Live Music Choices 7/30 - 8/5
Tons of great live music coming up offering something for everyone. Don't miss the beginning of Celebrate Brooklyn, last shows at Vision Festival, Soul Summit parties, and more.
PLEASE do not forget to contact the venues or at the very least check their social media to make sure that the event is not canceled due to inclement weather, and do check with individual venues about their vaccination requirements and proof for attendees, and whether RSVPs are required to buy tickets at the door.
Friday (7/30) marks the last of Vision Festival’s nights at Red Hook’s Pioneer Works, and it is leaving the borough with an incredible bang: sets by saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock’s Monochromes, trumpeter jaimie branch’s Fly Or Die, and legendary saxophonist David Murray’s Revival Octet, interspersed with bassist Brandon Lopez and drummer Gerald Cleaver playing with multi-instrumentalist Steve Baczkowski and poet Fred Moten.
A massive night of sound, swing, and ideas. (159 Pioneer St., 6 pm, $65)
Friday (7/30) also promises a special and random late-evening of record spinning when Douglas Sherman shows up at Williamsburg’s excellent pop-up record shop Range Music. Sherman has been among the “musical hosts” at David Mancuso’s legendary The Loft party for the better part of the last quarter-century.
Lots of potential for old-school fun! (53 Broadway, 10 pm, FREE)
Giles
Some venues are only now beginning to re-open, and among them is JACK, Clinton Hill’s “performance meets civic space” that mixes theater and dance with music and community events.
Their return program on Friday (7/30) and Saturday (7/31) features the trumpet player Peter Evans’s Being & Becoming project, a quartet that also includes the great vibraphonist Joel Ross, drummer Savannah Harris, and bassist Nick Jozwiak. And while Ross can not make it on Saturday, his replacement is none other than Tyshawn Sorey.
Get there early for the at-the-door tix. (20 Putnam Avenue, 7:30 pm, FREE)
The borough’s biggest and loudest free concert series, Celebrate Brooklyn, finally returns to the Prospect Park Bandshell on Saturday (7/31).
In addition to the headliner, DC’s R&B hit-maker Ari Lennox, the night features a handful of Brooklyn/New York’s finest: the (DC ex-pat) poet/MC KAMAUU, the soul-disco singer/bassist Adeline and Queens-born, reggae-tinged R&B crooner NESTA. (Prospect Park West & 9th Street, 7:30 pm, FREE)
Brooklyn’s musical past, present and future will all be on display in the various performance spaces of Bushwick’s Elsewhere on Sunday (8/1).
Up on the roof in the afternoon sun is Soul Summit, one of Brooklyn’s longest-running daytime house parties, sadly gentrified out of their regular location in Fort Greene Park.
And during the evening is an all-ages showcase by Monsta Lab Entertainment, a Brooklyn-based collective of young artists, producers, and MCs who are at once grabbing the culture back and pushing it forward. (599 Johnson Avenue // Soul Summit: 2 pm, $30 // Monsta Lab: 6 pm, $13)
twillis151
Not strictly Bklyn Sounds, but great Black Brooklyn-owned space with an excellent line-up: Monday (8/2) marks the local record release show for great young MC/poet Pink Siifu (at Elsewhere), and his after-party at Cafe Erzulie has the potential to bring a few disparate scenes together.
The great Richmond, VA “garage punk jazz funk” group Butcher Brown, its member, producer/instrumentalist DJ Harrison, and the excellent LA hip-hop duo B. Cool-Aid, one of whom is the evening's host, will be there. (894 Broadway, 10:30 pm, $10)
We do not see James McNew, resident Brooklyner of Port Authority indie-rock stalwarts Yo La Tengo, play out often enough, so it’s a joy to see two of his occasional projects on the same day.
Tuesday (8/3) evening bill at South Slope/Sunset Park’s Mama Tried: Dump being McNew’s great covers-heavy bedroom pop “group,” and Sloppy Heads, a lo-fi, indie-rock band he sometimes plays with. Maybe tonight?
Also on the bill: the excellent guitarist/banjoist who goes by Baby Copperhead. (787 3rd Avenue, 7 pm, FREE)
elbcamp777
And sticking with Mama Tried, whose backyard is making a case as one of the borough’s great post-pandemic venues: Wednesday (8/4), it will host the return of Middle Blue, a loose musical collective conceived by guitarist Brad Faberman with a tight reign on their jazz-funk chops, featuring, as they occasionally do, folks like tenor saxophonist Dave Sewellson and drummer Mike Clarke.
This will be a fun one to dance at. (787 3rd Avenue, 7 pm, FREE)
Also Wednesday (8/4), the Brooklyn Public Library’s Plaza Performances is hosting DJ Leecy T, hip-hop selectress and one-half of the rap group M-TRI & DJ Leecy T, for an evening of funk and boom-bap. (Grand Army Plaza, 7 pm, Free)
chrisjulien
There used to be a lot more easygoing, smart-fun, art-pop bands like Psymon Spine in Brooklyn. But styles change, and now the quintet’s glorious mix of hooks, brainy words and let’s-all-dance-around energy is sadly kinda rare.
They released a new album, Charismatic Megafauna, late into quarantine, and will now belatedly celebrate its appearance in the world on Thursday (8/5) at Bushwick’s Sultan Room. (234 Starr Street, 8 pm, $18).
Reminder: If you are a Brooklyn (or greater New York) artist, label, venue or musicker organization that is releasing new music, or producing (Brooklyn) events, or just making noise that you want to spread through the community, please drop us a line at music@bklyner.com. We’d love to hear it — and potentially put it on.
Lastly, Bklyner & Bklyn Sounds are throwing a live show. More details next week, but you can get tickets HERE:
