Steve Reich is the guest of honor at the Barbican in London for Reverberations, a weekend celebration of his music and influence; Kronos Quartet gives the European premiere of Reich's WTC 9/11 ... David Byrne introduces a discussion of "The Sustainable City" in NYC ... Carolina Chocolate Drops perform in the South ... Wanda Jackson plays the Pacific Northwest ... The Low Anthem is in Arizona ... Jessica Lea Mayfield is out West ... Punch Brothers, Allen Toussaint join Jazz Fest ... Sara Watkins joins John Prine ... and more ...
Steve Reich is the guest of honor at the Barbican in London for Reverberations, a weekend long music marathon celebrating Reich's 75th birth year and exploring his music and influence on generations of composers and musicians. Reich is joined by artists like Kronos Quartet; Bryce Dessner (the guitarist of The National and a performer, with Bang on a Can, on the Nonesuch recording of Reich's 2x5) and his band Clogs; former Battles member Tyondai Braxton; eighth blackbird, who perform on the Nonesuch recording of Reich's Double Sextet and make their London debut; Brooklyn-based percussion quartet So Percussion; Bang on a Can; post-minimalist pianist Max Richter; Hungarian percussion group Amadinda Quartet; conductor André de Ridder; Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo; electronica maverick Dan Deacon; Canadian artist Owen Pallett; and Icelandic musician, composer, and producer Jóhann Jóhannsson.
To mark this weekend's festivities, there are extensive articles on Reich and his music in Gramophone and The Quietus and interviews with Reich and a number of this weekend's performers in the Guardian.
Kronos Quartet, recent recipients of the Avery Fisher Prize and the Polar Music Prize (click here for details), perform in two Reverberations concerts today. This afternoon at LSO St Luke's, Kronos gives the world premiere of Bryce Dessner’s string quartet Tenebre, the UK premiere of Clouded Yellow by Michael Gordon, and also a performance of Scott Johnson’s "It Raged" from How it happens, based on the sampled voice of American journalist I.F. Stone.
Tonight at Barbican Hall, Kronos Quartet gives the European premiere of Reich’s WTC 9/11, the UK premieres of Bryce Dessner’s Aheym and of Ov Horachamim (traditional, arranged by Judith Berkson and Jacob Garchik) and a performance of Viderunt Omnes by Perotin, arranged by Kronos Quartet.
Kronos gives the German premiere of WTC 9/11 at the Alfried Krupp Saal in Essen on Sunday.
Reich spoke with the BBC News about this weekend's European premiere of WTC 9/11 in a piece you can watch at bbc.co.uk. New York news station NY1 spoke with the composer and Kronos Quartet's David Harrington about the piece in conjunction with last Saturday's New York premiere at Carnegie Hall; watch the segment at ny1.com. You can listen to an excerpt of the forthcoming Nonesuch release of Kronos Quartet performing Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 in yesterday's Nonesuch Journal.
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David Byrne introduces a panel of mayors in a discussion of "The Sustainable City" at The Great Hall at Cooper Union in New York City tonight, with Studio 360 host Kurt Andersen moderating. The event is part of the Festival of Ideas for the New City, a collaborative initiative in New York involving a number of Downtown organizations, from universities to arts institutions and community groups, working together to effect change. Byrne, the author of Bicycle Diaries, is a passionate spokesman for the use of alternative means of transportation. He is the subject of a feature article in The Fader, which you can read in full at thefader.com.
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The Carolina Chocolate Drops perform at the Crossroads Café in Huntsville, Alabama, tonight, and at the Lyric Oxford in Oxford, Mississippi, on Saturday. The Chocolate Drops' show at the Bama Theatre in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, originally scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed to November 9 in the wake of the tornado damage brought upon it last week.
The band's performance on Mountain Stage recently aired on NPR. You can listen to the show on npr.org.
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Wanda Jackson takes her North American tour to the Pacific Northwest for two performances this weekend: at Neumos in Seattle, Washington, tonight, supported by Red Meat, and at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday.
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The Low Anthem performs two shows in Arizona this weekend, beginning with a show at Club Congress in Tucson tonight. Former band member Daniel Lefkowitz joins for the occasion. The Arizona Daily Star says it's “a good bet for the show you're most likely to say you wish you'd gone to in a year or so, or maybe immediately after talking to some who went.” The Low Anthem heads next to Phoenix for a sold-out show at the Icehouse with the Downtown Chamber Series Musicians Saturday night.
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Jessica Lea Mayfield continues her North American tour out West at Neurolux in Boise, Idaho, tonight, and at Kilby Court in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday. Nathaniel Rateliff opens both shows.
Mayfield was recently featured in American Songwriter magazine. Tell Me, her Nonesuch debut album, "is the kind of record that makes music writers want to wake up in the morning," writes Sean L. Maloney. "Full of rich sonic textures, emotionally complex lyrics and undeniably catchy hooks, it’s no surprise ... that the record has gained maximum traction with minimal prodding from the industry machine. It’s the sort of finely crafted, deeply personal album that can make an evangelist out of even the most curmudgeonly critics—it’s a record that you have to tell other people about. Intimate and immediate, Tell Me is like stumbling on to a secret cache of beauty and mystery every time it spins around your turntable." Read the article at americansongwriter.com.
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Punch Brothers are in Louisiana for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this weekend. First up, the band gives a preview of their Jazz Fest set in a headlining show at Blue Nile on Saturday, with special guest Luke Winslow-King. On Sunday afternoon, Punch Brothers take the Fais Do-Do Stage at the Fair Grounds Race Course for Jazz Fest.
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Allen Toussaint makes a return appearance at Jazz Fest, heading back to his hometown for a set on the Acura Stage Saturday afternoon. You can watch his performance streaming this weekend on rollingstone.com.
The New Orleans home where Toussaint gerw up and wrote a number of his songs was affixed with a plaque marking its place in music history in a ceremony held earlier this week and attended by Toussaint. You can watch coverage of the event from WWLTV here:
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Sara Watkins takes a few days away from her ongoing tour with The Decemberists for two shows supporting famed singer-songwriter John Prine this weekend: at the Victoria Theatre in Dayton, Ohio, tonight, and the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor on Saturday.
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