I know, it's a holiday weekend and a lot of folks are already on their way to the beach or country. But, for those sticking around, there are some solid musical offerings this weekend. Check it out. 

Friday 5/27: Saturday 5/28:

RESCHEDULED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER: Death of Classical's "Hot Dogs, Hooch & Handel" at Green-wood Cemetery, 7pm

Playing on the alliterative success of 2019's "Burgers, Bourbon & Beethoven", Death of Classical brings their insatiable appetite for musical adventure back to Brooklyn's Green-wood Cemetery with this moveable feast that features music by the German-English baroque master, as well as swing jazz by The Grand St. Stompers. Tickets are $65 and includes snacks and a spirit tasting; hot dogs will be available for purchase from several local vendors. 

Lungs of the City: Olmsted's Parks in Music, Prospect Park Boathouse, noon

2022 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, America's first and greatest landscape architect. Responsible for urban oases from New York's Central Park to Portland's Forest Park, Olmsted's projects are still celebrated for their graceful melding of the natural and manmade. Inspired by his most celebrated designs, eight composers have created new music, to be performed by the American Wild Ensemble at another of Olmsted's designs, Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Admission is free.  

Gamelan Kusuma Laras at the Indonesian Consulate, 7pm

For those who've never heard the minimalist, trance-inducing sounds of the Indonesian gamelan orchestra, this is an opportunity to experience one live without having to travel halfway around the world. This "klenèngan" is an informal jam session, where audience members are welcome to come and go throughout the night. Advance tickets ($10) are sold out, but walk up patrons will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis after 8:30pm (The event goes until 11pm).

Sunday 5/29: 

Benefit for Ukraine at Roulette, 5pm

There's been no shortage of benefits for Ukraine over the past few months, from the Met to Carnegie Hall. But, for its sheer breadth of starry talent, this show at Brooklyn's Roulette - curated by the tireless composer/performer/producer John Zorn - is hard to beat. Just check out this lineup: in addition to Zorn's own New Masada Quartet, there will be sets by Bill Frisell and Julian Lage, longtime Zorn collaborator Cyro Baptista and Glossolalia, Laurie Anderson (performing with Zorn), Arturo O'Farrill, Joe Lovano, and not one but two of the world's great violinists: Leila Josefowicz and Hilary Hahn. And, unlike those uptown venues, Zorn's benefit will only set you back $50.

(Frisell also performs with his trio at Roulette on Saturday 5/27; tickets and info here.)

Monday 5/30:

New York Philharmonic Free Memorial Day Concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 7pm

The Phil returns to the majestic Cathedral of St. John the Divine for its 30th annual Memorial Day concert, with Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducting George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and La Mer, and the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Admission is free, with tickets distributed starting at 5pm. Seating is first-come, first-served.

Whether it's the annual Marathon or the summertime Loud Weekend up in the Berkshires, Bang on a Can has mastered the art of wall-to-wall music presentation over the past 35 years. This week, they are expanding to a full weekend of shows with the first annual Long Play Festival, sited at venues in and around downtown Brooklyn. According to BOAC founders Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe:

"There has never been a time when music contained so much innovation and diversity, so much audacity and so much courage. And we want to show you all of it...It’s a lot of music!”

The festival, which was originally supposed to be held in 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19, is serving up more than 60 shows across a wide range of genres, including jazz, electronic, world and new/experimental music. Highlights include Matmos performing Robert Ashley's Perfect Lives, the Bang on a Can All Stars performing Terry Riley's In C and Brian Eno's Music for Airports, the Vijay Iyer Trio, Moroccan Sufi Blues masters Innov Gwana, and an epic closing night presentation of Ornette Coleman's seminal 1959 album The Shape of Jazz to Come, with Jason Moran, Wallace Roney, Jr, James "Blood" Ulmer, and Coleman's own son Denardo, among others.

Most of the venues are within a reasonable walking distance of each other (BAM, the Mark Morris Dance Center, Roulette), while others will require a bit of a hoof (Littlefield, Public Records.) Masks and proof of vaccination required.

Passes for individual days and the full weekend are available here. More info on participating artists and composers here. And below, you can find the festival map, along with my own schedule grid, broken out by day. (You're welcome. :))

Friday, 2/11

Ethan Iverson at Roulette, 8pm

Ever since leaving The Bad Plus, the rock-jazz trio he co-founded in 2000, pianist Ethan Iverson has flourished as a solo artist while also branching out into composition.  This double bill features Iverson wearing both of his hats: on the first half, The New England Conservatory Jazz Orchestra performs Ritornello, Sinfonias, and Cadenzas: a 45 minute through-composed work premiered in Italy last summer. Then, Iverson plays selections from his just-released album Every Note is True (Blue Note) with an all-star trio featuring bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Nasheet Waits.

New York Philharmonic with Yuja Wang at Alice Tully Hall, 8pm

The always captivating (and occasionally cringe-inducing) pianist Yuja Wang returns to the Phil to perform Franz Liszt’s explosive First Piano Concerto, part of an Eastern European program led by the young Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša that also includes Zoltan Kodály’s colorful Concerto for Orchestra and Bohuslav Martinů’s richly textured First Symphony (Repeats on Saturday).

Saturday, 2/12

Tristan Perich, Lesley Flanigan and Christopher Tignor at National Sawdust, 7:30pm

Very excited to see these three electroacoustic mavens, who haven't performed in NYC in more than two years. Tristan continues his exploration of 1-bit music with "Tone Patterns," (see above) featuring cascading harmonies of 1-bit tones generated by his own custom-built hardware. Lesley will perform "Subtonalities," featuring two sine-wave oscillators generating low-frequency tones that she'll combine with pitches from her own voice. And Christopher debuts new music for violin and percussion, along with his custom-built interactive live processing platform.

Flying Lotus at Carnegie Hall, 8pm

Part of Carnegie's ongoing (and somewhat curious) Afrofuturism festival, Grammy Award–winning producer, composer, and rapper Flying Lotus takes over the Stern Auditorium with a performance that promises "a transportive electroacoustic musical blend in Carnegie Hall’s unrivaled acoustics." Should be...different.

Sunday 2/13

No live music, but I (like most of America) will be watching the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which features hip hop for the very first time. Not exactly cutting edge - nothing the NFL does is - the show features a billionaire (Dr. Dre), a beer salesman (Snoop Dogg), a shill for the Home Shopping Network (Mary J. Blige), and a white kid from Detroit (Eminem). Fortunately, someone had the presence of mind to include the brilliant lyricist Kendrick Lamar, though I doubt he'll get as much airtime as his elders. Should start around 8pm.