New York City and Brooklyn Live Music Calendar for April and May 2016

Daily updates. There’s a comprehensive, recently updated list of places where these events 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 kind of music. Many different styles 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.

Thursdays through 5/26, 9ish soulful folk noir songwriter Holly Miranda at Hell Phone, 247 Varet St. in Bushwick. L to Morgan Ave., $10 or $15 incl. a download of her new ep.

On select Thursdays and Sundays, 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. Next up: 4/15 at 7, 4/17 at 4 Mozart and besides Mozart himself: Schumann, Albeniz, Bartok, Chopin. Waiting in the wings: Brahms, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky (!), Dvorak (!)

Sugg don $10 (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 7 PM multi-instrumentalist Dennis Lichtman’s popular western swing band Brain Cloud at Barbes followed at 9:30 PM by a variety of south-of-the-border-style bands playing cumbias, boogaloo, salsa, maybe all of the above.

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 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 at 9 PM erudite, purist torchy jazz chanteuse Svetlana & the Delancey 5 at the Back Room, 102 Norfolk St just north of Delancey St, free

Mondays at 10 noir guitar legend Jim Campilongo leads his trio at the big room at the Rockwood

Also Mondays in Mayl, Rev. Vince Anderson and his band play Union Pool in Williamsburg, two sets starting at 10:30 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. Paula Henderson from Burnt Sugar is the lead soloist on baritone sax, 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.

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.

Fridays and Saturdays at 5 PM adventurous indie classical string quartet Ethel plus frequent special guests playing a mix of classical and more contemporary mateiral at the balcony bar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

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 in May at 6 PM dark urbane Romany song maven (and Berthold Brecht descendant) Sanda Weigl and her band 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 at 3 PM at the Stone a rotating cast of familiar faces from John Zorn’s circle perform from Zorn’s characteristically exhaustive, marathon collection of 300 works titled Bagatelles, recently composed between March and May 2015. “Each concert will be introduced by John Zorn, often in conversation with the musicians,” $15

Sundays in May, 4 PM Triple Paste – new quintet with Eric Pakula on alto sax, Matt Darriau on clarinet and tenor, Katie Down on flute, vocals and ukulele, Matt Applebaum on guitar and Ray Parker on bass – play swing tunes from the 20’s and 30’s as well as some originals and new interpretations of Lenny Tristano works at Barbes

Sundays in May, 7 PM spine-tinglingm darkly mystical art-rock/avant-garde/chamber pop songwriter Carol Lipnik – pretty much everybody’s choice for best singer in all of NYC – at Pangea

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 at Barbes at around 9:30 PM paradigm-shifting Romany jazz guitarist Stephane Wrembel – who blends Django with ominous Pink Floyr art-rock and growling post-Velvets psychedelia.

4/1 5:30 PM purist, straightforward, warmly tuneful front-porch folk songwriter Joanna Sternberg at the American Folk Art Museum

4/1, 6:30 PM eerily playful, charismatic Nashville gothic/folk noir songstress Kelley Swindall at Lucille’s, $15

4/1, 7 PM sound sculptor Lesley Flanigan – who is a far more kinetic, fascinating performer to watch than her hypnotic work suggests – plays the album release show for her mesmerizing, labyrinthine new one, Hedera plus performances by C Spencer Yeh, Maria Chavez, and Nick Hallett + Daisy Press at National Sawdust

4/1, 8 PM torchy, lyrically smashing original female-fronted oldtimey swing crew the Fascinators at Sidewalk

4/1, 8 PM ex-Dylan lead guitarist Larry Campbell with singer Teresa Williams and guest Bill Payne of Little Feat on keys at City Winery, $20 standing room avail

4/1, 8 PM the Zentripetal violin/cello duo present a lively program of with guest artists Milica Paranosic and Mioi Takeda including premieres by composers Lee Hyla, Martin Phelps, Tomi Räisänen, and Ann Warren and duos by Milica Paranosic and Iannis Xenakis at the Firehouse Space, $10

4/1, 8:30/10:30 PM the sixteen-piece, accordion-spiced Gregorio Uribe Big Band play cumbia jazz at Ginny’s Supper Club, $20

4/1, 8:30 PM edgy duos with electric accordionist Andrea Parkins and violist Mat Maneri at I-Beam , $15

4/1, 9ish a now-rare NYC appearancse by legendary noir cabaret chanteuse Little Annie Bandez with Botanica piano mastermind Paul Wallfisch, plus 90s chamber pop favorite Blasco (of Blasco Ballroom), and haunting, dusky, jangly southwestern gothic rock band And the Wiremen at the Owl in Lefferts Gardens, $18

4/1, 9 PM sizzling twin-guitar paisley underground/psychedelic janglerock band Girls on Grass at Rock Shop, $10

4/1, 9 PM the fiery, noisy, enveloping organ-and-guitar-driven Parlor Walls (a Eula spinoff)at the Silent Barn, $8

4/1, 9 PM funny cover bands at the Gutter in Williamsburg, in reverse order: X Ray-Spanx (get it?) Amor Prohibido covering Selena, Doll Parts doing Dolly Parton. the Beastie Grrrls, Teen Whores playing Hole and Frances Farmer covering Nirvana

4/1-2, 9ish fuzztone garage rockers the Mystery Lights followed by hypnotic danceable Ethiopian-inspired sounds with Budos Band at Brooklyn Bowl, $20. 4/2 Budos Band are back with the awesome, magically haunting, soaring all-female Mariachi Flor de Toloache opening, same price

4/1, 9:30 PM former stars of Rodeo Bar, bassist Heidi Lieb’s trio  the Lonesome Prairie Dogs play all sorts of vintage C&W at the Shop in Bushwick

4/1, 10 PM this era’s most chillingly cinematic, shadowy reverbtoned noir guitar instrumentalists, Big Lazy at Barbes

4/1, 10 PM powerful Americana belter and Bobtown folk noir songwriter Karen Dahlstrom at the Jalopy, $10. If there’s any show tonight that can lure this blog away from Barbes, this is it.

4/1, 10 PM pensive chamber pop/art-rock chanteuse Basia Bulat and band at Bowery Ballroom $15 adv tix rec

4/1, 10:30 PM catchy Booker T-esque soul jazz with the David Gibson/Jared Gold, Hammond B3 organ band at the Fat Cat

4/1, 11 PM Certain General’s noir crooner/guitarslinger Phil Gammage leads his own quintet followed by unhinged, excellent ghoulabilly/noir punks the Omega Men at Otto’s. Gammage and band are also at Sidewalk on 4/14 at 8.

4/2, 5 PM Falu – widely considered the foremost interpeter of Hindustani classical vocalas in the US – and her band at the Brooklyn Museum, free w/museum adm.

4/2, 6 PM a live radio broadcast from Barbes with short sets from Brooklyn Raga Massive sitar mastermind Neel Murgai, sitar (from Raga Massive), Balkan haunters Sofie Salonika at 6:45, Carolina Oliveros’ Colombian cumbia party band Bulla En El Barrio at 7:30 and at 8:15 Moroccan trance grooes with Innov Gnawa, followed at 10 by epic ranchera/bolero brass crew Banda de los Muertos 

4/2, 6 PM songwriter Miwa Gemini – who’s just as adept at creepy southwestern gothic as she is at moody continental waltzes and paisley underground psychedelia – at the small room at the Rockwood

4/2,, 7:15ish dark psychedelic acoustic blues/klezmer/reggae/soca jamband Hazmat Modine at Terra Blues. They’re back here on 4/16, same time

4/2, 7:30 PM incomparable country/jazz/janglerock icon Amy Allison with Jon Graboff on lead guitar and Lee Feldman on piano at Dixon Place. Briliant new material! Devastatingly funny between-song banter!

4/2, 7;30 PM Elisabeth Marshall, soprano; Kate Maroney, mezzo soprano; Brandon Snook, tenor; Steven Eddy, baritone; Michael Brofman, Jocelyn Dueck, Miori Sugiyama, piano perform music of Brahms, Schumann, Virgil Thomson, Judith Wweir, Scott Wheeler and Ben Gunn at the Tenri Institute, $20/$15 stud srs

4/2, 8 PM torchy, intense, dramatically soaring pianist/songwriter Elaine Romanelli at the People’s Voice Cafe, $18, “no one turned away”

4/2, 8/10 PM hard-hitting, brass-fueled newschool latin soul/boogaloo dance band Spanglish Fly at SOB’s, $10

4/2, 8 PM clarinetist Eric Umble plays Berio and Messiaen; percussion/string ensemble the Rhythm Method play Sclesi and Zorn; Bunblebeee Percussion Duo plays Boulez at the Firehouse Space, $10

4/2, 8 PM two of Galicia’s leading musicians, guitar/vox duo Uxia & Narf at Roulette, $25

4/2, 8 PM new music ensembles Loadbang and the Mivos Quartet,play new works by up-and-coming Columbia University composers at Symphony Space, free

4/2, 8:30/10:30 PM ageless, elegantly jazzy electric blues guitarist Duke Robillard at Iridium, $27.50

4/2 Unsteady Freddie‘s monthly surf rock extravaganza at Otto’s begins at 9 with the Aquatudes, Blue Wave Theory at 10, kick-ass original third-wavers Tsunami of Sound at 11 and Fear City sometime around midnight.

4/2, 9 PM female-fronted power trio Castle Black – who veer between acidic Bush Tetras postpunk, stoner metal and more straight-up, sardonic punk – at Leftfield. They’re at Sidewalk on 4/5 at 10.

4/2, 9 PM legendary third-wave ska/soul/reggae/blues band the Slackers at the Bell House, $20

4/2, 9ish veteran carnivalesque Nashville gothic/noir pop songwriter Thomas Truax at the Owl in Lefferts Gardens, $10

4/2, 9 PM electric oldschool C&W/blues band the Jug Addicts at s at Bar Chord

4/2, 9 PM timeless freak-folk pioneer Kath Bloom at Troost

4/2, 9:30 PM hypnotic cello-and-marimba duo Goli at Caffe Vivaldi

4/2, 9:30 PM Osekre & the Lucky Bastards play African-tinged roots reggae and rocksteady at the Knitting Factory, $12 adv tix rec

4/2, 10 PM ferociously funny, intense, guitar-fueled Americana punks Spanking Charlene followed by garage rockers the Lord Calverts at Gussy’s Bar, $10

4/2, 10ish fiery, tuneful soul-punk rockers No Ice (a spinoff of the late, great Brooklyn What) at Aviv. 4/15, 8 PM they’re at Shrine for free

4/2, 10 PM sly, scampering circus rock/Appalachian gothic/psychedelic Americana band Fable Cry at Fat Baby. 4/3 they’re at Paperbox at 2 PM for free

4/2, 11 PM Sweet Megg & the Wayfarers play sassy oldtimey swing at the Manderley Bar, free

4/2, midnight the Nat Osborn Band – whose wry, cleverly lyrical New Orleans sounds come across somewhere in between Dr. John and Brother Joscephus – at t Rough Trade, $10 adv tix recs

4/3, 11 AM (i.e. before noon) Roman Rabinovich, piano plays works by Haydn, Schumann and Michael Brown at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center, $22 tix avail

4/3. 4 PM Boston-based vocal ensemble Blue Heron teams with the wind band Dark Horse Consort in a program of Spanish music from Seville’s 16th-century Golden Age at Corpus Christi Church, 529 W 121st St, $10 seats avail.

4/3, 4 PM dramatic British art-ballad/chamber pop chanteuse Tina Mali – Marianne Faithfull meets Kate Bush – at the small room ar the Rockwood

4/3, 4 PM violinists Juliette Kang and Che-Hung Chen, cellist Tom Kraines and pianist Natalie Zhu perform Beethoven’s String Trio in Cminor, op 9 no.3 and Brahms Quartet in A major op. 26 at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library, free, no under-sixes. rsvp reqd

4/3, 7:30 PM entrancing Moroccan sintir virftuoso Hassan Hakmoun – the James Brown of gnawa – with his band at Joe’s Pub, $20

4/3, 7:30/9:30 PM at the Jazz Standard, Ravi Coltrane leads a quintet with Ralph Alessi – trumpet Andrae Murchinson – trombone Glenn Zaleski – piano Dezron Douglas – bass Kush Abadey – drums $30

4/3, 8 PM violinist Michelle Painter leads a quartet playing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time at the Firehouse Space, $10

4/3, 8 PM haunting Turkish crooner Ahmet Erdogdular and Makam NY play dark, hypnotic Middle Eastern jams at Merkin Concert Hall, $28/$15s tud/srs

4/3, 8 PM high-energy oldschool soul/groove band the California Honeydrops at the Knitting Factory, $17 adv tix rec

4/3, midnight, brilliantly jangly paisley underground guitarist Dave Miller leads his band playing psychedelic instrumentals at the small room at the Rockwood. 4/6 he’s at Manhattan Inn in Greenpoint at 10.

4/4, 6:30 PM tuneful, purposeful up-and-coming jazz guitarist Dave Juarez with his trio at the Bar Next Door

4/4, 7:30 PM pianist Bruce Levingston premieres new socially conscious works including James Matheson’s Windows and Nolan Gasser’s An American Citizen and Repast: An Oratorio in Honor of Mr. Booker Wright at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall

4/4, 8 PM the self-explanatory Gypsy Jazz Caravan at Radegast Hall

4/4, 8 PM smartly bluesy, low-key, lyrical parlor pop songwriter/pianist Juliet Strong at Caffe Vivaldi

4/4, 8 PM the NYU Symphony plays Anna Clyne’s Masquerade; George Antheil’s Symphony No. 4; Jason Treuting’s oblique music for 4 plus (blank) at Symphony Space, free. They absolutely slayed with their versions of the suite from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring last time here.

4/4, 8 PM a benefit concert for P-Funk keyboard legend Bernie Worrell at Webster Hall with Bootsy Collins and filmmaker Jonathan Demme plus performances by George Clinton, Living Colour, Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads, Nona Hendryx, Meryl Streep, Rick Springfield (the one and only!), Bill Laswell with The Last Poets (Abiodun Oyewole, Umar Bin Hassan, Babatunde & special guests), Paul Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band, Fred Schneider of the B-52’s, and the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, $50, expensive, but all proceeds go to the Wizard of Woo in his battle to stay alive.

