New York City Live Music Calendar for May and June 2015

by delarue

New June/July calendar coming 6/1, plus daily updates here. You might want to bookmark this page and check back regularly to see what’s new. There’s a comprehensive, recently updated list of places where these shows are happening at New York Music Daily’s sister blog Lucid Culture.

This is not a list of every show in town – it’s a carefully handpicked selection. If this calendar seems short on praise for bands and artists, it’s because every act here is recommended if you like their particular style of music. Many different genres to choose from here, something for everyone.

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. If you see a show listed without the start time, that’s because either the artist, their publicist or the venue in question sent incomplete info – those acts are usually listed last on a particular date.  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.

Starting May 12 and continuing on Tuesdays 6:30-8:30 May 12, 19, June 2, 9, and 16 Tamara Hey leads her Alphabet City Music Theory 1 workshop with an introduction to chart writing. Designed for working musicians, it’s a very useful, relevant course, an enormous amount of material packed into five weeks. This blog took the course last year and gave it a rave review: recommended especially for people who need to brush up on or develop their sight reading, ear training and get a handle on basic arrangements, There’s lots of homework – those who goof off will fall behind quickly – but as far as bang for the buck is concerned ($235 with discounts for SESAC, NSAI and NY Songwriters Circle members), it’s a bargain. As a teacher, Hey is supportive, sympatico, never met a challenge she didn’t want to master and is as wryly funny as she is erudite.

Showing through May 17, Thurs-Mon, noon-6 PM, Stonemilker – the surround-sound virtual reality installation of Bjork’s atmospheric seaside work for strings – at PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave. in Long Island City, $10/$5 stud/srs or $5 with PS1 ticket from the previous two weeks.

On select Thursdays and Saturdays, an intimate, growing piano music salon on the Upper West Side featuring iconoclastically insightful, lyrical pianist Nancy Garniez – a cult favorite with an extraordinarily fluid, singing, legato style – exploring the delicious minutiae of works from across the centuries. Upcoming concert on 5/15, 7 PM, repeating at 4 on 5/17 with the Bachs: old man Johann, Carl Phillip and William Friedemann, plus Poulenc – there is a segue but you just don’t know it yet. Sugg don $30 (pay what you can), delicious gluten-free refreshments, beverages and lively conversation included! email for info/location.

Mondays in May, 7 and 9 PM, erudite pianist Orrin Evans‘ richly tuneful, purist, stampeding Captain Black Big Band at Smoke

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

Also Monday and Tuesday nights Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, a boisterous horn-driven 11-piece 1920s/early 30’s band play Iguana, 240 W. 54th St ( 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 nights at 9 PM charismatic Romany singer Eva Salina and her amazing, psychedelic band play high-voltage dub-tinged jams on classic themes from across the Balkans at Sisters Brooklyn, 900 Fulton St. (Washington/Waverly), Ft Greene, C to Clinton-Washington, free

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.

Mondays in May, 10 PM noir guitar legend Jim Campilongo leads his trio at the small room at the Rockwood.

Mondays at 10 PM there’s been quite a buzz about the weekly residency by torchy songbird Angela McCluskey and cinematic pianist Paul Cantelon – the brain trust of popular 90s act the Wild Colonials – at the third stage at the Rockwood, with a rotating cast of high-quality special guests. It’s expensive: $15 plus a $10 drink minimum very strictly enforced.

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

Tuesdays in May, 8:30 PM the George Gee Swing Orchestra play surprising new arrangements of old big band standards at Swing 46, 349 W 46th St,  $15

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

Three Tuesdays in May: 5/5, 5/12 and 5/19 at 8 PM tuneful, eclectic pastoral jazz crew Old Time Musketry at Bar Chord

Tuesdays in May, 9ish Laura Cantrell – arguably this era’s most compelling, magically clear-voiced female oldschool country artist – at Union Hall. A series of special guests including resonator blues guitar badass Mamie Minch and cult songwriter Franklin Bruno play opening slots, more info TK.

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.

Wednesdays in May, 8 PM Tongues in Trees – vocalist Samita Sinha, drummer Sunny Jain of Red Baraat, and guitarist Grey McMurray from itsnotyouitsme at Barbes

Wednesdays in May, 8:30 PM guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg (of Dr. Lonnie Smith’s band) leads a trio at the Bar Next Door, $12.

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 in May, 8 PM Amy Rigby plays Hifi Bar. Intense, rugged individualist with a plaintively balmy voice, bitingly literate lyrics, a tunefulness that spans from her Americana roots to Brill Building pop and new wave, and a longtime connection to this part of town. Not to be missed if great songs with an alienated streak are your thing. Ostensibly a solo residency but in reality probably involving a whole slew of special guests.

Fridays at 5 PM, adventurous indie classical string quartet Ethel (Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello; Kip Jones, violin; and Tema Watstein, violin) play the balcony bar with a rotating cast of interesting special guests at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museum adm.

The first Friday of the month, anytime between midnight and midnight you can download four songs from Kiam Records artists – like Jennifer O’Connor, Mascott and Tim Foljahn – for free.  Each month’s theme is different (previously they have tackled covers, colors and money)  December’s the fourth edition and a holiday theme.  Available to download only on Friday and then archived and streaming at Soundcloud.

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

Saturdays in May at 4 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 at 6 PM in May Que Vlo-Ve play classic Greek hash smoking music and criminal underworld narratives from the 20s and 30s at Barbes

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 in May, 5 PM smart purist oldtime blues/Americana duo resonator guitarist Zeke Healey with Karen Waltuch joined by various ensembles followed at 7 by ubiquitiously good Americana guitarist Jason Loughlin & the String Gliders at Barbes.

Sundays in June, 7 PM spine-tingling art-rock/avant-garde/chamber pop singer Carol Lipnik – pretty much everybody’s choice for best singer in all of NYC – with hypnotically luminous pianist Matt Kanelos – at Pangea on 2nd Ave. btw 11th/12th Sts, $20. Several special guests are promised: the duo switch to Thursday nights in July and August.

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

Sundays in May at 9 – check the Barbes calendar to make sure -Romany guitar genius Stephane Wrembel plays Barbes. He’s holding on to the edgy, danceable spirit of Django Reinhardt while taking the style to new and unexpected places like art-rock and post-Velvets noiserock. He’s also very popular: get there early.

Sundays at 9 PM in May charismatic, torchy, occasionally Lynchian jazz bassist/singer Kate Davis (of the Lady Bugs) with her combo at Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle, 35 E 76th St @ Madison Ave, bar seating is $15 per person, table seating $25 per person.

5/1, 7 PM Dan Finnerty’s hilarious, viciously sarcastic top 40 cover band the Dan Band at Joe’s Pub, $22

5/1, 8 PM Pakistan’s Farid Ayaz, Abu Muhammad & Brothers Qawwali at Roulette

5/1, 8 PM the Warbling Plebs -Brian Dolphin – guitar; Ali Dineen – accordion & washboard; Sam Harmet – banjolin & clarinet; Quince Marcum – percussion, bass, baritone horn – sing revolutionary anthems from across the centuries to celebrate May Day at Barbes

5/1, 8:30 PM female-fronted postpunk icons the Bush Tetras – of Too Many Creeps fame – at le Poisson Rouge

5/1, 9 PM ten-piece country/carnivalesque/acoustic rock powerhouse M Shanghai String Band – whose latest album is amazing – at the Jalopy, $10

5/2, 5ish edgy, tuneful oldschool style all-female punk trio the Damn Broads headline a hardcore bill at ABC No Rio, $7 

5/2, 7 PM starkly psychedelic, moody folk noirish duo Belle Mare at Baby’s All Right, $12 

5/2, 7:15 PM  dark psychedelic acoustic blues/klezmer/reggae/soca jamband Hazmat Modine at Terra Blues

5/2, 8 PM an all-star ensemble; oudists Alfonso Mugaburo Cid, Zafer Tawil and Taoufiq Ben Amor, singer Bárbara Martínez, guitarist Arturo Martínez and percussionist Ramzi Eledlebi play ancient Andalucian Arabic flamenco music at Alwan for the Arts, $20/$15 stud

5/2, 8 PM intense 30–member all-male choir A Conspiracy of Beards sing from their vast repertoire of imaginatively orchestrated Leonard Cohen songs at Littlefield, $10

5/2, 8 PM entrancing Moroccan sintir virftuoso Hassan Hakmoun – the James Brown of gnawa – with his band at Roulette

5/2, 9  PM the Baseball Project – jangly, wickedly literate, historically informed baseball-themed supergroup fronted by Steve Wynn with Peter Buck and Mike Mills from REM and others – at Rough Trade, $20 gen adm

5/2, 9 PM mighty roots reggae band (and Pink Floyd and Radiohead reinventors) the Easy Star All-Stars at Brooklyn Bowl, $22 

5/2, 9ish choral ensemble (with celllo) Harmonic Insurgence “ sing about war, government spying, the environment, police brutality and racism, and getting from winter to spring, among other things” at the People’s Voice Cafe, $18, “nobody turned away”

5/2, 9 PM music for piri and string quartet with Ethel and special guests at Spectrum

5/2, 10 PM dark, lyrically driven LES gutter rockers the Rebel Factory at the Parkside

5/2, 10 PM Mexican ranchera/bolero brass crew Banda de los Muertos at Barbes

5/2, 10 PM a benefit concert for SaveNYC – the small business advocacy organization fighting to keep independently owned and operated businesses from being forced out by astronomical rent hikes and replaced by bland corporate chain stores – at Arlene’s, performers include downtown legend Penny Arcade and others, a good cause and reputedly some first class acts involved

5/3, 4:30 PM lustrous, up-and-coming latin-influenced jazz chanteuse Marianne Solivan leads a big band at Smalls

5/3, 7 PM a rare US appearance by Mariachi Real de Mexico de Ramon Ponce at a pre Cinco de Mayo festival at the Lehman Center, 250 Bedford Park Blvd West in the Bronx, free  

5/3, 7:30 PM eclectic, breathtakingly powerful Americana singer and Darlingside frontwoman Heather Maloney and her new band at Joe’s Pub, $15

5/3, 8 PM avant jazz grooves with Ned Rothenberg & Glen Velez followed by a rare global throat-singing twinbilll with Alash and Huun-Huur-Tu, the Throat-Singers of Tuva at Roulette

5/3, 8 PM a blast from the East Village past: the Surreal McCoys followed by ferociously funny, intense, guitar-fueled Americana punks Spanking Charlene at Fat Baby on Rivington St. just west of Essex, $tba

5/3, 8 PM catchy oldtimey all-female string band the Calamity Janes followed at 9 by bluegrass group the Darke County Steam Threshers at the Jalopy, $10

5/3, 8:30 PM lushly sweeping, cutting-edge vocal jazz with Sara Serpa and her new electric quartet at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

5/4, 9:30 PM El Combo Chimbita play psychedelic, dubwise, horn-driven cumbia and party grooves at Barbes

5/4, 10 PM swirling, artsy, epic psychedelic art-rock band Aunt Ange at the Cameo Gallery, $8 

5/4, 10ish high-voltage Fela repertory band Chop & Quench at Brooklyn Bowl, $10. They’re also here on 5/11, same time 

5/4, 10 PM oldtimey country blues hellraisers Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band at Bowery Electric, $12 adv tix rec 

5/5, 7:30 PM powerful violinist and klezmer bandleader Yale Strom & Hot Pstromi at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, 30 W 68th St., $15.

