Golden Fest 2019: Still New York’s Wildest Concert Weekend After More Than 30 Years

The chandeliers at the gilded age wedding mansion were shaking. People were bodysurfing. As usual, the lines to all-you-can-eat buffet were insane. A lot of famliies brought their kids. How lucky those gradeschoolers were to be able to indulge their wildest inner animals at an evening of sounds that were “Alternately lyrical, mournful, ecstatic and spooky, that used to be the soundtrack of everyday life back in the day,” as one band playing Golden Fest last night put it.

Macedonian quartet Niva (reviewed here at the 2017 edition of the annual weekend festival of Balkan and Balkan-adjacent music) get credit for that description, which pretty much speaks for the other seventy or so bands on the bill. Every January, many of the best groups from across the US and around the world bring everything from Serbian brass music to Ukrainian choral repertoire, Romany dances and Black Sea songs to Grand Prospect Hall in south Park Slope.

How does last night’s show compare with previous festivals? Same old. The big ballroom was a human kaleidoscope of linedancers, but people were cutting a rug in the somewhat smaller rooms too. The buffet was delicious (that garlicky skordalia – yum) and there were plenty of opportunities to grab a plate after the big lines had finally subsided. And the music was sublime.

That there would still be an audience in New York in 2019 large enough to fill a space the size of the Mercury Lounge to see multi-instrumentalist Amir Vahab play his haunting Iranian sufi songs goes against conventional thinking. But it’s further proof that if you give people good music, they’ll come out.

Likewise, watching the crowd converge on the stage and then the center of the ballroom like a giant accordion during whirlwind clarinetist Michael Winograd’s dynamically sizzling romp through a series of klezmer dances was viscerally breathtaking.

The other bands’ tightness and intensity were pretty much unrelenting, on the kind of daunting level that any musician would want to reach when playing to an audience full of icons from the worlds of microtones, minor keys and weird time signatures. Multi-reedman Greg Squared and trumpeter Ben Syversen matched meticulous articulation to raw redline power throughout Raya Brass Band’s torrentially bouncy attack – that’s where the bodysurfing started. Three flights up, a little earlier in the evening, the larger, more undulating Veveritse Brass Band played what also could have been the tightest set of their career – and they’ve been doing this for the better part of ten years as well.

The accordionist in the night’s first band, Cocek Nation – a motley assemblage of up-and-coming student musicians – took a solo that could have been Ray Manzarek. That’s cool in itself – what’s even cooler is that there are  kids in the group who haven’t yet made it to middle school who are expected to improvise, schooled by some of the best in the business.

Upstairs in the Mercury-sized room, singer Eva Salina parsed the most poignant corners of a tantalizingly brief set of reinvented Romany ballads and dance tunes, her longtime accordionist Peter Stan exchanging cascades and flitting riffs with her. It could well have been the night’s most conversational performance. No matter how many times you see so many of these bands, they never play anything exactly the same way.

Armenian jazz sage Souren Baronian may be best known for deep soul and long, mesmerizing solos, but this time out he was hilarious. After a characteristically serpentine, poignant soprano sax number, he picked up his duduk, then bubbled and burbled through a wry series of variations that just would not stop. These days more than ever, everybody wants to play with him: oudist Adam Good eventually relinquished his seat to another first-rate Middle Eastern lutenist. 

Slavic Soul Party’s weekly Tuesday residency at Barbes is a Brooklyn institution, and it gets loud there. As much as fun as those shows have been over the years, they don’t compare with last night’s constantly morphing, deviously funk-tinged, explosive performance in the big ballroom where they could really play to the rafters. A floor below, Szikra channeled otherworldly, rather stately centuries-old Hungarian themes, maxing out the moody lows with both cello and gardon (a percussion instrument that looks like a cello but functions more like a muted bass drum).

Back in the ballroom, Eva Salina took a rockstar turn on the mic front of Balkan organ band Choban Elektrik, a sleekly swaying presence: they were in more trad mode than usual, compared to their usual epically psychedelic sound. Saxophonist Ariane Morin of Amerike Klezmer Brass stunned the crowd with her poignant microtones, especially in the quartet’s opening number, over the pulse of accordionist  Ilya Shneyveys. And the bodysurfing reached critical mass with the night’s gargantuan headliners, What Cheer? Brigade. That the Providence street band were able to be so searingly tight as balloons bounced off their trumpets and tubas and the crowd around them squeezed closer and closer speaks to their fearlessness as much as their chops.

Watching from a comfortable balcony seat, nibbling on a choice morsel of salty kashkaval cheese, having switched by now from whiskey to coffee, it was impossible to think of a better way to end the best concert of 2019.

Except maybe by being down on the floor with the band. See you at Golden Fest 2020.

For those who want to brave tonight’s sinking temperatures, there’s a post Golden Fest Balkan blowout at the Jalopy starting at 6:30 with Cocek Nation followed at 7 by dynamic, subtle all-female klezmer band Tsibele, at 8 by the Romany-flavoed Sarma Brass Band and at 8 by the ferocious Novi Hitovi Brass Band, Cover is $10, there’ll be “nobody turned away,”and all  proceeds will benefit the Cocek Nation’s trip to the Balkans later this year. 

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Live Music Calendar for New York City and Brooklyn for January and February 2019

Daily updates – if you go out a lot, you might want to bookmark this page and check back regularly. If you’re leaving your hood, make sure you check http://www.mta.info for service changes considering how the trains are at night and on the weekend.

If you don’t recognize a venue where a particular act is playing, check the comprehensive, recently updated list of over 200 New York City music venues 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.

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 published here weeks in advance. Weekly events first followed by the daily calendar.

If you see a typo or an extra comma or something like that, remember that while you were out seeing that great free concert that you found out about here, somebody was up late after a long day of work editing and adding listings to this calendar ;)

On select Wednesdays 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, beverages and lively conversation included!  email for details/address

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 in January and February, 8 PM the unpredictably fun, funny  art-rock/psychedelic soul band the Academy Blues Project at Shrine

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 in January, 10 PM noir guitar legend Jim Campilongo leads his trio at the big room at the Rockwood, $10

Mondays in January 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 January clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party  at 9 PM at Barbes (check the club calendar). Get there as soon as you can as they’re very popular. $10 cover.

Wednesdays in  January, 8 PM the Binky Griptite Orchestra (formerly Sharon Jones’ brilliant oldschool soul backing band) at Threes Brewing Outpost, 113 Franklin St (Greenpoint/Kent Aves) in Greenpoint, free

Thursdays at 8:30 in January the Brooklyn Raga Massive – a rotating cast of A-list Indian, jazz and rock musicians who love to jam out classic Indian themes from over the centuries to the present day – play the Jalopy, $15 adv tix at the bar at the main space. Tons of special guests followed by a wild raga jam!

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

Fridays at 7:30 PM tenor saxophonist Ken Fowser leads his band at the Django. Jukebox jazz in a JD Allen vein but not as dark and more straight-ahead/groove-oriented: as postbop party music goes, nobody’s writing better than this guy right now.

Free classical concerts on Saturdays at 4 PM in  January at Bargemusic;  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 January, 6 PM eclectic, edgy soul/art-rock/funk/chamber-pop cellist/singer Marika Hughes at Barbes

Saturdays in February, 6 PM low register reedman Josh Sinton’s Phantasos play Morphine at Barbes. Hard to think of anyone more capable of tackling that ominously kinetic songbook

1/1-6, 8:30/10:30 PM lyrical jazz piano icon Fred Hersch  at the Vanguard, through 1/3 with his trio and the rest of the stand with a quartet

1/2, 8 PM psychedelic klezmer/bluegrass mandolin and clarinet legend Andy Statman at Barbes, $10

1/2, 8:30 PM Dervisi feat. guitar god Steve Antonakos play “exotic Greek gangsta blues” at Troost. 1/17, same time they’re at at Espresso 77, 35-57 77th Street (just off of 37th Ave), Jackson Heights

1/3, 7 PM improvisational ten-piece reeds/vox/drums ensemble PRNCX at Arete Gallery, $15. Followed at 9 (separate $15 adm) by Iraqi composer Saman Samadi and his Quintet at Arete Gallery, $15

1/3, 7:30 PM, repeating on 1/5 at 8 the NY Philharmonic play Sibelius’ Lemminkainen and Maidens of the Island suites plus Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloe and Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with soloist Gautier Capuçon at Avery Fisher Hall, $34

1/3, 7:30 the booking agents’ convention is in town and there are some phenomenal, cheap lineups around town. Tonight at Drom there’s a free show with intense, rapturous Balkan/Middle Eastern ensemble the Secret Trio –Tamer Pinarbasi, Ismail Lumanovski & Ara Dinkjian – followed at 8:30 by brooding Greek crooner Pericles Kanaris and at 10:00 by chanteuse/uke player Dahlia Dumont’s Blue Dahlia playing edgy, smartly lyrically-fueled, jazz-infused tunes in English and French with classic chanson and Caribbean influences

1/3, 7:30/9:30 PM playfully lyrical postbop pianist Art Hirahara plus a killer rhythm section of bassist Linda Oh, & drummer Rudy Royston at Mezzrow, $20

1/3, 7:30 PM trumpeter Etienne Charles’ creole jazz band at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

1/3, 7:45 PM slinky female-fronted psychedelic tropicalia band Delsonido at the big room at the Rockwood

1/3, 8 New York’s most charismatic, darkly compelling lyrical songwriter/storyteller/keyboard genius Rachelle Garniez followed at 10 by Sveta Kundish & Patrick Farrell play original Yiddish songs for voice and accordion at Barbes

1/3, 8 PM bouncy Iranian/Swedish dance-pop sister act Abjeez followed by  charismatic Egyptian revolutionary singer Ramy Essam at the Poisson Rouge, $25 adv tix rec

1/3, 8 PM Alaskan Americana fiddler/poet Ken Waldman opens his annual mega-star show at at the Jalopy followed by short sets featuring but not limited to torchsong duo Max Hatt & Edda Glass, fiddle/cello duo Hen’s Teeth with Jane Rothfield and Nathan Bontrager,  the DuoDuo Quartet with Maeve Gilchrist, Nic Gareiss, Natalie Haas, Yann Falquet–virtuosic harp, dance, cello, guitar; Scottish and Appalachian string music by Jenna Moynihan & Mairi Chaimbeul ,Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer doing gypsy jazz to classic country to anything else;  Cajun songstress Erica Weiss & Shindig and bluegrass guitar/bass duo Mark Kilianski & Nate Sabat at the Jalopy, $15

1/3, 8 PM legends from the zeros: singer/guitarist Genie Morrow’s super-catchy, erudite powerpop band Sputnik at the Parkside

1/3, 9 PM wild live techno band Bombrasstico  at Bar Chord

1/3, 9 PM wickedly jangly surf/twang/country instrumentalists the Bakersfield Breakers at 11th St. Bar

1/3, 10 PM fiery, deviously fun oldtimey swing guitarist/crooner Seth Kessel & the Two Cent Band  at Skinny Dennis. He’s also here on 1/31 at 9

1/3, 10 PM the great unsung NYC hero of darkly purposeful, noir-tinged jazz guitar, Saul Rubin at the Fat Cat.  He’s also here on 1/8 at 7

1/4, 7 PM best free concert of the year? Maybe. Toronto Cuban salsa dura band Okan followed at 7:45 by psychedelic tropicalia-folk bandleader Ramon Chicharron; at 8:30 Mexican border-rock songwriter Quique Escamilla; 9:15 a lame Replacements ripoff; at 1o high-voltage Neapolitan tarantella string band Newpoli; 10:45 Haitian funk/pop singer Malou Beauvoir; and at 11:30 the amazing, phantasmagorical klezmer band Lemon Bucket Orkestra at Drom

1/4, 7 PM folk noir singer Anna May – the missing link between Aimee Mann and Kath Bloom, maybe – at Shapeshifter Lab, $10 

1/4, 7 PM semi-supergroup Vicki Kristina Barcelona (the incomparable, charismatic Rachelle Garniez, Bollywood-influenced Amanda Homi, and Terry Radigan) reinvent the songs of Tom Waits at Pangea, $20 

1/4, 7:30 PM Tibetan throat-singing ensemble Altai Kai at the Rubin Museum of Art, $30

1/4, 8 PM ex-Chicha Libre keyboard sorcerer Josh Camp’s wryly psychedelic cumbia/tropicalia/dub band Locobeach  followed by sizzling Niger duskcore guitarist/bandleader Mdou Moctar at Baby’s All Right, $15

1/4, 8 PM haunting, magical Middle Eastern classical singer Shelley Thomas and her band followed at 10 by Super Yamba playing their psychedelic Afrobeat jams at Barbes

1/4, 9 PM hauntingly lyrical art-rock songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Joanna Wallfisch at  the small room at the Rockwood

1/4. 10 PM Garifuna bandleader Andy Ordonez and his psychedelic coastal Caribbean combo at Silvana

1/4-6 and 1/10-12, 10 PM (except for 1/6 at 8 PM) singer/dancer Nora Chipaumire “reckons with the production and consumption of pop sound and imagery in the hyper-reality of global capitalism, resurrecting the era of drum magazines, African broadcast stations, color bars, and a people with active connections to rural and township lifestyles playing all-night parties at underground apartheid-era South African speakeasies” at Jack, $25

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

1/5, 4  PM cinematic, psychedelic quirk-pop keyboardist Michael Hearst presents “Curious, Unusual and Extraordinary” songs from his many bands followed at 8 by intense, lyrical jazz bassist/composer Pedro Giraudo leading his Tango Quartet, and at 10 by epic ranchera/bolero brass crew Banda de los Muertos at Barbes

1/5, 6 PM state-of-the-art jazz bassist Christian McBride and his quartet at Bethany Baptist Church – 275 W Market St, Newark, free

1/5, 7:30 PM an awesomely inexpensive global lineup: theToomai String Quintet with psychedelic tropicalia chanteuse Miss YaYa play all kinds of adventurous, global classical repertoire followed at 8:15 by haunting, psychedelic Turkish band Yeni Nostalji ; at  9 the Bil Afrah Project celebrates one of the Middle East’s legendary albums: Ziad Rahbani’s 1975 Bil Afrah suite. An all-star NYC lineup includes percussionist Michel Merhej, who played on the haunting, dynamic original album, very rarely played live in its entirety; at 9:45 sizzling Niger duskcore guitarist/bandleader Mdou Moctar; at 11:15 haphazardly psychedelic Afrobeat-influenced psych-punk guitarist/bandleader Yonatan Gat at & the Eastern Medicine Singers; at midnight awesomely slinky downtempo/cumbia/psychedelic salsa dura band La Mecanica Popular and at 12:45 AM explosive, creepy, colorful psychedelic rembetiko metal band Greek Judas at Drom, $10

1/5. 7:30/9:30 PM mighty, tectonic latin jazz with the Dafnis Prieto Big Bandat the Jazz Standard, $30

1/5, 8 PM latin jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez & Migration followed by soaring, epic all-female mariachi/tropicalia orchestra Mariachi Flor de Toloache at Highline Ballroom, $20 adv tix rec

1/5, 8 PM legendarily eclectic surf band Tiki Brothers followed at 9 by guitarslinger Phil Gammage playing his dark Americana and blues at the Way Station

1/5. 8 PM guitarist Loren Connors duets with fellow six-string luminary David Grubbs and performance poet Steve Dalachinsky; bookended around an a cappella performance by bluesy vocalist Suzanne Langille and poet Yuko Otomo at Holo, $10

1/5, 8:30 PM darkly lyrical Middle Eastern-tinged jazz pianist Laila Biali at the third stage at the Rockwood, $10

1/5 Unsteady Freddie‘s monthly surf rock extravaganza at Otto’s begins at 9 PM with the percussive Bongo Surf, at 10 metalish Providence band the Infra-Men, at 11 wickedly jangly surf/twang/country instrumentalists the Bakersfield Breakers and at midnight or so majestic, darkly cinematic surf band the TarantinosNYC. 

1/5, 9 PM eclectic, electric C&W/blues band the Jug Addicts at Bar Chord

1/5, 10 PM fiery electric bluegrass and C&W with Demolition String Band at Skinny Dennis

1/6, 11 AM (in the morning) NY original klezmer icons Metropolitan Klezmer & their mostly-female sister band, kinetic klezmer/cumbia/cinematic jamband Isle of Klezbos at City Winery, $10

1/6, 4 PM a launch event for the new Philip Glass Institute at the New School including a performance by the Philip Glass Ensemble, a panel discussion including the composer and a performance of an excerpt from Lisa Bielawa’s in-progress, made-for-TV opera, Vireo, at the New School ground floor auditorium at 63 5th Ave, free

1/7, 6 PM short sets by violinist Rubén Rengel, trumpeter Brandon Ridenour, the Thalea String Quartet, Verona Quartet and brass quartet the Westerlies at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, free,

1/6, 7 PM wildly theatrical, creepy circus rock band Orphan Jane at LIC Bar

1/6, 7 PM pastoral gothic accordion art-rock with Sam Reider & the Human Hands followed at 9:30  by Romany jazz/psychedelic rock guitar mastermind Stephane Wrembel at Barbes

1/6. 8 PM in reverse order: spot-on Vermont retro honkytonk band Wild Leek River, fiery oldtimey string band the Four O’Clock Flowers.  and eclectic, tuneful accordionist/songwriter Ali Dineen at Starr Bar, 214 Starr St. off Irving, Bushwick, L to DeKalb

1/6, 8 PM perennially tuneful, pensively lyrical Americana janglerocker Mike Ferrio of Tandy and Good Luck Mountain at 11th St. Bar

1/6, 9 PMoldschool-style high plains C&W singer Hope Debates & North 40 at  Skinny Dennis

1/6, 9ish eclectic, globally-inspired violinist Dina Maccabee at the Owl

1/6, 10:30 PM hotshot bluegrass mandolin slinger Jacob Joliff and band at the big room at the Rockwood 

1/7, 4 and 7 PM all-star indie classical choir Roomful of Teeth sing the world premiere of Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices at Times Square, free, follow the sound if you can hear it

1/7, 7 PM riveting, purposeful 30s swing singer Catherine Russell, torchy Europolitan swing band the Hot Sardines & South Atlantic Coast Gullah soul band Ranky Tanky at City Winery, $20 standing room avail

1/7, 7:30 PM indie classical chamber orchestra Wild Up, dark Mediterranean psychedelic bandleader Zola Jesus and intrepid NYC indie classical composer William Briittelle at Merkin Concet Hall, $25

1/7, 7:30 PM pyrotechnic klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, Kathleen Tagg and the Omer Quartet play works by Prokofiev, Debussy, Golijov, John Zorn and Kinan Azmeh at Music Mondays, Advent Church, northwest corner of 93rd and Broadway, free

1/7, 8:30 PM Lebanese art-rock/metal/goth band Gurumiran at Pete’s 

1/7, 9 PM sweeping, swinging vibraphonist Behn Gillece and group at the Fat Cat 

1/7, 9:30ish Los Mochuelos plays classic Colombian vallenato music at Barbes

1/7, 8:30 PM brief half-hour sets by cellist Clarice Jensen, Carolina Eyck (theremin), and indie classical group ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) at Drom, $10

1/7, 9 PM slashing guitarist Steve Antonakos plays slide guitar blues with his band at Bar Chord. He’s also at the Parkside on the 19th at 8 

1/7, 10 PM tuneful, state-of-the-art postbop jazz guitarist Will Bernard and group followed eventually at midnight by awesome, creepy Texas psychedelic band Acid Carousel at the small room at the Rockwood 

1/8, 7 PM eclectic, hard-hitting, lyrical composer/tenor saxophonist Stan Killian at 55 Bar

 1/8, 7:30/9:30 PM a killer, darkly lyrical trio:  crystalline-voiced, noir-tinged third-stream jazz chanteuse Tessa Souter with brilliant latin jazz piaist Luis Perdomo and bassist Dezron Douglas at Mezzrow, $20. She’s also at 55 Bar on 1/11 at 6 for less.

1/8, 8:15 PM edgily lyrical guitarist Matt Forker leads his catchy but acerbic sextet at Shapeshifter Lab, $12 

1/8-13. 8:30/10:30 PM pensively edgy, purposeful latin jazz pianist Edward Simon with his Steel House trio at the Vanguard

1/8, 9 PM wickedly torchy noir songwriter Julia Haltigan and her killer band on her old home turf at 11th St Bar

1/8, 9:30 PM the Bronx Conexion play their mighty salsa big band jazz at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

1/9, 7:30/9:30 PM pan-Asian chanteuse/composer Jen Shyu with her hauntingly atmospheric Jade Tongue ensemble at the Jazz Gallery, $25

1/9, 7 PM celebrating the centenary of politically fearless sound collage pioneer Ake Hodell, a rare public performance of the original quadraphonic versions of three of Hodell’s most revered text-sound compositions – on the disappearance of Black Panther members, apartheid in Rhodesia and a JG Ballard-esque history of the 20th century through the prism of automobiles – plus Fia Backström reads from her new translations of Hodell’s writing, at the Emily Harvey Foundation, 537 Broadway #2 (Spring/Prince), $10

1/9,  7 PM Nublu honcho and psychedelic postbop tenor saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin wears many hats throughout the night, which starts with  Nublu Orchestra doing a tribute to their late great conductor/leader Butch Morris; at 8:30 longtime Gil Scott-Heron collaborator and electric pianist Brian Jackson; at 10 Silver with Ersahin, Eddie Henderson, Juini Booth, Kenny Wollesen playing the album release show for their new one and at 1 AM Ersahin’s Oceanvs Orientalis at Nublu 151, $tba

1/9, 9 PM darkly psychedelic circus punks Yula & the Extended Family at LIC Bar

1/10. 7 PM soaringly explosive jazz composer/torch singer Nicole Zuraitis at 55 Bar

1/10, 7 PM electrifying Balkan/Americana violinist/bandleader Sarah Alden at the third stage at the Rockwood, $10

1/10, 7:30/9:30 PM tenor saxophonist Jure Pukl leads a killer band with Melissa Aldana – saxophone; Harish Raghavan – bass; Kush Abadey – drums at the Jazz Gallery, $20

1/10, 7:30 PM Burnt Sugar celebrate 20 years of lush Braxton-ish largescale improvisation, hard funk, James Brown and Bowie covers and more at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

1/10, 7:30 PM, repeating on 1/12 at 8 the NY Philharmonic play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with soloist Simon Trpčeski, Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen Suite and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade at Avery Fisher Hall, $31

1/10, 7:30 PM Soule Monde – imagine RIck Wakeman playing Booker T  & the MG’s  – at Symphony Space, $30/$20 age 30 and under

1/10, 8 PM hauntingly noisy/ambient solo cello from Leila Bordreuil plus electoacoustic sets by  David Wesley Sutton, singer Charmaine Lee and Kieran Morris at the Fridman Gallery,​ 169 Broadway, $20/$15 stud

1/10, 8 PM dynamic, subtle all-female klezmer band Tsibele at Barbes

1/10, 8:30 PM tarantella percussionist Alessandra Belloni jams out classical Indian carnatic themes with bansuri flutist Steve Gorn at the Jalopy, $15

1/10, 8:30 PM brilliantly improvisational pianist Mara Rosenbloom‘s philosophically-inspired FLYWAYS with bassist Adam Lane and singer/percussionist Anais Maviel at Shapeshifter Lab, $15

1/10, 8:30 PM Greg Hammontree’s Trumpet Marmalade: “four-NYC hailing, old-school dixieland style jazz musicians call upon Louis Armstrong for inspiration,” at Arete Gallery, $15

1/11, 5:30 PM laid-back Americana/country blues songwriter Jon LaDeau at the American Folk Art Museum

1/11, 7:30 PM this era’s most spellbinding oldschool country singer, Laura Cantrell acoustic at the Rubin Museum of Art, $25 adv tix rec

1/11-12. 7:30/9:30 PM this era’s most cutting-edge, politically relevant large jazz ensemble, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society at the Jazz Gallery, $25

1/11, 8 PM playfully lyrical, fearlessly political superduo Kill Henry Sugar – guitar/banjo mastermind Erik Della Penna and drummer Dean Sharenow – at Bargbes

1/11, 8 PM a screening of the fascinating documentary Milford Graves Full Mantis, exploring the work of the polymath jazz drummer/music historian/cardiac music visionary, plus a drum duel between Susie Ibarra and Brian Chase at the Fridman Gallery,​ 169 Broadway, $20/$15 stud          

 1/11, 8 PM irrepressibly fun blues/swing harmony pals Mamie Minch and Tamar Korn; followed by Hawaiian guitar group King Isto’s Tropical String Band playing the album release show for their new one at the Jalopy, $10

1/11, 8 PM genre-smashing avant-jazz saxophonist/singer Stephanie Chou Stephanie Chou and band play her new suite Comfort Girl, focusing on women forced into sexual slavery in Asia during World War II at the Cell Theatre, $20

1/11, 9 PM Super Yamba play their psychedelic Afrobeat jams at Bar Chord

 1/11, 9:30 PM catchy, fun guy/girl indie soul band Sunshine Nights at Freddy’s

1/12, 3 and 5 PM the new electroacoustic, gospel-inspired opera Stinney: An American Execution, examining the ugly background behind the murder of 14-year-old South Carolina black teenager, framed and executed in 1944 for a crime he didn’t commit, at the French Institute, 55 E 59th St., $30

1/12, 4 PM this year’s first installment of Luisa Muhr’s amazing Women Between Arts multidisciplinary series opens with performance poet Adeenna Karasick with klezmer trumpet legend Frank London, nterdisciplinary artist Alison Kobayashi and Marisa Michelson & Constellation Chor, who do hypnotic Pauline Oliveros style improvisations at the Glass Box Theatre at the New School, 55 W 13th St, $20, “sliding scale available” for low-income/students

1/12, 6 PM eclectic, edgy soul/art-rock/funk/chamber-pop cellist/singer Marika Hughes  followed at 8 by surreal, intense klezmer/oldtime gospel guy/girl duo Book of J and at 10 byPangari & the Socialites playing classic ska and rocksteady – most of it from the 60s Skatalites catalog – at Barbes 

1/12, 7 PM the NJ Symphony Orchestra play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 with Emmanuel Ax as soloist and Tschaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony at NJPAC in Newark, $20 tix avail

1/12. 7 PM the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra play late works by Mozart and Dvorak at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, $25 tix avail

1/12, 8 PM the Royal Arctic Institute – who veer between surfy rock instrumentals and darker, quieter, more noir and jazz-tinged themes – at the Parkside

1/12, 8 PM electronic works by Stephen Vitiello and Taylor Deupree, magical thereminist Dorit Chrysler and Nadav Assor screening video and doing “tunneling” – archaeology? Subway building? – ​at the Fridman Gallery,​ 169 Broadway, $20/$15 stud   

 1/12, 8 PM erudite, purist torchy cosmopolitan jazz chanteuse Svetlana & the NY Swing Collective at the Cell Theatre, $15

1/12, 8 PM raucous, politically sharp, anthemic folk noir songwriter Mac McCarty at Sidewalk

1/12, 8 PM subversive avant garde/psych-folk Iranian crooner Mohsen Namjoo at Symphony Space, $30 tix avail

1/12, 8 PM Victor Jara-influenced songwriter Fred Arcoleo followed by south Williamsburg oi punk band the Infiltrators at the People’s Voice Cafe, sugg don, $20, “more if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away.”  

1/12, 8ish creepy noir chamber pop/murder ballad duo Charming Disasterand high-voltage steampunk duo Frenchy & the Punk at Coney Island Baby 

1/12, 8:30 PM theatrical newgrass/Americana band the  Lobbyists at the big room at the Rockwood, $10 

1/12, 10:30 PM hilarious, smartly political faux-French retro 60s psych-pop band les Sans Culottes followed by a mysterious guy named Davey playing electric sitar at Freddy’s

1/13, 3 PM violinist Juliet Kurtzman and Libertrio play a program TBA at the 92nd ST. Y, free

1/13, 3 PM the North/South Chamber Orchestra plays works by Christopther James, Max Lifchitz, Alexandro Rodriguez and John Winsor. Violinist Claudia Schaer and guitarist Hermann Hudde are the soloists, free, at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, 122 W. 69th St

1/13, 3 PM indie classical ensemble Sandbox Percussion play a program TBA at Concerts on the Slope, St. John’s Episcopal Church, 139 St. John’s Place downhill from 7th Ave, Park Slope, any train to Grand Army Plz, sugg don

1/13, 4 PM ten-piece early music ensemble the Academy of Sacred Drama perform the modern premiere of Giovanni Antonio Gianettini’s 17th century cautionary oratorio/parable, La creatione de’ magistrati at Corpus Christi Church, 529 W 121St St $10 tix avail  

1/13. 5 PM pianists Joseph Kissner and Evelyne Luest play music of Brahms, Schumann and Chopin at the Lounge at Hudson View Gardens, 128 Pinehurst Ave @ W 183rd St, A train or #1 train (to 181st St) or the M4 bus (to 183rd St), $15/$12 stud/srs

1/13, 7 PM Bombay Rickey’s Drew Fleming does his honkytonk Telecaster twang thing with Brain Cloud’s Skip Krevens on pedal steel and Super Hi-Fi’s Ezra Gale on bass followed at 9:30  by Romany jazz/psychedelic rock guitar mastermind Stephane Wrembel at Barbes

1/13, 7 PM smart, darkly pensive third-stream jazz pianist Noa Fort at the small room at the Rockwood. Intense female-fronted psychedelic groove/funk band Imunuri are next door at the big room, same time

1/13, 7 PM haunting Middle Eastern guitarist Ayman Fanous at Scholes St. Studio

1/13, 7:30 PM Igor Butman & the Moscow Jazz Orchestra play their tectonic, epic repertoire at Dizzy’s Club, $35

1/13, 8 PM solo sets by renowned tuba player Dan Peck, singer Chiquita Magic, guitar loopmusic composer Wendy Eisenberg, bassist Sean Ali and intense improvisational cellist Leila Bordreuil at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, $15

1/13, 9:30 PM noir guitar legend Jim Campilongo leads his trio at 55 Bar

1/14, 7 PM tuneful postbop pianist Jim Ridl leads his group from behind the Rhodes at 55 Bar

1/14, 7 PM “a double bill of two genre-defying drummers performing their newest work. Shayna Dunkelman performs a rare solo set weaving electronic sounds with acoustic percussion. Still searching for a word to describe a live performance with acoustic percussion and electronics that isn’t like watching karaoke. It’s dope, so shut up and call/text/@ if you think of the word. Lia Braswell brings her new project, Mimi Was with Jared Samuel; a combination of improvised as well as composition: ethereal landscapes, intertwining soft grooves between a variety of dynamic and pedal-infused instrumentals to compliment the melodic power of theatrical lyricism, busting ass with class (and vice versa) at Arete Gallery, $15

1/14, 9 PM energetic delta blues/Romany swing guitarist Felix Slim at LIC Bar

1/14, 9:30 PM Cumbiagra – who’ve been going in a much more psychedelic, electric cumbia direction lately-  at Barbes

1/15, 7 PM bassist Max Johnson’s Heroes Trio with Jason Rigby on saxophone, Jeff Davis on drums playing  “compositions by the great bassists and heroes, past and present, such as Jimmy Garrison, Henry Grimes, Charlie Haden, Mark Dresser, Slam Stewart and many more” at Barbes followed at 9 by clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

1/15, 7:30/9:30 PM the haunting, smokily atmospheric Michael Leonhart Orchestra with Chris Potter on tenor sax at the Jazz Standard, $30

1/15, 7:30 PM edgy, shapeshifting, charismatic Korean art-rock/chamber folk/acoustic psychedelic band Black String jam with Ned Rothenberg (woodwinds), Jonathan Goldberger (electric guitar), Satoshi Takeishi (percussion) and more special guests at National Sawdust, $25 adv tix avail. Black String are also at the Lincoln Center atrium on 1/17, same time for free.

1/15, 8 PM slinky, oud-fueled Middle Eastern/Nile Delta dance orchestra Alsarah & the Nubatones  at the Old American Can Factory, 232 3rd St., Gowanus, $18, rsvp reqd, this is an intimate space and likely to sell out, early arrival advised

1/15, 8:30 PM perennially tuneful, lyrical piano improviser/composer Kris Davis leads a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New School, $20. Choice pick: 1/16 with the bes rhythm section she’s ever had, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts and John Hébert, wow

1/15-19, 8:30/11 PM Jamaican jazz piano icon Monty Alexander at Birdland, $30 seats avail

1/15-20, 8:30 PM perennially vital latin jazz piano sage Eddie Palmieri at the Blue Note, $30 standing room avail

1/15, 9 PM elegant oldtimey/frontporch folk/jazz songwriter Shannon Pelcher at Bar Chord

1/15, 9:30 PM the charismatic Fran Pado – of dark art-rockers Goddess – and Hannah Bleier star in Prism and Dewdrop’s Cult Sing-A-Long: “Hell takes many forms. In this hilarious, painful battle between haggard cult devotees, you’ll sing along with Prism and Dewdrop, two middle aged 70’s burnouts with ravished faces and frail selves. They grapple for the love, or at least sexual attention, of their long dead cult leader whose rotting corpse graces the stage. And they, frozen at 14 yrs., recreate, again and again, their yearning for adult male approval. Much Ado About Nothing meets Stage Door in this bio-feminist roller coaster of laughter and tears,” at Dixon Place, $13 adv tix rec

1/15, 10 PM psychedelic funk/Afrobeat jammers the People’s Champs at Baby’s All Right, $10

1/15,  10:30 PM brilliant drummer/percussionist Willie Martinez & La Familia Sextet play classic salsa grooves at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, $10

1/16 and 1/22, 7:30 PM, also on 1/19 at 8 the NY Philharmonic with soloist Yefim Bronfman play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 at Avery Fisher Hall, $31

1/16. 8 PM pianist Simone Leitao plays Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor plus works by Villa-Lobos and Bach at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, $30

1/16, 9 PM cinematic rock band Fuck You Tammy play amazingly spot-on recreations of themes and songs from Twin Peaks and David Lynch films at LIC Bar

1/16, 9 PM world-weary noir pop songwriter Mara Connor at Baby’s All Right, free

1/17, 7:30/9:30 PM an all-star 18-piece big band plays new jazz compositions by Angela Morris, the Wing Walker Orchestra’s Drew Williams and the cinematic Heyseon Hong at the Jazz Galley, $15

1/17, 7:30 PM pianist Per Tengstrand plays works by Debussy, Ravel & Chopin. at Scandinavia House, $25

1/17, 7:30/9:30 PM tuneful, purposeful guitar/piano duos by Nate Radley & Gary Versace at Mezzrow, $20

1/17, 7:30 PM edgy, shapeshifting, charismatic Korean art-rock/chamber folk/acoustic psychedelic band Black String at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

1/17, 8 PM centuries-old, mystical Jewish spiritual counting songs performed by Psoy Korolenko (vocals), Zisl Slepovich (clarinet, flute, piano, vocals) & Ilya Shneyveys (accordion, guitar, vocals) at Barbes

1/17, 8 PM ferociously dynamic, tuneful, female-fronted power trio Castle Black at Gold Sounds, $10

1/17, 8 PM dark cabaret legend  Sanda Weigl sings her new interpretations of obscure 13th century revolutionary poet Walther von der Vogelweide at Joe’s Pub, $18

1/17, 8:30 PM Indian-inspired cellist George Crotty plays the album release show for his new one at the Jalopy, $15

1/17. 9 PM thunderous, titanic Rhode Island Balkan street band What Cheer Brigade, hard-hitting, brass-fueled newschool latin soul/boogaloo dance band Spanglish Fly  and epic, original, intense original Balkan monsters Raya Brass Band at Littlefield, $12

1/18-19, starting at 6 PM it’s Golden Fest, the nation’s most ecstatically fun festival of minor keys, chromatics, eerie close harmonies and music from the Balkans to points further east and west. Not cheap, but a delicious all-you-can-eat buffet is included. At Grand Prospect Hall, 263 Prospect Ave in south Park Slope, R train to Prospect Ave.