4/4, 9 PM intense female-fronted psychedelic/funk band Immuri at Bar Chord

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

4/4, 9:30 PM insightful, colorful, captivatingly theatrical chanteuse Gay Marshall performs Piaf classics – in the original French and in her own English translations, with an unusual mix of the iconic (La Vie en Rose and L’Accordeoniste) and the rare (Avec Ce Soleil and The Lady From Pigalle) with accompaniment by Ross Patterson at the Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd St, $25

4/5, 7:30 PM pianist Sahan Arzruni plays an all-Armenian program with works by Arno Babadjian Alan Hovhaness, Aram Kachaturian, Komitas Vardapet and Kara-Mourza at Merkin Concert Hall, $35 but worth it

4/5, 8/10 PM iconic klezmer/Balkan/jazz trumpeter Frank London leads a variety of ensembles at the Stone, $15. Choice pick: opening night, both sets with the Shekkina Big Band

4/5, 8 PM trumpeter Nicholas Payton and Nouveau Standards at le Poisson Rouge, $16 adv tix rec

4/5-6, 8 PM tonight must be serious trumpet night: Peter Evans/Levy Lorenzo/Jennifer Curtis/Tyshawn Sorey improvise electroacoustically at the Abrons Arts Center, free

4/5, 8:30 PM high-voltage Fela repertory band Chop & Quench at the Knitting Factory, $10

4/6, 7 PM dark, smart, edgy post-Velvet rock songwriter and former Band of Susans guitarist Anne Husick followed eventually at 10 by the captivatingly noisy, punk-informed, female-fronted power trio Castle Black at Sidewalk

4/6, 7:30 PM popular, enigmatic 90s trip-hop/chamber-pop songwriter Heather Nova at the Cutting Room, $22.50 adv tix rec

4/6, 7:30 PM lush but edgy original jazz chanteuse/songwriter Gracie Terzian – whose axe is the harp ukulele – at Club Bonafide, $15. 4/28 at 7 she’s at Leftfield

4/6, 8 PM Dolunay’s intense violinist Maya Shanker at LIC Bar

4/6, 8 PM psychedelic klezmer/bluegrass mandolin and clarinet legend Andy Statman at Barbes, $10

4/6, 9 PM a killer oldtimey Americana lineup at the Jalopy with Feral Foster‘s smart, purist, gloomy Americana , Willy Gantrim, Jackson Lynch and multi-instrumentalist oldtime blues powerhouse Blind Boy Paxton , free

4/6, 9 PM Dervisi feat. guitar god Steve Antonakos play “exotic Greek gangsta blues” at Troost in Greenpoint.They’re at Espresso 21m at Espresso 77, 35-57 77th Street, Jackson Hts on 4/21 at 8:30

4/6, 10 PM intense blue-eyed soul siren Lizzie & the Makers at the Bitter End, $8

4/6 pensive, purposeful, darkly minimalist jazz guitarist Ryan Dugre at the Manhattan Inn

4/6 violinist Francesca dePasquale performs works from her self-titled debut album alongside pianist Meng-Chieh Liu, including the New York premiere of Oceanic Fantasy by Paola Prestini.at National Sawdust

4/7, 1 PM the Enso String Quartet play works by Ginastera and Beethoven. inviting soprano Mellissa Hughes for Ginastera’s String Quartet No. 3 for soprano and string quartet at Trinity Church, free

4/7, 7 PM this era’s definitive cool jazz kitten, Karrin Allyson at the Greene Space, $30

4/7, 7 PM pianist Junko Ueno Garrett plays tangos, latin American themes and classical works TBA at Flushing Town Hall, free

4/7, coffee and dessert at 7:30 PM, show at 8,sharply lyrical, sometimes uproariously amusing purist janglerock songwriter Sharon Goldman and her band at First Acoustics House Concerts in Ditmas Park, $25, advance registration required

4/7, 7:30 9:30 PM big band jazz with a killer lineup: the Christopher Zuar Orchestra playing the album release show for their new one, Musings, at the Jazz Galllery, $15

4/7, 8 PM less incongruous a twinbill than it might seem on face value: dark, charismatic, mischieviously witty literate keyboardist/chanteuse Rachelle Garniez followed by boisterously funny oldschool 60s C&W and brooding southwestern gothic with the Jack Grace Band at Barbes. Intelligence is a common link; both have darkened over the years.

4/7, 8 PM long-running 90s alt-country favorites Rusty Truck at Hill Country, free

4/7, 8 PM composer/harpist Hannah Lash with the Mivos Quartet and Loadband playing a career retrospective at the Miller Theatre, $20 tix avail

4/7, 8:30 PM eclectic jam-oriented mostly-female klezmer/tango/jazz band Isle of Klezbos at the Jalopy, $15

4/7, 9ish cello provocatrice Valerie Kuehne followed by Swans drummer Phil Puleo joined by Cop Shoot Cop keyboardist Jim Coleman on hurdy-gurdy and Botanica keyboard monster Paul Wallfisch taking a very rare turn on bass.(he’s good) at the Owl in Lefferts Gardens, $10

4/7, 9 PM raucous southern roots/jamgrass/honkytonk band the Pine Hill Haints and the truly Legendary Shack Shakers doing their ghoulabilly and gutter blues at the Bell House, $15 adv tix rec

4/7, 9 PM oldtimey guitar wizard Ernie Vega.at the Jalopy Tavern (next door to the big venue), free

4/7, 9 PM 20s hot jazz revivalists Cait and the Critters at Radegast Hall

4/7, 9:30 PM, and 4/8 at 7, klezme clarinet powerhouse David Krakauer plays the album release shows for his new one Ancestral Groove with his electric band at National Sawdust

4/7, 10:30 PM tenor saxophonist Ken Fowser leads his killer postbop quartet at Smalls

4/8, 7 PM hilarious faux-French rockers les Sans Culottes – whose new album Les Dieux Ont Soif is both great fun and potently relevant – open forPenelope Houston‘s recently revitalized, legendary first-wave punk band the Avengers at Grand Victory, $20 adv tix a must

4/8, 8 PM torchy, riveting, erudite countrypolitan songwriter Drina Seay at Sidewalk

4/8, 8 PM Okkyung Lee leads an eleven-piece string orchestra with Ches Smith on percussion playing new works at Roulette, $20/$15 stud/srs

4/8, 8 PM oldschool Cuban hill country/son/bomba/salsa roots band Los Hacheros and psychedelic original Nuyorican salsa band La Mecanica Popular at Baby’s All Right, $10

4/8, 8 PM the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra play Mendelssohn works: Midummer Night’s Dream Overture, the Scottish Symphony ( No.3), and, the Violin Concerto with soloist Daniel Phillips at Symphony Space, $25

4/8, 8 PM the Dover Quartet play the first of Beethoven’s three Razumovsky quartets with Berg’s sole quartet and Dvorák’s “American,” in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall

4/8, 8 PM the NJ Symphony Orchestra play the Barber Violin Concerto with soloist Jennifer Frautsch plus Tschaikovsky’s Marche Slav and Symphony No. 4 at NJPAC in Newark, $20 tix avail

4/8, 8 PM pianist Geoffrey Burleson plays works by Saint-Saens, Yehudi Wyner, James Primosch, David Rakowski, Missy Mazzoli plus his own Powerhouse Passacaglia at Bargemusic, $35/$30 srs/$15 stud

4/8, 8:30 PM Turkish classical icons Erkan Ogur & Ismail Hakki Demircioglu play haunting, hypnotic, spiky instrumentals at Drom, $30 adv tix a must

4/8, 9ish enticingly enigmatic third-stream jazz chanteuse Joanna Wallfisch, edgy klezmer-driven Barbez guitarist Dan Kaufman and drummer John Bollinger playing a rare, characteristically psychedelic duo set followed by Molecular, an improvisational ensemble featuring Swans bassist Algis Kyzis, And the Wiremen bandleader/guitarist Lynn Wright and popular bassist Eric Eble riffing off the poetry of Enabler’s frontman Pete Simonelli at the Owl in Lefferts Gardens, $10

4/8, 10 PM hypnotic, psychedelic Moroccan trance grooves with Innov Gnawa at Barbes. Svetlana & the Eastern Blokhedz play their artsy take on kitschy Soviet pop from the 60s and 70s at 8.

4/8, 10 PM epic, sweeping, tuneful spacerock/art-rockers Sky Picnic at Matchless, $8

4/8, 10 PM crystalline-voiced, noir-tinged third-stream jazz chanteuse Tessa Souter and her band at 55 Bar

4/8-9, 10:30 PM erudite pianist Orrin Evans leads his group at Smalls

4/8, 10:30 PM melodic jazz bassist Mimi Jones leads her group at the Fat Cat

4/9, 7 PM brilliant, haunting Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh teams up with guitarist Erdem Helvacioglu to “explore the moods of a society under oppression.” Relevant, that’s for sure! At Spectrum, $15

4/9, 7 PM Chicago-style blues guitar monster Bobby Radcliff and his trio at Terra Blues

4/9, 8 PM pianist Lucian Ban and violist Mat Maneri’s tersely haunting Transylvanian jazz project at Barbes followed at 10 by awesome Israeli Ethiopiques groove instrumentalists Ambesa Orchestra, f.k.a. Lions 

4/9, 8 PM Gisela Tangui & the Voodoo Cabaret play their Santeria-inspired funk, roots reggae and Afrobeat jams at Sat Shrine

4/9, 8/10 PM purist oldschool Chicago-style blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker at Lucille’s, $10

4/9, 8/10 PM the American Contemporary Music Ensemble play works by Joseph Byrd, Julius Eastman, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and Charlemagne Palestine at the Kitchen, $15

4/9 8:30 PM Middle Eastern-flavored psychedelic jams with Spaghetti Eastern Music at Beast of Bourbon, note $10 cover

4/9, 9ish haunting Nashville gothic/ghoulabilly chanteuse/guitarsist Gemma Ray and the Patti Smith Group’s Lenny Kaye at the Owl in Lefferts Gardens, $10

4/9, 9 PM Catalina Shortwave play purposeful 70s style stoner boogie – who knew! – at Matchless, $10

4/9, 9 PM cinematic surf rockers the TarantinosNYC at the Way Station

4/9, 9 PM Mac McCarty & the Kidd Twist Band play their fiery, sometimes unexpectedly poignant Pogues-ish punk and folk noir at Sidewalk

4/9, 9:30 PM pyrotechnic alto sax player Mike DiRubbo leads a quartet at Club Bonafide, $20

4/9, 9:30 PM rising star pianist Gerald Clayton and vibraphonist Joel Ross at Mezzrow, $20 bar seats avail.

4/9, 10:30 PM haunting, intense, wickedly tuneful Nashville gothic songwriter Jessie Kilguss and her band at Arlene’s

4/10, 3 PM the Greenwich Village Orchestra play Mozart: Adagio and Rondo; Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor; Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5 “The Reformation” at Church of the Incarnation, 209 Madison Avenue, at the northeast corner of 35th St,, $20 sugg don., reception to follow

4/10, 4 PM chamber choir Kinnara Ensemble make its New York City debut with music by Gabrieli,Frank Martin, Schutz, Thompson, Elgar and Brahms at Christ Church United Methodist, 524 Park Ave, $25

4/10, 6 PM noir guitar twangmeister Jim Campilongo and band at 55 Bar.

4/10, 6:30 PM haphazardly edgy, Middle Eastern-tinged guitarist Yonatan Gat and band followed by brilliant klezmer reedman Matt Darriau’s Who Is Manny Blanc, a homage to the legendary/obscure LES psychedelic Jewish jazz/esoterica composer at Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street (between Imlay & Conover), Red Hook, $10

4/10, 7 PM a Nowrooz celebration with Amir Vahab and his Ensemble perform songs selected from the poetry of Sufi Masters Rumi, Hafez, Yunus Emre as well as classic folk tunes from different parts of Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan at Drom, $10 adv tix rec

4/10, 7 PM songwriter/chanteuse Greta Gertler, od lush, gorgeously orchestrated art-rock band the Universal Thump plus her fellow pensive chamber-pop tunesmith Alice Bierhorst at Barbes followed at 9:30 or so by paradigm-shifting Romany guitarist Stephane Wrembel

4/10, 7:30 PM state-of-the-art, intense, witty, politically fearless indie classical composer Mohammed Fairouz conducts the Mimesis Ensemble with Rachel Barton Pine in the New York premiere of his “Violin Concerto: Al-Andalus,” and “Pax Universalis” at NYU’s Skirball Center

4/10, 8ish British oi-punk legends Peter & the Test Tube Babies – maybe best known for their hilarious album of cheesy 80s Stock/Aitken/Waterman covers, The Shit Factory – at Grand Victory, $20 adv tix a must

4/10, 8:30/10:30 PM Olli Soikkeli, guitar; Koran Agan, guitar; Josh Kaye, guitar; Eduardo Belo, bass play Django Reinhardt classics at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

4/11, 7 PM lyrical jazz pianist Jim Ridl tickles the plastic on the Rhodes at 55 Bar

4/11, 7 PM this year’s MATA Festival of new music opens with Norwegian indie classical group Ensemble Neon playing new works by Andrew Norman, Pascal Dusapin and Jan St. Werner at Paula Cooper Gallery, 534 West 21st St, $25/$20 stud/srs,

4/11, 7:30 PM powerful Teutonic cabaret belter Ute Lemper & the Jasper Quartet play music of Kurt Weill at at Music Mondays, Advent/ Broadway Church, 2504 Broadway at 93rd St., free.

4/11, 7:30 PM the Spectrum Symphony celebrates the Alberto Ginastera centennial with works by Ginastera and Stavreva with special guest harpiest Melanie Genin at Broadway Presbyterian Church, 114th/Broadway, free

4/11, 9 PM good dark Americana guitar twinbill: Jack Grace followed by Jim Campilongo and his trio at the big room at the Rockwood. Grace is at Skinny Dennis at 9 on 4/27.

