Moody, Lynchian Instrumentals from Ludovico Einaudi

Italian pianist/composer Ludovico Einaudi has a beautifully Lynchian new album, In a Time Lapse, just out and a North American tour in the works. The music is Lynchian in the sense that it builds a series of frequently apprehensive movements out of terse variations on a simple four-note theme, just as Angelo Badalamenti did with the Twin Peaks soundtrack. The shadow of Philip Glass also towers over this album; his 1995 suite In the Summer House springs to mind. And in its more brooding moments, Einaudi reminds of Erik Satie. Einaudi likes a lot of reverb on his piano, to the extent that he generously credits the recording engineer as part of the ensemble. Elegant, sometimes sweeping strings and surprisingly hard-hitting percussion are provided in places by Orchestra I Virtuosi Italiani .

After a pensive, balmy string introduction, Einaudi wastes no time going deep into the noir with the sweepingly orchestrated, creepily surreal, hypnotic central theme, setting a suspenseful tone that persist throughout the rest of the album. While the rest of the suite is seldom this dark, there’s a recurring disquiet throughout the series of hypnotic, artfully ornamented piano preludes. Einaudi plays gracefully and gently; he lets his ideas linger and build suspense, or resonate with a nocturnal, late-summer calm.

A moody hypnotically baroque-tinged waltz brings back the strings, building to a stormy insistence. Einaudi follows a pulsing, Glass-like circular piece with an increasingly haunting interlude, lush strings over a repetitive four-note piano riff. Spaciously airy piano variations give way to more Glass-like circularity and then build to a minimalistically pulsing variations over almost subsonic electronics. The unease rises as the variations move along, electronic loops and then strings carrying the recurrent underlying theme to a rather elegaic payoff at the end. Who is the audience for this? The Sequenza 21 crowd, obviously; fans of Badalamenti, Glass, film music, and the noir pantheon. It sounds best with the lights out.

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Live Music in New York City in April and May 2013

Starting at midnight on April 29 the new concert calendar for May and June is here.

There’s a comprehensive list of places where these shows are happening at NY Music Daily’s sister blog Lucid Culture.

Showtimes listed here are set times, not the time doors open – if a listing says something like “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.

6/10, 6/17 and 6/24, 8 PM Tammy Faye Starlite as Nico in Chelsea Mädchen at the Cutting Room, $20 adv tix rec. This is a long ways off but this sardonic homage to the ultimate femme fatale is a must-see show, TFS manages to be both haunting and savage in the role. She’s got the accent, she’s got the character, she radiates Teutonic iciness and she’s working on the bangs.

Mondays in April, 7 PM the Grand Street Stompers play hot oldtimey swing and dixieland at Arthur’s Tavern on Grove St. just west of 7th Ave. South

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.

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.

Mondays in April, 8/9:30 PM klezmer/jazz trumpet legend Frank London’s Shekhinah Big Band plays the Stone. A wild intense cast of downtown luminaries play dark jubilant stuff in minor keys, early arrival highly advised. Check out this lineup: Greg Wall, Marty Ehrlich, Matt Darriau, Zach Mayer, Paul Shapiro, Doug Wieselman, Jessica Lurie (saxophones) Justin Mullens, Steven Gluzband, Ronald Horton, Pam Fleming, Rob Henke (trumpets) Curtis Hasselbring, Jacob Garchik, Matt Haviland, Brian Drye (trombones) Yoshie Fruchter (guitar) Anthony Coleman (piano) Uri Sharlin (accordion) Brian Glassman (bass) Roberto Rodriguez (drums) Renato Thoms (percussion).

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 in April, 8:30 PM Orrin Evans’ wildly popular, ferociously intense Captain Black Big Band at Smoke – no cover with $30 prix-fixe menu

Mondays at Tea Lounge in Park Slope at 9:15 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 beginning April 15 (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 in April, 10 PM swirling, psychedelic, anthemic Radiohead-influenced rockers My Pet Dragon – who are on the upcoming Occupy This Album compilation at the small room at the Rockwood

Also Mondays in April 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.

The second and fourth Tuesday of the month there are free organ concerts featuring a global mix of first-rate talent at Central Synagogue, Lexington Ave. at 55th St., free.

Tuesdays in April, 7:30 PM lyrical jazz pianist Kenny Werner plays with a variety of ensembles at Shapeshifter Lab

Tuesdays in April 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.

Tuesdays at around 10 Julia Haltigan and her band play 11th St. Bar. A torchy, charismatic force of nature, equally at home with fiery southwestern gothic rock, oldschool soul and steamy retro jazz ballads, and her band is just as good as she is. Why she isn’t as popular as, say, Neko Case, is a mystery.

Tuesdays in April, 10 PM violinist Lily Henley of the Pearly Snaps plays her torchy, rustic oldtimey songs at Pete’s.

Three Tueesdays in April, 4/16, 4/23 and 4/30, 10 PM the NY Gypsy All-Stars – featuring clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski, one of the moxt exhilarating players on the planet – on their home turf at Drom, $10

Wednesdays at 1 PM there are free organ concerts at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown, a mix of NYC-area and international talent.

Three Wednesdays in April, 4/3, 4/10 and 4/24 at 8 PM, and also 4/19 at 10 PM jangly, smart rock/powerpop songwriter Rob Teter (formerly of gypsy rockers the Belleville Outfit) at Zirzamin

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.

Thursdays and Fridays in April 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 May (that’s May, not April) this era’s greatest and funnest Peruvian style psychedelic cumbia/surf band, Chicha Libre plays Nublu, probably late, midnight-ish

Fridays at 5 PM in April, adventurous indie classical string quartet Ethel (Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello; Kip Jones, violin; and Tema Watstein, violin) plays the balcony bar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museum adm. When they’re not there, they’ll have someone from from their wide circle of like-minded avant ensembles. Although the sound wafts across the balcony, you actually have to be in the bar itself in order to really appreciate what they’re doing.

Friday evenings at various times (check the site for the weekly schedule) fearless avant cellist/impresario Valerie Kuehne’s Super Coda – a global mix of strange and sometimes amazing sounds, from the way-out to the way-in, drawing on a vast, global talent base – happens at Spectrum, 121 Ludlow St., 2nd floor.

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

Saturdays in April 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 1 PM-ish, bluegrass cats Freshly Baked (f.k.a. Graveyard Shift), featuring excellent, incisive fiddle player Diane Stockwell and an A-list of players play a brunch show at Southern Hospitality 645, 9th Ave at 45th St.

Weekly Sunday organ concerts continue (with holidays excepted) at St. Thomas Church, 53rd/5th Ave. at 5:15 PM, an international parade of A-list organists looking to give the mighty 1913 Skinner organ here a sendoff before it’s replaced.

Every Sunday at 5 PM, New York Music Daily present the Sunday Salon at Zirzamin (in the old Zinc Bar space on Houston at LaGuardia, downstairs).  An A-list of New York songwriters and instrumentalists work up new material and cross-pollinate in a comfortable, musician-friendly space. There’s no cover, and at the end of the salon, there’s a 45-minute set by a rotating cast of topnotch New York and international songwriters and composers. 3/31 diverse, wry Americana songwriter and lead guitarist to the stars of the underground  Homeboy Steve Antonakos; 4/7 a special doublebill starting at 6 with Charming Disaster featuring dark chamber pop maven Jeff Morris (from Kotorino) with Elia Bisker from Sweet Soubrette and then darkly menacing Canadian gothic chanteuse Lorraine Leckie; 4/14 powerhouse soul/indie rock songwriter Katie Elevitch; 4/21 elegant, smart country-pop songwriter Sharon Goldman; 4/28 sharply lyrical, theatrical, intense, literate acoustic rocker Walter Ego ; 5/5 Canadian gothic songstress Lorraine Leckie; 5/12 kick-ass Americana/gypsy guitarist/songwriter Chris Fuller; 5/19 powerpop/psychedelic guitar god Pete Galub; 5/26 dark rockers Phil Shoenfelt and Pavel Cingl from the Czech Republic; and more TBA .

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.

Sundays in May (not April), 8 PM the Dictators’ Andy Shernoff works up his own wry, clever solo material at Zirzamin

Sundays in April , 8/11 PM the ferocious, intense Arturo O’Farrill Latin Jazz Orchestra plays Birdland, $30 seats avail.

Sundays in April, 8:30 PM purist guitarist Peter Mazza – who gets the thumbs up from bop-era legend Gene Bertoncini – leads a series of groups at the Bar Next Door.

Sundays in April dark Americana rockers Mesiko – led by David Marshall and Rachael Bell from the late great dark art-rockers Norden Bombsight – at Zirzamin at 10:30 PM

4/1, 7 PM dark, pensive, sometimes funky acoustic Americana band the Sometime Boys followed at 8 by deviously fun cabaret/chamber pop chanteuse Grace McLean & Them Apples at the big room at the Rockwood

4/1, 7:30 PM not a joke – the Pulse Chamber Ensemble and Manhattan Choral Ensemble play US premieres by Charles Mason, Thomas Sleeper, Jesse Jones, Chris Reza and Victoria Bond’s James Joyce-inspired Cyclops at Symphony Space, $30/$15 stud/srs.

4/1, 8/10:30 PM eclectic soul/funk/worldbeat chanteuse Imani Uzuri at the Blue Note for $10, not an April Fool joke!

4/1, 8:30 PM Andrew Raffo Dewar’s Interactions Quartet East (Andrew Raffo Dewar, Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone, and Aaron Siegel) “perform works for very, very alternate scoring as well as his Piece for Four, which uses “invented spatial notation that explores group dynamics and destabilizes conventional approaches to foreground and background sound,”.at Roulette, $15/$10 stud. Not an April fool joke.

4/1, 10 PM sly, innuendo-driven oldtime jug band classics and hokum blues with Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues at the Jalopy, $10. Not a joke.

4/1, 11ish art-rock legend Paul Wallfisch – the Botanica keyboardist/frontman – and others at Small Beast upstairs at the Delancey. Not an April fool joke.

4/2, 7:30 PM purist, guitarishly brilliant, jangly country/psychedelic rock band Chris Erikson and the Wayward Puritans – whose debut album was one of last year’s best at Rock Shop, $10.

4/2, 7:30 PM trombonist Ryan Keberle and his excellent quintet play the album release show for his tuneful, eclectic new one Catharsis at Joe’s Pub, $14, followed at 9:30 (separate $12 admission) by bandoneonist JP Jofre’s exhilarating hard tango jamband

4/2, 7:30/9:30 PM at the Jazz Standard: the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble play lush vocal tunes from their new album Songs I Like A Lot featuring Kate McGarry & Theo Bleckmann, $20

4/2, 7:30 PM American String Quartet violinist Laurie Carney and pianist David Friend premiere Robert Sirota’s Violin Sonta #2 at Greenfield Hall at Manhattan School of Music, 120 Claremont Ave uptown, free, 1 to 125th St and walk uphill

4/2, 8 PM Bad Buka and their gypsy punk meltdown at Radegast Hall.

4/2, 8 PM Tracy Island – a catchy, quirky, psychedelic spinoff of Liza & the Wonderwheels – upstairs at Bowery Electric, free; long-running, groovalicious reggae-funk band Faith plays downstairs at 9

4/2, 8 PM pianist Eri Yamamoto leads her tuneful Trio followed by edgy violin jazz with the Sarah Bernstein Quartet with Kris Davis, Stuart Popejoy and Ches Smith at Roulette, $15/$10 stud.

4/2-7, 8/10 PM lyrical inventive jazz piano improviser Matthew Shipp leads a variety of ensembles at the Stone

4/2, 8:30 PM up-and-coming jazz chanteuse Charenne Wade opens fellow singer Sara Serpa’s new Voice Box series devoted to rising vocal jazz talent at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 includes a drink. the second show features Christine Correa, voice; Jeremy Udden, alto sax; Frank Carlberg, piano, separate adm.

4/2, 9 PM eclectic violinist Sarah Goldfeather leads an oldtimey band followed at 10 by the Pearly Snaps’ Lily Henley doing the same at Pete’s

4/3, 7 PM the king of the downtown NYC literate rock anthem, Willie Nile at Joe’s Pub, $25.

4/3, 7 PM eclectic oldtime blues powerhouse Blind Boy Paxton at Terra Blues

4/3, 7:30/9:30 PM at the Jazz Standard pianist Aaron Diehl leads a quartet with vibraphonist Warren Wolf, $20.

4/3, 8 PM Dina Fanai – ex-Trans-Siberian Orchestra – plays her own far more haunting, low-key, Middle Eastern tinged songs at the small room at the Rockwood

4/3, 8 PM the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Garrick Ohlson at the piano play Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Dvorak’s Concerto for Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, $23 nosebleed seats avail.

4/3, 8/10 PM a rare 20th anniversary show by the all-female 15-piece Diva Jazz Orchestra at Iridium, $30. They’re not just a novelty – they pack a wallop.

4/3, 10 PM the adventurous indie classical Mivos String Quartet plays Mivos with special guests Dan Blake, Timucin Sahin, and Nate Wooley at Douglass St. Music Collective, $10.

4/3-4, 9:30 PM drummer EJ Strickland leads a killer quintet with Jaleel Shaw – alto sax , Marcus Strickland – tenor sax , Luis Perdomo – piano , Vicente Archer – bass at Smalls

4/3, 10:30 PM wildly guitar-driven psychedelic female-fronted power trio Devi at Maxwell’s, $10.

4/3, 10:30 PM Argentinean pianist/composer Emilio Teubal and ensemble play the album release show for his new one Music for a  Sleeping Dragon at the Poisson Rouge. He’s also at the  Firehouse Space on 4/25, 8 PM

4/4 rockabilly/surf monster Rev. Horton Heat plays the Rocks Off Cruise aboard the Princess, boarding at 7, leaving at 8 from 41st St. and the Hudson, $35 adv tix avail. at the Highline Ballroom box ofc.

4/4, 7 PM the NY Scandia String Symphony plays a rare all-Scandinavian composer bill featuring the US premiere of  Jorgen Jersild’s Pastorale (US premiere); Frank Foerster’s deliciously witty, picturesque Summer in Fort Tryon Park; Lars-Erik Larsson’s Concertino for Cello and String Orchestra and Asger Hamerik’s Symphonie Spirituelle at Victor Borge Hall, downstairs at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue (between 37th & 38th). $15

4/4-7  percussionists Levy Lorenzo and Dennis Sullivan plus Cadillac Moon Ensemble perform in the dark cabaret show Doctor and Mister’s Time Capsule at Jack, 505 1/2 Waverly Ave., Ft. Greene.

4/4-6  Opera on Tap presents the world premiere of Smashed: The Carrie Nation Story with new music ensemble Hotel Elefant playing as the house band at Here, 145 6th Ave. south of Spring, west side of the street past the park, $15/$10 stud.srs

4/4, 7:30 PM Ross Daly, Omer Erdogdular, Yurdal Tokcan and Ahmet Erdogdula play a cross-cultural program of haunting, hypnotic Turkish, Greek and Sufi music at Symphony Space, $30.

4/4-7, 7:30/9:30 PM the Randy Weston African Rhythms Quintet at the Jazz Standard $30

4/4, 7:30 PM Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana play fiery Andalucian sounds at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised.