5/5, 8 PM Tim Fain plays Philip Glass: Partita for Solo Violin at the Kitchen, $12

5/5, 8:30 PM sometimes exhilarating, sometimes haunting Belgian barroom swing revivalists Musette Explosion with Will Holshouser on accordion, Matt Munisteri on guitar and Marcus Rojas on tuba at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

5/5, 9 PM trippy surf spacerock with Aquadora followed by hypnotically percussive indie/postrock legends the Wharton Tiers Ensemble at the Delancey, $

5/6, 6 PM a sizzling concert of Uzbek Persian/Jewish psychedelic folk wildness featuring tar lute powerhouse Roshel Rubinov, Yakov Rubinov and Ilya Khavasov at the New School Event Café, lower level of 65 5th Ave. at 13th St., free. The concert repeats 5/11 at quarter past noon at Queens College Student Union 206, 65-30 Kissena Blvd. in Flushing, corner of Kissena Blvd and Melbourne Ave. Worth calling in sick on Monday and figuring out how to get to Queens (a straight shot on the Kissena Blvd. bus just a block from the last stop on the 7 train at Main St. in Flushing).

5/6-10, 7;30/10 PM powerhouse alto/soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson with Orrin Evans – piano; Ugonna Ukegwo – bass ; Bill Stewart – drums at the Jazz Standard, 7:30/10 PM, $25 ($30 on the weekend)

5/6-7, 8 PM the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Collegiate Chorale play the U.S. premiere of The Road of Promise, a new Holocaust-themed adaptation of Kurt Weill and Franz Werfel’s 1937 epic at Carnegie Hall, $30 tix avail.

5/6, 8 PM David Allan Coe at B.B. King’s. Yeah, him. We’re really in Kansas now. $27.50 adv tix rec

5/6-8, 8:30/10 PM lush, pointillistic pastoral jazz pioneers the Claudia Quintet at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min. A live album recording may be part of the picture: stay tuned.

5/6, 10 PM lyrically driven western swing and jazz-tinged newschool oldtimey songwriter Pokey LaFarge – sort of the missing link between Robbie Fulks and Tom Waits – at Bowery Ballroom, $20 

5/6, 10 PM edgy tenor saxophonist/composer Stan Killian leads an excellent quartet with Nir Felder on guitar, Bryan Copeland on bass and Donald Edwards on drums at 55 Bar

5/7, 1 PM the Chris Pattishall Quintet play their new arrangement of Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite at Trinity Church, free

5/7, 7 PM  intense, soaring singer/pianist Anna Winthrop and cellist Kirin McElwain play their individualistic, windswept, cinematic jazz-inflected art-rock at the Bitter End

5/7, 8 PM haunting but kinetic Israeli band the Libyans – who reinvent ancient North African cantorial themes – and then psychedelic Ethiopian groove orchestra Feedel Band at the World Financial Center, free

5/7, 8 PM Argentine circus rock sensations Violentango at Shrine

5/7, 8 PM 8 PM psychedelic klezmer/bluegrass mandolin and clarinet legend Andy Statman at Barbes, $10

5/7, 9 PM mysterious, purist surf rockers the Tiki Brothers at Hank’s

5/7, 9 PM John Caban’s Blues Dub Surf Trio – with the excellent Bennett Paster on keys – at Classon Social, $5

5/7, 11 PM ecletically hellraising, twangy, revertoned female-fronted garage rock/Americana band Those Darlins at Rough Trade, $15 

5/7 irrepressibly noisy, eclectic, tuneful, Middle Eastern-inspired guitarist Yonatan Gat and band at Aviv. He’s also here on 5/15 

5/8, 7 PM the Entre Madera Romany jazz trio – violin, guitar and bass – at Caffe Vivaldi 

5/8, 8 with intense, darkly politically-fueled Tunisian-born chanteuse Emel Mathlouthi – and then lushly enveloping, trancey, similarly political Canadian-based Persian song reinventors Niyaz at the World Financial Center, free.

5/8, 8 PM Tin Hat accordionist Rob Reich plays the album release show for his new album Shadowbox with a killer band followed at 10 by the psychedelic funk band the People’s Champs at Barbes

5/8, 8/10:30 PM intense bassist and oudist Omer Avital leads his Middle Eastern jazz band at Iridium, $25

5/8, 8 PM Staten Island’s only skiffle band, the Salt Cracker Crazies at the Way Station

5/8, 8ish shambling counntry/circus rock/noirish cabaret band the Green Gallows at Hometown BBQ in Red Hoook

5/8, 8 PM avant garde cult organist Klaus Lang’s collaboration with composer Mark Rushford gets a world premiere at the Abrons Arts Ctr, 466 Grand St. on the LES, $15/$12 stud/srs

5/8, 8 PM the NY Phil plays Schubert’s Unfiniished Symphony in B Minor plus the NY premiere of Peter Eötvös’ Senza Sangue (Bloodless) with soprano Ann-Sophie von Otter at Avery Fisher Hall, $33 tix aavail

5/8, 8 PM Panamanian group Julian playing cumbia, punto and saloma followed by Cameroonian soukous/jazz songstress Kaïssa; the two groups jam afterward at Flushing Town Hall, $15

5/8, 8 PM the Apollo Trio play Beethoven Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1 No. 1; Clara Schumann Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17′ Ravel Piano Trio in A minor at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs/$15 stud 

5/8, 8 PM a sax trio version of Bonnie Kane’s intense Fire Maidens From Outer Space followed by improvisers the Jack Wright Quartet: Jack Wright: saxophones, Zach Darrup: guitar, Joe Hertenstein: drums, Ollie Brice – bass and then a Steve Dalachinsky spoken-word performance at the Firehouse Space, $10

5/8, 8:30 PM underground indie classical icons Anti-Social Music performs a set of solo pieces written by Patrick Castillo, Max Duykers, Pat Muchmore, Ed RosenBerg and more. Performers include Ed RosenBerg (tenor saxophone), Andie Springer (violin), Curtis Stewart (violin), and others! followed by awesome duo Scorpion vs. Snake – accordionist Nathan Koci and cellist Emily Hope Price – at I-Beam, $10

5/8, 9 PM intense, alternately hypnotic and soaringly anthemic art-rock pianist/songwriter/indie classical composer Kristin Hoffmann at Caffe Vivaldi

5/8, 9 PM roots reggae group Royal Khaoz at BAM Cafe, free

5/8 and 5/22, 10ish the self-explanatory Bulgarian Grand Masters of Gypsy Music with extraordinary saxophonist Yuri Yunakov at Mehanata

5/8, 10 PM brilliantly lyrical dark oldtimey songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Pete Lanctot and band at Hank’s

5/8, 10 PM pensive acoustic indie/chamber pop band Colorform – whose shows feature live painting in addition to the music – playing the album release show for their new one at Bowery Electric, $8 adv tix rec 

5/8, 10 PM Thunda Vida play roots reggae and dub at Shrine

5/8, 10:30 PM Mac McCarty & the Kidd Twist Band play their fiery, sometimes unexpectedly poignant Pogues-ish punk and folk noir at Sidewalk

5/9, 4 PM the Erik Satie Quartet – Ron Hay (trombone), Max Seigel (bass trombone), Ben Holmes (trumpet), and Andrew Hadro (bari sax) – followed by Que Vlo-Ve playing classic Greek hash smoking music and criminal underworld narratives from the 20s and 30s at 6 and then eventually at 10 the even more haunting, slinky, female-fronted noir bolero and desert/tropical rock band Las Rubias Del Norte at Barbes

5/9, 5 PM pianist Josep Colom plays “a dialogue between Mozart and Chopin” at the DiMenna Center, 450 W 37th St., $5

5/9, 6 PM eclectic jazz chanteuse Allison Wedding leads a guitar-based quartet at 55 Bar

5/9, 7:30 PM intense, lyrically brilliant, quirky female-fronted two-keyboard 80s-style art-rock/new wave revivalists Changing Modes at Trash, $8, open bar with PBR and wells 7-8 PM with admission

5//9, 8 PM a rare Honduran twinbill with surf rocker Guayo Cedeno & Coco Bar and then Garifuna guitar legend Aurelio & the Garifuna Soul Band. at the World Financial Center, free

5/9, 8ish anthemic, eclectic often haunting female-fronted Americana/acoustic funk/art-rock jamband the Sometime Boys at Hometown BBQ in Red Hook

5/9, 8 PM a rare reunion of atmospheric, Radiohead-influenced early zeros rockers Cetacea followed eventually at around 10 by indie legend and former Come and Steve Wynn collaborator Chris Brokaw at Trans-Pecos

5/9, 8 PM the Canticum Novum Singer perform Brahms’ Schicksalslied, Randall Thompson’s The Road Not Taken (from Frostiana), David Lang’s It’s the Same Train, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Toward the Unknown Region, William Schuman’s Carols of Death and Jonathan Harvey’s Angels at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church, 87th St. btw Broadway/West End Ave., $25/$20 stud/srs

5/9, 8:30 PM a first-class chamber ensemble comprising David Lisker and Regi Papa, violin; Cong Wu, viola; Michael Katz, cello; Renana Guttman, piano;Meredith Lustig, soprano plays intense, undeservedly obscure works by Holocaust-era composers Ernest Bloch, Erwin Schulhoff, Gideon Klein, Hans Krasa, Robert Dauber, Viktor Ullman, Joseph Achron, Carlo Taube, Ilse Weber, Pavel Haas and Mieczyslaw Weinberg , including some who were murdered: at Merkin Concert Hall, $30 and worth it

5/9, 9ish witty, eclectic Americana/Balkan accordion-violin duo the Wisterians at Moto in south Williamsburg

5/9, 9/10:30 PM one of the most consistently tuneful piano improvisers in the business, Kris Davis leads her quartet at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

5/9, 10 PM brooding Americana/chamber pop/Nashville gothic band the Morning Sea at the Way Station

5/9, 10 PM catchy, edgy, tuneful soul/rock/Americana band Bethany St. Smith & the Gun Show at the Bitter End

5/9, 11 PM rustically intense oldtime blues band Fife & Drom at Pete’s

5/10, 1 PM yeah mon – dem a dancehall ting in de park – Ft. Greene Park to be precise, live dancehall ragamuffin performances by Assassin aka Agent Sasco, Tifa, Kranium, Ricky Blaze and Lisa Hyper plus many soundsystem, mon. Selassie I! Legalize it!

5/10, 3 PM pianist Abram Korsunksy plays music by Haydn, Smaldone, Chopin and Brahms at Flushing Town Hall, free

5/10, 4 PM Duo Prism + 1 – Jesse Mills, violin, Rieko Aizawa, piano and Alan R. Kay, clarinet, perform works by Francis Poulenc, Sebastian Currier, Mozart, and Grieg at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library, free, no under-sixes. 

5/10, 4:30 PM majestic Argentine-tinged large ensemble jazz with Emilio Solla y La Inestable de Brooklyn at Smalls

5/10, 5 PM a new arrangement of Dave Brubeck’s rarely performed Jazz Mass for choirs and jazz quintet at St. Peter’s Church, 54th/Lexington Ave, free

5/10, 5 PM viola-centric new chamber music: violist Lois Martin joined by percussionist Mike Truesdell, cellist Caroline Stinson and pianist Molly Morkoski for world premieres of new works by Richard Festinger, Neal Kirkwood, Diego Tedesco and Sheree Clement as well as works by Edward Cone and Philip Hurel.at the Tenri Institute, 43 W 13th St $15/$10 stud/srs

5/10, 6 PM noir/western swing guitar icon Jim Campilongo and his trio at 55 Bar

5/10, 8 PM edgy yet subtle Romany-influenced French jazz guitarist Michael Valeanu and combo at Caffe Vivaldi 

5/10, 8:30 PM a killer jazz twinbill at the Bell House: high voltage postbop trumpet with the Nadje Noordhuis Quintet followed by the state-of-the-art, majestic, epic, ferociously relevant Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, $16 adv tix rec  

5/10, 9 PM Ameranouche – who distinguish themselves from the legions of Django imitators by sticking closer to the American/bluesy side of guitar jazz – at Silvana

5/10, 9ish low-key, soulful original country bluesman Jon LaDeau at Moto in south Williamsburg

5/10, 10 PM obscenely hilarious, ferocious, surprisingly eclectic punk/powerpop band Custard Wally at Otto’s. Show up at 8 if you want to see the Rock N Roll President

5/11, 7:30 PM Kate Soper, soprano; Gelsey Bell, soprano; Brett Umlauf, soprano;  Erin Lesser, flutes;  Ian Antonio, percussion;  Joshua Modney, violin perform works by Soper, Guillaume de Machaut and Hildegard von Bingen at Advent/ Broadway Church,2504 Broadway at 93rd St., free

5/11, 9ish torchy, boss-influenced chanteuse and Norah Jones collaborator Sasha Dobson at Moto in south Williamsburg

5/11, 9:30 PM Cumbiagra – whose take on psychedelic cumbias is more rustic and purist than most bands who play that stuff –at Barbes

5/11, 10:30 PM crooner Guy Sands and his oldschool pedal steel-driven honkytonk band at the Manhattan Inn in Greenpoint, free

5/12, 7;30 PM the Ariel Quartet continue their Beethoven cycle with Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6 • Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 at Subculture, $25 adv tix rec

5/12, 8 PM indie classical icons the Kronos Quartet and their younger NYC counterparts Hotel Elefant play the world premiere of composer Mary Kouyhoumdjian’s Silent Cranes suite commemorating the 100th anniversary of the genocide in Armenia at Roulette, $20

5/12, 8ish the Bronx Conexion play their mighty salsa big band jazz at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, $tba

5/12, 8:30 PM purist, straightforward, warmly tuneful front-porch folk songwriter Joanna Sternberg- the rare act who gets comparisons to Elizabeth Cotten and deserves them – at Bar Lunatico in Bed-Stuy. She’s also at Pete’s on 5/31 at 10.