4/11, 10:30 PM brilliantly lyrical dark oldtimey songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Pete Lanctot and band at at Pine Box Rock Shop

4/11, 11 PM atmospheric avant garde classical lutenist Jozef Van Wissem at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec

4/12, 7 PM perennially invigorating string quartet Brooklyn Rider – a magnet for cool composers from across all genres – play new works by Dana Lyn, Aiofe O’Donovan Greg Saunier and others at National Sawdust, $25

4/12, 7 PM pianist Akiko Pavolka leads her trio followed by clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

4/12, eclectic, lyrical jazz bassist/composer Pedro Giraudo leads his big band, 7:30/9:30 PM at the Jazz Standard, $25

4/12, 8/10 PM clarinetist Andy Biskin leads a variety of ensembles at the Stone, $15. Choice pick: the clarinet quartet ealy set, opening night, with Peter Hess, Mike McGinnis, Sam Sadigursky

4/12, 8 PM the boisterous, oldtimey female-fronted Swingaroos at Radegast Hall

4/12, 8 PM day two of this year’s MATA Festival of new music continues with Norwegian indie classical ensemble group Ensemble Neon playing works Neil Luck, Alexander Kaiser,. Diego Jiménez Tamame, Jan Martin Smørdal, Seán Clancy and Matthew Welch at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave at 38th St., $25/$20 stud/srs,

4/12-13, 9 PM psychedelic janglerock cult favorites the Dandy Warhols at Bowery Ballroom, $30 adv tix rec

4/12, 9:30 PM edgy, noir-inspired bassist Michael Blanco leads a solid quartet with John Ellis, tenor sax; Lage Lund, guitar; Clarence Penn, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

4/12-13, 10ish legendary 70s British reggae icons Steel Pulse at Brooklyn Bowl, $25 adv tix a must

4/13, 7 PM Natasha Paremski, piano plays Brahms – Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35, Book I and II; Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110; Mussorgsky – Pictures At An Exhibition at the Bulgarian Consulate, 121 E 62nd St., free

4/13, 7:30 PM edgy, improvisationally-inclined indie string ensemble the Sirius Quartet plays the album release show for their new one at the Cell Theatre, 338 W 23rd St ,$15

4/13-17, 7:30/9:30 PM at the Jazz Standard, stellar multi-reedwoman Anat Cohen leads her mighty dectet, $30 ($35 on wknd). She’s back here 4/36-27 with her quartet playing the album release for her new one

4/13, 8 PM intense, paradigm-shifting Middle Eastern trumpeter Amir ElSaffar joins forces with Belgian saxophonist Fabrizo Cassol plus special guests at Barbes

4/13, 8 PM day three of this year’s MATA Festival of new music continues with Ensemble Linea playing works by Weijun Chen, Yair Klartag, Michelle Agnes Magalhaes’, Scott Wollschleger, Zeno Baldi, Arash Yazdani and Utku Asoruglu at National Sawdust,$25/$20 stud/srs,

4/13, 9 PM Algiers – who mash up creepy, explosively cinematic postpunk with noir soul and a fearless, confrontational anti-surveillance state political stance- at le Poisson Rouge, $15

4/13, 10 PM terse, tuneful rising star tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana leads her quartet at 55 Bar. 4/22-23, 10:30 PM she’s at Smalls

4/13, 10:30 PM cutting-edge B3 jazz organist Jared Gold leads his trio at Smalls

4/14, 1 PM Paavali Jumppanen, piano plays Beethoven sonatas at Trinity Church, free

4/14,

4/14, 8 PM agelessly soulful Armenian clarinetist Souren Baronian‘s Taksim followed at 10 by Daria Grace’s torchy, delightful oldtime uke swing band the Pre-War Ponies at Barbes

4/14, 6 PM the Parhelion Trio – Sarah Carrier, flute; Ashleé Miller, clarinet; Andrea Christie, piano – play works by Whitney George, Daniel Felsenfeld, Sunny Knable, Jennifer Higdon, and Philip Glass plus Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun by Claude Debussy at Cornelia St. Cafe, $9 includes a drink!.

4/14, 6:30 PM a tribute/benefit concert in memory of Sunny’s beloved proprietor Sunny Balzano at Pioneer Works in Red Hook with guitarists Smokey Hormel, Marc Ribot, John Pinamonti and others

4/14, 7 PM singer/guitatarist Mia Wilson’s haunting, blues-infused, angst-ridden, psychedelic project with brilliant lead guitarist Quincy Ledbetter, the Bright Smoke at the Mercury, $10

4/14, 7 PM Malian road warriors Songhoy Blues at le Poisson Rouge, $20

4/14, 7 PM a screening of filmmaker Holly Morris’ flawed but chilling post-nuclear disaster documentary “The Babushkas of Chernobyl”at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library, free, no under-sixes, early arrival a must

4/14, 8ish psychedelic cumbia band Yotoco, Erica Ramos’ funky latin soul project Fulaso and fearlessly populist NYC ska/latin rockers Karikatura at Bowery Electric

4/14, 8 PM guitarslinger Phil Gammage leads his rock quintet followed eventually at 10 by Red Gretchen – best known for their anguished Replacements/Niirvana anthems, although they’re even better at slowly undulating, doomy psychedelic/art-rock grooves – at Sidewalk

4/14, 8 PM Polish sound artist/compose Marek Chołoniewski and percussionist/improvisational conductor Adam Rudolph join forces to play music for strings and percussion at Roulette, $20/$15 stud/srs

4/14, 8 PM romping female-fronted continental swing band the Hot Sardines at Union Hall, $15

4/14, 8:30 PM Avia Moore & trumpet powerhouse Jordan Hirsch’s “Overnight Kugel” klezmer band at the Jalopy, $15

4/14, 8:30 PM socially aware, oldtimey-flavored Americana band 2/3 Goat at Hill Country, free

4/14, 8:30/10:30 PM rising star alto saxophonist/bandleader Lakecia Benjamin & Soul Squad mix it up with oldschool soul, funk and hip-hop influenced sounds at Ginny’s Supper Club, $15

4/14, 10 PM one of the year’s best triplebills at Drom: slinky, torchy, creepy female-fronted circus rock/noir cabaret band Egress, the blazing No Small Money Brass Band and then the intricate, intense, minor-key Balkan Cocek Brass Band playing the album release show for their new one, $10 adv tix rec

4/14, 10 PM ex-Crooked Still frontwoman and soaring Americana bandleader Aoife O’Donovan at Bowery Ballroom, $20 adv tix rec

4/14, 10:30 PM noir-inspired alto saxophonist/composer Nick Hempton leads his group at Smalls

4/14, midnight, NYC’s most haunting, torchily mysterious, lyrically brilliant noir/psychedelic/janglerock band Karla Rose & the Thorns at the big room at the Rockwood

4/15, 6 PM baglama lute player Ramzi El-Edlibi plays Turkish, Kurdish, and Armenian repertoire at gallery 456 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

4/15, 6 PM eclectic jazz singer/bandleader Annie Chen  leads her sextet at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

4/15, 8 PM pyrotechnic pianist/’songwriter/blues and ragtime maven Jack Spann plays the releaase show for his new art-rock record followed at 10 by exhilarating female-fronted heavy psychedelic Argentine-American rock band Desert Flower – with punk, blues, noiserock and 70s metal influences-and then at 11 by dazzlingly eclectic, enigmatic Canadian gothic bandleader Lorraine Leckie at Sidewalk

4/15, 8 PM playfully literate superduo Kill Henry Sugar – guitar/banjo mastermind Erik Della Penna and drummer Dean Sharenow – at Barbes followed at 10 by rustic oldschool cumbia group Chia’s Dance Party 

4/15, 8 PM Feral Foster‘s smart, purist, gloomy  Americana followed by Nashville gothic/ghoulabilly act the Bones of J.R. Jones playing the album release show for their new one at the Mercury, $10 adv tix rec

4/15, 8 PM day four of this year’s MATA Festival of new music continues with composer-performers Sabina Ahn, Nicolai Worsaae, Maxim Kolomiiets, Qian Zhon, Mátyás Wettl and Germán Alonso’ at Dixon Place, ,$25/$20 stud/srs,

4/15, 8:30 PM, repeating on 4/16 at 7:30, the Chelsea Symphony premiere Caroline Shaw — Entr’Acte and play the Mozart Bassoon and Oboe Concertos plus Stravinsky’s Pulcinella at St. Paul’s Church, 315 W 22nd St, $20 sugg don.

4/15, 9 PM exotic surf rock band the Vibro-jets – a Sea Devils spinoff – at Troost

4/15, 9 PM gritty LA gutter blues duo 7horse – the guys responsible for the hit A Friend with Weed – at Bowery Electric

4/15, 9 PM Daniel Carter, Vasko Dukovski, Stelios Mihas, Jeff Harshbarger and George Spanos join forces and improvise at Gallery MC, 549 W 52nd St., 8th fl., $10

4/15,10ish torchy singer Jennifer Charles’ haunting, atmospheric, cinematic art-rock band Elysian Fields at the Owl in Lefferts Gardens, $18

4/15, 10:30 PM tuneful postbop trombonist Steve Davis leads his quintet followed after midnight by ferocious, fearless, feral oldschool postbop tenor saxophonist Eric Wyatt and his combo. Davis is back on 4/16, same time

4/16, noon, the annual Queens Overground Jazz Festival with ten hours of free music, performers TBA at Flushing Town Hall

4/16, 5 PM rooftop performance by brilliant latin jazz drummer Bobby Sanabria’s Multiverse Big Bandp. across the street from the BMHC Lab (1301 Louis Nine Blvd.) then at 7 it’s a screening of The Girls in the Band (2011), a film chronicling the stories of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and at 8 the Stomp Society Swing Band playing swing music following the film screening, free

4/16, 5 PM pianist Jose Ramos Santana plays works by Beethoven, Villa-Lobos, and others at the DiMenna Center, $5

4/16, 7 PM cult favorite folksinger Eric Andersen sings from his most recent, Albert Camus-themed album at National Sawdust,, $25

4/16, 7:30/9:30 PM diverse, purist up-and-coming jazz chanteuse Brianna Thomas and her combo aat Ginny’s Supper Club $20

4/16, 8 PM Hossein Alizadeh and Pejman Hadadi play centuries’ worth of mystical Persian sounds at Roulette, expensive, $35, but worth it

4/16, 8 PM accordionist/chanteuse Kamala Sankaram’s hot surfy Bollywood project, Bombay Rickey followed at 10 by psychedelic, surfy, sweepingly cinematic, vallenato-influenced groovemeisters Los Crema Paraiso at Barbes

4/16, 8 PM devious, charismatic, subversive comedic songwriter Killy Dwyer followed followed eventually at 11 by edgy, eclectic, tuneful, smartly lyrical punk-jazz-inspired rock songwriter Mimi Oz at Sidewalk

4/16, 8 PM concluding night of this year’s MATA Festival of new music with indie classical group the Rhythm Method Quartet playing improvisationally-inclined works by Lula Romero, Helen Papaioannou, José Manuel Serrano, Edgar Guzmán, Ophir Ilzetzki and Emma O’Halloran at Dixon Place, ,$25/$20 stud/srs,

4/16, 8 PM the NYU Composers’ Collective play new works TBA at Provincetown Playhouse, 133 Macdougal, free

4/16, 8:30 the aptly named Ghost Ensemble play works by Stockhausen, Oliveros, Brown, Bulist, and others, at the Firehouse Space, $10

4/16, 8:30 PM energetic acoustic Veracruz-style folk-punk band Radio Jarocho at Branded Saloon

4/16, 9 PM in reverse order: wryly intense brass metal band Lowdown Brass Band, ferocious Balkan crew Raya Brass Band, and postrockers Great Circles.at Industry City Distillery, 33 35th St, 6th Floor, Sunset Park, R to 36th St, $12. Great Circles are at the Cobra Club in Bushwick at around 11 on the 24th., $8

4/16 9 PM creepy, noisy, funny hardcore punk band Sex Scheme, the Hot Solids and punk-metal band Elefantkiller at Hank’s, note $5 cover

4/16, 10ish lyrically-fueled electric folk noir band Leland Sundries at Freddy’s

4/17, 1 PM whirlwind electric punkgrass/honkytonk crew Demolition String Band play a free brunch show at Brooklyn Bowl

4/17, 5 PM the Attacca Quartet play Haydn’s Quartet in F major, op. 74 no. 2, Janacek’s Quartet No. 1, “Kreutzer Sonata,” and Beethoven’s Quartet No. 9, op. 59 no. 3., at the Stiefel Concert Hall at Mannes College of Music, 5th Ave/13th St., free, reception to folow

4/17, 6 PM soulful C&W singer Shelly Bhushan followed by darkly catchy folk noir band Little Embers at LIC Bar

4/17, 6 PM pensively intense violinist/singer Sarah Bernstein leads her quartet with Ron Stabinsky on piano, Stuart Popejoy on electric bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums.at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

4/17, 7 PM sophisticated, quirky, intense accordionist/chanteuse Jessica Fichot at Barbes folloed at 9:30 by Romany jazz/psychedelic rock guitar mastermind Stephane Wrembel at Barbes

4/17, 7:30 PM a rare NYC appearance by legendary songwriter/avant garde poet Shahyar Ghanbari – sort of the Leonard Cohen of Iran – at Drom, $30 adv tix a must

4/17, 8 PM creepy, lyrically brilliant noir chamber pop/murder ballad duo Charming Disaster at Pete’s

4/17, 8 PM dynamic honkytonk/newschool C&W band Holy Ghost Tent Revival at Union Hall, $10

4/17, 9 PM intense, fearlessly relevant Middle Eastern clarinetist Kinan Azmeh & City Band at National Sawdust, $25

4/17, 10:30 PM sweeping, swinging vibraphone jazz with the Behn Gillece and his quartet at Smalls

4/18, 7:30 PM wild, hypnotic bass saxophonist Colin Stetson leads an ensemble playing his new largescale piece Sorrow, a reimagining of Gorecki’s mystical, morose 3rd Symphony at le Poisson Rouge, $25 adv tix rec