4/4, 8 PM composer Clint Mansell plays his first-ever NYC show – the album release show for his amazingly creepy soundtrack to the film Stoker – with an ensemble at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, 405 W 59th St (at Columbus), $30

4/4, 8 PM two very smart, very different, retro-minded chanteuses: dark, charismatic, deviously witty literate keyboardist/accordionist Rachelle Garniez followed at 10 by intense, plaintive, purist Americana songwriter/maven Jan Bell at Barbes

4/4, 8 PM the Sylvie Courvoisier Mark Feldman Quartet w/ Scott Colley and Billy Mintz followed by Vinnie Golia’s chamber jazz improv project at Roulette, $15/$10 stud

4/4, 8 PM indie classical ensemble Either/Or perform a full program of U.S. premieres by Rebecca Saunders at the Miller Theatre, $25 adv tix rec

4/4, 8:30 PM ther lush, haunting Karl Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra at El Taller Latinoamericano uptown.

4/4, 9 PM Afrobeat grooves with Ikebe Shakedown at Grand Victory in Williamsburg, $8

4/4, 9:30 PM a killer gypsy twinbill with Underscore Orkestra followed by Tipsy Oxcart – who do rustic trad versions of current Balkan hits – at the Jalopy, $10.

4/4, 9:30 PM Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland’s dark Americana project Whitehorse at Hill Country, $12

4/4, 9:30 PM high-energy oldtime C&W and bluegrass with the Giving Tree Band at Rock Shop in Gowanus, $12.

4/4, 10 PM La Sovietika play psychedelic latin reggae/dub grooves at Shrine.

4/4, midnight-ish hip-hop brass band grooves with PitchBlak Brass Band, at Drom, $10

4/5, 2 (two) PM the Pannonia Quartet and Face the Music Quartet play music of  Mackey, Mehdi Hosseini and Steve Reich.at the Lounge at Hudson View Gardens, 128 Pinehurst Ave at W 183rd St., $12, reception to follow.

4/5, 5:30 PM violinist Kenneth Edwards leads a jazz quartet at the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum, 895 Shore Road, Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, $10. The Bronx Seaside Trolley makes a continuous loop from the Pelham Bay subway station to the museum on its way to City Island

4/5, unbelievably good night at Spectrum: Valerie Kuehne and Coco Karol kick it off at 7 with “classical music and performances” followed by the house band at 8 and then macabre jazz/surf band Beninghove’s Hangmen at 8:30. Merriment continues with a series of improvisational duets between bassist Sean Ali and Koh Otera, Andrea Parkins and Dominic Lash and then Kuehne with drummer David Grollman and others.

4/5, 7 PM a NY Philharmonic ensemble conducted by Alan Gilbert plays recent European works. Principal Oboe Liang Wang is featured in the U.S. premiere of Poul Ruders’s Oboe Concerto; US premieres include Unsuk Chin’s Gougalon and Yann Robin’s Backdraft, with a NY premiere of Anders Hillborg’s Vaporized Tivoli at the Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, $20, reception to follow. The program repeats the following night, 4/6 at 8 PM at Symphony Space for the same price.

4/5, 7 PM the Greene Space’s non-exploitative battle of the bands continues with the Bronx contingent. This blog’s pick: trombonist Kevin Batchelor’s Grand Concourse ska band, $15 incl. a glass of wine, $30 will get you open bar?!?

4/5, 8 PM a night of eclectic, sometimes austere, sometimes lush “upstart-instrumental-art-music by violinist/composers”: Dana Lyn’s Yeti Camp followed at 9 by Skye Steele’s Railroad Rodia at Zirzamin.

4/5, 8 PM lush gorgeous Middle Eastern jazz:  Hassan Isakkut & Friends followed by sax legend legend Husnu Senlendirici & Alaturk – who’s sort of the Turkish equivalent of Miles Davis – at Drom, $30 standing room avail., adv tix rec,., this may sell out. At midnight, Senlendirici is joined by Ilhan Ersahin- or the other way around.

4/5, 8 PM Velly Bahia play Afro-Bahian music followed by Indian veena player/composer Nivedita Shivraj at Flushing Town Hall, $15

4/5, 8 PM cello metal band Break of Reality at Stage 48 in Hell’s Kitchen, $25 adv tix req.

4/5-6, 8 PM the Klopotic/Pierce/Zoernig Trio play Schubert piano trios at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, $15/$10 stud/srs.

4/5, 8 PM clarinetist Carol Robinson and cellist Frances-Marie Uitti play US premieres by Robinson/Uitti, Eliane Radigue, Giacinto Scelsi, and Annie Gosfield plus a solo cello piece by Jonathan Harvey at Issue Project Room, 22 Boerum Pl., downtown Brooklyn, $15.

4/5, 8 PM indie classical and performance art shenanigans: Ensemble Pamplemousse and Panoply Performance Lab perform a program TBA at the Firehouse Space in Williamsburg.

4/5, 8:30 PM bassist Mimi Jones leads her purist jazz trio at the bar at Symphony Space (enter on 95th St. west of Broadway), free

4/5, 9/10:30 PM irrepressible jazz satirists Mostly Other People Do the Killing massacre 1920s hot jazz with an expanded lineup including Dave Taylor, bass trombone; Brandon Seabrook, banjo; Ron Stabinsky, piano at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 includes a drink.

4/5, 9 PM dark art-rock pianist/songwriter Eve Lesov at Sidewalk.

4/5, 9:30 PM oldtimey swing/blues/hillbilly fun with the Hot Sardines at Joe’s Pub, $15.

4/5, 9:30 PM New Orleans’ eclectic, funky stoner brass band the Dirty Bourbon River Show at Hill Country, free. They’re also at the Brooklyn Bowl on 4/7 at 8 for $7.

4/5, 9:30 PM violinist Sarah Bernstein’s Sass with Andrew Drury, drums; Sarah Schoenbeck, bassoon; Shoko Nagai, piano at I-Beam, $10

4/5, 10ish dark, catchy, intense original female-fronted acoustic Americana band the Sometime Boys at Branded Saloon in Ft. Greene.

4/5, 10:30 PM good funny doublebill at the Mercury: Schaffer the Darklord’s campy white hip-hop followed by the filthy, LMFAO faux girl group punk of Cudzoo & the Fagettes, $10

4/6, 11 AM (eleven in the morning), Vlada Tomova and band play haunting Bulgarian folk tunes at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival (yawn) not a bad idea

4/6, 2 PM the Toomai String Quintet plays works by Ponce, Chavez, Lecuona and others at the Flushing Main Library, 41-17 Main Street (at 41st Avenue, free Flushing Main Library, 41-17 Main Street (at 41st Avenue, free.

4/6, 2 (two) PM up-and-coming indie classical ensemble Face the Music plays works by Steven Mackey, Mehdi Hosseini and Steve Reich at the lounge at Hudson View Gardens, 116 Pinehurst Ave. and 183rd St. in the Bronx, $12. reception to follow

4/6, 7 PM Sad Bastard – Charlene and Mo from Spanking Charlene singing the saddest acoustic covers they can fine – at Zirzamin.

4/6, 7:30 PM Cambodian music with flute virtuoso/Khmer Rouge survivor Arn Chorn-Pond, plus Master Mek, and the Waterek Ensemble at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised.

4/6, 7:30 PM eclectic new Scottish acts: pensive acoustic songwriter Rachel Sermanni, twin-bagpipe neo-folk band Breabach and rapidfire politically aware hip-hop MC Stanley Odd at the downstairs studio space at Webster Hall, $10.

4/6, 8 PM oud virtuoso/crooner Maurice Chedid sings classic hits from across the region at Alwan for the Arts, $20/$15 stud/srs

4/6, 8 PM a rare small club appearance by hypnotic desert blues-influenced Sway Machinery followed at 10 by wild Mexican polka crew Banda Sinaloense de los Muertos at Barbes.

4/6, 8 PM the Ebony Hillbillies – NYC’s one and only black bluegrass band – at Flushing Town Hall, $15

4/6, 8 PM Cleveland ensemble Les Delices play rarely heard 18th century French salon music by Rameau, Dauvergne, Mondonville, and Philidor at the Miller Theatre, $35 tix avail.

4/6, 8 PM nonagenarian hall of fame bassist Yusuf Lateef’s first NYC live set in over 10 years feat. the Momenta Quartet, Adam Rudolph, Marty Ehrlich, JD Parran, Alan Won and Taka Kigawa.at Roulette, $15/$10 stud.

4/6, 8 PM ferocious Chicago Balkan brass band Black Bear Combo and their arguably even more intense Brooklyn counterparts Raya Brass Band at Littlefield, $10

4/6, 8 PM eclectic blues/hip-hop songwriter Chris Thomas King – co-star of O Brother Where Art Thou – at Lucille’s.

4/6 9 PM the Immortal Thrones, icily jangly Blue Wave Theory and eclectic North Shore Troubadours at Unsteady Freddie’s reliably eclectic, fun monthly surf shindig at Otto’s

4/6, 9 PM grasscore with Sprit Family Reunion at Bowery Ballroom, $15.

4/6, 9 PM it was bound to happen: Haley Bowery & the Manimals play their sardonic, hard-hitting new retro glamrock at the Bitter End. Hey, Bleecker St. is cool again. Sort of.

4/6, 9:30 PM torchy, lurid gothic art-rockers Elysian Fields at Joe’s Pub, $15.

4/6, 9:30ish brilliant, sometimes hilarious Tipsy Oxcart, who play acoustic versions of current day Eastern European pop hits – at Mehanata.

4/6, 9:30 PM pyrotechnic alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw leads a quartet with Lawrence Fields on piano, Linda Oh on bass and Jonathan Blake in drums at the Jazz Gallery, $20

4/6, 10 PM dark, devious noir rocker Tom Warnick & World’s Fair followed eventually at midnight by Plastic Beef spinoff the Good Yeggs at Freddy’s.

4/6, 10 PM intense, powerful third-stream Argentine pianist Fernando Otero’s Electric Tango at Nublu. Could be scary.

4/6, 10ish creepy keyboard-driven art-rock/goth band the Devil’s Broadcast at the Gutter in Williamsburg

4/6, 10ish dark intense minimalist Persian-flavored indie rock duo the Mast at Glasslands, $10. 4/18 they’re at Public Assembly at 11ish for three bucks less.

4/7, 1:30 PM pianist Peter Mintun plays a live soundtrack to the hilarious 1928 King Vidor film Show People at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza, free

4/7, 2 PM intense jam-oriented klezmer twinbill: Isle of Klezbos and the full Metropolitan Klezmer octet at the Walt Whitman Theatre, 2900 Campus Road, Midwood, Brooklyn, B/Q to Ave. M and walk through the Brooklyn College campus. For 20% off the door charge use 20% off code KLEZ24

4/7, 2:30 PM the Antara Ensemble play music by by Enescu, Handel-Halvorsen, Mozart, Demersseman and Bolling at Saint Andrew’s Church, 2065 5th Ave at 127th St., $25/$20 stud/srs.

4/7, 3 PM haunting, lush, slinky vintage 50s/60s Egyptian film music revivalists Zikrayat at the Queens Central Library, 89-11 Merrick Blvd, F to 169th St. free

4/7, a special 6 PM doublebill after the Sunday Salon at Zirzamin –  Charming Disaster featuring dark chamber pop maven Jeff Morris (from Kotorino) with Elia Bisker from Sweet Soubrette playing their dangerously torchy noir cabaret and gypsy rock sounds, followed by dark Canadian gothic songstress Lorraine Leckie.

4/7, 7 PM brilliant Moroccan oudist Rachid Halihal and his haunting acoustic ensemble Layali El Andalus at Barbes followed at 9 by gypsy guitar paradigm-shifter Stephane Wrembel.

4/7, 7:30 PM indie classical sextet Ensemble Pamplemousse plays short works by Bryan Jacobs, Lu Wang, Ryan Pratt, Zosha di Castri, Andres Cremisini, Lily Chen, Amadeus Regucera, and Dan VanHassel.and then deconstructs each of them in a series of modules at the Firehouse Space

4/7, 8 PM a Barbes doublebill at the Jalopy – Pierre de Gaillande’s Bad Reputation plays witty English translations of Georges Brassens classics followed at 9 by by charming, sly, innuendo-driven French chanson revivalists les Chauds Lapins , $10

4/7, 8:30 PM the Stradivari Quartet play music of Bartók, Brahms, Turina, and Schubert on their medieval instruments at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

4/7, 8:30 PM guitarist/mandolinist John Ehlis with his tuneful, sometimes terse, sometimes wildly free group: Sylvain Leroux – flutes/dousin gouni; Max Johnson – bass; Chris White – percussion at I-Beam, $10.

4/7, 90:30 PM eclectic, pensive violinist/composer Skye Steele’s Glorious Sunshine at Pete’s

4/7, 10:30ish Jack Grace’s sick, hilarious Van Halen country cover band Van Hayride at Rodeo Bar

4/8-9 the American Composers Orchestra perform their annual new music readings series; working rehearsal 4/8, 10 AM (in the morning), run-through the following night at 7:30 PM at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 W. 37th St., free but res req.

4/8, 7 PM Jerome O’Brien of the late, great Dog Show plays his ferociously literate, vintage R&B/punk influenced songs, acoustic, possibly with very special guests, hint hint, at Zirzamin

4/8, 7:30 PM subversive new classical sounds: new music ensemble Loadbang performs Hannah Lash’s Eight Songs for a Stoned Prince, a caricature of British playboy Prince Harry that unfolds via a series of drunken phone calls. The program also includes Doug Gibson’s Fanfare for the Common Audience – incorporating the entire text of a letter from an irate concertgoer to the New York Philharmonic imploring them to stop programming music that “makes no sense” – plusVictoria Bond’s The Page Turner played by pyrotechnic pianist Kathleen Supove – who takes the role of a page turner who just can’t seem to get it right. -plus Love Lost Lust Lone by Andy Akiho, Gutteral I and II by Alexandre Lunsqui, and Land of Silence by Reiko Futing, at Symphony Space, $20/$15 stud/srs

4/8 popular Austin drone-psych rockers the Black Angels at Webster Hall.

4/8, 8 PM a killer circus-rock/gypsy/punk doublebill with Lonesome Leash and ten-piece monstrosity Veveritse Brass Band at le Poisson Rouge, $TBA. No idea who is headlining but they’re both fantastic

4/8, 8 PM Adam Rudolph’s massive improvisationally inclined Go Organic jazz Orchestra at Shapeshifter Lab, $15. They’re also here on 4/22.

4/8, 9ish wry, tuneful, eclectic Nashville gothic band Maynard & the Musties at Cowgirl-Seahorse, 259 Front St, at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge on the South Street Seaport

4/8, 9 PM the majestic sweeping Pete McGuinnesss Jazz Orchestra at Tea Lounge in Park Slope.

4/8, midnight the twisted funny retro 60s country stylings of the Jack Grace Band at the Ear Inn

4/9, 7 PM Budapest Bar play Hungarian gypsy cabaret music at Elebash Hall, 365 5th Ave. (34/35), $25/$20 stud.

4/9, 7 PM eclectic Balkan jazz trumpeter Ben Holmes leads a quartet witth Curtis Hasselbring (trombone), Vinnie Sperrazza (drums), and Matt Pavolka (bass) opening for Slavic Soul Party at Barbes.

4/9, 7:30 PM the Minetti Quartet play Haydn: String Quartet in C, Hob.III:77, Op.76, No.3 (‘Emperor’); Olga Neuwirth: settori for string quartet (1999); Beethoven: String Quartet No.9 in C, Op.59, No.3 (‘Razumovsky’) at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E 52nd St., free, res. req.

4/9, 8 PM the Strauss/Warschauer Duo play haunting klezmer songs at the Steven Wise Free Synagogue, 30 W 68th St., $15

4/9, 8:30 PM dark lyrical Americana rocker Jeffrey Foucault with Cold Satellite (his collaboration with poet Lisa Olstein) playing the album release show for their new one at the Bell House $14

4/9, 9:30 PM luminous, wickedly catchy cellist/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Serena Jost plays the album release show for her new one A Bird Will Sing at Joe’s Pub, $15.

