearing a large dress,” hmmm…at the Jalopy, followed by Lara Ewen at 9 and Shannon Pelcher at 10, $10

7/15, 8ish surfy psychedelic Colombian indie band Il Albanico at Union Hall, $7.

7/15 the inventors of “slowcore,” Codeine are back together and playing le Poisson Rouge at 10 PM, $15 adv tix a must, this may sell out.

7/15, 10 PM smart, acerbically comedic Paranoid Larry & His Imaginary Band at Otto’s

7/16, 7 PM fiery psychedelic female-fronted power trio Devi at Bowery Electric.

7/16, 7:30 PM sly lyrical intense noir piano jazz with the Dred Scott Trio at Smalls.

7/16, 7:30 PM Harumi Rhodes, violin; Caroline Stinson, cello; Makoto Fujimura, visual artist and Molly Morkoski, piano perform music of Messiaen, Debussy, Ravel, Takemitsu and Piazzolla at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

7/16 the NY Phil is back in Central Park, program TBA, starts at 8, get there early.

7/16, 8ish Bootsy Collins at Wingate Field in Crown Heights, free: early arrival might be a good idea if you can get in at all (security is draconian: leave anything objectionable at home).

7/16 8 PM a surprisingly good bunch of New York songwriters cover Joni Mitchell’s Blue at City Winery: Meg Braun, Anna Dagmar, Honor Finnegan, Sharon Goldman, Victoria Lavingtoin, Catherine Miles, Elisa Peimer, Cheryl Prashker, Allison Scola, Carolann Solebello, Allison Tartalia, and last but hardly least, Kirsten Williams, $10

7/16, 9 PM Montreal big band jazz with the Franky Rousseau Large Band at Tea Lounge in Park Slope.

7/17, 7 PM the Ebony Hillbillies – NYC’s one and only black bluegrass band – at Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City, free.

7/17-19, 7:30/9:30 PM one of the most interesting and original yet totally oldschool pianists in jazz right now, Orrin Evans plays the Jazz Standard:7/17 with a trio, $20; 7/18 with a quintet, $25; 7/19 with the phenomenal Captain Black Big Band, $25.

7/17, 8/10 PM Geri Allen & Laurie Anderson at the Stone, $20, ostensibly playing piano/violin duets – wow – get there early.

7/17, 8 PM NYC’s most adventurous, entertaining string quartet, Brooklyn Rider play works by Ljova and other intriguing composers at the Loewe Theatre at NYU, 35 W 4th St., free, early arrival advised.

7/17-21, 8:30/11 PM tunefully cutting-edge pianist Jason Moran +3 at Birdland, $30 tix avail.

7/17, 9 PM noir cityscape rock with Lorraine Leckie and Anthony Haden-Guest playing songs off their forthcoming studio collaboration at the Gershwin Hotel, $10

7/17, 9 PM jazzy surf/instrumental band Dog Adrift at Shrine

7/18, 6:30 PM the Gregorio Uribe Big Band outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza.

7/18, 10ish wild funky hypnotic Indian bhangra brass band Red Baraat on the flight deck of the Intrepid, 46th St. and the Hudson, free w/rsvp, 21+

7/18 powerhouse, socially aware jazz drummer/bandleader Jeff “Tain” Watts and his Quartet at Madison Square Park, 7 PM.

7/18 newschool roots reggae crew Passafire play the Rocks Off Concert Cruise aboard the Half Moon, boarding at 7 at the heliport at 23rd St and the FDR, departing at 8, $20 adv tix rec. at the Highline Ballroom box ofc.

7/18, 7 PM Clare & the Reasons – who can be lush and haunting or annoyingly twee (mon frere – you ought to 86 the whistling) – at le Poisson Rouge, $10.

7/18, 8 PM torchy alt-country chanteuse Karen Hudson followed by a rare acoustic show by hilarious oldschool honkytonk band Trailer Radio at Gizzi’s on W 8th St.

7/18, 8/10 PM Burnt Sugar Arkestra revisits their ambient roots with music inspired by Sun Ra’s The Nubians of Plutonia at the Stone, $10

7/18, 8 PM Big Daddy Kane raps to the neighborhood on his old turf in Queensbridge Park.

7/18, 9 PM dark, lyrically-driven, female-fronted acoustic blues/country band the Sometime Boys at the Parkside

7/18, 9ish rustic oldtime upbeat swing/country blues bandleader Woody Pines at Rodeo Bar.

7/19, 1 PM Twistycat – the “site-specific electroacoustic bass woodwinds brainchild of Ed Bear and Lea Bertucci” – does strange and interesting things with bass clarinet and baritone sax at the intersection of Canal and 6th Ave., free

7/19, 6:30 high-powered, eclectic tenor saxophonist Geoff Vidal leads a trio at the Bar Next Door, free

7/19, 7 PM Tracy Island (Ian and Liza from wickedly tuneful psychedelic new wave band the Larch) followed by redoubtable literate janglerocker Paula Carino  (whose most recent album ranked #1 of the year at this blog) with her band at Local 269.

7/19, 7 PM iconic noir guitarist Jim Campilongo and his trio at Rockefeller Park downtown, free

7/19, 7:30 PM the world’s #1 hip-hop influenced ten-piece Balkan brass band, Slavic Soul Party plus open wine/beer bar plus free kosher ice cream at the Jewish Museum, $15/$12 stud/srs.

7/19 a good night at Smalls: 7:30 PM intense, smart, melodically brilliant pianist Danny Fox leads a trio with Chris van Voorst van Beest – bass , Max Goldman – drums followed at 10 the equally eclectic Joris Teepe’s Group, a trio this time out with Matt Wilson – drums , Don Braden – tenor sax.

7/19, 8 PM Dawoud – “the Jimi Hendrix of the sitar” – leads his uncategorizable worldbeat/jazz/jamband at the Gershwin Hotel, $10

7/19, 9ish Louisville early 80s style noise-punk band Anwar Sadat at Death by Audio, $7

7/19, 9ish LES surf/rockabilly/soul guitar legend Simon & the Bar Sinisters at Rodeo Bar.

7/19, 10 PM the funky, hip-hop influenced Underground Horns at the Cameo Gallery, $10.

7/19, midnight creepy minor-key harmonica blues with Stringbean & the Stalkers at the Ear Inn.

7/20, 6ish songwriters from the north Atlantic: the torchy British Cordelia Stephens followed by smart, rustic Irishman Niall Connolly at the American Folk Art Museum, free

7/20, 7 PM torchy oldtime swing with Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers plus suave blues guitarist Duke Robillard and band at B.B. King’s, $25 adv tix rec.

7/20, 7 PM melodic jazz pianist Noah Haidu leads a quartet with Jon Irabagon, alto sax; McClenty Hunter, drums; Ariel De La Portilla, bass at the Rubin Museum of Art, 150 W 17th St. ,$20

7/20, 7:15 PM intense Middle Eastern metal/jazz jams with Hypercolor feat. Eyal Maoz (guitar), James Ilgenfritz (bass), Lukas Ligeti (drums) at Ange Noir Café, 247 Varet St (between White St & Bogart St), Williamsburg, L to Morgan Ave.

7/20, 8 PM paradigmatic smart 80s new wave popsters Squeeze in the converted parking lot at W 21st St and Surf Ave in Coney Island, free. The Romantics play What I Like About You beforehand.

7/20, 8 PM Tom Chess on oud and ney, with William McEvoy, bass;Shane Shanahan, percussion; Kenny Warren, trumpet playing original compositions at Bargemusic, $25/$20 srs/ $15stud

7/20, 8 PM Num’s Nu Afrika play roots reggae at Shrine.

7/20-21, 9/10:30 PM diverse, soulful pan-latin jazz chanteuse Claudia Acuna does an intriguing series of quartet shows with the phenomenal Juancho Herrera – guitar; Michael Olatuja – bass; Yayo Serka – drums at the Jazz Gallery, $20

7/20, 9ish dark garage rockers the Detroit Cobras at Maxwell’s.

7/20, 9 PM oldschool-style Senegalese-flavored roots reggae with Meta & the Cornerstones at the 92YTribeca $12 adv tix rec.

7/20, 9:30 PM torchy oldtimey rock/swing siren Eleni Mandell at Joe’s Pub $15.

7/20, 10 PM the self-explanatory Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowout at 55 Bar.

7/21, 6 PM a rare solo acoustic show by noir NYC rock legend LJ Murphy at the National Underground

7/21, 7:30 PM Arturo O’Farrill  – whose new solo piano album is amazing – & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra feat. trumpeter Arturo Sandoval at Prospect Park Bandshell.

7/21, 7:30 PM “The Wake Up Madagascar” Tour raising global ecological awareness feat. chanteuse Razia Said, Jaojoby, Charles Kely, Saramba at le Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix rec.

7/21, 9 PM king of the surf guitar, Dick Dale, still setting picks on fire, at the Brooklyn Bowl, $15.

7/21, 9ish fearlessly intense indie rock songwriter/guitarslinger Jennifer O’Connor at Fontana’s.

7/21 9:30ish catchy latin ska/punk rockers Karikatura at Mehanata.

7/21, 11 PM fiery, hyperliterate punk/powerpop alienation anthems with Hannah vs. the Many at Sidewalk. She’ll hear how awful the sound here is and go back to playing better venues after this. But it’s a free show and that wail of hers barely needs amplification.

7/21, 11ish ageless, charmingly jangly lo-fi Japanese rocker women Shonen Knife at the Bell House, $12. They’re at Maxwell’s the following night for the same price, a little earlier, 9ish.

7/21, 1 AM (actually wee hours of 7/22) diverse, funky jazz violinist Zach Brock and band at the small room at the Rockwood.

7/22 the annual Jamaican jerk festival, gates open at noon, guessing that music starts around 5:30 with crooner Tarrus Riley (Jimmy Riley’s kid) & Fab 5 Band at Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans at the edge of Queens (Merrick and Baisley Blvd), $25 adv tix available at VP Records, 170-21 Jamaica Avenue in Queens (includes free copy of Reggae Gold 2012), tix also at Veggie Castle, The Door, Genesis Restaurant, Topaz Restaurant Brooklyn, Moodies Records, Peoples Choice Furniture, and Miss Lily’s Variety on Houston

7/22, 1 PM a celebration of Colombian independence and music with Alejandro Zuleta, Daniel Fetecua y Pajarillo Pinta’o, Gregorio Uribe, Diego Obregon y Grupo Chonta, Johanna Castañeda y Joropeando, Martin Vejarano and La Cumbiamba eNeYé, Pablo Mayor’s Folklore Urbano and Grupo Rebolú featuring Ronald Polo and Moris Cañate plus Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto headlining outdoors adjacent to Queens Theatre in the Park in Corona Park; 7 train to Shea Stadium, walk toward what’s left of the Globosphere and you’ll hear the festivities

7/22, 2 (two) PM Brooklyn Rider’s Johnny Gandelsman, violin; Christina Courtin, viola and Alex Greenbaum, cello play Haydn – String Trio in G Major, Op. 53, No.1; Beethoven – String Trio in G Major, Op 9, No 1; Schubert – String Trio in B-flat Major, D. 581 and Dohnanyi- Serenade in C Major, Op 10 at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs./$15stud.

7/22, 6 PM ex-Ellington trombonist Art Baron with Jennifer Vincent on bass, Steve Elson on saxes, David Phelps on guitar plus special guests at Bowery Poetry Club.

7/22, 7 PM dark, moody nuevo-soul band Shenandoah & the Night at Pier One on the upper west.

7/22 7:30 PM dark stormy intense avant/tango/classical pianist Fernando Otero followed eventually around 9 by dark retro 80s rocker Alfonso Velez at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, $5

7/22, 8 PM haunting, intense pan-Middle Eastern trio Niyaz at Drom, $20 adv tix rec.