4/18, 8 PM creepy noir chamber pop/murder ballad duo Charming Disaster headline their monthly, wickedly fun Murder Ballad Monday series at Branded Saloon, special guests include wih historically-inspired, richly tuneful, erudite singer/guitarist Elisa Flynn, , intense, wickedly tuneful Nashville gothic songwriter Jessie Kilguss and keyboardist/shortwave radio operator Steve Espinola

4/18, 8 PM the North/South Trio – Claudia Schaer, violin; Tomoko Fujita, cello; Max Lifchitz, piano play new piano triso by Brian Banks, Ofer Ben-Amots, Allan Crossman at Christ & St Stephen’s Church, 120 W 69th St(bet Bway & Columbus

4/18, 9ish vicious noiserock jamband the the Skull Practitioners– led by Steve Wynn sparring partner/genius guitarist Jason Victor at Grand Victory, $9

4/18, 9 PM NYC jazz legend and twin-reedman George Braith leads his group at the Fat Cat

4/19, 8 PM awesome new Middle Eastern-tinged surf rockers Hearing Things – Matt Bauder -saxophones, guitars; JP Schlegelmilch -organ/piano and Vinnie Sperrazza – drums. – followed at 9 by ten-piece Balkan/Duke Ellington brass band Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

4/19-24, 8/10 PM multi-reedman Ned Rothenberg plays with a variety of ensembles at the Stone, $15. Choice pick: tons of great sets, to choose. Opening night, early, a quintet with the Mivos Quartet and Rothenberg on clafinet, ought to hit the spot

4/19, 8 PM organist Johannes Lundgren and pianist Matthew Odell anchor a program of rare Viktor Ullmann vocal works, plus pieces by Zemlinsky and Eben sung by a first class cast including but not limited to Dominique Hellsten, Monica Niemi and others at St. Peter’s Church, 54th/Lex

4/19, 8 PM elegantly melodic pianist Sylvie Courvoisier leads herTrio w/ Drew Gress + Kenny Wollesen at Roulette, $20/$15 stud/srs

4/19, 8 PM wickedly catchy 60s-style Britpop/garage/psych rockers Aloud at Bowery Electric

4/19, 8/9:30 PM jazz chanteuse Allegra Levy – a welcome rarity in that she writes her own enigmatic, original songs – leads her sextet at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

4/19, 9 PM brilliant drummer/percussionist Willie Martinez & La Familia Sextet play classic salsa grooves at the Fat Cat

4/20, 7 PM an all-star cast: Frank London, Doug Wieselman, Mathias Kunzli, Kyle Sanna, Mick McAuley and Dana Lyn perform a live and mostly original klezmer-inspired score to “The Cohens and the Kellys”, a silent film about the Lower East Side in the early 20’s, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, a block north and west of Battery Park, $15

4/20, 7 PM inscrutable cool jazz chanteuse and clever lyricist Dorian Devins and her trio at Flute Midtown, 205 W 54th St,, free

4/20, 8 PM eclectic, atmospheric jazz violinist Tom Swafford‘s String Power at Barbes

4/20, 9 PM mighty roots reggae band (and Pink Floyd and Radiohead reinventors) the Easy Star All-Stars at Highline Ballroom, $20 adv tix a must. Highline, get it?

4/20, 9ish funky, psychedelic Ethiopiques band Nikhil P. Yerawadekar and Low Mentality followed by  followed by perennially fun second-wave Afrobeat dancefloor jamband Antibalas with special guest John Medeski at Brooklyn Bowl, $15 adv tix a must

4/20, 9 PM intense, piano-based, Aimee Mann-style literate chamber pop group Elizabeth & the Catapult at the Knitting Factory, $15

4/20, 9ish tersely tuneful guitarist Tom Csatari’s hauntingly cinematic, lushly sweeping Uncivilized large ensemble at Aviv

4/20, 9:30 PM bassist Adam Hopkins leads his sextet with Ed Rosenberg, tenor sax; Anna Webber, tenor sax; Josh Sinton, baritone sax, bass clarinet; Brandon Seabrook, guitar; Hank Roberts, cello; Devin Gray, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

4/20, 10:30 PM eclectic jazz/blues resonator guitarist Elizabeth Wise at Caffe Vivaldi

4/20, 11 PM amazingly multistylistic Maya Sharpe & her band play elegantly artsy, sometimes haunting trippy Romany-infused soul sounds at the small room at the Rockwood

4/21, 6 PM Rock al Garden and Chicha Radical play a benefit for Ecuadorian earthquake relief at SOB’s, $15. Please bring first aid supplies and nonperishable food if you can.

4/21, 7 PM haunting pan-Asian avant-jazz songstress/composer Jen Shyu debuts her latest dance collaboration at the Czech Center, 321 E 73rd St.

4/21, 7 PM iconic trumpeter Frank London teams up with Guy Barash and fiery guitarist Eyal Maoz to jam out rare Hungarian Jewish pre-Holodaust themes at the Whitebox Gallery, 329 Broome St, free

4/21, 7 PM innovative pastoral jazz guitarist/singer Becca Stevens and band at National Sawdust, $25s

4/21, 8 PM smart, lyrically vivid psychedelic chamber pop/art-rock singer Jennifer Hall at the small room at the Rockwood

4/21, 8 PM brilliant, jazz-inclined accordionist Victor Prieto’s Valinor Quartet followed by the  cinematic, amazingly eclectic International String Trio at Lucille’s, $10

4/21, 8 PM International Contemporary Ensemble play lay a “composer portrait” of electroacoustic composer Francesca Verunelli at the Miller Theatre, $20 seas avail

4/21, 8 PM eclectic, funky jazz/soul violinist Mazz Swift‘s Mazzmuse Breakdown feat. James Shipp at Greenwich House Music School, $15 incl. open bar!

4/21, 8:30 PM a powerhouse klezmer trio: violinist Jake Shulman-Ment, killer surf/metal guitarist Yoshie Fruchter & Klezmatics drummer Richie Barshay at the Jalopy, $15

4/21, 8:30 PM ambitious, smart, noir-inclined tenor sxophonist Patrick Cornelius with Jared Gold on organ at the Bar Next Door

4/21, 9 PM Sexmob – who’ve distinguished themselves with their noir jazz reinventions of Nino Rota Fellini soundtracks – at Rough Trade, $10 adv tix rec

4/21, 10 PM wild, noisy, genuinely Hendrixian virtuoso lead guitarist Viva DeConcini and her band at Union Hall ,$12

4/21, 10 PM legendary, politically fearless, fiery Ivory Coast roots reggae legend Alpha Blondy at B.B. King’s, $32.50 adv tix a must

4/21, 10 PM Boss Tenor play country and Jazz standards with Oscar Noriega (drums), Chris Speed(tenorsax, clarinet), Matt Pavolka (bass). Nate Radley (Guitar) and Jesse Quarrto (voice). $10 at Barbes

4/21, 11:30 PM elegant, spacious Chilean guitar-and-drums jazz duo Peregrinos with special guest, hip-hop cumbia artist Ana Tijoux at the big room at the Rockwood

4/22, 5:30 PM Beatlesque popsinger Jeff Litman, Clifford Westfall and Girls on Grass guitarist Barbara Endes, and Americana guitar genius Tom Clark at the American Folk Art Museum

4/22, 7:30 PM the Vaya! 63: Mambo Legends Orchestra at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, gegt there early

4/22, 7:30 PM the Mekaal Hasan Band play fiery Middle Eastern and south Asian art-rock at Joe’s Pub,, $17 adv tix rec

4/22, 7:30 PM solo piano by the darkly lyrical Fabian Almazan followed at 9 by the similar Kris Davis at the Jazz Gallery. She’s there at 8:15 on 4/23 in between the elegant Aaron Parks, who’s on at 7, and the briliantly tuneful Luis Perdomo headlining at 9, $22

4/22, 8 PM ethereal but intense cellist Janel Leppin (of Janel & Anthony) at C’Mon Everybody

4/22, 8 PM a reprise of a semi-legendary Sunny’s evening celebrating the twisted songwriting genius of Roger Miller, featuring Jalopy regulars Jackson Lynch, Jesse Quatro, Ernesto Gomez, Guy Sands, Morgan O’Kane and many more, free at 169 Spencer St. at Willoughby, G to Myrtle-Wilioughby

4/22, 8 PM fiery violinist Dana Lyn with Mick McAuley and Patrick Doocey play Irish traditional favorites at the Owl in Lefferts Gardens

4/22, 8 PM cellist Hank Roberts, singer Emilie Lesbros, violinist Sarah Bernstein impovise; pianist Angelica Sanches plays a solo set at 9 at the Firehouse Space, $10

4/22, 8 PM rustic Brazilian jungle sounds with Regional de NY followed at 10 by Supermambo – vibraphonist Felipe Fournier‘s tribute to Tito Puente, who got his start on that instrument – at Barbes

4/22, 9 PM the ska-punk Ladrones and bass goddess Felice Rosser’s psychedelic roots reggae/dub/soul project Faith at Bowery Electric

4/22. 8 PM wild, epic Afrobeat jamband the Brighton Beat at the Lively, 24th St/9th Ave.

4/22, 9 PM legendary CBGB era psychedelic/powerpop band Certain General warm up for their upcoming European tour at Sidewalk

4/22, 9ish the Machine plays Pink Floyd at Brooklyn Bowl, $15. Most cover bands suck but these guys absolutely nail the sound, and the textures, and have the daunting chops necessary to do this stuff.

4/22, 10 PM the Kenyatta Beasley Septet plays a Frank Foster tribute at BAM Cafe, free

4/22, 11 PM LA gutter blues band the Record Company at the Mercury, $12 adv tix rec

4/22, midnight, searing, theatrical Romany/Balkan punk rockers Bad Buka – who are just as fun as Gogol Bordello – at Drom, $10

4/23, 6 PM the Erik Satie Quartet – Ron Hay (trombone), Max Seigel (bass trombone), Ben Holmes (trumpet), and Andrew Hadro (bari sax) –reinvent classic and obscure Satie chamber pieces as well as rare compositions by his obscure contemporaries – followed at 8 by sultry retro Franco-American torch jazz/chamber pop/ukulele swing band les Chauds Lapins at Barbes

4/23, 7:30 PM ethereal, raptly haunting singer Sara Serpa leads her harmony-driven  City Fragments band with Aubrey Johnson and Kyoko Kitamura – voice; André Matos – guitar; Erik Friedlander – cello; Tyshawn Sorey – drums at the Cell Theatre, 38 W 23rd St,

4/23, 8 PM slinky, otherworldly oud/percussion duo Tareq Abdallah & Adel Shams El-Dinat Alwan for the Arts, $20/$15 stud/srs

4/23, 8 PM the darkly Middle Eastern flavored Nubian grooves of Alsarah & the Nubatones at Flushing Town Hall, $16

4/23, 8:30 PM intense, psychedelic, horn-driven latin soul crew Spanglish Fly at Subrosa, $10

4/23, 9 PM the soul-infused art-rock Nerissa Campbell Band featuring Gamelan Dharma Swara playing the album release show for her new one at le Poisson Rouge, $18 adv tix rec

4/23, 9 PM NYC’s most lyrically savage punk trio, Hannah vs. the Many followed by entertaining four-on-the-floor glam/party rockers Haley Bowery & the Manimals at the Way Station

4/23, 9 PM haunting dark Americana songwriter/belter Jessi Robertson followed eventually at 11 by PJ Harvey-esque power trio Rony’s Insomnia at Pine Box Rock Shop

4/23, 9:30 PM Tatters & Rags – who alternate between brooding C&W slowcore and fiery Neil/Crazy Horse anthems with a snarky Violent Femmes edge – play the album release show for their new one at Union Hall, $10

4/23, 9ish searing Radio Birdman garage-punk soundalikes the OBNIIIs at Shea Stadium, $12

4/23, 9ish psychedelic funk band the People’s Champs followed by this era’s default 4/20 party band, roots reggae vets John Brown’s Body at Brooklyn Bowl, $15 adv tix rec

4/23, 9/10:30 PM the irrepressibly virtuosic, fearless Jon Irabagon, tenor sax in what might be his best setting with a trio: Chris Lightcap, bass; Gerald Cleaver, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

4/23, 9 PM twangy altcountryAmericana/psychedelic crew American String Conspiracy at Freddy’s

4/24, 4 PM early music ensemble Quicksilver air out compositions from Bach’s Library at Corpus Christi Church, 529 W 121st St, $10 seats avail.

4/24, 7 PM rousing Irish Celtgrass band We Banjo 3 at the Cutting Room, $25

4/24, 6:30 PM the queen of otherworldly, exhilarating Romany ballads, Esma Redžepova & Folk Masters at le Poisson Rouge $20

4/24, 8 PM noir guitar legend Jim Campilongo leading an expansive five-piece band at Barbes

4/24, 8 PM quirky, cinematic J-Music Ensemble playing Japanese punk jazz followed by violinist Benjamin Sutin’s searing Romany/klezmer band Klazz-Ma-Tazz at Drom, $10

4/24, 8 PM eerily playful, charismatic Nashville gothic/folk noir songstress Kelley Swindall at Scratcher Bar on E 5th St

4/24, 9 PM unfailingly tuneful tenor saxophonist Ken Fowser leads his quintet at the Fat Cat

4/24, 10 PM Revolutionary Council play Afrobeat at Shrine

4/25, 8:30 PM soaring, rapturous jazz chanteuse Whitney James leads her trio at the Bar Next Door, $12

4/25, 6:30 PM intriguing,up-and-coming guitarist/songwriter Alicyn Yaffee – formerly of adventurous all-female jazz/art-rock band the Cave Women – at the Bar Next Door

4/25, 8 PM charming antique Appalachian folk duo Anna & Elizabeth at the Indonesian Consulate, 5 E 68th St, $20

4/25, 9 PM the imaginative Furmi Gomez String Quartet – who combine a sax duo with a string section – at Pete’s

4/25, 10ish ten-piece funky Balkan brass/Ellington jazz monsters Slavic Soul Party at Brooklyn Bowl, $8, two bucks cheaper than Barbes!