4/9, 10:30 PM ferocious, tuneful female-fronted gypsy punk/noir cabaret band Amour Obscur at the Knitting Factory, $10. They’re also at ABC No Rio at 3 on 4/13.

4/10, 7 PM bad segue, good doublebill: oldschool funk/soul saxophonist/bandleader Lakecia Benjamin followed by John Medeski playing solo jazz piano at le Poisson Rouge, $25 adv tix rec.

4/10, 7:30 PM purist jazz chanteuse Tessa Souter – who has a marvelously nuanced new album out – with her group at Dizzy’s Club, $25 seats avail.

4/10, 8 PM high-voltage, lushly sophisticated Hungarian gypsy/classical/jazz ensemble Budapest Bar at Drom

4/10, 8 PM dark hypnotic psychedelic rock triplebill: Elephant Stone, the Allah-Las and Black Angels at the Bell House, $25, adv tix rec., this may sell out.

4/10, 8 PM dark intense tuneful/lyrical janglerock/postpunk chanteuse Baby Streuth (f.k.a. Naomi Hates Humans) at Grand Victory in Williamsburg, $8

4/10, 8 PM contemplative, darkly bluesy, guitarishly eclectic rockers Wallace on Fire followed at 9 by ex-Gotham 4 guitarist Bryan Wade’s eclectic jazz/celtic/math-rock at LIC Bar

4/10, 9 PM dark garage rock twinbill: the Allah-Lahs followed by the Black Angels at the Bell House, $25.

4/10, 9ish tongue-in-cheek, period-perfect early 50s style country from Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co.at Rodeo Bar.

4/10, 9 PM eerie microtonal blues with Jane Lee Hooker at Shrine.

4/10, 9:30 PM deviously eclectic organ virtuoso Brian Charette with his Sextette at Smalls. They’re at the Fat Cat on 4/13 at 10.

4/10, 10 PM Alana Amram plays a Lee Hazelwood tribute at Otto’s – hard to imagine anybody doing a better job of it than this torchy blue-sky rocker.

4/11, 1 (one) PM the Minetti Quartett play a program TBA at Trinity Church, free.

4/11, 6 PM brilliant, haunting Finnish jazz guitarist/oud player Jussi Reijonen with the group from his amazing new album: pianist Utar Artun, acoustic bassist Bruno Råberg and percussionists Tareq Rantisi and Sergio Martínez at Shrine; 5/4 they’re at Something Jazz Club at 7, $10.

4/11, 7 PM Mary C & the Stellars play high-voltage retro 60s soul at the Rockwood – if you like Adele’s voice but find her songs trite and cliched, Mary C will hook you up.

4/11, 7 PM purist oldschool postbop jazz: pianist Lafayette Harris with Antoine Drye, bassist Lonnie Plaxico, singers Jazzmeia Horn and Noël Simone Wippler, and drummer Will Terrill at PS 321, 180 7th Ave, Park Slope, $15, all proceeds to benefit the school.

4/11, 7:30 PM pyrotechnic, paradigm-shifting saxophonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Gamak with Dave Fiuczynski on guitar at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

4/11, 7:30 PM the Harlem Quartet play Wynton Marsalis’ String Quartet No. 1 plus string quartet versions of Strayhorn (Take the A Train) Chick Corea (The Adventures of Hippocrates), and more at Symphony Space, $30/$15 under 30

4/11, 7:30 PM oldschool western swing and gypsy jazz with the Hot Club of Cowtown at Joe’s Pub, $20; psychedelic Peruvian-style chicha surf rockers Chicha Libre plays the second show (separate $15 admission) at 9:30, which is an album release celebration for their new ep Quatro Tigres.

4/11, 7:30 PM Bukharan-Israeli multi-instrumentalist/chanteuse Hadar Maoz sings ancient Central Asian songs at Drom, $10 adv tix rec.

4/11, 7:30 PM the Spring String Quartet and saxophonist jam out a new arrangement of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E 52nd St., free, res. req.

4/11-14, 7:30/9:30 PM at the Jazz Standard drummer Eric Harlan leads a quintet with Taylor Eigsti on piano and Julian Lage on guitar, $25/$30 Sat-Sun

4/11-2, 8 PM wild, theatrical gypsy brass rockers MarchFourth Marching Band at Brooklyn Bowl, $10.

4/11, 8 PM Sabisha Friedberg’s new low-register piece for voice and basses based on a 1953 William Grant Still song played by bassists Linda Oh, James Ilgenfritz, and Andrew Lafkas at Issue Project Room, 22 Boerum Pl., downtown Brooklyn, $10

4/11, 8 PM the Diotima String Quartet play Dutilleux’s “Ainsi la Nuit”, Toshio Hosokawa’s “Silent Flowers”, and two works from Hugh Levick: “The Unimagined” and “Empire Inc. at Roulette, $15/$10 stud/srs

4/11-12, 8:30 PM rising star trumpeter Adam O’Farrill leads his group at Symphony Space, free.

4/11, 8:30 PM smart, multistylistic jazz-pop/bossa nova chanteuse Sinem Saniye at Caffe Vivaldi.

4/11, 9 PM mighty ten-piece Balkan group Veveritse Brass Band – as intense as Slavic Soul Party but without the hip-hop influence, and more improvisational – and Tipsy Oxcart at the Jalopy, $10.

4/11, 9 PM wild gypsy orchestra MarchFourth Marching Band at Brooklyn Bowl, $10. 4/12 they’re here at 8.

4/11, 9 PM moody acoustic soundtrack-style atmospherics with the Inner Banks at Union Hall, $8.

4/11, 9 PM violinist Karen Lee Larson’s hypnotic, haunting worldbeat band Triptic Soul at the Knitting Factory, $12

4/11, 9 PM avant-garde guitar shredder Elliott Sharp at the Silent Barn in Bushwick, $10

4/11, 9ish doo-wop punk with the King Khan & BBQ Show at Santos Party House, $15.

4/11, 9 PM Spacehog – remember those retro 70s glam guys from the 90s? – at Arlene’s, $12.

4/11, 10 PM dark psychedelic guitarist/indie legend Martin Bisi at Hank’s.

4/11, 10:30ish LES punk/surf/soul legends Simon and the Bar Sinisters at Rodeo Bar. Guitarist Simon Chardiet is at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club on 4/19 at 9ish.

4/11, 11ish punk Balkan jazz with Bad Credit No Credit at Bowery Electric, $8

4/12, 7 PM the Salome Chamber Orchestra play Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola, and String Orchestra, K. 364; Lera Auerbach’s Sogno di Stabat Mater for Violin, Viola, Vibraphone, and Orchestra (2008); and and Paganini’s Sonata per la Grand Viola et Orchestra Op. 35 on rare period instruments from the Met’s collection at the Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, $35

4/12, 7 PM pianist Daniela Bracchi plays music of Barber, Beethoven and Chopin at Third St. Music School Settlement, free.

4/12, 7:30 PM lush sweeping largescale music for strings: Yale music alums led by violinist Ani Kafavian play a world premiere requiem piece for 23 solo strings by Matthew Barnson plus Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen for the same forces plus Tschaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, $15 tix avail.

4/12, 8 PM nine-piece Balkan behemoth Brazda followed at 10 by Steve Ulrich’s legendary film noir guitar band Big Lazy’s first live performance in over six years at Barbes.

4/12 8 PM artsy jangly tuneful slide guitar-driven powerpop rockers the Jack Lords Orchestra – totally 80s but in a good way, sort of a harder-hitting Crowded House with guy/girl vox – at Shrine

4/12, 8 PM “in a concert of world premieres, Cadillac Moon Ensemble explores the dark and creepy side of circuses & clowns—come see what happens when the ensemble unleashes its circus act with four world premieres by composers Rick Burkhardt, Daniel Felsenfeld, Nicholas Deyoe, and Tim Hansen” at the DiMenna Center, 450 W 37th St.,

4/12, 8 PM charismatic, pyrotechnic pianist/deadpin wit Kathleen Supove in SINGLED OUT: Debussy on Wagner (premiere) for pianist with Debussy mask and soundtrack by Marita Bolles;La Plus Que Plus Que Lent (premiere) for pianist and MAX/MSP by Jacob Cooper; Layerings 3 (premiere) for pianist and soundtrack by Eric km Clark; Cakewalks (premiere) for piano, based on Golliwog’s Cakewalk, by Daniel Felsenfeld, and For Piano With Balloons (premiere) for pianist and balloons by Judy Dunaway at Roulette, $15/$10 stud/srs.

4/12, 8 PM Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz’s ABRAXAS plays John Zorn’s Masada: Book of Angels at the Stone followed at 10 by Eyal Maoz’ Pitom surf/metal project, $10

4/12, 8 PM Ovidiu Marinescu, cello and Dmitry Rachmanov, piano play samizdat Russian cello music: Nikolai Miaskovsky – Sonata No. 2 in A minor for cello and piano, Op. 81; Mieczyslaw Weinberg – Sonata No. 2 in G minor for cello and piano, Op. 63; Marina Tchistova – Suite “Echelle” for Cello and Piano; Sergei Prokofiev – Sonata for cello and piano in C Major, Op. 119 at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs/$15 stud

4/12, 8 PM twisted, satirical, pottymouth cover band the Dan Band at Highline Ballroom, $25 adv tix highly rec

4/12, 8:30 PM Translatlantic Ensemble with Imani Winds clarinetist, Mariam Adam and pianist Evelyn Ulex share the stage with the Winds’ flutist Valerie Coleman and pyrotechnic bandoneon player JP Jofre in a reprise of their exilarating program earlier this year at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec

4/12, 9 PM the Flail: Dan Blankinship – trumpet , Stephan Moutot – tenor , Brian Marsella – piano , Reid Taylor – bass , Matt Zebroski – drums play melodic, intense original postbop at at BAM Cafe. they’re also at the Stone at 8 on 4/13 and at Smalls on 4/26-27 at 9:30 PM

4/12, 10:30ish hilarious, eclectically satirical cowpunk rockers Uncle Leon & the Alibis at Rodeo Bar

4/12, 10:30 PM ferocious all-female powerpop/punk-pop band Hunter Valentine at the Mercury, $10.

4/12, 11 PM literate Tom Waits-ish alt-country rockers Fist of Kindness at Freddy’s

4/13, 6 PM haunting intense Balkan chanteuse Eva Salina Primack, who has a killer new solo album out, at Barbes, broadcasting live on WFMU. Badass resonator guitarist/oldtime blues siren Mamie Minch plays later at around 10.

4/13, 6 PM intense, surrealistic, torchy Americana/jazz chanteuse Cal Folger Dayat Pete’s. She’s also here on 4/27.

4/13, 7:15 PM wild, minor-key klezmer/reggae/New Orleans jamband Hazmat Modine at Terra Blues. They’re also here on 4/27.

4/13, 8 PM deliciously twangy, jangly twin-guitar paisley underground/psychedelic Americana rockers Mud Blood & Beer play the album release show for their killer new one The Sweet Life at the Bitter End.

4/13, 8 PM the oldschool, elegant but sly “Duke of Bachata,” guitarist Joan Soriano and his excellent acoustic band at Roulette, $25 INCLUDES OPEN RUM BAR 7-8 PM w/admission

4/13, 8 PM singer Antoinette Montague and her Quintet with cello and concert harp salute women in jazz including Etta Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and others at Flushing Town Hall, $15.

4/13, 8 PM microtonal saxophonist Noah Kaplan’s intriguing Claque quartet with synth, trumpet and drums followed by indie classical improvisers Dead Language – Jodie Rottle: flute, Tristan McKay: piano , and Meaghan Burke: cello at the Firehouse Space

4/13, 8:30 PM trippy, surreal Cambodian psychedelic rockers Dengue Fever at le Poisson Rouge, $17 adv tix rec.

4/13, 9 PM the Delorean Sisters– who play oldtimey versions of 80s cheeseball pop songs followed at 10 by hot oldtime blues band the Fascinators feat. brilliant guitarist Lenny Molotov at the Way Station in Ft. Greene

4/13, 9 PM amazing ten-piece country/gypsy/acoustic rock behemoth M Shanghai String Band – whose new album is one of the year’s best at the Jalopy, $10. They’re also at the Bell House on 4/25 at 8 for the same price.

4/13, 9 PM intense, tuneful southwestern gothic rock with the Downward Dogs upstairs at the National Underground

4/13, 9 PM theatrical, carnivalesque, legendary Dutch big band jazz with ICP Orchestra at Littlefield, $18.

4/13, 9ish creepy, weird, jazz/cinematic faux-operatic agitators Thrillington at 5th Estate Bar in Park Slope. They’re at Matchless the following night 4/14 at 9ish.

4/13, 9ish honkytonk and outlaw country with the Third Wheel Band at Freddy’s

4/13, 9:30ish charismatic gypsy punk/metal cumbia band Escarioka at Mehanata.

4/13, 9:30 PM 9:30 PM dark 80s style chanteuse Kristin Hoffmann at Caffe Vivaldi

4/13, 10 PM intense, tuneful southwestern gothic rock with the Downward Dogs at the National Underground.

4/13, 10 PM King Django play ska-punk at Two Boots Brooklyn, free.

4/13, 10 PM original psychedelic funk/hip-hop band Mamarazzi at the big room at the Rockwood.

4/13, 10ish doo-wop punk with the King Khan & BBQ Show at Glasslands

4/13, 10ish what’s left of 60s psych-punk legends the Sonics plays a benefit for hurricane-swamped Norton Records at the Bell House, $25 adv tix rec.

4/14, guessing early afternoon-ish, the Postcrypt Folk Fest on the Columbia campus at 116th and Broadway, follow the sound and your nose – it’s an outdoor free-for-all with lots of food vendors, performers TBA

4/14, 2 (two) PM “recorder virtuosi Daphna Mor and Nina Stern collaborate with the NY Gypsy All-Stars’ kanun virtuoso Tamer Pinarbasi, Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble percussionist Shane Shanahan and guest artist Jesse Kotansky on violin and oud, with a program exploring medieval music of the Mediterranean” at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs/$15 stud.

4/14, 4 PM the Minetti String Quartet play works by Haydn, Bartok and Beethoven at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library Grand Army Plaza branch, no kids under 6 admitted.

4/14, 5 PM Ensemble ACJW play works by Harbison, Ravel and Dvorak at Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church, 178 Bennett Avenue (at 189th St) , free.

4/14, 6 PM eclectic cellist/bandleader Marika Hughes at the big room at the Rockwood. She’s also at Barbes on 4/30 at 7.

4/14, 6 PM twin sax improv madness with Philip Greenleaf and Ingrid Laubrock at Downtown Music Gallery, free

4/14, 7 PM after the Sunday Salon at Zirzamin – powerhouse soul/indie rock songwriter Katie Elevitch, whose ferocious, Patti Smith-esque sounds drove the crowd wild here last December.

4/14, 8 PM Australian chamber ensemble/art-rockers Viola Dana play their soundtrack to the 1926 Buster Keaton classic The General at the Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, $15; 4/15 they’re at Goodbye Blue Monday at 8.

4/14, 9 PM torchy eclectic country/Americana chanteuse Drina Seay upstairs at 2A

4/14, 9 PM coal miner’s granddaughter Jan Bell hosts a Loretta Lynn 81st birthday tribute at the Jalopy with lots of Conway duets, special guests include Megan Palmer, Vida Wakeman, Karen Duffy, Feral Foster, Alex Battles, Jesse Lenat, Will Scott, Hilary Hawke and many more.

4/14, 10 PM Random Test play roots reggae at Shrine.

4/15, 1 PM fiery noir gothic Americana/Canadiana rocker Lorraine Leckie & Her Demons live on Irene Trudel’s show on WFMU.