7/22 Fisherman play Polynesian-flavored “exotica” at Rodeo Bar, 9ish.

7/22 10 PM up-and-coming noir guitar virtuoso Ben Von Wildenhaus at Manhattan Inn, solo with his trusty loop pedal

7/22, 10 PM upbeat, smartly lyrical oldtime original swing tunes with the Dirty Urchins at the Cameo Gallery, $8.

7/23, 7:30 PM amazing triplebill at Zirzamin: the Dimestore Dance Duo feat. Jack Martin and Jude Webre playing their gypsy Twin Peaks guitar music, followed at 8:30 by celebrated noir chanteuse Nicole Atkins and at 10ish Gato Loco with their eerie but totally here-and-now retro-style Cuban instrumentals.

7/23, 8ish soca legend the Mighty Sparrow at Wingate Field in Crown Heights, free.

7/23, 8 PM Sweetheart of the Rodeo style country purists Whisperado at Spike Hill

7/23, 9 PM Cumbia Machin play chicha at Shrine – look out Chicha Libre, there’s another psychedelic cumbia band in town!

7/23 ferocious surf instrumentalists the Octomen – who could be as few as three and as many as eight – at Rodeo Bar 9ish

7/23 smart, multilingual Malian hip-hop/reggae/acoustic band SMOD at SOB’s, 9 PM, $18 adv tix rec.

7/23, 10 PM Rachael Bell’s dark Americana janglers Mesiko at Fontana’s, $10 incl. new 7″ single by Corporal

7/24 the Wallflowers at Bowery Ballroom are sold out

7/24, 5:30 PM charming, sly, innuendo-driven French chanson revivalists les Chauds Lapins on the plaza out back of the World Financial Center.

7/24, 6:30 PM versatile and insightful pianist Katie Reimer backs soprano Jo Ellen Miller and baritone John Maynard in a diverse program starting with the Romantic period and moving forward with art songs by Hugo Wolf, Brahms, Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Zemlinsky and Pfitzner at Liederkranz, 6 E 87th St., $20.

7/24, 7 PM the Cambodian Space Project play psychedelic Asian rock at Barbes followed at 9 by Balkan brass behemoth Slavic Soul Party (whose new album is characteristically off the hook).

7/24-28 8:30/11 PM newschool pianist Pablo Ziegler’s Tango Connection feat. violinist Regina Carter at Birdland, $30 seats avail

7/24, 9 PM torchy, jaunty, irresistibly fun oldtimey band Mornin Old Sport play the Jalopy, $10.

7/25, noon gypsy/latin/ska band Karikatura outdoors at the triangle across Amsterdam Ave. from Lincoln Center.

7/25 Elizabeth & the Catapult at Bowery Ballroom are sold out. Good for them

7/25, 6:30 PM jazz guitar genius Matt Munisteri leads his band outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza.

7/25 jazz violinist Regina Carter’s Reverse Thread at Madison Square Park, 7 PM.

7/25, 7 PM crooner Ricky Rubio and pianist Alba Mazza deliver Neopolitan favorites; singer Gianvito Bottalico performs Italian love songs and Barese specialties at Athens Square Park in Astoria, N to 30th Ave., free

7/25, 7:30/9:30 PM tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger leads a quartet with Ben Monder – guitar; John Hebert – bass; Colin Stranahan – drums at the Jazz Standard, $20.

7/26, 6 PM multi-wind virtuoso Demetrius Spaneas and pianist Jeffrey Goldberg improvise at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min., followed by hilarious, crazed jazz punks Mostly Other People Do the Killing at 8:30 (separate admission, same deal).

7/26-29, 7:30/9:30 PM multi-reed powerhouse Anat Cohen leads a series of combos at the Jazz Standard: 7/26 a duo with guitarist Romero Lubambo,$25; 7/27 a quartet featuring guitarist Howard Alden, $30; 7/28 with her big band Anzaic Orchestra, $30; 7/29 an especially tantalizing duo with pianist Fred Hersch, $25

7/26, 8 PM clever, lushly orchestrated art-rockers the Universal Thump at Barbes followed at 11 by the dark, spare, gypsy-tinged Kotorino.

7/26, 8 PM intense Turkish/klezmer/gypsy rockers Raquy & the Cavemen’s farewell NYC show at Drom, free w/rsvp to (212) 777-1157.

7/26, 8 PM NYC’s original Balkan brass behemoth, Zlatne Uste on the roof of the Manhattan JCC, Amsterdam Ave. and 76th St., discount $10 tix available with promo code CTMDFIDDLE.

7/26, 8 PM Red White & Nuge – “a night of right wing rock for lefties” – at LIC Bar: members of 2 Skinnie J’s, the Losers Lounge band, the Tall Pines and more play songs by right-wing nutjobs Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kid Rock, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, Grand Funk RR and, of course, The Nuge! $10 contrib. to the LIC for Obama campaign includes free buffet and t-shirt while supplies last. Hey – he’s been less than we hoped for, but at least he’s not Romney.

7/26, 8 PM young Serbian gypsy music/hip-hop ensemble GRUBB at Damrosch Park out back of Lincoln Center, free.

7/26, 8ish noir and lurid Americana: powerhouse lyricist/banjoist Curtis Eller and the Moonlighters’ perennially allusing, increasingly noir Bliss Blood at Waltz-Astoria, 23-14 Ditmars Blvd., Astoria

7/27, 6ish Liz Tormes at the American Folk Art Museum. A couple of years ago she put out a phenomenal gothic Americana rock record; here’s a chance to see how dark and intense she can get in an acoustic setting.

7/27, 6:30 PM a cultural salute to Egypt outdoors at the Queens Museum of Art in Corona Park, with Saidi stick dancing accompanied by a combo provided by the musical hotspot Alwan for the Arts followed at 8 by a screening of Ahmad Abdallahmad Abdalla’s 2010 film Microphone, which explores the music and arts scenes in Alexandria through the eyes of a recently returned expat. 7 train to Shea Stadium, exit across the street from the ballpark

7/27, 8 PM eclectic, shapeshifting saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin’s Wonderland feat. Turkish star Husnu Senlendirici at Drom, $15 adv tix highly rec.

7/27, 8:30 PM Colombian traditional music supergroup Los Irreales de Ondatrópica at Damrosch Park behind Lincoln Center

7/27, 9 PM Impostor Syndrome play dark female-fronted powerpop at Arlene’s.

7/27, 9 PM unaffectedly tuneful Americana rocker Jason Waters and band at Zirzamin

7/27, 10 PM dark 4AD-style dreampop rockers Dead Leaf Echo at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge in Bushwick, $7; they’re also doing a rare acoustic show at Pete’s on 8/2.

7/27, 10 PM psychedelic funk with the People’s Champs at Barbes.

7/27, 10:30ish Karikatura play smart, politically aware gypsy punk, ska and latin rock at Zebulon

7/27, 11 PM dark garage rock with King Khan & the Shrines at Bowery Ballroom, $15.

7/28, 5ish powerhouse electric blues guitarist Guy Clark Jr. at Central Park Summerstage

7/28, 6 PM guitarist Gerard Edery plays Sephardic music from across the diaspora at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10+ $10 min followed by lyrical third-stream jazz pianist Jacob Sacks leading a quintet with Jacob Garchik and Ben Gerstein, trombones; Thomas Morgan, bass; Dan Weiss, drums, separate admission 9/10 PM, same deal

7/28, 6:30 PM Istanbulive a.k.a. “Turkish Woodstock IV” feat. an amazingly eclectic all-Turkish bill with the Secret Trio (an exciting new gypsy/jazz summit withAra Dinkjian, Ismail Lumanovski and Tamer Pinarbasi), trippy saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin’s Wonderland feat. Turkish sax legend Husnu Senlendirici, and then the long-overdue US debut of a folk and protest music legend, chanteuse Selda Bagcan at Damrosch Park, early arrival a must, these events are perennially popular.

7/28, 7:30/9:30 PM eclectic jazz saxophonist Patrick Cornelius leads a trio at the Bar Next Door, $12.

7/28, 8 PM atmospheric loop-friendly art-rockers the Quavers followed at 10 by the haunting pan-latin Las Rubias Del Norte – who have more than a bit of chicha in them – at Barbes.

7/28, 9 PM weird segue, good doublebill: subtle, soulful bossa/samba chanteuse Rachel Brotman and her band followed at 10 by unpredictable indie multi-instrumentalist Kristin Mueller with bluesy violist Karen Waltuch (of the phenomenal Roulette Sisters) at Pete’s.

7/28, 9 PM ferocious, tuneful female-fronted gypsy punk/noir cabaret band Amour Obscur at Mehanata

7/28, 9:30 PM hypnotic Afrobeat jams with Elikeh at Joe’s Pub, $14.

7/28, 11 PM artsy, anthemic, brilliant metal band Of Earth downstairs at the Delancey, $10.

7/29, 2 (two) PM the Horszowski Trio: Jesse Mills, violin; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Rieko Aizawa, piano – play Saint-Saens Piano Trio No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18; Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 8; Schubert Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major, D.929, Op. 100; at Bargemusic $35 ($30 senior, $15 student)

7/29, 6 PM Israeli jazz/metal guitarist Yoshie Fruchter at Downtown Music Gallery – bring earplugs.

7/29, 7 PM the Imani Winds play Mohammed Fairouz’ new composition Jebel Lebnan plus other intriguing works, reception to follow, at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, 120 W. 69th St., free

7/29, 7 PM Joe Hurley’s annual, high-spirited night of Irish rock, first Hurley playing with the Gents to open and then Joe Hurley’s All-Star Irish Rock Revue co-hosted by sharp, literate crooner Ed Rogers, plus downtown NY legend Willie Nile, members of the Mekons, Cracker, Alice Cooper Group, Bob Dylan’s band, Blue Oyster Cult and others, early arrival advised.

7/29, 8 PM one of the most interesting, smartly politically aware roots reggae bands around, Taj Weekes & Adowa at Springfield Park in Queens.

7/29, 9 PM Commercial Interruption plays ferocious original surf rock at Otto’s.

7/29, 9 PM Ameranouche play gypsy jazz at Red Hook Bait & Tackle.

7/30, 7:30 PM Natasha Paremski, piano with Philippe Quint, violin play works by Prokofiev, Balakirev, Piazzolla and the New York premiere of Fred Hersch’s Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

7/30, 8ish dark female-fronted dreampop/retro 80s guitar band Beast Make Bomb plays their final show – they’re breaking up – at the downstairs studio space at Webster Hall, $10

7/30, 8:30ish Public Enemy at Wingate Field in Crown Heights, free

7/30, 10 PM a rare small club date by the phenomenal, darkly melodic tenor sax of JD Allen and his Trio with the amazing Gregg August on bass and this era’s greatest extrovert jazz drummer, Rudy Royston, at Smalls

7/31, 5:30 PM Cape Verdean chanteuse Maria de Barros on the plaza out back of the World Financial Center.

7/31, 5:30 PM NYC country/hillbilly/gospel stars Ollabelle in the parking lot behind City Winery, free.

7/31, 7 PM Min Xiao-Fen’s astounding avant/jazz/Chinese classical Blue Pipa Trio at Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City, free

7/31, 8 PM underrated 90s hip-hop lyrical genius Keith Murray at Tappen Park in Staten Island.

7/31, 8/10 PM Motema honcho and stylistic globetrotter Jana Herzen plays original works on guitar, kalimba and percussion with probably numerous special guests at the Stone, $10.

7/31, 9 PM lyrical purist jazz piano with the Jim Ridl Trio feat. John Benitez – bass , Donald Edwards – drums at Smalls

7/31, 9 PM jazz violinist Yoojin Park leads a quintet at Something Jazz Club, no cover, $10 min.