4/26, 7 PM the New York Composers Circle present a concert of new music featuring five world premieres with unorthodox instrumentation, by Scott D. Miller, Jacob E. Goodman, Kevin McCarter, David Picton and Eugene Marlow plus works by Nataliya Medvedovskaya, Frank Retzel, Jennifer Griffith and others; violinist Miranda Cuckson stars in the ensemble. At St. Peter’s Church, 54th/Lex, reception to follow, $20 sugg don.

4/26, 7:30 PM a rare bass-fronted large jazz ensemble (just like Mingus), the Ross Kratter Big Band at Club Bonafide, $15

4/26, 7:30 PM charmingly nuanced, erudite singer/pianist Champian Fulton – playing from her insightful, captivating new album of Dinah Washington tunes with bassist David Williams at Mezzrow, $20

4/26, 8 PM bluesy, darkly soulful belter Alexis Thomason and eclectic, individualistic parlor pop accordionist Mary Spencer Knapp at Hifi Bar

4/26-5/1, 8/10 PM multi-saxophone genius Scott Robinson takes over the Stone with a bunch of different groups. Choice pick: the early show, 4/29, check this out! Immensities for Large Instruments (Chamber Music Compositions by Scott Robinson) with Scott Robinson (bass & contrabass saxes, contrabass sarrusophone, bass tarogato etc.) Sharon Robinson (alto flute) Kevin Norton (bass marimba) Bohdan Hilash (bass & contrabass clarinets) David Gould (contrabass clarinet & basset horn) and others

4/26, 8 PM Pangari & the Socialites play classic ska, soul and rocksteady – most of it from the 60s Skatalites catalog – at Barbes

4/26, 8 PM darkly torchy oldtimey swing bandleader/chanteuse Heather Holloway & the Heebie Jeebies at Radegast Hall

4/26, 8/10 PM moody, cinematic, minimalist electroacoustic jazz/postrock trio Ergo play the album release for their new one As Subtle As Tomorrow at Cornelia St. Cafe, $$10 cover, $10 min

4/26, 8:30ish a killer loud rock twinbill: vicious noiserock jamband the the Skull Practitioners– led by Steve Wynn sparring partner/genius guitarist Jason Victor followed by ferocious reverb-driven noir garage rockers Twin Guns at Union Pool, $8

4/26, 10 PM brilliant drummer/percussionist Willie Martinez & La Familia Sextet play classic salsa grooves at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, $10

4/27, 6 PM cutting-edge improvisaitions with Japanese koto and shamisen player Sumie Kaneko at the Rubin Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

4/27, 9 PM gleefully ghoulish, psychedelically Lynchian noir cinematic instrumental jamband Beninghove’s Hangmen at Otto’s

4/27, 9 PM well-liked oldtimey Americana string band the Hackensaw Boys at Brooklyn Bowl, $12

4/27, 7 PM Daniela Mineva, piano plays L.V. Beethoven – Rondo in C Major; Debussy – Images, Book II; Messiaen – Preludes; Ivan Spassov – Piano Sonata No. 3; Alexandra Fol – Piano Etudes (world premiere) at the Bulgarian Consulate, 121 E 62nd St., free

4/27, 8 PM Middle Eastern and North African grooves and sizzling improvisations from the World String Trio – Brandon Terzic – oud and ngoni; Kane Mathis – kora and oud; Rufus Cappodocia – cello. at Barbes

4/27, 9:30 PM Kyle Nasser, tenor sax with Jeff Miles, guitar; Dov Manski, piano; Chris Van Voorst Van Beest, bass; Jason Nazary, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

4/27, 10 PM Laurie Anderson goes slumming at the Market Hotel in Bushwick, preceded on the bill by a couple of trendoids, $17.

4/28, 7 PM Sexmob’s Briggan Krauss, guitar (!) & alto saxophone; Sylvie Courvoisier, piano; Tom Rainey, drums improvise new elements at the Firehouse Space, $10

4/28, 7:30 PM sharply lyrical, Dylanesque, oldschool southern soul chanteuse Dina Rudeen followed by janglerock/powerpopsmith Don Piper at Hifi Bar

4/28, 7:30/9:30 PM tuneful, state-of-the-art bassist Linda Oh leads herf quartet with Ben Wendel – saxophone; Matt Stevens – guitar; Rudy Royston – drumsat the Jazz Gallery, $22

4/28, 8 PM auntingly atmospheric, hypnotic Korean-American composer/performer Bora Yoon and Andrew Nemr at Greenwich House Music School, $15 incl. open bar!

4/28, 8 PM devious oldschool C&W/rockabilly parodists Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. at Otto’s

4/28, 8 PM a solidly fun oldschool bluegrass twinbill with the Jon Stickley Trio and Dark City Strings at Union Hall, $10

4/28, 8 PM saxophonist Dave Anderson with a solid lineup: Tom Guarna-guitar; Pat Bianchi-organ; Matt Wilson-drums playing the album release show for their new one Blue Innuendo at Michiko Studios, 149 W 46th St, $15

4/28, 9ish oldtimey country blues hellraisers Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band at at Brooklyn Bowl, $15 adv tix rec

4/28, 10 PM wild Aegean and Balkan psychedelia: keyboard-fueled trio Choban Elektrik followed at 11 by explosive psychedelic rembetiko metal band Greek Judas at Barbes

4/28, 10 PM the Thurston Moore band at at Rough Trade, $20, get your tix now because the Sonic Youth guitarist always sells out here

4/28 Summer Cannibals – who mix sunbaked 70s proto-stoner vibe with punk and abrasive Sleater Kinney-ness – at the Market Hotel in Bushwick

4/28 Jamie Kilstein and the Agenda – the Joe Strummer of psychedelic funk – at Bowery Electric

4/29, 5 PM indie classical chamber group Ensemble Mise-En play a rare program of works by by Edison Denisov, one of the pioneers of the Russian avant-garde at the Bobst Library a.k.a. Suicide Central at NYU, free

4/29, 7 PM wickedly lyrical, warmly charismatic, edgy tunesmith/wordsmith Linda Draper plays the album release show for her most richly tuneful new one yet, Modern Day Decay at the big room at the Rockwood

4/29, 7:30 PM brilliantly eclectic Middle Eastern/Balkan chanteuse Shelley Thomas sings the cd release show for her new solo a-cappella album Joy at Gallery MC, 549 W. 52nd St., 8th Fl, $15 or $20 includes copy of the cd

4/29, 8 PM art-rocker Pierre de Gaillande’s Bad Reputation plays witty chamber pop English translations of Georges Brassens classics followed at 10 by eclectic, electric C&W/blues band the Jug Addicts at Barbes

4/29, 8 PM the kinetic, high-energy, rustic Saied Shanbehzadeh Ensemble play acoustic Persian Gulf trance music at Roulette, expensive, $35, but worth it

4/29, 8 PM guerrilla bluegrass hellraisers Hot Buttered Rum at the big room at the Rockwood, $18

4;29, 8 PM percussion and piano quartet Yarn/Wire perform Chiyoko Szlavnics’ Mind is Moving.;  Saskia Lankhoorn performs selections by Kate Moore from her recent ECM release Dances and Canons, and Hollerbrag play J. Alexander Brown’s Music for Double Bass, at Bric Arts, free

4/29, 8 PM two dark contemporary operas: Kenneth Fuchs’ Falling Man – based on the Don DeLillo post-9/11 novel – and Jeremy Beck’s Chappaquiddick-themed Black Water – based on the Joyce Carol Oates book – at Symphony Space, $30

4/29, 8:30 PM Americana rock guitar legend and former Lakeside Lounge honcho  Eric Ambel – of the Del-Lords and formerly with Steve Earle – followed by sardonically intense Americana punks Spanking Charlene at Berlin

4/29, 8:30 PM a Patti Smith cover night with an allstar lineup: the Bongos’ Richard Barone, Cait Brennan, Rony Corcos, Heather Eatman, Mamie Minch, Puma Perl, Dina Regine, Tammy Faye Starlight, Natti Vogel and others at Union Hall, $10

4/29-30, 8:30 PM cdllist Hank Roberts with a killer band: Gerald Cleaver – Drums; Mike McGinnis – Clarinet + Reeds; Brian Drye – Trombone; Dana Lyn – Violin; Jacob Sacks – Pianoat I-Beam, $15

4/29, 9 PM edgy female-fronted funk band Eliza & the Organix – feat. swirly alto sax player Kristen Tivey – at Freddy’s

4/29, 9:30 PM hilarious faux-French rockers les Sans Culottes – whose latest album Les Dieux Ont Soif is both great fun and potently relevant, garage rockers the Britemores and the mysteriously impossible-to-find Carvels at Hank’s, note $7 cover

4/29, 10 PM funky, lyrically intense dark folk jamband the Sometime Boys– with the riveting Sarah Mucho on vocals – at the Way Station

4/29, 10 PM long-running, wickedly jangly, tuneful Americana rockers the Sloe Guns at Desmond’s

4/29, 10ish smart, harmony-fueled female-fronted C&W jamband the Working Mothers at Branded Saloon

4/29, 11ish 90s hip-hop nostalgia with three of the more memorable, smart acts from the era: Black Moon, Smif N Wessun and Naughty by Nature at Stage 48, $20

4/29 a killer newschool/oldschool powerpop twinbill with Dany Laj & the Looks and the ageless, indomitable Paul Collins Beat at Cake Shop. 4/30 they’re at the Acheron at 9 with ferocious reverb-driven noir garage rockers Twin Guns for $10

4/29 Chicago chamber jazz improvisational trio Twin Talk –  Andrew Green (drums), Dustin Laurenzi (saxophone), and Katie Ernst (bass/vocals)  at Cornelia St. Cafe

4/30, 7:30 PM iconic country and parlor pop songwriter/chanteuse Amy Allison at Hifi Bar

4/30, 7:30 PM dynamic, intense, soaring Armenian jazz chaneuse Tatev & the Soundsketch at Drom, $10 adv tix rec

4/30, 8 PM badass resonator guitarist and delta blues/oldtime hillbilly music maven Mamie Minch & Her Business followed at 10 brilliant klezmer reedman Matt Darriau’s Who Is Manny Blanc, a homage to the legendary/obscure LES psychedelic Jewish jazz/esoterica composer at Barbes

4/30, 8 PM the perennially intense, tuneful godfather of edgy, lyrical, anthemic downtown NYC rock, Willie Nile plays the album release show for his new one World War Willie at City Winery, $28 standing room aval.

4/30, 8 PM Dan Finnerty’s hilarious, viciously sarcastic top 40 cover band the Dan Band at Highline Ballroom, $25

4/30, 8 PM badass harpist Bridget Kibbey performs Kaija Saariaho’s Fall; then joined by oboist James Austin Smith for Elliott Carter’s Trilogy. Also on the program: members of Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble and The M6 perform selections from Book of Days at Bric Arts, free

4/30, 9 PM multistylistically interesting violinist/composer Concetta Abbate plays her elegant keyboard-based chamber pop with a string quartet at Spectrum, $15

4/30, 9 PM deviously fun oldtimey swing guitarist/crooner Seth Kessel & the Two Cent Band at Skinny Dennis

4/30, 9/10:30 PM Marta Sanchez, piano with Jerome Sabbagh, tenor sax; Roman Filiu, alto sax; Martin Nevin, bass; Jason Birger, drums at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

4/30, 10 PM careening garage rock/Americana band Pale Green Stars at Black Bear Bar in Williamsburg

5/1, 2 PM composer Skip La Plante plays his epic new suite for thousands of chimes at Flushing Town Hall, free

5/1, 7 PM otherworldly, intensely lyrical post-PJ Harvey vocal powerhouse Jessi Robertson, similarly spellbimding folk noir songwriter Lara Ewen and edgy powerpop trio Rony’s Insomnia at Hell Phone in Bushwick

5/1, 8 PM Chinese Music Ensemble NY plays sweeping, lush orchestral themes at Merkin Concert Hall, $25/$15 stud/srs

5/2, 9ish intense, funky Indian brass bhangra band Red Baraat at at Brooklyn Bowl, $12 adv tix recs

5/3, 8 PM Klazztet (fiery klezmer/Eastern European jamband Klazz-Ma-Tazz acoustic) playing classic Balkan and Middle Eastern themes at t Jebon, 15 St. Marks Place, downstairs

5/3, 8 PM Mike Alfreds directs Jane Afnrield in The Tin Ring, a dramatization of Zdenka Fantlová’s harrowing Holocaust memoir, Q&A to follow, at the Czech Center, 321 E 73rd St.. free

5/4, 7 PM a screening of Murry Sidlin’s documentary Defiant Requiem, exploring the subversive performance of Verdi’s Requiem byconductor Rafael Schächter and his prisoner choir in the Terezín Concentration Camp, Q&A with the director to follow, at the Czech Center, 321 E 73rd St.. free

5/4 Jenny Lewis Lewis’ new band Nice as Fuck (NAF) with Au Revoir Simone’s Erika Forster and the Like’s Tennessee Thomas at Webster Hall

5/5, 7 PM the New York premiere of Murry Sidlin’s new multimedia concert-drama Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composers, showcasing music by fifteen composers imprisoned in Terezín in WWII, at the Czech Center, 321 E 73rd St.. free

5/5, 7:30 PM the Enso String Quartet play Beethoven: String Quartet in E-flat major (“Harp”) and Sibelius: String Quartet in D minor (“Voces intimae”) at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free

5/5, 8 PM deviously fun cabaret/chamber pop chanteuse Grace McLean sings selections from her forthcoming Hildegard Von Bingen opera In the Green at Greenwich House Music School, $15 incl. open bar!