4/15, 7:30/9:30 PM intense jazz guitarist Julian Lage with his quartet at Dizzy’s Club, $25.

4/15, 9 PM haunting oldschool country/noir folk band Karen & the Sorrows at Pete’s.

4/15, 9 PM vintage 60 sstyle big band jazz with the New Yorkestra at Tea Lounge in Park Slope

4/15, 10 PM Joe Pug – who’s quickly building a vast catalog of smartly lyrical, fearlessly political Americana/blues songs – at Union Hall, $15.

4/16 Fitz & the Tamtrums at Webster Hall is sold out.

4/16, 6:30 PM violinist Miri Ben-Ari leads a tribute to Israeli and Jewish music with bassist/oudist Omer Avital, Yair Harel, Kol Dodi, and chanteuse Mika Karni, leading a group playing Israeli Moroccan, Yemenite and Ethiopian music at Symphony Space, $5 (fve dollar) adv tix rec

4/16, 7 PM eclectic Balkan jazz trumpeter Ben Holmes leads a quartet at Barbes followed at 8 by Clare & the Reasons’ Olivier Manchon’s Orchestre de Chambre Miniature at Barbes and then at 9 by Slavic Soul Party’s Balkan/Ellingtonian madness.

4/16, 7 PM torchy oldtimey chanteuse Halle & the Jilt at the Rockwood

4/16, 7:30 PM Argentinian antique 1920s tango revivalists 34 Puñaladas at Drom, $12 adv tix rec.

4/16, 7:30/9:30 PM powerhouse tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery leads a quintet with Rachel Z – keyboards; Orrin Evans – piano; Hans Glawischnig – bass.; Jason Brown – drums at the Jazz Standard.

4/16-21, 8:30/10:30 PM cutting-edge pianist Gerald Clayton leads his trio at the Village Vanguard, $25 plus 1 drink min

4/16, 8:30 PM Australian jazz chanteuse Gian Slater with a great band – Chris Hale, electric bass; Barney McAll, piano; Ben Vanderwal , drums – at Cornelia St Cafe, $20 incl a drink

4/16, 8:30 PM saxophonist Tom Tallitsch on tenor saxophone with Jared Gold on organ and Rudy Royston on drums at the Bar Next Door, $12.

4/16, 9 PM subtle, torchy oldtimey chanteuse Jolie Holland plays City Winery, $18 standing room avail.

4/17, 7:30 PM haunting, intense Persian chanteuse Bahar Movahed and her band play rarely heard Kurdish classical songs at Symphony Space, $30 adv tix req.

4/17, 8 PM Tammy Faye Starlite – reborn as the smutty queen of cruel, satirical cover bands – and her brand-new group the Hebrew Ladies play Iggy Pop’s classic Kill City all the way through at Bowery Electric, $8. Can’t wait to hear her slur her way through Jesus Loves the Stooges.

4/17, 8/10 PM electric blues guitar sensation Ana Popovic and her band at Iridium, $30. They’re also here on 4/19.

4/17, 9 PM cowpunk band I’ll Be John Brown followed at 10 by amusing female-fronted honkytonk crew Trailer Radio at Spike Hill.

4/17, 10 PM eclectic country/janglerock/jamband Holy Ghost Tent Revival at Brooklyn Bowl, $8.

4/17, 10ish eclectic Turkish singer/bandleader Sirin Soysal andy kick-ass Boston klezmer band Ezekiel’s Wheels at Nublu, $10. Not sure who’s playing first but they’re both good.

4/17, 10:30 PM charismatic, bewitching Balkan chanteuse Eva Salina Primack solo at the Jalopy at Roots n’ Ruckus, free

4/17, 10:30ish eclectic honkytonk/zydeco Doc Marshalls at Rodeo Bar.

4/18, 7 PM the all-star Jerry Bezdikian Ensemble plays classic Egyptian and Lebanese bellydance and habibi music to accompany a parade of bellydancers at the Sullivan Room (next door to Sullivan Hall), $15

4/18, 7:30 PM the first full night of the MATA new music festival at Roulette kicks off with Israeli chamber group Meitar Ensemble playing new works by Bryan Jacobs, Enda Bates, Ofer Pelz, Marcin Stancyzk and Christopher Bailey

4/18, 7:30 PM ACME plays chamber works by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, his contemporary and friend Shostakovich and Henryk Gorecki at the Morgan Library,225 Madison Ave, $35.

4/18, 8 PM klezmer/bluegrass mandolin virtuoso Andy Statman ($10 cover) followed at 10 by four-guitar Argentinan oldtime tango monsters 34 Punaladas at Barbes

4/18-21 saxophonist Steve Wilson plays a bday weekend stand with a killer band: Alex Sipiagin – trumpet; George Cables – piano; Larry Grenadier – bass; Ulysses Owens Jr. – drums 7:30/9:30 PM at the Jazz Standard, $25/$30 Sat-Sun

4/18, 8 PM Voices of Ascension sing works by Mendelssohn, Weber, Vaughan Williams and the world premiere of Eve Beglarian’s commissioned work for choir and organ, Building the Bird Mound, inspired by the spectacular Poverty Point paleo-American bird mound in northeastern Louisiana, at the Church of the Ascension, 5th Ave/10th St., $10 seats avail. but going fast.

4/18, 8 PM amusing cowpunk/honkytonk band Trailer Radio with special guest Drina Seay at Zirzamin.

4/18, 8 PM steamboat soul band Roosevelt Dime at the small room at the Rockwood.

4/18, 8:30 PM John Hollenbeck’s lush, polyrhythmic, reliably tuneful Claudia Quintet at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 incl. a drink. The following nights 4/19-20 they’re here with sets at 9 and 10:30.

4/18, 9 PM a solid dark garage rock triplebill: the Othermen, Triple Hex and then Twin Guns playing the album release show for their reverb-drenched noir new one at the Gutter bowling alley in Williamsburg, absurdly cheap at $5

4/18, 9ish the lush, haunting Karl Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra at Shapeshifter Lab.

4/18, 9/10:0 PM the Sirius String Quartet play their “comprovisations” plus a quintet with pianist Uri Caine at the Jazz Gallery, $20

4/18, 9:30 PM dark intense minimalist occasionally Middle Eastern-inflected indie rockers the Mast (Persian for “high on life”) at Public Assembly

4/18 swirly, hypnotic, totally 80s 4AD dreampop/shoegazers Dead Leaf Echo at Public Assembly

4/18, 10 PM Bong Hits for Jesus at Desmond’s. Gotta love em.

4/18, 10:30 PM hilarious, high-energy grasscore/oldtimey band the Devil Makes Three at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, $17.50 adv tix avail. at the Mercury box office M-F 5-7 PM.

4/18, 10:30ish the twisted funny retro 60s country stylings of the Jack Grace Band at Rodeo Bar. They’re at Brooklyn Rod & Gun club the following night, 4/19.

4/19, 6 PM a rare solo show by outlaw country outfit the Newton Gang’s Jeff Duarte at the American Folk Art Museum

4/19, 7:30 PM second night of this year’s MATA new music festival reatures electroacoustic performances by composer Jobina Tinnemans (a concerto grosso for knitters and instrumental ensemble) plus singer Stephanie Pan performing a new Henry Vega work and Jessie Marino and Natacha Diels plus a clarinet trio performing music inspired by weather patterns at Roulette.

4/19, 7:30 PM Australian indie classical ensemble ExhAust New Music play a rare US program of up-and-coming Australian composers including music by Aristea Mellos, Amanda Cole, Rosalind Page, and Richard Vaudrey at First Presbyterian Church, 124 Henry St, downtown Brooklyn, any train to Borough Hall, $10

4/19 the Cannabis Cup Reggae Band plays the Rocks Off Cruise aboard the Harbor Lights, boarding at 7, leaving at 8 from behind the heliport at 23rd St. & the FDR, $25 adv tix avail. at the Highline Ballroom box ofc They’re also playing two 4/20 cruises, one in the afternoon for the wake-and-bake crowd and the other at night, same deal.

4/19, 8 PM haunting female-fronted Nashvile gothic/janglerock band the Whispering Tree at Sidewalk.

4/19, 8 PM wind quintet the City of Tomorrow make their NYC debut with music by Milhaud, Higdon, Berio and others at the DiMenna Center, 450 W 37th St, $18 gen adm.

4/19, 8 PM pianist Alexander Peskanov plays his own works plus preludes and etudes-tableaux by Rachmaninoff and excerpts from Stravinsky’s Petrouschka at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs/$15 stud.

4/19, 8 PM Von Ku Pak Drum & Dance Troupe perform Korean music & dance dressed in traditional regalia followed by Yanni Papastefanou and his ensemble in an evening of traditional music & dance from the Greek Isles at Flushing Town Hall, $15.

4/19, 8 PM a Hurricane Sandy benefit played by Ferran Cullell, Jacob Sievers and, Jonathan Drucker plus Christine Lamprea: cello, Albert Barbeta: violin, Stephanie Lamprea: soprano, Daniel Padmos: clarinet, Fadlullah Ba’th: violin featuring music of Shostakovich, Milhaud, Brahms, Drucker, Khatchatuian at the Firehouse Space.

4/19, 8 PM composer David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir celebrate the 30th anniversary of his cult favorite album Hearing Solar Winds with a performance of modal sacred chant plus a live video program that includes on-site imagery created by the voices onstage at the Old Stone House, Washington Park, 336 3rd St (bet. 4th & 5th Avenues) in Park Slope.The concert repeats on 4/21 at 3 PM, $20

4/19-21 the Brooklyn Folk Festival – meaning “folk” as in oldtimey roots music, not cheesy singer-songwriters – kicks off at the Bell House at 8:30 with Kristin Andreassen, Cherven Traktor, the Cactus Blossoms, Alex Battles & the Whisky Rebellion and Lichtman’s Brain Cloud wrapping up the night with western swing, $20

4/19, 9 PM NYC’s original highvoltage Balkan band Zlatne Uste followed by Hungarian pan-Balkan folk-rock star Meszecsinka and her band at Drom, $15 adv tix rec.

4/19, 9 PM dark Americana chanteuse Jessie Kilguss & Radio Gold at Pete’s

4/19, 9 PM second-wave dub reggae stars John Brown’s Body at Brooklyn Bowl, $15. They’re in Pittsboro, North Carolina on 4/20 in case anybody’s wondering – and then they’re taking almost a week off to recover. Hmmm…

4/19, 9 PM conscious hip-hop artist Rabbi Darkside does the album release show for his new one at Littlefield, $10

4/19, 10 PM psychedelic Americana jamband American String Conspiracy at Freddy’s

4/19, 10 PM Royal Khaoz play roots reggae at Shrine.

4/19, midnight, Moon Hooch at the Knitting Factory, $10. Two tenor saxes and drums playing the craziest funky grooves you could imagine with the intensity of a brass band and the catchiness and edge of punk rock.

4/20 is Record Store Day. Does this mean you have to be high to spend money on music? Just wondering…

4/20, 4 PM up-and-coming composer Ayumi Okada plays new works plus pieces by Debussy and Bach with chamber ensemble at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Inwood (20 Cumming Street) north of 200th St. in Inwood, free. She’s good – check out her poignant Suite for String Orchestra

4/20, day two of the Brooklyn Folk Festival is an all-day affair starting around 4:30 with Great Smoky Mountain Bluegrass Band, the Roulette Sisters’ Mamie Minch duetting with Brain Cloud’s Tamar Korn, the Canebrake Rattlers and Peter Stampfel and the Ether Frolic Mob at 7:30, $15. There’s also a late show with separate $20 admission (you can get an all-day pass from the Jalopy for $35) starting at 8:30 with the Down Hill Strugglers, Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens at 9:15, Radio Jarocho at 10 and Jessy Carolina and the Hot Mess headlining around 10:45.

4/20, 6 PM hilarious, period-perfect, subtly filthy oldtimey banjoist/songwriter Al Duvall at Pete’sat Pete’s. The kind of guy who might do a song about kicking the gong around, or being a moocher…that’s as close to 4/20 as he gets.

4/20, 6:30 PM the Washington Square Winds play new works by Matt Frey, Charley Gerard, Derek Jenkins, Sonia Lopez and Dean Rosenthal at Studio 353, 353 W 48th St., 2nd Fl, reception to follow, $10 sug don

4/20, 7:30 PM a killer Balkan triplebill with fiery Raya Brass Band spinoff Sherita, Tipsy Oxcart, who play acoustic versions of current day Eastern European pop hits, and hip-hop brass band grooves with PitchBlak Brass Band in the room out back of the Ukrainian Village Restaurant, 140 2nd Ave.

4/20, 7:30 PM Talea Ensemble wind up this year’s MATA new music festival at Roulette with new works by Evan Antonelli, David Fennessy, Taylor Brook, Milica Djordjevic, Hugo Morales and Mauro Lanza, inspired by cities around the world, throughout history.

4/20, 7:30/9:30 PM Ed Cherry on guitar with Pat Bianchi on organ and Chris Beck on drums at the Bar Next Door, $12.

4/20, 8 PM lush atmospheric cinematic art-rockers the Quavers at Barbes.

4/20, 8 PM the Orchestra for the Next Century with violinst Michi Wiancko play the New York premiere of Margaret Brouwer’s Violin Concerto, Stravinsky’s Concerto in D for String Orchestra, Paul Moravec’s Morph and the Martinu Double Concerto at Merkin Concert Hall, $25/$20 stud/sts

4/20, 9 PM clever, darkly literate chamber pop/noir cabaret songwriter Dawn Oberg at Bar East

4/20, 8 PM a killer bill at Spike Hill with eerie, haunting soundtrack composer Thomas Simon followed at 10 by moody, hypnotic punk-era legends Band of Outsiders and eventually at around midnight by intense, psychedelic art-rock band Of Earth playing the album release show for their reputedly excellent new one The Monarch.

4/20, 8 PM Que Vlo-Ve play classic Greek hash smoking music followed at 10 by oldschool 60s C&W and brooding southwestern gothic with the Jack Grace Band at 68 Jay St. Bar.

4/20, 9 PM wild, guitar-driven flamenco/Andalucian/gypsy band Espirtu Gitano at Alwan for the Arts, $20/$15 stud/srs

4/20, 9ish bludgeoning stoner riff-rock: Pants Exploder, Smokewagon and Mighty High at the Gutter in Williamsburg. You have been warned.

4/20, 9 PM tuneful, aggressive postpunk favorites Clinic at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec – this may sell out.

4/20, 10 PM cutting edge new big band jazz with the wildly popular Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society at BAM Cafe.

4/21 a rare intimate house performance by classical piano cult legend, Haydn devotee and musicologist Nancy Garniez (mother of brilliant songwriter/bandleader Rachelle Garniez) on the upper west, email for info.

4/21, 2:30 PM day three of the Brooklyn Folk Festival begins at 2:45 at the Bell House with Hunter Holmes, Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues at 3:30, Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton at 4:15, at 5 Jalopy house band the Whiskey Spitters, 5:45 Elijah Wald , 6:30 Feral Foster and at 7:15 New England noir folk crooner Tim Eriksen. There’s also a late shows with separate $20 admission (you can get an all-day pass for $30 from the Jalopy) with the Four o’Clock Flowers at 9:45 and Ian Link at 10:30.