5/12, 9 PM catchy, sardonically jangly, lo-fi soul-rockers Larry & the Babes – sort of a more tuneful, less punk version of Clear Plastic Masks – at the Silent Barn

5/12, 9 9:30 PM saxophone powerhouse Lucas Pino‘s two-guitar No No Nonet at Smalls.

5/13, 7 PM the Bang on a Can All-Stars playing indie classical material off their latest album at the Greene Space, $20, adv tix highly rec

5/13, 8:30 PM violist Miranda Seilaff plays the Ligeti Viola Sonata at Seeds, $10

5/13, 11 PM playful, meticulously interesting composer Sara McDonald‘s large jazz ensemble the NYChillharmonic at the Knitting Factory, $10 adv tix rec

5/14, half past noon organist Angela Kraft Cross plays at Central Synagogue, Lex/53rd, free

5/14, 7 PM intense, stormy, noir cinematic nuevo tango/classical pianist/composer Fernando Otero leads his quartet at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library, free, no under-sixes.

5/14, 7 PM one of this era’s most individualistic, intense, lyrical oldtimey country blues guitarits and songwriters, Lenny Molotov at Sidewalk

5/14, 7 PM dark art-rock songwriter Ambrosia Parsley plays the al bum release show for her death-fixated new one at the big room at the Rockwood, $15

5/14, 7:30 PM potentially the year’s best twinbill with the most eclectic and arguably strongest songwriter in town, darkly and sardonically but also plaintively intense accordionist/singer Rachelle Garniez and the spine-tingling art-rock/avant-garde/chamber pop singer Carol Lipnik – pretty much everybody’s choice for best singer in all of NYC – playing the album release show for her new one at Joe’s Pub, $18

5/14-17, 7:30/10 PM conductor/Gil Evans scholar Ryan Truesdell’s exhilarating Gil Evans Project big band airs out Evans’ largely forgotten hot swing catalog from the early part of his career at the Jazz Standard, 7:30/10 PM, $30 ($35 on the weekend)

5/14, 7:30 PM hey birders – leave your Sibley at home but bring your binoculars! The Chamber Orchestra of NY perform Frederick Delius’s On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and Respighi’s The Birds. Soloist is violinist Jennifer Pike, $25 tix avail

5/14, 7:30 PM edgy Romany/latin/ska rockers Karikatura followed by fiery, hard-rocking Balkan band Tipsy Oxcart playing the album release show for their new one at the big room at the Rockwood, $12

5/14, 7:30 PM James Lovell and his rustic Caribbean Garifuna Drum Band play a cross-pollinated collaboration with Cape Breton singers at Meridian 23 on 23rd St. east of 7th Ave.

5/14, 7:30 PM up-and-coming pianists Ariela Bohrod, Radoslawa Jasik, Matthew Griswold, Anna Glig (alumna), Shulin Guo, Gvantsa Zangaladze take turns performing sonatas by Lowell Liebermann, Alexander Reinagle, Charles Ives, Charles Griffes, Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber at Subculture, free, rsvp req to 212-533-5470 ext. 101

5/14, 8 PM high-voltage oldschool soul and funk with Sonny Knight & the Lakers at Brooklyn Bridge Park, free 

5/14, 8 PM acerbic, surrealistic, entertaining avant garde chanteuse/provocatrice Amy X Neuburg at the Old Stone House in Park Slopr, $10

5/14, 9 PM cleverly lyrical, darkly funny Nashville gothic rock with Maynard & the Musties at Hank’s

5/14, 9 PM creepy dark garage/punk soul band the Naked Heroes followed by the Space Merchants – who work a doomy reverb/fuzztone psych vibe, Sabbath with a Farfisa! – at Cake Shop, $8 

5/14, 9 PM wickedly catchy, jangly retro Laurel Canyon psych-folk band the Mystic Braves at Baby’s All Right, $12

5/14, 9 PM wild New Orleans/soul band Mingo Fishtrap followed by psychedelic hard funk band the Main Squeeze at Highline Ballroom, $20 adv tix rec

5/14, 10 PM the plush, balmy, oldtimey uke swing of Daria Grace & the Pre-War Ponies at Barbes

5/14, 10 PM ageless early 80s surf punks Agent Orange – still Living in Darkness after all these years – at St. Vitus, $15

5/14, 10 PM dazzlingly eclectic, witty B3 jazz organist Brian Charette‘s Mighty Grinders trio at 55 Bar

5/14, 11 PM a monstrously good monster surf/noir garage rock twinbilll with ferocious reverb-driven noir garage rockers Twin Guns and searing, Radio Birdman-esque garage punks the Brimstones – who don’t have a bass but don’t need one – at the Gutter, absurdly cheap, $5

5/15, 7:30 PM oudist-and-guitar duo Erdal Akkaya & Jeronimo Maya play spiky tunes “from Andalusia to Anatolia” at Drom, $15

5/15, 8 PM pianist André Watts and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with conductor Peter Bay will present an imaginative selection of works that includes Grieg’s passionate concerto, Beethoven’s luminous fourth concerto, Stravinsky’s folk-inspired Four Norwegian Moods and Mozart’s effervescent Cosí fan tutte overture at NJPAC in Newark, five minutes from the Path train, $25 tix avail

5/15, 8/10 PM intense, edgy jazz guitarist Mike Moreno leads a smartly tight quartet with Aaron Parks-piano; Doug Weiss-bass; Adam Cruz – drums at the Jazz Gallery, $22

5/15, 8:30 PM the Chelsea Symphony plays Michael Boyman: Tightrope Walker, (winner of their 2015 composition competition); Schumann: Cello Concerto with soloist Jeanette Stenson; Prokofiev: Selections from Romeo and Juliet at St. Paul’s Church, 315 W 22nd St, $20 sugg don.

5/15, 8:30 PM violinist Sam Bardfeld leads a really cool trio with Kris Davis – Piano; Vinnie Sperrazza – Drums at I-Beam, $10

5/15, 9 PM shambling, fun indie soul harmony band Sunshine followed by Strait Up playing George Strait covers at Freddy’s

5/15, 9 PM the Blue Dahlia play their roots reggae/klezmer/tango/ska mashups at Bar Chord

5/15, 10 PM this era’s greatest cinematic noir guitar instrumentalists, Big Lazy at Barbes

5/15, 10 PM searingly intense, charismatic, fearless acoustic punk blues siren Molly Ruth followed by fiery Canadian gothic rocker Lorraine Leckie and her psychedelic band with Hugh Pool on lead guitar at Sidewalk

5//15, 10 PM creepy, theatrical female-fronted noir cabaret/circus rock band Orphan Jane at Otto’s

5/15, 10ish nine-piece original psychedelic Afrobeat dancehall monsters Zongo Junction at the Kymberle Project, 1332 Atlantic Ave. (Nostrand/New York Ave.) in Bed-Stuy, A/C to Nostrand Ave. and a five-minute walk, $10. Campy Israeli couplecore disco duo Hank & Cupcakes open.

5/15, 10 PM high-energy newschool C&W jamband Holy Ghost Tent Revival at Rock Shop, $10

5/15, 11 PM cinematic soundtrack instrumentalists/surf rockers the Tarantinos NYC play the album release show for their new one at Lucille’s Bar, $10

5/15, midnight soaring, brilliant singer Magda Giannikou’s lush, sweeping, pan-Mediterranean art-rock/chamber pop/jazz group Banda Magda at the big room at the Rockwood

5/16, 3 PM enigmatic, kinetic Seattle 80s style indie rockers Mega Bog at Trans-Pecos, $8

5/16. 3 PM members of the Jackson Heights Orchestra: pianist Joseph Bartolozzi, soprano Jayne Skoog with guitarist Vincent Cross; plus performances by their brass section and string quartet at St. Mark’s Church, 81 st St. and 34 th Ave., Jackson Heights, $20, all proceeds to benefit the orchestra, reception to follow

5/16, 4 PM female-fronted New York drum ensembles: the 2nd Spirit of Aña and tarentella sorceress Alessandra Belloni and the Daughters of Cybele at the BMHC Lab,1303 Louis Niné Blvd in the Bronx.

5/16, 5 PM fiery Americana/Balkan/klezmer fiddler Sarah Alden and her all-star string band followed by the Bogmen’s Vic Thrill at Pete’s

5/16, 7 PM soaring, austerely majestic haunting Turkish choral group the New York Ataturk Chorus at Drom, $20 followed at 9 by the eclectic, Balkan/latin/funk brass stylings of the Underground Horns ($10 separate adm)

5/16, 7:15 PM dark psychedelic acoustic blues/klezmer/reggae/soca jamband Hazmat Modine at Terra Blues

5/16, 7:30 PM the Chelsea Symphony plays Michael Boyman: Tightrope Walker, (winner of their 2015 composition competition); Fasil Say: Violin Concerto (“1001 Nights in the Harem”) with soloist Jason Mellowl Prokofiev: Selections from Romeo and Juliet at St. Paul’s Church, 315 W 22nd St, $20 sugg don.

5/16, 8 PM a concert to commemorate the infamous events at Kent State and Jackson State with Emma’s Revolution and Magpie. at the People’s Voice Cafe, $18, “nobody turned away”

5/16, 8 PM Mike Gent of surrealistic, sardonic 90s powerpop legends the Figgs in a rare twinbill with Doug Gilllard at Hifi Bar

5/16, 8 PM the band that put Haitian psychedelic funk on the map in the 90s, Boukman Eksperyans at Roulette, $25

5/16, 8 PM innovative choral ensemble Cantori NY sing the world premiere of Pedro Páramo by Colombian-American composer Alba Pote plus Where the Willows Meet by Niels Rosing-Schow at the church of St. Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson St $25/$20 srs/$5 stud

5/16, 8 PM works by Robert Sierra, Chopin, Monsalvatge, Sierra, Villa-Lobos performed by Harolyn Blackwell, soprano with the Split Second Piano Ensemble – Roberto Hidalgo and Marc Peloquin at the Tenri Cultural Institute, 43A West 13th St, $20

5/16, 9 PM tvicious noiserock jamband the the Skull Practitioners– led by Steve Wynn sparring partner/genius guitarist Jason Victor, and who also happen to be NYC’s forsemost practitioners of the last-minute gig – at the Flat,

5/16, 9 PM ferociously funny, intense, guitar-fueled female-fronted Americana punks Spanking Charlene at Bowery Electric, $10

5/16, 9 PM irresistibly quirky, hyperliterate, charming all-female cello/accordion.uke harmony trio the Debutante Hour at Moscow 57, 168 1/2 Delancey St

5/16, 9 PM guitarist Mimi Oz‘s Rooster – a real kitchen-sink band with soul and rock and darker sounds and an omnipresent sense of humor – followed at 10 by powerhouse bassist Dawn Drake & Zapote playing their groovalicious funk and Afrobeat-influenced bounce at the Way Station

5/16, 9 PM legendary Hoboken proto-dreampop jangleband the Feelies at the Bell House, $25 gen adm, adv tix rec, this might sell out

5/16, 10 PM Certain General guitarslinger Phil Gammage’s Adventures in Bluesland– whose material spans from Muddy Waters to Elvis to originals – at Sidewalk

5/16, 10 PM Supermambo – vibraphonist Felipe Fournier‘s tribute to Tito Puente, who got his start on that instrument – at Barbes

5/16, 10 PM the self-explanatory Viva Vallenato Badass Accordion Band at Silvana

5/17, 1 PM almy, sardonically individualistic vocal jazz stylist Dorian Devins leads her trio with Lou Rainone – piano, Paul Gill – bass at Bar 9, 807 Ninth Ave (between 53rd & 54th,free

5/17, 3 PM the Greenwich Village Orchestra with conductor Barbara Yahr offer a dramatic conclusion to their season featuring Rossini’s William Tell Overture, a music video with music by Berlioz performed with special guest mezzo-soprano Naomi O’Connell, and then Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Suggested donation is $20/$10 stud/srs, reception to follow.