7/31, 9:30 PM quirky, playful, smart cabaret/chamber-pop with Grace McLean and Them Apples at the big room at the Rockwood

7/31-8/4, 11:30 PM powerful oldschool style jazz belter Brianna Thomas with her band at Dizzy’s Club, $5 seats avail!

8/1, 7 PM the Imani Winds play all NYC premiere program plus appearances by the United States Air Force wind quintet and the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet at Advent Lutheran Church, 2504 Broadway at 93rd St, free.

8/1, 7:30 PM Harlem’s original eclectic punk band the Band-Droidz at the downstairs studio space at Webster Hall, $12

8/1-5 veteran soul/jazz tenor saxophonist Lou Donaldson leads a B3 organ quartet at the Jazz Standard, 7:30/9:30 PM, $25 ($30 on the weekend).

8/1, 8 PM the probably assaultive, gypsy-flavored New York Chamber Trio: Eyal Maoz (guitars) Ron Caswell (tuba)Chris Stromquist (drums) followed at 10 by one of the most reliably interesting improvisers around, Marty Ehrlich (reeds) with Drew Gress (bass) and Ches Smith (drums) at the Stone, $10

8/1, 9 PM Israeli Middle Eastern dance-funk orchestra Yemen Blues at Damrosch Park, early arrival advised. If you need to see them in air-conditioned comfort, they’re at City Winery at 8 on 8/4 for $22 and will probably sell out even though this is a free show.

8/1, 8 PM chanteuse/uke player Bliss Blood’s torchy, lurid noir cinematic duo Evanescent at 68 Jay St. Bar.

8/1, 9:30 PM richly twangy Americana rockers Alana Amram & the Rough Gems at the Mercury, $10.

8/1, 9:30 PM cello/drums free jazz duets with Daniel Levin and Juan Pablo Carletti at Culturefix

8/2, noon, Afrobeat hip-hop bandleader Blitz the Ambassador at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free.

8/2, 6:30 PM intense, eclectic jazz composer/tenor saxophonist Geoff Vidal with Sean Conly on bass and Jochen Rueckert on drums at the Bar Next Door, free.

8/2, 7 PM eclectic oldtime acoustic blues powerhouse Blind Boy Paxton at Terra Blues

8/2, 8 PM dark, charismatic, deviously witty literate keyboardist/chanteuse Rachelle Garniez at Barbes followed at 10 by New Orleans brass band Tuba Skinny.

8/2, 8 PM multi-instrumentalist Pete Lanctot and band play new oldtimey gypsy-tinged jazz at the Castello Plan in Ditmas Park.

8/2, 9 PM high-energy oldtime swing and blues with Jessy Carolina & the Hot Mess at Radegast Hall. They’re also here on 8/23.

8/2, midnight the Hsu-Nami play Taiwanese art-rock/metal instrumentals with electrified er-hu violin at Trash, $7 – this band is unbelievably intense and a lot of fun.

8/2, midnight, psychedelic downtempo/trip-hop indie pop band Vacationer at Union Hall, $12.

8/2, 8:30 PM the reliably devious, powerhouse Jon Irabagon on alto sax with Mark Helias, bass; Barry Altschul, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min; they’re here again on 8/4 at 9 and 10:30, same deal

8/2, 9ish noir guitar stylist Ben Von Wildenhaus with his band followed by the recently regrouped and amazing Dimestore Dance Band – the missing link between Django Reinhardt and Erik Satie, now more noir than ever – at Zebulon.

8/2, 9 PM hip-hop brass band grooves with PitchBlak Brass Band at Shrine, free. They’re also at Joe’s Pub on 8/19 at 9:30 PM for $12

8/2, 9ish irreverent oldschool Williamsburg vocal jazz crew the Old Rugged Sauce at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club. They’re also here on the 23rh, same time.

8/2, 9ish the Bad Plus play Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring at Damrosch Park behind Lincoln Center – don’t say you weren’t warned.

8/2, 10 PM Stratospheerius – the original violin metal band, whose new album reputedly shreds (don’t they always) at the Delancey, $10.

8/2, 10 PM saxophonist Jacob Garchik’s tuneful, sometimes brooding 3rd-stream 4twenty project at I-Beam, $10

8/2, 10:30 PM Jack Grace’s edgy, recently reunited, funky jamband Steak – who were a sort of early zeros counterpart to Little Feat – at Bowery Electric, free

8/2, 10:30 PM hilariously filthy, theatrical punk girlgroup pop spoof Cudzoo & the Fagettes at the Mercury, $10.

8/2, 11 PM Spanish jazz guitarist Dave Juarez with his versatile band at Desmond’s of all places.

8/3, 6 PM the Matt Cross Gypsy Jazz Quartet at Radegast Hall

8/3, 7:30 PM psychedelic funk orchestra Turkuaz at the Cameo Gallery, $12.

8/3, 8 PM dark female-fronted 4AD-style dreampop rockers Dead Leaf Echo at the Knitting Factory, $10.

8/3, 8/10 PM bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz’s Abraxas plays the cd release show for their performance of John Zorn’s Masada: Book of Angels Vol. 19 with Aram Bajakian (guitars), Eyal Maoz (guitars), Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (on gimbri this time), Kenny Grohowski (drums) at the Stone, $10

8/3, 9ish chanteuse/pianist Kate Mattison’s torchy, hypnotic, catchy downtempo/trip-hop soul trio Mattison at the small room at the Rockwood.

8/3, 10:30 PM oldschool 60s organ/trombone soul-jazz with the Jared Gold /Dave Gibson Quintet at the Fat Cat.

8/3, 11 PM edgy, upbeat bluesy original swing tunes with guitarist Miss Tess & the Talkbacks at the 92YTribeca, $10

8/3, 11 PM intriguing dark indie folk group Colorform – who combine live painting with live music – at Culturefix. Colorform at Culturefix – how’s that for 3 syllables?

8/4, sets 1 and 3 PM, the Jack Quartet play works by Guillaume de Machaut, Charles Ives, Brian Baumbush, Ken Thomson, Payton MacDonald and David Crowell on Colonels Row on Governors Island, free

8/4 well-loved Malian bandleaders/crooner-and-chanteuse duo Amadou & Mariam at Central Park Summerstage, 5ish, early arrival advised.

8/4, 6:30 PM oldtime and bluegrass night with Spirit Family Reunion, Cahalen Morrison & Eli West and Del McCoury and band at Prospect Park Bandshell.

8/4, 7ish one of the year’s most unlikely but best triplebills: reliably hilarious faux-French garage rockers les Sans Culottes, psychedelic country/blues/bluegrass band American String Conspiracy and the unstoppably ferocious noir/ghoulabilly monster that is the Reid Paley Trio at Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook, $12

8/4, 8 PM “Music of Early Spain and beyond… bridging the ancient to the present with exotic songs, compelling dances and virtuosic improvisations, ALBA perform early Mediterranean music on traditional instruments. ALBA evokes the haunting melodies and dynamic rhythms of the Iberian peninsula as well as music from its Middle-Eastern and European neighbors. Through the time of La Convivencia when Christian, Jewish and Muslim cultures flourished together to the Golden Age of Spain, ALBA makes this passionate music contemporary. With Margo Gezairlian Grib, voice, vielle; Rex Benincasa, percussion; Haig Manoukian, oud; Christopher Morrongiello, lute, guitarra Española at Bargemusic, $35 ($30 senior, $15 student).

8/4, 8 PM “an international quartet of improvisers dedicated to charming the Snake with sounds inspired by the Berber trance music of a real and imaginary Morocco: Satoshi Takeishi: percussion, Mat Maneri: viola, Brahim Frigbane: oud, Michaël Attias: alto saxophone” at Barbes followed at 10 by high-energy Mexican style Banda Sinaloense De Los Muertos playing polkas and more.

8/4, 8 PM atmospheric, haunting soundscapes by Spooky Ghost at the small room at the Rockwood.

8/4, 8 PM a rare Brooklyn appearance by purist bluegrass/honkytonk rockers Demolition String Band at 68 Jay St. Bar.

8/4, 8 PM B3 grooves with the Masami Ishikawa Organ Quartet at Cleopatra’s Needle, free

8/4, 8:30 PM fiery avant accordion music with Kimmo Pohjonen & Helsinki Nelson at Damrosch Park.

8/4, 9 PM at Otto’s it’s Unsteady Freddie’s monthly surf music shindig and this is one of the best, with the Initials, the ferocious, Link Wray inspired Howlin Thurstons, the eclectic TarantinosNYC at 11 and George Sempepos’ phenomenally good, psychedelic Middle Eastern surf rockers the Byzan-tones at around midnight.

8/4, 9ish intense gypsy punk with Bad Buka at Mehanata

8/4, 9 PM M Shanghai String Band – NYC’s original citybilly band, with a lead singer who pla,ys spoons – at the Jalopy, $10

8/4, 9:30 PM thoughtful, terse desert blues guitar star Sidi Toure at Joe’s Pub, $18.

8/4, 10 PM smart, funny, female-fronted, indelibly NYC urban pop band Delusions of Grand Streetat Trash, $8

8/4, 10 PM Jerry Adler of the Blam’s latest excellent project, lush dreampop rockers Wave Sleep Wave at at the Stone, $10.

8/4, 11ish PM hilarious cowpunk satirists Uncle Leon & the Alibis at Union Hall, $8.

8/4, half past midnight brilliant, cruelly satirical soul/funk man/filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles wid Laxative at the Blue Note, $10

8/5, 3 PM the Imani Winds play world premieres by emerging composers Joelle Zigman, Matt Siffert, Phil Taylor, Alex Weston, Matthew Taylor, Sam Parrilla, Molly Joyce, and Yuan-Chen Li at the Concert Hall at Mannes College of Music, 150 W 85th St.,hosted by Mohammed Fairouz, free.

8/5, 4:45 PM organist Stephen Fraser plays a recital at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

8/5, 6 PM creepy jazz improvisation with a couple of guys from creepy improvisers Dollshot: bassist Giacomo Merega, tenor saxophonist Noah Kaplan, plus guitarist Andy Bianco and trumpeter Joe Moffett at Downtown Music Gallery, free

8/5, 7 PM Que Vlo-Ve (Wade Ripka & Nick DiFeo, guitars; Quince Marcum, vocals) play classic Greek rembetiko followed at 9 by the Hot Club of Flatbush pinchhitting for the temporarily AWOL Stephane Wrembel at Barbes

8/5, 7:30 PM a tribute to salsa composer Tite Curet Alonso with Viento de Agua feat. special guest Lalo Rodríguez plus the NYC debut of Grupo Esencia de Ponce at Damrosch Park behind Lincoln Center, early arrival advised.

8/5, 8:30 PM tenor saxophonist Tom Tallitsch – whose new album has swing and bite – at Caffe Vivaldi with his group.

8/5, 8:30 PM jazz violinist Scott Tixier with his group: Frank Locrasto , piano; Matt Parker, saxophone; Burniss Earl Travis II, bass; Gerald Cleaver, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

8/5, 9 PM the Red Hook Ramblers playing their own hot jazz soundtracks to Fatty Arbuckle in “A Reckless Romeo” (1917) and two of his funniest silent comedies with Buster Keaton: “The Cook” (1918), and “Coney Island” (1917).at the Jalopy, $10.

8/5, 10 PM guitarist Yoshie Fruchter’s delightful klezmer metal/surf rock band Pitom at the Stone, $10

8/6, 7:30 PM weird segue, great show: slamming salsa with the Pedrito Martinez Group followed by Malian desert blues guitarist Sidi Toure at Marcus Garvey Park.