4/21, 3 PM pianist Max Lifchitz plays works by a global cast of composrs including Elizabeth Bell, Katherine Hoover, Nailah Nombeko, Kala Pierson, Hilary Tann, Rain Worthington, Margarita Zelenaia & Marilyn Ziffrin at Christ & St Stephen’s Church, 120 W 69th St (bet Bway & Columbus), free

4/21, 6 PM the Four Nations Ensemble joins forces with Music from China for a mix of French baroque and classical Chinese compositions at Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium, 417 E 61st St., $35

4/21, 6 PM tenor saxophonit Stan Killian plays the album release show for his new one with Mike Moreno, guitar; Benito Gonzales, Fender Rhodes; Corcoran Holt, bass; McClenty Hunter, drums at 55 Bar, free.

4/21, 7 PM after the Sunday Salon at Zirzamin – elegant, smart country-pop songwriter Sharon Goldman, founding member of the subversive NYC folk collective Chicks With Dip.

4/21, 8 PM  legendary Texas Americana guitar god/crooner Junior Brown at City Winery, $22 standing room avail.

4/21, 8 PM eclectic Americana jamband American String Conspiracy followed by Mississippi hill country blues guitar genius Will Scott at Hank’s

4/21, 8 PM the Tri-Centric Orchestra – Anthony Braxton’s mighty, majestic big improvisational vehicle – premiere three compositions for 16-piece ensemble by composers Nicole Mitchell, Jason Kao Hwang, and Kamala Sankaram at Roulette, $15/$10 stud/srs.

4/21, 8/10 PM sassy, badass up-and-coming jazz chanteuse Brianna Thomas & Swing City at Iridium, $25.

4/21, 9 PM the Brooklyn What – NYC’s most intense, funny, socially aware rockers and eternally fun, snotty 80s punk-pop legends the Dead Milkmen at Bowery Ballroom, $22.50 adv tix rec. available at the Mercury M-F 5-7 PM

4/21, 9:30 PM noir jazz band Silencio plays classic David Lynch soundtrack music from Twin Peaks, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Mulholland Drive, and Lost Highway at le Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix highly rec.

4/21, 9:30 PM eclectic, wild indie classical/jazz/Balkan improvisers Parias Ensemble at the Firehouse Space

4/21, 10ish hip-hop brass grooves and an all-female Brazilian percussion bacchanalia: PitchBlak Brass Band plus BatalaNYC at Littlefield.

4/22, 7:30 PM adventurous vocal ensemble vocal ensemble Ekmeles debuts a fascinating program of historical and contemporary “Eye Music”. “From Medieval works in multi-colored ink to a contemporary work sung from a 16-meter long transparent scroll, enjoy a feast for the senses as the music is both heard and visually projected” at Music Mondays, Advent/ Broadway Church, 2504 Broadway at 93rd St., free

4/22, 8 PM Canadian gothic chanteuse Lorraine Leckie does her eerie chamber pop thing with the sardonic Anthony Haden-Guest at the big room at the Rockwood.

4/22, 8 PM the Oratorio Society of NY conducted by Kent Tritle perform Britten’s War Requiem at Carnegie Hall, $22 tix avail.

4/22, 9 PM the eclectic Joshua Shneider Easy Bake Orchestra at Tea Lounge in Park Slope

4/22, midnight, legendary second-wave stoner metal band Orange Goblin at St. Vitus, $15

4/23, 5:30 PM  new music by Laura Kaminsky played by Ensemble Pi and the Cassatt Quartet at the Miller Theatre, free.

4/23, 7 PM eclectic violinist eclectic violinist Sarah Goldfeather and her band at Barbes followed at 9 by Slavic Soul Party

4/23, 7:30/9:30 PM at the Jazz Standard, Dominican jazz pianist Osmany Paredes plays a rare solo show, $20.

4/23, 7:30 PM SoCorpo (Sasha Bogdanowitsch & Sabrina Lastman) play characteristically gripping, innovative new works for two voices from their new album Inelement at le Poisson Rouge

4/23, 7:30 PM pianist Herbert Schuch plays Thomas Larcher: Naunz; Schumann: Theme and Variations in E-flat major; Mozart: Piano Sonata No.18 in D Major, K.576; Schubert: Sonata for Piano No.21 in B-flat Major, D.960  at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E 52nd St, free, res. req .

4/23, 8 PM artsy, Americana-flavored, eclectic literate rockers Balthrop Alabama followed eventually at around 10 by Americana rockers Alana Amram & the Rough Gems at Brooklyn Bowl, $8. 4/25 she’s at  Rock Shop opening for New Hampshire’s Mail the Horse

4/23, 8 PM conscious dancehall and roots reggae from the late 80s: Sister Carol followed by Michael Rose of Black Uhuru at B.B. King’s, $22.50 adv tix rec.

4/23-28, 8:30/10:30 PM powerhouse trumpeter Terrell Stafford leads his quintet at the Village Vanguard, $25 plus 1 drink min

4/23 recently unearthed Hughes settings by unheralded Harlem Renaissance composer Margaret Bonds performed by vocalists from Harlem Opera Theatre at the Studio Museum, 144 W 125th St, take the A train.

4/23 wild, kick-ass British folk-punk band Skinny Lister – sort of the British equivalent of the Pogues – at the downstairs studio space at Webster Hall

4/23, 9 PM carnivalesque gypsy punks Amour Obscur, Balkan-flavored brass crew Hungry March Band and acoustic Nashville goths O’Death at le Poisson Rouge, $12 adv. tix req.

4/24, 7:30 PM eclectic string ensemble Catch-Pop String-Strong play originals plus Balkan Folk music, classical tunes and improvisations based on the music of Kurt Weil and Bertoldt Brecht at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E 52nd St., free, res. req.

4/24, 8:30 PM trumpeter Peter Evans – who does Bach as well as crazed jazz-metal – plays the album release show for his new one Zebulon with John Hébert, bass; Kassa Overall, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 incl. a drink.

4/24, 9 PM Tammy Faye Starlite’s killer all-female NY Dolls cover band the Pretty Babies at Arlene’s, $8.

4/24. 9 PM a great funny country doublebill: Maynard & the Musties followed by Uncle Leon & the Alibis at Hank’s

4/24, 10 PM raucous oldtimey blues/bluegrass/acoustic jamband the Howlin’ Brothers at Hill Country, $15.

4/24, 10:30 PM olschool country songwriter/bandleader Michaela Anne at Rodeo Bar.

4/24, midnight, guitarist Hugh Pool’s rustic surreal guitar/reeds project Mulebone at the Ear Inn

4/25, 1 PM pianists from the recent APA competition – Sean Chen, Sara Daneshpour, Claire Huangci, Andrew Staupe and Eric Zuber –  play New York premieres of APA-commissioned works by Lisa Bielawa, Margaret Brouwer, Gabriela Lena Frank, Missy Mazzoli and Sarah Kirkland Snider at Trinity Church, free.

4/25, 7 PM a ukulele all-star benefit for Mindful Music Therapy at Freddy’s with the creme de la creme of the world’s uke songwriters: Evanescent’s Bliss Blood, fearlessly intense, torchily sultry Kelli Rae Powell , the effervescent, theatrical, badass oldtimey Ukuladies , plus Kevin Huffnagel, Avi Fox-Rosen and others, $15, all proceeds to purchase ukes for destitute kids in South Africa – happy hour drink prices with paid admission

4/25-27, 7 PM charismatic, pyrotechnic pianist/deadpan wit Kathleen Supové in DIGITAL DEBUSSY playing Storefront Diva: A Dreamscape (premiere) by Joan La Barbara, a Debussy duet as Joseph Cornell might have dreamed it; a twisted indie classical  S&M tableau, The Triumph of Innocence (premiere) by Nick Didkovsky; and Shattered Apparations of the West Wind (premiere), Annie Gosfield’s haunting response to Debussy’s What the West Wind Saw,  at the Flea Theatre, 41 White St., Tribeca, $20. There’s also a Saturday matinee at 3 PM on 4/27 for $10.

4/25, 7 PM Valerie Coleman – flute; Michiyo Suzuki – clarinet; Lynn Bechtold, Mioi Takeda, and Yibin Li – violin; Michael Midlarsky – cello; Dimitri Dover – piano play new works by Gene Pritsker, Leo Kraft, Dave Soldier, ‘Dan Cooper, Frank J. Oteri andRaul Quines at Turtle Bay Music School’s Richmond Room, 244 E 52nd St, free.

4/25-26, 7:30/9:30 PM torchy jazz chanteuse Catherine Russell– one of the stars of the past Winter Jazzfest – at Dizzy’s Club, $35 seats avail. She’s also here at 9:30 on 4/28

4/25-26, 8 PM plus 4/27 at 2 and 8 PM the JALC Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis plays Ellington at the Rose Theatre at Jazz at Lincoln Center, $30 tix avail but going quickly. There’s a kickoff show for free at 6:30 PM on the 25th at the Lincoln Center Atrium, early arrival a must. If you can’t make it, check out the live webcast.

4/25, 7:30 PM twangy, tuneful original alt-country siren Alana Amram & the Rough Gems at Rock Shop in Gowanus, $8.

4/25, 8 PM oud virtuoso Mavrothi Kontanis’ Mild Mannered Rebel with Megan Gould on violin, Shane Shanahan on drums and Brian Holtz on bass at Barbes; 4/26 at 9:30 they play the album release show for their reputedly amazing new one at Drom, $10

4/25, 8 PM weirdest segues of the year, but a good show: M Shanghai String Band play oldtimey Americana followed by the garage/psychedelic rock of the Morning Glories at 9 and eventually tuneful slowcore band Ida at around 11 at the Bell House, $10

4/25, 8 PM haunting, intense pan-Middle Eastern trio Niyaz at the Cutting Room, $22 standing room avail.

4/25-28, 8/10:30 PM torchy jazz chanteuse Catherine Russell at Dizzy’s Club.

4/25, 8:30 PM reliably intense, irrepressible, edgy violist Mat Maneri leads a trio with Ed Schuller, bass; Randy Peterson, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 incl a drink

4/25, 9:30 PM Slavic Soul Party plays Boban Marcovic’s iconic Hani Rumba at Joe’s Pub, $16.

4/25, 10 PM fiery, catchy, Clash-inspired politically aware acoustic rockers Gillen and Turk at Spike Hill.

4/25, 10:30 PM the NYCity Slickers play soaring bluesgrass with harmonies at Rodeo Bar.

4/26, 5:30 PM retro bluegrass/C&W and soul songwriters: Vincent Cross followed by Jo Williamson at the American Folk Art Museum.

4/26, 7 PM all-star all-female ensemble Zozulka sing haunting traditional Ukrainian a-cappella songs somewhere on the Columbia campus, location tbd, check for info here.

4/26-27 a two-day Balkan/gypsy music festival at the Hive in Bushwick (Yula Beeri’s digs) featurning Brazda, Willa Roberts and others, watch this space for details.

4/26, 8 PM the Jasper String Quartet play the Little Theatre, 31-10 Thomson Ave, Queens, alternate entrance at Building E on 47th Avenue and Van Dam St., RSVP required.

4/26, 8 PM the Trinity Choir and Youth Choir plus Novus NY perform sacred works by Stravinsky: The Flood, Abraham and Isaac, Threni and Introitus at Trinity Church, free, early arrival advised. The three-day festival continues on 4/27 with a benefit concert for music education at 8 PM and a 3 PM free concert on 4/28.

4/26, 9/10:30 PM tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens and his excellent sextet at the Jazz Gallery, $20.

4/26, 10 PM intense literate chamber pop with Elizabeth & the Catapult at Littlefield

4/26, 10 PM intense, acidic, satirical guitar jazz with Jon Lundbom and Big Five Chord at Sycamore Bar in Ditmas Park

4/26, 10:30 PM good gypsy punk doublebill: Bad Buka and Stumblebum Brass Band playing the album release show for their new one at the Mercury, $10.

4/27, 4 PM lively Appalachian fiddler Katie Trautz and her Mayfly duo at the Rockwood; they take a stroll across the river afterward to play Pete’s at 8.

4/27 the Queens Jazz Overground Festival at Flushing Town Hall,  free, starting at 6 PM with Amanda Monaco’s Formula One, the Mark Wade Trio; Josh Deutsch’s Pannonia; Darius Jones’ Big Gurl Trio; James Spaulding with the QJOG trio; the Mike Baggetta Band and Brian Woodruff Sextet

4/27 6 PM powerhouse flamenco jazz pianist Ariadna Castellanos at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 incl a drink

4/27. 6:30 PM a wild Balkan brass doublebill – NYC’s very own Sazet Band followed by iconic Macedonian gypsy band Kocani Orkestar at le Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix absolutely necessary, this will sell out.

4/27, 8ish the Donner Party Picnic, the Highway Gimps -the missing link between Motorhead and My Bloody Valentine and the Brooklyn What – powerful, anthemic, fearless and funny punk/soul rockers who represent smart native-born Brooklyn better than any other band – at King Killer, 69 2nd Ave, Brooklyn, $5, byob

4/27, 8 PM moody latin rock/soul groovemeister Sandra Lilia Velasquez of Pistolera aka SLV at Barbes

4/27, 8 PM Kristian Bezuindenhout, harpsichord, with Ensemble Signal conducted by Brad Lubman play works by C.P.E. Bach, W.F. Bach, J.S. Bach, Rebel and Michael Gordon (Weather 1, a dark take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons) at the Miller Theatre, $35.

4/27, 8 PM George Mann and Rik Palieri sing radical oldtime union songs followed by Patti Rothberg side project the Peaceniks at the People’s Voice Cafe, $18 sugg don

4/27, 8:30 PM Haley Bowery & the Manimals play their sardonic, hard-hitting nuevo-glamrock followed eventually at 10:30 by the fiery, hyperliterate punk/powerpop alienation anthems of Hannah vs. the Many at Rock Shop, $8.

4/27, 9ish Carol Lipnik and Matt Kanelos’ haunting Ghosts in the Ocean followed by powerpop/psychedelic guitar god Pete Galub playing the album release show for his ferociously tuneful new one Candy Tears at Littlefield.

4/27, 9ish Morricone Youth – who’re now including vocal music along with their classic Italian film score stuff – and rockabilly legend Robert Gordon at Bowery Electric, $20

4/27, 9ish Boston alt-country sensations Session Americana at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club.

4/27, 9 PM the Tara Lynne Band with the Sometime Boys’ Sarah Mucho on bass at the Way Station in Ft. Greene

4/27, 11 PM the Lyres – no idea how much the second-wave garage rock legends have left in the tank if at all – at Grand Victory in Williamsgburg, $12.

4/28, 5 PM the NY Festival Singers perform choral works from across seven centuries at the Lounge at Hudson View Gardens, 128 Pinehurst Ave at 183rd St., $12 sugg don, reception to follow

4/28, 6 PM Dr. Nerve/Iconoclast drummer Leo Ciesa plays solo works from his new solo drums album – not boring, actually really good and sometimes pretty hypnotic stuff – at Downtown Music Gallery followed at 7 by electroacoustic tuba/alto improvs by Jesse Dulman and Jason Candler

4/28,  7 PM after the Sunday Salon at Zirzamin – sharply lyrical, theatrical, intense, literate acoustic rocker Walter Ego.

4/28, 10ish Daria Grace & the Pre-War Ponies play torchy 20s/30s swing/jazz obscurities at at Rodeo Bar.

4/29, 7 PM the reliably comedic Erin & Her Cello at the big room at the Rockwood , $10.

4/29, 7:30 PM the Dred Scott Trio at Smalls. Beatnik savant, slyly charismatic performer, monster pianist with a touch of noir and a great rhythm section.

4/29, 7:30 PM Cygnus Ensemble plays new works by Frank Brickle and Laura Kaminsky at Symphony Space, $20/$15 stud/srs.

4/29, 8 PM oldtime honkytonk and pre-tockabilly sounds with the Weal and Woe at the Cameo Gallery, $10.