5/17, 5 PM ferociously tuneful southwestern gothic rockers the Downward Dogs at Palisades

5/17, 5 PM elegant jazz violinist Sara Caswell and her quartet at St. Peter’s Church, 54th/Lexington Ave, free

5/17, 7 PM percussive, trance-inducing, bitingly tuneful, Middle Eatstern-tinged female-fronted jamband SisterMonk at the small room at the Rockwood

5/17, 7 PM legendary Piedmont fingerstyle country blues guitarist Larry Johnson at Terra Blues

5/17, 7:30 PM pyrotechnic Galician bagpiper Cristina Pato – who adds a jazzy, otherworldly, sometimes Balkan edge to flamenco tunes – at Subculture, $20 adv tix rec

5/17, 7:30/9:30 elegant oldschool soul singer Mavis Swan Poole and Soul Understated at Ginny’s Supper Club uptown, $15

5/17, 4:30 PM the intense, occasionally Middle Eastern-tinged fifteen piece Eyal Vilner Big Band at Smalls

5/17, 10ish bouncy Afrobeat orchestra Emefe at Baby’s All Right, $10

5/18, 7:30 PM “Glass & Blood”: concert works from the bloodiest film scores by Philip Glass performed by pianist Michael Riesman and violinist Chase Spruill at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix avail

5/18, 7:30 PM trumpet icon Ingrid Jensen‘s Berklee Quintet – keeping it fresh and real – at Dizzy’s Club, $30

5/18, 8 PM dynamic Jewish folk grooves from across Eastern Europe with violinist Ben Sutin & Klazz Ma Tazz followed by Funkaholics Anonymous playing songs from their big black book at Silvana

5/18, 8 PM a brilliant ensemble from OpenICE – Jennifer Curtis, violin; Rebekah Heller, bassoon; Daniel Lippel, guitar; Joshua Rubin, clarinet ; Ross Karre, percussion – plays music by their mentor, Pauline Oliveros at Jack in Ft. Greene, free w/rsvp

5/18, 8 PM good twinbill: intense, piano-based, Aimee Mann-style literate chamber pop group Elizabeth & the Catapult followed by jaunty chamber pop band the Spring Standards at the Mercury, $12 adv tix rec

5/18, 8 PM oldtime Americana maven Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, who may well be the most talented multi-instrumetalist in all of NYC followed by ex-Dylan lead guitarist Larry Campbell with singer Teresa Williams at City Winery, $20 standing room avail. at City Winery, $20 standing room avail.

5/18, 8 PM “contemporary piano star Joseph Kubera performs the world premiere of Elliott Sharp’s Berlin Noir, the New York premieres of Christian Wolff’s Sailing By and Stuart Saunders Smith’s Thicket, as well as John King’s Piano Diaries, small gems by David Mahler, and perhaps some surprises” at Roulette, $20/$15 stud/srs

5/18, 8 PM terse, moody jazz trumpeter Avishai Cohen‘s Triven at Subculture, $20 adv tix rec

5/18, 8:15/9:30 PM powerful, intense bass clarinetist Todd Marcus and his large ensemble play the album release show for his spine-tingling, Middle Eastern-tinged, politically-fueled new one at Shapeshifter Lab

5/18, 11 PM spiky, irresisittibly fun Hawaiian swing with King Isto’s Tropical String Band at Pete’s

5/19, 7 PM not a music event but an important one New Topics in Social Computing: Resistance Under Surveillance with panelists Kade Crockford, Ingrid Burrington, Bina Ahmad and Raven Rakia, “Wwe will consider how surveillance impacts communities and public discourse, and the way that dissent can thrive in a world under watch. We will talk about the human lives affected by surveillance and policing, focusing on communities in NYC and elsewhere. In this panel we will discuss strategies and tactics for activists and offer critical perspectives on solutions.” at Eyebeam, 34 35th Street, Unit 26 (5th Floor), Brooklyn, free

5/19, 7 PM a new big band jazz summit to rival anything majestic and epic staged in NYC this year: the Nathan Parker Smith Ensemble + JC Sanford Orchestra + Asuka Kakitani Jazz Orchestra at Shapeshifter Lab, wow!

5/19, 7 PM pianist Mathis Picard and the Juilliard Jazz Trio play Strayhorn numbers at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, 104 E. 126th Sr, free

5/19, 7 PM Susan Mandel, cello and Mikael Darmanie, piano play a program TBA followed by clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

5/19, 2:30 PM Andrew Yeargin plays the vintage 1830 Appleton Organ on the balcony in the musical instruments section at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

5/19, 8 PM eerie, otherworldly, psychedelic Erik Satie reinventors Dan Willis & Velvet Gentlemen at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

5/19-24, 8/10 PM Aram Bajakian – Lou Reed’s last and arguably best lead guitarist – plays a weeklong stand at the Stone with a killer cast of characters, that you’d expect from the last great lead guitarist in Lou Reed’s band. Choice pick: late set, opening night, a Yusuf Lateef tribute with Sylvie Courvoisier on piano and Mat Maneri on viola, $15

5/19, 8 PM International Contemporary Ensemble and the JACK Quartet performi works from Jason Eckardt’s new CD “Subject” (Tzadik Records) and music of John Zorn, including the world premiere of Autumn Rhythm at Roulette, $20/$15 stud./srs

5/19, 9 PM the Bright Smoke (the French Exit’s Mia Wilson’s haunting, angst-ridden, atmospherically trippy new project)at the Cameo Gallery, $8

5/19, 9 PM adventurous, fun, quirky female-fronted psychedelic pop duo Robin’s Egg Blue at the Mercury, $10

5/20, 6 PM cross-pollinated Appalachian and Nepalese sounds with the Mountain Music Project feat. Tara Linhardt (mandolin) + Shyam Nepali (sarangi) + Rajendra Karn (percussion) at the Rubin Museum of Art, free

5/20, 7 PM violinist Meg Okura and the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble at Mariners’ Temple Baptist Church, 3 Henry St. on the LES, F to East Broadway, $25/$15 stud/srs

5/20, 9 PM two generations of NYC Balkan brass wildness; the hard-rocking  Tipsy Oxcart and the more eclectic but also more punk Hungry March Band at Matchless

5/20, 9 PM dark, diverse art-rock/noir cabaret/Nashville gothic/new wave/latin rock band Demur Demure at the small room at the Rockwood

5/21, 7 PM the NY Andalus Ensemble play slinky, rapt, otherworldly Jewish themes from Andalucia and North Africa in many languages at Elebash Hall at CUNY, 365 5 th Ave. north of 34 th St., $13.50/$10 stud/srs

5/21, 7 PM the Toomai String Quartet play new arrangements of traditional tunes from around the globe at Spectrum 

5/21, 7:30 PM Talea Ensemble and the Jack Quartet play works of whimsically innovative Austrian cult favorite composer Clemens Gadenstaetter at the Austrian Cultural Center, 11 E 52nd St , free but res req to acfny.org. A similiar program takes place on 5/28 at 8 at the Bohemian National Hall, 321 E 73rd St

5/21, 8 PM bizarre segues but a good night of music: the Carte Blanche Jazz Band play suave female-fronted continental jazz followed at 9 by Marta Hernández (aka Mar Salá) playing her acoustic flamenco rock and then eventually at 11 by NYC’s most intense, purist Peruvian cumbia-surf rockers, Moneco – who play all the classics by Juaneco, Los Destellos and other rare psychedelic treats – at the Way Station

5/21, 8 PM surf rock night (!!!) at Sidewalk of all places. Should sound good since none of these bands have vocals: ageless, jangly, purist NY originals the Supertones followed at 9 by the cinematic TarantinosNYC, the Insect Surfers at 10, and Empires of the Mind at 11

5/21, 8 PM Pierre de Gaillande’s Bad Reputation plays witty chamber pop English translations of Georges Brassens classics at Barbes

5/21, 8 PM intense acoustic art-rock/folk noir songwriter/chanteuse/force of nature Larkin Grimm at Uinon Hall, $10

5/21, 8 PM two rising star jazz chanteuses: bossa-inflected, subtle Rachel Brotman and bass-wielding, badass Kate Davis and their bands at Littlefield, $12

5/21, 8:30 PM Dervisi feat. guitar god Steve Antonakos play “exotic Greek gangsta blues” at Espresso 77, 35-57 77th Street, Jackson Hts., free.

5/21, 9 PM eerily playful, charismatic Nashville gothic/folk noir songstress Kelley Swindall at the Bitter End

5/21. 10:30 PM unfailingly tuneful tenor saxophonist Ken Fowser leads a quintet with Rick Germanson – piano , Willie Jones III – drums , Gerald Cannon – bass , Josh Bruneau – trumpet at Smalls

5/22, 7:30ish the habibi crooner that Bushwick’s idle classes have inexplicably adopted as their own, Omar Souleyman at le Poisson Rouge, $17 adv tix req

5/22, 7:30 PM Whitney George conducts a chamber sextet playing new works by George, Robert Paterson, Girolamo Deraco, Greg Pfeiffer, Steven Landis and Pat Muchmore at the South Oxford Space, 138 S Oxford St. in Ft. Greene, $10.

5/22, 7:30 PM pianist Vytautas Smetona plays works by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, and his own composition at the DiMenna Center, 450 West 37th St. $20 .

5/22, 8 PM Mariachi Flor de Toloache, NYC’s first and only all female mariachi band and Yianni Papastefanou, traditional Greek crooner with his orchestra; the two groups jam afterward at Flushing Town Hall, $15

5/22-23, 8 PM a six-pianist ensemble – Taka Kigawa, Jenny Lin, Laura Barger, Tania Tachova, Joseph Kubera and Ning Yu – play the world premiere of John King‘s expansive Piano Vectors at the equally spacious Knockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Ave, Maspeth, L to Jefferson St, $10, “Imagine the 6 pianists traveling through space and time, each at their own rate, compressing or stretching time in randomized and improvised ways.”

5/22, 8 PM Indian carnatic jazz violinist Arun Ramamurthy and his funky trio at the Way Station

5/22, 9 PM explosive guitar-fueled art-rock jamband Wounded Buffalo Theory at Rock Shop, $10

5/22, 9 PM a big jazzy twinbill: Dennis Lichtman’s western swing band Brain Cloud followed by oldtimey swing archive raiders/obscure treasure revivalists the Ghost Train Orchestra both playing the album release shows for their new ones at the Jalopy, $10 adv tix available at the venue

5/22, 10 PM searing, theatrical Romany/Balkan punk rockers Bad Buka – who are just as fun as Gogol Bordello – at the Delancey, $10

5/22. 10 PM catchy, amazingly eclectic indie classical/funk/Indian/klezmer cellist Dan Kassel at Pete’s. You gotta give props to a club who’d book a cellist for a 10 PM gig on a Friday night.