8/6, 7:30/9:30 PM tuneful third-stream original jazz compositions with composer Marshall Gilkes, trombone; Donny McCaslin, saxophones; Adam Birnbaum, piano, Yasushi Nakamura, bass; Eric Doob, drums at Dizzy’s Club, $25

8/6, 8 PM freak-folk legend Brute Force and Daughter of Force open with a cameo before NYC’s original gypsy punk brass band, Hungry March Band at Brooklyn Bowl, $8, free before 7 PM.

8/6, 8 PM popular 90s roots reggae crooner Barrington Levy at B.B. King’s, $25 adv tix rec.

8/6, 8:30 PM cerebral, intense latin jazz pianist/composer Arturo O’Farrill leads a trio at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

8/6, 9 PM swirling, hard-hitting dreampop/garage rockers the K-Holes at the Knitting Factory, $10.

8/6, 9 PM the tuneful, atmospheric, purist retro 50s Behn Gillece Vibraphone Quintet at the Fat Cat – if you can imagine anything approaching “atmosphere” at the Fat Cat…

8/6, 9 PM Swingadelic play their monthly show at Maxwell’s, free

8/6-7, 10 PM Lucinda Williams at Bowery Ballroom, $35 tix have not sold out yet as of 7/25.

8/6, 10:15 PM dark female-fronted new wave/punk band Ingrid & the Defectors at Trash, $10

8/7, 7 PM the queen of Coney Island phantasmagorical noir rock and soul, Carol Lipnik & Spookarama at Barbes.

8/7, 7 PM trombonist Michael Dease leads his tuneful, purist Big Band at the Garage Restaurant in the west village

8/7, 7:30 PM violinist Lara St. John and friends celebrate the 25th anniversary of Astor Piazzolla’s 1987 Central Park concert at the Naumburg Bandshell, early arrival advised if you want a seat.

8/7, 7:30 PM six-piano new music powerhouse Grand Band – whose titanic performance was one of the highlights of this year’s Bang on a Can Marathon – playing Steve Reich’s ‘Six Pianos’ and Julia Wolfe’s Aretha Franklin-inspired ‘my lips from speaking…’ plus works by Philip Glass and Kate Moore at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix highly rec.

8/7, 9ish eclectic tuneful indie folk from multi-instrumentalist Alice Bierhorst and another multi-instrumentalist, hauntingly anthemic neoromantic/rock songwriter Serena Jost at Freddy’s.

8/7, 9 PM the Simple Minded Predators play bluegrass at Pete’s.

8/7-12, 9/11 PM vibraphonist and Christian McBride bandmate Warren Wolf – whose latest album is superb – at the Vanguard with Allyn Johnson on piano, Eric Wheeler on bass and Billy Williams on drums, $30

8/7, 9:30 PM Ethiopian jazz powerhouse Either/Orchestra – whose marathon concert last year at the New School featured a lot of recently unearthed stuff from Ethiopia and was absolutely off the hook – at the Jazz Standard, $20

8/8, 7 PM retro soul sensation Bettye LaVette at Madison Square Park.

8/8, 7 PM Marty Hroncich Co. mix old Italian favorites from the Istria & Kvarner region at Athens Square Park in Astoria, N to 30th Ave., free.

8/8, 9 PM tuneful, intense alto saxophonist Patrick Cornelius leads an equally intense quintet with Orrin Evans – piano; Ben Wolfe – bass, Rudy Royston – drums, Nick Vayenas – trombone at Smalls

8/8, midnight, lead guitarist to the stars of the underground Thad Debrock – a brilliant, eclectic player on his own stuff too – at the small room at the Rockwood

8/9 cumbia party monsters Chico Trujillo plays the Rocks Off Cruise aboard the Harbor Lights, boarding at 6, leaving at 7 from behind the heliport at 23rd St. and the FDR, $25.

8/9 6 PM Frankie Bambara’s ageless, perennially fresh salsa jazz grooves at Shrine

8/9, 7:30 PM dark Americana with Kelli Scarr and Alana Amram with Jim Campilongo at le Poisson Rouge, $15.

8/9, 8 PM smart artsy retro 80s keyboard-driven rockers Overlord at Union Hall, $8.

8/9, 9 PM Veveritse Brass Band– as intense as Slavic Soul Party but without the hip-hop influence, and more improvisational, at the Jalopy, $10.

8/9, 9 PM Kurt Neumann leads a Sam Llanas-less version of literate heartland rock legends the BoDeans at City Winery, $25 standing room avail. Avoid the 8 PM opening act at all costs: she plays putrid Aaliyah-style corporate “R&B” disguised as country.

8/9, 9:30 PM the Brian Charette Organ Sextette – whose new album is one of this year’s most enjoyable jazz releases – at Smalls with Brian Charette – organ, Mike DiRubbo – alto sax, Seamus Blake – tenor sax, Itai Kriss – flute, John Ellis – clarinet, Jochen Rueckert – drums at Smalls

8/9, 10 PM a solo show by brilliantly lyrical pianist Brian Marsella of the Flail and Cyro Baptista’s band (and also a foppish indie band, and that hasidic stoner reggae abomination – hey, rent isn’t cheap) at the Stone, $10

8/10, 8 PM East African chanteuse Alsarah & the Nubatones followed at 10 by the self-explanatory Cumbiagra at Barbes.

8/10, 8 PM powerpop bandleader Mikal Evansplays the small room at the Rockwood followed eventually at 10 by surfy Colombian rock duo Il Albanico; next door the self-explanatory NY Funk Exchange plays the big room there at half past midnight

Bard Summerscape Festival starts August 10. Yeah, it’s out of town, but this year’s program is pretty amazing, an examination of the world of Camille Saint-Saens and his turbulent artistic world.  Transportation from NYC for ticketholders is available via a $30 shuttle from Lincoln Center or a free shuttle from the Poughkeepsie Metro North commuter train station.

8/10, 9 PM psychedelic Americana and blues with American String Conspiracy at Freddy’s

8/10, 9:30 PM Choban Elektrik – who put a keyboard-driven psychedelic rock spin on Balkan music – at Rock Shop in Gowanus

8/10, 10 PM Ianbassa play roots reggae at Shrine.

8/10, midnight, amazing, high-energy gypsy punk brass monstrosity March Fourth Marching Band at Brooklyn Bowl, $10

8/11, 3 PM banjoist/folksinger Abigail Washburn at Central Park Summerstage. Buckwheat Zydeco headlines afterward.

8/11, 8 PM Kamala Sankaram’s hot surfy Bollywood project, Bombay Rickey at Barbes.

8/11, 8 PM the Avalon String Quartet play Beethoven String Quartet No. 14, Op. 131 in C-sharp minor; String Quartet No. 16, Op.135 in F Major at Bargemusic, $35/$30srs/$15 stud.

8/11, 8:30 PM Lyle Lovett at Prospect Park Bandshell- you might have to listen from outside the arena for this one unless there’s a lot of rain beforehand.

8/11, 10 PM diverse Americana songwriter/blues guitar genius Will Scott at 68 Jay St. Bar

8/12, 1 PM haunting, politically fueled, powerfully relevant klezmer band Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird on the plaza at Lincoln Center

8/12, 3 PM eclectic steel pan virtuoso/cinematic composer Andy Akiho and ensemble at the Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, free w/museum adm ($10/$5 stud). N/Q to Broadway or F to Queensbridge/21st St.

8/12, 5:30 PM Afrobeat band Toubab Crewe in the parking lot behind City Winery, free.

8/12, 6 PM Jose Valente on viola, Daniel Levin on cello and Jason Hwang on violin improvise at Downtown Music Gallery, free.

8/12, 9 PM badass alt-country siren and Neko Case collaborator Carolyn Mark at Red Hook Bait & Tackle

8/12, 9 PM the LES Hot Club play classic gypsy jazz at Barbes.

8/13, midnight the sly oldschool 60s C&W sounds of the Jack Grace Band at the Ear Inn

8/14, 7 PM jazz guitarist David Ullmann’s quintet play the cd release show for their reputedly excellent new one, Falling at Barbes with Chris Dingman – vibes; Karel Ruzicka Jr. – sax; Vinnie Sperrazza – drums and Gary Wang – bass followed at 9 by Slavic Soul Party (whose new album is more than reputedly excellent).

8/14, 8:30/10:30 PM tasteful, eclectic jazz guitarist Mike Baggetta with Cameron Brown on bass and Jeff Hirschfield on drums at the Bar Next Door

8/14, 9ish the self-explanatory, horn-driven, psychedelic NY Funk Exchange at Lucille’s. A good room for this band. They’re also at Groove on 8/22 at 8 and 8/25 at 9.

8/14, 9ish a promising improvisational night: Mike Pride, drums + compositions; Jon Irabagon, alto & tenor sax; Alexis Marcelo, piano; Peter Bitenc, bass; Jonathan Moritz, tenor sax; Jason Stein, bass clarinet at Korzo.

8/14, 10 PM intense Armenian-tinged improvisations with Lou Reed lead guitarist Aram Bajakian and singer Julia Ulehla at the Stone, $10

8/15-16,7:30ish a mini bachata nueva festival at Highbridge Park uptown. On the 15th it’s Henry Santos from Aventura; the 16th has K Rose and 24 Horas.

8/15, 8 PM at the Stone: Louie Belogenis (soprano and tenor saxes) Russ Lossing (piano) Kenny Wollesen (drums)followed at 10 by Project Fukushima NYC, a benefit for Japan with Kaoru Watanabe (fue, taiko) Shanir Blumenkranz (bass, oud) Yuka (voice, taishogoto, ukulele, electronics); Pet Bottle Ningen: Dave Scanlon (guitar) Nonoko Yoshida (sax) Dave Miller (drums); Aya Nishina + Miho Hatori’s NEW OPTIMISM: Miho Hatori (vocal) Timo Ellis (bass) Shoko Nagai (key) Ahmed Gallab (drums) Aya Nishina (piano).”The benefit marathon concert in NYC hosted by three bands (20 minutes each) dedicates all its proceeds to Project Fukushima in Japan.”

8/15, 9ish the jaunty, oldtimey Two Man Gentlemen Band – whose new album of drinking songs is surprisingly loud and hard-hitting – at Rodeo Bar; 8/16 they’re at Rock Shop at 8ish, $10.

8/16,  7:30 PM the jaunty, oldtimey Two Man Gentlemen Band – whose new album of drinking songs is surprisingly loud and hard-hitting – at Rock Shop in Gowanus, $12.

8/16, 8 PM John Zorn improv night with bassist Shanir Blumenkranz plus a parade of usual suspects at the Stone, $25, get there early.

8/16, 8:30ish the Gentlemen Callers play oldschool honkytonk followed by the amusing but spot-on all-female Dolly Parton cover band Doll Parts at Union Hall, $7

8/17, 7 PM Colombian Caribbean jazz with Pablo Mayor’s Folklore Urbano Orchestra and the Alejandro Zuleta Vallenato Collective with special guests Gregorio Uribe and Alejandro Florez at le Poisson Rouge, $15

8/17, 7 PM indie classical ensemble Percussia -whose name pretty much defines their repertoire – at Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City, free.

8/17, 7:30 PM Roberto Prosseda, piano plays”Midsummer Nocturnes” by Mendelssohn, Chopin, John Field, Debussy and Scriabin at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

8/17, 8:30ish a mixed bag of funk and soul with Austin’s exhilarating New Orleans-flavored Mingo Fishtrap, John Legend-ish smoov G Tre Williams & the Revelations and then the oldschool JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound at Brooklyn Bowl, $10

8/17, 10 PM creepy noir guitar soundtrack magic with Stephen Ulrich and Itamar Ziegler at Barbes.

8/17, 10 PM two of NYC’s best-loved bluegrass crews with Demolition String Band followed by Freshly Baked Bluegrass at the Jalopy, $10.