1/18, 7 PM improvisational organist/multi-instrumentalist Jamie Saft with bassist Brad Jones and drummer Bobby Previte plus cellist Hank Roberts with drummer Vinnie Sperrazza and pianist Jacob Sacks at the Owl

1/18, 7 PM the debut of classical ensemble Quartet121 playing works by Olga Neuwirth, Katherine Balch, Camila Agosto, James Diaz and Reiko Füting, featuring soprano Amber Evans at the Tenri Institute, $10/$5 stud

1/18, 7:30/9:30  PM drummer/hip-hop artist Kassa Overall duets with Jason Moran at the jazz Gallery, $25, get there early

1/18, 7:30 PM carnatic vocal/tabla duo Ganavya and guitarist Ty Citerman’s Bop Kabbalah playing ‘new radical liberation songs” at Arete Gallery, $15

1/18, 8 PM rustic Brazilian jungle guitar-and-accordion sounds with Regional de NY at Barbes

1/18, 9 PM  catchy, brilliantly lyrical, irrepressibly sardonic janglerock/folk-punk songwriter, New Yorker illustrator and White Hassle alum Marcellus Hall at Pete’s

1/18, 10 PM a short and very welcome return show by singer Jodie Rae Plaut’s refreshingly down-to-earth, wickedly smart, Costelloesque janglerock band Delusions of Grand Street at the Parkside

1/18, 11 PM the darkly eclectic, enigmatic Lorraine Leckie  – equally adept at Slavic and Americana noir and dark cabaret – at Sidewalk

1/19, 7 PM an avant garde summit: fearlessly relevant, genuinely riveting, populist tenor sax visionary/improviser Matana Roberts , electroacoustic film composer/performerHaley Fohr aka Circuit des Yeux  & Suzanne Langille and Daniel Carter, plus Brooklyn Raga Massive sitar mastermind Neel Murgai & Loren Connors at Issue Project Room, $25/$15 stud

1/19, 7:30 PM cleverly funny, catchy female-fronted band Talay, edgy, punk-inspired female-fronted funk band  Eliza and the Organix , creepy, psychedelic circus rock/Russian folk band Mad Meg and guitarslinger Mallory Feuer’s fiery power trio the Grasping Straws – sort of a mashup of Patti Smith and Hole’s first album – at Coney island Baby, $10

1/19, 6 PM eclectic, edgy soul/art-rock/funk/chamber-pop cellist/singer Marika Hughes  followed at 8 by trumpeter Ben Holmes’ broodingly Middle Eastern/klezmer-tinged Naked Lore trio and then at 10 by psychedelic salsa bandleader Zemog El Gallo Bueno at Barbes

1/19, 8 PM Americana songstress Erin Durant and Philly Goat and ferociously lyrical, Macbeth-inspired art-rock/psychedelic songwriter Rose Thomas Bannister and her killer band at the Jalopy, $10

1/19, 8 PM in the round: fearlessly political, picturesque retro folk/blues songwriter Joshua Garcia, 60s folk vet Tom Smith and Gary Allard at the People’s Voice Cafe, sugg don, $20, “more if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away.”  

1/19, 8 PM kinetic jazz vibraphonista Yuhan Su leads her quintet  at the Cell Theatre, $15

1/19, 9:30 PM ominous Laurel Canyon-style psych-folk band the Flowered Gnomes – a Volebeats spinoff – at Pine Box Rock Shop 

1/19, midnight baritone crooner Sean Kershaw‘s Serpentones play “hi octane Brooklyn honkytonk”at at Sidewalk

1/20, 3 PM a dynamic, haunting, sometimes explosive afternoon of Hungarian music with Vadalma and Fényes Banda at Hungarian House, 213 W 82nd St., $15  

1/20, 6:30  PM a post Golden Fest Balkan blowout at the Jalopy with the Balkan-American stars of decades to come, Cocek Nation followed at 7 by dynamic, subtle all-female klezmer band Tsibele, at 8  by the Romany-flavoed Sarma Brass Band and at 8 by the ferocious Novi Hitovi Brass Band, $10, “nobody turned away,” proceeds to benefit Balkan music education

1/20, 6 PM fearlessly relevant, genuinely riveting, populist sax visionary/improviser Matana Roberts duets on alto with Darius Jones followed at 7 by RaaDie with Lorenz Raab on trumpet and Christof Dienz on zither at Downtown Music Gallery

 1/20 ,7 PM darkly torchy southwestern gothic/Europolitan songwriter/guitarist Miwa Gemini at the third stage at the Rockwood, $10

1/20, 9 PM violinist Damian Dudu leads a nine-piece band playing classic and new rembetiko sounds at Drom, $15 standing room avail

1/21, 7:30 PM jazz trumpeter Bria Skonberg and her swing band, edgy, eclectic pan-Mediterranean art-rock/latin/chanson ensemble Banda Magda  and hip-hop/math-metal band R.O.T.I. at National Sawdust, pay what you can, all proceeds to Planned Parenthood in celebration of the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade 

1/21, 9:30 PM ex-Chicha Libre keyboard sorcerer Josh Camp’s wryly psychedelic cumbia/tropicalia/dub band Locobeach at Barbes

1/22-27, 7:3-0/9:30 PM this era’s arguably best jazz pianist, Vijay Iyer at the Jazz Standard, $30. 1/22-23 he lead his trio, 1/24-26 with his sextet

1/22, 8 PM ex-Dylan lead guitarist Larry Campbell with singer Teresa Williams at City Winery, $25 standing room avail

1/22, 8 PM hard-charging oldschool soul/funk/rock singer Bette Smith and band at the Mercury, $10

1/22, 8:30 PM haunting Middle Eastern jazz violinist Layale Chaker and group play the album release show for their new one at the Stone at the New School,  $20. Very highly recommended.  

1/22, 9 PM brooding cello slowcore songs with Meaner Pencil at Freddy’s

1/22, 10 PM rising star trumpeter Adam O’Farrill‘s Stranger Days Quartet at 55 Bar

1/23-26, 7/9 PM ferociously smart postbop trumpeter Ingrid Jensen leads her quintet at Birdland, $30 seats avail

1/23, 7:15 PM classic rural Macedonian sounds with reedman Vedran Boshkovski and ensemble at Balkan Cafe, 455 W. 56th St, $15

1/23-26, 8:30 PM hauntingly atmospheric pan-Asian chanteuse/composer and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu leads a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New Scnool, $20. Choice pick:1/24 with drum sampler Ikue Mori and wicked violist Mat Maneri

1/24, 7 PM the epically haunting Moscow-based East/West Trio – Marina Omelchenko, organ ; Oganes Kazarian, duduk; Tehmine Zaryan, soprano performing works by Bach, Ekmalyan, Komitas, Mozart, Pachelbel and Shirakazi at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, free

1/24, 7 PM perennially sharp;, wickedly tuneful, jangly Americana band Mary Lee’s Corvette revisit their classic live performance of Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks album in its entirety at Joe’s Pub, $18

1/24, 7:30 PM, repeating 1/25-26 at 8 Jaap van Zweden conducts the NY Philharmonic in Julia Wolfe’s new immersive visual and musical event — featuring lights, chamber choir, video, and projection — weighing the legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, at Avery Fisher Hall, $31

1/24, 7:30 PM Son Sublime play oldschool Afro-Cuban charanga jams at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

1/24, 7:30 PM poet Paul Muldoon hosts a colorful roundttable with fellow poet Jorie Graham, novelist Colm Tóibín and visionary violinist/social critic Laurie Anderson discussing how to keep the arts alive amid corporate fascism, social media saturation and other grim current events at National Sawdust, $30 adv tix rec

1/24, 8 PM edgy lefty lead guitarist Damian Quinones and his psychedelic latin soul band at Barbes

`1/24, 8:30 PM clarinetist Aaron Novik and band explore classic Indian raga themes at the Jalopy, $15

1/24, 8:30 PM ambient guitar ensemble Fyrn – whose guitars are “bowed with metal files and metal bars, creating dense and hauntingly beautiful, decaying sonic ambient landscapes that engulf the audience as the ensemble sets up in a large circle around them,”  at Arete Gallery, $15

1/24, 8 PM conversational pianist Jeffrey Siegel plays musical miniatures by Wilhelm Stenhammar (Sweden), Jean Sibelius (Finland), Carl Nielsen (Denmark), Dag Wirén (Sweden), Christian Sinding (Norway) and Brahms at Scandinavia House, $25

1/24, 8 PM Lea Bertucci and Amirtha Kidambi sing their new duo vocal project followed by the world premiere of Mass of Dissolution, Bertucci’s new work for percussion trio Tigue (Matt Evans, Amy Garapic, and Carson Moody), “an incantation against the blind violence of military-industrial power that dominates global dynamics,” at the Kitchen, $25

1/24, 8:30 PM a wild klezmer dance party with Steven Weintraub  Ken Maltz, Lauren Brody, Aaron Alexander at Town & Village Social Hall, 334 E 14th St.(between 1st & 2nd Ave.), $15

1/24, 10 PM raucous Boston newgrass band Mamma’s Marmalade at Pete’s 

1/25, 6 PM oldtime resonator guitarist/songwriter Rust Dust at the American Folk Art Museum

1/25, 7:30 PM violinist Stanichka Dimitrova leads a quintet playing a haunting, literary twinbill: Beethoven – Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9, Opus 47 (“Kreutzer”) and  Janáček – String Quartet “Kreutzer Sonata”at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, $25/$10 stud/srs

1/25, 8 PM the year’s best twinbill so far: intense Balkan chanteuse Jenny Luna‘s haunting, traditional Turkish band Dolunay  followed by the world’s creepiest crime jazz/film noir band, Big Lazy at Barbes

1/25-26, 8 PM the reliably entertaining, adventurous Chelsea Symphony  play an Aaron Dai world premiere plus Frank Martin — Ballade for Flute and Orchestra with soloist Kim Lewis; Bach — Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052R;  Sibelius — Symphony No. 2 in D Major, op. 43. The 1/26 show switches out the Martin for Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto, at St. Paul’s Church, 315 W 22nd St., $20 sugg don

1/25, 8 PM meticulous, unbelievably tight, hypnotic tabla-and-harmonium ensemble Talavya at Flushing Town Hall, $16/$10 stud/srs, under 19 free w/id

1/25, 8 PM the 11-person Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble perform lush, microtonal Anthony Braxton works from their new album of his Syntactical Ghost Trance Music at Roulette, $18 adv tix rec

1/25, 8 PM pianist Mary Prescott plays solo improvisations at Arete Gallery, $15

1/25, 8 PM the NJ Symphony Orchestra with soloist Daniel Trifonov play Schumann’s Piano Concerto  No. 1, Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy and Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra at NJPAC in Newark, $20 tix avail

125. 8 PM the American Symphony Orchestra play works of Robert Mann, Jacob Druckman, Vivian Fine and William Schuman at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, $25 tix avail

1/25, 8 PM lustrously tuneful percussionist James Shipp with guitarist Taylor Ashton and elegant folk noir songwriter Jean Rohe at the Owl

1/25, 8 PM ex-October Project bandleader and art-rock chanteuse Mary Fahl at City Vineyard, $25

1/25, 9 PM Stefan Jackiw, violin & Conrad Tao, piano play works by Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, Saariaho and Brahms at the 92nd St. Y, $25

1/25, 11 PM purist CBs style female-fronted punks the Carvels NYC followed by punk/rockabilly band the Screaming Rebel Angels at the Mercury, $12

1/26, 2:30 PM pianist Beth Levin performs works of Wang Jie, Vladimir N. Drozdoff,Beethoven and Handel at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts, free

1/26, 4 PM “music, performances, and readings inspired by Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 song “C.R.E.A.M” (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) with a lineup led by Sable Elyse Smith, including Jibade-Khalil Huffman and Simone White, Devin Kenny, and Bonita Oliver, as well as poetry readings by A. H. Jerriod Avant and Smith herself. “Works that dismantle and reimagine “C.R.E.A.M.” as a song and as a larger cultural moment. The contributors interrogate mass incarceration and shed light on the interrelationship between the prison-industrial complex and high finance, violence, intimacy, and trauma, to pursue what exists beyond those broken narratives,” free w/rsvp 

1/26, 4/5:30 PM oldschool Colombian cumbia jammes La Cumbiamba Eneye at Flushing Town Hall, $14,$8 kids

1/26, 6 PM eclectic, edgy soul/art-rock/funk/chamber-pop cellist/singer Marika Hughes followed at 8 by the Dirty Waltz Band- a seven-piece group playing more than a dozen instruments in 3/4 time from Balkan, Irish, jazz, blues and American folk traditions – and then at 10 by the haphazardly funny Eastern Blokhedz  – who do psychedelic covers of 60s Russian psychedelic pop songs and specialize in the catalog of legendary Polish singer Edita Piaha –at Barbes

1/26, 8 PM the Orlando Consort, Joined by bass Robert Macdonald,sing works by Josquin des Prez, Clemens non Papa, Nicolas Gombert and others, concluding with Lamentations by English Tudor composer Robert White at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, 145 W 46th St,  $30 tix avail

1/26, 10:30 PM long-running, high-energy, sardonic Irish folk-punk band Box of Crayons at Freddy’s

1/27, 4 PM the Orchestra Now play Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” and Ravel’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s classic, creepy “Pictures at an Exhibition,” at Symphony Space, free

1/27, 4 PM German recorder quintet Han Tol & Boreas Quartett Bremen play medieval tunes by Tye, Holborne, Dowland, Vivaldi, Boismortier and others at Corpus Christi Church, 529 W 121St St $10 tix avail

1/27, 7 PM brilliant steel guitarist Mike Neer’s Steelonious – who do Monk covers in the same vein as Buddy Emmons –   followed at 9:30  by Romany jazz/psychedelic rock guitar mastermind Stephane Wrembel at Barbes

1/27, 7 PM Wavefield Ensemble premiere works by Matthew Ricketts, Rebecca Saunders, Katherine Balch’s Una Corda, plus works by Iannis Xenakis  at National Sawdust, $25 adv tix rec 

1/27, 8:30 PM eclectic, tuneful accordionist/songwriter Ali Dineen at Pete’s

1/28, 7:30/9:30 PM powerhouse reedwoman Anna Webber plays flute and sax leading a sextet with Matt Mitchell on piano at the Jazz Gallery, $15

1/28, 10ish singer Carolina Oliveros’ mighty 13-piece Afro-Colombian trance/dance choir Bulla en el Barrio at Barbes

1/29, drinks at 5:30 PM, show at 6, indie classical chamber group Either/Or play works by their leader Richard Carrick at the Miller Theatre, free

1/29, 6:30 PM “In her new film Pellea[s], Josephine Meckseper adapts Maurice Maeterlinck’s otherworldly play Pelléas et Mélisande for our current sociopolitical landscape, weaving together fictional scenarios and dramatic footage captured from the last Presidential inauguration, as well as from the landmark women’s march that followed. Conflating contemporary political realities with a timeless love story, the city of Washington D.C. and its architecture become a context and site of departure, giving voice to debates around notions of gender found in the original play. Underscoring the film is Arnold Schoenberg’s modernist version of Pelléas et Mélisande,” at the Kitchen, free

1/29, 8 PM New Andalucia play Middle Eastern tunes at Sisters Brooklyn, 900 Washington St., C to Clnton/Washington

 1/29-2/2, 8:30 PM perennially interesting piano/percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire lead a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New Scnool, $20. Choice pick: 1/31 with bassoonist Katherine Young

1/29, 9 PM sharply lyrical janglerock/Americana/soul songwriter Matt Keating and guitarist Steve Mayone’s catchy new project the Bastards of Fine Arts at 11th St. Bar

1/30, 7:30 PM unstoppably edgy, deservedly iconic, fearlessly political downtown guitarist Marc Ribot plays his enigmatic, witty acoustic score to Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid at the World Financial Center, free

1/30, 7:30/9:30 PM whirlwind B3 jazz organist Pat Bianchi leads a killer quartet with Joe Locke on vibes at the Jazz Standard, $30

 1/30-31, 7:30 PM, repeating 2/1-2 at 8 the NY Philharmonic play Mozart’s Symphony No, 1 and Jupiter Symphony; Emmanuel Ax joins them on piano for Stravinskiy’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra and Haydn’s Piano Concerto No. 11 at Avery Fisher Hall, $34

1/30, 8 PM haunting, cinematic lapsteel genius Myk Freedman leads his band  at Barbes

1/30, 8 PM bassist Nick Dunston leads his highly improvisational quintet, Atlantic Extraction, with Louna Dekker-Vargas on flutes, Ledah Finck on violin, Tal Yahalom on guitar, and Stephen Boegehold on drums at Roulette, $18 adv tix rec

1/30, 9 PM powerhouse soul singers Meah Pace, Shelly Bhushan, Nicole Zuraitis, Carol Thomas and special guests salute Aretha Franklin at LIC Bar

1/31, 7 PM Burnt Sugar celebrate 20 years of lush Braxton-ish largescale improvisation, hard funk, James Brown and Bowie covers and more at the Brooklyn Museum, $16

1/31, 7:30 PM a screening of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu with electronic score by Irene and Linda Buckley at the World Financial Center, free

1/31, 7:30 PM fearlessly relevant latin rock songwriter and protest song connoisseur Ani Cordero at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

1/31, 7:30/9:30 PM postbop/improv jazz drum maven Ches Smith leads a new two-guitar quartet with both Mary Halvorson and Liberty Ellman at the Jazz Gallery, $15

1/31, 8 PM deviously theatrical oldschool C&W/rockabilly parodists Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co at Otto’s

1/31, 8:30 PM dynamic, subtle all-female klezmer band Tsibele at Town & Village Social Hall, 334 E 14th St. (between 1st & 2nd Ave.), $15

1/31 8:30 PM Indian carnatic singer Samyukta Ranganathan with her electric raga band at the Jalopy, $15

1/31, 8:30 PM Brooklyn folk-punk legend Paranoid Larry at Freddy’s

1/31, 10 PM drummer Arthur Vint & Associates reinvent classic Morricone spaghetti western soundtracks at Barbes

1/31, 10 PM legendary punk-soul bandleader Jon Spencer at Rough Trade, $20 gen adm

1/31. 10;30 bouncy live hip-hop groove band the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble at the Blue Note, $20 standing room avail

 1/31, 10:30 PM noisy, careening, paint-peeling duo Wolf Eyes at Brooklyn Bazaar $17

2/1, 5:30 PM soul/gospel belter (and Lenny Molotov collaborator) Queen Esther at the American Folk Art Museum 

2/1, 7 PM indie classical ensemble SoundArt NYC play a rare program of Costra Rican composers including Valeria Brenes, Carlos Jose Castro Mora and Susan Campos-Fonseca at the Americas Society, free

2/1, 7:30 PM Alloy Orchestra play their live score to Josef von Sternberg’s silent gangster film Underworld at the World Financial Center, free

2/1, 9:30 PM chamber tango night with poignant, eclectic, lyrical jazz bassist/composer Pedro Giraudo’s Tango Quartet and similarly adventurous pan-latin singer Sofia Tosello at joe’s Pub, $20

2/1, 9:30 PM Cumbiagra – who’ve been going in a much more psychedelic direction lately – at Barbes. They’re also here on 2/11 at 9:30ish

2/1, 10 PM Atlas & the All World Band play fiery, socially aware roots reggae at Shrine 

2/2, 4 PM cinematic, psychedelic quirk-pop keyboardist Michael Hearst presents “Curious, Unusual and Extraordinary” songs from his many bands followed eventually at 6 by low register reedman Josh Sinton’s Phantasos playing Morphine covers,  followed at 8 by pianist Lucian Ban and violist Mat Maneri playimg their creepy Transylvanian jazz at Barbes

2/2. 5 PM pensive, Middle Eastern-tinged guitarist Jonathan Goldberger and band followed at 6 by atmospheric, cinematic drummer/composer Tim Kuhl and his group at Pete’s

2/3, 7 PM tuneful, state-of-the-art postbop jazz guitarist Will Bernard and band play Strayhorn followed at 9:30  by Romany jazz/psychedelic rock guitar mastermind Stephane Wrembel at Barbes

2/4, 9:30ish Los Mochuelos plays classic Colombian vallenato music at Barbes

2/5, 7 PM Free Range Rat with Slavic Soul Party‘s John Carlson 0- trumpet, pocket trumpet & flugelhorn; Eric Hipp – tenor saxophone – Shawn McGloin – bass and George Schuller – drums, followed at 9 by SSP doing their amazing Balkan brass/hip-hop mashups at Barbes

2/6, 8 PM pyrotechnic clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski’s ferociously kinetic NY Gypsy All-Stars  at Drom, $10 adv tix rec

2/6, 9:30 PM high lonesome Orbisonesque acoustic Americana with Bobby Blue the Balladeer at the Jalopy. 2/16 at 11 they’re at Better Days, 302 Broome St; 2/22 at 10 they’re at Diviera Drive, 131 Berry St in Wiliamsburg

2/9, 8 PM the NY Repertory Orchestra with Gretchen Windt, mezzo-soprano play Vaughan Williams: English Folk Song Suite; Elgar: Sea Pictures; Moeran: Symphony in G minor at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, 145 W 26th St., $15 sug don

3/24, 5 PM the Manhattan Chamber Players perform works by Mozart, Schumann, and Bruch at the Lounge at Hudson View Gardens, 128 Pinehurst Ave @ W 183rd St, A train or #1 train (to 181st St) or the M4 bus (to 183rd St), $15/$12 stud/srs

4/7, 5 PM the Kandinsky Trio perform a lyrical early Beethoven piano trio and then will be joined by clarinetist Jose Garcia Taborda and narrator Patricia Raun for Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time at the Lounge at Hudson View Gardens, 128 Pinehurst Ave @ W 183rd St, A train or #1 train (to 181st St) or the M4 bus (to 183rd St), $15/$12 stud/srs

5/26, 5 PM pianist Andrea Lam performs Bach, Schumann and Stravinsky at the Lounge at Hudson View Gardens, 128 Pinehurst Ave @ W 183rd St, A train or #1 train (to 181st St) or the M4 bus (to 183rd St), $15/$12 stud/srs

6/16, 5 PM cellist Angela Lee, with pianist Evelyne Luest play works by Beethoven, Prokofiev and Janáček at the Lounge at Hudson View Gardens, 128 Pinehurst Ave @ W 183rd St, A train or #1 train (to 181st St) or the M4 bus (to 183rd St), $15/$12 stud/srs

Live Music Calendar for New York City and Brooklyn for December 2018 and January 2019

Daily updates, and a January/February calendar coming 1/1 –til then, if you go out a lot, you might want to bookmark this page and check back regularly. If you’re leaving your hood, make sure you check http://www.mta.info for service changes considering how the trains are at night and on the weekend.

If you don’t recognize a venue where a particular act is playing, check the comprehensive, recently updated list of over 200 New York City music venues 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.

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 published here weeks in advance. Weekly events first followed by the daily calendar.

If you see a typo or an extra comma or something like that, remember that while you were out seeing that great free concert that you found out about here, somebody was up late after a long day of work editing and adding listings to this calendar ;)

On select Wednesdays 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, beverages and lively conversation included! Next performance is 12/5 at 7 PM with special guest violinist Gregor Kitzis playing Mozart, email for details/address

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 in December, 10 PM noir guitar legend Jim Campilongo leads his trio at the big room at the Rockwood, $10

Mondays in December, 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 December, clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party  at 9 PM at Barbes (check the club calendar). Get there as soon as you can as they’re very popular. $10 cover.

Wednesdays in December, 8 PM the Binky Griptite Orchestra (formerly Sharon Jones’ brilliant oldschool soul backing band) at Threes Brewing Outpost, 113 Franklin St (Greenpoint/Kent Aves) in Greenpoint, free

Three Thursdays in December: 12/6, 12/13 and 12/20, 7ish Sophia Sobers’ enveloping, hypnotic electronic soundscape Synthetic Sound Baths at 320-B Canal St (Bwy/Church). Chill on plush soft sculptures Sobers created as part of her multimedia installation, free 

Thursdays at 8 in December the Brooklyn Raga Massive – a rotating cast of A-list Indian, jazz and rock musicians who love to jam out classic Indian themes from over the centuries to the present day – play the Jalopy, $15 adv tix at the bar at the main space. Tons of special guests followed by a wild raga jam!

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

Fridays at 7:30 PM tenor saxophonist Ken Fowser leads his band at the Django. Jukebox jazz in a JD Allen vein but not as dark and more straight-ahead/groove-oriented: as postbop party music goes, nobody’s writing better than this guy right now.

Free classical concerts on Saturdays at 4 PM in October at Bargemusic;  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.

Sundays in December, at sometime past noon at Hank’s, Nashville gothic crooner Sean Kershaw‘s legendary honkytonk brunch is back; special guests from his wide circle of NYC Americana acts keep the afternoon going until about 7. It’s just like 1999 again -at least until the bar closes sometime this year

Sundays in December, 8 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; the 12/30 show is a very very rare solo gig

12/1, 5 PM, cinematic guitar-and EFX dude Xander Naylor  followed by atmospheric, cinematic drummer/composer Tim Kuhl – sort of a more straightforwardly trippy version of John Hollenbeck – at Pete’s

12/1, 7 PM Tejas Tope solo on tabla, sarangi player Rohan Misra, then a carnatic vocal performance by Shankhadip Chakraborty with Misra, Todd Miller on tabla and Niyati Kashyap on harmonium at the Chhandayan Center For Indian Music, $20

12/1, 7:15 PM dark psychedelic acoustic blues/klezmer/reggae/soca jamband Hazmat Modine at Terra Blues. They’re also here on 12/15

12/1, 8ish acerbic, smartly historically-inspired, politically fearless acoustic songwriter Kristin Lems at the People’s Voice Cafe, sugg don, $20, “more if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away.”  

12/1, 8 PM brilliantly improvisational pianist Mara Rosenbloom‘s philosophically-inspired FLYWAYS with bassist Adam Lane and singer/percussionist Anais Maviel   at I-Beam, $15

12/1, 8 PM drummer Devin Gray’s intricately kinetic, highly improvisational Dirigo Rataplan at Greenwich House Music School, $15/$12 stud/srs

12/1, 8 PM a rare NYC appearance by high-voltage Afro-Colombian bullerengue bandleader Darlina Saenz at the Jalopy, $15

12/1, 8 PM imagistic, compellingly lyrical acoustic songwriter Sandy Bell guests at chamber pop stylist Alice Bierhorst’s album release show followed at 10 by epic ranchera/bolero brass crew Banda de los Muertos at Barbes

12/1, 8 PM the NYU01 Orchestra play Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85; Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, “Italian” at the NYU Skirball Center, LaGuardia at Washington Square South, free

12/1, 9 PM a stripped-down oud and vocal version of Balkan chanteuse Jenny Luna‘s haunting, slinky, oud-driven Turkish band Dolunay at the Owl

12/1, 8:3o PM soul-rockers NO ICE‘s charismatic frontman Jamie Frey followed by scruffy indie gutter blues duo Eleanor at the Gutter, $5. Frey is also at Freddy’s the following night, 12/2 at 8.

12/1 Unsteady Freddie‘s monthly surf rock extravaganza at Otto’s begins at 9 PM with the surf-punk Tsunamibots, the Swiss Obsidians, the brand-new Renegade Lounge and sometime around midnight the kazoo-driven El Muchacho

12/1, 9 PM ten-piece country/carnivalesque/acoustic rock powerhouse M Shanghai String Band at the Jalopy, $!0

12/1, 9 PM the Space Merchants – the missing link between the Stooges and X – at Hank’s, $8

12/1, 10 PM oldschool soul ballads with singer Camille Atkisson’s Empire Beats at the Way Station

12/2, 1 PM low-key deep-Brooklyn sounds with Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens playing a gospel brunch show at Bar Lunatico. They’re also here on 12/16

12/2, 2 PM Trio Solisti play works by Haydn, Brahms and Dvorak at the Town Hall, $17

12/2, 2:30 PM erhu player Feifei Yang leads her quartet playing a wild mix of 1930s Shanghai speakeasy tunes, coy classical and cheesy top 40 covers at Flushing Town Hall, $16/$10 stud free for 18 and under

12/2, 3 PM Chloe Fedor and Jessica Park,violin; Monica Davis,viola; Benjamin Larsen,cello and Stuart Breczinski,oboe play Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370; Paolo Marchettini: Septem vitia capitalia (The Seven Deadly Sins); Britten: Phantasy Quartet for Oboe & String Trio in F minor, Op. 2 and Beethoven: String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 at Concerts on the Slope, St. John’s Episcopal Church, 139 St. John’s Place downhill from 7th Ave, Park Slope, any train to Grand Army Plz, sugg don

12/2, 3 PM the NJ Symphony Orchestra play works by  Milhaud, Stravinsky’s Firebird and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in  Blue with soloist Aaron Diehl at NJPAC in Newark, $20 tix avail

12/2, 3 PM the Greenwich Village Orchestra play the Beethoven Triple Concerto in C Major and the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra at All Saints Church, 230 E 60th St (2/3rd Aves), $20, $20

12/2, 3:15 PM concert organist Daniel Brondel plays a program TBA at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

12/2, 4 PM the Orchestra Now plays Bartok’s Symphony No. 6 at Symphony Space, free

12/2, 7:30 PM serpentine, cinematic, epic art-rock band Book of Harmony and string metal band Stratospheerius at Drom, $10 adv tix rec. This twinbill absolutely slayed at Gold Sounds last summer.  