5/22, 10ish edgy, abrasively tuneful postpunk band Anwar Sadat at Palisades

5/22, 10 PM roots reggae group Royal Khaoz at Shrine

5/22, 10:30 PM dark, guitarishly intense punk blues band Penrose at Arlene’s, $10

5/22, 11 PM ferocious, guitar-driven Austin gutter blues/noir rockers the Sideshow Tragedy at the small room at the Rockwood

5/22, 11 PM hilarious faux-French rockers les Sans Culottes – whose new album Les Dieux Ont Soif is both great fun and potently relevant at the Bitter End

5/22, midnight psychedelic original Nuyorican salsa band La Mecanica Popular at Nublu

5/23, 1:30 PM lushly kinetic, eclectic, viola-driven Russian Romany/tango/cinematic instrumentalists Ljova & the Kontraband at the Queens Library in Flushing, 41-17 Main St, free

5/23, 6 PM a killer triplebill at Barbes: Que Vlo-Ve play classic Greek hash smoking music and criminal underworld narratives from the 20s and 30s followed at 8 by pianist Alejandro Zuleta and band, who reinvent cumbia classics with a jazz and classical tinge, and then at 10 cumbia dance group Chia’s Dance Party

5/23, 7 PM Chicago-style blues guitar monster Bobby Radcliff and his trio at Terra Blues

5/23,7 PM NYC’s most reliably adventurous string ensemble, the Mivos Quartet play NY premieres by Katherine Young and Richard Carrick plus works by Andrew Greenwald, Sam Nichols and Carl Kanter at the DiMenna Center, $15/$10 stud/srs

5/23, 7:30 PM the Prism  saxophone quartet play new works written for them by Julia Wolfe; Michael Daugherty; David Hertzberg; Emma O’Halloran, Viet Cuong and Jonathan Russell;, Kyle Bartlett; Solon Snider and Mark Macaluso, and Prism’s own Matthew Levy at Symphony Space, $

5/23, 7:30 PM Ukrainian composer/piano shredder Lubomyr Melnyk at le Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix req

5/23, 8 PM dark intense cult favorite lyrical rocker LJ Murphy and his unstoppable, blues and Stax/Volt-infused noir band the Accomplices at Sidewalk

5/23, 8 PM Marta Hernández (aka Mar Salá) plays her acoustic flamenco rock at Shrine

5/23 9 PM hypnotic, psychedelic south Asian/Balkan dance trance band Sandaraa followed by the reliably ferocious, fun Balkan madness of Raya Brass Band at Littlefield

5/23, 9 PM intense, exhilarating string trio Trio Tritticali – who are as sizzling on classic Egyptian themes as they are at chamber funk, classical or latin music – play tangos at Freddy’s

5/24, 6 PM edgy improviser Shayna Dulberger plays a rare solo bass set at Downtown Music Gallery

5/24, 7 PM kinetic jazz and avant garde-inspired postrock instrumentalists the Cellar & Point at he big room at the Rockwood. 5/29, 8:30 PM they’re at Spectrum

5/24, 8 PM atmospheric avant garde classical lutenist Jozef Van Wissem at Littlefield, $15

5/24, 9 PM intoxicating LA noir psychedelic soul band Chicano Batman at Brooklyn Bowl, $7

5/25, 7 PM wry, tuneful, eclectic Nashville gothic band Maynard & the Musties– sort of NYC’s answer to John Prine – at Cowgirl Seahorse, 259 Front St in the South St Seaport

5/25, 7 PM the surprisingly counterintuitive, intricate, sweepingly majestic Cecilia Coleman Big Band at the Garage

5/25, 8 PM the NY Philharmonic plays Beethoven’s Egmont Overture plus Shosatakovich’s intense Symphony No. 10 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, free, get there an hour early at least.

5/25, 9 PM jangly, anthemic, well-loved newgrass/chamber pop band Trampled by Turtles at Brooklyn Bowl, $25 adv tix rec

5/25, 9:30 PM Colombian bandleader Carolina Oliveros leads her group Bulla En El Barrio playing obscure cumbia and party classics at Barbes

5/26, 7:30 PM diverse European klezmer sounds with the Arnold Hammerschlag Group w/Sam Bardfeld, Wil Holshouser, Fima Ephron, and Aaron Alexander at the Steven Wise Free Synagogue, 30 W 68th St., $15

5/26, 6 PM ferocious, fearless, feral oldschool postbop tenor saxophonist Eric Wyatt leads a trio at the Garage. Happy hour crowd, look out. He’s also at Smalls at half past one in the morning the night of 5/30 (technically 5/31)

5/26, 6:30 PM torchy North Carolina newschool swing chanteuse/bandleader Bess McCrary fronts a solid quintet featuring noir guitar mastermind Al Street at the Cutting Room, $15 adv tix rec

5/26, 7:30 PM a show not to be missed: Bahaus bassist David J – as a songwriter, a noir icon in his own right – reads from his memoir Who Killed the Moonlight and then plays with this era’s greatest art-rock pianist, Botanica’s Paul Wallfisch at Joe’s Pub, $18

5/26-31, 8/10:30 PM lyrical jazz piano titan George Cables leads a trio at the Vanguard, $30

5/26, 8 PM reliably eclectic, meticulously compelling chamber group Mimesis Ensemble play an intriguing cross-centuries program including J.S. Bach: Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052; Mohammed Fairouz: Sadat, a ballet in 5 acts (NYC premiere]; Osvaldo Golijov: Last Round; Stravinsky: Concerto in Eb Major, “Dumbarton Oaks” at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, $tba

5/26-31, 8/10 PM iconic avant garde/jazz bassist Mark Dresser plays a weeklong stand at the Stone with a small arsenal of supporting players, $15. Choice pick: the early show on 5/27 with Myra Melford (piano) Matt Wilson (drums) , and the early show on 5/30, a duo with trombonist Roswell Rudd.

5/26, 8 PM Gerald Cleaver, Nels Cline and Larry Ochs improvise at Jack in Ft. Greente – sparks will fly at this one

5/26, 9 PM haunting, tersely introspective pianist/singer Noa Fort – who mashes up moody Middle Eastern sounds, classical and jazz improvisation at Caffe Vivaldi

5/26, 9 PM a rare duo show with Drina Seay – torchy Americana/soul/jazz siren who is to NYC now what Neko Case was to Portland in 1999 – with her sizzling guitarslinger pal Homeboy Steve Antonakos at Silvana

5/26, 9:30 PM the brass-fueled ten-piece Josh Evans Big Band at Smalls

5/26, 9ish Coeur de Pirate – pianist/singer Beatrice Martin’s torchy chamber pop/art-rock project – at le Poisson Rouge, $16 adv tix rec

5/27, 7:30 PM a monstrously good jazz triplebill: bassist Linda Oh‘s Sun Pictures with Ben Wendel (tenor sax), Ben Monder (guitar) and Justin Brown (drums); tenor man Donny McCaslin‘s Fast Future with Henry Hey (keyboards), Matt Clohesy (bass), Nate wood (drums) and then trombonist Ryan Keberle & Catharsis with Mike Rodriguez (trumpet), Camila Meza (voice), Jorge Roeder (bass), Jimmy MacBride (drums) at Subculture, $30 adv tix req

5/27, 8 PM International Contemporary Ensemble “explores music by composers who play in the nooks and crannies of musical tuning systems. Integrating phenomena such as beatings and pitch discrepancies inherent in instrument design, composers Larry Polansky, Peter Adriaansz, and Karola Obermueller” at the Abrons Arts Center on the LES, free w/ rsvp

5/27, 8:30 PM a killer Balkan night at Freddy’s starting with the Macedonian sounds of Odglasi, then that new Albanian band with Jenny Luna, Michael Winograd, Eylem Basaldi, Patrick Hay, Yoshie “Bud” Fruchter, Nezih Antakli and finally at around 11 Que Vlo-Ve playing classic Greek hash smoking music and criminal underworld narratives from the 20s and 30s

5/27, 9 PM smartly terse, pensive art-rock cellist/singer Patricia Santos plays the album release show for her new one at Max Cellar, 2 Knickerbocker Ave at Johnson Ave. in Bushwick, free, L to Morgan Ave.

5/28, 1 PM powerhouse contralto singer/vocal activist Melanie Demore plays every genre of African American folk music and rare 19 th century art-song as well as originals at Trinity Church, free

5/28, 6:30 PM a rare duo performance by Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura’s lustrously tuneful piano/trumpet duo Kaze at Downtown Music Gallery

5/28, 7 PM a special preview screening of the forthcoming Oscar-worthy docudrama the Stanford Prison Experiment, starring Billy Crudup as Dr. Philip Zimbardo – a recreation of the chilling 1972 psychological experiment replicationg a prison environment when all hell broke loose, at the at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave, Astoria, plus a Q&A with director Kyle Patrick Alvarez and Dr. Christina Maslach, wife of Zimbardo, credited with bringing the experiment to a halt.

5/28, 7 PM gutter blues/punk soul icons the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at Bowery Ballroom, $25

5/28, 7:30 PM an auspicious collaboration between two fiery, gamelanesque percussionists: Electric Junkyard Gamelan’s Terry Dame and Sexmob‘s Kenny Wollesen at Barbes

5/28, 8 PM explosive postrock/psychedelic/metal/art-rockers Eidetic Seeing at Bowery Electric, $5 adv tix rec.

5/28, 8/10 PM the Jazz Gallery’s pickup big band plays new music for large ensemble from a trio of solid composers: composers: Nathan Parker Smith, Tom Erickson and John Yao – $15 first set, $10 for the second

5/28, 8 PM intuitive, uneasily telepathic largescale improvisation: Primitive Arkestra premieres the second part, the improvised section of Theme and Variations by David Haney with Steve Swell: Trombone, Adam Lane: Bass, Jack de Salvo: Cello, Avram Fefer: Tenor Sax, Blaise Siwula: Bass Clarinet, Jeremy Shaskus, Bass Clarinet, David Haney: Piano, others TBA at the Firehouse Space, $10

5/28, 9 PM someday people will say this stuff was classic: wry, entertaining late 90s stye urban country with Uncle Leon‘s Honkytonk Relapse at Hank’s

5/28, 10 PM Gene Ween plays Billy Joel. Not a joke – ok, it is a joke, but it’s really happening, at Brooklyn Bowl, $15 adv tix rec. He’s also here on 5/31 doing the same shtick

5/28, 10:30 PM one of the best-loved of the original grasscore bands, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club at the Mercury, $12 adv tix rec. They’re at Rough Trade at 11 the following night, 5/29 for the same advance price

5/28. 111 PM creepy southwestern gothic/western swing crooner/honkytonk bandleader Sean Kershaw & the New Jack Ramblers at the Way Station

5/28, midnight not a joke – massive gospel jamband Jesus on the Mainline seem to think that they can all fit inside the small room at the Rockwood. Maybe they’ll leave the door open so you can hear them on the siadwalk.

5/29-30 an amazing two-night stand by cutting-edge, intense Middle Eastern guitarist Ayman Fanous, three sets a night at 7, 8:30 and 10 PM at the Firehouse Space, $10. Choice pick: the opening set, first night with Susan Alcorn on pedal steel.