8/17, 10 PM the queen of rockabilly, Wanda Jackson at Maxwell’s, $20 adv tix avail. at the club and in Manhattan at Other Music

8/17, 10ish entrancing cello/marimba duo Goli at Caffe Vivaldi.

8/17, 10 PM Royal Khaoz play roots reggae at Shrine.

8/17, 10ish stoner hip-hop/punkmetal legends the Kottonmouth Kings at B.B. King’s, $25 gen adm. “You will find no traces of tight jeans or trendy indie trash!”

8/17, 10:30 PM raucous, high-energy country blues and hillbilly stuff with Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band at Hill Country, $12

8/18, 5 PM Lee Feldman at Something Jazz Club. He’s got a fascinating, often haunting album of piano/cello duets of traditional Jewish music out as well as a playful album of original songs. For fans of chamber pop and Steely Dan.

8/18, 8 PM violinist/singer Mireya Ramos, frontwoman of Mariachi Flor de Toloache – NYC’s only all-female mariachi band – plays Barbes followed at 10 by the ferocious, wild Balkan sounds of Raya Brass Band (whose new album might be the year’s best).

8/18, 8:30 PM the aptly titled Argentinian J.P. Jofre Hard Tango Chamber Band at le Poisson Rouge, $15

8/18, 11:30 PM exhilarating retro 60s latin soul revivalists Spanglish Fly at Brooklyn Bowl $5

8/19, 3 PM get to Central Park Summerstage when the gates open if you want to see roots reggae harmony legends the Mighty Diamonds and Israeli Vibration. What’s left of Inner Circle play afterward (one can only imagine what the late Jacob Miller would have thought of the Fox network using a song by his old band as the theme for the most racist show on tv).

8/19, 4:45 PM organist David Christopher plays a recital at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

8/19, 7 PM Albuquerque band Le Chat Lunatique mix gypsy jazz with reggae and other unexpected sounds at Barbes followed at 9 by newschool gypsy jazz virtuoso Stephane Wrembel. Le Chat Lunatique court tres tres vite to the Jalopy afterward for a 9 PM set.

8/19, 9 PM arguably the most haunting triplebill of 2012: Twin Peaks guitar duos with Ulrich Ziegler, the equally cinematic klezmer-tinged chamber-rock of Barbez – whose Paul Celan tribute from a couple of years ago is amazing-  and then dark sweeping female-fronted art-rockers Bee & Flower at the Gutter bowling alley in Williamsburg, $10.

8/20 versatile oldschool/newschool soul avatar and saxophone powerhouse Lakecia Benjamin at Ginny’s Supper Club, 310 Lenox Ave (125/126), time/$TBA. 8/21 she’s at the big room at the Rockwood.

8/20-28 New Orleans piano titan Henry Butler plays solo “early blues” followed by the reliably entertaining Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra at the Jazz Standard, 7:30/9:30 PM, $25/$30 on the weekend.

8/21, 8/10 PM two generations of avant garde legends: Pauline Oliveros (digital accordion) with Susie Ibarra (drumset, percussion) at the Stone. At 10 they’re joined by Thollem McDonas (piano), $10.

8/21, 10 PM eclectic, brilliant Nation Beat violinist Skye Steele’s Glorious Sunshine Band at Pete’s

8/21, 10 PM Bow Wow Wow – yup, the latest incarnation of Annabella Lwin’s sassy, badass new wave band from the 80s – at B.B. King’s, $22.50 adv tix rec.

8/22, 7:30 PM pianist Anthony Tobin celebrates Debussy’s 150th birthday with a solo concert and premiere of his film Claude Debussy: The World Will Change In His Sound at WMP Concert Hall, $20

8/22, 8 PM jazz vocals with Tammy Scheffer and her Sextet followed by guitarist Assaf Kehati and his Trio at 9:30 at Shapeshifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Pl., Park Slope, $10.

8/22, 9 PM the atmospheric indie classical Portland Cello Project at City Winery, $15 standing room avail.

8/22, 11 PM torchy Americana chanteuse Megan Reilly at Zirzamin

8/22, midnight Stringbean & the Stalkers play dark eerie chromatic harp blues at the Ear Inn.

8/23, 7 PM eclectic psychedelic funk band Mamarazzi open for reggae/Afrobeat stars the Refugee All-Stars of Sierra Leone at East River Park, free.

8/23, 8 PM klezmer/bluegrass legend Andy Statman at Barbes, $10.

8/23, 8 PM the reliably charming, politically aware, theatrical, harmony-driven Ukuladies at Freddy’s

8/23, 8:30 PM clarinetist Josh Rutner leads a klezmer jazz sextet at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

8/23, 9:30 PM Wendy Rule at Caffe Vivaldi. If you’re too broke for (or want something darker than) Missing Persons and Gene Loves Jezebel at B.B. King’s, this is cheaper (it’s free) and it’s a lot better.

8/23, 10ish Charlene Kaye & the Brilliant Eyes at the Gramercy Theatre, $15. The new album is slick and overproduced, but the songs rock, they’re smart and she’s a hell of a guitarist.

8/24, 6ish smart, literate, oldtime western noir songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Karen Dahlstrom at the American Folk Art Museum, free

8/24, 7 PM the theme of this year’s Charlie Parker Festival at Marcus Garvey Park is Bird with Strings, a supposedly all-star lineup recreating pieces of that classic record. Then on the 25th, same place, same time it’s Jamire Williams’ Erimaj project, Derrick Hodge, singer Rene Marie and the presumably immortal Roy Haynes.

8/24, 9 PM Junior Toots (Toots Hibbert’s kid) and the Top Shotta Band followed by the CCB Reggae All-Stars at Brooklyn Bowl, $10.

8/24, 9ish suave baritone western swing crooner Sean Kershaw & the New Jack City Ramblers at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club

8/24, 10 PM eclectic, smart latin jazz bassist Pedro Giraudo leads a sextet at Barbes.

8/25, 4 and 8 PM keyboardist Michael Hearst’s Songs for Unusual Creatures at Barbes. Playful, psychedelic instrumentals about weird animals from around the world, suitable for kids, pray that the yuppie contingent with their whiny brats doesn’t show up.

8/25, 8 PM, repeating on 8/26 at 2 PM the St. Petersburg String Quartet play Tchaikovsky: String Quartet in B-flat Major, “ Unfinished” Op. Post.1865) (1); Schubert: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 29, D. 804 “Rosamunde”; Ravel: String Quartet in F Major at Bargemusic, $35/$30srs/$15 stud.

8/25, 8:30 PM psychedelic Middle Eastern/Balkan/Asian jamband Tribecastan at Sullivan Hall, $15 adv tix rec.

8/25, 8:30 PM Mostly Other People Do the Killing’s bassist Moppa Elliott leads a sextet version of the insane, amazingly fun jazz terrorists at I-Beam, $10.

8/25, 9ish hypnotic retro psych-rockers Brian Jonestown Massacre at Webster Hall, 9ish, $30.50 tix avail. at the Irving Plaza box ofc.

8/25, 9:30 PM dark 80s style keyboardist/songwriter Kristin Hoffmann at Caffe Vivaldi.

8/26, 1 PM intense Scottish bagpipe music with Great Highland Bagpipes and Mor, “The Pied Pipers of New York” at Flushing Town Hall, free, early arrival advised.

8/26, 6ish this year’s bill at the Charlie Parker Festival at Tompkins Square Park is uncharacteristically weak – although it’s nice to see chanteuse/organist Ernestine Anderson get the headline spot she’s deserved for a long time.

8/26, 8 PM goth legend and Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy at the Well, 272 Meserole St. in Bushwick, $25 adv tix rec.

8/27, 8 PM avant pianist Taka Kigawa tackles Bach’s Art of the Fugue at le Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix rec.

8/27, 8:30 PM pianist Melody Fader and violinist Emily Popham play Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” sonata plus works for solo piano by Debussy and Chopin at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

8/28, 7 PM eclectic pan-latin chanteuse Marta Topferova at Barbes.

8/28-9/2 the Ron Carter Big Band – enough said, right? – at the Jazz Standard, 7:30/9:30 PM, $30.

8/28-9/2, 9/11 PM jazz/Americana violinist/composer Jenny Scheinman leads a killer quartet with Jason Moran on piano, Greg Cohen on bass and Rudy Royston on drums at the Vanguard, $30

8/28, 9:30 PM dazzlingly eclectic virtuoso string ensemble Trio Tritticali play originals, Latin, Middle Eastern, jazz and clever pop/rock arrangements at Caffe Vivaldi.

8/28, 11ish dark intense minimalist Persian-flavored indie rock duo the Mast at Glasslands

8/29, 7 PM Italian folk music of the Istria region by Damir and Joe and band at Athens Square Park in Astoria, N to 30th Ave., free.

8/29, 8 PM, a latin jazz summit: Jerry Gonzalez & the Commandos de la Clave plus the Pedrito Martinez Group featuring Ariacne Trujillo at Highline Ballroom, $25 adv tix rec.

8/29, 9 PM Sean Wayland leads his B3 organ jazz band at Freddy’s

8/29, 8:30 PM original, eclectic bossa-tinged chanteuse Nina Moffitt leads a quartet with Chris Pattishall, piano; Jackson Hill, bass; Alex Ritz, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

8/30, 7:30 PM blue-eyed soul crooner Don Piper and his excellent, jangly band followed by eclectic, literate Britpop/glam/art-rock songwriter Ed Rogers – whose latest album Porcelain is amazing – at Zirzamin

8/30, 8 PM Chicago style blues powerhouse Bobby Radcliff plays a rare Brooklyn gig with his band at Freddy’s

8/30, 8 PM psychedelic funksters Groove Collective at Brooklyn Bowl, $10.

8/30, 8:30 PM down-to-earth Chilean jazz vocal stylist Camila Meza leads a quartet with Glenn Zaleski, piano; Sam Anning, bass; Greg Ritchie, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

8/30, 10:15 PM haunting, lush art-rockers the Snow – whose new album is reputedly as excellent as their last two – at Joe’s Pub, $15.

8/31, 7:30 PM funk orchestra Burnt Sugar (feat. many Melvin Van Peebles collaborators) “freaks every other song in the book- a JB, Steely, Ra, Jimi, Bowie, Miles, Van Peebles and BS Monsta-Mosh” at Le Poisson Rouge, $10 adv tix rec.

8/31, 8 PM badass resonator guitarist/blues chanteuse Mamie Minch followed at 10 by psychedelic funk with the People’s Champs at Barbes.

8/31, 9 PM hilarious, satirical Merle Haggard cover band Bryan & the Haggards – who do sick jazz versions of honkytonk classics – at Red Hook Bait & Tackle

8/31, 1 AM (actually wee hours of 9/1) explosive two-sax-and-drums funk/trip-hop instruental band Moon Hooch at Brooklyn Bowl, $10.

9/1, 9 PM reggae singer Dahlia Dumont plays with her roots band at Shrine.

9/1, 9ish crazy gypsy punk with Bad Buka at Mehanata

9/1, 10 PM bouncy Mexican polkas and more with Banda Sinaloense De Los Muertos at Barbes.

9/2, 7 PM long-running, eclectic jazz/chamber pop quartet the Four Bags at Barbes followed at 9 by gypsy guitar virtuoso Stephane Wrembel.

9/2, 11 PM charismatic frontman Sekouba and his huge, intense, politically charged African roots reggae band at Shrine

9/3, sets at 1 and 3 PM pyrotechnic, unpredictable avant violinist Todd Reynolds with Jordan Tice on guitar, Jonny Rodgers on glass harmonica andspecial guests play new arrangements of American folk music on Colonels Row on Governors Island, free.

9/4, 7 PM the king of the downtown NYC literate rock anthem, Willie Nile at Joe’s Pub, $25

9/7, 8 PM a rare evening of chamber and film music by David Amram featuring an all-star cast including Amram himself on French horn and piano at Symphony Space, $20 adv tix very highly rec.