5/5, 8 PM New York premieres of string orchestra works by Mexican composers Carlos Chavez, Leandro Espinosa, Max Lifchitz and Salvador Torre at Christ & St Stephen’s Church, 120 West 69th St, New York City (between Bway & Columbus)

5/6, 7:30 PM hypnotic, entrancing ghazal chanteuse/bandleader Kiran Ahluwalia at at Joe’s Pub, $20 adv tix rec

5/6, 8 PM the Cecilia Chorus of New York sing Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, $25 tix avail

5/6. 8:30 PM expertoy jazzy guitarist and alt-country pioineer Robbie Fulks at Union Hall, $15

5/6 haunting folk noir singer and bandleader Jessie Kilguss at Basement Bar in Bushwick with the Debutante Hour’s charmingly lyrical, quirky Susan Hwang and darkly intense parlor pop songwriter Peg Simone

5/6, 8 PM toy piano icon Phyllis Chen programs a theme night perusing “unusual spaces.” including two world premieres: Caccia by Jo Kondo, and a new original work, ceaturing Chen and the JACK Quartet. The JACK Quartet also perform John Luther Adams’ The Wind in High Places, plus bassoonist Rebekah Heller performing Nathan Davis’ On speaking a hundred names, and scientist/musician/instrument-builder Daniel Jodocy presenting his musical suitcases, at the Invisible Dog Arts Center, 51 Bergen St in Cobble Hill, F to Bergen St, free

5/7, 11 AM the haunting, magical, all-female Mariachi Flor de Toloache at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free

5/7, 2 PM Brooklyn’s original Balkan horn band, Hungry March Band play a Kentucky Derby show at the Bell House, $8 adv tix rec

5/7, 3 and 7 PM Parthenia, “New York’s premiere viol consort,” perform Semper Dowland, the complete Lachrimae collection of 1604 by John Dowland at the Vélez Blanco Patio at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

5/7, 5 PM a rare US performance by underground Belgian hip-hop artists L’Enfant Pavé and his Bongo Thugs bandmate Kaer Mig One and the Bronx’s own Circa ’95 at the BMHC Lab, 1303 Louis Nine Blvd. , Bronx, 2/5 to Freeman St

5/7, 8 PM the aggressively swirly psychedelic/noiserock/dreampop Aquadora, punk trio the Unknown Nobodies, enigmatically careening, intense female-fronted power trio Castle Black playing the single release show for their ferocious new one at 10 and the similarly excellent, anthemic, grittily 80s-tinged Dark Moon Apache at 11 at Matchless

5/7, 9 PM eclectic noir soul/psychedelic/parlor pop songwriter Karina Denike and glampunk band Phantom Fifth at Union Hall, $12

5/8, 7:30 PM violinist Martin Stoner and pianist Cullan Bryant play works by Debussy, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky at Merkin Concert Hall, $30 tix avail

5/8, 8 PM avant garde cult favorites the SEM Ensemble conducted by Petr Kotik, with Roscoe Mitchell on woodwinds plays world premieres by Mitchell, Lucie Vítková, and Kotik plus works by George Lewis, Cage, and Stockhausen at Willow Auditorium, 26 Willow Place (Joralemon/State), Brooklyn Heights, $20, reception to follow. The program repeats on 5/9 at 7 PM at Bohemian Hall, 321 E 73rd St.

5/9, 8 PM Kent Tritle leads the Oratorio Society of NY and soloists in the NY premiere of Merrryma’s Jonah and  Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (Mass in Difficult Times) at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, $25 seats avail.

5/7, 9/10:30 PM crystalline, enigmatically enchanting jazz singer and vocalese specialist Aubrey Johnson leads her eclectic band – Tomoko Omura (violin), Michael Sachs (sax/bass clarinet), Chris Ziemba (piano), Matt Aronoff (bass), and Jeremy Noller (drums) – at Cornelia St. Cafe, $10 + $10 min

5/9, 9 PM chamber Americana duo the Moon & You and Southern gothic troubadour Ole Fateful at Union Hall, $8

5/9, time TBA the extraordinary pianist Haskell Small – specialist in rapt, haunting, quiet music – plays a program including the the New York premiere of John Tavener’s St. Malachy’s – The Actor’s Chapel, 239 W 49th St. 5/10 at 8 PM he plays the Crypt at the Church of the Intercession. 550 W 155th

5/10, 7:30 PM bouncy, rustic, retro proto-salsa dance band Los Hacheros featuring Maite Hontelé at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free

5/10, 8 PM twin-piano group Ensemble Zofo play two-piano works by Terry Riley plus materilal by Katherine Balch and Dylan Mattingly along with work by David Lang and Urmas Sisask at the Kitchen, $15

5/10, 8 PM the New York Choral Society present Handel’s biblical oratorio Israel in Egypt under the baton of Music Director David Hayes at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium.$30 seats avail

5/10 UK psychedelic folk/art-rock legends the Strawbs at B.B. King’s

5/10 smartly tuneful, pensive newgrass/Americana songsmith Kelley McRae at the big room at the Rockwood

5/11, 8 PM Yarn/Wire’s composr portrait of Michael Gordon at the Miller Theatrr is sold out

5/11, midnight, perennially sinister ex-Cramps and Gun Club guitarist Kid Congo Powers & the Pink Monkey Birds play their noir cabaret-infused postpunk at s at the Bell House, $15

5/12, 7:30 PM cult favorite Americana soul songstress Dina Regine, Certain General guitarslinger Phil Gammage and dark post-Velvets songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Anne Husick in the round at Sidewalk

5/12, 7 PM the Attacca Quartet finish their Haydn Quartet cycle with Quartets Opus 1, No. 1; Opus 42; Opus 103; and Opus 76, No. 5 at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 3 W 65th St off Central Park, $20/students and seniors free

5/12, 8 PM ferocious, brilliantly lyrical punk/powerpop band Wormburner – probably the closest thing to the Jam the US has ever produced – at the Mercury, $10 adv tix rec

5/12, 8 PM gritty guitarist Mary Halvorson’s Thumbscrew trio with Michael Formanek and Tomas Fujiwara play the album release show for their new one Convallaria at Roulette

5/12, 9:30 PM George Crumb’s Black Angels : 13 Images From the Dark Land for electric string quartet performed by Ensemble LPR; scintillating soprano Daisy Press performs Favus Distillans from a song cycle based upon Hildegard von Bingen’s Chants to Saint Ursula; plus the the world premiere of Ricardo Romaneiro’s Nocturnal Suite, a multi-movement ethereal nocturne cycle with words and vocals by Hannah Sumner, performed by Ensemble LPR and special guest Sandbox Percussion, harpist Jacqui Kerrod, Ramin & Justin Abrams , and narrator Tom Schubert at House of Yes, 2 Wyckoff Ave. at Jefferson, Bushwick, J to Jefferson St., $20

5/12, 10:30 PM hypnotically epic newschool psychedelic band Frogbelly & Symphony at Rock Shop, $10

5/13. 6 PM intense Middle Eastern classical/jazz trumpeter Amir Elsaffar leads a small group at the   at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museuma adm. 5/28, 8 PM he’s with his Indian/Middle Eastern cross-pollination Rajas Project w/ Rajna Swaminathan (mridangam), Anjna Swaminathan (violin) Miles Okazaki (guitar), Maria Grand (tenor saxophone) at Alwan for the Arts, $20

5/13, 7 PM fronted by the young chanteuse considered widely to be the best in all of Indian music, Falu’s Bollywood Orchestra at the Rubin Museum of Art, $30

5/13, 7 PM catchy, fiery, female-fronted Above the Moon – like a more forceful take on Versus – at Leftfield

5/13, 8:30/10:30 PM ethereal, raptly haunting singer Sara Serpa with guitarist André Matos; Chris Cheek – saxophones; Chris Morrisey – bass at Cornelia St. Cafe.

5/13, 10 PM perennially vital, haunting film score mavens Morricone Youth and surf rock band Maui Hurricane at Union Hall, $10

5/13, 11 PM the feral, frenetic NY Gypsy Allstars play Turkish classics at Drom, $10 adv tix rec

5/14, 5 PM vibraphonist Stefon Harris with the United States Air Force’s “premier jazz ensemble,” the Airmen of Note followed by dirty Jerz hip-hop icons Naughty by Nature at Military Park, 51 Park Place in Newark, free

5/14 hypnotic, psychedelic pan-Asian ambient noise group FEN (Far East Network): Ryu Hankil (S. Korea), Yan Jun (China), and Yuen Chee Wai (Singapore) play two sets at the Japan Society, 333 E 47th St. (1/2 Aves): a standing-room show on the first floor at 7, then a seated set in the auditorium, $18 per set or $32 for the whole night

5/14, 8 PM intense, ferociously lyrical, politically fearless noir blues bandleader and showman LJ Murphy at Sidewalk followed at 9 by Mac McCarty & the Kidd Twist Band playing their fiery, sometimes unexpectedly poignant Pogues-ish punk and folk noir

5/14, 8 PM fiery klezmer/Balkan/Middle Eastern jamband Klazz-Ma-Tazz at Shrine

5/14, 8 PM NYC’s very own Javanese gamelan orchestra, Gamelan Kusuma Laras at Symphony Space

5/14, 8 PM Anna Sato and Shingo Maeyama perform the rare, hauningtly delicate folk music of Amami Island, Japan at Roulette, $25

5/15, 3 PM the Canticum Novum Singers and members of New York Virtuoso Singers perform Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, $25 tix avail

5/15, 4 PM gospel group Jubilation Choir with iconic soul singer Cissy Houston followed at 5:30 by popular 90s salsa romantica chanteuse La India at Military Park, 51 Park Place in Newark, free

5/16-17, 7:30 PM irrepressible newschool outlaw country songwriter Hayes Carll at Joe’s Pub, $25

5/17, 8 PM hilarious, guitarishly brilliant oldschool honkytonk/cowpunk band Trailer Radio play the album release show for their new one Country Girls Ain’t Cheap at Brother Jimmys BBQ at Union Square.

5/17, 8:30 PM the Satoko Fujii Orchestra – probably the best largescale improvising ensemble of the last 20 years – at I-Beam, $15

5/17. 7:30 PM ageless retro cabaret chanteuse Phoebe Legere followed by Texas blues road warriors the Fabulous Thunderbirds at B.B. Kings, $27.50 adv tix avail

5/18, 9ish arguably NYC’s most eclectic and dynamic singer Karla Rose – equally adept at new wave, noir cinematics, oldschool soul, Lynchian torch song and neo-Velvets janglerock – plays a rare, intimate solo acoustic show at Berlin

5/18 high-voltage original Ethio-funk crew Debo Band at Brooklyn Bowl

5/19, 7 PM popular West Virginia retro/newgrass Americana songwriter Dori Freeman at the big room at the Rockwood, $10

5/19, 8 PM whirlwind indie classsical marimba virtuoso Makoto Nakura and pianist Barbara Podgurski play works by Bach, Lane Harder, Philip Lasser and others at the Church-in-the-Gardens, 50 Ascan Ave, (Greenway/Burns) Forest Hills, E/F to 75th Ave., , $20, reception to follow

5/19 9 PM psychedelic swamp blues guitarist Daryl Hance (ex JJ Grey and Mofro) – sort of the missing link between Brian Jonestown Masscre & the Black Keys – at the small room at the Rockwood

5/20, 8 PM up-and-coming indie classical chamber group the RAM Players perform new works by David Fetherolf, Gilbert Galindo, Guy Barash, Ronnie Reshef and David Schober at the Secret Theatre in Long Island City, $20

5/21, 5 PM indie classical chamber group Exceptet play new works by Brian Petuch, Fay Wang, ­Brooks Fredrickson, Eric Shanfield, Brendon Randall-Myers and Alex Weiser at the Secret Theatre in Queens, $20

5/21, 7 PM Ifti Chowdhury & the Royal Bengali Tea House play their surreallistically kinetic Bangladeshi-Spanish musical fusion followed by the Feringhees performing cinematic Banghra rock and Indian folk-rock at the BMHC Lab, 1303 Louis Nine Blvd. , Bronx, 2/5 to Freeman St

5/22, 1 PM Iktus Percussion play new works by Philip Schuessler, Mikel Kuehn, Erin Rogers and Hiroya Miura at the Secret Theatre in Long Island City, $20. There’s also a 5 PM program featuring the Switch Ensemble playing electroacoustic pieces by Chris Chandler, Lisa Streich, Clay Mettens, Santiago Diez-Fischer, Anthony Vine and Alexander Schubert, same price

5/22, 3 PM the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony play Mozart’s Concerto for Flute no 1 in G major, K. 313 with flutist Petra Rivero, Elgar’s Cello Concerto with cellist Inbal Segev and Mendelssohn’s Symphony no 3 in A minor, Op. 56 “Scottish” at All Saints Church, 60th St. west of First Ave, $20 sugg don

5/23, 8 PM pianist Marilyn Nonken with chamber ensemble Sound Icon revisit Gerard Grisey’s rarely performed horizontal music classic Vox Temporum plus works by Grisey-inspired composes Richard Carrick, Nina C. Young, Christopher Trapani, Marcos Balter, Victoria Cheah, Brian Erickson, and Edmund Campion at Roulette, $20 adv tix rec.