4/29, 8 PM Ashley Paul (saxophone) + Kathryn Schulmeister (bass) + Katherine Young (bassoon) play short solo sets plus a world premiere trio by Ryan Krause at Panoply Performance Lab in Bushwick

4/29, 9 PM the lush, intense, swirling Asuka Kakitani Jazz Orchestra at Tea Lounge in Park Slope

4/30, 7 PM Senegalese-flavored oldschool conscious roots reggae with Meta & the Cornerstones at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

4/30, 7 PM an evening of new vocal music in English, Arabic and other languages by Mohammed Fairouz, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Huang Ro, Paola Prestini and others with sting quartet and piano at the DiMenna Center, 450 W 37th St., $10 includes free refreshments, res req.

4/30, 7:30 PM brilliant lyrical janglerocker/composer Ward White leads a band playing his impossibly complicated, brilliant new album Bob, a film noir for the ears at the Mercury. If they pull it off this could be the best concert of the year. $10

4/30-5/1 pianist Edward Simon revisists his recording of his killer new trio album with Scott Colley & Brian Blade, 7:30/9:30 PM at the Jazz Standard, $20

4/30-5/5, 8/10:30 PM lyrical Dominican jazz pianist Michel Camilo at the Blue Note, $20 standing room avail.

4/30, 8 PM a global jazz jam at the Jazz Museum in Harlem feat. Punjabi dhol music from Red Baraat’s Sunny Jain, Malian kora and vocals from griots Yacouba Sissoko and Awa Sangho, bass grooves from Japan’s Noriko Ueda, Brazilian, Caribbean and Celtic percussion and vibes by James Shipp, Bolivian folk and jazz vocals from Gian-Carla Tisera and more, $20

4/30, 9 PM torchy jazz/Americana songwriting icon Eleni Mandell at the Bell House, $22 adv tix rec. She’s at Bowery Ballroom on 4/27 same time for three bucks more.

4/30, 10 PM deliciously twangy, jangly twin-guitar paisley underground/psychedelic Americana rockers Mud Blood & Beer play songs from their killer new paisley underground/roots rock album The Sweet Life at at Hank’s

5/1-3, 8 PM trumpeter/ composer/musical innovator Wadada Leo Smith presents the NYC premiere of his epic 4-cd civil rights opus Ten Freedom Summers in its entirety (rated best album of 2013 at NYMD’s sister blog Lucid Culture) at Roulette.

5/1, 8 PM avant string band and string quartet intensity: Ljova & the Kontraband followed by Brooklyn Rider at Littlefield, $15.

5/2, 7 PM at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, a global cast of winners in the Ibla piano competition play music by Bach, Verdi, Puccini, Liszt, Chopin, Ginastera, Prokofiev, Bartok, Oskar Merikanto plus originals and improvisations. Pianists include Ben Schoeman,Tomasz Ostaszewski, Patryk Sztabinski, Gabriele Gallo, Liisa Pimiä, Jason Chiang., Ian Miller, Audrey Ann Southard Rumsey, David Cieri, Jim Erickson, Laehyung Woo and the duo of Yuka Munehisa and Samuel Fried

5/2, 7 PM pianist Julia Den Boer plays works by Janacek, Boulez, and moreat Bohemian National Hall, free

5/2, 7:30 PM Rasputina – the original cello rockers, featuring cellist Julia Kent and guitarist Sara Landeau this time out – plays FaLaLa: The Bastardy of Shakespeare’s Madrigals, imagining an alternate authorship for Shakespeare’s work at Joe’s Pub, $15.

5/2, 8 PM Ensemble Mise-En play works by Bent Sørensen, Louis Karchin, Graham Flet, Erik Lund Moon Young Ha including several world premieres at the Cell Theatre in Chelsea, 338 W 23rd St,, $15/$10 stud.

5/2, 8:30 PM trombonist Jacob Garchik’s tuneful 40Twenty with Jacob Sacks, piano; Dave Ambrosio, bass; Vinnie Sperrazza, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $25 incl. a drink.

5/2, 10 PM the Microscopic Septet play their devious originals as well as Monk tunes from their excellent new all-Monk cd Friday the 13th at Spectrum. 5/30 they’re at Joe’s Pub

5/3, 5:30 PM haunting intense Balkan chanteuse Eva Salina Primack, who has a killer new solo album out, plays solo at the American Folk Art Museum.

5/3 the Rebel Factory with Certain General’s Phil Gammage at Zirzamin.

5/3, 8 PM Tunisian chanteuse Sonia M’Barek at the Alliance Francaise, 55 E 59th St, $35 but worth it

5/3-4, 8 PM visionary pianist/bandleader Arturo O’Farrill‘s spectacular, intense Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra beefs up Mexican banda music and other lesser-known latin subgenres along with newly commissioned works at Symphony Space, $20/$15 stud/srs.

5/3, 8 PM a solid Americana triplebill: Canadian singer Charlotte Cornfield, the rocking Alex Mallett Band and the more trad Whistling Wolves at Union Hall, $10

5/3, 8 PM bizarre segue, good show: roots reggae with Tribal Legacy followed by Flamenco Latino at Flushing Town Hall, $15

5/3, 8 PM guitarist Jason Vieaux plays music by Mauro Giuliani, J.S. Bach, Benjamin Britten, John Dowland, Dan Visconti, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Pat Metheny, and José Luis Merlín at Baruch College Auditorium, 55 Lexington Ave,  $25/$20 stud/srs. 5/5 at 3 PM he’s at  Ingalls Recital Hall, 2039 Kennedy Blvd in Jersey City for free.

5/3, 8 PM hypnotic percussion, string minimalism and avant garde drama: Iktus Ensemble, Yarn/Wire and thingNY at the Firehouse Space, $10

5/3, 9ish legendary rocksteady/reggae crooner Ken Boothe (the Man with the Gold Tooth!) at Littlefield $20 adv tix rec.

5/3, 10ish smart, terse, funny Americana rock duo Kill Henry Sugar.followed by Steve Ulrich’s legendary film noir guitar band Big Lazy at the Gutter in Williamsburg.

5/4, 8 PM oldtimey swing and country soungs: Seth Kessel & the Two Cent Band , the Red Hook Ramblers, Barnyard Brothers and North of Nashville at Union Hall, $10

5/4, 8 PM smartly lyrical radical acoustic songwriter Ben Grosscup, charismatically torchy, deviously witty songwriter/siren Elaine Romanelli and jazz chanteuse Pam Parker at the People’s Voice Cafe, $18 sugg don

5/4, 8 PM, repeating on 5/5 at 3 PM the world-class Park Avenue Chamber Symphony plays Leo Kraft – Variations for Orchestra (New York Premiere); Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 23 in A with Kariné Poghosyan, piano; Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 at All Saints Church, 230 E 60th St between 2nd and 3rd Aves

5/4, 8 PM ageless torchy accordionist/chanteuse/personality Phoebe Legere at the Cutting Room, $25

5/4, 8:30 PM Mimesis Ensemble are at Merkin Concert Hall playing a Lynchian elegy by Caleb Burhans, a cruelly sarcastic take on eco-disaster by David T. Little, powerful and historically aware chamber pieces by Fairouz as well as other works, adv tix $10 (students $5).

5/4, 9 PM hypnotic Americana nocturnes with Hem at Bowery Ballroom, $20 gen adm.

5/4-5, 9 PM Arabic disco music from San Francisco with Beats Antique at Brooklyn Bowl, $15

5/4, 10 PM fiery psychedelic paisley underground rock with the Newton Gang at 68 Jay St. Bar.

5/4 Turkish qanun virtuoso Hasan Isakkut and Ensemble at Drom, 11:30 PM, $15 adv tix very highly rec.

5/5, 3 PM adventurous string quartet Brooklyn Rider at the Abrons Arts Ctr, 466 Grand Street (at Pitt St), free, early arrival advised.

5/5, 4 PM Canta Libre – Sally Shorrock, flute, Francisca Mendoza, violin, Veronica Salas, viola, Bernard Tamosaitis, cello and Karen Lindquist, harp – play the Handel-Halvorsen duo for violin and cello, a harp quintet transcription of Scarlatti sonatas by Jean Francaix, plus Beatles tunes at Church of the Epiphany, 1393 York Ave at E 74th St, free

5/5, 4 PM cellist Sebastian Bäverstam and pianist Yannick Rafalimanana play works by Franz Schubert, Claude Debussy and Samuel Barber at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library Grand Army Plaza branch, no kids under 6 admitted.

5/5, 7 PM after the Sunday Salon at Zirzamin: Lorraine Leckie & Her Demons play a creepy mix of careening Canadian gothic rock and brooding chamber pop.

5/5, 7 PM International Street Cannibals play “several Beethoven Bagatelles with piano, belly dance and electro/acoustic ensemble; a malformed chamber version of Captain Beetheart’s “When I See Mommy I Feel Like A Mummy” with go-go dancer; a schizo-affective rendering of Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs’ “Wooly Bully”; a recitation, in the original Ionic dialect, accompanied by tribalistic sonorities, of Homer’s Hymn to Demeter; and some solo bijoux by pianist Taka Kigawa” at Drom, $10 adv tix rec

5/5, 7 PM sitar virtuoso Krishna Bhatt with tabla player Anindo Chatterjee at Symphony Space, $30/$20 stud/srs.

5/5, 8 PM the original oldtimey crooner, Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks at City Winery, $28 standing room avail.

5/5, 10:30 PM intense, lyrically brilliant , quirky two-keyboard 80s-style art-rock/new wave revivalists Changing Modes at the National Underground.

5/6, 5:30 PM cellist David Finckel makes his final performance with the Emerson String Quartet with music of Schubert, Schoenberg plus an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence featuring guests Paul Neubauer on viola and Colin Carr on cello at the Greene Space, $25.

5/7, 5:30 PM the Tobias Picker Ensemble plays a program of the composers’s new works at the Miller Theatre, free.

5/7-8, 7:30 PM violin virtuoso/musicologist Gil Morgenstern’s Reflections Series reflects on the past five seasons with pianist Jonathan Feldman, program TBA at WMP Concert Hall, $35.

5/7, 8 PM intense, tuneful psychedelic female-fronted power trio/jamband Devi upstairs at Bowery Electric.

5/7 8ish the Nat Osborn Band – who play smart, tuneful, funky, high-spirited keyboard-and-horn-driven New Orleans rock – at the Mercury

5/7-12, 8:30/10:30 PM Bill Friselll’s Beautiful Dreamer with Eyvind Kang on violin and Rudy Royston on drums at the Village Vanguard, $25 plus 1 drink min.

5/8. 8 PM dark intense tuneful/lyrical janglerock/postpunk chanteuse Baby Streuth (f.k.a. Naomi Hates Humans) at Pete’s

5/8, 8 PM dark smart jazz twinbill: drummer Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom and Sex Mob who have a reputedly amazing Nino Rota album just out – at the 92YTribeca, $12 adv tix very highly rec.

5/8, 8 PM Colin Stetson – who blew the doors off the Bitter End, solo on bass trombone when he played there at Winter Jazzfest – at le Poisson Rouge, $13 adv tix rec.

5/9, 7 PM charismatic Americana songwriter/chanteuse Julia Haltigan and band at Joe’s Pub, $14, followed at 9:30 PM (separate $22 admission) by gypsy guitar paradigm-shifter Stephane Wrembel.

5/9, 7 PM violinist Jake Shulman-Ment and his band play gypsy and klezmer music at the Manhattan JCC, 76th/Amsterdam, $20

5/9, 7:30 PM psychedelic art-rock, worldbeat and reggae: Deoro’s Manila Project with special guests Nyko Maca, Waway Saway, Daniel Darwin, and Jonan Aguilar at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised.

5/9, 9ish an intimate, relatively cheap evening of jaunty oldtime swing/torch song revelry with Lake Street Dive at Maxwell’s, $12 adv tix rec

5/10-11 cellist Jeffrey Ziegler’s last performances with the Kronos Quartet features Laurie Anderson joining them for their collaboration Landfall,  at the Kasser Theatre at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Tix $TBA; $10 roundtrip transportation from NYC is available via charter bus which leaves at 6 PM from 41st St. betw. 8th/9th Aves., res. highly suggested to 973-655-5112 or http://www.peakperfs.org

5/10, 8 PM sly alt-country songwriters Warren Hood & the Goods and Hayes Carll at City Winery, $20 standing room avail.

5/10, 8 PM dark intense minimalist occasionally Middle Eastern-inflected indie rockers the Mast (Persian for “high on life”) at the Knitting Factory.

5/10, 8 PM the Mivos Quartet play new works by Chris Fisher-Lochhead, David Grant and Thomas Ades at the 2nd floor loft space at 138 South Oxford St., Ft. Greene, any train to Jay St/ or Borough Hall and a ten-minute walk, $15/$10 stud/srs/artist/under 30

5/10, 9 PM edgy oldtimey swing and C&W with Miss Tess & the Talkbacks followed by Lake Street Dive at the Bell House, $12 adv tix rec.

5/10, 9 PM noir cabaret/gypsy punk band Not Waving but Drowning at Freddy’s

5/10, 9 PM absurdly funny Merle Haggard cover band Bryan & the Haggards – who put out two instrumental albums of Hag tunes, one a hilarious free-jazz interpretation and the other surprisingly straight-up, at Red Hook Bait & Tackle.

5/10, 9ish fiery surf trio Octomen at the Gutter in Williamsburg

5/11, 11 AM the latest “wall to wall” free all-day extravaganza at Symphony Space explores the Harlem Renaissance, lineup TBA.

5/11 OMG check out this doublebill: bewitching Balkan chanteuse Eva Salina Primack and badass resonator guitarist/blues chanteuse Mamie Minch solo, then playing a set together at a “super secret house concert,” this will be wild, email for location/info, space very limited

5/11, 8 PM Mississippi hill country blues guitar genius Will Scott followed at 10 by the Duhks’ Tania Elizabeth and Andy Stack at 68 Jay St. Bar.

5/11 creepy keyboard-driven art-rock/goth band the Devil’s Broadcast at Hank’s

5/11, 9 PM dark Americana/noir jangleband Balthrop Alabama at Littlefield.

5/11, 9:30ish ecstatically fun, intense gypsy punk/metal cumbia/rock en Espanol band Escarioka at Mehanata.

5/12, 4 PM Benjamin Hochman, piano, Lily Francis, violin and Efe Baltacigil, cello, perform Beethoven’s Trio in E flat Op. 70 No. 2, Ravel’s Trio in A and Brahms’s Trio No. 1 in B op. 8 at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library Grand Army Plaza branch, no kids under 6 admitted.

5/12, 7 PM 7 PM after the Sunday Salon at Zirzamin: Chris Fuller playing biting, lyrical Americana, blues and gypsy-flavored songs.

5/13, 7 PM tsimbl (klezmer dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky and violinist Jake Shulman-Ment play rare folk tunes from across the Jewish diaspora at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W 16th St, $15.

5/12, 7 PM Ensemble 212 play Beethoven’s Egmont Overture plus a New York premiere by Mohammed Fairouz and works by Saint-Saens, Mendelssohn and Daniel Felsenfeld at Merkin Concert Hall, $25/$10 stud.

5/12, 8:30 PM Uruguayan-American pianist Polly Ferman and Moroccan-born guitarist/singer Gerard Edery blend Sephardic and tango styles at Cornelia St. Cafe, $20 incl. a drink

5/13, 8 PM the Gil Evans Orchestra, led by Miles Evans at Highline Ballroom, $20 adv tix rec.

