Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – FRIDAY, AUG 09, 2013

Paquito D’Rivera and Panamericana (through Sunday)
“The clarinetist, alto saxophonist and longtime Cuban exile Paquito D’Rivera favors bright extroversion in his music, which usually incorporates Latin rhythm. As on “Panamericana Suite” (MCG Jazz), which won a Latin Grammy a few years ago, he leads a group that includes Oscar Stagnaro on electric bass and Pernell Saturnino on percussion.”(Chinen-NYT)
Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, Greenwich Village,
At 8 and 10:30 p.m./$35 at tables, $20 at bar, $5 minimum.
212-475-8592, bluenote.net

THEATRE: FringeNYC (New York International Fringe Festival)(thru 08/25)
Now in its 17th year, the multi-arts festival is the biggest of its kind in North America. Theatre companies from all over the world (185 in total) converge on downtown Manhattan to mount performances at venues like The Players Theatre, SubCulture, and Theatre 80.

With 200 shows over 16 days at 20 venues, from the dark to the comical, starships to strip clubs, if you fancy yourself an adventurer, FringeNYC is absolutely worth exploration. — Mindy Bond.
Can’t tell the players without a scorecard. The NYTimes has a guide.

Afterwork Salsa Groove Happy Hour w/ Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra  
The thrilling 11-piece salsa group forgoes the standard fair and instead plays dynamic, dura arrangements of indie rock tune. No bananas in the hair; this is innovative, astonishing salsa with a new, vibrant aesthetic. With an ever-evolving set list that includes songs by Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV On The Radio, Animal Collective, Spoon and many more, the WSO has taken the typical salsa form and infused it with a completely modern identity.

Featuring a full compliment of horns & percussion, the WSO contains some of the best young players on the scene with backgrounds from Colombia, Panama, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Nueva York, and all over the good ol’ U.S. of A. With the attitude of a rock band, and the grooves of classic New York salsa, the Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra is resetting the boundaries of the art form and introducing this great music to a new audience. Having found a growing following of salsa dancers, indie music devotees and curious party people, the WSO is somehow uniting communities and making music for everyone.
SOUNDS OF BRAZIL, 200 Varick Street
At 8 and 10:45 PM / $15
212.243.4940   / sobs.com
 
Steve Wilson Quartet* (Friday through Sunday)
“The alto and soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson combines economy and modernity in his playing, whatever the setting. This engagement will feature a quartet that he also calls Wilsonian’s Grain, with musicians as staunchly capable as he is: the pianist Orrin Evans, the bassist Ugonna Okegwo and the drummer Bill Stewart.” (Chinen-NYT)
Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street,
At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m./$25 cover, with a one-drink minimum.
255-4037, villagevanguard.com

Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
================================================================================

Special Exhibitions @ 3 Museum Mile / Fifth Ave. Museums:

‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’ (through Aug. 14)
“African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde” (through Sept. 2)
‘The Civil War and American Art’ (through Sept. 2)
‘Photography and the American Civil War’ (through Sept. 2)
‘The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi’ (through Nov. 3)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org

‘Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney’ (through Sept. 2)
Morgan Library & Museum: 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th St.
(212) 685-0008 / themorgan.org.

“New Harmony: Abstraction Between the Wars, 1919-1939” (through Sept. 8)
“Aten Reign” (through Sept. 25)
……the centerpiece of James Turrell’s first exhibition in a New York museum since 1980, recasts the Guggenheim rotunda as an enormous volume filled with shifting artificial and natural light. {see review below}
Guggenheim Museum: 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St.
(212) 423-3500 / guggenheim.org.

Light and color wash the Rotunda. 
“Turrell works in a single medium: light. He has sliced into walls, designed seamless rooms with holes in the ceiling, and spent four decades building a giant naked-eye observatory in the Arizona desert—all to provide unexpectedly intimate and mysterious views of the sky, the sun, and the stars. For this segment of a three-part show running concurrently in L.A. and Houston, he’s turned the museum’s atrium into a giant light box. —J.D.” (NYmag)

==========================================================
Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Ten museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:
• 110th Street – Museum for African Art
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York
• 92nd Street – The Jewish Museum
• 91st Street –  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
• 89th Street – National Academy Museum
• 88th Street – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
• 86th Street – Neue Galerie New York
• 83rd Street – Goethe-Institut
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Additionally, though technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th St. and the The Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave. Now plan your own museum crawl.
==========================================================

Top Photography Exhibitions – NYCity / Manhattan’s WestSide

  Museum of Modern Art
Bill Brandt: Shadows and Light, (through Aug. 12, 2013)
Walker Evans: American Photographs (through Jan. 26, 2014)
11 West 53rd Street / 212-708-9400

  Metropolitan Museum of Art
Photography and the American Civil War (through Sept. 2, 2013)
Everyday Ephiphanies: Photography and Daily Life Since 1969 
(through January 26, 2014)
1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) / 212-535-7710

   ICP
A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial (through Sept. 22, 2013)
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street / 212-857-0000

  American Museum Natural History 
Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies          
(through May 31, 2014)
79th St. And Central Park West / (212) 313-7278 

  Howard Greenberg Gallery
Bruce Davidson: “Time of Change” & “Staff Picks 2013”
(through Aug. 31, 2013)
41 East 57th Street, Suite 1406 / 212-334-0100

  Staley-Wise Gallery
It’s An American Thing (through Sept. 14, 2013)
560 Broadway, Soho / 212-966-6223

One more in a special setting – the lovely, new Bklyn Bridge Park with spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline, and of course, the Brooklyn Bridge.
(easy to get to via subway: #2 or 3 express to Clark St. 1st stop in Bklyn.)

‘The Fence’ in Brooklyn Bridge Park (through Oct. 1)
“When is a fence not a fence? When it is the backdrop for a free display of over 200 jury selected images of people, animals and daily life by 39 photographers from the United States and abroad. Presented for the second year by United Photo Industries, a Brooklyn arts cooperative, as a showcase for young photographers, the display consists of a 1,000-foot-long waterproof mesh banner superimposed with color and black-and-white photos.

The banner stretches through Brooklyn Bridge Park, from Pier 15, at Joralemon Street and the East River in Brooklyn Heights, to Main Street in Dumbo.” (Anne Mancuso-NYT)
Pier 5, Joralemon Street and the East River
From 6am to 1am / FREE
(718) 215-9075 / fence.photovillenyc.org
==========================================================

For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 08/07 and 08/05.