5/23, 8 PM the DaCapo Chamber Players perform works by Marc Mellits, Valerie Coleman, Joan Bower, George Tsontakis, Tania Leon and Steven Albert at Merkin Concert Hall, $20/$10 stu/srs

5/24, 8 PM Sonos Chamber Orchestra play works by Sibelius, Paul Moravec, Alexander Brott, Pehr Henrik Nordgren, Alice Ping-Yee Ho, Fredrik Sixten and Jessie Montgomery, at Merkin Concert Hall, $30/$20 stud/sts

5/25, 8 PM catchy minimalist bassist and new wave songwriter Palehound at Baby’s All Right

5/26, 10 PM 90s surf/trashrock favorites Southern Culture on the Skids at the Bell House, $17 adv tix rec

5/29, 8 PM spellbinding, dynamic jazz chanteuse Stephanie Layton – of the Tickled Pinks – at Caffe Vivaldi

5/30, get there early (like 4 PM) the NY Philharmonic play Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, free

6/3, 9 PM enigmatically careening, intense female-fronted power trio Castle Black  at Leftfield. 6/14 they’re at Bowery Electric

6/5, 7 PM S ethereal, raptly haunting singer Sara Serpa and tersely lyrical guitarist André Matos play a rare duo show at the Rockwood

6/13, 6 PM Yemeni singer and oud player Abdulrahman AlAkhfash plays a rarely-heard program of solo traditional music at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museuma adm

6/13, 7:30 PM the Big Sing at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, free: Kent Tritle hosts 300+ NYC singers from at least a dozen first-class choirs performing favorites including “Dona nobis pacem” from Bach’s Mass in B Minor, the central movement of Brahm’s German Requiem, “He Watching Over Israel” from Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and more, full list of artists here

6/15, 8:30 PM moody, kinetically cinematic third-stream pianist Romain Collin leads his trio at Iridium

6/16, 8 PM Lost Dog New Music Ensemble with Sarah Joy Miller, soprano play a program of works by dark Danish composer Per Norgard at Scandinavia House, 37th St./Park Ave., $20

6/17, 8 PM the Momenta Quartet play four US premieres by a program of works by dark Danish composer Per Norgard at Scandinavia House, 37th St./Park Ave., $20

6/18, 8 PM the Momenta Quartet with speicial guests perfom a program of larger-scale chamber works including four US premieres by by dark Danish composer Per Norgard at Scandinavia House, 37th St./Park Ave., $20

6/18 the annual Porchstomp acoustic Americana festival on Governors Island

6/19 Punk Island on Governors Island

6/21, 5 PM Philip Glass plays his Etudes for piano at Pier 1 in Riverside Park

6/21, 5 PM International Contemporary Ensemble plays works by Mario Davidofsky and Ginastera at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park

6/22 “America’s filthiest country singer” Wheeler Walker Jr. – OMFG, he makes David Allen Coe look like a pussy – at the Mercury

7/30 The Bells: A Daylong Celebration of Lou Reed all day at Lincoln Center, program and artists TBA

Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith Haunt the Met Breuer with a Spare, Judicious Duo Show

Last night at the Met Breuer (formerly known as the Whitney), Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith played ECM noir. For those who don’t follow jazz improvisation, ECM is the venerable German label devoted to the spare, classically-influenced kind, and these two have a new album, A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke, out from them. It doesn’t swing: it marinates. And what a marinade the state-of-the-art pianist and iconic trumpeter came up with in front of a sold-out crowd that rewarded them with a couple of standing ovations.

That marinade had acerbity and spice, and if you buy the metaphor, astringency, but also a persistent unease that often drifted into ominousness and desolation. According to Iyer, they drew significantly on the spare, meticulously miniamlistc work of Nasreen Mohamedi currently on display at the museum, which is where the Metropolitan Museum of Art has decided to stash their modern collection. The chemistry and cameraderie between the two players was comfortable to the point of joyous restraint. Each musician played with economy, Iyer with a chilly, airconditioned judiciousness, otherworldly Messiaenic harmonies, bell tones and an incessant, stygian pedalpoint that he finally took into the upper registers. For someone so direct, transparent and dedicated to getting the max out of the min, Smith employed a surprising amount of extended technique, from valve-shivering harmonics to ghostly wisps of breath.

This being a duo improvisation, there was all sorts of repartee, but ultimately the conversation wound down to “I’ve got your back.” Each anchored the other when he’d go out on a limb, Smith often providing calm, steady half-notes while Iyer clustered or insistently chiseled out space, Iyer providing moody reflecting pools and upper-register penlight illumination when Smith would fire off a series of flurries. Including the encore, there seemed to be six discrete pieces, most of them following a segue. Each segment followed a steady series of upward and downward arcs, Smith using his mute when the shadows grew longest, Iyer switching back and forth between piano and Rhodes as well as a mini-synth and mixer which he used for distant atmospherics and, finally, a persistent, looping rhythm. In the end, they came full circle, back to Iyer’s high/low, troubled/guardedly optimistic dialectics, Smith hovering with a magisterial warmth overhead.

And as if to say to the crowd, “You’ve earned it,” the encore was more still, and minimalistic, and rapt than anything they’d done  to that point – but also prayerful and ultimately hopeful. At the end, Smith went way up high for a fleeting two-note phrase and then immediately looked to Iyer with a we-got-it grin. Iyer sat motionless, holding down the keys: he wasn’t going to give anything away until its time. It made for an unexpectedly amusing ending to broodingly rapt night. Iyer and Smith are embarking on a US tour; dates are here.

The Legendary Shack Shakers Bring Their Expertly Menacing Party to the Bell House

The Legendary Shack Shakers are at the peak of their long career in creepy, sometimes macabre, cynical Americana party music. Frontman JD Wilkes has never sounded more in command of the dark side of every roots rock style ever invented: ghoulabilly, southwestern gothic, garage rock, punk and blues. They’re one of the few bands alive who can match the offhandedly savage minor-key intensity of Australian legends Radio Birdman. a band they often resemble. They’ve been hitting New York regularly over the last couple of years; their next gig is a headline slot at the Bell House on April 7. Raucous southern roots/jamgrass/honkytonk band the Pine Hill Haints open the night at 9; $15 advance tix, available at the venue box office, are your best bet.

The Shack Shakers’ latest album is The Southern Surreal, out from Jello Biafra’s label, Altenative Tentacles and streaming at Spotify. The first track, Mud, is a scampering, banjo-driven ghoulgrass shuffle. Its funniest number is Misamerica. 60s noir garage as Stiv Bators would have done it circa 1979, or Radio Birdman at three-quarter speed. “Bloody lipstick all over her teeth…the queen of idiocracy…from the party line to the tv screen,” Wilkes intones.

Cold, a loping gothic cowboy ballad, wouldn’t be out of place in the Mark Sinnis catalog; then guitarist Rod Hamdallah fires off a Birdman riff as the chorus kicks in. Gloomy lyrics soar over snarling Stonesy guitars on The One That Got Away, which looks back to a classic Grateful Dead anthem. Let the Dead Bury the Dead blends tongue-in-cheek noir cabaret and punked out Tex-Mex, while Young Heart, Old Soul represents the lighter side of the band, a carefree, stomping ska number, like the Slackers with distorted guitars

Fool’s Tooth, a brief blues vamp with honking harmonica sets things up for Down to the Bone, a southern psych-soul vamp. They really mix things up here: Christ Almighty, a lickety-split update on the Yardbirds or early Pretty Things, gets followed by Demon Rum, a snidely nonchalant honkytonk piano number.

Buzzard & the Bell, by drummer Chris Whitacre, makes a creepy shuffle out of a 1920s style Greek gangster tune, like Greek Judas in English. The album closes with a similarly menacing, slinky take of the Albert King blues classic Born Under a Bad Sign. The tracks are punctuated by fragmentary, sardonic samples including a really grisly roadkill story.

Their 2003 album Cockadoodledont also got a welcome reissue recently and is up at Spotify as well. Its first track, Pinetree Boogie is dirtier than the Yardbirds but tighter than, say, Knoxville Girls. The swamp-rock CB Song offers a darker take on a silly novelty genre. Help Me From My Brain spices frantic World Inferno circus-rock with eerie Romany and Balkan riffs

Shakerag Holler welds a slyly shuffling oldtimey blues to a split-second detour into hardcore punk. Hunkerdown bounces along on a familiar Doors riff, while Clodhopper goes in a sardonic jug band direction. Bullfrog Blues mashes up Radio Birdman and an Otis Rush classic, with more of that honking blues harp.

Blood on the Bluegrass foreshadows punkgrass bands like the Devil Makes Three. Devil’s Night Auction is your basic rockabilly dressed up in a flickering Halloween costume. Wild Wild Lover offers a nod to the haphazard shuffles of the early Gun Club, while the cover of Slim Harpo’s ShakeYour Hips improves on the Stones version, although it’s not as feral as Randi Russo’s. The album winds up with the punkabilly Hoptown Jailbreak It’s good to see this back in print: you will probably get some of both albums and a lot more in Gowanus on the 7th.

Jen Shyu Debuts Her Spellbinding, Relevant New Suite at Roulette

Ultimately, Jen Shyu‘s mission is to break down cultural barriers and unite people. In her own work, the singer/multi-instrumentalist has assimilated an astonishing number of styles, both from her heritage – Taiwan and East Timor – as well as from Korea, Indonesia, China and the United States, among other places around the world. Last night at Roulette she celebrated her birthday by unveiling a bracingly dynamic, otherworldly surrealistic, envelopingly beautiful new suite, Song of Silver Geese, a characteristically multilingual work combining the strings of the Mivos Quartet as well as vibraphonist Chris Dingman’s Jade Tongue ensemble with violist Mat Maneri, bassist Thomas Morgan, drummer Dan Weiss and flutist Anna Webber.

Shyu opened with a series of judicious plucks on her Korean gayageum lute, then switched to piano, Taiwanese moon lute and eventually a small Indonesian gong. Throughout the roughly hourlong piece, dancer Satoshi Haga struck dramatic poses when he wasn’t moving furtively or tiptoeing in the background when the music reached a lull.

The storyline, according to the program notes, involves the interaction between two characters from Timorese and Korean folklore, both known for their disguises, in addition to an iconic Taiwanese freedom fighter and a Javanese schoolgirl who was tragically orphaned at age six in a car accident.

Spare exchanges between the strings and the gayageum grew to an uneasy lustre evocative of 80s serialism, Cellist Mariel Roberts’ wounded, ambered lines eventually giving way to sinister microtones from Maneri. Shyu’s switch to the moon lute signaled a long upward climb through a dreamlike sequence punctuated by Weiss’ increasingly agitated rumble and the flutter of the strings, texturally ravishing yet troubled.

Shyu’s uncluttered vocals were just as dynamic, ranging from a whisper, to an imploring, angst-fueled Carol Lipnik-like delivery, to an insistent, earthy, shamanistic growl and pretty much everywhere in between. The big coda, seemingly meant to illustrate the fatal crash, built to a pandemonium that came as a real shock in view of the lustre and glistening atmospherics that had been lingering up to that point.

The performance ended with the ensemble members performing a candle ceremony of sorts and then walking out through the audience as Shyu sang a mantra: “I am alone, but not lonely; Life has no boundaries when every place can be home.” Something for everybody in the audience to take home.

Shyu’s next performance features another premiere,of a dance piece at 7 PM on April 21 at the Czech Center, 321 E 73rd St. Those who were lucky enough to catch this performance would probably also enjoy the concert of rare, delicately haunting folk music from Amami Island, Japan, played by Anna Sato and Shogo Yashi at Roulette on May 14 at 8. Tix are $25/$21 stud/srs.

An Exhilarating Paisley Underground Instrumental Album from Dave Miller

Guitarslinger Dave Miller plays adrenalizing, catchy instrumental rock informed by Americana, soul music, pastoral jazz, noiserock and postrock. There’s nobody out there who sounds remotely like him. He’s so good that you might actually want to go to the small room at the Rockwood at midnight, where he’ll be on April 3, or to Greeenpoint, where he’ll be at Manhattan Inn at 10 on April 6. He’s got a sensational new album, Old Door Phantoms, which hasn’t officially hit yet, although there are a couple of tracks up at Bandcamp and some tantalizing live stuff at his youtube channel.

It opens with a roar and a clang with Found Towns, a swaying, stomping, burning paisley underground instrumental, like a song from True West’s second album minus the lyrics. As it goes on, there’s a push and pull and eventually a fullscale battle between guitar tracks, much as Russ Tolman and Stephen McCarthy would do thirty years ago. Eventually Ben Boye’s electric piano joins the melee, then they decay in a haze of reverb exhaust and Quin Kirchner’s tumbling drums. It’s a hell of a way to kick thing off.

Bison Disciple works a warmly familiar 70s Americana rock riff into a more swinging soul groove anchored by Boye’s electic piano. If the Band hadn’t been a bunch of stoned Canadian hippies, had some real balls and took some real chances, they might have sounded something like this. As it goes on, it gives Miller a chance to bellyflop into classic 60s/70s Westside Chicago blues. The Things I Don’t Know shifts into drifty mellotron-fueled, twinkling spacerock, part Nektar, part early Built to Spill, the ghost of Jerry Garcia looking on approvingly. Last Call makes an abrupt move into insistent 80s noiserock, then hits a stomping Motown-inflected pulse from Matt Ulery’s bass, blending the two with a wry edge as the keys go spiraling up into a bubbly nitrous web.

Animsm blends slow, slinky Bill Frisell pastorals with a little Hendrix and a tinge of evil Steve Ulrich/Big Lazy noir – in fact, as it builds steam and then subsides, it could be a less lithe Big Lazy. Wry allusions to the Cure, Hendrix and the Ventures pop up as For Too Much Longer gets going and then it hits a sprinting, bittersweet highway groove, then edges toward enigmatic dreampop before skittering back toward the surf. With its mammoth cinematic sweep and good cheer, it sounds like a more explosive American take on Los Crema Paraiso.

Miller keeps the epic intensity going with the towering 6/8 paisley underground sway of Tree Worship, sort of a mashup of 1984-era Dream Syndicate and MC5 freakout.The album winds up wih a noisy, snarky cover of the surf classic Telstar, with a crash landing ending that puts the original to shame. What a breath of fresh air this is. Let’s put Miller on a triplebill with Girls on Grass and the new Dream Syndicate and make paisley underground the sound that all the cool kids listen to just like they did thirty years ago. This one’s one of 2016’s best with a bullet.

Falu’s Bollywood Orchestra Plays a Mighty, Ecstatic, Sold-Out Dance Party at Flushing Town Hall

By the end of the sold-out, marathon concert by Falu’s Bollywood Orchestra Saturday night at Flushing Town Hall, the back balcony was shaking. Downstairs was a sea of ecstatic, twirling, dancing bodies, as diverse a mix of demographics as can be found in this multicultural city. Just another example of how great music – and a great band – bring people from all cultures of the world together.

Which makes sense. Bollywood music typically blends Indian folk and classical themes with American rock. Yet the most riveting moments, in a night full of them, might have been when the group’s frontwoman – widely considered to be the most captivating singer in all of Indian music – vocalised an entire sitar solo, including the rapidfire coda, with all its wavery microtonal nuance, in an original raga that she’d written in 13/8 time.