12/2, 8 PM perennially tuneful, pensively lyrical Americana janglerocker Mike Ferrio of Tandy and Good Luck Mountain at 11th St. Bar

12/2, 8:30 PM Cameron Mizell – the best pastoral jazz guitarist not named Bill Frisell – at Pete’s

12/3, 6 PM the improvisationally-inclined Osso String Quartet at the Fat Cat

12/3, 7 PM the Argus Quartet premiere string quartets by Ted Hearne, Christopher Cerrone and Juri Seo at 1 Rivington St., 2nd Fl. just off Bowery, $20/$10 stud,

12/3, 7 PM diverse, purposeful, poignant bassist/composer Iris Ornig  plays the album release show for her new one Storyteller with a killer quintet featuring Arco Sandoval on piano at 55 Bar

12/3, 8 PM witheringly lyrical Texas populist songwriter James McMurtry at City Winery, $28 standing room avail

12/3, 8 PM fascinatingly lyrical, individualistic pianist Sylvie Courvoisier with her trio, then joined by trumpeter Nate Wooley at Roulette, $18 adv tix req

12/4, drinks at 5:30 PM, show at 6, perennially interesting piano/percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire play works by Crumb, Saint-Saens and Tschaikovsky at the Miller Theatre, free

12/4, 7 PM lustrous singer and badass cello-rock bandleader Serena Jost  at Pangea, $20

12/4, 7:30 PM the NY Philharmonic play Britten’s Violin Concerto and Shostakovich’s ferocious antiwar Symphony No 7 at Avery Fisher Hall, $30 tix avail

12/4, 8:30  PM Thurston Moore leads a series of non Sonic Youth bands at the Stone at the New School, $20. Get there early. Choice pick: opening night with Bill Nace (guitar) Samara Lubelski (violin)

12/4, 9 PM wickedly torchy noir songwriter Julia Haltigan and her killer band on her old home turf at 11th St Bar

12/4, 10 PM Ensemble Ipse play recent music for string quartet including works by Stephanie Griffin (the hilarious Happy Car Ride from her Lost String Quartet), Alex Hall, Ari Sussman, Ursula Brown and Can Bilir at Arete Gallery, $20/$10 stud/sr

12/4, 10:30 PM charismatic, adventurous postbop/avant garde trombonist/crooner Frank Lacy leads his sextet at Smalls

12/5, 1 PM rising star pianist Mackenzie Melamed plays works by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Medtner at the Greene Space, free, res req 

12/5, 7 PM the New School Studio Orchestra plays a rare all-John Clayton big band jazz program at the New School auditorium at 63 Fifth Avenue, Room U100, free

12/5, 7:30 PM postbop sax cult hero Kenny Brooks leads his quartet at Smalls

12/5-8 the annual three-day free Roots & Ruckus Festival at the Jalopy starts tonight, with short sets by an insanely good, pan-global cross section of the NYC folk underground. Stage 1 at the Jalopy Theatre begins at 9:00 PM – The Jalopy Chorus; 9:30 PM – Taylor Plas; 10:00 PM – Yva Las Vegass 10:30 PM – fearlessly haunting, dynamic, charismatic Romany/Balkan chanteuse Eva Salina with pyrotechnic accordionist Peter Stan; 11:00 PM – Lord Youth; 11:30 PM – Rashad Brown; Stage 2 at the Jalopy Tavern starts at 8:00 PM – Wyndham Baird; 9:00 PM – Hannah Thompson 10:00 PM – The adrenalizing, bluegrass fiddling Berger Sisters; 11:00 PM – Anna J. Witiuk

12/5, 8 PM Dervisi feat. guitar god Steve Antonakos play “exotic Greek gangsta blues” and Middle Eastern flavored hash smoking anthems at Troost

12/5, 8/9:30 PM  rising star singer/pianist and Christian McBride protegee Kelly Green with Alex Tremblay (bass), Evan Hyde (drums) at Mezzrow, $20

12/5, klezmer clarinet/mandolin wizard Andy Statman at Barbes, $10

12/5, 9 PM bass goddess/soul singer Felice Rosser’s ageless reggae-rock-groove band Faith  at C’Mon Everybody, $10

12/5, 9 PM Lainie Fefferman premieres her electroacoustic song cycle White Fire, “about feminist ways of re-owning foundational Jewish texts – attempting to give a powerful voice to matriarchs and heroines often sidelined in the narrative,” at Issue Project Room, $15/$12 stud/srs

12/6, 7 PM cellist Matt Haimovitz and the Mannes Cello Ensemble play a program TBA at the New School auditorium, Room A106, 66 W 12th St, free

12/6, 7 PM the Jazz Passengers’ spectacular vibraphonist Bill Ware leads his quintet followed by the great unsung NYC hero of darkly purposeful, noir-tinged jazz guitar, Saul Rubin at the Fat Cat. Rubin is also here on 12/11 and 12/18 at 7

12/6, 7:30 PM, repeating on 12/8 at 8 Jaap van Zweden leads the NY Philharmonic playing Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, plus works by Schubert and Strauss at Avery Fisher Hall, $31 tix avail

12/6, 7:30 PM adventurously tuneful pianist Aruan Ortiz with special guest tba; the concert’s second half features two chamber pieces: Living in the Midst of a Twisted Globe, to be performed by the trio of violinist Mary Rowell, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler & pianist Geoffrey Burleson; and Ogguere (when the soul of the earth, dances around spectral motions), played by brass quintet: Daniel Blankinship and Nate Wooley (trumpets), Ryan Keberle (trombone), Vince Chancey (French horn) & José Dávil (tuba)  at Greenwich House Music School, $25/$20 stud/srs

12/6, 7:30 PM kinetic Cuban jazz pianist Elio Villafranca leads his trio at Aaron Davis Hall, free, rsvp req 

12/6, 6 PM klezmer violinist Jake Shulman-Ment with rippllng tsimbl (Ukrainian Jewish dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky at Poe Park in the Bronx.

12/6, 7 P{M pianist Biljana Petrovska plays a rare program of works by Macedonian composers Tamislav Zografsky, Damjan Temkov, Bete Ilin and Dimitrije Buzarovski plus her own haunting arrangements of folk tunes at Gallery MC

12/6, 7:30 PM the playful the Nouveau Classical Project perform a program of emerging composes TBA at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

12/6, day 2 of the annual three-day free Roots & Ruckus Festival at the Jalopy continues with short sets by an insanely good, pan-global cross section of the NYC folk underground. Stage 1 at the Jalopy Theatre starts at 8:30 PM – Miss Maybell with Charlie Judkins; 9:00 PM – Brooklyn Raga Massive with Neel Murgai & Mir Naqibul Islam; 9:30 PM – Bobby Blue The Balladeer 10:00 PM -western swing faves Brain Cloud’s frontwoman Tamar Korn – who can impersonate any instrument ever made; 10:30 PM – wild, spiraling, rare rustic minor-key Polesian klezmer dances and grooves with Litvakus;11:00 PM -pensively psychedelic, massively tuneful Moroccan/Venezuelan-influenced songwriter Miriam Elhajl; 11:30 PM – fiery oldtimey string band the Four O’Clock Flowers. Stage 2 at the Jalopy Tavern has 8:00pm – Paisley Fields; 9:00pm – Mara Kaye; 10:00pm – Skalopy Brass

12/6, 8 PM New York’s most charismatic, darkly compelling lyrical songwriter/storyteller/keyboard genius Rachelle Garniez followed by Balkan chanteuse Jenny Luna‘s haunting, slinky, oud-driven Turkish band Dolunay  at Barbes

 12/6, 8 PM deviously theatrical oldschool C&W/rockabilly parodists Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co with “guest vegan” Stella Rose Saint Clair at Mable’s Smokehouse, 44 Berry St, Williamsburg, free

12/6, 8:30 PM the world’s creepiest crime jazz/film noir band, Big Lazy at Bar Lunatico

12/6, 9 PM intense, soaring harmonium player/singer Elana Low – a more organic, trancey version of Marissa Nadler, maybe –  at Petes

12/6, 9 PM Betsayda Machado y La Parranda – “the voice of Venezuela” and the Jimi Hendrix of the cuatro, Jorge Glem lead an allstar band playing  parranda, gaitas y aguinaldos and more at Drom, $25 gen adm

12/6, 10 PM perennially haunting, atmospheric folk noir/art-rock chanteuse Marissa Nadler at Rough Trade, $15 gen adm

12/6, 10:30 PM long-running phantasmagorical art-rockers/circus punks Devotchka at the Manderley Bar, $27.50. 12/8 at 8 they’re at Elsewhere, $27.50 gen adm

12/7, 6 PM magical ex-Chicha Libre timbalera Karina Colis leads her latin jazz group followed at 10:30 by cutting-edge B3 organ and trombone soul/jazz grooves with the Jared Gold and Dave Gibson Band at the Fat Cat

12/7, 6:30 PM high-voltage psychedelic cumbia/Afrobeat jamband MAKU Soundsystem at the rec center at Marcus Garvey Park, free. The following evening, 5/8 an hour earlier they’re at the Arrow Fieldhouse, 35-38 35th St. in Astoria, free, N/W to 36th Av e, They’re also at Joe’s Pub on 12/13 at 9 for $15

12/7, 7 PM the Bil Afrah Project celebrates one of the Middle East’s legendary albums: Ziad Rahbani’s 1975 Bil Afrah suite. An all-star NYC lineup includes percussionist Michel Merhej, who played on the haunting, dynamic original album, very rarely played live in its entirety. The group absolutely slayed with this last year –  at CUNY Elebash Hall, 365 5th Ave north of 34th St., $25

12/7 day 3 of the annual three-day free Roots & Ruckus Festival at the Jalopy continues with short sets by an insanely good, pan-global cross section of the NYC folk underground. Stage 1 at the Jalopy Theatre starts at 8:00 PM – Eli Smith 8:30 PM -the haunting Ukrainian Village Voices; 9:00 PM – plaintive Yorkshire/Appalachian singer Jan Bell – whose gloomy chronicles of Brooklyn gentrification are spot-on; 9:30 PM – charismatic, politically fearless, historically-inspired oldtime country blues duo Piedmont Bluz; 10:00 PM – The Sunwrays (Frankie Sunswept & Kyle Morgan);10:30 PM – The Horse-Eyed Men; 11:00 PM – Isto; 11:30 PM – Nat Myers. Stage 2 at the Jalopy Tavern has 7:00 PM – Starcrossed Losers; 8:00 PM –  blues guitarist Will Scott – who can play just about any style from all over the country; 9:00 PM -King Isto’s Tropical String Band play jaunty, balmy Hawaiian sounds; 10:00 PM – Balkan chanteuse Jenny Luna‘s haunting, slinky, oud-driven Turkish band Dolunay ; 11:00 PM – The Rocket 88’s

12/7, 7 PM irrepressible, transgressively funny postbop saxophonist Jon Irabagon does double duty, first with his noisy Axis project, then with pianist Gabriel Zucker. Cellist Mariel Roberts of the Mivos Quartet follows, solo at Spectrum, free

12/7, 8 PM amazing string quintet Sybarite5 – who are also the world’s coolest Radiohead cover band – at the Cell Theatre, $27

12/7, 8 PM downtown guitar icon Elliott Sharp followed by Hat (the electroacoustic Iranian music project) at Happy Lucky No. 1 Gallery, $20 for both sets, $15 for one. Sharp is also there the following the night, 12/8 an hour earlier followed by eclectically tuneful keyboardist Brian Marsella & Tuba Mob

12/7, 8:30 PM fearlessly smart, eclectic, avant garde-inclined Toot Sweet accordionist Mary Spencer Knapp solo at the Gutter, $5

12/7, 10 PM Pangari & the Socialites play classic ska and rocksteady – most of it from the 60s Skatalites catalog – at Barbes 

12/7-8, 10 PM purist, lyrical postbop tenor saxophonist Alexa Tarantino leads her group at Birdland, $30

12/8, 4 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 Holmes’ broodingly Middle Eastern/klezmer-tinged Naked Lore trio with Kyle Sanna and Shane Shahanan and then at 10 by psychedelic salsa bandleader Zemog El Gallo Bueno at Barbes

12/8 day 4 of the annual free Roots & Ruckus Festival at the Jalopy continues with short sets by an insanely good, pan-global cross section of the NYC folk underground. Stage 1 at the Jalopy Theatre starts at 7:00 PM – Barry Clyde; 7:30 PM – Brother Roy; 8:00 PM – preteen banjo sensation Nora Brown; 8:30 PM – Aaron Frazer; 9:00 PM – perennially relevant, boisterously amusing acoustic Veracruz-style folk-punk band Radio Jarocho; 9:30 PM -soul/gospel belter (and Lenny Molotov collaborator) Queen Esther 10:00 PM -eclectic, tuneful accordionist/songwriter Ali Dineen; 10:30 PM – high-voltage Americana jamband Spirit Family Reunion;; 11:00 PM -dark, carnivalesque oldtimey songwriter Feral Foster; 11:30 PM – haunting flamenco/Sicilian folk chanteuse Julia Patinella. Stage 2 at the Jalopy Tavern has 7:00 PM -brilliantly lyrical dark oldtimey songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Pete Lanctot & the Stray Dogs ; 8:00 PM – Fatboy Wilson & Old Viejo Bones; 9:00 PM –Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues – who do an awesome, slyly funny evocation of the Memphis Jug Band; 10:00 PM – La Nueva Canción; 11:00pm – Wyndham Baird & His Band

12/8, 7 PM rapturously bristling minor-key viola and clarinet duos and improvisations: Lev ‘Ljova’ Zhurbin & Vasko Dukovski at Spectrum $15

12/8, 7:30 PM pianist Jonathan Biss plays music by Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart and Schumann at Irving Auditorium, Irving Pl/17th St., $16

12/8, 8 PM the Barnard-Columbia Chorus’ Holiday Concert with the Symphony of Psalms: Igor Stravinsky, Magnificat: J. S. Bach at Church of the Ascension, 221 W 107th St. 

12/8, 8 PM the 60-piece Manhattan Wind Ensemble play works by Camille Saint-Saëns, David Holsinger, David Maslanka, Johan de Meij and Hector Berlioz at Symphony Space, $18 adv tix rec

12/8, 8ish veteran politically fearless acoustic songwriter Charlie King at the People’s Voice Cafe, sugg don, $20, “more if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away.” 

12/8, 8 PM drummer Sanah Kadoura’s Middle Eastern jazz group at the Cell Theatre,

12/8. 8 PM terse, anthemic dark folk/Americana songwriter Lara Taubman followed at 9 by raucous, politically sharp, anthemic folk noir songwriter Mac McCarty at Sidewalk

12/8, 8:30 PM the Spheres chamber music collective play new works by Adam Billings, Rohan Chandler, Cem Guven, Kyle Brenn, Elliott Roman and Nathan Shreve at Scholes St. Studios, $10

12/8, 10 PM the slinky, cinematic Ghost Funk Orchestra play the vinyl release show for their new single at Footlight Bar

 12/8, 10 PM sizzling electric bluegrass and C&W with Demolition String Band  at Skinny Dennis

12/8, 11 PM funny, explosive oldschool style punk rockers the Live Ones at Hank’s, $10

 12/9, 2:30 PM the 2001 at 50 festival at Barbes with a free screening of the Space Odyssey with a new score by Aaron Kruzini & Ryan Pate; Arturo Reyes; Chris Bacon (Claudio Carboni); Chris Northrup; Dinnersss; Jay Vilnai; Nick Shea; Peter Litvin and Rajeev Maddela. 

12/9, 4 PM fiery, force-of-nature klezmer/classical violin/piano duo Lara St. John and Matt Herskowitz at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library, free, no under-sixes.

12/9, 6 PM guitarists Jay Sorce and Jordan Dodson, cellist JoAnn Whang, clarinetist Mark Dover, saxophonist Kendra Emery play music by Susanna Hancock,Maria Kaoutzani, Finola Merivale, Emma O’Halloran, Gemma Peacocke, and Shelley Washington at 1 Rivington St., 2nd Fl. just off Bowery, $20/$10 stud,

12/9, 6 PM Fackpamp (guitarist Anders Nilsson, drummer Hampu Ohman-Frolund and amazing microtonal violinist Sarah Bernstein followed at 7 by irrepressible, transgressively funny saxophonist Jon Irabagon‘s noisy Axis sax trio with John Hegre and Nils Dronen and at 8 by the compellingly conversational Giacomo Merega and Kent O’Doherty bass/sax duo at Downtown Music Gallery

12/9. 7 PM spine-tingling, darkly mystical art-rock/avant-garde/chamber pop songwriter Carol Lipnik – pretty much everybody’s choice for bst singer in all of NYC – with similarly haunting pianist Matt Kanelos at Pangea, $20

12/9, 7 PM crystalline-voiced noir Americana songwriter Jessie Kilguss shares a short-set bill with a lot of cult-favorite talent: Dave Derby, Nathan Schram, badass Whiskey Girls cellist Patricia Santos, first-class Americana crooner Cliff Westfall at Mirror Tea House, 575 Union St., (3rd Ave/Nevins), Gowanus, free

12/9, 7 PM genre-smashing avant-jazz saxophonist/singer Stephanie Chou  and her band debut her harrowing jazz suite about women forced into sexual slavery under the Japanese in WWII at the third stage at the Rockwood, $15

12/9, 7:30 PM rapturously eclectic jazz chanteuse Marianne Solivan leads her quartet at Smalls

12/9, 7 PM jamgrass/folk-punk road warriors Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band at the Mercury, $12 adv tix rec

12/9, 8ish NYC’s answer to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hugh Pool at 11th St Bar

12/9, 8 PM reggae-rockers Zion80 and wild, hilarious klezmer punks Golem at Drom, $15 adv tix rec 

12/9, 8:15 PM cinematic, kaleidoscopic jazz composer/singer Annie Chen plays the album release show for her new one at Shapeshifter Lab, $15

12/10, 11 AM sharp the Momenta Quartet play their deviously hilarious multimedia Lost String Quartet for children with original music by Momenta violist/composer Stephanie Griffin, theater direction by Mexican director Fernando Villa Proal and scenography by Pedro Pazáran Trujillo. Kids love the crazy humor, but the music is very sophisticated and will grab you regardless of how old and cynical you are. At Time In Children’s Arts Initiative 227 W. 29th Street, Studio 4R, free, rsvp reqd, 

12/10, 5 PM perennially tuneful, lyrical piano improviser/composer Kris Davis leads the New School Jazz Orchestra in an all-Carla Bley program at Room I531, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th St, free

12/10, 8 PM pianist/composer Burnett Thompson plays his new jazz arrangements of Chinese tribal melodies with bassist Alex Blake at Mezzrow, $20 

 12/10, 8:30 PM wildfire guitarist Brandon Seabrook with Cooper-Moore on diddley bow and Gerald Cleaver on drums at Bar Lunatico

 12/11, 7 PM “the Slippery Fish pay tribute to the Mexican pedal steel master Tõno Quirazco, who in the 1960’s combined the new sound of ska music out of Jamaica with country twang to invent a twist on the Caribbean sound. With Ari Folman-Cohen – bass and John Echelay – pedal steel,” followed at 9 by clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

12/11, 7 PM magical microtonal violinist Sarah Bernstein’s Unearthish and the vocal/piano duo of Shelley Hirsch and klezmer-jazz piano icon Anthony Coleman at Arete Gallery, $15

12/11, 7:30/9:30 PM bassist Harish Raghavan with Joel Ross – vibraphone; Immanuel Wilkins – saxophone; Micah Thomas – piano at the Jazz Gallery, $15

12/11, 7:30 PM the Manhattan Chamber Players perform Shostakovich’s ethereal, haunting String Quartet No. 13 in Bb minor, Bruch’s Kol Nidre Variations, plus works by Brahms and Schumann at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, $25

12/11-14, 8PM hauntingly jangly noir Americana/surf/punkgrass band the Sadies at Union Pool, $20. Wickedly catchy Americana/paisley underground rockers Girls on Grass open the 12/11 show at 8, with the Sadies at 9.

12/11-15, 8:30 PM no wave laptop percussion legend Ikue Mori leads a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New School, $20. Choice pick: 12/13 with amazing, darkly intense pianist Satoko Fujii’s latest quartet Mahobin (Japanese for “thermos”), and 12/14 with Mephista: Ikue Mori (electronics) Sylvie Courvoisier (piano) Susie Ibarra (drums)

 12/11-16 and then 12/18-23, 8:30/10 PM hard-hitting postbop piano legend Kenny Barron leads his bands at the Vanguard: the first stand with his quintet, the second as a trio with special guest Regina Carter on violin

 12/11, 8:30 PM ambitious, smart, noir-inclined tenor saxophonist Patrick Cornelius with Jared Gold on B3 organ and Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums at the Bar Next Door, $12

12/11, 9ish explosive, creepy, colorful psychedelic rembetiko metal band Greek Judas  at Hank’s

12/12, 7 PM violinist Siwoo Kim and violist John Stulz play works by Vivian Fung, Andrew Norman, and Stulz in a “string-trio concert evoking a musical house of mirrors” with Metropolis Ensemble cellist Michael Katz at 1 Rivington St., 2nd Fl. just off Bowery, $20/$10 stud,

12/12, 7:30 PM magical percussionist Rajna Swaminathan’s improvisational Indian band Mangal with María Grand – tenor sax; Linda May Han Oh – bass; Joel Ross – vibraphone + special guest Imani Uzuri – voice at the Jazz Gallery, $15

12/12, 7:30 PM the amazing, haunting, otherworldly NY Andalus Ensemble – who play ancient Middle Eastern and North African Jewish sounds from as far back as a thousand years ago  –  at La Nacional, 239 W 14th St, $20/$16 stud/srs

12/12, 8 PM the all-female Resistance Revival Chorus sing epic, inspiring populist gospel tunes and anti-trumpie broadsides at the Knitting Factory, $20

12/12, 8 PM bassist Max Johnson presents a wild new trio made up of  Anna Webber (saxophone, flute), and Michael Sarin (drumset), performing all newly written and rearranged original compositions at Barbes

12/12, 8 PM pianist Margaret Mills premieres of four new solo works by Richard Wilson, Betty Wishart, Brian Schober and Libby Larsen at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, 122 W. 69th St

 12/12, 8:30 PM poignant, eclectic, lyrical jazz bassist/composer Pedro Giraudo leading his Tango Quartet at Bar Lunatico. 12/15 they’re at Barbes at 8

12/12, 9 PM fiery, psychedelically bluesy oldschool soul/southern rockers Lizzie & the Makers at LIC Bar

12/12, 9 PM edgy lefty lead guitarist Damian Quinones and his psychedelic latin soul band at Bar Chord

12/12, 10 PM NY horror surf legends the Coffin Daggers at the Mercury, $10

12/13, 7:30 PM oldtime slide guitar country blues with Stevie from St. Lou plus Balkan chanteuse Jenny Luna‘s haunting, slinky, oud-driven Turkish band Dolunay at the Old American Can Factory, 232 3rd St at 3rd Ave., Gownaus, $12, F/R to 4th Ave/9th St., beer and wine available

12/13, 7:30 PM blues harpist Frank Fairfield and guitarist Meredith Axelrod play oldtimey country blues at Symphony Space, $30/$20 thirty and under

12/13, 7:30/9:30 PM lyrical latin jazz pianist Helen Sung plays her Helen Sung with Words project with special guest Cecile McLorin Salvant at the Jazz Standard, $30. Sung is also solo at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem on 12/18 at 7 for a third the price

12/13, 7:30 PM Ljova – one of the world’s great violists, and a colorful, cinematic composer – plays “an adventurous evening of his music for strings, featuring an expanded ensemble with members of the PUBLIQuartet, Secret Quartet, and special guest” at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

12/13, 8:30 PM hard-charging oldschool soul/funk/rock singer Bette Smith and band at Bar Lunatico

12/13, 8 PM baritone crooner Jack Grace does double duty, first leading his country/southwestern gothic band then fronting his legendary 90s jamband Steak at Hank’s, $10. Grace and his current band are also at Bar Chord at 9 on 12/28

12/13, 8 PM avant jazz composer-performer summit: Anthony Davis and Earl Howard reconvening their quartet at Roulette, $20 gen adm

12/13, 8 PM “Sara Milonovich, Daria Grace and Vibeke Saugestad are The Wynotte Sisters. They discovered a mutual love for three part harmonies and genre-crossing covers off the beaten track. From vintage Andrews Sisters to Steve Earle to Pink, they deliver an unexpected trove of holiday chestnuts. With special guest: Greg Anderson,” at Barbes

12/13, 9 PM hauntingly atmospheric pan-Asian chanteuse/composer and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu‘s latest work-in-progress at Arete Gallery, $15

12/13, 9 PM wild live techno band Bombrasstico  at Bar Chord

12/14, 3 PM the Mannes Orchestra play Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6 Auditorium, University Center, 63 Fifth Avenue, Room U100, free

12/14, 6 PM fearlessly political, picturesque retro folk/blues songwriter Joshua Garcia at the American Folk Art Museum

12/14, 6 PM charmingly inscrutable Parisienne jazz chanteuse Chloe & the French Heart Jazz Band at Club Bonafide, $20

 12/14, 7 PM unpredictably fun, funny psychedelic art-rock band the Academy Blues Project at Shrine. They’re at Joe’s Pub at midnight on 12/15 for $20.

12/14, 7:30 PM the Trump Beatles – who sing Beatles hits with hilarious new political lyrics – at Drom, $10 adv tix rec

12/14, 7:30 PM the Orchestra Now  play  Rimsky-Korsakov’s first symphony, and Reinhold Glière’s expansive Symphony No. 3 at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall $25 tix avail

12/14, 7:30 brilliant, eclectic jazz oudist Dhafer Youssef at the Poisson Rouge, $30 adv tix req

12/14, 8 PM the Shantypeople sing twisted sea chanties; Mike Baggetta and Nick Millevoi duel it out on their guitars; the Endangered Heart Quartet with Jazz Passengers Roy Nathanson trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, join versatile bassist Tim Kiah and violinist Jesse Mills at the Owl

12/14, 8 PM playfully lyrical, fearlessly political superduo Kill Henry Sugar – guitar/banjo mastermind Erik Della Penna and drummer Dean Sharenow –followed at 10 by the intoxicatingly clattering, sintir bass lute fueled Moroccan trance grooves of Innov Gnawa at Barbes

 12/15, 1/4 PM puppeteer Lake Simons’s annual theatrical performance of Saint-Saens’ subtly creepy Carnival of the Animals at the Miller Theatre. No under-fours; kids get in for $9, adults for $15.

12/15, 2 PM jazz pianist Roberta Piket solo followed by cinematic bassist Mark Wade leading his lyrical piano trio at Flushing Town Hall, $5

12/15, 3 PM the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra play Marin Alsop’s Gospel Messiah (the Handel epic with an African-American gospel spin) at the United Palace Theatre, 4140 Broadway in Washington Hts, $15 tix avail

12/15, 4 PM new klezmer music by pyrotechnic clarinetist and Dave Tarras protege Michael Winograd and trumpeter Ben Holmes followed at 8 by poignant, eclectic, lyrical jazz bassist/composer Pedro Giraudo leading his Tango Quartet at Barbes

12/15, 7:30 PM the acclaimed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio play the first part of the Beethoven trio repertoire at Irving Auditorium, Irving Pl/17th St., $16

12/15, 7;30 PM edgy Middle Eastern-inspired alto saxophonist Uri Gurvich with Peter Slavov on bass and Francisco Mela on drums at Bar Next Door

12/15, 8 PM dark blues/folk noir/oldschool soul songwriter Kelley Swindall followed by similarly shadowy Britfolk songwriter Adam Masterson at Berlin, $10

 12/15, 8 PM an eclectic concert of works by adventurous composer/conductor Sarah Weaver with a fantastic series of lineups. “Sound in Peace (2016)” Joe McPhee, multiple instruments, Sarah Weaver, electronics. “Symmetry of Presence (2018)” David Taylor, bass trombone, electronics, Sarah Weaver, electronics. “Fountain of Synthesis (2018)” Jane Ira Bloom, soprano saxophone, Yoon Sun Choi, voice, Julie Ferrara, oboe, english horn, Joe McPhee, multiple instruments, Ned Rothenberg, woodwinds, Min Xiao-Fen, pipa, sanxian, ruan, Ray Anderson, trombone, David Taylor, bass trombone, Denman Maroney, piano, Mark Helias, bass, Gerald Cleaver, drumset, percussion, $25/$20 stud/srs at the DiMenna Center

12/15, 9 PM ageless CB’s era funk-punk/postrockers the Bush Tetras at the Kitchen, $20

12/16, 2 PM the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra play A Grand, Grand Overture – Malcolm Arnold; Tangazo  – Astor Piazzolla; The Composer Is Dead!; Nathaniel Stookey, with text by Lemony Snicket; Rimsky-Korsakov- “Christmas Eve” Suite at the Brooklyn Museum, $20 

12/16, 3 PM, repeating on 12/21 at 7 PM the Salvatones vocal ensemble, New York Virtuosi string quartet, and organist Stephen Fraser perform works by Bach, Vivaldi, Tavener, Fauré, Rachmaninoff, plus more traditional holiday fare at St. Malachy’s Church/The Actors’ Chapel, 239 W 49th St. free

12/16, 4 PM meticulous baroque vocal/chamber Ensemble Correspondances perform Charpentier’s Christmas Pastorale at Corpus Christi Church, 529 W 121St St, $10 tix avail

12/16, meet at the Washington Square arch at 5:45, march to Tompkins Square Park at 6 PM, this year’s Unsilent Night electronic music procession is a NYC institution and one of the funnest, trippiest things you can do this holiday season. Download one of the twinkling piece’s four tracks for your phone, stream it or borrow one of composer Phil Kline‘s original cassettes for your boombox. Fun for the whole family!

12/16, 6 PM guitarist Borche Naumoski and string quartet play baroque guitar concertos by Mauro Guiliani and Ferdinando Carulli at Gallery MC

12/16, 6 PM the Human Rites Trio with violinist Jason Kao Hwang, basssist Ken Filiano and drummer Andrew Drury jam it out at Downtown Music Gallery

12/16, 7:30 PM intense, fearlessly relevant Middle Eastern clarinetist Kinan Azmeh’s Syrian jazz City Band at Drom, $15 adv tix rec

12/16, 8:30 PM Jane Lecroy’s edgy, intensely lyrical electro-punk band Ohmslice at Footlight Bar, $10

12/16, 9 PM twangy Nashville gothic band Karen & the Sorrows  at C’Mon Everybody, $10

12/17, 7:30 PM the NY New Music Ensemble octet play new works by David Rakowski and Mark Applebaum at 87 Eldridge St.,just south of Grand, $20/$10 stud/srs

12/17, 7:30 PM Lusterlit play their ominous, noirish literary chamber pop at a house concert at 618 Hart St Apt #1, Bushwick, M to Central Ave,, FREE and BYOB friendly.

12/17, 8 PM Violist Jeongeun Park plays music by Fauré, Reinecke, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev with pianist Eric Zuber at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, $20

 12/17, 9:30 PM ex-Chicha Libre keyboard sorcerer Josh Camp’s wryly psychedelic cumbia/tropicalia/dub band Locobeach at Barbes

12/18, 7 PM slinky Ladino/Middle Eastern grooves with Alhambra followed by clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

12/18, 7 PM new works by avant garde trumpeter Nate Wooley followed at 8 by low-register reedman Josh Sinton and at 9 Loadbang trombonist William Lang playing solo works by Dai Fujikura, Thanos Chrysakis, Yu Kuwabara, and Klaus Hubner at Arete Gallery. $10 per set or $20 for all three.

12/18, 7:30 PM violinist Elmira Darvarova, clarinetist Amy Zoloto, and hornist Howard Wall join pianist Thomas Weaver playing works by Villa-Lobos, Gershwin, Piazzolla and others at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, free, tix avail now at the box ofc

12/18, 8 PM the SoHarmoniums Women’s Choir presents “She Hath Wings,” songs of hope and perseverance, including new music by Abbie Betinis and Sarah Quartel as well as Vaughan Williams’ Magnificat” at Merkin Concert Hall, $25

12/18, 8 PM Adam Caine plays solo on guitar followed by accordion genius Shoko Nagai’s Fidoquartet with trumpeter Ron Horton and singer Maryanne de Prophetis at Scholes St. Studio, $15 sug don

12/18, 8:30 PM trumpeter Steven Bernstein’s legendary noir jazz outfit Sexmob in a rare Bed-Stuy appearance at Bar Lunatico

12/18, 9 PM jangly Dylanesque acoustic dude Hiss Golden Messenger at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, $20 adv tix rec

 12/18, 9 PM sharply lyrical janglerock/Americana/soul songwriter Matt Keating and guitarist Steve Mayone’s catchy new project the Bastards of Fine Arts at 11th St. Bar

12/18, 9:30 PM eclectic, globally-inspired violinist Dina Maccabee at Pete’s

12/18, 10 PM brilliant drummer/percussionist Willie Martinez & La Familia Sextet play classic salsa grooves at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

12/19, 7 PM pianist Sunhwa Park plays works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Amy Beach and Brahms at Symphony Space, $30 adv tix req

12/19, 8 PM accordion genius Shoko Nagai ’s haunting Tokala Silk Road/klezmer mashup project at Barbes

12/19, 9 PM oldschool-style high plains C&W singer Hope Debates & North 40 at Bar Chord. 12/26, same time she’s at Skinny Dennis.