5/14, 7 PM the Ben Holmes Quartet at Barbes playing tuneful Balkan jazz with guest Marcus Rojas on tuba for some extra low end at Barbes

5/14, 7:30 PM eclectic, often gorgeously cinematic jazz with Bryan & the Aardvarks feat. Chris Dingman on vibraphone at Subculture, 45 Bleecker St

5/14, 7:30 PM Talea Ensemble performs chamber music by Austrian composer Beat Furrer at the Austrian Cultural Center, 11 E 52nd St., free

5/14-19, 8:30/10:30 PM alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon – whose new Live in Puerto Rico quartet album absolutely kicks ass – leads a quartet with Luis Perdomo on piano at the Village Vanguard, $25 plus 1 drink min.

5/14, 9 PM intense blues/gospel/Indian/trance-jazz band Jaimeo Brown’s Transcendence play the album release show for their haunting debut cd at Drom

5/15 evil noir Austin psychedelic bluesrockers the Sideshow Tragedy play upstairs at Bowery Electric; 5/17 they’re at Zirzamin with Dimestore Dance Band.

5/15, 8 PM Tunisian Middle Eastern jazz chanteuse Ghalia Benali at at the Alliance Francaise, 55 E 59th St, $25. The Alliance is offering a tempting twofer package: tix for this show and Emel Mathlouthi’s concert on 5/22 for $35

5/16, 7:30/9:30 PM guitarist/conductor Greg Tate and pianist Marc Cary’s The Upper Anacostia–Lower Gold Coast Symphonic plays a tribute to DC go-go music at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised.

5/16-18, 8 PM Chick Corea with the JALC Orchestra playing a career retrospective at the Rose Theatre at Jazz at Lincoln Center, $30 seats avail. but going fast, reserve now.

5/17, 5 PM Cadillac Moon Ensemble play new works from composer collective Circles and Lines – Eric Lemmon, Dylan Glatthorn, Angélica Negrón, Conrad Winslow, Noam Faingold.- at Tenri Cultural Center, 43A W 13th St., $15/$10 stud, performer/composer Q&A to follow concert

5/17, 8 PM opening night of this year’s Look & Listen new music festival featuring the Jack Quartet performing new work by Lewis Nielsen plus a New York-centric multimedia  piece for piano, cello and video by Michael Brown and Nick Canellakis and a-cappella group M6 performing early Meredith Monk compositions at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 W 14th St., 2nd Fl., $15 or 3-day festival pass available for $35.

5/16, 8 PM International Contemporary Ensemble and Third Coast Percussion perform works by Mexican composer Julio Estrada at the Miller Theatre, $25 adv tix avail.

5/16, 9ish the Brooklyn What – powerful, anthemic, fearless and funny punk/soul rockers who represent smart native-born Brooklyn better than any other band – open for oldtimey jugband legend Peter Stampfel’s album release show at Shea Stadium

5/17, 9ish cutting-edge, majestic, fun roots reggae band SOJA (f.k.a. Souljahs of Jah Army) at Webster Hall, $25.30 adv tix avail at the Irving Plaza box ofc.

5/17 dark intense Americana chanteuse Shannon McNally plays from her new album of songs by the late New Orleans blues legend Bobby Charles at Joe’s Pub

5/17 S t. Croix roots reggae stars Midnite play at midnight at B.B. King’s, $30 adv tix rec.

5/18, 3 PM clarinetist Thomas Piercy, pianist Mika Tanaka and shakuhachi player Elizabeth Brown perform new works by Japanese composers inspired by NYC, and by NYC composers inspired by Japan, at the Secret Theatre, 44-02 23rd St, Long Island City, $20. The program repeats on 6/2 at 3 PM at Spectrum

5/18, 3 PM indie classical group Cadillac Moon Ensemble outdoors on the High Line between 10th/11th Aves.

5/18 Tempus Continuum Ensemble plays new works by up-and-coming composers Alex Burtzos, Anne Goldberg and Kevin Baldwin at the Cell Theatre in Chelsea.

5/18, 8 PM the second night of this year’s Look & Listen new music festival explores the Orpheus myth with music by Monteverdi and Birtwistle’s Orpheus Elegies for harp, oboe and voice. The lineup includes harpist Bridget Kibbey, oboist James Austin Smith and other performers TBA at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 W 14th St., 2nd Fl., $15 or 3-day festival pass available for $35.

5/18, 9:30 PM pianist/chanteuse Mary Lorson & the Soubrettes play edgy, witty oldtime-flavored songs from their excellent new album Burn Baby Burn at Zirzamin

5/19, 4 PM the final installment of this year’s Look & Listen new music festival features flutist Claire Chase and percussionist Svet Stoyanov playing works by Balter and Xenakis; composer/toy pianist Phyllis Chen teaming with chamber-pop group Cuddle Magic for pieces from their new collaboration, plus new works premiered by string quintet Sybarite5 and the Momenta Quartet at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 W 14th St., 2nd Fl., $15 or 3-day festival pass available for $35.

5/19, 7 PM after the Sunday Salon at Zirzamin: brilliant powerpop/psychedelic guitarist Pete Galub (of the Universal Thump and Amy Allison’s band) playing songs from his excellent new album Candy Tears.

5/20, 7:30 PM horn & piano duo Radovan Vlatkovic & Ieva Jokubaviciute play rare repertoire for the instruments at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E 52nd St., free, res. req.

5/21-22, 7:30/9:30 PM daredevil tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger plays the album release show for his new one Haymaker at the Jazz Standard with guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Matt Pavolka, and drummer Colin Stranahan, plus special guest vocalist Alison Wedding.

5/21, 8 PM eclectic original klezmer/jazz/jamband Metropolitan Klezmer at the Steven Wise Feee Synagogue, 30 W 68th St., $15.

5/22, 8 PM 5/15, 8 PM Tunisian art-rock singer/provocatrice/freedom fighter Emel Mathlouthi at at the Alliance Francaise, 55 E 59th St, $25. Tix are also available as a twofer package with the Ghalia Benali show on 5/15 for $35

5/22, 10 PM the Bebe Buell Band -whose powerpop tunefulness transcends any starfucker associations you might have in mind at the Cutting Room, $10 adv tix rec

5/23, 7:30 PM intense gypsy band A Hawk & a Hacksaw (ex-Neutral Milk Hotel) play their new album You Have Already Gone to Another World all the way through to accompany Russian filmmaker Sergey Paradjanov’s 1964 film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival a must, this will sell out fast.

5/24, 7 PM A Conspiracy of Beards – the mighty 30-member male choir singing Leonard Cohen songs at Drom, $10 gen adm., doors at 6, this wil probably sell out. They’re at the Highline at 1 (one) PM on 5/26 for five dollars more.

5/24, 9:30 PM gypsy rockers Banda Magda at Joe’s Pub, $18.

5/26, 7 PM Phil Shoenfelt and Pavel Cingl from popular Czech gothic rockers Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross, making their NYC debut at Zirzamin.

5/26 8 PM a killer oldtime Americana triplebill at the big room at the Rockwood with oldschool blues/ragtime virtuoso Blind Boy Paxton, bluegrass hellraisers Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys and raucous, kick-ass oldtime string band Spuyten Duyvil, $10

5/30, 7:30 hilarious alt-country and garage rock with Jesse Bates & Los Dudes, early postpunk legends Certain General, and perennially vital CBGB-era psychedelic punks Band of Outsiders at the Parkside, free

5/30, 9 PM Doctor Krapula – sort of a smartly lyrical, anthemic, politically aware Colombian ska-punk update on Midnight Oil – at Drom, $28 gen adm, adv tix very highly rec., this will sell out.

5/30, 9 PM Lee Scratch Perry, the Congos and a bunch of dub acts, more or less live at le Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix a must, this will sell out

5/30 the Fleshtones, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman and Handsome Dick Manitoba at Bowery Electric.

5/31, 8 PM merengue band Kompalsa followed by St. Vincent’s Afri-Garifuna Jazz Ensemble playing garifuna tunes from the West Indies at Flushing Town Hall, $15.

5/31, 9 PM the Dandy Warhols at Terminal 5, $30 adv tix avail.

6/1, 8 PM composer Nate Festinger’s dark neoromantic stage play A Concert Drama (with piano, clarinet and string quintet) at West End Presbyterian Church, 165 W 105th St, $15

6/7, 8 PM tuneful, pensive alt-country duets with Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis at City Winery, $22 standing room avail.

6/8 John Zorn, Bill Laswell and Milford Graves reprise a trio show at le Poisson Rouge that they played when the club first opened,

6/11, 6-9 PM the Museum Mile Festival – 5th Ave. closed off to traffic, free admission at El Museo del Barrio; the Museum of the City of New York; the Jewish Museum; the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; National Academy Museum & School; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Neue Galerie New York; New York/German Cultural Center; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

6/12 wild mostly remale klezmer jamband Isle of Klezbos at El Sol Brillante Garden on the Lower East: (rain location JCC Manhattan); 6/26 they’re at Spectrum

7/6 the Byzan-tones play wild psychedelic Greek surf music at Otto’s.

8/9-18 the Bard Summerscape Music Festival spotlights Stravinsky and his world upstate in Annandale: roundtrip shuttle bus available from NYC. Too many shows to list, the entire calendar is here.

Purist, Rustic Americana from Vincent Cross

Songwriter Vincent Cross was a mainstay of the late, lamented Banjo Jim’s Americana music scene, but he’s hardly been idle since that club shut its doors. His previous album Home Away from Home was a pretty straight-up, purist bluegrass collection; his new one A Town Called Normal is a lot more eclectic, a mix of rustic acoustic Americana with a bit of folk-rock and traditional sounds from across the pond. Most of the album is streaming at various places, including Cross’ site and his myspace page. Cross sings with an unaffected, easygoing twang, plays guitars, mandolin and harmonica and has an excellent band behind him, incorporating the talents of various combinations of Bennett Sullivan and Doug Nicolaisen on banjos; Max Johnson, Allen Cohen and Larry Cook on bass; Mark Farrell on mandolin and Shane Kerwin on drums on a few tracks.

Several of the songs sound like they could be Appalachian standards…except that they’re originals. One of the richest sounding of these is Cursed, with its lusciously intermingled layers of banjo, mandolin and acoustic guitar. Cross has a way with aphoristic oldtime vernacular: “How can we distinguish the evil from the good? The chorus always should,” he observes on the title cut. Likewise, the metaphorically-charged cautionary tale Turn Your Eyes: “Warning bells from the mizzzen mast, don’t go down with the crew and cast.” And Childish Things – a catchy, swinging bluegrass-tinged original, not the James McMurtry hit – muses that “nobody knows why the caged bird sings til you put away your childish things.”

My Love starts out quietly and then builds to a neat series of tradeoffs between Cross’ harmonica and nimble guitar flatpicking. Old Christmas Wrapping, a bittersweet waltz, goes into down-and-out Tom Waits territory, but less pessimistically. Walking on the Outside sounds suspiciously like an acoustic version of Son Volt’s Tearstained Eye, with a soulful dobro solo. Sometimes builds up to a brooding, hypnotic two-chord jam, while Trouble Being There evokes Matt Keating with its wry surrealism and gentle folk-rock melody.

There’s also Footnotes, a brooding polyrhythmic miniature; Wrack and Ruin, which takes a stab at honkytonk; and a nicely syncopated take of the traditional folk song Cuckoo, “who never hollers ‘cuckoo’ til the 4th day of July.” How’s that for symbolism?  Cross is at the American Folk Art Museum on 4/26 at 5:30 PM.

Reut Regev and R*Time Jam Out Some Murky Stoner Funk

[It’s always useful to have a sister blog that will send some good stuff over at the end of the month when you’re busy putting together the next month’s NYC concert calendar…]

Reut Regev is one of the ringleaders in minor-key jam band Hazmat Modine’s wild brass section, and a unique, original voice on the trombone. She’s got an eclectically fun new album, Exploring the Vibe, out with her stoner funk band, R*Time, which blends elements of jazz, no wave, Ethiopian and Balkan music, among other styles. Regev got the inspiration for the project at a festival in Germany where she had the chance to play with guitarist Jean-Paul Bourelly and realized that the chemistry for a good album was there. The rhythm section here is Regev’s husband Igal Foni on drums and Mark Peterson on bass, with cameos from Kevin Johnson on drums and Jon Sass on tuba. As you would expect, there’s a hypnotic, psychedelic aspect to this; at the same time, Bourelly and Regev utilize a lot of space, judiciously choosing their moments over an undulating groove. Much as a lot of the music has a restlessness and unease, a wry sense of humor pokes out from time to time. It’s a fun ride.

Bourelly plays mostly with a tinge of dirty, natural distortion when he’s not adding subtle ornamentation with his effects. Regev is a very incisive, rhythmic player, although she also likes ambient, shadowy colors. Peterson’s work here is hook-oriented – there are several passages where the drums drop out, or there’s skeletal percussion rattling around and that’s where the bass carries both melody and rhythm. Foni likes the rumbling lows, but like the rest of this crew, he doesn’t waste beats.

The opening track, Drama Maybe Drama, is a tongue-in-cheek diptych, Bourelly going off on a completely unexpected, early Jimmy Page-tinged open-tuned tangent midway through. They follow that with a buzzing, loopy, unresolved interlude and then Montenegro, which hints at reggae, funk and disco before finally hitting some Balkan riffage and then a Middle Eastern-flavored bass solo. Bluegrass and Ethiopian tinges sit side by side in Ilha Bela, a minimalisti but catchy tune with doppler trombone from Regev. Madeleine Forever, a tribute to Foni’s mom, illustrates someone who could be severe but was also very funny, winding up with biting Big Lazy-style skronky funk.

Blue Llamas makes a good segue, again evoking Big Lazy with its allusive chromatics, stomping, spacious blues, hard-hitting guitar and hypnotic rimshot rhythm. OK OJ coalesces toward a camelwalking East African groove with some neat handoffs between the guitar and trombone and a tongue-in-cheek “let’s go” outro. Raw Way, ostensibly a Junior Kimhrough homage, sounds nothing like him: way down beneath all the rumbling and shrieking and free interplay, it’s a terse blues. New Beginning is a weirdly successful, catchy attempt to merge New Orleans funk and Hendrix. There’s also a wryly bluesy guitar miniature and a bizarre stoner soul song sung by Bourelly. Who is the audience for this? Obviously, jazz fans, although people who gravitate toward the more psychedelic side of funk have an awful lot to sink their ears into.

Clairy Browne Seduces the Crowd at the Mercury

The air conditioning went off and stayed off after the first fifteen minutes of Clairy Browne & the Bangin’ Rackettes‘ show at the Mercury Lounge last night. That was ok with Browne. “We like it hot and sweaty down under,” the Melbourne, Australia noir soul siren grinned. That was as suggestive as she got; otherwise, she let the ache and longing of her songs, most of them from the band’s superb new album Baby Caught the Bus, speak for themselves. Watching this band was like discovering the great, long-lost video collaboration between David Lynch and John Waters. Baritone saxophonist Darcy McNulty set a smoldering, smoky tone right from the get-go that the band would maintain through more than an hour of haunting, torchy ballads and blustery oldschool soul grooves. Gabriel Strangio’s piano and Peter Bee’s guitar lingered with a lurid juiciness against Jules Pascoe’s suspenseful, nuanced bass pulse while Nick “Ricky” Martyn’s drums shifted in a split second from slow and misterioso to nimbly shuffling dancefloor vamps. Meanwhile, the Rackettes – Loretta, Ruby and Camilla – shimmered and shimmied and twirled in their vintage outfits and hairdos, adding perfectly choreographed ah-OOOOH harmonies and a whole other level of enjoyment that guys in the audience were talking about with no small bit of longing after the show had finally ended.