9/4, 8:30 PM the Toomai String Quintet play two sets, the second a performance of Jessica Pavone’s understatedly haunting Hope Dawson Is Missing with guitarist Mary Halvorson at I-Beam, $10.

9/6, 8 PM eclectic desert blues guitar star Bombino and his jamband at Highline Ballroom,$15 adv tix rec.

9/7 is Brazilian World Music Day, check their blog for NYC happenings.

9/7, 7:30 PM atmospheric noir art-rockers Elysian Fields at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

9/8, 7ish an eclectic lineup, killer triplebill: barrelhouse blues band the 4th St. Nite Owls, ska punks the Hub City Stompers and then eventually around 10 intense noir ska/swing band Tri-State Conspiracy at the downstairs studio space at Webster Hall, $12

9/8, 8:30ish the Atomic Duo: “some Flatt, a little Scruggs, and a whole lot of Gil Scott-Heron” – at 68 Jay St Bar

9/8, 8:30 PM a kick-ass doublebill at I-Beam with perennially tuneful pianist Russ Lossing leading a trio followed by the Two Bass Band with Ben Street and Masa Kamaguchi plus trombonists Scott Reeves and Bryan Dye plus many others, $10; drummer Jeff Davis leads a trio with Lossing at 10 PM on the 14th.

9/8, 9:30 PM a killer Balkan/klezmer doublebill with Litvakus and Raya Brass Band at Joe’s Pub, $TBA

9/9, 3 PM indie classical guitarist Gyan Riley (Terry’s kid) at the Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, free w/museum adm ($10/$5 stud). N/Q to Broadway or F to Queensbridge/21st St.

9/10 the CCB Reggae All-Stars play the Rocks Off Concert Cruise aboard the Jewel, boarding at 6, departing at 7 from the heliport at 23rd St. and the FDR, $20 adv tix available at the Highline box office.

9/10, 7:30 PM duo pianists Christina & Michelle Naughton play Mendelssohn, de Falla, Milhaud, Rachmaninoff and Nancarrow at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec. followed at 11 by lutenist Jozef Van Wissem and electroacoustic indie chamber ensemble Noveller for $8 (adv tix, separate adm.)

9/11, 8 PM violinist Elmira Darvarova, hornist Howard Wall of the New York Philharmonic and pianist Tomoko Kanamaru play music of Brahms, Schumann and their contemporaries at Symphony Space, free, early arrival advised.

9/11, 10:30 PM pianist Orrin Evans’ ferociously smart, tuneful postbop combo Tarbaby with Oliver Lake, Eric Revis and Nasheet Waits at le Poisson Rouge, $15

9/12, 7 PM violin virtuoso Gil Morgenstern’s reliably enlightening, thematic Reflections Series opens at WMP Concert Hall with a program titled Stravinsky, The Violin Years: 1930-1935 feat. pianist J.Y. Song, $35/$15 stud.

9/12, 8 PM the New York Piano Quartet performs musix of Austrian composers Joseph Marx, Erich Korngold, Gernot Wolfgang and others at Symphony Space, $20 adv tix rec.

9/12, 9ish fiery, intense, lyrical art-rocker Spottiswoode at the big room at the Rockwood, $12 adv tix rec.

9/12, 10 PM one of the original gypsy rock bands, Firewater at the Knitting Factory, $14 – note that the new incarnation is minus piano genius Paul Wallfisch and works a more hypnotic, south Asian vein. They’re also at le Poisson Rouge on 9/15 at 8:30 for an additional six bucks.

9/12, 10 PM Judah Tribe plays roots reggae at Shrine.

9/13, 8 PM pianist Octavio Brunetti and violinist Elmira Darvarova play Piazzolla at Symphony Space, $20 adv tix rec.

9/14, 8 PM literate glamrock legend Ian Hunter at Highline Ballroom, $30 adv tix rec.

9/14-15, 10 PM stark, intense gypsy rock with Devotchka at Bowery Ballroom, $25 gen adm. They’re also at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, same time same price, on 9/16.

9/14, 10 PM Random Test plays roots reggae at Shrine.

9/16, 10 PM long-running indie/Americana rockers the Silos at the Mercury, $10 adv tix rec. at the club 5-7 PM M-F.

9/17, 7:30/9:30 PM hot newschool melodic jazz playing and compositions: the Young Lions Quintet with Stacy Dillard, the Curtis Brothers, and E.J. Strickland at Dizzy’s Club, $25.

9/17, 11 PM Deerhoof – sort of a zeros/teens version of the Eels – at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, $17.

9/21 powerful, politically aware Irish-American punk/anthemic literate rock legends Black 47 play the Rocks Off Concert Cruise aboard the Half Moon, boarding at 7, departing at 8 from the heliport at 23rd St. and the FDR, $25 adv tix available at the Highline box office

9/22 scorching Romanian gypsy brass orchestra Fanfare Ciocarlia at the Schimmel Center at Pace University downtown on Spruce St.

9/23, 6 PM drum/cello improvisations with Juan Pablo Carletti and cellist Daniel Levin at Downtown Music Gallery, free

9/23, 8 PM torchy, smart Americana chanteuse Tift Merritt plays the album release show for her new one Travelling Alone at City Winery, $28 standing room avail.

9/23, 9 PM hilarious, smart grasscore/C&W band the Devil Makes Three at the Gramercy Theatre, $19 adv tix avail. at the Irving Plaza box ofc.

9/25, 7:30 PM haunting gypsy chanteuse (and Bertold Brecht niece) Sanda Weigl at Joe’s Pub, $TBA.

9/26, 8 PM Mariel Roberts premieres new works for solo cello by Andy Akiho, Sean Friar, Alex Mincek, Tristan Perich, and Daniel Wohl at Issue Project Room, $15.

9/27 funky bhangra orchestra Red Baraat at at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

9/27, 11 PM My Wooden Leg plays gypsy punk at Freddy’s.

9/28, 8 PM oldschool soul legend Bettye LaVette at Highline Ballroom, $26 adv tix rec.

9/28, 8:30 PM nimble but atmospheric vibraphonist/composer Tyler Blanton and his group at I-Beam, $10.

10/4, 7:30 PM exhilarating, clever, eclectic Russian/gypsy/cinematic string band Ljova & the Kontraband  – whose 2008 album is a genuine classic – at Symphony Space, $30 gen adm includes a drink.

10/11, 7:30PM Angela & Jennifer Chun play music for two violins by Béla Bartók and Luciano Berio, and, joined by pianist Nelson Padgett, perform the rarely heard Phantasy for two violins and piano by British composer Edmund Rubbra at Symphony Space, $30 adv tix rec

10/11 at Issue Project Room: an all-Mohammed Fairouz concert with the Borromeo Quartet playing the NY premiere of The Named Angels plus the Cygnus Ensemble as well as pianists Kathleen Supové, Taka Kigawa and Blair McMillen.

10/12 rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson at Highline Ballroom

10/28, 7:30 PM at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall the Tokyo String Quartet joined by the Jasper Quartet for a farewell show featuring Webern: Five Movements for String Quartet; Mozart: String Quintet No. 3 in C Major, K. 515; Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, $15 adv tix highly rec.

10/28 at Merkin Hall, Yoon Jae Lee leads Ensemble 212 in the NY premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’s Akhnaten, Dweller in Truth, a double concerto with soloists Nicholas Canelakkis (cello) and the conductor leading from the piano.

10/28 Yasiin Bey f.k.a. Mos Def – whose unpredictably brilliant career now has him doing Gil Scott-Heron style soul and dark indie classical music – at the Apollo Theatre.

11/10 70s punk-pop legends the Rezillos at Bowery Electric.

Meet Anwar Sadat: The Band, Not the Pothead

How do you get attention from music blogs? Give your band a name that sticks. This particular Anwar Sadat wasn’t high on hash when he signed the Camp David accords; in all likelihood, the guys in this Louisville postpunk band weren’t born yet. But they sound totally Boston circa 1982: aggressively shouted vocals, aggressive rhythms, jaggedly distorted guitars and just enough melody above the noise to make them catchy as hell. Their No Vacation ep is up at their Bandcamp site as a free download: if you have a thing for obscure early indie bands, you’ll understand how it’s more Volcano Suns than Mission of Burma (although the last track could be MoB, with just a hint of surf rock that ends up going nowhere).

Three more tracks here. The title cut is the smash hit, simple melodic bass anchoring a growling minor key guitar hook that sticks its fangs in you and just won’t let go. The second track has eerie close harmonies and echoes of dreampop, like X hanging out with the girls from Lush when they were still in school. There’s also 53 seconds of pummeling hardcore: “You hear your heart within your chest counting backwards to your death,” the singer screams. It’s enough to make you want to hear more. They’re playing Death by Audio at around 9ish on July 19.

Karen & the Sorrows Take Country Music to Creepy New Places

Brooklyn band Karen & the Sorrows’ new ep Ocean-Born Mary isn’t your average country album. It’s a four-song suite based on a ghost story first introduced to the group by pedal steel player Elana Redfield. Mary seems to have been born onboard a pirate ship. As the story goes, her appearance so touched the ship’s captain that he backed off a sinister plan to slaughter the entire crew. And was so taken by this baby that eighteen years later, he tracked her down in rural New Hampshire and married her! But karma got the best of him. Turns out she liked him a little too much and came up with a plan to put an end to his lengthy absences at sea: she killed him by sealing him behind a wall, a la A Cask of Amontillado! Reputedly the house still stands and is haunted by the ghost of both the captain and his wife.

Frontwoman/guitarist Karen Pittelman’s high voice reminds a bit of Amy Allison and Dolly Parton in places – she’s got a coy, fetching edge at the top of her register and she uses effectively when she needs to drive a phrase home. The rhythm section of Tami Johnson and bassist AJ Lewis keeps it simple and oldschool, as does Redfield, whose judicious, tersely incisive playing is a good match for these allusive, attractive but distantly menacing songs. The first one is titled Persephone, and starts with a bass drone until it picks up with a backbeat and the pedal steel; Redfield’s jagged electric guitar gives away her punk rock background. “Calling, calling, calling from the underground,” is the refrain: this is a restless ghost. That one segues into Caged Bird, a swaying soul ballad in 6/8 time with some surprisingly biting guitar: “If you don’t come back to me why should I ever set you free,” the ghost asks. The best, and most ominous track here is A Plague on Your Houses, a brisk but brooding minor-key shuffle. The album ends with All the Oceans, which starts out slowly and then works its way up to a singalong chorus that’s just a little too blithe to be for real: this is a vengeful ghost! For those who might say that this isn’t oldschool, hard country, let’s not forget that like every other style of music, country keeps evolving, and Karen & the Sorrows are taking it to a place it’s never been before, a good and creepy one. Karen & the Sorrows play the album release show at Rock Shop in Gowanus tonight, the 28th at around 9.