12/19, 9 PM pianist Gabriel Zucker plays his extended composition Weighting, inspired by Rachel Kushner’s novel The Flamethrowers at Arete Gallery, $15

12/20, 7:30 PM Romany jazz/psychedelic rock guitar mastermind Stephane Wrembel duels it out with with fellow six-string hotshot Thor Jensen at Symphony Space, $30/$20 thirty and under

 12/20, 7:30 PM psychedelic cumbia singer/personality Miss Yaya at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

12/20. 8:30 PM rising star santoor player Vinay Desai with tabla player Ehren Hanson at the Jalopy, $15

2/21, 11:45 AM baritone Tobias Greenhalgh leads a free audience-participatory performance of Schubert’s Winterriese, walking through the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Audience members provide :the accompaniment via hand-held radios that emit the original piano music. Enter Brooklyn Botanic Garden at 1000 Washington Avenue to meet at Magnolia Plaza at 11:45am and receive a handheld transmission radio on loan. Radios are available for the first fifty participants, or bring your own! The procession sets off at 12:00pm sharp and wends its way south through newly restored areas of the garden. Rsvp reqd, put “Winterize” in the subject line, guest list is at the visitors entrance at 990 Washington Ave, 2/3/4/5 train to Franklin Ave

12/21, 2 PM brilliant baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian‘s LSQ at Flushing Town Hall, $5

12/21, 8 PM rustic Brazilian jungle guitar-and-accordion sounds with Regional de NY followed at 10 by accordionist/sitarist Kamala Sankaram’s hot surfy Bollywood/cumbia/psychedelic rock project Bombay Rickey – a launching pad for her spellbinding four-octave voice – at Barbes

12/21, 9 PM twisted twin-trombone dub reggae instrumentalists Super Hi-Fi play their sick dub xmas jams at Bar Chord

12/21, 11 PM the darkly eclectic, enigmatic Lorraine Leckie  – equally adept at Slavic and Americana noir and dark cabaret – at Sidewalk

12/22, 4 PM soaring, eclectic, picturesque Americana/ psychedelia/new wave songwriter Lianne Smith at Pete’s

12/22, 7:30 PM  a wild klezmer dance twinbill: pickup band the YNY All-Stars – with violinist Deborah Strauss and trombonist Daniel Blacksberg plus the Klez Dispensers (who are anything but sweet and crunchy) at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 414 14th St (just east of 1st Ave), $20

12/22, 8 PM trombonist Vera Kemper’s Blu Cha Cha band followed by garifuna bandleader Andy Ordonez and his combo at Barbes  

12/22, 8 PM percussionist Alessandra Belloni‘s rustically witchy tarantella band at Theatre for the New City, 155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th) $25

12/22, 8:30 PM fiery gutbucket organ music with the Juke Joint Jelis with Brianna Thomas on vocals and Greg Lewis on B3 at Bar Lunatico

12/23, 2:45 PM fiercely populist Boston Yiddish choir A Besere Velt  celebrate fighting the power,  and also the 75th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, at the Town and Village Synagogue, 334 E 14th St, $20

12/23, 7/9:30 PM short sets by edgy leading lights of Yiddish song past and present: the Klezmatics’ Lorin Sklamberg, Michael Alpert, Eléonore Biezunski, Nicole Borger, Joanne Borts, Sarah Gordon, Itzik Gottesman, Daniel Kahn, Jeanette Lewicki, Sasha Lurje, Ethel Raim, Mark Slobin, Pete Rushefsky, Jake Shulman-Ment and Josh Waletzky at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th St, $15/$10 stud/sr

12/24, 8 PM Yiddish salsa mashups with percussionist Roberto Juan Rodriguez, pianists Marilyn Lerner and Anthony Coleman, Danny Sadownick, the Klezmatics’ Richie Barshay, and the reputedly amazing OY-NY Yiddish Divas – Joanne Borts, Nicole Borger, Daniella Rabbani and Alexandra Czarny – at Drom, $15 adv tix rec

12/24, 9 PM violinist Jake Shulman-Ment, guitarist Yoshi Fruchter, bassist Zoe Guigueno, and Ben Holmes on trumpet join forces for an allstar night of klezmer classics and originals from across the diaspora. Guest singers Tamar Korn and Eleanor Weill conttribute some Yiddish faves at Barbes

12/25, 8 PM a live recreation of two klezmer albums from the 50s. Pyrotechnic clarinetist and Dave Tarras protege Michael Winograd leads an all-star band performing Tarras’ legendary Tanz! album from 1955 – a cult classic and high point in mid-century minor key jamming. Then trumpeter Frank London of the Klezmatics and percussionist Deep Singh tackle Irving Fields’s schlocky 1959 LP Bagels & Bongos lp at the Town and Village Synagogue, 334 14th St, $20,

 12/25-30, 8:30/10 PM high-voltage tenor saxophonist Chris Potter leads his quartet at the Vanguard, $30

12/26, 7:30 PM a global klezmer lineup: Moldovan singer/composer Yefim “Fima” Chorny and pianist Suzanna Ghergus, Adrienne Cooper’s daughter Sarah Gordon, the perennially transgressive Daniel Kahn, pianist Marilyn Lerner, otherworldly crooner Ilya Shneyveys, nimble tsimblist Pete Rushefsky and other special guests at Bohemian National Hall, 321 E 73rd St. (between 1st and 2nd Ave), $25

12/26, 8 PM an all-Japanese series of ensembles play music from across the centuries: koto group Violyre. cello champions Cellissimo, plus the Jets a.k.a. Chia-Dan joining forces with the US National Cheerleading Champions at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Halll, free tix avail now

12/26, 8 PM singer Bethany Yarrow and cellist Rufus Cappodocia shift betwee Middle Eastern, jazz and Gregorian chant inspired material at Barbes

12/26, 8 PM percussive, trance-inducing, bitingly tuneful, Middle Eastern-tinged female-fronted jamband SisterMonk at the small room at the Rockwood

12/26, 10:30 PM trumpeter Josh Evans leads his quartet at Smalls

12/27, 8 PM Lionel Yu – virtuoso pianist, youtube sensation and composer of wild, crazy, occasionally Asian-tinged themes like Pachelbel’s Nightmare (follow-up to the Canon) at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, $30 tix avail

12/27, 9 PM scorching, purposeful, female-fronted heavy psych band Ruby the Hatchet and the slower, doomier Dead Meadow at the Knitting Factory, $25 adv tix rec

12/28, 7 PM New York’s most charismatic, darkly compelling lyrical songwriter/storyteller/keyboard genius Rachelle Garniez plays her third annual farewell party at Pangea, $25

12/28-29, 8 PM a rare reunion of Thalia Zedek’s legendary, scorching 90s twin-guitar band Come at Union Pool, $20

12/28, 8:30 PM Antibalas spinoff Armo play Afrobeat at Bar Lunatico

12/28, 9 PM baritone crooner Jack Grace leads his legendary, wryly amusing 90s jamband Steak at Bar Chord

12/28, 10 PM the world’s creepiest crime jazz/film noir band, Big Lazy at Barbes

12/28, 10 PM 70s dark folk legend Kath Bloom – who has a haunting new album out  – at Elsewhere, $12

12/28, 11 PM cynical new wave band Hedge Fund at the small room at the Rockwood

12/29, 8 PM chanteuse/uke player Dahlia Dumont’s Blue Dahlia playing edgy, smartly lyrically-fueled, jazz-infused tunes in English and French with classic chanson and Caribbean influences followed at 10 by Quatre Vingt Neuf (French for 89, a revolutionary date in case you weren’t aware) playing New Orleans brass music at Barbes

12/29, 8:30 PM state-of-the-art postbop guitarist Will Bernard and group at Bar Lunatico

12/29, 11 PM deviously theatrical oldschool C&W/rockabilly parodists Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co  and bass-driven rockabilly hellraisers Little Lesley & the Bloodshots at Otto’s

12/30, 6 PM noir-inspired low-register reedman Ben Goldberg and ensemble at Downtown Music Gallery

12/30, 6:30 PM haunting folk noir/Americana songwriter Emily Frembgen followed eventually at 8:30 by terse, anthemic dark folk/Americana songwriter Lara Taubman at Sidewalk

12/30, 7 PM sizzling steel guitarist – and Thelonious Monk reinventor – Mike Neer with his band at Barbes

12/30, 11 PM shapeshifting instrumentalists International Orange – who mash up Afrobeat, gutbucket organ grooves,stoner downtempo and some funk  at Offside Tavern, 137 w 14th st,

The most Burning Man New Year’s Eve concert is at Rubulad in Bushwick – duh, right? On the bill: the irrepressible Ellia Bisker’s explosive Balkan/New Orleans flavored Funkrust Brass Band, hilarious, smartly political faux-French retro 60s psych-pop band les Sans Culottes, herky-jerky 80s style funk-punks Van Goose and the gay version of Gil Scott-Heron, $20 before 8 PM, email for location/deets/rsvp

The loudest New Year’s Eve concert of the year starts at 11 at St. Bartholomew’s Church with William Trafka at the organ, free

The cheapest New Year’s Eve show is an admission-free house party at 11 at 184 Irving Ave (at Stanhope) in Bushwick withcscampering, irrepressibly fun girlpunks Sharkmuffin. It’s about equidistant from the J/M at Knickerbocker and the L at DeKalb, assuming the latter is running. 

 New Year’s Eve, 10:30 PM Rev. Vince Anderson and his band play Union Pool in Williamsburg -charismatic, fearlessly political Brooklyn legend playing slinky organ funk jams with a great horn band behind him, free

New Year’s Eve, 11 PM ish the US Bombs – who have some of the coolest album titles of any punk band from any era – at the Kingsland, $25

New Year’s Eve, 11 PM awesomely slinky, psychedelic Israeli Ethiopiques groove instrumentalists Anbessa Orchestra  at Barbes, $20 no tv, no champagne toast

1/1-6. 8:30/10:30 PM lyrical jazz piano icon Fred Hersch  at the Vanguard, through 1/3 with his trio and the rest of the stand with a quartet

1/3, 7:30 PM, repeating on 1/5 at 8 the NY Philharmonic play Sibelius’ Lemminkainen and Maidens of the Island suites plus Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloe and Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with soloist Gautier Capuçon at Avery Fisher Hall, $34

1/3, 7:30 the booking agents’ convention is in town and there are some phemonenal, cheap lineups around town. Tonight at Drom there’s a free show with intense, rapturous Balkan/Middle Eastern ensemble the Secret Trio –Tamer Pinarbasi, Ismail Lumanovski & Ara Dinkjian – followed at 8:30 by brooding Greek crooner Pericles Kanaris and at 10:00 by chanteuse/uke player Dahlia Dumont’s Blue Dahlia playing edgy, smartly lyrically-fueled, jazz-infused tunes in English and French with classic chanson and Caribbean influences

1/3, 7:30/9:30 PM playfully lyrical postbop pianist Art Hirahara plus a killer rhythm section of bassist Linda Oh, & drummer Rudy Royston at Mezzrow, $20

1/3, 7:30 PM trumpeter Etienne Charles’ creole jazz band at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

1/3, 8 PM bouncy Iranian/Swedish dance-pop sister act Abjeez followed by  charismatic Egyptian revolutionary singer Ramy Essam at the Poisson Rouge, $25 adv tix rec

1/3, 8 PM Alaskan Americana fiddler/poet Ken Waldman opens his annual mega-star show at at the Jalopy followed by short sets featuring but not limited to torchsong duo Max Hatt & Edda Glass, fiddle/cello duo Hen’s Teeth with Jane Rothfield and Nathan Bontrager,  the DuoDuo Quartet with Maeve Gilchrist, Nic Gareiss, Natalie Haas, Yann Falquet–virtuosic harp, dance, cello, guitar; Scottish and Appalachian string music by Jenna Moynihan & Mairi Chaimbeul ,Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer doing gypsy jazz to classic country to anything else;  Cajun songstress Erica Weiss & Shindig and bluegrass guitar/bass duo Mark Kilianski & Nate Sabat at the Jalopy, $15

1/3, 9 PM wild live techno band Bombrasstico  at Bar Chord

1/3, 9 PM wickedly jangly surf/twang/country instrumentalists the Bakersfield Breakers at 11th St. Bar

1/3, 10 PM fiery, deviously fun oldtimey swing guitarist/crooner Seth Kessel & the Two Cent Band  at Skinny Dennis. He’s also here on 1/31 at 9

1/3, 10 PM the great unsung NYC hero of darkly purposeful, noir-tinged jazz guitar, Saul Rubin at the Fat Cat.  He’s also here on 1/8 at 7

1/4, 7 PM best free concert of the year? Maybe. Toronto Cuban salsa dura band Okan followed at 7:45 by psychedelic tropicalia-folk bandleader Ramon Chicharron; at 8:30 Mexican border-rock songwriter Quique Escamilla; 9:15 a lame Replacements ripoff; at 1o high-voltage Neapolitan tarantella string band Newpoli; 10:45 Haitian funk/pop singer Malou Beauvoir; and at 11:30 the amazing, phantasmagorical klezmer band Lemon Bucket Orkestra at Drom

1/4, 7 PM folk noir singer Anna May – the missing link between Aimee Mann and Kath Bloom, maybe – at Shapeshifter Lab, $10 

1/4, 7:30 PM Tibetan throat-singing ensemble Altai Kai at the Rubin Museum of Art, $30

1/4, 8 PM ex-Chicha Libre keyboard sorcerer Josh Camp’s wryly psychedelic cumbia/tropicalia/dub band Locobeach  followed by sizzling Niger duskcore guitarist/bandleader Mdou Moctar at Baby’s All Right, $15

1/4, 9 PM hauntingly lyrical art-rock songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Joanna Wallfisch at  the small room at the Rockwood

1/4. 10 PM Garifuna bandleader Andy Ordonez and his psychedelic coastal Caribbean combo at Silvana

1/4-6 and 1/10-12, 10 PM (except for 1/6 at 8 PM) singer/dancer Nora Chipaumire “reckons with the production and consumption of pop sound and imagery in the hyper-reality of global capitalism, resurrecting the era of drum magazines, African broadcast stations, color bars, and a people with active connections to rural and township lifestyles playing all-night parties at underground apartheid-era South African speakeasies” at Jack, $25

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

1/5, 6 PM state-of-the-art jazz bassist Christian McBride and his quartet at Bethany Baptist Church – 275 W Market St, Newark, free

1/5, 7:30 PM an awesomely inexpensive global lineup: theToomai String Quintet with psychedelic tropicalia chanteuse Miss YaYa play all kinds of adventurous, global classical repertoire followed at 8:15 by haunting, psychedelic Turkish band Yeni Nostalji ; at  9 the Bil Afrah Project celebrates one of the Middle East’s legendary albums: Ziad Rahbani’s 1975 Bil Afrah suite. An all-star NYC lineup includes percussionist Michel Merhej, who played on the haunting, dynamic original album, very rarely played live in its entirety; at 9:45 sizzling Niger duskcore guitarist/bandleader Mdou Moctar; at 11:15 haphazardly psychedelic Afrobeat-influenced psych-punk guitarist/bandleader Yonatan Gat at & the Eastern Medicine Singers; at midnight awesomely slinky downtempo/cumbia/psychedelic salsa dura band La Mecanica Popular and at 12:45 AM explosive, creepy, colorful psychedelic rembetiko metal band Greek Judas at Drom, $10

1/5. 7:30/9:30 PM mighty, tectonic latin jazz with the Dafnis Prieto Big Bandat the Jazz Standard, $30

1/5, 8 PM  latin jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez & Migration followed by soaring, epic all-female mariachi/tropicalia orchestra Mariachi Flor de Toloache at Highline Ballroom, $20 adv tix rec

1/5 8 PM legendarily eclectic surf band Tiki Brothers followed at 9 by guitarslinger Phil Gammage playing his dark Americana and blues at the Way Station

1/5, 8:30 PM darkly lyrical Middle Eastern-tinged jazz pianist Laila Biali at the third stage at the Rockwood, $10

1/5, 9 PM eclectic, electric C&W/blues band the Jug Addicts at Bar Chord

1/5, 10 PM fiery electric bluegrass and C&W with Demolition String Band at Skinny Dennis

1/6, 11 AM (in the morning) NY original klezmer icons Metropolitan Klezmer & their mostly-female sister band, kinetic klezmer/cumbia/cinematic jamband Isle of Klezbos at City Winery, $10

1/6, 8 PM perennially tuneful, pensively lyrical Americana janglerocker Mike Ferrio of Tandy and Good Luck Mountain at 11th St. Bar

1/6, 9 PMoldschool-style high plains C&W singer Hope Debates & North 40 at  Skinny Dennis

1/6, 9ish eclectic, globally-inspired violinist Dina Maccabee at the Owl

1/6, 10:30 PM hotshot bluegrass mandolin slinger Jacob Joliff and band at the big room at the Rockwood 

1/7, 7 PM riveting, purposeful 30s swing singer Catherine Russell, torchy Europolitan swing band the Hot Sardines & South Atlantic Coast Gullah soul band Ranky Tanky at City Winery, $20 standing room avail

1/7, 7:30 PM indie classical chamber orchestra Wild Up, dark Mediterranean psychedelic bandleader Zola Jesus and intrepid NYC indie classical composer William Briittelle at Merkin Concet Hall, $25

1/7, 7:30 PM pyrotechnic klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, Kathleen Tagg and the Omer Quartet play works by Prokofiev, Debussy, Golijov, John Zorn and Kinan Azmeh at Music Mondays, Advent Church, northwest corner of 93rd and Broadway, free

1/7, 8:30 PM Lebanese art-rock/metal/goth band Gurumiran at Pete’s 

1/7, 9 PM sweeping, swinging vibraphonist Behn Gillece and group at the Fat Cat 

1/7, 8:30 PM brief half-hour sets by cellist Clarice Jensen, Carolina Eyck (theremin), and indie classical group ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) at Drom, $10

1/7, 9 PM slashing guitarist Steve Antonakos plays slide guitar blues with his band at Bar Chord

1/7, 10 PM tuneful, state-of-the-art postbop jazz guitarist Will Bernard and group followed eventually at midnight by awesome, creepy Texas psychedelic band Acid Carousel at the small room at the Rockwood 

1/8, 7 PM eclectic, hard-hitting, lyrical composer/tenor saxophonist Stan Killian at 55 Bar

 1/8, 7:30/9:30 PM a killer, darkly lyrical trio:  crystalline-voiced, noir-tinged third-stream jazz chanteuse Tessa Souter with brilliant latin jazz piaist Luis Perdomo and bassist Dezron Douglas at Mezzrow, $20. She’s also at 55 Bar on 1/11 at 6 for less.

1/8-13. 8:30/10:30 PM pensively edgy, purposeful latin jazz pianist Edward Simon with his Steel House trio at the Vanguard

1/8, 9 PM wickedly torchy noir songwriter Julia Haltigan and her killer band on her old home turf at 11th St Bar

1/8, 9:30 PM the Bronx Conexion play their mighty salsa big band jazz at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

1/9, 7:30/9:30 PM pan-Asian chanteuse/composer Jen Shyu with her hauntingly atmospheric Jade Tongue ensemble at the Jazz Gallery, $25

ad 1/9,  7 PM Nublu honcho and psychedelic postbop tenor saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin wears many hats throughout the night, which starts with  Nublu Orchestra doing a tribute to their late great conductor/leader Butch Morris; at 8:30 longtime Gil Scott-Heron collaborator and electric pianist Brian Jackson; at 10 Silver with Ersahin, Eddie Henderson, Juini Booth, Kenny Wollesen playing the album release show for their new one and at 1 AM Ersahin’s Oceanvs Orientalis at Nublu 151, $tba

1/10. 7 PM soaringly explosive jazz composer/torch singer Nicole Zuraitis at 55 Bar

1/10, 7 PM electrifying Balkan/Americana violinist/bandleader Sarah Alden at the third stage at the Rockwood, $10

1/10, 7:30/9:30 PM tenor saxophonist Jure Pukl leads a killer band with Melissa Aldana – saxophone; Harish Raghavan – bass; Kush Abadey – drums at the Jazz Gallery, $20

1/10, 7:30 PM Burnt Sugar celebrate 20 years of lush Braxton-ish largescale improvisation, hard funk, James Brown and Bowie covers and more at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

1/10, 7:30 PM, repeating on 1/12 at 8 the NY Philharmonic play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with soloist Simon Trpčeski, Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen Suite and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade at Avery Fisher Hall, $31

1/10, 7:30 PM Soule Monde – imagine RIck Wakeman playing Booker T  & the MG’s  – at Symphony Space, $30/$20 age 30 and under

1/10, 8:30 PM brilliantly improvisational pianist Mara Rosenbloom‘s philosophically-inspired FLYWAYS with bassist Adam Lane and singer/percussionist Anais Maviel at Shapeshifter Lab, $15

1/11, 5:30 PM laid-back Americana/country blues songwriter Jon LaDeau at the American Folk Art Museum

1/11, 7:30 PM this era’s most spellbinding oldschool country singer, Laura Cantrell acoustic at the Rubin Museum of Art, $25 adv tix rec

1/11-12. 7:30/9:30 PM this era’s most cutting-edge, politically relevant large jazz ensemble, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society at the Jazz Gallery, $25

 1/11, 8 PM irrepressibly fun blues/swing harmony pals Mamie Minch and Tamar Korn; followed by Hawaiian guitar group King Isto’s Tropical String Band playing the album release show for their new one at the Jalopy, $10

1/11, 8 PM genre-smashing avant-jazz saxophonist/singer Stephanie Chou Stephanie Chou and band play her new suite Comfort Girl, focusing on women forced into sexual slavery in Asia during World War II at the Cell Theatre, $20

1/11, 9 PM Super Yamba play their psychedelic Afrobeat jams at Bar Chord

 1/11, 9:30 PM catchy, fun guy/girl indie soul band Sunshine Nights at Freddy’s

1/12, 7 PM the NJ Symphony Orchestra play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 with Emmanuel Ax as soloist and Tschaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony at NJPAC in Newark, $20 tix avail

 1/12, 8 PM erudite, purist torchy cosmopolitan jazz chanteuse Svetlana & the NY Swing Collective at the Cell Theatre, $15

1/12, 8 PM raucous, politically sharp, anthemic folk noir songwriter Mac McCarty at Sidewalk

1/12, 8 PM subversive avant garde/psych-folk Iranian crooner Mohsen Namjoo at Symphony Space, $30 tix avail

1/12, 8 PM Victor Jara-influenced songwriter Fred Arcoleo followed by south Williamsburg oi punk band the Infiltrators at the People’s Voice Cafe, sugg don, $20, “more if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away.”  

1/12, 8ish creepy noir chamber pop/murder ballad duo Charming Disasterand high-voltage steampunk duo Frenchy & the Punk at Coney Island Baby 

1/12, 8:30 PM theatrical newgrass/Americana band the  Lobbyists at the big room at the Rockwood, $10 

1/12, 10:30 PM hilarious, smartly political faux-French retro 60s psych-pop band les Sans Culottes followed by a mysterious guy named Davey playing electric sitar at Freddy’s

1/13, 3 PM violinist Juliet Kurtzman and Libertrio play a program TBA at the 92nd ST. Y, free

1/13, 3 PM the North/South Chamber Orchestra plays works by Christopther James, Max Lifchitz, Alexandro Rodriguez and John Winsor. Violinist Claudia Schaer and guitarist Hermann Hudde are the soloists, free, at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, 122 W. 69th St

1/13, 3 PM indie classical ensemble Sandbox Percussion play a program TBA at Concerts on the Slope, St. John’s Episcopal Church, 139 St. John’s Place downhill from 7th Ave, Park Slope, any train to Grand Army Plz, sugg don

1/13, 7 PM smart, darkly pensive third-stream jazz pianist Noa Fort at the small room at the Rockwood. Intense female-fronted psychedelic groove/funk band Imunuri are next door at the big room, same time

1/13, 7 PM haunting Middle Eastern guitarist Ayman Fanous at Scholes St. Studio

1/13, 7:30 PM Igor Butman & the Moscow Jazz Orchestra play their tectonic, epic repertoire at Dizzy’s Club, $35

1/13, 8 PM solo sets by renowned tuba player Dan Peck, singer Chiquita Magic, guitar loopmusic composer Wendy Eisenberg, bassist Sean Ali and intense improvisational cellist Leila Bordreuil at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, $15

1/13, 9:30 PM noir guitar legend Jim Campilongo leads his trio at 55 Bar

1/14, 7 PM the epically haunting Moscow-based East/West Trio – Marina Omelchenko, organ ; Oganes Kazarian, duduk; Tehmine Zaryan, soprano performing works by Bach, Ekmalyan, Komitas, Mozart, Pachelbel and Shirakazi at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, free

1/14, 7 PM tuneful postbop pianist Jim Ridl leads his group from behind the Rhodes at 55 Bar

1/15, 7:30/9:30 PM the haunting, smokily atmospheric Michael Leonhart Orchestra with Chris Potter on tenor sax at the Jazz Standard, $30

1/15, 7:30 PM violinist Stanichka Dimitrova leads a quintet playing a haunting, literary twinbill: Beethoven – Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9, Opus 47 (“Kreutzer”) and  Janáček – String Quartet “Kreutzer Sonata”at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, $25/$10 st ud/srs

1/15, 7:30 PM edgy, shapeshifting, charismatic Korean art-rock/chamber folk/acoustic psychedelic band Black String jam with Ned Rothenberg (woodwinds), Jonathan Goldberger (electric guitar), Satoshi Takeishi (percussion) and more special guests at National Sawdust, $25 adv tix avail. Black String are also at the Lincoln Center atrium on 1/17, same time for free.

1/15, 8:30 PM perennially tuneful, lyrical piano improviser/composer Kris Davis leads a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New School, $20. Choice pick: 1/16 with the bes rhythm section she’s ever had, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts and John Hébert, wow

1/15-19, 8:30/11 PM Jamaican jazz piano icon Monty Alexander at Birdland, $30 seats avail

1/15-20, 8:30 PM perennially vital latin jazz piano sage Eddie Palmieri at the Blue Note, $30 standing room avail

1/15, 9 PM elegant oldtimey/frontporch folk/jazz songwriter Shannon Pelcher at Bar Chord

1/15, 10 PMpsychedelic funk/Afrobeat jammers the People’s Champs at Baby’s All Right, $10

1/15,  10:30 PM brilliant drummer/percussionist Willie Martinez & La Familia Sextet play classic salsa grooves at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, $10

1/16 and 1/22, 7:30 PM, also on 1/19 at 8 the NY Philharmonic with soloist Yefim Bronfman play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 at Avery Fisher Hall, $31

1/17, 7:30/9:30 PM an all-star 18-piece big band plays new jazz compositions by Angela Morris, the Wing Walker Orchestra’s Drew Williams and the cinematic Heyseon Hong at the Jazz Galley, $15

1/17, 7:30 PM pianist Per Tengstrand plays works by Debussy, Ravel & Chopin. at Scandinavia House, $25

1/17, 7:30/9:30 PM tuneful, purposeful guitar/piano duos by Nate Radley & Gary Versace at Mezzrow, $20

1/17, 7:30 PM edgy, shapeshifting, charismatic Korean art-rock/chamber folk/acoustic psychedelic band Black String at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

1/17, 8 PM  ferociously dynamic, tuneful, female-fronted power trio Castle Black  at Gold Sounds, $10

1/17, 8 PM dark cabaret legend  Sanda Weigl sings her new interpretations of obscure 13th century revolutionary poet Walther von der Vogelweide at Joe’s Pub, $18

1/17. 9 PM thunderous, titanic Rhode Island Balkan street band What Cheer Brigade, hard-hitting, brass-fueled newschool latin soul/boogaloo dance band Spanglish Fly  and epic, original, intense original Balkan monsters Raya Brass Band at Littlefield, $12

118, 7 PM improvisational organist/multi-instrumentalist Jamie Saft with bassist Brad Jones and drummer Bobby Previte plus cellist Hank Roberts with drummer Vinnie Sperrazza and pianist Jacob Sacks at the Owl

1/18. 7:30/9:30  PM drummer/hip-hop artist Kassa Overall duets with Jason Moran at the jazz Gallery, $25, get there early

1/18, 9 PM  catchy, brilliantly lyrical, irrepressibly sardonic janglerock/folk-punk songwriter, New Yorker illustrator and White Hassle alum Marcellus Hall at Pete’s

1/18, 11 PM the darkly eclectic, enigmatic Lorraine Leckie  – equally adept at Slavic and Americana noir and dark cabaret – at Sidewalk

1/19, 7 PM an avant garde summit: fearlessly relevant, genuinely riveting, populist tenor sax visionary/improviser Matana Roberts , electroacoustic film composer/performerHaley Fohr aka Circuit des Yeux  & Suzanne Langille and Daniel Carter, plus Brooklyn Raga Massive sitar mastermind Neel Murgai & Loren Connors at Issue Project Room, $25/$15 stud

1/19, 7:30 PM cleverly funny, catchy female-fronted band Talay, edgy, punk-inspired female-fronted funk band  Eliza and the Organix , creepy, psychedelic circus rock/Russian folk band Mad Meg and guitarslinger Mallory Feuer’s fiery power trio the Grasping Straws – sort of a mashup of Patti Smith and Hole’s first album – at Coney island Baby, $10

1/19, 8 PM in the round: fearlessly political, picturesque retro folk/blues songwriter Joshua Garcia, 60s folk vet Tom Smith and Gary Allard at the People’s Voice Cafe, sugg don, $20, “more if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away.”  

1/19, 8 PM kinetic jazz vibraphonista Yuhan Su leads her quintet  at the Cell Theatre, $15

1/19, 9:30 PM ominous Laurel Canyon-style psych-folk band the Flowered Gnomes – a Volebeats spinoff – at Pine Box Rock Shop 

1/19, midnight baritone crooner Sean Kershaw‘s Serpentones play “hi octane Brooklyn honkytonk”at at Sidewalk

 1/20 ,7 PM darkly torchy southwestern gothic/Europolitan songwriter/guitarist Miwa Gemini at the third stage at the Rockwood, $10

1/20. 6 PMfearlessly relevant, genuinely riveting, populist sax visionary/improviser Matana Roberts duets on alto with Darius Jones followed at 7 by RaaDie with Lorenz Raab on trumpet and Christof Dienz on zither at Downtown Music Gallery

1/20, 9 PM violinist Damian Dudu leads a nine-piece band playing classic and new rembetiko sounds at Drom, $15 standing room

1/22-27, 7:3-0/9:30 PM this era’s arguably best jazz pianist, Vijay Iyer at the Jazz Standard, $30. 1/22-23 he lead his trio, 1/24-26 with his sextet

1/22, 8 PM ex-Dylan lead guitarist Larry Campbell with singer Teresa Williams at City Winery, $25 standing room avail

1/22, 8 PM hard-charging oldschool soul/funk/rock singer Bette Smith and band at the Mercury, $10

1/22, 8:30 PM haunting Middle Eastern jazz violinist Layale Chaker and group play the album release show for their new one at the Stone at the New School,  $20. Very highly recommended.  

1/22, 9 PM brooding cello slowcore songs with Meaner Pencil at Freddy’s

1/22, 10 PM rising star trumpeter Adam O’Farrill‘s Stranger Days Quartet at 55 Bar

1/23-26, 7/9 PM ferociously smart postbop trumpeter Ingrid Jensen leads her quintet at Birdland, $30 seats avail

1/23-26, 8:30 PM hauntingly atmospheric pan-Asian chanteuse/composer and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu leads a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New Scnool, $20. Choice pick:1/24 with drum sampler Ikue Mori and wicked violist Mat Maneri

1/24, 7:30 PM, repeating 1/25-26 at 8 Jaap van Zweden conducts the NY Philharmonic in Julia Wolfe’s new immersive visual and musical event — featuring lights, chamber choir, video, and projection — weighing the legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, at Avery Fisher Hall, $31

1/24, 7 PM perennially sharp;, wickedly tuneful, jangly Americana band Mary Lee’s Corvette revisit their classic live performance of Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks album in its entirety at Joe’s Pub, $18

1/24, 8:30 PM ambient guitar ensemble Fyrn – whose guitars are “bowed with metal files and metal bars, creating dense and hauntingly beautiful, decaying sonic ambient landscapes that engulf the audience as the ensemble sets up in a large circle around them,”  at Arete Gallery, $15

1/24, 8 PM conversational pianist Jeffrey Siegel plays musical miniatures by Wilhelm Stenhammar (Sweden), Jean Sibelius (Finland), Carl Nielsen (Denmark), Dag Wirén (Sweden), Christian Sinding (Norway) and Brahms at Scandinavia House, $25

1/24, 8 PM Lea Bertucci and Amirtha Kidambi sing their new duo vocal project followed by the world premiere of Mass of Dissolution, Bertucci’s new work for percussion trio Tigue (Matt Evans, Amy Garapic, and Carson Moody), “an incantation against the blind violence of military-industrial power that dominates global dynamics,” at the Kitchen, $25

1/24, 8:30 PM a wild klezmer dance party with Steven Weintraub  Ken Maltz, Lauren Brody, Aaron Alexander at Town & Village Social Hall, 334 E 14th St.(between 1st & 2nd Ave.), $15

1/25-26, 8 PM the reliably entertaining, adventurous Chelsea Symphony  play an Aaron Dai world premiere plus Frank Martin — Ballade for Flute and Orchestra with soloist Kim Lewis; Bach — Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052R;  Sibelius — Symphony No. 2 in D Major, op. 43. The 1/26 show switches out the Martin for Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto, at St. Paul’s Church, 315 W 22nd St., $20 sugg don

1/25, 8 PM meticulous, unbelievably tight, hypnotic tabla-and-harmonium ensemble Talavya at Flushing Town Hall, $16/$10 stud/srs, under 19 free w/id

1/25, 8 PM the 11-person Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble perform lush, microtonal Anthony Braxton works from their new album of his Syntactical Ghost Trance Music at Roulette, $18 adv tix rec

1/25, 8 PM the NJ Symphony Orchestra with soloist Daniel Trifonov play Schumann’s Piano Concerto  No. 1, Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy and Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra at NJPAC in Newark, $20 tix avail

1/25, 8 PM lustrously tuneful percussionist James Shipp with guitarist Taylor Ashton and elegant folk noir songwriter Jean Rohe at the Owl

1/25, 8 PM ex-October Project bandleader and art-rock chanteuse Mary Fahl at City Vineyard, $25

1/25, 9 PM Stefan Jackiw, violin & Conrad Tao, piano play works by Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, Saariaho and Brahms at the 92nd St. Y, $25

1/25, 11 PM purist CBs style female-fronted punks the Carvels NYC followed by punk/rockabilly band the Screaming Rebel Angels at the Mercury, $12

1/26, 4 PM “music, performances, and readings inspired by Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 song “C.R.E.A.M” (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) with a lineup led by Sable Elyse Smith, including Jibade-Khalil Huffman and Simone White, Devin Kenny, and Bonita Oliver, as well as poetry readings by A. H. Jerriod Avant and Smith herself. “Works that dismantle and reimagine “C.R.E.A.M.” as a song and as a larger cultural moment. The contributors interrogate mass incarceration and shed light on the interrelationship between the prison-industrial complex and high finance, violence, intimacy, and trauma, to pursue what exists beyond those broken narratives,” free w/rsvp 

1/26, 4/5:30 PM oldschool Colombian cumbia jammes La Cumbiamba Eneye at Flushing Town Hall, $14,$8 kids

1/26, 8 PM the Orlando Consort, Joined by bass Robert Macdonald,sing works by Josquin des Prez, Clemens non Papa, Nicolas Gombert and others, concluding with Lamentations by English Tudor composer Robert White at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, 145 W 46th St,  $30 tix avail

1/26, 10:30 PM long-running, high-energy, sardonic Irish folk-punk band Box of Crayons at Freddy’s

1/27, 4 PM the Orchestra Now play Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” and Ravel’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s classic, creepy “Pictures at an Exhibition,” at Symphony Space, free

1/28, 7:30/9:30 PM powerhouse reedwoman Anna Webber plays flute and sax leading a sextet with Matt Mitchell on piano at the Jazz Gallery, $15

1/29, drinks at 5:30 PM, show at 6, indie classical chamber group Either/Or play works by their leader Richard Carrick at the Miller Theatre, free

1/29, 6:30 PM “In her new film Pellea[s], Josephine Meckseper adapts Maurice Maeterlinck’s otherworldly play Pelléas et Mélisande for our current sociopolitical landscape, weaving together fictional scenarios and dramatic footage captured from the last Presidential inauguration, as well as from the landmark women’s march that followed. Conflating contemporary political realities with a timeless love story, the city of Washington D.C. and its architecture become a context and site of departure, giving voice to debates around notions of gender found in the original play. Underscoring the film is Arnold Schoenberg’s modernist version of Pelléas et Mélisande,” at the Kitchen, free

 1/29-2/2, 8:30 PM perennially interesting piano/percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire lead a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New Scnool, $20. Choice pick: 1/31 with bassoonist Katherine Young

1/29, 9 PM sharply lyrical janglerock/Americana/soul songwriter Matt Keating and guitarist Steve Mayone’s catchy new project the Bastards of Fine Arts at 11th St. Bar

1/30, 7:30/9:30 PM whirlwind B3 jazz organist Pat Bianchi leads a killer quartet with Joe Locke on vibes at the Jazz Standard, $30

 1/30-31, 7:30 PM, repeating 2/1-2 at 8 the NY Philharmonic play Mozart’s Symphony No, 1 and Jupiter Symphony; Emmanuel Ax joins them on piano for Stravinskiy’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra and Haydn’s Piano Concerto No. 11 at Avery Fisher Hall, $34

1/30 8 PM bassist Nick Dunston leads his highly improvisational quintet, Atlantic Extraction, with Louna Dekker-Vargas on flutes, Ledah Finck on violin, Tal Yahalom on guitar, and Stephen Boegehold on drums at Roulette, $18 adv tix rec

1/31, 8:30 PM Brooklyn folk-punk legend Paranoid Larry at Freddy’s

1/31, 7:30/9:30 PM postbop/improv jazz drum maven Ches Smith leads a new two-guitar quartet with both Mary Halvorson and Liberty Ellman at the Jazz Gallery, $15

1/31. 8:30 PM dynamic, subtle all-female klezmer band Tsibele at Town & Village Social Hall, 334 E 14th St. (between 1st & 2nd Ave.), $15

1/31, 10 PM legendary punk-soul bandleader Jon Spencer at Rough Trade, $20 gen adm

1/31. 10;30 bouncy live hip-hop groove band the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble at the Blue Note, $20 standing room avail

 1/31, 10:30 PM noisy, careening, paint-peeling duo Wolf Eyes at Brooklyn Bazaar $17

2/1, 9:30 PM chamber tango night with poignant, eclectic, lyrical jazz bassist/composer Pedro Giraudo’s Tango Quartet and similarly adventurous pan-latin singer Sofia Tosello at joe’s Pub, $20

A Rare New York Appearance by an Allstar Balkan Crew

This blog was in the building but not in the room when Loza played what in turned out to be a pretty spellbinding set at Golden Fest 2018 back in January. That’s because there are five or six separate shows going on at once in different parts of the lavish, old-world Grand Prospect Hall, all through the night during New York’s funnest annual concert. Golden Fest 2019 takes place next January 18 and 19 and although it’s not clear if the allstar Macedonian group Loza are on the bill, there will be dozens of others who are just as good.

