Today’s “Fab 5″/ Selected NYCity Events  – FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2014

Baby Gramps
“Whether he’s howling an illuminating ditty about palindromes or croaking through a foreboding cover of “The Teddy Bear Picnic,” the folk-country veteran Baby Gramps delivers a truly eccentric stage show. This bearded performer has been active since the 1960s, and now presides over the Americana scene in Seattle.“ (Anderson-NYT)
Terra Blues, 149 Bleecker Street, at Thompson Street, Greenwich Village,
At 7 p.m. / $10.
terrablues.com

Liam Forde, ‘A Fleet Phantasmagoria!’
“The boy wonder singer-pianist-arranger (and occasional flutist and composer) is bringing something seldom heard in the genre of interpretive singing: harmony, delivered with a three-piece vocal group. Too many contemporary jazz singers use tricky arrangements as an end in themselves, but at a very young age, Mr. Forde has mastered the technique of using his own fresh and highly original charts as a means of enhancing a narrative.

Mr. Forde can be simple or complicated, ironic or sincere, witty or touching, but he never fails to find precisely the right note for a wide range of material that ranges from such haute cuisine as Noel Coward’s “Most of Ev’ry Day” to proudly lowdown soul food like Cab Calloway’s “Everybody Eats When they Come to My House.” (WSJ)
The Triad (Stage 72), 158 W. 72nd St.
7PM / $20, + 2 drink minimum
(800) 838-3006

The Latin Side of Horace Silver (through Sunday)
“Spearheaded by the trombonist Conrad Herwig, who has brought the same treatment to John Coltrane, Miles Davis and others, this program offers a revisionist look at Horace Silver, one of the shrewdest small-group composers in jazz, who died this year at 85. Standing in for Silver at the piano is Michel Camilo, who should take to the assignment winningly. “ (Chinen-NYT)
Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, Greenwich Village,
212-475-8592, bluenote.net;
At 8 and 10:30 p.m. / $35 cover at tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum.

Elsewhere, but worth the detour:
Arcade Fire (through Aug. 24)
“This band is big—big in sound, big in fan base, and big in showmanship. And its front man, Win Butler, is an imposing six feet four. Its action-packed arena shows are full of epic ballads, Haitian rhythms, costumes, video projections, and confetti. Violins, congas, and a delightful choreographed woodwind section expand the sound, while oversized Haitian carnival heads give the group a Pez-dispenser-on-parade look. But Arcade Fire is a family band at heart: Butler performs alongside his wife, Régine Chassagne, and his brother William Butler, and he has his baby boy on tour with him. The band’s latest release, “Reflektor,” was co-produced by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, and it ups their dance game.” (NewYorker)
Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Avenue, at Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn,
800-745-3000, barclayscenter.com;
$ At 7:30 p.m. / 30 to $70.50.
sometimes the event is special and we just have to travel to Brooklyn.
fortunately, the #2-3 express will get you there quickly.
subway: #2-3 to atlantic ave.; walk upstairs and you are there!

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

♦ NYCity is a big town with many visitors, where quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats in advance, even if just on day of performance.
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What’s on View:
Special Exhibitions @ 3 Museum Mile / Fifth Ave. Museums:

The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection’ (through Sept. 7)
‘Garry Winogrand’ (through Sept. 21)
Mr. Winogrand, who died at 56 in 1984, was the photographer laureate of urban and suburban middle-class life in the United States from the late 1950s through the ’70s and beyond. This ample retrospective focuses on his prime years, when he recorded a newly prosperous America while strolling Manhattan’s avenues and then followed it as it waded into increasingly troubled political waters. The result is a remarkable panorama of an era, with some terrific pictures, and some that Winogrand, who left a mountain of unprocessed film behind, never edited or printed. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Cotter-NYT)
‘Early American Guitars: The Instruments of C.F. Martin’ (through Dec. 7)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org
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‘Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe’ (through Sept. 1)
“This epic, beautifully designed exhibition may be one of the more thorough examinations of modernism’s most obnoxious and conflicted art movement that you are likely to see. Awash in the manifestoes that its members regularly fired off, it follows Futurism through to its end with the death of its founder, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, in 1944. It covers the Futurist obsessions with speed, war, machines and, finally, flight and the aerial views it made possible. And the show highlights relatively unknown figures like the delightful Fortunato Depero and Benedetta Cappa, Marinetti’s wife. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, 212-423-3500, guggenheim.org.“ (Smith-NYT)
Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St.
(212) 423-3500 / guggenheim.org.
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‘Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937’ (through Sept. 1)
“This show — one of the first in decades in an American museum to address, on a fairly large scale, the Nazi demonizing of art — tells a complicated story. The basic facts of the narrative, which centers on Hitler’s grand plan to purify German culture of Modernist, Bolshevist and Jewish influence, are well known, and it culminated in the infamous 1937 “Degenerate Art” exhibition in Munich. The Neue Galerie sets examples of art from that show beside Nazi-approved work; addresses the persecutions of artists in Dresden; and touches on the suppression of the Bauhaus. There are gripping paintings and sculptures as well as complex and haunting personalities every step of the way. And in the end the links between aesthetics and disaster are clear.” (Cotter-NYT)
Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street,
212-628-6200, neuegalerie.org.
========================================================== 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

Last, but certainly not least, America’s premier museum
• 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. ==========================================================

For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 08/20 and 08/18.