5/29, 7 PM anthemic, kinetic, mathrock-inclined cello band Break of Reality at Highline Ballroom, $22 adv tix rec

5/29, 7:30 PM fiery postbop alto saxophonist/composer Hailey Niswanger plays the album release show for her new one PDX Jazz at Drom, $10 adv tix rec

5/29, 7:30 PM Glass Farm Ensemble presents new chamber works for violin, cello, clarinet, percussion and piano by Paula Matthusen, Mary Ellen Childs, Philip Hefti and Lars Werdenberg.at Symphony Space, $20

5/29, 8 PM boisterously funny oldschool 60s C&W and brooding southwestern gothic with the Jack Grace Band followed by the even more oldschool (i.e. 1930s-50s) C&W/blues band the Jug Addicts at Barbes

5/29, 8 PM the Funky Dawgz Brass Band play New Orleans second-line grooves at Shrine

5/29, 9 PM long-running, wickedly jangly, tuneful Americana rockers the Sloe Guns followed eventually at one in the morming (wee hours of 5/30) by cool, intense, Stooges-inspired psychechdelic/gutter blues band the Pale Green Stars at the Bitter End

5/29-30, 9/10:30 PM an unorthodox and probably raptly rewarding piano-bass duo show with Frank Kimbrough – the go-to guy for big band jazz piano in NYC – and bassist Jay Anderson at Mezzrow, $20

5/29, 10 PM a rare Feral Foster appearance beyond his Jalopy home turf, at the smalll room at the Rockwood

5/29, 10 PM the Doolittle Family playing their jangly mix of 60s Laurel Canyon psych-pop and country at Pete’s

5/30, 1:30 PM an afternoon of jazz with vocalist Kris Adams and pianist Doug Johnson with the Broken Reed Sax Quartet’s Charley Gerard sitting in on a few numbers, $20 includes make-your-own tacos and Mexican beer, at 99 Gold St. #1L (Front/York), Dumbo, F to York St., $20 at the door, kids free!

5/30, 5 PM pianist Jeffrey Siegel plays Bach, Beethoven, Paderewski, Gershwin at the DiMenna Center, 450 W 37th St., $5

5/30, 6 PM balmy, sardonically individualistic vocal jazz stylist Dorian Devins leads her “vocal /reedtet” with Tom Christensen – oboe, tenor sax; Lou Rainone – Fender Rhodes and Tom Hubbard – bass at the Whynot Jazz Room, $12. On 5/31 Devins is doing a 1 PM brunch show with her trio at Bar 9, 807 9th Ave

5/30, 7:30 PM the NY Composers Circle’s gala chamber concert this year features a whole slew of new works – feature the world premiere of the winner of its ninth annual composers’ competition, Vladimir del Orbe’s Contextual Enigma, for clarinet, double bass, and piano, plus three other world premieres: Emiko Hayashi’s End of Hot Summer, for soprano saxophone, vibraphone, piano, and bongos; Dary John Mizelle’s Baseball: Opening Day, for marimba and piano; and Robert S. Cohen’s Galapagos Suite, for marimba. In addition, the program will include Roger Blanc’s Mood Swings for Jazz Quartet, Tamara Cashour’s Queens Suite, for violin, viola, cello, and harp, Hubert Howe’s Inharmonic Fantasy, for electronics, and Madelyn Byrne’s First Flight, Early Spring, for flute and electronics in its New York premiere.at Symphony Space, $30/students free

5/30, 7:30/10 PM pianist Fred Hersch and alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon in a rare summit meeting of two of the most creative, erudite, surprising minds in jazz at the Jazz Standard, $30

5/30, 8 PM Syrian pianist Riyad Nicolas plays works by Chopin and Dia Al Succari at Alwan for the Arts in the financial district, $20/$15 stud/srs

5/30, 8ish alternately assaultive and plaintive punk classical/art-rock duo Naked Roots Conducive – violinist Natalia Steinbach and cellist Valerie Kuehne –at 1512 DeKalb Avenue #1R (Bedford/Skillman), G to Bedford-Nostrand if the train’s running this weekend

5/30, 8ish 5/30: twangy, wry oldschool country bandleader Andrew Sovine and friends at Hometown BBQ in Red Hook

5/30, 9 PM brilliant instrumental twang/surf band the Bakersfield Breakers at Route 66 Smokehouse, 46 Stone St. in the financial district, free

5/30, 9:30 PM high-voltage bluegrass with the Dark City Strings at Union Hall, $10

5/30, 10 PM Random Test play oldschool roots reggae at Shrine

5/30, 11:30 PM noie mastermind Karla Moheno’s irressistibly charming Andrews Sisters-inspired harmony trio the Tickled Pinks at the third stage at the Rockwood, $10 + $10 min strictly enforced

5/30, 11:30 PM a killer psychedelic funk twinbill: Mamarazzi followed by the Superpowers at the big room at the Rockwood

5/30, midnight a rare US appearance by Morocco’s Innove Gnawa Band at Nublu

5/31, 2:30 PM the Chinese Music Ensemble of NY plaus ancient Chinese classical as well as modern compositions on traditional Chinese instruments at Merkin Concert Hall, $25

5/31, 3 PM a performance of Gerald Cohen‘s harrowing, astringent Holocaust-themed opera Steal a Pencil For Me (based on the documentary film) at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W 16th St, $18

5/31, 6 PM Pablo Cafici: piano -Juan Pablo Navarro: double bass with special guests:Guillermo Klein: piano and Yotam Silberstein:guitar play new Argentine music at Spectrum

5/31, 7 PM a killer twang triplebill at the Jalopy: surf/twang instrumental rockers the Bakersfield Breakers – whose new album is a dead ringer for something from 1963, unbelievably cool and fun – followed by the Country Provisions Band and then Katie Brennan’s honkytonk crew the Bourbon Express playing the album release show for their excellent new one at the Jalopy, $10

5/31, 7 PM the Queensboro Symphony Orchestra plays a benefit concert for Nepal earthquake relief featuring Tchaikovsky’s monumental 5th symphony, Mozart’s Horn Concerto #3 (featuring Peter DelGrosso) and the Nepali national anthem arranged by Paul Joseph, at Mary’s Nativity Church, 46-02 Parsons Blvd. (at Holly Ave.), Flushing, just ten minutes on foot or by bus from the Flushing Ave. 7 train station. $20 sugg don, all proceeds to benefit Nepalese relief organizations

5/31, 7 PM cutting-edge, playful, acerbic vocalese-and-bass improvisation with the Velocity Duo: Lauren Lee and Charlie Sabatino at Downtown Music Galler

5/31, 7:30 PM irresistibly funny, smutty comedy-rock duo the Reformed Whores at Union Hall, $5

5/31, 8 PM ambitious, smart, noir-inclined tenor saxophonist Patrick Cornelius leads an octet including Fabian Almazan on piano and Peter Slavov on bass at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min.

5/31, 9 PM bewitchingly intense Americana/jazz/janglerock songwriter Erica Smith, rockabilly/honkytonk guitar maven Monica Passin and then wryly edgy, politically-fueled American Ambulance frontman Pete Cenedella headlining at around 11 at 2A

5/31, 9 PM Kingston roots reggae band the Nomaddz at Shrine

6/1, 7 PM the increasingly darker, more Americana-oriented, lyrically brilliant Linda Draper at the small room at the Rockwood. Noir guitar genius Jim Campilongo is there at 10 followed eventually at midnight by the similarly noir cult favorite piano jazz Dred Scott Trio, back at last!

6/1, 8 PM tuneful third-stream jazz pianist Laila Biali and her combo at Subculture, $15 adv tix rec

6/1, 9:30 PM a psychedeic cumbia summit with members of El Combo Chimbita and MAKU Soundsystem at Barbes

6/2, drinks at 5:30 PM, show at 6, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble with violinist Caroline Shaw play an all-Timo Andres program at the Miller Theatre, free

6/2, 7 PM smoldering Detroit noir soul band Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas at Baby’s All Right, $12

6/2, 7 PM Scarface – yeah, him, from the Geto Boys – at Red Hook Park, early arrival advised, watch your back and your brother’s back too

6/2-7, 8/10:30 PM powerhouse postbop trumpeter Terrell Stafford leads a quintet with Tim Warfield Jr-alro aZ., Bruce Barth-piano Peter Washington-bass, Billy Williams-drums at the Vanguard, $30

6/2, 7:30 PM traditional Yiddish song maven Itzik Gottesman & friends at the Steven Wise Free Synagogue, 30 W 68th St., $15

6/2-7, 8/10 PM iconic noir jazz saxophonist Roy Nathanson plays a weeklong stand at the Stone, $15. Too many good sets to list. Choice pick (get there early!!!): the 10 PM slot  opening night with the Jazz Passengers, and also the 10 PM slot on 6/3, a B3 organ quartet with Marc Ribot! Suddenly it’s like it’s 1999 again and Tonic hasn’t yet been bulldozed for a luxury highrise!

6/2, 8 PM the North/South Chamber Orchestra play new works by Oliver Caplan, Emma Lou Diemer, Eugene Marlow, Patricia Morehead and Margarita Zelenaia with oboist William Meredith and bassoonist Gilbert Dejean, at Christ and St Stephen’s Church, 120 West 69th St (bet Bway & Columbus, free

6/2, 8 PM the Highline Chamber Ensemble play a program TBA at Subculture, $25 adv tix req

6/2-3, 9:30 PM lyrical, intense tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger records a live album at 55 Bar with Jason Palmer – trumpet; ; Kim Cass – bass; Ian Froman – drums, $10

6/3, drinks at 5:30 PM, show at 6: Vicky Chow, piano; Jennifer Choi, violin; Michael Nicolas, cello play John Zorn trios at the Miller Theatre, free

6/3, 8 PM Intense, soaring singer/pianist Anna Winthrop, cellist Kirin McElwain and flutist Emma Davis play their individualistic, windswept, cinematic jazz-inflected art-rock at Drom, $10

6/3, 10 PM creepy noir chamberpop crooner Jon DeRosa – the missing link between Scott Walker and Mark Sinnis – at St. Vitus

6/3, 11 PM hypnotic, fun, psychedelic-as-hell art-rock/prog instrumentalists You Bred Raptors – Epileptic Peat on 8-string bass, Zach Schmidlein on drums and Bryan Wilson on cello at the Mercury, $12 adv tix rec

6/4, 2 PM-ish La La Brooks, former original lead singer of badgirl doo-wop legends the Crystals at a block party at 47-51 33rd St, Long Island City, free

6/4, 6-9 PM art-rocker Alexander Hacke‘s ecologically-themed soundtrack Transflexion: Net of Mirrors accompanies six visual artists’ projections at Made in NY Media Center, 30 John St, Dumbo, free. There will also be projections by other video artists screened outdoors at the corner of Anchorage and Pearl starting at dusk.

6/4-7, 7 PM with a 2 PM matinee on 6/7, drummer Eve Sicular and her exhilaring, multistylistic band Metropolitan Klezmer perform her ever-more-relevant, musically rich musical theatre piece J. Edgar Klezmer: Songs from My Grandmother’s FBI Files at Here, west of 6th Ave. past the park just south of Spring St.,, $25/20 stud/srs

6/4, 7 PM highly regarded highway rock and alt-country road warriors the Barr Bros. and the Felice Bros. at Red Hook Park, free

6/4, 10 PM the postpunk band that invented the genre, Wire at Bowery Ballroom, $25 gen adm

6/5, 7 PM hot oldtimey swing band Svetlana & the Delancey Five in front of the TKTS booth at Times Square – let’s show the tourists who runs this town, huh!

6/5, 8 PM melancholy acoustic Americana cover song specialists the Sad Bastards of Brooklyn – a Spanking Charlene side project – at Sidewalk

6/5, 9 PM hard-hitting female-fronted psychedelic guitar power trio Devi plays two sets at the Lincoln Inn, 13 Lincoln St. in Jersey City, free. Lead singer/guitarist Debra Devi will read from her hilarious Devil’s Dictionary of the blues, Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu in between sets http://www.devi-rock.com

6/5, 9;30 PM ageless, corrosively lyrical glamrock icon Ian Hunter at the Bell House, $30 adv tix req

6/6-7 create your own art posters from art materials and supplies available for everyone. the Black Lives Matter art show on Governor’s Island as part of the annual Figment art extravaganza there.