Loza are making a rare non-Golden Fest appearance tomorrow night, Nov 20 at 7 PM at Barbes, opening for perennially entertaining, spectacular Balkan brass band Slavic Soul Party. Fortuitously, WFMU made a field recording of the band’s Golden Fest set, available as a free download at the Free Music Archive.

The first number is a slinky, Middle Eastern tinged number, Vedran Boshkovski’s snakecharmer wood flute soaring over Adam Good’s frenetically picked tanbura lute. Seido Salifoski supplies a rat-a-tat beat on his big tapan drum underneath Corinna Snyder’s stark vocals.

The second tune is a bouncy major-key dance that could pass for Neapolitan, aside from the Macedonian lyrics. Boshkovski switches to zurla – the haunting, otherworldly trumpet-like Balkan reed instrument that sounds like a less drony Scottish bagpipe – for the final two tunes. The first is a trickily syncopated, chromatically edgy instrumental; the second is a more hypnotic epic with an icepick solo from Good. In both instances, the zurla’s keening microtones are just a hair enough outside traditional western harmony to be truly scary. Download this and crank it up if you need a jolt of adrenaline.

Live Music Calendar for New York City and Brooklyn for November and December 2018

Daily updates – if you go out a lot, you might want to bookmark this page and check back regularly. If you’re leaving your hood, make sure you check http://www.mta.info for service changes considering how the trains are at night and on the weekend.

If you don’t recognize a venue where a particular act is playing, check the comprehensive, recently updated list of over 200 New York City music venues 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.

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 published here weeks in advance. Weekly events first followed by the daily calendar.

If you see a typo or an extra comma or something like that, remember that while you were out seeing that great free concert that you found out about here, somebody was up late after a long day of work editing and adding listings to this calendar ;)

All month long in November WTF Bach in the corner first-floor space at Broadway and 56th St. Free performances of famous and rare Bach chamber and keyboard works starting at noon; there’s also a daily special guest at 6:15, $10 sug adm. No show on Thanksgiving Day.

On select Wednesdays 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, beverages and lively conversation included! Next performances are 11/8 and 12/5 at 7 PM with special guest violinist Gregor Kitzis playing Mozart, email for details/address

Four nights in November: 11/1 at 10 and, 11/13 ,11/16,and 11/20 at 7 the great unsung NYC hero of darkly purposeful, noir-tinged jazz guitar, Saul Rubin leading his Zebtet at the Fat Cat.

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 in November, 10 PM darkly torchy southwestern gothic/Europolitan songwriter/guitarist Miwa Gemini at LIC Bar

Mondays in November, 10 PM noir guitar legend Jim Campilongo leads his trio at the big room at the Rockwood, $10

Mondays in November, 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 November, clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party  at 9 PM at Barbes (check the club calendar). Get there as soon as you can as they’re very popular. $10 cover.

Wednesdays in November, 8 PM the Binky Griptite Orchestra (formerly Sharon Jones’ brilliant oldschool soul backing band) at Threes Brewing Outpost, 113 Franklin St (Greenpoint/Kent Aves) in Greenpoint, free

Thursdays at 8 in November the Brooklyn Raga Massive – a rotating cast of A-list Indian, jazz and rock musicians who love to jam out classic Indian themes from over the centuries to the present day – play the Jalopy, $15 adv tix at the bar at the main space. Tons of special guests followed by a wild raga jam!

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

Fridays at 7:30 PM Ken Fowser leads his band at the Django. Jukebox jazz in a JD Allen vein but not as dark and more straight-ahead/groove-oriented: as postbop party music goes, nobody’s writing better than this guy right now.

Free classical concerts on Saturdays at 4 PM in October at Bargemusic;  usually solo piano or small chamber ensembles. If you get lucky, you’ll catch pyrotechnic violinist/music director Mark Peskanov and/or the many members of his circle. Early arrival advised.

Saturdays at 6 PM in November klezmer-jazz piano icon Anthony Coleman at Barbes

Sundays in November, at sometime past noon at Hank’s, Nashville gothic crooner Sean Kershaw‘s legendary honkytonk brunch is back; special guests from his wide circle of NYC Americana acts keep the afternoon going until about 7. It’s just like 1999 again -at least until the bar closes sometime this year.

Sundays in November, 6 PM Red Molly’s irrepressible Americana multi-instrumentalist Molly Venter at the small room at the Rockwood

Sundays in December, 8 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; the 12/30 show is a very very rare solo gig

11/1, 7 PM Bellucci Band – Gordan Spasovski on piano, Kiril Tufekcievski on bass and Blagoja Antovski on drums play new material as well as music by McCoy Tyner, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and others at Gallery MC, 549 W 52nd St., 8th Fl

11/1, 7 PM poignant, nuanced jazz singer Amy Cervini leads her quintet at 55 Bar

11/1, 7:30 PM drummer Fernando Garcia’s bomba jazz quintet followed by tenor saxophonist Slovenian saxophonist Jan Kus’ Slavo Rican Assembly at Drom, $15 adv tix rec

 11/1, 8 PM free jazz trumpet maven Nate Wooley plays Annea Lockwood’s first trumpet piece), followed by the U.S. premiere of Library on Lightning by Ashley Fure performed by Rebekah Heller, Brandon Lopez, and Wooley. The evening also features Felipe Lara’s recent composition Metafagote performed by  Heller, and, lastly, the world premiere of the duo rendition of Wadada Leo Smith’s Red Autumn Gold, performed by Wooley himself at Issue Project Room, $15/$12 stud/srs

11/1-4, 8/10:30 PM luminously tuneful latin jazz pianist Michel Camilo leads a trio at the Blue Note, $30 standing room avail

11/1, 8:30 PM entrancing Indian carnatic violinist Megumi at Brooklyn Raga Massive’s weekly shindig at the Jalopy, $15

11/1, 8:30 PM hard-charging oldschool soul/funk/rock singer Bette Smith and band at Bar Lunatico

11/1, 8 PM New York’s most charismatic, darkly compelling lyrical songwriter/storyteller/keyboard genius Rachelle Garniez followed by cutting-edge guitarist Sean Moran’s Very Good (understatement!) octet at Barbes

11/2. 6:30 PM terse, tuneful Americana singer Jenna Smith followed by ferocious bass improviser James Ilgenfritz’s Anagram Ensemble at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, $15/$10 stud 

11/2, 9ish sardonically relevant guitar-fueled female-fronted Americana punks Spanking Charlene  at Coney Island Baby, $10

11/2-3, 9:30/midnight the Tiger Lillies play their latest noir cabaret extravaganza Devil’s Fairground at Joe’s Pub, $30

11/2, 10 PM awesomely slinky downtempo/cumbia/psychedelic salsa dura band La Mecanica Popular at Barbes

11/3, drinks and kettle corn at 2, concert at 2:30 PM, Sandbox Percussion with special guest vocalist Eliza Bagg play the world premiere of Alex Weiser’s sepulchral “With GentleFfingers”,  as well as György Ligeti’s rarely performed triptych “Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel” at the DiMenna Center, $20 

11/3, 4 PM cinematic, psychedelic quirk-pop keyboardist Michael Hearst presents “Curious, Unusual and Extraordinary” songs from his many bands followed at 6 by klezmer-jazz piano icon Anthony Coleman solo, at 8 by the brilliantly tuneful new project of trumpeter Ben Holmes, drummer Jeff Davis and pianist Carmen Staaf and then at 10 by epic ranchera/bolero brass crew Banda de los Muertos at Barbes

11/3, 4 PM starkly acidic guitarist Ryan Ferreira followed by adventurous bassist Eivind Opsvik followed byatmospheric, cinematic drummer/composer Tim Kuhl – sort of a more straightforwardly trippy version of John Hollenbeck – with his band at Pete’s. The amazing Miriam Elhajli – who switches effortlessly from Venezuelan-influenced folk to classic Appalachian sounds – plays at 10 afterward

11/3, 5 PM the Latin American Chamber Players perform works by Puerto Rican composers Jack Delano, Sonia Morales, Robert Sierra and others at Scholes St. Studios, $10

11/3, 6 PM charmingly inscrutable Parisienne chanteuse Chloe & the French Heart Jazz Band at Club Bonafide. She’s also here on 11/9 and 11/24

11/3, 7 PMdark psychedelic acoustic blues/klezmer/reggae/soca jamband Hazmat Modine at Terra bues. They’re also here on 11/17

11/3, 7:30 PM multi-generational sarod dynasty: Maestro Amjad Ali Khan with Ayaan Ali Bangash and Amaan Ali Bangash at Symphony Space, $30 tix avail

11/3, 7:30 PM pianist Paul Lewis plays works by Brahms, Beethoven and Haydn at Irving Auditorium, Irving Pl/17th St., $16

11/3, 7 PM the debut of NYC’s latest new music group, Wavefield Ensembl eplaying auspicious premieres by Abbasi, Cheah, Helgeson plus Boulez’s monumental Dérive 2 for 11 players, at the Mana Contemporary, 888 Newark Ave. Jersey City, Path train to Journal Square

11/3, 7 PM violinist Karen Bentley Pollick plays edgy Romany-inspired airs by Enescu, similar works by Mark Kopytman,a hauntingly kinetic Middle Eastern piece by Yitzhak Yedid, Selim Göncü’s The Art of Zapping,  – “a dramatic depiction of our relationship with remote controls” – plus works by Hsueh-Yung Shen and Ivan Sokolov at Spectrum, $15

11/3, 7 PM wildly popular bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding and Williaim Parker lead their respective ensembles at Lehman Stages/Lovinger Theatre, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West in the Bronx, 4 to Bedford Pk. Blvd, $25

11/3, 8 PM the String Trio of NY improvise with guitarist Alejandro Florez and  pianist Ricardo Gallo at Soup & Sound , 292 Lefferts Ave( b/n Nostrand & Rogers), 2nd floor, Lefferts Gardens, 2 to Sterling St, $20 sug don includes soup

11/3, 8 PM guitar/dulcimer folk duo Ivy & Miranda followed by the eclectic, more globally-influenced Magpie at the People’s Voice Cafe, sugg don, $20, “more if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away.” 

11/3, 8 PM innovative postbop pianist Glenn Zaleski leads his trio at the Cell Theatre, $15

11/3, 9 PM Unsteady Freddie‘s monthly surf rock extravaganza at Otto’s begins at 9 PM with LI cover band Shecky & the Twangtones, at 10 the heavier, fierier Tsunami of Sound, at 11 the swirly, hard-hitting, reverb-iced Strange but Surf and at midnight a rare NYC appearance by Indiana’s darkly purist the Katatonics 

11/3, 9 PM hypnotic, stark indie cassical/Americana guitar/violin duo Damsel followed byten-piece country/carnivalesque/acoustic rock powerhouse M Shanghai String Band at the Jalopy, $!0

11/3, 9:30 PM haunting noir cabaret pioneer Little Annie & Botanica piano mastermind Paul Wallfisch at Pangea, $20.

11/3, 10:30 PM classic Persian favorites from 60s and 70s with A Muslim and a Mexican at Drom, $20

11/3 1 AM (actually wee hours of 11/4) feral tenor saxophonist Eric Wyatt  leads the jam at Smalls. Could be off the hook

11/4-8 a celebration of Frederic Rzewski’s music at Spectrum, $20 ($40 four-day pass available). Too many good musicians to list: the full lineup is here. Choice pick: pianist Corey Hamm tackling The People United Will Never Be Defeated at 5:30 on 11/4

11/4, 4 PM the An Die Musik quintet play works by Beethoven, Britten and others at Merkin Concert Hall, $16

11/4. 4 PM violinist Rolf Schulte and pianist Aaron Likness perform a program of Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library, free, no under-sixes.

11/4, 4 PM the Parthenia Viol Consort with special guests New World Recorders (Gwyn Roberts, Héloïse Degrugillier, Rainer Beckmann and Tricia van Oers) “offer canzonas, ricercars, fantasias, motets and polychoral masterpieces from Italy and England by William Byrd, Peter Phillips, John Ward, Thomas Simpson, Thomas Tomkins, Henry Purcell, Andrea Gabrieli, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Giovanni Priuli, Giovanni Battista Grillo, and Adrian Willaert” at Corpus Christi Church, 529 W 121st St, $25

11/4, 6 PM wryly retro, period-perfect classic 60s style female-fronted honkytonk band the Bourbon Express at at Hank’s

11/4, 6 PM iconic LES improvisers: Radio I-Ching in duo form with sax/guitar duels between Andy Haas and Don Fiorino followed at 7 by drummer Dave Grollman and guitarist Lucas Brode at Downtown Music Gallery

11/4, 7 PM violinist Benjamin Sung plays solo works by Berio, Sciarrino, Kubik and others at Scholes St. Studio

11/4, 7:30 PM Turkish saz virtuoso Ozan Aksoy plays the album release show for his new one at Drom, free

11/4, 7:30 PM a rare performance of legendary Cambodian musicians and their descendants – flute player, activist, and founder of Cambodian Living Arts Arn Chorn-Pond, alongside Seyma Trhosn, Master Mann Men, his daughter Mao Men, and Savang Toch playing music forbidden during the Pol Pot era at City Winery, $25 standing room avail 

11/4, 8 PM western swing band Brain Cloud ‘s irrepressible, tapdancing frontwoman Tamar Korn and her band followed by pyrotechnic klezmer clarinetist and Dave Tarras protege Michael Winograd’s klezmer band in the upstairs room at at Threes Brewing, 333 Douglass St. in Gowanus

11/4, 8 PM Helix with Michel van der Aa’s Hysteresis with Maureen Hurd (clarinet soloist) play works by Wolfe, Glass, Thordvaldsdottier and many others at the Poisson Rouge, $20 av tix rec

11/4, 9 PM bouzouki virtuoso Michael Paouris – who plays everything from rembetiko to Turkish music to Vivaldi – with his band at Drom, $10 adv tix rex

11/4, 7 PM haunting, cinematic lapsteel genius Myk Freedman leads his band followed at 9 by Romany jazz guitarist Sara L’Abriola. She’s also here on 11/11

11/4, 10:30 PM catchy soul-jazz trombonist David Gibson leads his quintet at Smalls

11/5, 7:30 a panel discussion with violist/impresario Nadia Sirota; bassoonist/International Contemporary Ensemble co-artistic director Rebekah Heller; and NY Philharmonic Artistic Planning veep Isaac Thompson weighing in on the precarious state of new music in New York City and its future at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

11/, 8:30 PM Middle Eastern inspired bassist Omer Avital leads a quartet at Bar Lunatico

11/5, 9:30ish Dilemastronauta Y Los Sabrosos Cosmicos with members of M.A.K.U and Combo Chimbita play space cumbia and tropical stoner sounds at Barbes. They’re also at the big room at the Rockwood on11/21 at 11:30

11/5, 10 PM fiery, deviously fun oldtimey swing guitarist/crooner Seth Kessel & the Two Cent Band at Skinny Dennis. He’s also here on 11/11 at 9

11/6 half past noon Dutch organist Stefan Donner plays a program TBA at Church of the Transfiguration on E 29th just off 5th Ave

11/6, 7 PM melodic rising star bassist Endea Owens leads her group at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, $10

11/6, 7 PM bassist Max Johnson presents a new trio made up of Matt Nelson (Battle Trance) on tenor saxophone and Brian Chase on drums followed by clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

11/6, 7:30 PM the deservedly acclaimed Brooklyn Youth Chorus sing the album release show for their new one Silent Voices with works by works by Caroline Shaw, Shara Nova, Toshi Reagon, Jeff Beal, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Kamala Sankaram at the Poisson Rouge, $25 adv tix rec

11/6, 7:30 PM the Silesian String Quartet play a rare all-Polish program of works by Szymanowski, Lutosławski, Bacewicz and Penderecki at the Morgan Library, $35

11/6, 8 PM colorful, paradigm-shifting Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man and the Taipai Chinese Orchestra play US premieres of works by Chen Shi-Si, Qu Wenjun, Cheng Kuang-Chih and Bao Yuan-Kai at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, $25 tix avail

11/6, 8:15 PM ambitious, tuneful trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson leads a sextet with Immanuel Wilkins ontenor at the Jazz Gallery, $15. They’re back here on 11/29

11/6, 10:30 PM charismatic, adventurous postbop/avant garde trombonist/crooner Frank Lacy leads his sextet at at Smalls . They’re also here on 11/20

11/7. noon latin drum maven Bobby Sanabria & Quarteto Ache outdoors at 2 Gateway Plaza at NJPAC in Newark, free

11/7, 1 PM  eclectic, paradigm-shifting B3 jazz organist Brian Charette at St. Peter’s Church, 54th/Lex

11/7, 7 PM the Publiquartet play works by innovative steel pan composer Andy Akiho, feat. the composer and Ian Rosenbaum on percussion at National Sawdust, $30 adv tix rec

11/7, 7 PM the Mivos Quartetplay Stefano Gervasoni: Clamour (NY premiere); Simone Movio: Zahir Ia (NY premiere commission); Zosha Di Castri: String Quartet no. 1; and works by Ivan Fedele at the Italian Academy at Columbia, 1161 Amsterdam Ave south of 118th, free

11/7, 7 PM the hard-swing, retro Young Lions Jazz Orchestra led by composer/conductor Kira Daglio Fine at Shapeshifter Lab, $10 

11/7, 7:30 PM catchy oldschool roots reggae with a fearlessly populist Senegalese feel from Meta & the Cornerstones at the Poisson Rouge, $12 adv tix rwedc

11/7-8, 7:30 PM, repeating on 11/9 at 8 the NY Philharmonic play Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony plus two works by Schubert: his youthful Fifth Symphony and a “joyous, charming mini-cantata,” featuring Principal Clarinet Anthony McGill and soprano Miah Persson at Avery Fisher Hall, $34 tix avail

11/7, 7:30 PM perennially edgy, relevant pianist Myra Melford’s lush, enigmatic Snowy Egret ensemble at Dizzy’s Club, $30

11/7, 7:30 PM edgy, eclectic pan-Mediterranean art-rock/latin/chanson ensemble Banda Magda   at Bric Arts, free w/rsvp 

11/7, 8 PM klezmer clarinet/mandolin wizard Andy Statman at Barbes, $10

]11/7, 8 PM Dervisi feat. guitar god Steve Antonakos play “exotic Greek gangsta blues”  at Troost

11/7-8, 8 PM Mahan Esfahani plays two harpsichord recitals from J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier at the Miller Theatre, $30 tix avail

11/7, 8 PM violinists Laurra Pereira and Sara Salomon play works by Grieg, Lutoslawski, Stravinsky & Poulenc at the New School’s Steifel Hall, 4th Fl, 55 W 13th St, free

11/8. 7 PM intriguing songwriter Ella Dawn Jenkins, aka EllaHarp – a concert harpist who sings and plays stark, rustic original fingerstyle blues and Gaelic-influenced songs – at the Bitter End, $10 

11/8, 7:30 PM Anthony Arnove – Howard Zinn’s collaborator for the Voices of a People’s History of the United States anthology emcees a night of Zinn-inspired readings and music from amazing Punjabi soul crooner Zeshan B with actors Brian Jones, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Okieriete Onaodowan, Eisa Davis, Wallace Shawn, Staceyann Chin, Leta Renée-Alan, at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

11/8, 7:30/9:30 PM mighty latin big band jazz: saxophonist Felipe Salles‘ 22-piece Interconnections Ensemble play his works The Lullaby Project at the Jazz Gallery, $15

11/8, 7:30 PM southern gothic banjo player Amythyst Kiah at Symphony Space $30/$20 30 and under

11/8 7:30 PM daunting postbop technique and dynamic tunesmithing from saxophonist Carl Bartlett Jr,  leading his quartet at Smalls

11/8, 8 PM legends from the zeros: singer/guitarist Genie Morrow’s super-catchy, erudite powerpop band Sputnik at Hank’s, $8

11/8, 8 PM plush, balmy, oldtimey uke swing band Daria Grace & the Pre-War Ponies followed by busker legends the Xylopholks in their furry suits at Barbes

11/8, 8 PM nuanced, fearlessly populist Malagasy chanteuse Razia Said at Shrine

11/8, 8:30 PM fearlessly political New York postbop improv magic: noir inspired multi-sax legend Roy Nathanson and pianist Arturo O’Farrill at Bar Lunatico

11/8, 9 PM cutting-edge conversational improvisation: Steve Swell – trombone; Robert Boston – elec.piano; Thomas Helton – bass; Michael Evans – drums at the old Nublu

11/8, 10 PM pyrotechnic clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski’s ferociously kinetic NY Gypsy All-Stars at at the third stage at the Rockwood, $12

11/9, 7/9:30 PM amazing Chicago blues guitarist and organist Lucky Peterson & the Organization featuring soul singer Tamara Tremell at Birdland, $20 at the bar

11/9-10, 7:30/9:30 PM iconic microtonal saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh plays four sets with four different players on retuned microtonal piano: Kris Davis, Peter Apfelbaum, Diane Moser and Tyshawn Sorey at the Jazz Gallery, $25. Could be the NYC jazz event of the year. 

11/9, 8 PM playfully lyrical, fearlessly political superduo Kill Henry Sugar – guitar/banjo mastermind Erik Della Penna and drummer Dean Sharenow – at Barbes

11/9, 8 PM the noirish, cinematic American Modern Ensemble play new works by Robert Paterson, Jonathan Posthuma, Joseph Rebman, Ari Sussman and others at Subculture, $20

11/9, 8 PM Music from China play new works for traditional and western instruments by Zhou Tian, Zhou Long, Yang Yong, Wang Amao and Wang Guowei at  Symphony Space, $18

11/9, 8 PM the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra play Rachmaninoff’s  Piano Concerto No. 3 and Tschaikovsky;’s Pathetique Symphony at Symphony Space, $25

11/9, 8 PM pensive, lyrical, minimalistically psychedelic neosoul with Kadhja Bonet backed by a live band and choir at National Sawdust, $22 adv tix rec, 

 11/9, 8:30 PM intense, soaring harmonium player/singer Elana Low – a more organic, trancey version of Marissa Nadler, maybe –  at Sidewalk

11/9-10, 8:30 PM wryly psychedelic cinematic Italophile instrumentalists Tredici Bacci at the Stone at the New School, $20

11/9, 9 PM the Jack Quartet play “a New York premiere by Portuguese composer Andreia Pinto Correia inspired by Hart Crane’s poem “The Bridge,” launches this evening of music drawn from the last 50 years of string quartet repertoire. Sabrina Schroeder’s elusive Slip Trains, comprised largely of harmonic tones and glissandi, precedes the skittering, jagged figures and eerie, time-stopping allure of Zosha di Castri’s first string quartet. Finally, György Ligeti’s second string quartet” at the 92nd St. Y, $25

11/9, 9ish colorful, Bowie-esque female-fronted glamrockers the Manimals at Hank’s

11/9, 9 PM Brandi & the Alexanders play oldschool-style soul ballads at the small room at the Rockwood

11/9, 9 PM alto saxophonist Alison Shearer and her edgy, cinematic soul/groove/funk band at Radegast Hall. They’re also here on the 26th 

11/9, 9:30 PM psychedelic art-rockers Swarmius play from their magic realist opera El Colibrí Magicó (The Magic Hummingbird) – A California Story, set in modern day San Diego & Tijuana, “an explosive cultural confrontation between protagonists of the contemporary US/Mexican border: coyotes, border guards, refugees, vigilantes, in violence and transcendence, with mystical intervention from living spirits of the pre-Columbian past” at the Cutting Room, $20

11/9-10, 10:30 PM tuneful, epically-inspired postbop jazz quintet the Flail at Smalls

11/10, 1 PM dazzlingly eclectic chamber pop/latin/classical violinist Concetta Abbate and drummer Ben Engel at Flowers for all Occasions, 1114 De Kalb Ave at Broadway, Bushwick, J/M to Kosciuszko St.

11/10, 4 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 6 by klezmer-jazz piano icon Anthony Coleman at by poignant, eclectic, lyrical jazz bassist/composer Pedro Giraudo leading his Tango Quartet, and at 10 by hard-hitting, brass-fueled newschool latin soul/boogaloo dance band Spanglish Fly at Barbes

11/10, 5 PM wildly diverse violinist Skye Steele leads his band playing “A People’s History of the Violin: at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, $15

11/10, 7 PM the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra play film music by Benjamin Wallfisch, Waxman, Rota, and Rózsa at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, $20 tix avail

11/10, 7:30 PM low-register reed connoisseur Josh Sinton leads his Predicate Trio with cellist Chris Hoffman and drummer Tom Rainey, followed by alto/tenor saxophonist & bass clarinetist Avram Fefer leading a trio with bassist Sean Conly and drummer Michael Wimberly at Greenwich House Music School., $15/$12 stud/srs

11/10, 7:30 PM the Dover String Quartet play works by Dvorak, Porat and Beethoven at Irving Auditorium, Irving Pl/17th St., $16

11/10 7:30 PM Swedish pianist Per Tengstrand and ensemble play works by Schubert and Beethoven at Scanadinavia House, $25. They’re back here on 11/29.

11/10, 8 PM hilariously epic all-female Japanese metal band Necronomidol headline this year’s Asian music Festival at Trans-Pecos, $20. Darkly torchy southwestern gothic/Europolitan songwriter/guitarist Miwa Gemini plays at around 4 

11/10, 8 PM revisit the glory days of something approximating working class  power with the NYC Labor Chorus at the People’s Voice Cafe, sugg don, $20, “more if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away.”  

11/10, 8 PM Dutch early music choir Cappella Pratensis sing works by Josquin des Pres and those whom he influenced (and those who stole from him) at Church of St. Mary the Virgin, 145 W 46th St,  $30 tix avail

11/10, 8 PM hilarious female-fronted AC/DC cover band Big Balls, the similarly hilarious, smartly political faux-French retro 60s psych-pop band les Sans Culottes and wickedly catchy Americana/paisley underground rockers Girls on Grass at Freddy’s

11/10, 8 PM eclectic Mediterranean/tango/Romany band Dodo Orchestra at Club Bonafide, , $20

11/10, 8 PM  haunting, Lynchian songstress Ajda the Turkish Queen with her band followed by wryly surreal noir parlor pop duo the Dream Eaters at Pete’s

11/10, 9 PM Lizzie & the Makers at the small room at the Rockwood. Snarling twin-guitar psychedelic rockers steeped in oldschool soul and blues, backing one of the most powerful, riveting singers on the planet. DAMN, can this woman wail.

11/10, 10 PM this woman can wail too – and write the most excoriatingly brilliant lyrics of any songwriter in town. Hannah Fairchild with her ferocious noir cabaret/punk trio Hannah vs. the Many at the Way Station

11/11, 2 PM the Oratorio Society of NY play Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, plus conductor Kent Tritle leads the 200-voice chorus, soloists, and orchestra in Górecki’s Euntes ibant et flebant followed by Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, $25 tix avail

11/11, 3 PM Nanci Belmont, bassoon; Yumi Oshima, viola; Elizabeth Dorman, pianoplay works by Gubaidulina, Hersant, Saint-Saens and Spisak at Concerts on the Slope, St. John’s Episcopal Church, 139 St. John’s Place downhill from 7th Ave, sugg don

11/11, 4 PM a Joan Tower 80th bday celebration with works by Tower, Jennifer Higdon, Tania Leon and Julia Wolfe – Cha for saxophone quartet played by the PRISM Quartet. Jasper Quartet, Lysander Trio Cassatt Quartet and the ageless Ursula Oppens on piano at National Sawdust, $30 adv tix rec

11/11, 4 PM up-and-coming early music ensemble Juilliard415  with Alfredo Bernardini play music by Vivaldi, his friends and enemies at Corpus Christi Church, 529 W 121St St, $10 tix avail  

11/11, 7 PM in reverse order: the punkmetal Municipal Waste, the more hardcore Toxic Holocaust and the excellently tuneful, ornate, Iron Maiden-ish Haunt at Warsaw, $22 adv tix rec

11/11, 7 PM amazing acoustic blues guitar virtuoso Terry Robb – who can do oldtime ragtimey stuff as well as his own edgy new material – at the third stage at the Rockwood, $15

11/11, 8 PM the Royal Arctic Institute – who veer between surfy rock instrumentals and darker, quieter, more noir and jazz-tinged themes – at Bowery Electric, $10

11/11, 8 PM the ageless Richard Thompson – who may be the greatest rock songwriter AND best rock guitarist ever – and his electric trio at the Town Hall, $35 tix avail

11/11, 8:30 PM C&W wildman Zane Campbell – who arguably invented what would become alt-country back in the 80s – followed by  sizzling electric bluegrass and C&W with Demolition String Band at the Treehouse at 2A

11/11, 9 PM lush, dynamic female-fronted art-rockers Arc Iris play the album release show for their new one at Rough Trade, $12

11/12, 7 PM Argentine pianist Agustin Muriago performs Spanish music including works by Albéniz, Granados, Falla, Mompou, and Halffter, plus Spanish-inspired material by Debussy, Chabrier, Lecuona, and Moszkowski at the Yamaha Piano Salon, 689 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Fl, free admission – RSVP required

11/12, 8/10:30 PM classy, cinematic NZ jazz pianist Alan Broadbent leads a trio at Mezzrow, $20

11/12, 9:30 PM the NYC Gaita Club – a Bulla en el Barrio spinoff – play rustically pounding Afro-Colombian trance-dance music at Barbes

11/13, 6 PM haunting Turkish folk crooner Ahmet Erdogdular and his Ensemble at St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia, 116th/Amsterdam, free

11/13, 7 PM rapturous Afro-Peruvian/classical pianist/singer Chi-Chi Glass followed by clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

11/13, 7 PM the Argus Quartet play works by Haydn, Juri Seo, Christopher Theofadinis, Ted Hearne and Leos Janacek’s String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters” at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, $25

11/13, 8:30ish stark southwestern gothic jangle and clang with And the Wiremen at Troost

11/13-17, 8:30 PM unstoppably edgy, deservedly iconic, fearlessly political downtown guitarist Marc Ribot plays mostly solo at the Stone at the New School, $20

11/13, 9:15 PM the darkly eclectic, enigmatic Lorraine Leckie  – equally adept at Slavic and Americana noir, psychedelia and dark cabaret –  at the big room at the Rockwood, $10

11/13, 9:30 PM the Bronx Conexion play their mighty salsa big band jazz at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

11/14, 6 PM Indian santoorist Vinay Desai at the  Rubin Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

11/14-17, 7:30 PM adventurous indie classical string quartet Ethel play an original, phantasmagorical score inspired by the now-shuttered Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey Circus at BAM, $25

11/14, 8 PM the Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Rhiannon Giddens joined by her sister Lalenja Harrington on spoken word and vocals, plus tap artist Robyn Watson, “paying homage to Nina Simone, Fanny Lou Hamer, Ella Fitzgerald, Ethel Waters, and more women of color who have made contributions to our musical canon” at Symphony Space, $30 adv tix avail for  age 30 and under

11/14, 8 PM the Glissandos –  Marius Pibarot ( of Collectif Medz Bazar) and Duncan Wickel – play oldtime Americana with fiddle and cello at Barbes

11/14, 8:30 PM the SR9 Trio play music of Borodin, de Falla, Bartok, Caron Darras and more at Greenwich House Music School, free

11/4, 8:30 PM wickedly catchy parlor pop and klezmer-inspired art-rock songwriter Sharon Goldman at the third stage at the Rockwood $10

11/14, 9 PM dynamic, subtle all-female klezmer band Tsibele and the excoriatingly lyrical, fearlessly anti-fascist Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird  at Littlefield, $20

11/14, 9 PM enigmatic, pensively tuneful rainy-day indie folk with Tara Jane O’Neil at Secret Project Robot, $10

11/14, 9:30 PM edgy Middle Eastern-inspired alto saxophonist Uri Gurvich with pianist Leo Genovese, bassist Edward Perez, and drummer Francisco Mela at Dizzy’s Club, $30

11/15, 6 PM soaringly tuneful pan-Asian violinist Meg Okura goes slumming at Silvana

11/15, 6 PM the Alexander String Quartet & special guests play works by Brahms, Kreisler, Gershwin and others at the Baruch College auditorium, free, rsvp req 

11/15, 7 PM perennially tuneful, lyrical piano improviser/composer Kris Davis  leads a trio with David Leon – saxophone; Tomas Fujiwara – drums at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, $10. They’re at the Jazz Gallery on 11/20 with sets at 7:30/9:30 PM for five bucks more

11/15, 7:30 PM haunting Elliott Smith-esque rockers No-No Boy play their song cycle about Japanese Americans in US prison camps during WWII at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

11/15, 7;30/9:30 PM pianist Gabriel Zucker leads a killer quartet with Adam O’Farrill – trumpet; Eric Trudel – saxophone; Tyshawn Sorey – drums at the Jazz Gallery, $15

11/15, 8 PM an all-Du Yun concert featuring the charismatic singer/composer with International Contemporary Ensemble at the Miller Theatre, $20 tix avail

11/15, 8 PM crystalline-voiced noir Americana songwriter Jessie Kilguss   at Hank’s $8

11/15, 8 PM experimental Scottish bagpipe improviser David Watson at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, $10

11/15, 8 PM the Toomai String Quintet  with special guest vocalist Miss Yaya play tangos and classic works by pan-latin composers followed at 10 by Quatre Vingt Neuf (French for 89, a revolutionary date in case you missed it) playing New Orleans brass music at Barbes

11/13, 8:30 PM Dervisi feat. guitar god Steve Antonakos play “exotic Greek gangsta blues” at Espresso 77, 35-57 77th Street (just off of 37th Ave), Jackson Heights

11/16, 7 PM “an eye-popping cast of celebrated performers gathers together to highlight and celebrate the extraordinary songwriting talents of Coney Island native Carol Lipnik for this one night only special event.” She’s best known as NYC’s best singer, with an eye-popping four-octave range, but she’s also a darkly brilliant art-rock songwriter. “Confirmed performers include the iconic downtown performance artist John Kelly; celebrated monologist and playwright David Cale; opera diva Lauren Flanigan; charismatic accordionist/chanteuse Rachelle Garniez and bright new star on the downtown scene, Silver Wallace.” at Joe’s Pub, $20

11/16, 7 PM high-voltage avant garde cellist Jeffrey Ziegler plays an electroacoustic show with music inspired by famous figures in science, including Foday Musa Suso’s piece about George Washington Carver; Felipe Pérez Santiago saluting astronomer Jill Tarter; Maja Ratkje’s homage to chemist Signe Kjelstrup; Sarah Lipstate’s salute to Marie Curie; Paola Prestini’s work inspired by climatologist Andrew Kruczkiewicz plus pieces by Graham Reynolds at National Sawdust, $30 adv tix rec

11/16, 7:30 PM hauntingly tuneful, propulsive Lebanese jazz pianist Tarek Yamani at Aaron Davis Hall, $25. This guy is amazing. 