Everest – Big Name, Big Psychedelic Sound

Some bands use their album release show as an excuse to drag out as many bodies as they can and pack a desirable venue in order to convince the owners that they’re sufficiently popular to get another gig there. Monday night psychedelic rockers Everest did just the opposite, playing theirs – for Ownerless, the album they’ll be flogging opening for Neil Young on tour this summer – for a small but attentive crowd of media on the roof of a Chelsea hotel that hasn’t opened yet. Believe the hype – this band is excellent. It makes sense that ole Shakey would like them. The three-guitar band has the early 70s acid blues thing down – although they don’t overdo it – along with the occasional detour into 90s Wilco-style alt-country or even early Tom Petty janglerock. But their biggest selling point is their long, uneasily swirling psychedelic jams. There were a whole bunch of them in this show and they were all excellent. The opening song shifted from riff-rock to hints of the Stooges and then the Black Angels with a less opiated, biting minor-key sensibility, building to a sunbaked swirl of interwoven guitars as the bass snaked its way up and around. Aching minor-key riffage anchored the next one, pulsing and reverberating and ending cold. As the set went on, they evoked both the Church at their trippiest as well as Pink Floyd at their most direct: washes of organ led into a hypnotic spacerock groove, stormclouds across the horizon only hinting at thunder that never arrived. A soul-tinged number evoked the Grateful Dead but without that band’s heavy two-drum thud; and just when just when it seemed they were headed into a terminally boring Coldplay/U2 vamp, the bassist took a ferocious, machine-gun solo. After a brisk riff-rocker and a casually swaying, backbeat-driven number that sounded like the late Bob Welch trying his hand at samba rock, they went back to the moody murk for a deliciously apprehensive anthem, highwire slide guitar balanced against punchy bass leading to an absolutely blissful, echoey solo straight out of the vintage Jerry Garcia playbook. These guys are tight beyond belief and cover all the bases: classic rock? Check. Dreamy atmospherics? Doublecheck. And plenty of improvisation for the Jambase crowd, and enough hooks to keep the casual listeners in the game. In addition to their Neil Young tour, Everest will be at B.B. King’s at the end of November – watch this space.

Vagabond Swing Brings Their Wild Live Show to NYC

Sunday night Lafayette, Louisiana’s Vagabond Swing gave the crowd at Rockwood Music Hall something to remember for months, blasting through what had to be the wildest, most ferocious show this normally sedate venue (“Classy,” a band member called it) might have ever hosted. “This is the smallest stage we’ve played in years,” admitted their trumpeter, but that’s what happens when bands who play to huge crowds on the road hit this city the first time around. And yet as much as they threatened to completely blow out the PA system, they felt the room, pushing it as far as it would go without being completely over-the-top. The group incorporates elements of Gogol Bordello at their most psychedelic, the Strawbs, Zappa, World Inferno, Tom Waits and Aunt Ange and yet sounds nothing like any of those acts. Their drummer also fronts the band, leaping from behind the kit out into the audience on several occasions, backed by trumpet plus two guitars, electric mandolin, bass and drums, the trumpeter and a couple of the guitarists doubling on creepy funeral organ.

Their shapeshifting songs went on for what seemed 20 minutes at a clip. To call them psychedelic gypsy punk isn’t off the mark but it doesn’t do justice to how crazily eclectic and intense they are. Their first number kicked off with a blistering Keystone Kops intro that morphed into a pensive waltz, then a swaying cabaret vamp and then back to the chase scene which didn’t take long to go completely awry with noisy guitar and trumpet solos. The second featured two slinky bass solos, two macabre organ interludes, a slowly careening waltz that reminded of the heavier stuff on Abbey Road and then a pensive folk-rock interlude with the trumpet soaring uneasily overhead. From there they went into brooding minor-key reggae and came out of that with machine-gun drums into morbidly swirling Carnival of Souls atmospherics. And then the trumpeter led them into a brief, bracing Ethiopian-flavored passage that turned menacingly Macedonian in a split-second and went doublespeed with a vengeance. Is there any style of music this band can’t play?

Wait, there’s more: a punked-out tango with an especially sweet trumpet solo; a twistedly bluesy merry-go-round waltz and a screaming Cab Calloway hi-de-ho number on acid. Vocals are part of the picture, but those didn’t come through clearly considering how fast and furious the band was playing. It didn’t matter. This was the kind of show that gives you enough adrenaline to sprint from the club, cut across two lines of traffic on Allen Street in the pouring rain and then dive down into the subway out of the storm, all in the span of about fifteen seconds. That’s not to suggest that you should do that, only to illustrate how exhilarating it felt to witness something this explosive at midnight on a Sunday.

Doing Shots with Haley and Hannah

Saturday night at Webster Hall, singer Haley Bowery waited about half an hour into her show before she reached behind the sound monitor and pulled out the gun. Before the song started, she’d lured several people in the crowd to the edge of the stage with the promise of whiskey. She pumped the rifle, then held it steady in her right hand, taking aim at a guy in the front row. As his jaw dropped, she fired at him.

If he’d been as steady on his feet as her aim was – Keith Richards’ right hand has nothing on Haley Bowery’s – he would have gotten a generous mouthful of hooch. It wasn’t bottom shelf, either: whatever she’d filled that big black heavy-duty squirt gun with, it was decent whiskey. As the band stomped behind her, she moved on to the next person, and then the next. A couple of them came back for seconds and she took her time with them: at least a couple of people left the show with a free buzz. But that’s not the only reason why it’s impossible not to like Haley Bowery.

Her songs imagine a CBGB of the mind, but not from the punk rock era. Instead, her glam-infused four-on-the-floor rock has a little bit of Bowie, the Dolls, maybe T-Rex but through the prism of cynical 80s New York powerpop, with all the accoutrements: the leather boots, the torn fishnets, the booze, the defiant pose and maybe other stuff. It’s a lifestyle, and she seems hell-bent on putting across the fact that she’s living it – and maybe building a tribe of fellow troublemakers who also consider themselves born strange (which is the title of the album whose release she was celebrating). Her band the Manimals is tight and unexpectedly diverse: solid Attis Jerrell Clopton on drums, surprisingly eclectic Patrick Deeney on guitar and Joseph Wallace (who also plays in the excellent Wallace on Fire) on bass, with Matthew Pop guesting on keys on a couple of numbers. She didn’t waste time getting to the point: “Fuck the rest of ’em, let’s paaaarty,” she ordered the crowd the end of Halloween, a lurching anthem that with a little youtubing could be the theme for next year’s freshman class and many afterward. Some of her songs turned out to be unexpectedly bittersweet, like 29, a wistful ballad pondering  how to stay young when you’re staring down the wrong side of 30. A little later she turned to the bitterness and anger of Blitzed, a kiss-off song whose protagonist “Tried to find my bliss, and I got blitzed”- and then “If you need me, boy that ship has sailed.” And Undertow (the backdrop for the booze and the squirt gun) implored everyone to “Drink your whiskey up for the people who never thought you’d be more than a zero.” Revenge is sweet.

Opening act Hannah vs. the Many took that theme further. With a ferocious, spun-steel wail, charismatic frontwoman/guitarist Hannah Fairchild poured out torrents of double entendres and embittered imagery over catchy melodies that ranged from roaring punk-pop to hauntingly ornate, slower, artsier ballads. Her four-piece band didn’t have a bass player this time out, but that didn’t phase them, lead guitarist Josh Fox raising the songs’ searing ambience with long, echoing, slowly twisting sustained notes drenched in cold reverb. Fairchild projects a warmth and nonchalance in contrast with her songs’ raging angst: she reflected on how nice she felt the audience was, but then she related how when she’d just arrived here from her native Minnesota, people had said the same thing about her. “So I called up my girl friend and told her that, and she just laughed. I’m Minnesota mean!”

But her songs aren’t so mean as they’re just plain anguished: they’re anthems for a new generation of smart, alienated kids. The best one of the entire night, and the quietest one, was Jordan Baker, a torchy, sadly bouncing chamber-pop song that Jarvis Cocker would be proud to have written, and it was there that the audience split up: the front row bobbing their heads in unison, completely lost in Fairchild’s tale of infatuation despite knowing better, while the crowd in back noisily readied themselves for the whiskey. The rest of the show was a lot louder: over scorching punk-noir and stagy, gypsy-tinged dark cabaret, Fairchild savaged poseurs, backstabbers and the slow death of hope in a city full of promises that end up dashed in the crush simply to survive as rents rise and imagination is drowned out in the roar of conspicuous consumption and a cultivated shallowness. “How long before the suburbs come to claim us?” she pondered toward the end of Fox’s Wedding, as the song built from almost a whisper to a wail. A lot of the songs were new, and considerably louder than the haunting, often piano-based tracks on her absolutely brilliant new album All Our Heroes Drank Here: whether she follows that or remains sort of a New York teens counterpart to Pulp, she’s someone to keep an eye on. In a way, Haley Bowery was the perfect segue: there wasn’t any way anybody was going to top Fairchild as far as intensity was concerned, so, fuck the rest of ’em, it was time to party. Hannah vs. the Many are at Spike Hill on July 7 at 11; Haley Bowery’s next gig is a private show (well, sort of – her site lists it as July 17 at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, presumably indoors).

Make Music NY: A Fool’s Errand

“I’m Julia Haltigan, and my feet are on fire,” said the blonde woman in the black dress as the sun burned down on the impromptu stage Thursday afternoon in front of the Walgreen’s on Astor Place. Stepping up and down in her sandals as if on a devil’s treadmill out in front of her six-piece band, firing off chords from a big, beautiful Gibson hollowbody guitar, she was obviously in pain. Haltigan’s powerful voice can be a lot of things – torchy, lurid, seductive, brassy, menacing or downright dangerous – and the element of danger in her vocals has never been more present than it was during her brief set that she shut down after only half an hour in the heat. Seriously – physical exertion when the temperature is in the triple digits is at best uncomfortable and at worst a genuine hazard. A generously sympathetic guy in the audience offered her a wet towel to put over her burning kicks, but it wasn’t long before she was improvising another stepdance while she played. It could be that the pain was pushing her to new levels of intensity, but realistically speaking, she’s always like this, indomitable and charismatic, refusing to concede defeat.

Yet Haltigan is only half of the story: the other half is her amazing band. Her lead guitarist fired off flurries of clenched-teeth jazz chords, psychedelic blues, swaying unhinged C&W and a literally searing, reverberating surf-drenched solo on the most intense song of the entire day, That Flame, a gorgeously noir, stomping tango. The single best one of the day was an expansively country-flavored anthem that hit a breathtaking crescendo as the chorus kicked in: “Here it comes, over the western plains, over the hills,” Haltigan belted, the band cooking up an unstoppably jangling, clanging, careening paisley underground pulse behind her, Haltigan’s dad Emmet adding an extra layer of bite with his electric mandolin (he also played smart, tersely wary blues harp on a handful of songs). My Green Heart showed off the frontwoman’s aptitude for southwestern gothic, in this case a blend of Tex-Mex, apprehensive blues and oldschool country. They turned the garage rock tune I Don’t Want to Fall in Love into something like the Yardbirds at their peak, then the bass player walked them slyly through a slinky come-hither jazz number: “I’m gonna take you way out, you won’t wanna come back,” the chanteuse purred. They swung their way soulfully through the latin-tinged, Henry Mancini-esque It’s a Trap and closed with a roaring southwestern gothic riff-rock song that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Steve Wynn catalog, the lead player veering from paint-peeling Dick Dale surf licks to concrete-smashing Poison Ivy riffage. Haltigan’s grandmother was one of the popular Larkin Sisters back in the 40s and that lineage is clear, but this singer takes the concept of torch song from that era and incorporates pretty much every era since then, including this one. Neko Case has nothing on her. Julia Haltigan and her band are at the big room at the Rockwood this Friday the 29th at 11.

Up at Calvary Church on Gramercy Park North, another singer and her band couldn’t have been more dissimilar. Luckily for them, Rachel Brotman and her subtle samba-soul quartet played under a canopy, and nobody seemed to want to move a muscle. The drummer flicked his brushes, the bassist kept to a smart, minimalist pulse and the pianist hung back with his quietly jazzy ambience while Brotman painted the corners of her moody songs with a gentle vividness a notch above Norah Jones. In a way, this performance was the perfect one for a groggy day, inobtrusive and contemplative – and a chance to let the impact of the express train that was Haltigan and her band sink in. Too bad that the space this band occupied was smack between two coveted parking spots, quickly taken by a restaurant equipment van and then an ambulette, both armed with ear-shattering reverse gear alarms. Of all the vocalists playing this year’s Make Music NY, Brotman deserved this sonic assault the least – and so did her audience. This year, if it wasn’t the heat, it was the sonics. There’s a good reason why buskers don’t typically occupy this particular slice of landscape.