As good as the band was, Browne worked the intimacy of the room with an allure that was just distant enough to make her smoky come-hither contralto all the more enticing. For a singer with a naturally low register, Browne hit bullseyes whenever she reached for the rafters with an impressive range, moving with a cunning calculation from a whisper to a wail. She does not give a damn, either, at one point taking a healthy hit off a drink shared by a generous fan in the front row, then passing it to the Rackettes, who killed it. Noir isn’t about doom, anyway – it’s about celebrating even as the lights are going out, and Browne drew the crowd into her angst-driven odes to joy and desperation one by one.

This was the dark set. After McNulty’s moody opening vamp, they went deep into the creepy bolero tropicalia of Yellow Bird and, a bit later, Vicious Circle, a jauntily fingersnapping but savage requiem for fallen soul icons that points an accusatory middle finger at celebrity-struck fans and the media circus that drives them. Even the big, shuffling dancefloor hit Aeroplane was in a minor key. From coy doo-wop to the fevered jealousy and vengeful narrative of She Plays Up to You, Browne and the band kept one foot in the mid-60s and the other in the here and now: much as what they do is retro, it’s not deferential. This band isn’t afraid to take vintage sounds and put their own dark, sweaty handprints all over them. Booze and cigarettes are all over the lyrics along with Browne’s mighty melismatics. As strong as the songs are, the most exciting musical moment of the night might have been when McNultry led the band through an ominous, surfy instrumental that reminded a lot of the late, great New York band Moisturizer – another first-rate group fronted by an Australian.

They’re currently on US tour: lucky fans in Boston can catch them at TT the Bear’s tonight.

Tift Merritt and Simone Dinnerstein Play Their New Album Live

[Repost from NY Music Daily’s sister blog Lucid Culture]

Earlier generations might not be able to handle the concept of of juxtaposing Appalachian and classical music on the same stage. But songwriter/bandleader Tift Merritt and pianist Simone Dinnerstein have their fingers on the pulse of the future. Thursday night at their sold-out duo performance at Merkin Concert Hall, they held the crowd riveted with an intense, intimate performance that put each musician’s strengths under the microscope as they made unexpected connections between traditions from throughout the ages on both sides of the pond, Dinnerstein’s fiery baroque and Romantic interludes alternating with Merritt’s elegantly plaintive chamber pop. Most of the material was drawn from the two’s nocturnal song suite, Night, just released (and reviewed here).

The stage set foreshadowed what the concert would be: a pair of comfortable padded chairs at either side of the stage in low light from a couple of floor lamps. Merritt teased the crowd – “We’re not going to talk to you …we’re still not going to talk to you” – as the two made their way from Schumann, through a solo acoustic version of Merritt’s  plaintive Only in Songs, then glimmering themes by Schubert and Purcell. Dinnerstein’s gravitas and flinty irony balances Merritt’s biting wit and mercurial persona: they are very different peas in the same pod and obviously good friends. Merritt has established herself as a southern intellectual in the tradition of Faulkner and Welty; Dinnerstein represents for the old guard. Of the many eye-opening moments at this concert, the most impressive were when the two ventured into jazz, with a take of Billie Holiday’s Don’t Explain that was so sensual it was lurid, and a bit later an expansive, commissioned work from Brad Mehldau, I Shall Weep. Swing is a rare quality in a classical musician, but Dinnerstein has it: both she and Merritt have futures in jazz if they feel like it.

But it’s more likely that they’ll continue to cross-pollinate. Dinnerstein revealed a fondness for George Crumb and played resonant dulcimer lines inside the piano behind Merritt’s finely nuanced, wary mezzo-soprano. Merritt told how Dinnerstein had introduced her to an operatic rendition of the English folk ballad I Will Give My Love an Apple that Merritt instantly recognized from its slightly less antique American folk version – and then they played it as moody, lingering  art-rock. The biggest hit of the night was Dinnerstein’s rapidfire romp through the Allemande and Courante (make that tres courante) from Bach’s French Suite No. 5 in G Major. Although Merritt admitted to being shy about playing the piano in front of her bandmate, she impressed with her own tersely brooding, gospel-fueled take of Small Talk Relations.

Dinnerstein’s subtle dynamic shifts followed a trajectory from bittersweetly neoromantic to bracingly modern throughout Daniel Felsenfeld’s Cohen Variations, a suite based on Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne. After Merritt sang a rapt, quiet version of Patty Griffin’s Night, the concert reached its peak with the plaintive, crescendoing, saturnine anthem Feel of the World, which Merritt had written for her well-traveled grandmother. The duo encored with a very clever mashup of Gabriel Faure’s Apres un Reve with La Vie en Rose, which Merritt sang in flawless French. The two are soon off on US tour; the schedule is here. Dinnerstein is also at the Greene Space for an on-air performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on March 28 at noon; the performance is free but tickets are required.

A Rare Two-Night Stand by Legendary Postpunk Pioneers the Bush Tetras

CBGB-era no wave/funk/postpunk pioneers the Bush Tetras are playing a couple of nights on March 29 and 30 at 8 PM at the Slipper Room (the red-curtained strip club at the corner of Stanton and Orchard), of all places, and if you’re planning on going you should get there early: these shows are likely to sell out. After fifteen years in major label limbo, their long-awaited second album, Happy, has been released by RIOR on both vinyl and the usual digital formats. Brilliantly produced by noiserock maven and noted archivist Don Fleming, the album is a lot heavier than you might expect after hearing Too Many Creeps. For anyone lucky enough to have seen the band at, say, Brownies, around the time it was recorded and wondered when we might get a chance to hear studio versions of these songs, it’s a special treat.

It opens with the slow burn of Heart Attack, Pat Place’s guitar resonant and grim, then delivering a mean, minimalist metallic menace, Cynthia Sley’s vocals channeling her usual visceral unease. The second track, Slap, raises the menace factor, setting eerie minor-key janglerock over drummer Dee Pop’s suspenseful groove: “Could you slap me real hard, could you wake me up?” Sley asks plaintively.

Trip turns on a dime from a catchy two-chord funk vamp to snotty, straight-up rock. Nails reverts to the roaring, multitracked blue-flame ambience of the opening cut – what’s cool about this album is that as much as Place does the noisy/atonal thing more succinctly than just about anybody, here she gets to fill out the sound with a lush roar that she doesn’t often get the chance to create onstage.

The hypnotic, echoey instrumental Chinese Afro sets crashing percussion over the tiptoeing bass of Julia Murphy (who by that time had replaced Laura Kennedy in the group, and has since left). It makes a good segue with Pretty Thing, which  takes the atmospherics up a notch for an unexpectedly artsy, Velvets-tinged ambience.

At this point, the album hits a peak and stays there, beginning with You Don’t Know Me, a beefed-up take on the band’s abrasive early-period sound, Place firing off wickedly atonal swirls and macabre chromatics over a tight funk beat. Buckets of Blood works a slow, lingering, distantly menacing 80s jangle, Murphy hovering just underneath, Sley’s angst-ridden vocals overhead. Unlike what the title might suggest, Motorhead keeps the tensely simmering menace going.

Theremin (which actually has a theremin on it) builds from surreal no wave funk to a snarling groove that reminds of what Thalia Zedek and Come were doing around the time this album was made. Likewise, Ocean follows an arc from a hypnotic but harsh backdrop to a paint-peeling guitar workout. The album ends with Swamp Song, an off-kilter riff-rocker that evokes the Chrome Cranks, but funkier, a reminder that the Tetras were constantly evolving and keeping up with what was happening around them in New York. Kind of sad and funny that an album made in 1998 would be one of the best released in 2013 so far.

Ronald Reagan Lives On As a Parody

“Ronald Reagan, Boston’s premier 80’s pop saxophone duo aim to revitalize America’s economy by promoting large tax cuts and a revival of 80s pop music. Their sidemen went on strike, violating a band regulation prohibiting critical players from striking. Ronald Reagan stated that if the musicians ‘did not return to work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs, and will be terminated.’ They are seeking non-union musicians in anticipation of a 2011 tour to Grenada.” That was a couple of years ago. It’s not known if this particular Ronald Reagan is still alive, but their album lives on, most of it still streamable at myspace. And it’s a hoot. The trick is how to write about it without giving away the jokes, because they’re that good.

Ronald Reagan is/was Alec Spiegelman – who plays with a whole bunch of great bands including gypsy/klezmer powerhouse Klezwoods and Miss Tess’   jaunty oldtime Americana group – and Kelly Roberge, from Quartet of Happiness, who are sort of an equally funny, satirical Boston counterpart to New York’s Mostly Other People Do the Killing.

Has anyone ever really listened to Wham’s hit Take On Me all the way through and actually paid attention? These guys have. What they do to it is cruel, because in trying to make art out of it they reveal how absolutely artless it is. Garbage in, double the garbage out. Cindy Lauper’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun also has vocals for extra ouch! factor, but what’s coolest about it is that these guys are great players, and they try, and try, and try to make this stuff interesting, snaking around and punching on the beat and doing everything a jazz musician possibly can do to redeem it. And that’s where the fun is.

Likewise, We Built This City, by Jefferson Starship (or were they simply Starship by 1985?) has some vocals too. One funny thing about this version is that in between cloying choruses, these guys actually succeed in conjuring up a catchy soca groove that doesn’t sound anything like the original.

Michael Jackson’s Beat It has been parodied forever (Weird Al Yankovic’s Eat It, with Rick Derringer totally whipping Eddie Van Halen’s ass when it comes to the guitar solo, is a favorite). This particular spoof is tight and yet completely over-the-top (hint – backing vocals). They end the album with a popular choice of worst song ever written, Total Eclipse of the Heart, which among other things turns out to have a less-than-secret connection to Cindy Lauper.

If you have a friend who’s addicted to cornball songs from the 80s, introduce them to this album, if only for spite. Likewise, if you work in retail or in a medical office and are forced to have the easy-listening station playing over the PA instead of Spotify, or your phone, or a boombox (food for thought), this will validate your suffering. And make you smile. And if you’re old enough to remember this stuff when it first came out, you will really bust a gut. Break this out at a party sometime and watch everybody crack up.

Oh yeah – if you’ve made it this far, a little research reveals that Take On Me wasn’t by Wham. That was George Michael’s 80s band. Take On Me was by a Scandinavian group called A-Ha who must have thought that if Abba could have gotten away with all the fractured English in their hits from the 70s, these guys could do the same thing in the 80s. And they were right!

Red Jacket Mine Takes You Back to 1979

Seattle band Red Jacket Mine love their old new wave, and they are very, very good at it, almost to the point of parody. Their sound is period-perfect London 1979, right down to the overdone fake American drawl on the vocals- hearing this, you instantly envision a bunch of guys in skinny ties pilfering American soul music, occasionally giving it a hit of speed, a little Stonesy burn or Bowie-esque staginess. Their songs are insidiously catchy and don’t waste notes – ten tracks in 33 minutes or so. The band –  Lincoln Barr on guitars and vocals, Matthew Cunningham on bass and Andrew Salzman on drums – is tight, their licks and instrumental settings (tasteful Memphis and Muscle Shoals guitar played cleanly through old tube amps, vintage borderline-cheesy electric piano) perfectly retro.

The best song on the album is the title track, a wry 99-percenter anthem that sounds like Red Shoes as Elvis Costello might have done it had he saved it for Get Happy instead of putting it on his first album. Another good one is Better to Be Broken Than Blind, which ironically outdoes all those old British guys in evoking the brooding early 70s soul ballad sound of the Stylistics: these guys spice it with brass and swirly organ from guest Ken Stringfellow. Many of the other tracks here sound a lot like Costello, musically if not lyrically. Let’s not forget that at the peak of  Costello’s popularity, not everybody liked him for his vicious lyrics. A lot of people liked him because he was such a great pop tunesmith (and still is). That’s the crowd that will be psyched to discover this band.

With its fuzztone intro and staggered funk beat, Amy sounds like a song by the early Larch, or maybe a Mike Rimbaud b-side. The final track is a dead ringer for Rockpile. In between, when Red Jacket Mine does the blue-eyed soul thing, which is a lot of the time, they often remind of Graham Parker, especially on the wry, Memphis-tinged Nickel & Dime, or the brisk backbeat-driven Listen Up. And Skint City sounds like Costello’s Living in Paradise as a young Parker might have envisioned it.  Ron Nasty, which is closer to new wave than soul, does not appear to be about the Speedball Baby frontman. The rest of the songs include the allusively country-flavored Novelty’s Gone, with a tasty organ crescendo from Daniel Walker; a faux honkytonk number like the ones on Costello’s Taking Liberties; and a Jean Genie ripoff. So many bands get criticized – and rightfully so – for being oblivious to music made before 1980. These guys seem oblivious to anything made afterward. But that’s ok. They aren’t missing much.

Brilliant, Menacing Americana Rock from Mud Blood & Beer

Mud Blood & Beer were one of the best bands in NYC’s late, lamented Lakeside Lounge scene. They play what’s essentially an update on the 80s “paisley underground” sound that was rabidly popular on college radio, a darkly psychedelic, lyrically-driven blend of country twang, electric Neil Young rasp and Velvets stomp. They’ve got a new album, The Sweet Life just out and an album release show on April 13 at 8 PM at the Bitter End. The band has two first-rate songwriters and brilliant lead guitarists in Jon Glover and Jess Hoeffner, who share share an edgy, restless unease. Anger, danger and black humor pervade this album. They make a good team, Glover playing menacing southwestern gothic Steve Wynn to Hoeffner’s somewhat more eclectic, straight-up rocking Dan Stuart. With layer after layer of jangle, clang and roar, guitars and vocals up front, Stephen Swalsky’s bass and Stephen Sperber’s drums up just enough to keep everything rolling, the album’s sonics are better than most vinyl records made these days. Count this as one of the best of 2013 by a mile.

Glover’s Nasturtiums opens the album and sets the tone, a grimly bitter, minor-key, backbeat-driven desert rock anthem that builds to a savage guitar solo, like the Dream Syndicate’s Karl Precoda in especially focused mode. “Silence like an echo from a tomb…for forty days I wandered in the wilderness, returned to find nasturtiums in bloom,” Glove intones. Lost, by Hoeffner is a briskly catchy tune that evokes 80s legends True West, gleaming new wave blended with  luscious layers of Americana guitars. Another Hoeffner tune, You Wanted to Be Misunderstood, evokes the Long Ryders with its galloping, electrified bluegrass vibe and an all-too-brief, blistering Glover solo.

A couple of Glover tunes come next. Little Black Heart takes a spiraling hook that Tobin Sprout could have written and sets it to snarling, twangy rock, totally late-period Dream Syndicate, a band these guys evoke even more savagely on the slow, creepy Corner of His Eye. Hoeffner’s smoldering fuzztone ambience and then a feral, jagged solo highlight this sinister tale of dirty dealing and its potential consequences.

Matches & Gasoline – a Hoeffner number- evokes a steady Green on Red feel, followed by Glover’s snarling title track, which with its offhandedly brutal, bluesy solo wouldn’t be out of place on the Dream Syndicate’s classic Medicine Show album. Hoeffner’s See the Light could be an early True West song, while Glover’s briskly shuffling Be Still amps up the rocking Bakersfield country vibe.

One of Those Days – another Glover tune – returns to a savage Steve Wynn/Neil Young ambience with its menacing midtempo sway, cruel minor-key bridge and dismissive lyrics. Tell Me I’m Wrong, by Hoeffner, could be the Replacements, while Break Your Heart, with its shivery vibroslap sonics, is the most psychedelic track here. The album closes with Testimony, a murder ballad, opening with a tongue-in-cheek ELO reference and snaking its way through a series of increasingly agitated Glover solos to its doomed ending. More bands should be making music like this. In addition to this album, Mud Blood & Beer has their 2009 debut and also the album by Hoeffner’s side project Crooked Highway available as free downloads.