A lot of south Asian women sing in a chirpy high soprano, and while Falu can reach for the rafters, she distinguishes herself with a breathtaking mezzo-soprano, with diamond clarity and diamond-cutting power. That would explain why baritone crooner/harmonium player Gaurav Shah would be charged with handling many of the show’s gentler ballads. Soumya Chatterjee spiced several of the songs with his precise, fluttering violin lines when he wasn’t playing acoustic guitar, often with a funky edge. His electric counterpart Bryan Vargas shifted between hypnotic jangle, a little fiery bluesmetal, reverbtoned surf riffage and on one number, he ran his axe through a guitar sitar patch. Bassist Dan Asher and drummer Ray Grappone delivered a pulse that was often ecstatic and terse at the same time while the group’s musical director and percussionist, Deep Singh, added color and stomp, beginning with his big dhol drum slung over his shoulders, then switching to his tabla. Several of the numbers also featured a lush string quartet – violinists Pala Garcia and Jennifer Choi, violist Elzbieta Weyman and cellist John Popham.

The group opened with a spare, otherworldly ballad, then a slinky, swaying bellydance number. Interestingly, their take of the stoner classic Dum Maro Dum (“Take Another Hit”) brought to mind the rather stark, spare original rather than more psychedelic versions that artists have done since the 70s. The material spanned from the middle ages – a new arrangement of a classic raga – through the 60s to the 90s. There were a couple of numbers with a shuffling 70s disco groove, and a handful where the band segued from one into another. A couple of sultry, stomping guy/girl duets explored the battle of the sexes. Gaurav Shah sang elegantly on a swaying Indian take on 70s British chamber pop, and a dusky 1974 folk-rock ballad, But as humble as Falu came across – “I’m always playing with people who are better than me,” she marveled – her voice was spine-tingling, shifting in a split-second from microtonal grace, to smoky sensuality, stratospheric upward flights and raw monsoon power.

There was also a dance interlude midway through the show where Falu grabbed her mic and ran down from the stage to twirl amid the audience, joined by her nimble duo of dancers, to get the rest of the crowd on their feet. That didn’t take much prompting – and foreshadowed the evening’s delirious windup.

Flushing Town Hall features the same kind of programming you see at Joe’s Pub, but better. And it’s way less expensive – and the 1862 auditorium has a charming Gilded Age New York ambience. They do all sorts of multicultural events here. The next big show here is on March 31 at 7 PM, with the amazing, epic Korean folk-improvisation ensemble Jeong Gak Ah Hoe; admission is free with rsvp. Then on  April 9 at 8 PM there’s a triplebill with oldtimey Appalachian Whitetop Mountain Band, clawhammer banjo player Julie Shepherd-Powell and singer Sandy Shortridge. Tix are $16/10 stud.

Rapturously Enigmatic Soundscapes and a National Sawdust Performance by Lesley Flanigan

Lesley Flanigan is sort of this decade’s counterpart to Laurie Anderson. Like Anderson, Flanigan has a background in sculpture, which informs her dynamic, sometimes disarmingly intimate, sometimes toweringly lush soundscapes. Where Anderson leads an ensemble on violin or keys, Flanigan creates her aural sculptures with layers of vocals and custom-made speakers, which she builds herself and utilizes for subtle layers of feedback. She has a characteristially enveloping, hypnotic new album, Hedera – streaming at Bandcamp – and a show on April 1 (no joke) at 7 PM at National Sawdust, sharing a bill with similarly adventurous vocalists C Spencer Yeh, Daisy Press & Nick Hallet, and Maria Chavez. Cover is $20

The album comprises two epic tracks. The title cut, set to the looping, trance-inducing rhythm of a broken tape deck, subtly builds variations on an otherworldly, strangely disquieting two-chord vamp. Without effects, Flanigan sings in a strong yet ethereal voice that takes on an even more otherworldly quality as she subtly adds layers and layers of to the mix, with subtle changes in reverb, rhythm and timbre. As the piece rise to the level of a fullscale choir, Flanigan caps it with  a lead line that soars overhead with uncharacteristic angst. The dynamic underneath – cold mechanical loop versus reassuringly immersive human voices – underscores that unease. But as the voices reach a long peak at the end, there’s a sense of triumph in the sonic cathedral.

The second track – the b-side, if you want – is Can Barely Feel My Feet. Flanigan’s minute shifts in pitch add an enigmatic edge to the lustrous resonance, raised sevefal notches when oscillations from the speakers come into play. While Flanigan’s music is typically dreamy and peaceful, she gives herself a real workout in live performance. There’s practically a dance component to her stage work, lithe and agile as she tirelessly glides and scooches between her mixing board and speakers, even more impressive considering that all the while she doesn’t miss a beat and her voice continues to resonate, unwaveringly.

Purist Guitarist Ed Cherry Brings His Soulful Organ Trio to Smalls

Guitarist Ed Cherry’s new album Soul Tree is both trad and unorthodox. When’s the last time you heard of a guitarist leading a B3 organ jazz trio? Usually it’s the organist – Jimmy Smith set the precedent with Jim Hall on guitar, right? But Cherry’s done this before, and his elegant, no-nonsense, chordal-and-blues approach works especially well in this configuration. As usual, he plays with a clean, purist 60s tone with a generous amount of reverb, looking back to Wes Montgomery more on this album than he has in the recent past. He’s playing the release show with his trio – Kyle Koehler on the organ and the Captain Black Big Band’s Anwar Marshall on drums – at Smalls on March 30 at 10 PM. Cover is $20 and includes a drink. With its dusky ambience, Smalls is a good place to see organ jazz, and the sound there is a lot better than it would have been at the gutbucket venues that were home to this stuff a half-century ago.

The album opens on a wry note with a cover of Kool & the Gang’s Let The Music Take Your Mind, reinvented as a swinging New Orleans second line-tinged groove. Aside from the originals here, the other tracks are often hardly what you would expect from an an organ trio. The three do Jimmy Heath’s A New Blue with a spacious midtempo swing: Marshall benefits from an imaginative and similarly vast production which pans cymbals right and left, maxing out the room’s natural reverb along with his vividly misty attack. The first of the Cherry originals, Rachel’s Step, is a latin-inflected shuffle that hits a peak with the guitarist’s jaunty cha-cha of a solo midway through.

The trio do Mal Waldron’s. Soul Eyes as a clave ballad; Cherry’s almost impeceptible drive upwards to a delicious and all-too-brief series of jabs draws on a background that goes back decades, with Dizzy Gillespie and other major figures. Freddie Hubbard’s Little Sunflower vamps along on carefree soul-jazz groove, Cherry building a Wes vibe with his octaves. The other Cherry original here, Little Girl Big Girl works similar territory over laid-back swing, giving Koehler a chance to cut loose.

Marshall builds the Trane classic Central Park West with a nimbly tumbling attack as Cherry bobs and weaves gradefull,, Koehler maintaining a low-key bluesiness as he does throughout the album. Harold Land’s Ode to Angela blends Marshall’s masterful, whispery clave with Cherry’s lingering, summery lines; Koehler’s lyrical solo might be the best one on the whole album. The classic Dave Brubeck ballad In Your Own Sweet Way gets the most hubristic treatment here: it’s barely recognizable. The album winds up with Horace Silver’s Peace, another showcase for Marshall’s meticulous brushwork and the band’s friendly chemistry. Most B3 groove albums are party records; counterintuitively, this one is more spare and reflective. Big up to Cherry for taking the style to a new place. Posi-Tone, home to more good postbop than any other record label still extant, gets credit for putting this one out. It hasn’t officially hit yet, but there’s a track up at their Soundcloud page.

The Family Crest Hit It Big with the Post-Millennials

Due diligence is a bitch. This is what happens when you don’t reread your own music blog.

Publicist sends an email. Hey, wanna go see somebody open for a band whose name sounds vaguely familiar?

[Something] the Ghost? Umm, maybe Fever the Ghost? Why the hell not. Kind of glammy, post-Bowie, psychedelic, lots of keys! Forget that the bandname is stupid and signifies trendoid-ness. Reviewed ’em last year, last August or so if memory serves right.

Check the blog index to make sure? Naaaaaa, no time for that….

Opening band hits at 9:20 – publicist wasn’t lying, They’re moving things right along at Bowery Ballroom. And this show is sold out. Lots of kids. Children, that is. Middleschoolers, from the looks of them. None of them have ever been here before. Nobody’s drinking and nobody’s smoking pot either. They’re all looking up, looking around. Yet there’s not a selfie stick in sight.

The Family Crest make their entrance, and the kids go nuts. It’s date night, lots of screaming girls. This could turn out to be a very short evening.

The band has a cello, a violin and a trombone. And the kids are into it! Frontman Liam McCormick wails on his acoustic guitar, keyboardist Laura Bergmann switches to flute and fires off an darkly slinky series of flourishes while the string section play similarly elegant variations on a baroque-rock riff. The song, Beneath the Brine, is kind of World Inferno Junior, third-gen circus rock. It doesn’t have the New York band”s old-world irony or gleefully grim punk rock humor, but it’s good, and McCormick’s stagy cabaret delivery works in this context. And the kids love it! Whadda you know, slyly grinning chamber pop with a carnivalesque edge is big with post-millennials! There’s hope for the world!

The rest of the show doesn’t hit as high as this, but it’s not bad either. The band takes a turn back toward the phantasmagorical later on, but that number evokes a stadium more than a dark carnival. Instead, there’s a lot of Motown and new wave in the songs’ bouncy drive, and infectious energy, and relentlessly cheery hooks. The band are all good musicians and they’re a magnet for others: by the time all the special guests are onstage, there are two trombonists, two saxophonists and an electric guitarist taking an already hefty sound further skyward. Lyrics or storytelling don’t seem to be the band’s thing, but singalong catchiness is. One of the last numbers in the set –  which clocked in at barely forty minutes,  hardly fair – evokes the surreal post-new wave stomp of Aussie hitmakers the Cat Empire.

The band are as fresh-faced and friendly as their material. McCormick in particular turns out to be a big hit with the females – and he’s not exactly svelte. If that’s what the chicks are into these days, it’s enough to tempt a guy to quit running all over town, switch out the chana saag and ice water for pizza and PBR and pack on the pounds.

Fever the Ghost headline. Except that it’s not Fever the Ghost. It’s [Something Else] the Ghost. You’d think that one of those bands might sense the need for rebranding, but no. This trio also has a lot of busy keys, but in a way that’s part Liberace, part Mars Volta, maybe. Or Styx. Remember Styx? That top 40 band from the 70s? Not worth googling. Please. Don’t.

Both the keyboardist and guitarist have chops, but the guitarist sings in a mannered, phony-earnest emo-pop voice. They’re the kind of band who might lobby for a discount on student loan debt, but wouldn’t dare demand a return to the days of free tuition. And the drummer looks like a reject from the casting call for Almost Famous. Is this what closeted born-agains sound like? Theatreboys from Utah? Three songs in, it’s clear that this group ought to be calling themselves Leave the Room. And the kids are still there, still bopping. A couple of freshman fratboys, who may be more than just bro’s, get drunk on a single beer and start pumping their fists along with the guitarist’s fey uh-OH-oh’s Maybe there’s less hope than there seemed to be when the Family Crest hit the stage.

Pianist Ian Hobson Plays a Robust, Smartly Thematic Program at Merkin Concert Hall

How’s this for meta? The theme of pianist Ian Hobson‘s ambitious monthly series of concerts is…themes. And variations on those themes. With this series, he’s been pushing himself as hard as any other pianist out there right now. There’s no better example than next month’s April 13, 7’30 PM program at Merkin Concert Hall, where he’s going to open with a Faure theme and variations, then Schumann’s almost sadistically difficult Symphonic Etudes and then Rachmaninoff preludes, whose iconically harrowing beauty requires similarly daunting technique. If Wednesday’s program there was any indication, Hobson is up to the challenge. Tix are $20/$12.50 stud/srs.

Last night’s concert there found Hobson opening with a student work of sorts by Chopin, the Variations on Der Schweitzer Bub. It doesn’t sound much like Chopin. Rather, it draws a line straight back to Beethoven – contented, ebullient, carbonated post-soiree Beethoven, like, say, the Leonore Overture. How did Hobson handle it? As the flashy proto chamber pop that it is, but also as a study in contrasts, an approach that would work like a charm throughout the rest of the program.

Then he raised the bar with Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli. Those familiar with the piece are probably used to choppy, severe Soviet interpretations. Hobson’s was 180 degrees the opposite: lyrical, conversational, and revealing. Rachmaninoff pairs achingly searching righthand melodies against coldly brusque, fatalistic, even macabre lefthand riffs so often that it’s almost a shtick. Hobson worked that dynamic as a dialogue rather than grand guignol. His approach to the tempo and overall pacing was just as minutely attuned, with a legato so liquid that he seemed to be meeting the keys at the millisecond they bounced up, rather than crunching down on anything before its time had come. Not a lot of pianists play so convivially: Nancy Garniez is one. There could be an influence here.

Next on the bill was the world premiere of a series of Yehudi Wyner preludes, completed just a month ago. How heartwarming to see that the now-octogenarian Wyner is absolutely undiminished, and what a fantastic segue they made wih the suite of Debussy etudes that followed. Dynamics were once again front and center as Hobson switched elegantly between gnomic Kurtag-esque minimalism, Debussy gamelanisms and otherworldly, echoing bell tones that brought to mind Frederic Mompou.

Much as piano etudes tend to be perceived as simplistic and less than desirable for public performance, they actually tend to be very difficult. The program notes quoted Debussy doing his best to put Carl Czerny (patron saint of boring practice pieces) in his place by writing a series of rigorous numbers that brought some actual fun to the struggle of mastering complex late Romantic repertoire. Much as there was plenty of repetition, deliberate emphasis on crosshand technique, tendon-tormenting octatves and such, there was no step down from Debussy at his usual self. Hobson made the bells chime, the cascades gleam, and uneasy, enigmatic journeys into as much cherry resolution as this composer ever possibly alllows. That, and the frequent droll flourish that drew chuckles from an impressive crowd for a crisp early spring night.

And if all this wasn’t enough of a workout, Hobson – who’d broken into a sweat by then – encored with a robust take of Ondine, from Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit. The concert had come full circle: in order to play this even more uneasy, challenging showstopper, you might need a few of the practice pieces Hobson had built full steam with.