6/6, noon, free performances by avant improvisers including thingNY at the Grattan Street Performance Block Party at Bushwick Open Studios, Grattan St. between Bogart St. and Morgan Ave., L to Morgan Ave., with Oxygen Ensemble, Jeff Young’s Magical Kingdom of Dust, New Thread Quartet + Luke Schwarz, Naked Roots Conducive and Cacaw.

6/6. 3ish Moroccan trance-funk grooves with the Innove Gnawa Band outdoors at Union Pool, free

6/6, 3 PM-ish, Soviet Georgian music/dance ensemble the Dancing Crane Company perform rousing material from their native land and Ukraine on the Coney Island Boardwalk – where, just follow your ears

6/6, 4 PM-ish trumpeter Roy Hargrove and band at Central Park Summerstage. Get there early since the 90s opening act is popular.

6/6, 7 PM Mac McCarty & the Kidd Twist Band play their fiery, sometimes unexpectedly poignant Pogues-ish punk and folk noir at Sidewalk

6/6m 7PM the indie classical world’s go-to pianist, Lisa Moore, plays new works by Kate Moore (US premiere), Stephen Cabell (world premiere), John Luther Adams, and Chris Rogerson (NY premieres) at the DiMenna Center, $20

6/6, 8 PM former stars of Rodeo Bar, bassist Heidi Lieb’s trio  the Lonesome Prairie Dogs play all sorts of vintage C&W at the Way Station

6/6, 9ish a gathering of freedom fighters against gentrification with music by hilarious faux-French rockers les Sans Culottes and ska vets the Rocksteady 7 at Hank’s

6/6. 9 PM fiery, hyperliterate punk/powerpop alienation anthems with Hannah vs. the Many followed by a reunion of hilarious, sardonically careening glam/party band Haley Bowery & the Manimals at Rock Shop, $10

6/6, 10 PM a rare solo show by the sharp, wryly literate, amusing, John Prine-influenced Joe Maynard of Maynard & the Musties at Sidewalk

6/7, 5ish intense, eclectic, Middle Eastern-tinged afropop singer Angelique Kidjo at Central Park Summmerstage, best to get there at 3 when the gates open

6/7, 6ish oldschool soul crooner/Daptone rediscovery Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires at Corona Park in Queens

6/7, 7:30 PM kinetic vibraphone jazz trio (and David Bowie reinventors) the Wee Trio at Subculture, $15 adv tix rec

6/7-8, 9 PM southwestern gothic/desert psychedelia cult heroes Calexico at Bowery Ballroom, $25 gen adm

6/7 Canadian Indian musicians on their annual Red Ride Tour at the Cameo Gallery

6/8, 5:30 PM a seven-piece chamber ensemble from Music From China perform an eclectic mix of traditional Chinese and contemporary classical music, with Chen Yi’s CMA commissioned work “Three Dances from China South” along with traditional tunes on the upper terrace at Bryant Park, free

6/9, 5ish popular, occassionally haunting all-female oldtime Americana harmony trio Della Mae in the parking lot out back of City Winery, free

6/9, 6-9 PM the Museum Mile Festival with free admission at several institutions: he Metropolitan Museum of Art; Neue Galerie New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; National Academy Museum & School; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; The Jewish Museum; The Museum of the City of New York; El Museo del Barrio; and the Africa Center

6/9, 7:30 PM highwire klezmer violinist Lisa Gutkin and her Trio, w/tsimbl player Pete Rushefsky & Remy Yulzari at the Steven Wise Free Synagogue, 30 W 68th St., $15

6/9-14, 8/10:30 PM pianist Renee Rosnes leads an interesting quartet with Steve Nelson-vibes, Peter Washington-bass, Bill Stewart-drums at the Vanguard, $30

6/9, 9 PM intense, atmospheric Russian indie classical/art-rock keyboardist Olga Bell at Bowery Ballroom, $15 adv tix rec

6/9, 10 PM crystalline-voiced Portland, Maine acoustic Americana chanteuse Caroline Cotter – who moves seamlessly and compellingly between original New England front-porch folk, jaunty Prohibition swing, French chanson and oldtimey/bluegrass stylings – at the third room at the Rockwood, $10 + $10 drink minimum very strictly enforced

6/10, 9 PM Certain General guitarslinger Phil Gammage’s Adventures in Bluesland– whose material spans from Muddy Waters to Elvis to originals – play the album release show for their new one at Lucille’s Bar

6/9 hilarious faux-French garage/psychedelic rockers les Sans Culottes – whose new album Les Dieux Ont Soif is both great fun and potently relevant – at Drom

6/11, 7:30 PM, conversation moderated by filmmaker Warrington Hudlin with Rashid Johnson and blaxpliotation icon Melvin Van Peebles followed at 8 by a sreening of Johnson’s new film The New Black Yoga  at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival a must. After the screening, a performance by Melvin Van Peebles and his twisted soul band, Menage a Trio

6/11, 7:30 PM an all-Lukas Ligeti program of chamber works performed by Ligeti (drums), Daniel Blake (saxophone), Lorna Krier (synthesizer), Eyal Maoz and Grey McMurray (electric guitars), and special guests tba at the Austrian Cultural Center, 11 E 52nd St, free but res req to acfny.org. There’s a similar program at 5:30 PM on 6/14 at Roulette for $20/$15 stud/srs

6/11, 8 PM a League of Composers ensesmble led by conductors Louis Karchin and Scott Voyles perform a world premieres by Morris Rosenzweig, a U.S. premiere by Kaija Saariaho, a NY premiere by David Felder and Irving Fine’s twistedly immortal Notturno for Strings and Harp at the Miller Theatre, $20/$10 stud/srs

6/11, 9 PM irresistibly fun, psychedelic, period-perfect 60s sunshine pop revivalist Jacco Gardner at Rough Trade, $12 adv tix rec

6/12, 8 PM magical, ethereal, enveloping sound sculptures by Lesley Flanigan with additional vocalists Pamela Stein Lynde, Elizabeth Munn, and Pamela Martinez, utilizing Flanigan’s own custom-made speakers and mixers at Roulette

6/12, 8 PM compellingly low-key janglerock band and Hem spinoff Little Silver at Rock Shop, $10

6/12 Laura Cantrell – arguably this era’s most compelling, magically clear-voiced female oldschool country artist – at Bowery Electric

6/13. 7:30 PM panist Weiyin Chen plays Schubert’s G Major Sonata D. 894, the Bartok Sonata, and a world premiere by Marc Neikrug at Subculture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlMqRyPUpLE

6/13, 8:30 PM sardonically funny Beatlesque/Costelloesque powerpop songwriter Walter Ego at Sidewalk

6/13, 9ish check out this insanely awesome global klezmer/Balkan lineup: clarinetist Merlin Shepherd, Klezmer Kapelye, Psoy Korolenko (co-leader of Oy Division), Vanya Zhuk and then the mysterious “Billy’s band” at Paperbox in Bushwick, $18

6/13, 9 PM Moon Hooch – 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 – at Bowery Ballroom, $15

6/13, 10ish psychedelic, hard-hitting metal cumbia/skaragga/latin rockers Escarioka at Mehanata

6/13, 11 PM all-female UK lo-fi/punk/garage band Pins – sort of like the bastard child of the early Go Go’s and Wire – at Rough Trade, $12 adv tix rec

6/14, 2:30 PM it’s Choralfest at Symphony Space: a marathon of choirs including Angelica, C4 Choral Composer-Conductor Collective, Chameleonic, Connecticut Chamber Choir, Empire City Men’s Chorus, Ghostlight, Voices of Gotham, New Amsterdam Singers, Riverside Church Inspirational Choir, The Canticum Novum Singers, The New York Virtuoso Singers and Zamir Chorale sing works from across the centuries, free, early arrival advised.

6/14, 3 PM organist Stephen Rumpf and cellist Benjamin Larsen play Robert Sirota’s Easter Canticles at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 139 St. John’s Place, Park Slope, any train to Grand Army Plaza and walk downhill, free

6/14, 4 PM NYC’s only black bluegrass band – who also happen to be one of NYC’s best bluegrass and oldtime Americana crews – the Ebony Hillbillies at Betsy Head Park in Brooklyn

6/14, 8 PM smart, tuneful, soulful oldschool blues/soul singer/multi-instrumentalist Lola Johnson at Sidewalk

6/14, 9 PM the timeless Sun Ra Arkestra, with the timeless Marshall Allen and his freaky EWI horn – at Rough Trade, $18 adv tix rec

6/14 the Dorothy Parker of piano-based chamber pop: Dawn Oberg at Freddy’s.. 6/15 she’s at the Rockwood

6/14 state-of-the-art newschool psychedelia with the Middle Eastern-tinged Zola Jesus at Warsaw

6/15, 8 PM the world’s most adventurous indie classical string quintet, Sybarite5 at Bryant Park, free, as part of the Chamber Music America New Music Marathon

6/16, 7 PM Avremi Gourarie leads an allstar ensemble backing current-day cantorial and Yiddish singing stars Avraham Fried, Netanel Hershtik, Yanky Lemmer, Joseph Malovany, Lipa Schmeltzer and Zusha at Central Park Summerstage, order of acts unknown but it doesn’t really matter, they’re all good.

6/16, 7:30 PM dance leader Avia Moore, while colorful drummer Aaron Alexander leads his Klezmer Kapelye with Jordan Hirsch, Patty Farrell & the Workshop Klezmorim at the Steven Wise Free Synagogue, 30 W 68th St., $15

6/16-21, 8/10 PM crooner Theo Bleckmann plays a weeklong stand at the Stone with a variety of interesting projects., $15 Choice pick: the late set 6/19, a duo performance of old Weimar songs with pianist Rob Schwimmer.

6/16, 9 PM cinematic jazz saxophonist Joshua Kwassman leads his group playing the album release show for his new one at Subculture, $15

6/16, 9:30 PM a lush, intense album release show by chanteuse Chris McNulty and her all-star chamber jazz band – pianist John Di Martino, guitarist Paul Bollenback, bassist Ugonna Okegwo, drummer Matt Wilson – at 54 Below, 254 W 54th St, $25

6/16, 10 PM the explosively enveloping hard groove Colin Stetson/Sarah Neufeld duo at Bowery Ballroom, $15

6/17, 7 PM trombonist John Yao’s 17-Piece Instrument – one of the most distinctive and enjoyable large jazz ensembles out there – play the album release show for their new one at Shapeshifter Lab

6/17, 8 PM a rare Hungarian twinbill with two exhilarating Romany/folk/circus rock bands: Glass House Orchestra with trumpet legend Frank London & Muzsikás at the Skirball Ctr, 566 LaGuardia Pl. just south of the park, expensive ($36) but worth it.

6/18, 7 PM powerhouse organist Christopher Houlihan plays works by Bach, Brahms, Vierne and Leo Sowerby at the Church of the Holy Apostles, 296 9th Avenue at 28th St, sugg don

6/18, 7 PM the release concert for klezmer/Ukrainian music mavens Michael Alpert and Julian Kytasty‘s new album Night Songs from a Neighboring Village at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W 16th St, $15/$10 stud/srs

6/18, 7 PM in the spirit of Luther Wright’s bluegrass take on Pink Floyd’s The Wall, the Hillbenders play their droll but perfectly executed bluegrass version of the Who’s Tommy at the big room at the Rockwood, $12

6/18, 8 PM the NY Phil plays Stravinsky’s Petroushka plus works by Ravel, Berlioz and Saint-Saens on the lawn in Central Park, enter at 7 nd St. and Central Park West, free, get there early. The program repeats on 6/19 at 8 in Prospect Park

6/18-21, 8/10 PM octogenarian South African jazz piano legend Abdullah Ibrahim at the Blue Note, $30 standing room avail.

