Today’s “Fab 5”+1 / Selected NYCity Events – WEDNESDAY, APR. 02, 2014.

KRAFTWERK
“Even today, more than forty years since its formation, the visionary German electronic quartet (whose name translates as “power plant”) continues to feel futuristic. It is currently performing selections from its catalogue alongside a striking 3-D show that invokes the minimal aesthetic of early screen savers, and the evening comes complete with specialty 3-D glasses for the audience and matching spandex bodysuits for the band.” (NewYorker)
United Palace Theater, 4140 Broadway, at 175th Street, Washington Heights,
subway: head way uptown on the #1
At 7:30 p.m., / may be a tuff ticket – try stubhub, craigslist, etc
800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com

Hot Club of Cowtown
“This trio’s stylistic genesis—as well as title—stems from the realization that the great heritage of strings (guitars and violins) originates mutually with the Manouche gypsies of France and the no-less virtuosic hillbilly pickers and fiddlers of Oklahoma and Texas. Their latest of many albums, “Rendezvous in Rhythm” features a high-energy lineup of standards, rendered in such a way as to honor the legacies of both Django Reinhardt and Bob Wills.

Now together for over 15 years and a dozen albums, the threesome of high-heeled violinist Elana James, guitarist Whit Smith and bassist Jake Erwin showed from the beginning that jazz and country music could exist together on the same page, a highly commendable achievement if ever there was one.” (WSJ)
SubCulture, 45 Bleecker St.,
At 8PM / $25
(212) 533-5470

Tom Harrell’s Trip (through April 6)
“Mr. Harrell, a trumpeter, favors a precise but shadowy sort of postbop, sonorous and warm and alert. He leads Tom Harrell’s Trip, a new venture with the saxophonist Mark Turner, the bassist Ugonna Okegwo and the drummer Adam Cruz.” (Chinen-NYT)
Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village,
At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. / $25 and $30 cover, with a one-drink minimum.
212-255-4037, villagevanguard.com

Roy Nathanson & Sotto Voce
“Saxophonist and composer Roy Nathanson, best known for his work with the Lounge Lizards, the Jazz Passengers and now his latest band, Sotto Voce, has distinctly original ideas about what music should be: He’s essentially a jazz musician, but the 10 tracks on his latest album “Complicated Day” (including three ingenious interpretations) seem to exist in every genre at once.

Where most contemporary jazz composers work in a purely instrumental mode, Mr. Nathanson makes surprising use of words, whether spoken, sung, or chanted, in such a way that his pieces are better described as “compositions” rather than “songs.” Driving the whole works is his aggressively absurdist sense of humor, informed in equal parts by Charles Mingus and Spike Jones.” (WSJ)
Joe’s Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place
at 7PM / $24.50 cover, with a $12 minimum.
(212) 539-8778, joespub.com

Elinor Frey, Early Italian music for solo cello
Described as an “Impeccable cellist” by Montreal’s La Presse, and “A superb cellist” by the Syracuse Post-Standard, Elinor Frey’s recent accolades include the 2009/10 Fulbright Grant to Italy, as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarship, and a Canada Council for the Arts grant facilitating her work on Italian baroque and modern unaccompanied cello music.
The Italian Academy, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue
7:00pm / FREE

Arianna Huffington’s Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder
“Arianna Huffington’s personal wakeup call came in the form of a broken cheekbone and a nasty gash over her eye – the result of a fall brought on by exhaustion and lack of sleep. As she found herself going from brain MRI to CAT scan to echocardiogram, to find out if there was any underlying medical problem beyond exhaustion, she found herself wondering, is this really what success feels like?

In Thrive, she has written a passionate call to arms, looking to redefine what it means to be successful in today’s world. As more and more women and men are coming to realize, there is far more to living a truly successful life than just earning a big salary and capturing a corner office. Our relentless pursuit of the two traditional metrics of success — money and power — has led to an epidemic of burnout and stress-related illnesses, and an erosion in the quality of our relationships, family life, and, ironically, our careers.

In being connected to the world 24/7, we’re losing our connection to what truly matters. Our current definition of success is, as Arianna shows, literally killing us. We need a new way forward.” (Flavorpill)
At 7pm / FREE
Priority seating with book purchase. Books are available at the first floor cash registers. Event space opens at 5:00 pm.
Barnes & Noble – Union Square, 33 East 17th Street

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

Chelsea is the heart of the NYCity contemporary art scene. Home to more than 300 art galleries, the Rubin Museum, the Joyce Theater, and The Kitchen performance spaces, there is no place like it anywhere in the world. Come here to browse free exhibitions by world-renowned artists and those unknowns waiting to be discovered in an art district that is concentrated between West 18th and West 27th Streets, and 10th and 11th Avenues.

Afterwards stop in the Chelsea Market, stroll on the High Line, or rest up at one of the many cafes and bars and discuss the fine art – my fave is Ovest on W 27th St., where the aperitivo is like Happy Hour on steroids.

WHAT’S ON VIEW:
Here’s one gallery exhibition that the NYT art critic really liked:

 ‘Re-View: Onnasch Collection’ (through April 12)
This show more faithfully simulates the experience of seeing art in a modern art museum than any private gallery exhibition in recent memory. Installed in a sequence of 11 whitewall rooms in a gymnasium-size space, the show’s 57 works dating mainly from the 1950s to the ’80s are from a collection assembled by Reinhard Onnasch, a German art dealer. All of the 27 artists — from the Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline to the Minimalist Richard Serra — will be known to anyone familiar with post-World War II art. Nearly all are represented by choice examples.” (Johnson-NYT)
Hauser & Wirth, 511 West 18th Street,
212-790-3900, hauserwirth.com.

For a listing of 25 essential galleries in the Chelsea Art Gallery District, organized by street, which enables you to create your own Chelsea Art Gallery crawl, see the Chelsea Gallery Guide (nycgo.com) Or check out TONY magazine’s list of the “Best Chelsea Galleries” and click through to see what’s on view. ==========================================================

For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in the right Sidebar: “Selected Events + Special Exhibitions : Manhattan’s WestSide” dated (03/31) and (03/29).