Weekend Arts Planner: "Southern Trees" in Chelsea and two Saturday night jazz highlights
It's cold outside but the weather is just fine inside the galleries, clubs, theatres and concert halls of New York City. We have another week packed with great choices, including two jazz shows competing for our attention on Saturday night, Feb. 4. WNYC's Culture and Arts Editor Steve Smith joins Weekend Edition host David Furst to help sort it out.
Steve's Picks:
We start at Hauser & Wirth, on 22nd Street in Chelsea. They're hosting a show called "Southern Trees," their first New York exhibition of works by the distinguished American artist Charles Gaines, and his first NYC solo show since 2018. Gaines is a conceptual artist who works in a great many styles and formats. Here, the title "Southern Trees" alludes directly to the 150-year-old pecan trees pictured in the new works, photographed on a South Carolina plantation, and symbolically to the opening lyrics of "Strange Fruit," the 1939 protest ballad associated with Billie Holiday. The images are beautiful, but there's a real melancholy to the context. The show runs through April 1.
2. "Heritage: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future in Black Art"
You're bound to see some real trees on your way to another new exhibition: "Heritage: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future in Black Art" has just opened at the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park. This show features artwork by NYC Parks employees who are exploring their Black heritage in a variety of media. You'll also see vintage hip-hop flyers and invitations produced by NYC Parks' Ebony Society. The exhibition is free, and it's open every weekday through March 9.
3. Ethan Iverson's birthday party at the Jazz Gallery
Next, we head to the Jazz Gallery, where pianist Ethan Iverson is celebrating his 50th birthday on Saturday night, Feb. 4. Iverson is best known as a founding member of The Bad Plus, an iconoclastic trio that turned Blondie and Black Sabbath into jazz standards. He stepped away from that band in 2017. As a solo artist, he's worked with venerable elders as well as peers and contemporaries.
Ethan is performing at the Jazz Gallery with a band that includes saxophonist Sam Newsome, trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and even Rob Schwimmer on the archaic electronic instrument called the theremin. This is the band that Iverson assembled for "Pepperland," a Beatles-based show he scored for the Mark Morris Dance Company, so don't be surprised if some of the tunes sound familiar. And if you can't attend in person, you can opt to stream the show online for a small charge.
4. Vijay Iyer at Columbia University's Miller Theatre
Also happening on Saturday night, Feb. 4, the Vijay Iyer Trio is performing at Columbia University's Miller Theatre. Iyer is a pianist and composer whose trio exists in a few different variants — the one playing at Miller includes bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, both of whom are formidable leaders and composers in their own right. They're one of the premier bands in contemporary music, and they'll be playing material from their extraordinary 2021 album, "Uneasy."