6/18 dynamic, cutting edge female-fronted Ashebville Americana band the Honeycutters – who bridge the gap between oldschool honkytonk and newgrass – at the big room at the Rockwood

6/19, 9 PM eclectic jam-oriented mostly-female klezmer/tango/jazz band Isle of Klezbos at Joe’s Pub, $18

6/19, 11 PM hypnotic, surrealistic Aussie psychedelic rockers King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard at Bowery Ballroom, $15

6/19 Gill Landry of Old Crow Medicine Show at the Mercury

6/20, 4 PM St. Thomas Church’s extraordinary organist and mussic director John Scott performs the program of works by J.S. Bach that  Felix Mendelssohn once played in 1840 at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, on his home turf at 53rd St./5th Ave, $10 sugg don

6/20, 5 PM pianist Enrique Graf plays music from Uruguay and Russia at the DiMenna Center, 450 W 37th St., $5

6/20, 7:30 PM rustic Brazilian rainforest nocturnes with Forro in the Dark at Prospect Park Bandshell

6/20, 8 PM Rachel Grimes of the Rachels plays haunting, creepy, historically rich songs off her new album The Lives of Hamilton Fish at Subculture, $15 adv tix rec

6/20, 8 PM long-rnnning, perennially tuneful janglerockers/powerpopsters Bubble followed eventually at 10 PM legendary/obscure 90s GBV-style dreampop band the Pineapples making a rare reunion appearance at the Knitting Factory, $10 adv ti rec

6/21, noonish the well-loved annual avant garde Bang on a Can Marathon at the World Financial Center, free, get there early if you want a seat.

6/21 a 90s ska triplebill on the Rocks Off Concerrt Cruise with Slow Children, the Voodoo Glow Skulls and Mephiskapheles aboard the Jewel, boarding at 7:30 PM, sailing at 8 PM from the pier behind the heliport at 23r d St. and the East River, $25 adv tix avail. at the office next door or the Highline Ballroom box ofc.

6/21, 8 PM the ageless, lefty king of the surf guitar, Dick Dale at Brooklyn Bowl, $25

6/22 ferociously funny, intense, guitar-fueled Americana punks Spanking Charlene at Bowery Electric

6/23, 7 PM Keith Gilyard and Greg Clark discuss moments in the history of jazz when musicians have used their art to address social problems and civic crises in the United States and beyond. These moments include two highly rhetorical musical stage shows: The Real Ambassadors, composed by Dave and Iola Brubeck and Louis Armstrong to critique the US State Department’s use of jazz as a propaganda tool in the Cold War, and Duke Ellington’s My People, composed to mark the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, as well other jazz works that do political critique. at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, 104 E. 126th St. just west of Lex, free

6/23, 7:30 PM the Knights play Schubert’s 5 German Dances, Arvo Part’s Tabula Rasa, Georgyi Ligeti’s Concert Romanesc, Zhou Long’s Chinese Folk Song Suite and Dvorak’s Czech Suite at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, free, early arrival advised

6/23, 8:30 PM art-rock/avant garde rocker Olga Bell‘s Krai project at South St. Seaport

6/23 low key but intense African-born acoustic groove songwriter/chanteuse Nneka at the Mercury

6/24, 7 PM Chris Potter’s well-liked Underground Orchestra – sort of the cooler prototype for acts like Snarky Puppy – at Madison Square Park

6/25, 7 PM adventurous indie classical violinist Sarah Plum performs works by Bartok as well as American composers Christopher Adler and Sidney Corbett at Spectrum, $15/$10 stud/srs

6/25, 7 PM the Lox – the 90s Yonkers hip-hop stars, not the nosh – at Corona Park in the Bronx

6/25, 7:30 PM two generations of Americana; banjo player/road warrior Jason Walker followed by Lucinda Williams at Prospect Park Bandshell

6/25-27, 8 PM experimental noiserock crew Open House play their new psychedelic Richard Brautigan-inspired sound/light piece at the Kitchen, $15

6/25 drumm Adam Rudolph’s strikingly tuneful, rumblingly improvisational Go Organic Orchestra at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music

6/26, 8 PM iconic Britfolk guitarist/bandleader/songwriting genius Richard Thompson – who put on a typically transcendent solo show in Newark last month – plays with his electric band at the Town Hall, $35 tix might still be available.

6/26, 9ish slinky, dub-influenced Balkan band Tipsy Oxcart at Red Hook Bait & Tackle

6/26, midnight newschool garage rockers the Mystery Lights followed by Ty Segall acoustic (why acoustic? Doesn’t his signature freakout attack pretty much require electricity?) at Rough Trade, $20 adv tix rec

6/26 vibaphonist Chris Dingman‘s luminous, hypnotic, gorgeously sweeping project the Subliminal & the Sublime play the album release show for their debut at the Greene Space (he wrote a cool theme that gets a lot of WNYC play, therefore the gig).

6/27, 3 PM dancehall reggae hitmakers: Massive B, Bobby Konders & Jabba, Bunji Garlin & Fay Ann Lyons, Gypgian and Maxi Priest at Central Park Summerstage, the line to get in might be out of control so take that into consideration

6/27, 6 PM Venezuelan ice cream rockers (ok, psychedelic, surfy, vallenato-influenced groovemeisters) Los Crema Paraiso and hilarious, kick-ass klezmer punks Golem (the Jewish Gogol Bordello) at South St. Seaport

6/28. 3 PM a Catalan triplebill at Central Park Summerstage: inscrutable chanteuse Sílvia Pérez Cruz, scruffy latin chamber pop band La Iaia and slyly catchy circus rock/reggae/Romany band Oques Grasses

6/29-30, 9ish the Melvins- you know them, right?  at Santos Party House, $20

6/30, 7:30 PM pianist Simone Dinnerstein and a pickup ensemble play John Adams’ Shaker Loops, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 23 in A and Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, free, early arrival advised

7/2, 7:30 PM high-energy, politically-fueled Mexican rockers Las Cafeteras at the Linclon Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

7/2 ex Bee & Flower bandleader/bassist Dana Schechter’s haunting, intense, grimly cinematic instrumental project Insect Ark play the album release show for their new one at St. Vitus

7/5, 7:30 PM  soaring, brilliant singer Magda Giannikou’s lush, sweeping, pan-Mediterranean art-rock/chamber pop/jazz group Banda Magda at Pier 1 on the upper west, free

7/7, 8 PM Yonder Mountain String Band at Brooklyn Bowl, $25, notice how their ticket prices have come down now they’re not playing Live Nation venues!

7/9, half past noon hypnotically spiky West African grooves with Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free

7/10, 10ish hypnotically undulating Israeli/Eastern European dancefloor grooves with Balkan Beat Box at Brooklyn Bowl $17 adv tix rec

7/10, 7 PM high-energy, sardonic, horn-fueled Argentine ska-punk band Los Autenticos Decadentes at Prospect Park Bandshell

7/11, 3 PM mighty horn-driven soul/circus rock band No Te Va Gustar, Ximena Sariñana – who does an unconvincing, suspiciously halfhearted corporate ranchera-rock thing – and meat-and-potatoes (carne y papas?) four-on-the-floor stadium rocker Vicentico at Central Park Summerstage

7/11, 8:30 PM newschool powerpop icons the New Pornographers at Prospect Park Bandshell

7/12, 3 PM a rare Cape Verdeab triplebill: Dino D’Santiago, Mayra Andrade and the Cesária Évora Orchestra at Central Park Summerstage

7/14, 7:30 PM a Boston Symphony Orchestra chamber ensemble plays Nielsen’s Wind Quintet plus works by Mozart and Brahms at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, free, early arrival advised

7/15, 7 PM the ageless George Clinton & his latest P-Funk incarnation at Queensbridge Park

7/15, 9 PM cleverly hilarious newschool honkytonk crooner Hayes Carll at Rough Trade, $20

7/16, half past noon George Clinton & P-Funk at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free. Never seen the funk legend before? Wanna save forty bucks and not have to deal with the crowds? This is your place.

7/16, 9:30 PM Malian desert rock guitar shredder Vieux Farka Toure at Prospect Park Bandshell

7/17, 7:30 PM the film Son of the Sheik with a live score by Alloy Orchestra and Ghost Train Orchestra at Prospect Park Bandshell

7/18, 7:30 PM cult favorite noirish crooner Joe Henry at Prospect Park Bandshell

7/18 period-perfect early 70s-style Aussie stoner art-rock/proto-metal band Mondo Drag at St. Vitus. You’ll think you’re at a Nektar concert

7/21, 7:30 PM the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra plays works by Haydn, Wagner and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, free, early arrival advised

7/22, 7 PM hypnotic, entrancing ghazal chanteuse/bandleader Kiran Ahluwalia at Madison Square Park

7/23, half past noon high-voltage Houston gospel-funk band the Jones Family Singers at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free

7/24, half past noon the magically haunting, soaring all-female Mariachi Flor de Toloache at Madison Square Park

7/25, 2-6 PM Rudy Bishop’s Young Acolytes Symphonic Steel Orchestra ccompany a Guyanese dance celebration at 2806 Newkirk Ave. between E. 28th and 29th St. in Flatbush, free

7/25, 5 PM Niger’s desert rock guitar powerhouse Bombino at Central Park Summerstage

7/25, 3 PM golden age hip-hop cult favorite Big Daddy Kane finally makes it to Central Park Summerstage after toiling year after year in parks all over Brownsville and Staten Island

7/26, 1-5 PM celebrate Eid al-Fitr with all sorts of cool music and tasty food at the 9th Annual Arab American Bazaar in Bay Ridge at Shore Road Park, use the entrance at 79th St. and Shore Rd.

7/29, half past noon the eclectic Balkan/latin/New Orleans Underground Horns at Madison Square Park

8/1, 4 PM the Night Tripper himself, Dr. John at Central Park Summerstage: get there when the doors open at 3.

8/1 third-wave ska/soul/blues cult favorites the Slackers play the Rocks Off Concerrt Cruise aboard the Nautical Express, boarding at 6 PM, sailing at 7 PM from Pier 36 – 299 South St,  $30 adv tix avail. at the Rocks Off office out behind the heliport at 23r d St. and the East River or the Highline Ballroom box ofc.

8/2, 3:30ish kitchen sink Brazilian/C&W/funk/New Orleans band Nation Beat‘s Carnival Caravan featuring Cha Wa and Nação Zumbi at Central Park Summerstage

8/4, 7 PM 80s salsa romantica nostalgia with Tito Nieves at East River Park

8/4, 7:30 PM the amazing East Coast Chamber Orchestra play works by Biber, Francesco Geminiani and Tschaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C major, at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, free, early arrival advised

8/4, 7:30 PM 80s hip-hop nostalgia with Kool Moe Dee, Rob Base, Biz Markie and Dr. Roxanne Shante at Wingate Field in Crown Heights, watch your back.

8/4, 11 PM Penelope Houston‘s recently revitalized, legendary first-wave punk band the Avengers play their first-ever Brooklyn show at the Bell House, $18 adv tix req., if this doesn’t sell out, something’s seriously wrong with this city

8/6, 9 PM the Thurston Moore band at Bowery Ballroom, $17 adv tix req

8/7, 8:30 PM recently resurgent 70s roots reggae vets Third World at Prospect Park Bandshell

8/9, 4 PM groovemistress/cellist/singer Marika Hughes & Bottom Heavy at East River Park

8/11, 7:30 PM reggae lite and dancehall hits with Maxi Priest and Gyptian at Wingate Field in Crown Heights, watch your back

8/18, 5ish the king of the literate, surrealist downtown NYC rock anthem, Willie Nile in the parking lot out back of City Winery, free

8/21, 9ish the Oliver Lake Big Band at Marcus Garvey Park

8/22, 3 PM the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival with saxophonist Camille Thurman, drummer/bandleader/personality  Jeff “Tain” Watts and B3 organ groove legend Dr Lonnie Smith at Marcus Garvey Park

8/23, 3 PM the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival with retro crooner Michael Mwenso, luminously lyrical pianist Myra Melford and pyrotechnic alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa‘s Parker tribute, Bird Calls at Tompkins Square Park

9/2, 7 PM this era’s state-of-the-art retro soul band, Lake Street Dive at Central Park Summerstage