Today’s “Fab 5″/ Selected NYCity Events – FRIDAY, JAN. 02, 2015.
“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to. We make it as easy as 1-2-3.”

Darlene Love   — Pop/Rock

The Hot Jazz Gang  — Jazz

Twelfth Night Festival of Early Music  — SpecialEvent/ Holiday Music

Barb Jungr — Cabaret

The Bad Plus — Jazz

For other useful and curated NYCity event info for Manhattan’s WestSide:
♦ “9 Notable Events-Jan.”, and “Top10 Free” in the header above.
♦ For NYCity trip planning see links in “Resources” and “Smart Stuff” in the header above.
♦ For NYCity Sights, Sounds and Stories visit out our sister site: nyc123blog.wordpress.com

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Darlene Love
“Her lovelorn “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is a holiday rock showstopper, and her annual festive show has become a New York holiday staple. A former protégée of Phil Spector’s, she has been an indelible voice in pop since the 1960s — as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame affirmed when she was made one of the 2011 inductees.” (NYT)
B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd St.
800-745-3000 / bbkingblues.com
8pm / $50.

The Hot Jazz Gang 
Be taken back to an era which produced some of the greatest musicians, composers and songs in Jazz, by 5 musicians who are well versed in the music of 1920s and 30’s. Learn the story behind famous compositions like Bye Bye Black Bird and Sunny Side of the Street from our resident encyclopedia of jazz knowledge, saxophonist Michael Hashim, as a part of the Tales of the Jazz Age.
Lucille’s Bar & Grill at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42 St.,
6:30PM
(212) 997-4144

Twelfth Night Festival of Early Music
Motets and Villancios from the 16th Century
Works by Des Prez, Sanz, Vásquez, and others
Ensemble Viscera

New York City’s Annual Festival of Early Music with daily performances at Trinity Church and St. Paul’s Chapel in Lower Manhattan. The Festival features concerts by the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra, under the direction of Julian Wachner, as well as Avi Stein, The Bishop’s Band, Cappella Romana, Clarion Music Society, Ensemble Viscera, Gotham Early Music Scene, Grand Harmonie, Holy Trinity Bach Vespers, NY Baroque Inc., Roomful of Teeth, Ryland Angel, and the Trinity Youth Chorus.
Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street
1:00 pm / FREE, no reservation required

Barb Jungr (through Sunday)
“The British singer Barb Jungr performed last year’s most sensational cabaret show, “Hard Rain,” at 59East59 Theaters, and her devastating evisceration of songs by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen was sung and acted with such passion that she reminded you that both songwriters, at their most rousing, are prophets as well as rock royalty.

At 54 Below, from Friday through Sunday at 7 p.m., she will perform her new show, “Mad About the Boy and No Regrets,” described as a “walk on the dark side of love and loss, sex and corruption of the soul.” (Songs by Noël Coward, Kurt Weill and Bruce Springsteen — as you’ve never heard them before — have been added to a program.) The British comedian Julian Clary has called Ms. Jungr a “one-woman enema and not for the fainthearted.” (NYT)
54 Below, 254 West 54th St.
7PM / $40-$70
646-476-3551, 54below.com.

The Bad Plus (through Jan. 4)
“For the past few years, this trio hasn’t had to fret over New Year’s plans; it’s found a holiday home at the venerable Village Vanguard. Now comfortable members of the jazz establishment, they recently released their tenth studio album, “Inevitable Western,” which retains an impish edge and populist charm. Here, with the rambunctious drummer Dave King on hand, no one has to worry about making too much celebratory noise.” (NewYorker)
Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Ave. S., at 11th St.
212-255-4037 / villagevanguard.com
8:30 and 10:30 p.m./$30 cover, with a one-drink minimum.

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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 (pop. 8.4 million) had 54 million visitors last year and quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats in advance, even if just on day of performance.
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For many the Holiday Season means a visit to the NYC Ballet to enjoy their performance of the “Nutcracker” ballet. If so, you have only a couple of days left to see it.

Thought Gallery, a very fine site with event info on a range of NYCity cultural topics, surprised us this season with a comprehensive list of more “Nutcracker” performances around town than you ever imagined. Who Knew?

Going Nuts: A Roundup of Nutcracker Ballet Performances in NYC
By Troy Segal

“A FINELY AGED NUT Many a native NY-er has grown up with New York City Ballet founder George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, a holiday tradition since its debut in 1954. Balanchine based his version on the productions he himself danced in as a child in Russia. Act I serves up the spectacle: a rambunctious holiday party and an epic battle between the armies of the Nutcracker Prince and the multi-headed Mouse King. Act II is devoted to displays of dancing virtuosity by waltzing flowers, jumping candy canes and little clowns that emerge from a lady’s hoopskirt. Nov. 28–Jan. 3.

RED HOT If ballet ever merged with burlesque, the result might be something like Nutcracker Rouge. This strictly-for-grownups version—by Company XIV, which loves to mash up music, Baroque dance and texts and acrobatics—has Marie (not so much a little girl as a nubile young thing) embarking on a discovery of the sweet things in life—and we’re not talking candy canes. The classically trained dancers pose, pirouette and gyrate to the Tchaikovsky’s greatest hits, as well as Madonna’s (we said it was a mash-up, didn’t we?). If you like your hot chocolate with a little spice, this is for you. Through Jan. 4.”

Fini – for these others you must wait until next year to satisfy your Nutcracker craving:

OLDE NEW YORK Every troupe gives The Nutcracker its own twist, but The Yorkville Nutcracker imparts an especially Gothamesque stamp to the ballet. Set in 1895, this version uses actual people and settings of the period: The children’s party is held in Gracie Mansion; the heroine is the daughter of Mayor William Strong; and she and her Nutcracker Prince ride a sleigh to Central Park and to the New York Botanical Garden in The Bronx. Yorkville is the brainchild of Francis Patrelle, founding choreographer ofDances Patrelle, a small troupe dedicated to dramatic and narrative dance. Its performers range from ballet students to principals from other companies, including New York City Ballet’s Abi Stafford and Adrian Danchig-Waring as the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier this year. Dec. 4–7.

A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN Returning for the last time to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s version of The Nutcracker takes a dramatic approach to the often-saccharine classic: “The Waltz of the Snowflakes,” for example, turns into a nearly fatal blizzard for our heroine Clara, and the Sugar Plum Fairy is explicitly a projection of her desire to be all grown up, rather than just the usual showy anonymous ballerina role. Not that there aren’t plenty of sweet moments, too, from the adorable baby mouse to the magically expanding Christmas tree to the dazzling turns by American Ballet Theatre’s artists. Dec. 12–21.

DANCING IN THE STREETS In contrast to the productions above, The Knickerbocker Suite unfolds the familiar story in modern-day NYC. Those swirling snowflakes turn into shoppers, waltzing in and out of Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s; Mother Ginger, traditionally a lady whose skirts house hidden little dancers, becomes the Statue of Liberty leading a host of immigrants. The concepts are as fresh as the cast, all students of Manhattan Youth Ballet. Dec. 12–14 & 19–21.

TINY BUT TASTY The New York Theatre Ballet is a chamber dance company specializing in streamlined stories for the littlest balletomanes. Its version, dubbed Keith Michael’s The Nutcracker (after is its resident choreographer) and set in an Art Nouveau world, runs only an hour, but packs in all the big turns, using its small cast in ingenious ways and with witty fashions (the Metropolitan Opera’s resident costume designer did the garments). Dec. 19–21.

(Troy Segal-ThoughtGallery.org)