11/16, 7:30 PM the Choir of Trinity Wall Street sing Rachmaninoff’s haunting All-Night Vigil, a at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown, free. They slayed with this last year.

11/16, 7:30 PM the Ukrainian Village Voices sing haunting, ancient choral music at the Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th St,$15/$10 stud/srs

11/16, 7:30 PM new works for string quartet by Valerie Coleman, Jeff Myers, Lawrence Kramer, and Matthew Welch. performed by Quartet Metadata: Lynn Bechtold and Hajnal Pivnick, violins; Carrie Frey, viola; and Jisoo Ok, cello at the 12th floor lounge of Fordham’s Lowenstein Buiding, corner of 60th St. and Columbus Ave, free.

11/16. 8 PM the Tana Quartet play new works for string quartet by Bun Ching Lam,  Voro Garcia, Raphael Cendo, Edwin Hillier, & Yann Robin at Roulette, $20

11/16, 8 PM pianist Jasna Popovic and violinist Kinga Augustin play a program of originals tba at the DiMenna Center, $15

11/16, 8 PM recently revitalized, careeningly explosive ten-piece Balkan brass crew Veveritse at Shrine

11/16-17, 8/10:30 PM tuneful latin jazz pianist Donald Vega leads a trio at Mezzrow, $20 at the bar

11/16, 7:30 PM the Dominican “unicornio de la bachata,” Andre Veloz at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

11/16, 7:30/9:30 PM ethereal vibraphonist Chris Dingman solo at the Jazz Gallery, $20

 11/16, 8 PM rustic Brazilian jungle guitar-and-accordion sounds with Regional de NY at Barbes

11/16, 9 PM haunting Boston guitar mastermind Thalia Zedek (leader of the late, great Come) at Union Pool, $15

11/16, 10 PM Brooklyn’s hilarious counterpart to Spinal Tap, stoner metal parodists Mighty High at Hank’s, $10

11/16, 10:30 PM Greg Lewis’ brilliant, fearlessly political Organ Monk Trio  at the Fat Cat

11/16, 1 AM (actually wee hours of 11/17)this era’s most intensely powerful tenor saxophonist/composer, JD Allen  leads the jam at Smalls

11/17, 5 PM one of NYC’s great voices in folk noir, Liz Tormes followed at 6 by parlor pop pioneer Alice Bierhorst at Pete’s

11/17, 6 PM klezmer-jazz piano icon Anthony Coleman followed at 8 by intense Balkan chanteuse Jenny Luna‘s haunting, slinky, oud-driven Turkish band Dolunay and then at 10 by psychedelic salsa bandleader Zemog El Galle Bueno at Barbes

11/17, 7:30 PM pianist David Witten plays music of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco at the Italian Academy at Columbia, 1161 Amsterdam Ave south of 118th, free

11/17, 7:30 PM the Chamber Music Society of  Lincoln Center play piano trios by Beethoven, Kodaly and Dvorak at Irving Auditorium, Irving Pl/17th St., $16

11/17, 7:30 PM Balkan accordion paradigm-shifter Merima Kljuco and guitarist Miroslav Tadic play traditional Balkan and classical styles plus original works and arrangements by Erik Satie, Manuel de Falla, and “the mournful music of sevdah—sometimes called ‘Bosnian blues,'” at Symphony Space, $30

11/17, 7:30/9:30 PM this era’s most intensely powerful tenor saxophonist/composer, JD Allen and Group at the Jazz Gallery, $25

11/17, 7:30 PM Four Corners Ensemble – Siyuan Li, Joshua Anderson, Merryl Neille, and Jinn Shin – play premieres of flute concerto “Quongqothwane,” based on South African “Click Song;” clarinet concerto “American Variations,” on an original theme in various American music styles; piano concerto “Canton Snowstorm,” an imagination of a heavy snowstorm in the warmest place in China; and cello concerto “Matilda’s Dream,” a fantasy based on Australian folk song “Waltzing Matilda,” at Arete Gallery, $15

11/17, 8 PM terse, purposeful rising star postbop saxophonist Melissa Aldana  leads her quartet at the Miller Theatre, $20 tix avail

11/17, 8 PM Glenda Del E and the brilliant Ariacne Trujillo (formerly with Pedrito Martinez’s band) reimagine and interpret legendary Cuba pianist Valdés’ music at Drom, $15

11/17, 8 PM pianist Ivan Gusev plays works by  Scarlatti, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Debussy, and Mussorgsky at Weill hall at Carnegie Hall, $20 seats avail

11/17, 9 PM dusky, uneasily jangy, catchy Laurel Canyon psychedelic band the Allah-Las at Pioneer Works, $10

11/17, 9:30 PM elegant, sharply lyrical parlor pop stylist Heather Eatman with her band at Freddy’s

11/18, 2 PM terse, tuneful jazz guitarist Amanda Monaco and her quartet at Flushing Town Hall, $5

11/18, 5 PM pianist Yelena Grinberg presents piano and flute music of Grieg, Renicke, Schumann and others at an Upper West Side house concert, email for address/deets 

11/18, 6 PM NYC’s own rippling, hypnotic, epic Balinese gamelan, Gamelan Dharma Swara at the Fat Cat

11/18, 7 PM sharply lyrical southwestern gothic/Americana songwriter Tom Shaner at LIC Bar

11/18, 7 PM edgy Middle Eastern-tinged cellist Rufus Cappodocia solo at Barbes

11/18, 7:30 PM noir-inspired alto saxophonist/composer Nick Hempton leads his combo at Smalls

11/18. 8 PM cult favorite gonzo pianist Dred Scott leads his trio at Mezzrow, $20

11/18, 8 PM edgy lefty lead guitarist Damian Quinones and his psychedelic latin soul band at Bar Chord

11/18. 8 PM “composer/saxophonist Ross Feller and choreographer/performer Kora Radella present an evening of new work which includes world premiere compositions played by the violin duo String Noise, pianist Adam Tendler, and a saxophone quartet comprised of Johnny Butler, Caroline Davis, Matt Nelson, and Feller. In the same evening of performance, the NYC premieres of the solo Sequinza, danced by Tim Bendernagel, will be met full-force by the duet Force Majeure performed by Pauline Kim Harris of String Noise,” at Roulette, $18 

11/18, 10 PM the Zebulonites play roots reggae at Shrine

11/19 7 PM day one of the Czech PAF Festival at Pioneer Works with the somber minimalism of Slowmotiondancer – Prague-based artist and producer Dominik Gajarský – Jakub Jansa’s cynical, dystopic multimedia production Club of Opportunities and Ink Midget & Isama Zing: Prelude for light and fog,  an audiovisual composition written for eight fog machines and four strobe lights, free w/rsvp 

11/19, 7;30  PM intense alto saxophonist Lucas Pino’s twin-guitar No No Nonet  plays the album release show for his new one at Smalls

11/19. 7:30 PM pianist Sergei Dreznin plays works by Mozart ,Prokofiev, Chopin, Gershwin and others at the Austrian Cultural Center, 11 E 52nd St., free, rsvp req 

11/19 9 PM unpredictably fun, funny psychedelic art-rock band the Academy Blues Project  followed at 10 by darkly torchy southwestern gothic/Europolitan songwriter/guitarist Miwa Gemini at LIC Bar

11/19, 9 PM legendary dual-reedman George Braith – who can play two saxes at once better than most guys can play one – leads his quartet at the Fat Cat

11/19, 9:30 PM ex-Chicha Libre keyboard sorcerer Josh Camp’s wryly psychedelic cumbia/tropicalia/dub band Locobeach at Barbes

11/20, drinks at 5:30 PM, show at 6, flutist Isabel Lepanto Gleicher and ensemble plays works by Hildegard Von Bingen, David Lang, Rzewski and others at the Miller Theatre, free

11/20, 7 PM haunting allster Balkan band Loza featuring Vedran Boshkovski, Adam Good, Seido Salifoski and the great Corinna Snyder on vocals followed byclever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

11/20, 7:30 PM magically lilting Canary Islands singer Olga Cerpa and her six-piece band at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

11/20, 7:30 PM the Mannes Orchestra play Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Something for the Dark, Julius Eastman’s Symphony No. 2 (with Luciano Chessa, conductor) and Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Symphony No. 3 at Alice Tully Hall, free, tix avail now

11/20-21, 8 PM bassists Zach Rowdens, Sean Ali, Britton Powell, Greg Chudzik, Nick Dunston, and Vinicius Ciccone Cajado comprise “the largest and loudest ensemble yet, involving six bassists,” performing Leila Bordreuil’s darkly melancholy, ostensibly scathing Piece for Cello and Double Bass Ensemble II, with opening acts by Charmaine Lee on 11/20 and Dylan Scheer on 11/21 at the Kitchen, $15

11/20, 8 PM pianist Andrea Lucchesini plays works by Berio, Scarlatti and Schubert at the Italian Academy at Columbia, 1161 Amsterdam Ave south of 118th, free

11/20-25, 8:30/10:30 PM Jason Moran & the Bandwagon play the music of early Harlem Renaissance ragtime composer James Reese Europe at the Vanguard

11/20. 9 PM Rosie Moore plays solo harp at Arete Gallery, $15

11/20, 10:30 PM brilliant drummer/percussionist Willie Martinez & La Familia Sextet play classic salsa grooves at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, $10

11/20, 10 PM bass sax monster Stefen Zeniuk’s punk mambo crew the NY Fowl Harmonic  followed by the similarly punk Stumblebum Brass Band at Hank’s, $10

11/21, 7:30 PM, repeating 11/22-23 at 8 Emmanuelle Haïm leads the NY Philharmonic playing selections from Handel’s Water Music at Avery Fisher Hall, $34 tix avail

11/21, 8 PM Greek art-rock pianist/crooner Pericles Kanaris and his band at  Drom, $33 adv tix rec

11/22, 8 PM Barbes is open Thanksgiving day with a rapturous set of electrified Guinean kora music played by the guitar duo who lead the Mandingo Ambassadors

11/23, 8 PM edgy klezmer duo Farnakht – violinist Zoe Aqua and accordionist Mattias Kaufmann  – at Barbes 

11/23, 9 PM newschool roots reggae crooner Jesse Royal at the Knitting Factory, $20

11/24, 7:30 PM Glass Farm Ensemble  play an indie classical program titled “Memory & Silence” includingpremieres by Cesar Camarero, Yvonne Troxler and Ian Wilson at Symphony Space, $20

11/24, 8 PM  the haphazardly funny Eastern Blokhedz  – who do psychedelic covers of 60s Russian psychedelic pop songs and specialize in the catalog of legendary Polish singer Edita Piaha – followed at 10 by accordionist/sitarist Kamala Sankaram’s hot surfy Bollywood/cumbia/psychedelic rock project Bombay Rickey – a launching pad for her spellbinding four-octave voice – at Barbes

11/24, 8 PM singer Carolina Oliveros’ mighty 13-piece Afro-Colombian trance/dance choir Bulla en el Barrio; with special guest singer and composer, Darlina Zaenz (daughter of Eloísa Garcés Ladeus, frontwoman of legendary bullerengue group Palmeras de Uraba) at C’Mon Everybody, $10. They’re also at Barbes on 11/26 at 10ish

11/24, 8:30 PM a rare reunion of cult favorite Bay Area jazz group the Munchies with Dred Scott on piano and saxophonist Kenny Brooks at Bar Lunatico

11/24, 9 PM Caz Gardiner and her oldschool rocksteady/ska band at Silvana

11/24, 10 PM boisterously funny oldschool 60s C&W and brooding southwestern gothic with the Jack Grace Band  at Skinny Dennis

11/25, 2 PM Distinguished Concerts Orchestra play the 1959 Eugene Goossens orchestral arrangement of Handel’s Messiah at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, $20 tix avail

11/25, 4 PM indie classical allstar quintet Counterinduction –  (Miranda Cuckson, violin; Jessica Meyer, viola; Karen Ouzounian, cello; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Ning Yu, piano) – play a program TBA at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library, free, no under-sixes.

11/25, 9 PM atmospheric, cinematic drummer/composer Tim Kuhl – sort of a more straightforwardly trippy version of John Hollenbeck – and band play the album release show for their new one at Union Pool, $12

11/25, 9:30 PM Blythe Gruda sings her enigmatic art-rock and parlor pop  at Pete’s

11/26, 5ish the Lincoln square festival with Arlo Guthrie, Frank London’s Klezmer Allstars, Spanglish Fly and others is happening even with the rain…bring an umbrella if you’re going

11/26, 7 PM feral female-fronted psychedelic cumbia/Afrobeat allstars Combo Chimbita  at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

11/26, 8 PM lavish, wickedly catchy Petey & the True Mongrel Hearts with their darkly defiant vintage Springsteenian rock and soaring four-part harmonies at Coney Island Baby, $10

11/26, 9 PM darkly psychedelic circus punks Yula & the Extended Family followed by darkly torchy southwestern gothic/Europolitan songwriter/guitarist Miwa Gemini  at LIC Bar

11/26, 9 PM fiery jazz oudist/guitarist Gordon Grdina with Oscar Noriega (alto sax/clarinets); Russ Lossing (piano); Michael Sarin (drums) at the old Nublu

11/27, 7:30 PM the Microscopic Septet co-founder and soprano  sax player Phillip Johnston & the Silent Six at Smalls

11/27, 8 PM powerhouse saxophonists Anna Webber and Angela Morris join forces with their Webber/Morris Big Band playing adventurous 18-piece big band jazz at Roulette, $18

11/27, 8/10:30 PM wow – rapturously eclectic jazz chanteuse Marianne Solivan leads a trio with Leandro Pellegrino (guitar), JD Allen (tenor sax) at Mezzrow, $20

11/27, 9 PM Crampsy ghoul-surf/noir garage band Twin Guns at Berlin, $10

11/27, 9 PM elegant, lyrical, wildly eclectic oldtimey jazz/New England Americana songwriter Caroline Cotter at the small room at the Rockwood

11/28, 6 PM rising star sitarist Anjana Roy with tabla player Polash Gomes at the  Rubin Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

11/28, 7 PM ethereal, raptly haunting singer Sara Serpa delivers a world premiere TBA  at National Sawdust, $25

11/28, 7 PM edgy, Romany-inspired, noir-tinged Hungarian jazz band Djabe at Drom, free

11/28, 8 PM elegantly angst-fueled, individualistic torchsong/parlor pop piano chanteuse Jeanne Marie Boes at LIC Bar

11/28, 8 PM ambient electroacoustic composer Julia Santoli‘s multimedia, theatrical Siren Sore at Issue Project Room, sug don 

11/28, 8 PM the DaCapo Chamber Players celebrate 20 years of cutting-edge music with works by Musgrave, Harbison and Tower at Merkin Concert Hall, $20

11/28-12/1, 8:30 PM lyrical pianist Angelica Sanchez leads a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New School. Choice pick: 11/29 a duo with  Pheeroan Aklaff (drums)

11/28, 10:30 PM ambitious, smart, noir-inclined tenor saxophonist Patrick Cornelius  leads a n octet at Smallls

11/29, 7 PM pianist Bobby Mitchell plays excerpts from Frederic Rzewski ’s The Road, Part 8 at Spectrum, $15

11/29, 7:30 PM Time for Three mash up Americana, indie classical and improvisation at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

11/29, 7:30 PM the guitar duo of Anders Nilsson & Aaron Dugan followed by Nick Millevoi’s Desertion Trio playing their twisted spaghetti western jazz at Greenwich House Music School,. $15/$12 stud/srs

11/29, 7:30 PM the NY Philharmonic play Britten’s Violin Concerto and Shostakovich’s ferocious antiwar Symphony No 7 at Avery Fisher Hall, $30 tix avail

11/29, 7:30 PM intense, pyrotechnic saxophonist Chet Doxas leads his quartet at Smalls

11/29, 7:30 PM multi-instrumentalist Dennis Lichtman’s popular western swing band Brain Cloud at Symphony Space, $30/$20 under 30

11/29 ,7:30 PM Jeff Gavett, baritone and Red Wierenga, piano play a Wolfgang Mitterer world premiere at the Austrian Cultural Center, 11 E 52nd St;, free, rsvp req. 

11/29, 8 PM astonishingly prolific and acerbic guitarist Mary​ ​Halvorson playas solo at Russ & Daughters Cafe, 127 Orchard St, free, wow

11/29, 8 PM deviously theatrical oldschool C&W/rockabilly parodists Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co at Otto’s

11/29, 8 PM Carlo Costa – the world’s most mysterious drummer – plays the album release show for his ghostly new one, Oblio at Jack, $tba

11/29, 8:30 PM haunting, enveloping Indian carnatic string ensemble Akshara at the Jalopy, $15

11/29. 8:30 PM haunting French-Tunisian saxophonist Yacine Boulares’ Ajoyo project with singer Sarah E. Charles at Bar Lunatico

 11/29-30, 8:30 PM slinky, oud-fueled Middle Eastern/Nile Delta dance orchestra Alsarah & the Nubatones at C’Mon Everybody, $11

11/30, 5:30  PM creepy folk noir/circus rock duo Son of the Velvet Rat at the American Folk Art Museum 

11/30, 7 PM haunting Middle Eastern guitarist/bouzouki player Ayman Fanous play a characteristically epic triplebill at Shapeshifter Lab, $15: with Jason Hwang (violin), Tomas Ulrich (cello) and James Ilgenfritz (bass); 8:15-9:15pm: Ayman Fanous and Elliott Sharp Duo (guitars), with Michael Wimberly (drums); 9:30-10:30pm with Darius Jones (saxophone), Jason Hwang, James Ilgenfritz, and Michael Wimberly

11/30, 7 PM epic, haunting, searingly lyrical art-rock songwriter and baritone crooner Spottiswoode and band play the album release for their new one at Joe’s Pub, $20

11/30, 7:30 PM pianist Tomer Gewirtzman plays works by Shostakovich, Beethoven, Medtner, Scriabin and Brahms at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, free, tix avail starting 6:30 PM day of show at the box ofc

11/30, 7 PM violist Sofija Zlatanova and ensemble play works by Bach, Royaee and Mihajlovski at Gallery MC

11/30, 7 PM Talea Ensemble returns to Americas Society with two new works for chamber ensemble: a new electroacoustic piece by Canadian composer David Adamcyk and Kate Soper’ Voices from the Killing Jar for vocals and chamber ensemble at the Americas Society, free, rsvp req 

11/30, 8 PM the NJ Symphony Orchestra with Aaron DIehl on piano play works by Stravinsky, Florence Price, Milhaud and Gershwin at NJPAC in Newark, $20 tix avail

11/30, 8 PM the Nouveau Classical Project play music by Missy Mazzoli, Leaha Villareal, two new commissions by Emily Praetorius and William C. Mason at the Arete Gallery, $20/$15 stud

11/30, 8 PM Ensemble Signal play new Wolfgang Mitterer chamber works at St. Peter’s Church, 54th/Lex, free, rsvp req

11/30, 8 PM the Downtown Voices with Stephen Sands, conductor sing Estonian choral works at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown, free

11/30, 9 PM popular 90s powerpopstress Patti Rothberg at Sidewalk

11/30l 10 PM the intoxicatingly clattering, sintir bass lute fueled Moroccan trance grooves of Innov Gnawa at Barbes

12/2, 2:30 PM erhu player Feifei Yang leads her quartet playing a wild mix of 1930s Shanghai speakeasy tunes, coy classical and cheesy top 40 covers at Flushing Town Hall, $16/$10 stud free for 18 and under

12/4, drinks at 5:30 PM, show at 6, perennially interesting piano/percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire play works by Crumb, Saint-Saens and Tschaikovsky at the Miller Theatre, free

12/6, 6 PM klezmer violinist Jake Shulman-Ment with rippllng tsimbl (Ukrainian Jewish dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky at Poe Park in the Bronx.

12/6, 10:30 PM long-running phantasmagorical art-rockers/circus punks Devotchka at the Manderley Bar, $27.50

12/8, 8 PM the Barnard-Columbia Chorus’ Holiday Concert with the Symphony of Psalms: Igor Stravinsky, Magnificat: J. S. Bach at Church of the Ascension, 221 W 107th St. 

12/9, 7 PM crystalline-voiced noir Americana songwriter Jessie Kilguss shares a short-set bill with a lot of cult-favorite talent: Dave Derby, Nathan Schram, badass cellist Patricia Santos, first-class Americana crooner Cliff Westfall at Mirror Tea House, 575 Union St., (3rd Ave/Nevins), Gowanus, free

12/12, 7:30 PM the amazing, haunting, otherworldly NY Andalus Ensemble – who play ancient Middle Eastern and North African Jewish sounds from as far back as a thousand years ago  –  at La Nacional, 239 W 14th St, $20/$16 stud/srs

12/15, 3 PM the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra play Marin Alsop’s Gospel Messiah (the Handel epic with an African-American gospel spin) at the United Palace Theatre, 4140 Broadway in Washington Hts, $15 tix avail  

12/21, 2 PM brilliant baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian‘s LSQ at Flushing Town Hall, free

Sold-Out Revelry With Balkan Brass Monsters Raya Brass Band at Symphony Space

There’s something refreshingly new and exciting happening in what might seem to be an unexpected space on the Upper West Side. This past evening, Raya Brass Band sold out Symphony Space, delivering a wickedly tight set that was just feral enough to seem like the six-piece Brooklyn Balkan collective were about to leave the rails at any second. They didn’t really do that until the end of the show, when they left the stage and went down into the crowd of dancers gathered at the front of the stage.

That’s right – dancers packing the floor at Symphony Space.

How did this neighborhood institution, best known for its annual classical music marathons and the NPR shows that tape there, suddenly get so cool? They’ve got a new series they call Revelry, where if you’re thirty or under, you can get in for twenty bucks – ten dollars less than older folks have to pay. Meanwhile, the downstairs bar stays open throughout the show and afterward. But you can get a drink at any club in town. What’s most exciting about this series is that Symphony Space is bringing in fresh talent that’s probably never played the Upper West Side before. They’ve imported some of the roster of bands from Barbes – Brooklyn’s best venue – and from other scenes as well.

Raya Brass Band packed Barbes back in January, but they always do that. It was dowmright inspiring to see them do the same in upper Manhattan in a space four or five times as big. Although they varied their tempos from funky to lickety-split, and their meters from a straight-up 4/4 to who knows what – some of these Balkan beats are impossible to count unless you have to play them – the show was more like one long jam with a thousand dynamic variations. There were a couple of Macedonian-style vamps where the group would shift back and forth between major and minor…an endlessly delicious series of sharp-fanged chromatic riffs…a klezmer-inflected number late in the set…and a final slinky, darkly glistening river of Ethiopian jazz after over an hour onstage.

Co-founder Greg Squared played the whole show on alto sax this time out, making it look effortless as he flickered between microtones, occasionally playing through an octave pedal for a spacy, techy effect. Trumpeter Ben Syversen didn’t spar with him as much as simply trading off long, goosebump-inducing volleys of chromatics – although he did a little jousting with accordionist Max Fass. Who is the band’s true anchor, providing rich washes of sound that were serendipitously up in the mix (sometimes the accordion gets lost at a place like Barbes) .

Nezih Antakli provided the boom on a big standup tapan drum, while fellow percussionist Kolja Gjoni played a standup kit: nobody could have asked for more cowbell. Tuba player Steven Duffy brought both slithery vintage Bootsy Collins basslines as well as pinpoint-precise oompah, and finally the kind of funny WAH-wah solo that every tuba player ends up having to take at some point.

The big takeaway here; if you live on the Upper West or points further north, Revelry at Symphony Space is the place to be on Thursdays nights. The next show is Oct 18 at 7:30 PM with the charming, female-fronted Avalon Jazz Band playing cosmopolitan European swing. And if you’re up for a shlep to Barbes, Greg Squared is playing there every Sunday night in October at 7 PM with a rotating cast of New York Balkan and Middle Eastern talent. Psychedelic Romany jazz guitarist Stephane Wrembel plays there afterward at about 9:30 with his band.

Newpoli Play a Grand Finale At This Year’s New York Gypsy Festival

Friday night at Drom, a crowd of women in brightly colored dresses twirled in front of the stage as the resonant clang of a couple of mandolas rang out from the stage above them. Newpoli percussionist Fabio Pirozzolo spun out a slinky clip-clop beat on his big round tamburello while violinist Karen Burciaga and multi-reed player Dan Meyers sent their contrasting textures wafting and bounding through the mix, bassist Jeff McAuliffe cutting through with a biting, trebly tone. The band’s two charismatic frontwomen, Carmen Marsico and Angela Rossi left the stage and went down to join the fun. The only thing missing at the grand finale of this year’s New York Gypsy Festival was the pervasive smell of garlic and basil. Then again, the kitchen at Drom turns out cuisine from points further north and east.

Newpoli specialize in Italian folk music, but they play more originals than traditional material, and their influences are global. They’re as dynamic a jamband as they are a dance band. Meyers’ most electrifying solo was a long, otherworldly, tone-bending one on which he played zurla, the Balkan reed instrument that looks like a cornet but sounds like a lower-register oboe. By contrast, Reijonen’s most riveting moments onstage came during a suspenseful, Arabic-tinged, chromatic intro. Burciaga danced through an endless supply of punchy phrases, often in tandem with the mandolas, Bjorn Wennas often switching to acoustic guitar.

The two women who lead the band make a striking contrast. Petite and intense in a green tie-dyed print, Rossi often evoked the otherworldly microtones of the Balkans. Tall, blonde and swaying in her long linen summer dress, her eyes closed much of the time, Carmen Marsico has more of a classic American soul voice. Throughout the night, the two would often trade off verses as well as leading the dancers during two pouncing, edgy tarantellas, the first a shapeshifting original, the second a more rustic traditional number.

Their original material, many of the songs drawn from their most recent album Mediterraneo, has understatedly potent relevance. Marsico introduced the night’s most anthemic number. ‘Na Voce Sola (One Single Voice) as a revolutionary call to unite against fascism (something the Italians unfortunately knew as intimately as Americans do now). Other songs traced themes of displacement, whether in times of war or otherwise, the womens’ voices harmonizing with as much resilient elegance as fullscale minor-key angst.

Toward the end of the show, they tackled a traditional tune which on the new album is about ten minutes long and, for non-Italian speakers at least, becomes pretty interminable. Onstage, they made short work of it – literally – cutting it down to about half the time and keeping everybody, dancers and listeners, in the game as Meyers’ wood flutes punctured through the hypnotic bounce. Newpoli’s next gig is at 8 PM on Oct 12 at the Avalon Theatre,
40 E Dover St. in Easton, Maryland; general admission is $25.

Newpoli Bring Their Relentless Intensity and Spider Dances to the NY Gypsy Festival

What’s more Halloweenish than a deadly spider? Newpoli earned their place on this page this month since the fiery Italian folk jamband play a lot of tarantella dances. Historically speaking, the tarantella has a lot more cultural resonance beyond its role as a folk remedy designed to help sweat out spider poison. It’s associated with women in particular, with madness and also heartbreak. The Boston-based band actually play many styles in addition to tarantellas, but they excel at them. Their new album Mediterraneo – streaming at rockpaperscissors – reaffirms how eclectic, and how electric they are: it sounds like a live show rather than a sterile, digital facsimile. They’re playing the latest installment of the ongoing NY Gypsy Festival this Friday night at 10 PM at Drom; advance tix are $15

The album cover is particularly apt: two crowds reaching with open arms toward each other across the Mediterranean: an embrace of commonalities, or outrage over immigrant crises? It opens with the title track, frontwomen Carmen Marsico and Angela Rossi harmonizing with an eerie, imploring intensity that reminds how much cross-pollination there’s been from Albania and the Balkans to points further west over the centuries. Karen Burciaga’s violin dances acerbically, Jussi Reijonen’s mandola lingers and jangles, much like a twelve-string guitar, over the groove of bassist Jeff McAuliffe and percussionist Fabio Pirozzolo.

So’ emigrant has subtle Middle Eastern tinges percolating amid its mandola swirl, violin soaring uneasily overhead. Lagr’m’ (Tears) is a woundedly swaying ballad with rich, acidic vocal harmonies that recall Bulgarian music, Reijonen multitracking a luscious mandola solo over an elegantly anthemic acoustic guitar pulse. The women’s voices reach even further toward the east with their harmonies in the intro to Lu Poveru Vicenzino (Poor Vincenzino), with a hypnotically booming, Egyptian-inflected beat and Reijonen’s delicately plaintive mandola.

Rossi takes over the lead vocals in ‘Na Voce Sola (A Single Voice) with a slashing, melismatic insistence: Dan Meyers’ psychedelic bagpipes and Reijonen’s flickering oud provide both bracing texture and cross-pollinated resonance. The band open Me Ne Vogghje Scenni ‘n Fintanella (rough unpoetic translation: I Don’t Want to Put Pictures in My Window) as a spare, pensive oud-and-vocal piece and rise to a mighty, angst-fueled sway on the wings of the violin.

Seven tracks in, we finally get a tarantella:  a bouncy original titled Tarantella Avernetella. By contrast, the group work a witchy, circling theme in Tarantella Della Sciffra with an eerily looming Meyers recorder solo at the center.

The flamenco-ish Lu Jocu di la Palumbella may or may not be about a moth: Reijonen saves his most tersely memorable solo work here for acoustic guitar. The final cut is the plaintive, rustically trancey Iere Sera (Last Night). In addition to all these edgy minor-key numbers, the album has more than a quarter of an hour worth of hypnotically thumping, lighthearted peasant dances. Newpoli are reputedly a real whirlwind onstage: this show could be the highlight of this year’s festival.

Live Music Calendar for New York City and Brooklyn for October and November 2018

Brand new calendar for November coming this Thursday – til then, daily updates – if you go out a lot, it couldn’t hurt to bookmark this page.

If you’re leaving your hood, make sure you check http://www.mta.info for service changes considering how the trains are at night and on the weekend.

If you don’t recognize a venue where a particular act is playing, check the comprehensive, recently updated list of over 200 New York City music venues 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.

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 published here weeks in advance. Weekly events first followed by the daily calendar.

If you see a typo or an extra comma or something like that, remember that while you were out seeing that great free concert that you found out about here, somebody was up late after a long day of work editing and adding listings to this calendar ;)

On select Wednesdays 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, beverages and lively conversation included! Next performances are 11/8 and 12/5 at 7 PM with special guest violinist Gregor Kitzis playing Mozart, email for details/address

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 in October, 10 PM noir guitar legend Jim Campilongo leads his trio at the big room at the Rockwood, $10

Mondays in October, 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 October, clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party  at 9 PM at Barbes (check the club calendar). Get there as soon as you can as they’re very popular. $10 cover.

Tuesdays in October, 9:30 PM Lizzie & the Makers  at Pete’s. Snarling twin-guitar psychedelic rockers steeped in oldschool backing one of the most powerful, riveting singers on the planet. DAMN, can this woman wail. We lost Aretha but we still have Lizzie. 

Wednesdays in October, 8 PM the Binky Griptite Orchestra (formerly Sharon Jones’ brilliant oldschool soul backing band) at Threes Brewing Outpost, 113 Franklin St (Greenpoint/Kent Aves) in Greenpoint, free

Thursdays at 8 in October the Brooklyn Raga Massive – a rotating cast of A-list Indian, jazz and rock musicians who love to jam out classic Indian themes from over the centuries to the present day – play the Jalopy, $15 adv tix at the bar at the main space. Tons of special guests followed by a wild raga jam!