Down at Washington Square Park, it was the relentless heat that did Ann Klein in. Playing a duo set with a melodic bassist, each performer’s amp powered by solar panels belonging to worldbeat jamband Solar Punch – who were scheduled to play later on-  the guitar goddess shut down her set after just fifteen minutes since her acoustic kept going out of tune as the strings and the fretboard grew hotter. It was a tremendously good fifteen minutes, Klein channeling Hendrix in soulful, Third Stone from the Sun mode when she wasn’t firing off nimble blues, lickety-split bluegrass on her mandolin or snaking her way through suspensefully crescendoing, jangly country lines. But she’s a pro and she knew this was a battle she couldn’t win.

Each of these performances were held under the MMNY rubric, the NYC contribution to the worldwide Fete de la Musique held every June 21st. Conceptually, it’s brilliant: a nonprofit organization dedicated to obtaining permits for musicians to play a daylong festival of busking in city-owned and other public spaces. But weatherwise, this thing is pretty much dead in the water. Participation keeps going down, both in terms of actual performances and number of musicians involved, for obvious reasons, perhaps compounded by various venues offering their own MMNY shows independently of the organization. After all, what would you choose: an evening gig on an air-conditioned stage or a half-hour in the blazing sun with your guitar constantly going out of tune and the van backing into the parking space across the street making it impossible for you to be heard?

In a way, the day’s earliest show was the most enjoyable one. A series of vibraphonists around the world had taken it upon themselves to stage Erik Satie’s surreal, twisted Vexations, an eighteen-hour piece that loops a characteristically brooding melody that quickly takes on a macabre edge via a series of tritones. At a little past eleven in the morning, the New York contingent was represented by Matt Evans, who managed to keep perfectly precise time even while friends and random strangers tried to strike up conversations with him. As he ran the melody over and over again, quietly and methodically, it took on an even more claustrophobic, ineluctable sadness than Satie’s more famous Gnossiennes and Gymnopedies. Watching this from the shaded steps of the New York Mercantile Bank, it was an auspiciously introspective way to start the day – and in retrospect, it would have been a good way to end it. Many of the performances of this piece from last Thursday from around the world were recorded, and you can hear them here.

At 4 PM, the Chinese Music Ensemble of NY was scheduled to play Chatham Square, but was nowhere to be found: if they’d cancelled, or on the spur of the moment decided to move their performance elsewhere, they were entitled to. Up the block a little at Columbus Park, an impressive contingent of erhu and lute players were vying with each other sonically, including one who’d attached a battery-powered amp to the base of his fiddle and was able to overwhelm pretty much everyone around him – including his three bandmates, two on erhu and one on sanxian (Chinese banjo) – with his wickedly precise hammer-ons and glissandos. A lot of Chinese folk music sounds Celtic, and that’s what this crew played, drawing plenty of applause from the neighborhood crowd gathered in the shade under the trees.

And that’s where, at least as far as this blog is concerned, Make Music NY 2012 came to a close. A couple of attempts to keep the evening going turned out to be a waste of time: one act was a no-show and the other was still AWOL almost an hour after they were scheduled to hit the stage at one of the nicest, most powerfully airconditioned venues in town. A cynic would say, why not just stay indoors, go online and check out all these acts rather than playing hooky from work and running around all day, risking the same hazards and probably feeling just as sweaty and gross as the musicians playing the festival? Answer: because staying in is lame. It only reinforces the stereotype of the 400-pound music blogger living in his mom’s basement, pondering the merits of Stone Temple Pilots versus the Spin Doctors, only emerging when the pizza delivery arrives. And staying in eliminates any possibility of the kind of unexpected, random discoveries that make all this effort worthwhile.

But another equally valid stereotype also exists: the kids just in from Osaka, or Idaho Falls, or Rotterdam for the first and probably only time in their lives, breathlessly lost on the subway when not immersed in their festival guides, CMJ badges slung around their necks to prove for everyone to see that they’ve finally Made the Bigtime Now. In a way, that stereotype’s just as ugly as the first one. And it’s not one that anyone should aspire to, especially here. Global warming has won this war: it’s time to either move Make Music NY to a less climactically harsh time of year, or throw in the towel.

A Clinic in Tunesmithing with Daniel Stampfel

Thursday night Daniel Stampfel played the album release show for his new ep at Fontana’s. The singer/guitarist looks the same as he did when he was packing the old Luna Lounge ten years ago, fronting the Inevitable Breakups, a fantastic powerpop outfit that should have been the band representing New York around the world instead of the Strokes or Interpol. Stampfel’s crowd hasn’t changed any more than he has: fellow musicians out to watch a talented colleague work his magic live, and wide-eyed twentysomething women (Stampel always pulls the chicks no matter where he goes). The band was tremendous, as usual: good tunesmiths never have a hard time finding musicians to play those tunes. The lead guitarist switched expertly from searing, sun-drenched slide lines, to rapidfire, pointillistic bluesy runs, to plenty of nimble Johnny Marr-style jangle and clang, while the drummer walked the line expertly between swing and anthemic and the bassist picked out a steady, often suspenseful new wave pulse (and took the most interesting solo of the night on the next-to-last song). Stampfel’s nonchalantly soaring vocals sometimes took a back seat to the roar of the band, but that didn’t matter: people were there for the hooks.

As usual, there were plenty of those. Stampfel works a catchy area between the Jayhawks at their most cosmopolitan, the Raspberries at their most melodic and Big Star at their most focused, with a more propulsive, rhythmic drive than any of those bands. While those are all old groups, what Stampfel is doing is putting his own stamp on an oldschool style, tuneful verses working their way up to irresistibly catchy resolutions when the choruses hit. He opened playing acoustic guitar on a jangly midtempo number that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Gary Louris songbook, following with a bouncy, 80s-influenced song that was the poppiest one of the night. The band picked up the pace with a biting riff-rock number, then a more laid-back soul-flavored tune with a gorgeous little hailstorm of tremolo-picking by the lead player. Hurricane Bells’ Steve Schiltz (who produced the record) then came up to add an extra layer of his characteristically thoughtful, spacious guitar on a lush, anthemic tune that reminded of the Church back when that band was writing the occasional pop song. They closed with an unexpectedly minor-key new wave tune (the one with that great bass solo) and then an exuberant one that might have been an Inevitable Breakups song.

That was the music. Lyrics don’t really figure into what Stampfel does: some of the songs could have been titled Oh Baby I Love Your Way or Just the Two of Us (they weren’t, but you get the picture). In order to take his stuff to the next level, i.e. Carl Newman/Steve Kilbey/Elvis Costello territory, he needs a lyricist: tunes as good as this guy’s deserve some substance. One can only imagine the greatness that would result from a collaboration with, say, a Paula Carino or Ward White.

The Spy From Cairo Stars in a Memorable Sequel

One-man bands are common throughout the Arab diaspora: it’s not uncommon for a master Middle Eastern musician to play several instruments expertly. One such master is Brooklyn-based Moreno Visini, AKA Zeb, AKA the Spy from Cairo: he does everything himself. He’ll lay down a drum loop, then add layers of oud, then saz lute, then washes of strings through a pedal effect run from either the oud or the saz. What makes him different is that he’ll also add a fat reggae bassline, or just a catchy bass riff, which he’ll loop so it runs over and over again beneath all the Middle Eastern instruments. His new album Arabadub – his second on Wonder Wheel Recordings – is more Egyptian than reggae, although when it’s Egyptian reggae it’s sprinkled with light dub touches as well. There’s nobody who sounds quite like him.

He’s a fantastic player, too. He’ll typically open a piece with either a bass riff or an improvisational taqsim on one of the stringed instruments, then add an anthemic string arrangement, then take a long, serpentine solo on the oud, or the saz, or both. Sometimes he intertwines the two lutes; several of the other tracks also feature ney, one of them building very hauntingly from the flute’s lowest, most breathy registers to a biting, agitated dervish dance. Every time, he goes for slinky, suspenseful ambience rather than showing off his fast fingers, so in the few instances when he goes for the jugular with frenzies of tremolo-picking on the oud, the effect is breathtaking.

With the jangle and plink of the saz, the unmistakeably boomy bite of the oud and the hypnotic pulse of the drums and bass, the tunes are downright gorgeous and often haunting. The most potent, and most dubwise one is the next-to-final cut, Latif, which blends Middle Eastern tonalities with a poignant Western neoromantic motif in the style of legendary Lebanese songwriters the Rahbani Brothers. The aptly titled Marseilles Noir hints at a plaintive French musette theme. The most anthemic one, Road to Ryhad, winds its way from a fat bass riff to a pensively incisive oud solo where all the other instruments eventually drop out of the mix to make way for a slow, ruminative taqsim, then another long oud solo that builds almost imperceptibly to an understatedly powerful crescendo followed playfully by the one time on the entire album where the drums actually do a reggae one-drop. Visini doesn’t confine himself to reggae beats, either: a handful of cuts have a clip-clop, trip-hop-like rhythm, and there’s a brisk number that’s basically levantine ska. If you listen closely, you’ll notice that in several instances, Visini will begin with a bass loop but by the middle of the song, he’s playing a bass countermelody to complement the other instruments. There’s a lot more here that reveals itself cleverly with repeated listening: after all, dub is music to get lost in, and you can get absolutely, completely lost in this album. Beyond the Arab world, who is the audience for this? Reggae fans, stoners, devotees of the more hypnotic side of esoterica and anyone with a taste for the beautiful, often haunting maqam scales of Arabic music.

Sweet Soul Grooves from the Brothers Goldman

Bay area retro soul groovemeisters the Brothers Goldman’s album Fonkology came out at the tail end of last year. It’s a party record, a laid-back mix of 60s-style instrumental grooves and also a handful of vamps with vocals, like a cross between the Meters and Booker T. & the MG’s with a little early James Brown thrown in. That may seem like ridiculously high praise, but those are the big influences that bandleader/guitarist Bill Phillippe goes back to again and again here. While the production, the grooves and the tunes are strictly oldschool, Phillippe has an interesting, individual style that mixes biting blues with casual funk: he doesn’t nick Steve Cropper licks. The rhythm section of bassist Tim Wagar and drummer Joe O’Loughlin swings the slow stuff and keeps the more upbeat stuff simple and in the pocket, while organist Wil Blades – a frequent Billy Martin collaborator – switches between lush washes of big chords and wry, dancing, staccato punches. And the horn section of saxophonist Joe Cohen, trumpeter/trombonist Joel Behrman and trumpeter Will Magic – whose slowly crescendoing solo on the album’s fifth track is one of the high points here – punch in and then hang back until it’s time to hit it again, hard.

The most interesting, original track here is a vocal number with a don’t-mess-with-me message, a bittersweet tune and some delicious Memphis soul horn charts. The most reverential one is a homage to the Meters that gives Phillippe a long launching pad for a chill guitar solo that slowly and methodically brings the energy all the way up. Most of the tracks go with a long, hypnotic vamp that finally turns around quickly on the chorus, although a couple of cuts switch unpredictably from slinky soul to edgy funk and in one case, a shuffling New Orleans beat. As the Meters would do, much of the time the whole band, or at least the guitar, organ and bass all run the hook together as a song picks up steam: they know that catchy hooks are catchy because they’re simple. People who need booming subsonics to rattle their windows might find the sound a little thin; likewise, fans of the classics from the 60s, or acts like Sharon Jones, will love the analog vibe these guys bring. It’s a great soundtrack for a rooftop cookout, a fire escape smoke session or just a lazy Sunday afternoon.