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

Fridays at 7:30 PM Ken Fowser leads his band at the Django. Jukebox jazz in a JD Allen vein but not as dark and more straight-ahead/groove-oriented: as postbop party music goes, nobody’s writing better than this guy right now.

Fridays in October charmingly inscrutable Parisienne chanteuse Chloe & the French Heart Jazz Band at Club Bonafide, $20. 10/5 and 10/19 she’s here at 8; 10/12 and 10/26 at 5 PM

Free classical concerts on Saturdays at 4 PM in October at Bargemusic;  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.

Sundays in  October, at sometime past noon at Hank’s, Nashville gothic crooner Sean Kershaw‘s legendary honkytonk brunch is back; special guests from his wide circle of NYC Americana acts keep the afternoon going until about 7. It’s just like 1999 again -at least until the bar closes sometime this year.

Sundays in October, 7 PM pyrotechnic Balkan multi-reedman Greg Squared‘s Great (and ever-expanding) Circle followed at 9:30  by Romany jazz/psychedelic rock guitar mastermind Stephane Wrembel at Barbes

Sundays in October, 8 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.

10/1, 8 PM intense, soaring harmonium player/singer Elana Low – a more organic, trancey version of Marissa Nadler, maybe – at An Beal Bocht, 45 W 238th St in the Bronx. 10/2 at 8 she’s at Sidewalk and 10/30 at 8 at the Parkside 

10/1, 8 PM wildfire guitarist Brandon Seabrook’s Trio celebrates the release of their aptly titled debut album, Convulsionaries at Roulette, $18

10/1, 8:30 PM edgy alto saxophonist Caroline Davis leads a trio at Bar Chord

10/1, 9 PM brassy, spot-on Fela cover band Chop & Quench at the Knitting Factory, $20

10/1, 9:30 PM Dilemastronauta Y Los Sabrosos Cosmicos with members of M.A.K.U and Combo Chimbita play space cumbia at Barbes. They’re also at Wonders of Nature on 10/28 for $10

10/1, 9:30 PM innovative, catchy, kinetic Americana fiddler/singer Emerald Rae– who plays her axe like a mandolin – at Pete’s 

10/2, 7 PM a screening of the documentary film/cautionary tale Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse with Q&A afterward led by media critic/gadfly Mark Crispin Miller at 12 W 11th St, free

10/2, 7:30 PMbassist Max Johnson with  Maria Grand on Tenor Saxophone, and Flin Van Hemmen on drums followed by clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party  at Barbes

10/2. 8/9;30 PM Melissa Stylianou (vocal stylist), Gene Bertoncini (guitar), Ike Sturm (bass) at Mezzrow, $20 at the bar

10/2, 8 PM Eli Keszler presents his first solo music in two years alongside video installations by Alan Segal. “The live percussion performance draws from the album’s collected city-space recordings, fragmenting these sounds through acute instrumental means. As a visual and auditory experience, Keszler creates resonant, melodic, and percussive textures that move massive expanses into the tactile dimension.” Feel it at the Kitchen, $20

10/2-6, 8:30 PM gamelanesque percussion innovator Susie Ibarra leads a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New School, $20. Choice pick: opening night with Mephista: Sylvie Courvoisier (piano) Ikue Mori (electronics) Susie Ibarra (drumset, percussion)

10/2, 9 PM Crampsy ghoul-surf/noir garage band Twin Gunsat Coney Island Baby, $10

10/2, 9 PM sharply lyrical janglerock/Americana/soul songwriter Matt Keating and guitarist Steve Mayone’s catchy new powerpop project the Bastards of Fine Arts at 11th St. Bar

10/2. 10:30 PM charismatic, adventurous postbop/avant garde trombonist/crooner Frank Lacy leads his quintet at Smalls. He’s also here on  10/23

10/2 ,midnight enigmatically tuneful, psychedelically abstract rock band Gold Dime at Secret Project Robot

10/3, 1 PM witty postbop multi-instrumentalist Art Baron leads a trio with James Weidman and Yasushi Nakamura at St. Peter’s Church, 54th/Lex

10/3, 1 PM violinist Max Tan leads an ensemble playing works by Bach, Brahms and Mozart at the Greene Space, free w/rsvp 

10/3, 6 PM Tibetan lutenist and guitarist Tendor and Tenzin Choeying at the  Rubin Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

10/3, 6:30 PM exhilarating, edgy, sardonic alto saxophonist Elijah Shiffer on saxophones with Nick Dunston on bass and Vincente Hanson on drums at the Bar Next Door. They’re also here on 10/17

10/3-6, 7:30 PM “guitarist and composer Oscar Peñas and his quartet combine piano, bass, and drums with a string quartet in his classical-jazz suite inspired by the 3,000-year-old Andalusian fishing tradition known as the almadraba. Borrowing sounds from Cuban and South American folk music, as well as from Peñas’ own Iberian heritage,” at BAM Fisher Theatre, $25

10/3, 7:30/9:30 PM powerhouse drummer and hauntingly lyrical pianist Allison Miller and Carmen Staaf’s Science Fair at the Jazz Standard, $30

10/3 8:30 PMthe perennially intense, tuneful godfather of edgy, lyrical, anthemic downtown NYC rock, Willie Nile  at City Winery, $30 standing room avail. Anybody remember when you could see him every month at Arlene’s for free back in the 90s? 

10/3, 10 PM pyrotechnic clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski’s ferociously kinetic NY Gypsy All-Stars at Drom, $10 adv tix rec

10/4, 6:30 PM saxophonist Evan Rapport joins Shashmaqam for an evening of otherworldly, intensely crescendoing Bukharian Jewish epics. “Before the musical celebration begins, enjoy a spread of traditional Bukharian food and drink” at the Eldridge Street Synagogue, $25/$15 stud/srs

10/4, 7:30 PM firebrand Egyptian accordionist/songwriter Youssra El Hawary – best known for her hilarious revolutionary youtube hit Piss on the Wall – at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

10/4,  7;30/9:30 PM wildly popular lyrical pianist Jason Moran’s Freebird quintet reinvent Charlie Parker themes at the Jazz Standard, $30

10/4, 7:30 PM, repeating on 10/5 at 2 and 10/6 at 8, the NY Philharmonic play the world premiere of Louis Andriessen’s Agamemnon plus Stravinsky’s Symphony for Wind Instruments, Debussy’s La Mer, and Leila Josefowicz solos in Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto at Avery Fisher Hall, $31 tix avail

10/4, 7:30 PM  pianist Lana Suran plays music by Haydn, Galina Ustvolskaya, Tchaikovsky, and Mozart at Scandinavia House, $15/$10 stud

10/4 8 PM pianist Gaya Feldheim Schorr  with Kat Lee followed by the highly improvisational Rhythm Method String Quartet playing little-known works by Florence Price, Amanda Maier-Röntgen, Amy Beach, and Elizabeth Maconchy, as well as a premiere of the Rhythm Method’s “Suffragette Songs,” which “reset song texts from the early 20th century women’s movement” at the Owl

10/4, 8 PM hypnotically explosive live bhangra dance band Red Baraat at the Poisson Rouge, $20 adv tix rec

10/4, 8 PM Sephardic pianist Renan Koen at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W 16th St., $20 

10/4, 8:30 PM hard-charging oldschool soul/funk/rock singer Bette Smith and band at Bar Lunatico

10/4, 9 PM serpentine, cinematic, epic art-rock band Book of Harmony and string metal band Stratospheerius at Shrine. This twinbill absolutely slayed at Gold Sounds last summer. 

10/4, 9 PM noirish crooner/guitarslinger Phil Gammage and his four-piece band at 11th St Bar

10/4, 10 PM awesomely slinky, psychedelic Israeli Ethiopiques groove instrumentalists Anbessa Orchestra at Barbes

10/4, 10 PM the great unsung hero of darkly purposeful, noir-tinged jazz guitar, Saul Rubin leading his Zebtet at the Fat Cat. They’re also here on  10/9 at 7

10/5, 7 PM epic, cinematic Indian violin-fueled art-rock themes with Rini and her explosive band at the big room at the Rockwood, $10. Next door at the small room moodily lyrical, politically savvy Irish folk-rocker Niall Connolly plays at 9 with his band for free

10/5, 7/9 PM Romany jazz/psychedelic rock guitar mastermind Stephane Wrembel at City Winery, $20

10/5, 7:30 PM a doublebill with irrepressible drummer Vinnie Sperrazza as linchpin. The first half presents guitarist Sean Moran leading his catchy, edgy Sun Tiger trio with Vinnie and cellist Hank Roberts. The second half features a trio of Vinnie with the starry partners of soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome and pianist Angie Sanchez at Greenwich House Music School, $20/$16 stud/srs

10/5, 7:30 PM Rustlings – violinist Maya Bennardo and Leah Asher with flutist Anne Dearth – at Scholes St. Studios

10/5, 7:30 PM a high-voltage Puerto Rican country music dance party: Viento de Agua spinoff La Máquina Insular plays classic and new plenas, followed by all female bomba group Ausuba at the Hostos Community College auditorium, 450 Grand Concourse in the Bronx, $20//$5 stud

10/5, 8 PM  catchy, slinky, psychedelic tropicalia and cumbia band Yotoco,high-voltage psychedelic cumbia/Afrobeat jamband MAKU Soundsystem and wild newschool Puerto Rican salsa dura big band Orquesta El Macabeo  at the Market Hotel, $25. More good bands in a single night than this venue has booked in ten years.

10/5, 8 PM dark psychedelic acoustic blues/klezmer/reggae/soca jamband Hazmat Modine at Flushing Town Hall, free w/rsvp. 10/13 at 7 they’re at Terra Blues for $20

10/5, 8 PM irrepressibly devious, lyrically hilarious multi-instrumentalist songwriter Walter Ego – who spans from darkly elegant art-rock to classic Britrock sounds – at Sidewalk

10/5, 8 PM unpredictably fun, funny psychedelic art-rock band the Academy Blues Project at Silvana. 10/11 at 10 they’re at the small room at the Rockwood

10/5, 7:30/9:30 PM Miles Okazaki and drummer  Damion Reid play selections from the guitarist’s interpretations of the complete works of Thelonious Monk at the Jazz Gallery, $25. 10/10 at 8:30 they’re at Bar Lunatico for the tip jar.

10/5, 8 PM in reverse order at the Jalopy: fiery, ambitious pan-slavic violinist/composer Iva Bittova, pastoral guitar instrumentalist Shane Parish,fearlessly haunting, dynamic, charismatic Romany/Balkan chanteuse Eva Salina with pyrotechnic accordionist Peter Stan, $12 adv tix rec

10/5, 9ish intense, charismatic oldschool soul belter Sami Stevens & trumpeter Bobby Spellman at the Owl.10/11 at 10 they’re at Trans-Pecos for $10

10/5, 9:30 PM catchy upbeat funky jazz – Adison Evans on saxophone with Kyle Koehler on organ and Robert Giaquinto on drums at the Bar Next Door, $12

10/5, 10 PM high-voltage Neapolitan tarantella string band Newpoli play the abum release show for their new one at Drom, $15 adv tix rec

10/5, 10 PM busker legends the Xylopholks in their furry suits at Barbes

10/5, 10 PM sweaty gutter blues road warriors King Khan & the Shrines at the Knitting Factory, $20

10/5, 10:30 PM roaring 20s hot jazz with Sweet Megg & the Wayfarers  at St. Mazie’s

10/5, 10:30 PM cutting-edge B3 organ and trombone soul/jazz grooves with the Jared Gold and Dave Gibson Band at the Fat Cat

10/5, 10:30 PM New Orleans-inspired blue-eyed soul stompers Mighty Fine followed by hilarious, smartly political faux-French retro 60s psych-pop band les Sans Culottes at Hank’s, $8

10/6, noon a high-voltage Puerto Rican country music dance triplebill: Plena de la R, La Raiz and Bombalya at the Hostos Community College auditorium, 450 Grand Concourse in the Bronx, $20//$5 stud$15/$5 stud

10/6, 6 PM atmospheric, cinematic drummer/composer Tim Kuhl – sort of a more straightforwardly trippy version of John Hollenbeck – at Pete’s

10/6, 7 PM the godfather of powerpop, the ageless Paul Collins followed by ferocious Balkan string band A Hawk & a Hacksaw at Elsewhere, $14. Then Collins jumps into a cab and runs over to Alphaville where he’s playing at 10 PM for $10

10/6, 7:30 PM Indian carnatic violinist L. Shankar with tabla player Abhijit Banerjee and percussionist Chris Garcia at the Schimmel Center at Pace University on Spruce St. in the financial district, $30 tix avail

10/6, 8 PM psychedelic 7os style salsa dura band La Mecanica Popular at Union Pool, sugg don, “no one turned away”

10/6, 8 PM powerhouse singer/pianist Goldee Greene – equally adept at opera and deep blues – and trancey African percussionist/singer Kevin Nathaniel at the People’s Voice Cafe, sugg don, $20, “more if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away.” 

10/6, 8 PM Capella Peregrina, who utilize “rare instruments in “classical music” such as didgeridoo, crystal bowls, derbake, theremin” play a program TBA at the DiMenna Center, free 

10/6, 8 PM playfully lyrical, fearlessly political superduo Kill Henry Sugar – guitar/banjo mastermind Erik Della Penna and drummer Dean Sharenow – followed at 10 by epic ranchera/bolero brass crew Banda de los Muertos at Barbes

10/6, 10 PM newschool roots reggae tour warriors Iration at the Nokia Theatre, $25 tix avail 

10/6 Unsteady Freddie‘s monthly surf rock extravaganza at Otto’s begins at 9 PM with exotic vibraphone-driven surf band the Vibro-jets, jangly New York original surf rock cult heroes the Supertones at 10, at 11 the loudly soulful Bali Lamas (authors of the immortal Tiki Torture) and at midnight-ish majestic, darkly cinematic surf band the TarantinosNYC. The Vibro-Jets are also at Troost on 10/19 at 8ish

10/6, 9 PM percussionist Alessandra Belloni‘s rustically witchy tarantella band  at Mehanata, $10. 10/23, 7:30 PM they’re at at the Bernie Wohl Ctr, 647 Columbus Ave (91& 92ndSt) for twice that.

10/6, 9 PM ten-piece country/carnivalesque/acoustic rock powerhouse M Shanghai String Band,at the Jalopy, $10

10/6, 9 PM brooding, pensively anthemic original Irish folk-rockers the Winter Court at Desmond’s 

10/6 9:30 PM fiery, guitar-fueled Americana punks Spanking Charlene and their acoustic alter ego cover band Sad Bastards of Brooklyn at Hill Country

10/6, 10 PM sizzling electric bluegrass and C&W with Demolition String Band at Skinny Dennis

10/6, 11 PM anthemic lit-rocker Dalton Deschain  followed by sardonically catchy powerpop/janglerockers the Hell Yeah Babies at Footlight Bar

10/6. 11 PM funny, explosive oldschool style punk rockers the Live Ones at Hank’s, $8

10/7, 3 PM Sephardic pianist Renan Koen followed at 5 by bassist/ Stravinsky reinventor Adam Maalouf and at 8 by the amazing, haunting, otherworldly NY Andalus Ensemble – who play ancient Middle Eastern and North African Jewish sounds from as far back as a thousand years ago  – at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W 16th St., $20 

10/7, 3 PM Canadian Serbian pianist Viktor Lazarov plays Balkan piano music from the 1920s to today by Josip Slavenski, Ana Sokolović, Mokranjac, Lazarov Pashu and Maksimović at Spectrum, $15

10/7, 3 PM coy all-female torch song choir Cabaret Sauvignon, Flying South Trio playing latin jazz and Changing Modes – NYC’s funnest, most unpredictable, sharply lyrical new wave art-rock band –  with special guests Sawa Tamezane, baritone saxophone; and Steven Dworkin, cello as part of this year’s Jersey City studio tour at the Eonta Space, 34 Dekalb Ave in Jersey City, about a 10 minute walk from the Journal Square Path station

10/7, 4 PM, popular indie classical orchestra the Knights  at Brooklyn Public Library are sold out

10/7, 4:30 PM rapturously eclectic jazz chanteuse Marianne Solivan leads a quartet at Smalls

10/7, 7:30 PM the reliably exciting Queensboro Symphony Orchestra play  kick off their season with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, the auspicious world premiere of Symphony No.1 “Dance of Life” by Paul Joseph and Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor at Mary’s Nativity Church, 46-02 Parsons Blvd., Flushing, sug don

10/7, 7:30 PM perennially tuneful, pensively lyrical Americana janglerocker Mike Ferrio of Tandy and Good Luck Mountain at 11th St. Bar 

10/7, 8 PM low reedman Ken Thomson and ensemble play new works for bass clarinet and string quartet at Roulette, $18 adv tix rc

10/7, 10 PM Sofia Wolfson – who does catchy psych-pop as well as retro 60s blue eyed soul  – at the small room at the Rockwood

10/8, 4 PM graceful ladino singer Lara Bello, at 6 PM Sephardic pianist Renan Koen and at 8 a duo version of slinky Middle Eastern dance jamband Yemen Blues at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W 16th St., $20 

10/8, 7:30/9 PM the  Frank Carlberg Large Ensemble’s Monk Dreams, Hallucinations and Nightmares – a mashup of classic creepy Monk themes with Carlberg’s own noir compositions – at Dizzy’s Club, expensive $35 but worth it

10/8. 8 PM the album release show for unstoppably edgy, deservedly iconic, witty downtown guitarist Marc Ribot’s Songs of Resistance at the Poisson Rouge, $25 adv tgix rec

10/8, 8:30 PM one of New York’s most eclectic, interesting oudists, Brian Prunka with his group Nashaz  at Bar Lunatico

10/8. 9 PM fiery, deviously fun oldtimey swing guitarist/crooner Seth Kessel & the Two Cent Band at Skinny Dennis

10/8, 9ish improvisational trombone icon Steve Swell lwith Robert Boston – elec.piano; Thomas Helton – bass; Michael Evans – drums at the old Nublu

10/8. 9:30 PM the NYC Gaita Club – a Bulla en el Barrio spinoff – play rustically pounding Afro-Colombian trance-dance music at Barbes

10/9, drinks at 5:30 PM, show at 6, rustic Brazilian jungle guitar-and-accordion sounds with Regional de NY at the Miller Theatre, free

10/9 7:30 PM the Manhattan Chamber Players perform quintets and octets by Mendelssohn, Dvorak and Mahler at the Baruch College auditorium, $21/stud free

10/9, 7:30 PM protean ten-piece choir Choral Chameleon sing works by  Mateo Fletxa el Viejo, Josquin des Prez, the Beatles and others at St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral, $25

10/9, 8 PM, presumably in reverse order: Brooklyn’s original punk Balkan horn group Hungry March Band,  Haitian brass group Plezi Rara, the L Train Brass Band (who won’t be able to get home after the show, presumably), Brazilian brass street band Unidos Do Swing, New Orleans crew New Creations Brass and iconic drummer/gong master Kenny Wollesen & Wollesonic at the Market Hotel, $5. New Creations are at the Apollo at 7 the following night, 10/10 at 7 opening for Amateur Night there, no joke. 

10/9-13, 8:30 PM hauntingly innovative cellist Erik Friedlander leads a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New School, $20. Choice pick: 10/11 with Notorious feat. Sara Shoenbeck (bassoon) Sara Serpa, (vox) Curtis Hasselbring, (guitar, trombone)

10/9, 9 PM wickedly torchy noir songwriter Julia Haltigan and her killer band on her old home turf at 11th St Bar

10/9, 9:30 PM the Bronx Conexion play their mighty salsa big band jazz at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

10/9. 10 PM ageless CB’s era funk-punk/postrockers the Bush Tetras at Elsewhere, $17

10/9, 10 PM NYC’s zeros-era answer to the Zombies, Sam Kogon at Secret Project Robot, $7

10/10, 1 PM vintage 30s style swing with the John Eckert Nine at St. Peter’s Church, 54th/Lex

10/10, 6 PM innovative, terse, delta blues-inspired guitarist Ross Hammond with the estimable Sameer Gupta on tabla at the  Rubin Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

10/10, 7/9:30 PM classy, cinematic NZ jazz pianist Alan Broadbent  leads a trio at Birdland, $20 at the bar. 10/15 at 8 he’s at Mezzrow for five bucks more.

10/10, 7:30 PM, repeating on 10/12 at 11 AM (in the morning) and 10/13 at 8  the NY Philharmonic play Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with  piano superstar Garrick Ohlsson plus Louis Andriessen’s new Tao and Sibelus’ Symphony No. 2 at Avery Fisher Hall, $31 tix avail

10/10, 7:30/9:30 PM ambitious, tuneful trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson leads a sextet at the Jazz Gallery, $15. They’re at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem the following night, 10/11 at 7 for five bucks less

10/10, 8 PM ubiquitously terse, interesting drummer Tomas Fujiwarapresents his newest project, 7 Poets Trio, featuring vibist Patricia Brennan and cellist Tomeka Reid at Roulette, $18 adv tix rec

10/10, 9:15 PMaccordion genius Shoko Nagai leads a quartet with Maryanne de Prophetis, Ron Horton, Dean Johnson at Happy Lucky No. 1 Gallery

10/10, 10 PM Fuck You Tammy play amazingly spot-on recreations of themes from Twin Peaks and David Lynch films at LIC Bar. 10/27 at 11 they’re at Elsewhere for $12.

10/11, 6 PM Brazilian brass street band Unidos Do Swing, New Orleans crew New Creations Brass on the Newark Avenue Pedestrian Mall, Jersey City. 

10/11, 7 PM presumably those two acts are going to march to WFMU’s Monty Hall, where they’ll be joined by the L Train Brass Band (who still won’t be able to get home after the show, presumably), slinky maracatu/New Orleans/surf rock mashup crew  Nation Beat andsinger Carolina Oliveros’ mighty 13-piece Afro-Colombian trance/dance choir Bulla en el Barrio for $10. The Bullerengue crew are also at Barbes at around 10 on 10/29.

10/11, 7 PM singer/dancer Nora Chipaumire’s #PUNK 100% POP*NIGGA, a triptych “conceived of as a live performance album inspired by her formative years in Zimbabwe during the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. Each section explores distinct sonic ideologies—punk, pop, and Congolese rumba—confronted and celebrated through the artists Patti Smith, Grace Jones, and Congolese vocal performer and animator (atalaku) Rit Nzele,” at the Kitchen, $25

10/11. 7:30 PM epic, original, intense original Balkan monsters Raya Brass Band at Symphony Space, $30/$20 for 30 and under

10/11, 7:30 PM reedman McCoy Mrubata and pianist Paul Hanmer lead an all South African jazz quintet at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

10/11, 8 PM irrepressibly charismatic oldtimey trombonist/uke player J. Walter Hawkes and band followed at 10 by Cumbiagra – who’ve been going in a much more psychedelic direction lately-  at Barbes

10/11, 8 PM uneasily jangly Americana rocker Erika Blinn and band followed by drivingly lyrical Steve Earle-ish songwriter Kasey Anderson and wickedly catchy Americana/paisley underground rockers Girls on Grass at Hank’s, $10. Girls on Grass are also at the big room at the Rockwood on 10/21 at 7 for the same price 

10/11, 8 PM cantorially-inspired avant garde singer/multi-instrumentalist Judith Berkson in her Liederkreis persona and reedman/multi-instrumentalist Oscar Noriega at Arete Gallery

10/11, 8/9:30 PM newschool improvisation, oldschool beats: saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, pianist Marc Cary & bassist Peter Washington at Mezzrow $20

10/11, 8:30 PM snarling, careening psychedelic Americana band the Black Lillies at City Winery, $20

10/11, 8:30 PM state-of-the-art postbop guitarist Will Bernardleads a killer quartet with Brian Charette on organ and John Ellis on soprano sax this time at Smalls

 10/11, 8:30  PM Payton MacDonald and Ina Filip explore the Naad Yoga of Dhrupad, a 700-year-old tradition of North Indian Hindustani music on tabla and sitar at the Brooklyn Raga Massive’s weekly jam at the Jalopy, $15

10/11, 8:30 PM Inflame mash up classical Indian ragas and flamenco at Bar Lunatico

10/11, 9 PM creepy Laurel Canyon art-rock/psych-folk/dark Americana band Quicksilver Daydream followed eventually at 11 by  cinematic noir Americana with Nathan Xander at Union Pool, $12

10/11, 10 PM one-man gutter blues band Mark Sultan at Berlin, $10

10/11, 11 PM jangly, quirky, anthemic Asheville highway rock band the Moon & You at the small room at the Rockwood 

10/11, 11 PM Driftwood Soldier – who play sardonic gothic Americana on bass and mandolin  – at Pete’s 

10/11, the global 25-member cast of the Onebeat socially conscious music collective at the Bronx Museum. 10/12 they’re at the Queens Museum 

10/12, 1 PM rising star Chelsea Chen plays a program TBA on the organ at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown

10/12, 6/7 PM Zacbe Pichardo of the Sones de Mexico Ensemble plays the harpa jarocha on the Vélez Blanco Patio at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

10/12, 7 PM sitarist Ikhlaq Hussain at the Rubin Museum of Art, $28

10/12, 7:30 PM the best latin jazz guitarist ever to play big league ball, Bernie Williams and His All-Star Band at the Schimmel Center at Pace University $30 adv tix rec

10/12, 8 PM a killer twinbill at City Winery: the self-explanatory Hillfolk Noir and bewitching noir Americana chanteuse Eilen Jewell and her amazing band , $20 standing room avail

10/12, 8 PM darkly psychedelic circus punks Yula & the Extended Family at Coney Island Baby, $12

10/12 8 PM eclectic, electric C&W/blues band the Jug Addicts followed at 10 by psychedelic salsa bandleader Zemog El Galle Bueno at Barbes

10/12. 8 PM eclectic, refreshing female-fronted newgrass band the Chatham Rabbits followed by Steamboat – who mash up bluegrass and trad Britfolk – at the Jalopy, $10  

10/12, 8:30 PM edgy tenor sax improviser Catherine Sikora solo on tenor sax and then in a duo set with violinist Mazz Swift at I-Beam, $15

10/12, 9 PM psychedelic janglerock guitar icon Chuck Prophet & the Mission Express at the Bell House, $20

 10/12, 9 PM pianist Lior Willinger plays socially-conscious world premieres by David Smooke, Natalie Draper, Judah Adashi, Ledah Finck, Wendel Patrick, Frances Pollock, Ari Sussman, Shelley Washington, and Zhangyi Chen at Spectrum, $15

10/12, 11 PM cult favorite gutter blues/jangle-psych duo Mr. Airplane Man at Hank’s, $10

10/13, 2:30ish sardonically catchy powerpop/janglerockers the Hell Yeah Babies, long-running, wickedly jangly, tuneful Americana rockers the Sloe Guns in Tompkins Square Park and Giftshop – the missing link between Blondie and the Distillers – at Tompkins Square Park

10/13, 3 PM iconic second-wave Afrobeat band Antibalas on the plaza at 300 Ashland Pl next door to BAM, free

10/13, 4 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 6 by dark cabaret legend  Sanda Weigl, at 8 by eclectic, lyrical jazz bassist/composer Pedro Giraudo leading his Tango Quartet, and at 10 by accordionist/sitarist Kamala Sankaram’s hot surfy Bollywood/cumbia/psychedelic rock band Bombay Rickey at Barbes

10/13, 7 PM night one of this year’s amazing, free Momenta Festival featuring the Momenta Quartet playing works by Anna Clyne, Cristobal Halffter, Villa-Lobos and Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 130 at the Tenri Cultural Institute, 43 W 13th St

10/13, 7 PM hypnotic carnatic stringh music: Pallab Bandyopadhyay – violin; Mandakini Swain –  vocals; Amod Dandavate  – tabla at the Chhandayan Center for Indian Music  $20

10/13. 7:30 PM the debut of the En Root Chamber Ensemble championing the works of black and latino classical composers at the DiMenna Center, free

10/13. 7:30 PM Russian Renaissance play short works by Piazzolla, Schnittke, Prokofiev, Ellington and many others at Irving HS Auditorium, 17th St/Irving Pl, $16

 10/13, 7:30 PM adventurous literarily-inspired pianist Inna Faliks plays works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Mozart at Symphony Space, $15/$10 stud/srs

10/13, 7:30 PM catchy psych-pop road warriors the Essex Green at FM Jersey City, $15

10/13, 7:30 PM pianist Angie Zhang plays a program TBA at Greenwich House Music School, free

10/13 8 PM a politically-aware twinbill: jazz poet Dilson Hernandez and populist folksinger Ben Grosscup at the People’s Voice Cafe, sugg don, $20, “more if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away.” 

10/13, 8 PM the world’s most popular renaissance vocal ensemble, Stile Antico  sing English Elizabethan choral works by Byrd, Tallis, Lassus and innumerable others at Church of St. Mary the Virgin, $30 seats avail

10/13, 8 PM pianist Sin-Jeong Cho and the NJ Symphony Orchestra play Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Ligeti’s Romanian Overture and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7 at NJPAC in Newark, $20 tix avail

10/13, 8 PM edgy lefty lead guitarist Damian Quinones and his psychedelic latin soul band  at Silvana

10/13. 8 PM Scottish fiddler/songwriter Hannah Read followed by the more klezmer/Balkan-inspired Lily Henley at the Owl

10/13, 8 PM the global 25-member cast of the Onebeat socially conscious music collective at Murmur Ballroom, 17 Eastern Pkwy, Crown Heights, $15

10/13, 8 PM Unheard Of Ensemble play works by women composers  including Eleanor Aversa’s monumental Victory at Arnot and Marilyn Bliss’ Under the Azure Sky, as well as Flannery Cunningham’s Say-So with guests Amber Evans, soprano, and Francesca Ferrara, flute at Arete Gallery $15/$10 stud/srs 

10/13. 8:30 PM gonzo postbop pianist Dred Scottplays the album release show for his new solo record at the third stage at the Rockwood, $12

10/13. 9 PM intense female-fronted psychedelic groove/funk band Imunuri at Bar Chord. 10/14 at 9 they’re at the big room at the Rockwood

10/13-14, 10:30 PM perennially edgy tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake leads a quartet at Smalls

10/13 the Detroit Cobras at Hank’s are sold out. Imagine that.

10/14, 2 PM Lotus Studios’ 3rd Annual World Dance Festival: Dancing Across Cultural Borders, featuring Indian classical styles including Bharata Natyam, Kathak, Chinese opera dances and West African drumming at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, 248 W 60th St., $25/$20 stud

10/14, 3 PM composer Svjetlana Bukvich presents an intimate electroacoustic set with Jimi Zhivago on electric guitar, Marija Ilic on piano, and herself on synthesizers, esploring themes of empathy, love, convergence and freedom at Spectrum, $15

 10/14, 3 PM Juilliard’s AXIOM new music ensemble plays Andriessen’s De Staat paired with Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks and Knussen’s Two Organa at Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theatre on 65th St., free tix req

10/14. 3 PM violinist Monica Davis leads a string quartet playing works by Haydn, Schubert and Marchettini at Concerts on the Slope, St. John’s Episcopal Church, 139 St. John’s Place downhill from 7th Ave, sugg don

10/14, 4 PM tango violinist Machiko Ozawa with Argentinian pianist Pablo Cafici at the Dreck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library, free, no under-sixes. free w/rsvp 

10/14, 6 PM ferociously panstylistic guitarist Juancho Herrera followed by catchy acoustic Americana band Party of the Sun at the small room at the Rockwood 

10/14, 7 PM live vodou music by Fanmi Asoto at  Pioneer Works, free

10/14, 7:30 PM the Greenwich Village Orchestra play Barber – Overture to The School for Scandal, and Knoxville: Summer of 1915; Schubert – Symphony No. 9, “The Great” at All Saints Church, 230 E 60th St (2/3rd Aves), $20

10/14, 8 PM high-energy retro soul/Americana band the California Honeydrops at Bowery Ballroom, $22

10/14-16, 8 PM playful avant garde vocal icon Meredith Monk’s vocal ensemble perform her Cellular Songs at the poisson Rouge, $25 adv tix rec

10/14, 9 PM growly, psychedelic, populist Americana songwriter Jeffrey Foucault at City Winery, $22 standing room avail

10/14 9:30 PM a rare NYC show by amazing genre-smashing klezmer/Pakistani ensemble Sandaraa with vocalist Zeb Bangash and composer/clarinetist Michael Winograd at Joe’s Pub, $15

10/15, half past noon the Bessarabian Chamber Klezmer Ensemble at Central Synagogue, $18 includes lunch

10/15, 7 PM night two of this year’s amazing Momenta Festival featuring the Momenta Quartet playing oceanic and heartbreak-themed works by their excellent violist Stephanie Griffin plus Carl Bettendorf, Alba Potes, Guy Barash and Wagner at the Americas Society, 680 Park Ave

10/15, 7:30 PM the NY New Music Ensemble play chamber works by Wang Lu, Clara Iannotta, John Zorn, Chen Yi, and Luca Francesconi at 87 Eldridge St., $20/$10 stud

10/15, 9 PM legendary dual-reedman George Braith – who can play two saxes at once better than most guys can play one – leading his quartet at the Fat Cat

10/15, 9:30 PM ex-Chicha Libre keyboard sorcerer Josh Camp’s wryly psychedelic cumbia/tropicalia/dub band Locobeach at Barbes

10/16, 7:30/9:30 PM darkly sweeping, cinematic singer/composer Jihye Lee with pianist Kevin Hays play her intimate noir themes at the Jazz Gallery, $25

10/16, 8 PM catchy, restless female-fronted Americana/newgrass anthem band Kaylor Otwell & the Tin Cans at the small room at the Rockwood

10/16, 8:30/11 PM and then 10/19-22 iconic bassist Ron Carter’s Big Band at Birdland, $30 at the bar. 10/23-27 he’s here with a quintet and then 10/30-31 with a trio, same time/price. Maybe in November he’ll be here all by himself since all the musicians seem to be leaving one by one…

10/16, 7 PM violinist Sharon Steigerwald plays Anna Heflin’s solo Through the Looking Glass i.e. the scene with talking flowers. “The immersive spatial elements in Heflin’s piece are mirrored in both Berio’s Sequenza VIII for Violin and Bach’s Chaconne from the D minor Partita, where the use of space represents the passage of time,” Followed at 9 (separate $15 adm) by a wild choir of Gelsey Bell, Amirtha Kidambi, Anais Marviel, and Megan Schubert at Arete Gallery

10/16, 7 PM the Burnt Ends – Kyle Wilson – tenor sax, Kenny Warren – trumpet, Charlotte Greve – alto sax, Chris Parker – guitar, Danny Fox – piano, Noah Garabedian – bass, Sean Mullins – drums.- play horn arrangements of classic honkytonk followed by clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

10/16, 9:30 PM Lizzie & the Makers  – snarling twin-guitar psychedelic rockers steeped in oldschool backing one of the most powerful, riveting singers on the planet. DAMN, can this woman wail. Followed by creepy/funny circus rock singer Dr Gasp and band at Pete’s 

10/17, 7 PM the Desdemona string quartet play string trios and quartets by Susanna Hancock, Maria Kaoutzani, Finola Merivale, Emma O’ Halloran, Gemma Peacocke and Shelley Washington at Spectrum, $15

10/17, 7 PM jangly, spiky, guitarishly brilliant Afrobeat band Timbila at Barbes

10/17, 7 PM the Trouble Notes – who play catchy, anthemic, propulsive instrumentals with violin, bass and drums – at the big room at the Rockwood, $15

10/17, 7 PM night three of this year’s amazing, free Momenta Festival featuring the Momenta Quartet playing works by Robert Sierra, Jean Martinon, Ann Southam, Kaija Saariaho and a solo violin piece by Nicola Matteis the Younger at the Americas Society, 680 Park Ave

10/17, 8 PM brilliantly improvisational pianist Mara Rosenbloom‘s FLYWAYS with bassist Adam Lane and singer/percussionist Anais Maviel  at I-Beam, $15

10/17, 7:30/9:30 PM the amazing, darkly pan-latin Juan Andrés Ospina Big Band with Carolina Calvache on piano and singers Lucia Pulido and Sofia Ribeiro at Dizzy’s Club, expensive, $35 but worth it

10/17, 8 PM reliably edgy avant garde pianist Lisa Moore plays works by Philip Glass plus Julián De La Chica’s Preludes Op. 8 (For piano and synthesizer) at the DiMenna Center, $25

10/18, 7 PM the Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society unearth rarely performed macabre songs by Schubert, Liszt, Debussy, Duparc, Loewe, Mussorgsky, Humperdinck at the reputedly haunted Merchants House Museum, 29 East 4th St, $30 adv tix very highly rec, this usually sells out

10/18, 7:30 PM coyly bouncy Europolitan swing with Avalon Jazz Band at Symphony Space, $30/$20 for 30 and under

10/18, 7:30 PM BRIC JazzFest Marathon Night 1 with – in reverse order – Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Stefon Harris & Blackout, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Lakecia Benjamin & SoulSquad, Madison McFerrin, JD Allen, Melanie Charles & Make Jazz Trill Again, and the Yotam Ben-Or Quartet.at Bric Arts, $30 adv tix req

10/18, 8 PM In what may be the first-ever combination of voice, period wind instruments, and saxophones, poet Katie Ford’s The Anchoress – a haunting portrait of a medieval divination tradition – performed by soprano Hyunah Yu;, early music ensemble Piffaro, the Renaissance Band; and the PRISM Sax Quartet at the DiMenna Center, $22

10/18, 8 PM intense Balkan chanteuse Jenny Luna‘s haunting, traditional Turkish band Dolunay  at the Owl. 10/25, same time they’re at Barbes followed at 10 by drummer Arthur Vint & Associates reinventing classic Morricone spaghetti western soundtracks

10/18, 8:30 PM the world’s creepiest crime jazz/film noir band, Big Lazy at Bar Lunatico

10/16-18, 8:30/10:30 PM lyrical jazz piano icon Fred Hersch with Anat Cohen on clarinet at the Vanguard. 10/19-21 he’s here with Esperanza Spalding on vocals

10/18, 8:30 PM Wormburner – who were once Hoboken’s answer to the Jam – at 11th St Bar

10/18, 9 PM early alt-country wildman Zane Campbell followed by sizzling electric bluegrass and C&W with Demolition String Band at Hank’s, $10

10/18, 10:30 PM brilliant drummer/percussionist Willie Martinez & La Familia Sextet play classic salsa grooves at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, $10

10/19, 7 PM concluding night  of this year’s amazing, free Momenta Festivalfeaturing the Momenta Quartet playing Bartok’s sinister String Quartet No. 4, Alvin Singleton’s Glory Bound and George Enescu’s Octet for Strings, Op. 7 at the Tenri Cultural Institute, 43 W 13th St

10/19, 7:30 PM BRIC JazzFest Marathon Night 2 with – in reverse order – Cyrus Chestnut Trio, Keyon Harrold, The Jazz Passengers, Xenia Rubinos, Camila Meza, Michael Sarian & The Chabones, and Yasser Tejeda & Palotré.at Bric Arts, $30 adv tix req

10/19, 7:30 PM trombonist Doug Beavers’ salsa dura band Titanes del Trombone at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

10/19, 8 PM the Departure Duo – soprano Nina Guo and bassist Edward Kass – play works by David Smooke, John Aylward, John Kennedy, Emily Koh, Alex Jang and Sarah Gibson at Scholes St. Studios 

10/19, 8 PM Ecuadorian marimba and Andean woodwind music with Inkay & Rio Mira at Flushing Town Hall, $16/$10 srs, under 19 free

10/19, 8 PM rustic Brazilian jungle guitar-and-accordion sounds with Regional de NY followed at 10 by feral Chicago Balkan brass band Black Bear Combo at Barbes 

10/19, 8 PM Patricia Santos and Tara Hanish’s amazing, intense, soul-infused cello-rock/cello-metal duo the Whiskey Girls,  followed eventually at 10 by noirish crooner/guitarslinger Phil Gammage and his four-piece band at the Way Station

10/19, 8:30 PM Antibalas spinoff Armo play Afrobeat at Bar Lunatico 

10/19, 9 PM plaintive Yorkshire/Appalachian singer Jan Bell – whose gloomy chronicles of Brooklyn gentrification really nail it – followed by pensively kinetic newgrass band Ordinary Elephant at the Jalopy, $15 

10/19, 10 PM hilarious, politically astute girlpunks the 50 Ft. Furies at Hank’s, $8

10/19, 9 PM intense charismatic danceable metal cumbia/skaragga/latin rockers Escarioka at Bar Chord

10/19, 10 PM psychedelic funk/Afrobeat jammers the People’s Champs at C’Mon Everybody, $10

10/19, 11 PM the darkly eclectic, enigmatic Lorraine Leckie  – equally adept at Slavic and Americana noir – at Sidewalk

10/20. 1/3:30 PM “a hilarious Halloween musical romp with the Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra featuring live actors, video, and music by Bach, Mussorgsky, Dvořák, and more. Discover what happens when a surprise guest visits the Moldymort Mansion,” at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, $20/$10 under 18, rec. for ages 4-up

 10/20, 7 PM Katie Curley – frontwoman of honkytonk band the Bourbon Express – plays original, whiskey-infused Americana-influenced art-songs on her original axe, concert harp, at Pangea, $20

10/20,. 7:30 PM Souren Baronian at Michiko Studios, $20

10/20, 7:30 PM timeless, haunting, playful octogenarian Armenian jazz sage and multi-reedman Souren Baronian’s Taksim at Michiko Studios, 149 W 46th St., $20

10/20-21, 7:30/9:30 PM postbop sax cult hero Steve Coleman & Five Elements at the Jazz Gallery, $25

10/20, 7:30 PM BRIC JazzFest Marathon Night 3 with – in reverse order – Terence Blanchard ft. the E-Collective, Brownout Presents: Fear of a Brown Planet ft. Third Root (Black Sabbath covers, go figure, they’re great), Deva Mahal, coma-inducing corporate singer Kat Edmonson, Arnetta Johnson & SUNNY, Resident Alien ft. Ali Sethi & Sunny Jain, and Noa Fort at Bric Arts, $30 adv tix req

10/20, 8 PM klezmer-jazz piano icon Anthony Coleman solo at Scholes St. Studios

10/20, 8 PM Aaron Burnett plays solo electroacoustic sax followed by a duo set by pyrotechnic jazz improv trumpeter Peter Evans and percussionist Levy Lorenzo at Jack, $20

10/20, 8 PM the Latin American Chamber Ensemble with Alheli Pimienta – flute –Angela Santiago – bassoon play a program TBA at the DiMenna Center, $20, snacks included 

10/20, 8 PM violinist Itamar Zorman and pianist Kwan Yi play works by Dvorak, Kreisler, Brahms and others at Irving Auditorium, Irving Pl/17th St., $16

10/20, 8 PM this era’s arguably best jazz pianist, Vijay Iyer leads his sextet at the Miller Theatre, $25 seats avail

10/20, 9 PM a rare reunion of hard honkytonk band the Dixons – who ruled this place 12 or so years ago – at Union Pool, $10

10/20, 10 PM catchy, slinky, psychedelic tropicalia and cumbia band Yotoco at Barbes

10/21, 2 PM purist postbop tenor saxophonist Alexa Tarantino and her quartet at Flushing Town Hall, free

10/21, 3 PM the Zhang-Asher-Min Trio play music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Philip Glass, and Felix Mendelssohn at the 92nd St. Y, free

10/21, 7 PM thigh voltage skiffle/Americana band the Salt Cracker Crazies a LIC Bar

10/21, 8 PM edgy alto saxophonist Caroline Davis leads a quartet with Julian Shore – piano; Chris Tordini – bass; Allan Mednard – drums followed by JOBS: Max Jaffe – drums, electronics, voice; Jessica Pavone – viola, electronics, voice; David Scanlon – guitar, electronics, voice at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, $20

10/21, 8 PM pyrotechnic jazz improv trumpeter Peter Evans plays solo, then with Being & Becoming with vibeman Joel Ross, basslst Nick Jozwiak and drummer Savannah Grace Harris + special guest David Byrd-Marrow (french horn) at Jack, $20

10/21, 9:30 PM brilliantly lyrical dark oldtimey songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Pete Lanctot at Pete’s

10/22, half past noon violinist Brian Bak and a septet play works by Tower, Beethoven and Ke-Chia Chen at the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection, 59 E Second St

10/22, 7 PM the world’s creepiest crime jazz/film noir band, Big Lazy  at the third stage at the Rockwood, $10

10/22, 8 PM energetic delta blues/Romany swing guitarist Felix Slim followed by wildly theatrical, creepy circus rock band Orphan Jane at LIC Bar

10/22, 8:30 PM amazing classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang with he Zorá String Quartet play works by Bach, Gubaidulina, Moszkowski, Piazzolla and Martin Lohse and at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, $10 tix avail

10/22, 10:30 PM intense alto saxophonist Lucas Pino’s twin-guitar No No Nonet at Smalls

 10/23, 7 PM brilliant steel guitarist and Thelonious Monk reinventor Mike Neer and quartet followed by clever, fiery, eclectic ten-piece Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party at Barbes

10/23, 7 PM New York’s most charismatic, darkly compelling lyrical songwriter/storyteller/keyboard genius Rachelle Garniez at Pangea

10/23, 7:30/9:30 PM haunting French-Tunisian saxophonist Yacine Boulares’ Abu Sadiya trio at the Jazz Gallery, $15

10/23, 7:30 PM pianist Sugar Vendil’s Islander music and movement suite scored for various keyboards, sarunay, and electronics, examining the grim aftereffects of imperialism from a Filipina perspective, performed by Vendil and pianists Melinda Faylor and Mary Prescott, and weaver Cynthia Alberto of Weaving Hand at Dixon Place, $12 adv tix rec 

10/23, 8 PM erudite, purist torchy cosmopolitan jazz chanteuse Svetlana & the Delancey 5 at Mezzrow, $20

10/23. 8 PM enveloping avant garde guitar quartet Dither at Wonders of Nature, $10

10/23, 8 PM andPlay, featuring Maya Bennardo on violin and Hannah Levinson on viola, perform “Translucent Harmonies,” two pieces by Catherine Lamb and Kristofer Svensson at Scandinavia House, $15

10/23, 8 PM Theatre C and arts advocacy organization LiC-A with lit-rockers the Bushwick Book Club explore the connection between George Orwell’s Animal Farm and the upcoming midterm elections, at Plaxall Gallery, 5-25 46th Ave, Long Island City, $5 

 10/23-27, 8:30 PM cutting-edge, eclectic cellist Okkyung Lee leads a series of ensembles at the Stone at the New School, $20. Choice pick: 10/26 with Mary Halvorson (guitar) María Grand (saxophones)

10/23, 9 PM slashing guitarist Steve Antonakos plays slide guitar blues with his band at Bar Chord

10/23, 11:30 PM rising star singer/pianist and Christian McBride protegee Kelly Green leads a trio at Dizzy’s Club, $5

10/24, 7 PM indie classical group Metropolis Ensemble play premieres from Jenny Beck, Elliot Cole, and a new Michael Oesterle trio premiered by Metropolis artists: Katie Hyun (violin), Jordan Dodson (guitar), and Gabriel Cabezas (cello), plus works by H.I.F. Biber,David Ludwig, and Dai Fujikura, at 1 Rivington St., 2nd Fl., $20/$10 stud, reception to follow

10/24, 8:30 PM dark, sardonic, brilliantly tuneful jazz pianist Danny Fox and his Trioat Bar Lunatico

10/24, 8;30 PM haunting flamenco/Sicilian folk chanteuse Julia Patinella at the third stage at the Rockwood, $12

10/24. 8:30 PMthis era’s most interesting voice in retro Britrock and glam-inspired art-rock, Edward Rogers and Stephen Butler followed by this era’s greatest, most epic twelve-string guitarist, Marty Willson-Piper at City Winery, $18 standing room avail

10/25, 7 PM kinetic klezmer/cumbia/cinematic jamband Isle of Klezbos with special guest singer/guitarist Natalia Zukerman at Joe’s Pub, $20

10/25. 7:30 PM Afro-Colombian trance-folk/rap band Kombilesa Mi (Palenquero for My Friends) at the Lincoln Center Atrium, free, early arrival advised

10/25, 7:30 PM pianist Per Tengstrand and chamber ensemble Opus 21 play works by Beethoven, Mozart and Part at Scandinavia House, $25

10/25, 7:30 PM , repeating on 10/26 at 2 PM and 10/27 at 8 the NY Philharmonic play Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with soloist Gil Shaham and Tschaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 at Avery Fisher Hall, $31 tix avail

10/25, 7:30 PM brilliant, historically spot-on oldtime blues guitar/banjo/piano genius Jerron Blind Boy Paxton  at Symphony Space, $30/$20 for 30 and under

10/25, 8 PM klezmer/Balkan trumpet hero Frank London leads a band TBA at Russ & Daughters Cafe, free

10/25, 8;30 PM powerful Indian carnatic crooner Aditya Prakash and band at the Jalopy, $15

10/25, 9 PM haunting, intense ,soulful folk noir songwriter Holly Miranda – who’s as good on Telecaster as she is on piano at City Winery, $12 gen adm

10/25, 9 PM charismatic, politically fearless, historically-inspired oldtime country blues duo Piedmont Bluz at Silvana

10/25, 9 PM sardonic first-wave Cali punks the Dickies play Stukas Over Disneyland (a pretty short album) plus the hits at Bowery Electric, $20 adv tix rec

10/25, 8:30 PM epically lyrical alto saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum & Sparkler at Bar Lunatico

10/26, 1 PM rising star organist Janet Yieh plays a program TBA at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown

10/26, 5:30/6:30 PM Gevorg Dabaghyan and Vache Sharafyan play haunting Armenian duduk music in gallery 199 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, free w/museum adm

10/26, 6:30 PM pianists Manuel Laufer and Walter Aparicio perform the works of Latin American Composers tba at Arete Gallery, $

10/26, 8 PM the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society nonet play an evening of NY and world premieres by Fabio Grasso, Louis Karchin, David Liptak, Letizia Michielon, Adam Mirza, Paul Salerni, and Theodore Wiprud at the Tenri Institute, 43A W 13th St, $15/$8 stud

10/26, 9 PM noisy, hazily jangly, psychedelic slowcore/free jazz/avant instrumentalists Sunwatchers, hazy post-Velvets janglers Spectre Folk and post-Syd Barrett-ish Obits spinoff Savak at FM Jersey City , $10

10/26, 8 PM the irrepressibly fun, multistylistic Threeds oboe trio at the Owl

10/26, 8 PM soulful reedman Paquito D’Rivera  teams up with dynamic “shape-shifter” pianist John DiMartino and his trio for a salute to Billy Strayhorn at Flushing Town Hall, $25/$20 srs, under 19 free

10/26, 8 PM feral bassist Brandon Lopez leads his Malediction quartet with Michael Foster on saxophones, Nina Dante on vox, Lucie Vítková on accordion and objects at Issue Project Room, sugg don

10/26-27, 8 PM the reliably entertaining, adventurous Chelsea Symphony play Hindemith — Trauermusik with soloist David Bojanowski  on viola; Beethoven, arr. Yaniv Segal — The Triumph of Love: Suite from Fidelio and  Beethoven — Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, op. 55 (Eroica). The 10/27 show switches out the Hindemith for Oliver Davis’ Flight, Concerto for Violin and Strings with soloist Phong Ta at St. Paul’s Church, 315 W 22nd St., $20 sugg don

 10/26, 8:30 PM ferociously lyrical, hilarious, politically-spot on parlor pop pianist Dawn Oberg followed eventually at 10:30 by wryly surreal, Lynchian duo the Dream Eaters at Freddy’s

10/26, 8:30 PM the mighty,improvisational fifteen-piece Makrokosmos Orchestra at Shapeshifter Lab, $10

10/26, 9ish Mary Spencer Knapp’s fearlessly smart, eclectic, avant garde-inclined accordion band Toot Sweet followed by the entertaining, increasingly glam-infused Manimals playing tunes from their upcoming “glam-operatic”  new one at Mister Rogers, 231 Rogers Ave (President/Union), Crown Heights, 2/5 to President St.

10/26, 10 PM the world’s creepiest crime jazz/film noir band, Big Lazyat Barbes

10/27, 7:30 PM sitarist Kalyanjit Das with Samir Chatterjee on tabla at the Chhandayan Center for Indian Music,  $20

10/27, 6 PM the Jaded Babies – who write some of the funniest new wave songs ever – at the Delancey, $10. Choice pick: I Wanna Pee on That (How a Sheepdog Shows His Love) 

10/27, 8 PM haunting, Lynchian, psychedelic organ-driven Puerto Rican bolero revivalists and Sylvia Rexach reinventors Miramar followed at 10 by the haphazardly funny Eastern Blokhedz  – who do psychedelic covers of 60s Russian psychedelic pop songs and specialize in the catalog of legendary Polish singer Edita Piaha – at Barbes

10/27, 8 PM clever, quirky, playfully lyrical jazz pianist/singer Amanda Ekery and band followed at 9 by pastoral improvisers Retumbra  –  Noah Becker on clarinet, Jonah Udall on resonator guitar, and Steve Williams on upright bass – at Spectrum, $15 

10/27, 8 PM terse, tuneful jazz guitarist Amanda Monaco  and her band at Greenwich House Music school, $20/$16 stud/srs

10/27, 8 PM Wet Ink Ensemble play a composer portrait of the atmospheric Kate Soper featuring the composer herself on vocals at the Miller Theatre, $20 tix avail

10/27, 10 PM charismatic, pounding live techno band the Naked Heroes at Hank’s, $10

10/28 2 PM a salute to iconic cellist Fred Sherry with an all-star cast including Peter Serkin, Richard Stoltzman, David Shifrin, Jeremy Denk, Ursula Oppens, Steve Mackey, the JACK Quartet, the Horszowski Trio, Katie Hyun, Mike Nicolas, Stefan Jackiw, Jay Campbell, Dov Scheindlin, Rubin Kodheli, Paul Neubauer, Alan Feinberg, David Fulmer and more at Merkin Concert Hall, $10

10/28, 4 PM early music ensemble Vox Luminis sing Bach Motets at Corpus Christi Church, 529 W 121St St, $10 tix avail  

10/28, 4 PM violinist Deborah Nixon and pianist Amir Farid play works by Janacek, Elgar, Kreisler and others at Scholes St. Studios

10/28, 5 PM the Merz Trio play piano trios by Mozart, Brahms, Schumann and Charlotte Bray at the Lounge at Hudson View Gardens, 128 Pinehurst Ave @ W 183rd St, A train or #1 train (to 181st St) or the M4 bus (to 183rd St), $15/$12 stud/srs 

10/28, 7 PM Afghani pianist Elham Fanous plays music by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Sun Yi-Qian at Spectrum, $15

10/28, 5 PM sitar/sarod duo Lakshay Mohan & Aayush Mohan at Symphony Space, $30/$10 stud

10/28, 8 PM the original creepy cello rockers, Rasputina at Rough Trade, $17 adv tix rec

10/28, 8:30 PM polymath retro rocker and historically sharp lyricist Pokey LaFarge and his killer band at City Winery, $28 standing room avail

10/29, 8:30 PM eclectic, dynamic jazz singer Tammy Scheffer with Glenn Zaleski on keys and Daniel Foose on bass at the Bar Next Door, $12

10/30, 7:30/9:30 PM Camille Bertault – who rocketed to youtube virality with her spot-on vocalizations of famous jazz solos – with her similarly playful group at the Jazz Standard, $25

10/30, 8 PM Giant Sand mastermind and desert rock maven Howe Gelb at Littlefield, $18

10/30, 730 PM the Israeli Chamber Project play works by Debussy, Ravel, Fauré and Salzedo. at Merkin Concert Hall, $20 tix avil

10/30, 8:30 PM guitar noisemaker Nels Cline with Chris Lightcap on bass and Tom Rainey on drums at Bar Lunatico

10/30, 11 PM Elliott Smith-esque chamber-pop band the Morning Sea play the album release show for t heir new one at the Mercury, $12

10/31, 1 PM jazz pianist Jill McCarron at St. Peter’s Church, 54th/Lex

10/31, 6 PM oldschool-style high plains C&W singer Hope Debates & North 40 at 55 Bar

10/31, 6:30 PM violinist Tessa Lark and pianist Andrew Armstrong play Americana-inspired works by the violinist herself plus works by Stravinsky and Beethoven at the Baruch College auditorium, free, rsvp req 

10/31, 7ish trumpeter Pam Fleming’s colorful, cinematic reggae jazz Dead Zombie Band at the block party on Waverly Ave in Ft. Greene

10/31, 7 PM fun dub-infused skanking with Skalopy followed by cult favorite female-fronted Romany-inspired groove band Paprika at Branded Saloon

10/31-11/1, 7:30 PM, repeating on 11/3 at 8 the NY Philharmonic play Erich Korngold’s Much Ado About Nothing Suite, Barber’s Violin Concerto spotlighting Concertmaster Frank Huang and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances at Avery Fisher Hall, $33 tix avail

10/31, 8 PM poignantly lyrical, eclectic pianist Marta Sanchez‘s new jazz poetry project, Room Lore which “combines the words of visionary poets such as Maya Angelou, Charles Bukowski, Giaconda Belli and others with contemporary rhythms and harmonies,” at Barbes

1031, 8 PM trumpeter Nate Wooley plays the the world premiere of Red Autumn Gold by Wadada Leo Smith, followed by Annea Lockwood’s 1998 piece Immersion performed by Dominic Donato and Frank Cassara, and the U.S. premiere of Catherine Lamb’s Prisma Interius VIII performed by Wet Ink Ensemble (Josh Modney, Josh Rubin, Giacomo Baldelli, Mariel Roberts, Laura Barger and Eric Wubbels) at Issue Project Room, $15/$12 stud/srs

10/31, 8 PM edgy, eclectic pan-Mediterranean art-rock/latin/chanson ensemble Banda Magda  at Bric Arts, free w/rsvp 

10/31, 8 PM this year’s annual Madonnathon has an allstar band playing the Material Girl’s greatest and most infamous hits. This year’s lineup includes Madonna wannabes Amber Martin (Mattachine), the perennially subversive Tammy Faye Starlite, Shannon Conley, Brian Charles Rooney (Threepenny Opera), The Love Show, Ki Ki Hawkins, Travis Moser, Erin Hill & her Psychedelic Harp, Zoe Friedman, Emma Craig, Lisa Jackson, The Rhythm Knights Dance Troupe, Danielle Tyler, Echo of the Ghost, Jack Fuller, Tess, Hibiscus & more backed by the Material Band: Mark Christopher,  Mike Greko, Matt Lindsey, Jesse Krakow, Alan Camlet, Guy Finley & awesome violinist Claudia Chopek – plus a costume contest or Best Madonna-inspired Look AND Best Overall Halloween Look (the promoters suggest killer matador cape, virgin bride, lucky star, peepshow dancer, geisha glam, cone bra & ponytail, urban cowgirl, Evita, material girl Marilyn, etc) to win prizes & sing onstage w/the band!  Winners announced at midnight, at Highline Ballroom, $25 adv tix req 

10/31, 8:30 PM organist/Monk reinventor Greg Lewis with Brianna Thomas on vocals at Bar Lunatico -could be the most harrowing thing you could hear on Halloween

10/31, 9 PM hard honkytonk singer Sarah Durning & the Fun Sisters at Bar Chord

10/31, 9ish explosive, creepy, colorful psychedelic rembetiko metal band Greek Judas at at Our Wicked Lady, 153 Morgan Ave, just off the Morgan Ave L stop, $5

10/31, 10ish thunderous, titanic Rhode Island Balkan street band What Cheer Brigade at the Market Hotel, $10. Ten years in business and this spot finally, finally books a good band

11/3, drinks and kettle corn at 2, concert at 2:30 PM, Sandbox Percussion with special guest vocalist Eliza Bagg play the world premiere of Alex Weiser’s sepulchral “With GentleFfingers”,  as well as György Ligeti’s rarely performed triptych “Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel” at the DiMenna Center, $20 

11/3, 7 PM the debut of NYC’s latest new music group, Wavefield Ensemble playing auspicious premieres by Abbasi, Cheah, Helgeson plus Boulez’s monumental Dérive 2 for 11 players, at the Mana Contemporary, 888 Newark Ave. Jersey City, Path train to Journal Square

11/3,  7 PM violinist Karen Bentley Pollick plays edgy Romany-inspired airs by Enescu, similar works by Mark Kopytman,a hauntingly kinetic Middle Eastern piece by Yitzhak Yedid, Selim Göncü’s The Art of Zapping,  – “a dramatic depiction of our relationship with remote controls” – plus works by Hsueh-Yung Shen and Ivan Sokolov at Spectrum, $15

11/3, 7 PM wildly popular bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding and Williaim Parker lead their respective ensembles at Lehman Stages/Lovinger Theatre, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West in the Bronx, 4 to Bedford Pk. Blvd, $25

11/3, 8 PM the String Trio of NY improvise with guitarist Alejandro Florez and  pianist Ricardo Gallo at Soup & Sound , 292 Lefferts Ave( b/n Nostrand & Rogers), 2nd floor, Lefferts Gardens, 2 to Sterling St, $20 sug don includes soup

11/3, 10:30 PM classic Persian favorites from 60s and 70s with A Muslim and a Mexican at Drom, $20

11/4, 4 PM the Parthenia Viol Consort with special guests New World Recorders (Gwyn Roberts, Héloïse Degrugillier, Rainer Beckmann and Tricia van Oers) “offer canzonas, ricercars, fantasias, motets and polychoral masterpieces from Italy and England by William Byrd, Peter Phillips, John Ward, Thomas Simpson, Thomas Tomkins, Henry Purcell, Andrea Gabrieli, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Giovanni Priuli, Giovanni Battista Grillo, and Adrian Willaert” at Corpus Christi Church, 529 W 121st St, $25

11/4, 7:30 PM Turkish saz virtuoso Ozan Aksoy plays the album release show for his new one at Drom, free

11/6, 7:30 PM the Silesian String Quartet play a rare all-Polish program of works by Szymanowski, Lutosławski, Bacewicz and Penderecki at the Morgan Library, $35

11/9, 9:30 PM psychedelic art-rockers Swarmius play from their magic realist opera El Colibrí Magicó (The Magic Hummingbird) – A California Story, set in modern day San Diego & Tijuana, “an explosive cultural confrontation between protagonists of the contemporary US/Mexican border: coyotes, border guards, refugees, vigilantes, in violence and transcendence, with mystical intervention from living spirits of the pre-Columbian past” at the Cutting Room, $20

11/10, 1 PM dazzlingly eclectic chamber pop/latin/classical violinist Concetta Abbate and drummer Ben Engel at Flowers for all Occasions, 1114 De Kalb Ave at Broadway, Bushwick, J/M to Kosciuszko St.

11/10  haunting, Lynchian songstress Ajda the Turkish Queen with her band and wryly surreal noir parlor pop duo the Dream Eaters at Pete’s

11/11, 7 PM in reverse order: the recently more and more Motorhead-inspired High on Fire, the punkmetal Municipal Waste, the more hardcore Toxic Holocaust and the excellently tuneful, ornate, Iron Maiden-ish Haunt at Warsaw, $22 adv tix rec

  11/11, 7 PM amazing acoustic blues guitar virtuoso Terry Robb – who can do oldtime ragtimey stuff as well as his own edgy new material – at the third stage at the Rockwood, $15 

11/13, 9:15 PM the darkly eclectic, enigmatic Lorraine Leckie  – equally adept at Slavic and Americana noir, psychedelia and dark cabaret –  at the big room at the Rockwood, $10

11/16, 7:30 PM hauntingly tuneful, propulsive Lebanese jazz pianist Tarek Yamani at Aaron Davis Hall, $25. This guy is amazing. 

11/17, 8 PM Glenda Del E and the brilliant Ariacne Trujillo (formerly with Pedrito Martinez’ band) reimagine and interpret legendary Cuba pianist Valdés’ music at Drom, $15

11/18, 2 PM terse, tuneful jazz guitarist Amanda Monaco and her quartet at Flushing Town Hall, free

11/18, 7:30 PM new works for string quartet by Valerie Coleman, Jeff Myers, Lawrence Kramer, and Matthew Welch. performed by Quartet Metadata: Lynn Bechtold and Hajnal Pivnick, violins; Carrie Frey, viola; and Jisoo Ok, cello at the 12th floor lounge of Fordham’s Lowenstein Buiding, corner of 60th St. and Columbus Ave, free.

11/20, drinks at 5:30 PM, show at 6, flutist Isabel Lepanto Gleicher and ensemble plays works by Hildegard Von Bingen, David Lang, Rzewski and others at the Miller Theatre, free

11/30, 7 PM epic, haunting, searingly lyrical art-rock songwriter and baritone crooner Spottiswoode and band play the album release for their new one at Joe’s Pub, $20

12/4, drinks at 5:30 PM, show at 6, perennially interesting piano/percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire play works by Crumb, Saint-Saens and Tschaikovsky at the Miller Theatre, free

12/6, 6 PM klezmer violinist Jake Shulman-Ment with rippllng tsimbl (Ukrainian Jewish dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky at Poe Park in the Bronx.

12/21, 2 PM brilliant baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian‘s LSQ at Flushing Town Hall, free

Feral, Carnivalesque Klezmer and Balkan Sounds From the Lemon Bucket Orkestra

The Lemon Bucket Orkestra distinguish themselves in a crowded field of high-voltage klezmer and Balkan bands with their feral, otherworldly sound and sizzling chops. They don’t just pillage the usual repertoire of freylekhs and bulgars: they go way back, blending the phantasmagorical elements of Ukrainian, Russian, Lithuanian and Jewish sounds that proliferated over a hundred years ago. The best musicians know no boundaries, and the Lemon Bucket Orkestra personify that sensibility. Their latest album If I Had the Strength is streaming at Bandcamp, and they’re playing the latest installment of this year’s New York Gypsy Festival tonight, Sept 26 at 8 PM at Drom. It’s $20 at the door and worth it.

The album opens with a brief, somberly chromatic march fueled by Michael Louis Johnson’s muted trumpet and a walking bassline and ends with a hushed folk tune. In between it’s a wild party. The lickety-split stomp of Crooked immediately sets the scene, with wildfire riffage from bagpipes and James McKie’s violin over a brisk sousaphone/drums pulse from Ian Tulloch and Jaash Singh, Mark Marczyk and Stephania Woloshyn taking turns on vocals. They take it out with a tantalizingly brief stampede that could have gone on as long as these guys could have physically been able to play it.

They follow Fate, a growly, tensely stalking miniature with Goodbye, the violin holding the down the bassline as the sousaphone takes a a coyly blithe solo, mingling with Woloshyn’s shivery vocals; then they pounce their way through a catchy series of chromatics and crescendos, with spiraling, wildfire solos from Julian Selody’s clarinet and Marichka Marczyk’s accordion.

They rip the riff from Whole Lotta Love for the bassline to Soldat, violin and clarinet in tandem delivering tight country dance riffage, Johnson’s trumpet holding the center. Freedom has a rat-a-tat Serbian-style brass band pulse, clever call-and-response riffs and a completely unexpected psychedelic bridge.

The album’s most rustically surreal track is When, a brief, majestically crescendoing number glimmering with eerily ornamented vocal harmonies. From there the band segue into Palinka, an equally surreal Balkan cumbia mashup with tasty, chromatically slashing solos from violin, accordion and bagpipes and a coyly chirping flute solo out.

Cocoon, a furtively jungly miniature for percussion, sets the stage for Heroes with its delirious unison riffage over a tight, tricky, Macedonian-flavored dance rhythm, up to a misterioso Bulgarian vocal interlude by guest soprano Measha Brueggergosman. You’ll see this on the best albums of 2018 page at the end of the year.