Today’s “Fab 5″/ Selected NYCity Events – FRIDAY, APR. 03, 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.”

Tom Harrell Quintet with Ambrose Akinmusire   —  
Jazz    (8:30pm)   (10:30pm)   

New York International Auto Show  —   Special Event    (10am-10pm)

Chelsea Nights Concert Series  —  Pop / Rock    (7pm)

Ethics and the Film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”  —  
SmartStuff/ Film Discussion    (7pm)

Benjamin Booker   —  Pop / Rock    (9pm)     

For other useful and curated NYCity event info for Manhattan’s WestSide:

♦ “9 Notable Events-Mar.”, 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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Tom Harrell Quintet with Ambrose Akinmusire (through Sunday)
“At 68, Tom Harrell—whose early years with Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and Mel Lewis signify the last gasp of the big band era—has firmly established himself as a composer whose tunes are as much worth hearing as his playing; Last year’s “Trip” is loaded with inspired, harmonically rich melodic lines, from the dark, heavy bass vamp on “Sunday” that starts the album to the intriguing waltz figure that drives “The Duke and Duchess” a few tracks later. Ambrose Akinmusire’s presence should drive the quintet even deeper into the realms of the unexpected, since we haven’t heard Mr. Harrell in a two-trumpet lineup in many a season.” (WSJ)
Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village,
At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. / $30
212-255-4037, villagevanguard.com.

New York International Auto Show (through April 12)
“This event, which bills itself as the largest automobile show in North America, comes to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center to showcase concept vehicles, models planned for 2016 and 2017, and special exhibitions. The show takes place over multiple floor levels and includes a food court.” (NYT)

“The show will be previewing over 60 new car and truck models, including the all-new Chevrolet Malibu, Jaguar XE S, Aston Martin Vulcan and McLaren 675LT. The Fire Department of New York City is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year by bringing vintage and modern fire trucks to the show for a special exhibit. The West Point Band will perform live every day of the show (except Sundays) on the North Concourse at 2 p.m.” (dnnainfo.com)
More information, along with the schedule, is at autoshowny.com.
Javits Center, 655 W. 34th St., (at 11th ave), Chelsea.
10 a.m. to 10 p.m. $16
212-216-2000.

Chelsea Nights Concert Series
Started this February, the halls of Chelsea Market on the first Friday of every month host a live concert featuring local artists and presented to you by Brooklyn’s own Paper Garden Records!  Tonight: Dawn Landes, Mree, The City and Horses

Alongside the High Line, this is one classy market with all kinds of food and wine. Their artisanal cheese delicacies and fresh lobster rolls make this a personal favorite. And now the music is a wonderful bonus. When the weather is nice, a stroll on the High Line is a great finish.
The Chelsea Market, 75 9th Ave. (btw 15/16 St.)
7PM, first Fri. of every month / FREE
chelseamarket.com

Ethics and the Film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956)
Moderator: Chris Everett
“In this classic (although low-budget) science-fiction thriller, emotionless aliens from outer space are using large seed pods to duplicate human bodies and take them over. While rekindling an old romance, a small-town physician discovers the pods, and soon he and his girlfriend realize that the aliens have targeted them for takeover. Directed by Don Siegel. A discussion follows the film.” (ThoughtGallery.org)
New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 W. 64th St.
7:00 pm – 9:30 pm / $5 suggested donation includes snacks and beverages
212-874-5210

Elsewhere, but this looks worth the short detour:
Benjamin Booker
“Violent Shiver” is a fitting name for the first song on Benjamin Booker’s self-titled debut, which bristles and stomps through a raw assemblage of blues, boogie and garage-rock. The sound takes guitar as its starting point and then spins in numerous different directions from there, with evocations of everything from old Stax records from the ’60s, grunge from the ’90s and the propulsive pop drive of the Strokes. Mr. Booker, based in New Orleans, sings in a consistently battered manner, with an impressive capacity to shout in key and keep the words going while his hands fret and strum like mad. Opening act Olivia Jean is a Nashville-based rocker with a debut album, “Bathtub Love Killings,” out on Jack White’s label Third Man Records.” (WSJ)
Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 N. Sixth St., Brooklyn
800-745-3000; 718-486-5400 / musichallofwilliamsburg.com
9 p.m. /
this is not Manhattan’s WestSide, but it is Brooklyn’s WestSide.
subway: #1-2-3 to 14th St.; transfer to L to Bedford St., (1st stop in Bklyn).
short walk to venue – 2.5 blks West on N 6th St.xx

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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, with a population of  8.4 million, had a record 56 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2015.  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
My Fave Special Exhibitions – MUSEUMS / Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue
(See the New York Times Arts Section for listings of all museum exhibitions,
and also see the expanded reviews of these exhibitions)

Metropolitan Museum of Art:
‘Reimagining Modernism: 1900-1950’ (continuing)
One of the greatest encyclopedic museums in the world fulfills its mission a little more with an ambitious reinstallation of works of early European modernism with their American counterparts for the first time in nearly 30 years. Objects of design and paintings by a few self-taught artists further the integration. It is quite a sight, with interesting rotations and fine-tunings to come. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org.” (Smith)

‘Ennion: Master of Roman Glass’ (through April 13)
“Active sometime between A.D. 1 and A.D. 50, Ennion is the first known artisan to produce mold-blown glass: objects made by blowing bubbles of molten glass into patterned molds. His elegant cups, bowls, beakers, jugs and flasks decorated with geometric and botanical motifs were sought after by wealthy Romans and traded throughout the Mediterranean world. Today only about 50 to 55 Ennion pieces are known to have survived. This exhibition presents 22 of them, along with fragments of two others. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org.” (Johnson)

‘Thomas Hart Benton’s “America Today” Mural Rediscovered’ (through April 19)
The prickly American Regionalist Thomas Hart Benton had his share of detractors. But even they would probably acknowledge that his early mural “America Today” is the best of its kind, a raucous, cartwheeling, wide-angle look at 1920s America that set the standard for the Works Progress Administration’s mural program and has remained a New York City treasure. Now installed at the Met in a reconstruction of its original setting (a boardroom at the New School for Social Research), it captivates with period details (from the cut of a flapper gown to the mechanics of a blast furnace) and timely signs of socioeconomic and environmental distress (exhausted coal miners and hands reaching for coffee and bread). 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Rosenberg)

Neue Galerie:
‘Egon Schiele: Portraits’ (through April 20)
“Of the approximately 125 items in this terrific show, there are only 11 oil paintings, which is a good thing. Except for a large picture of his wife, Edith, in a colorful striped dress, Schiele’s works on canvas are dark and turgid. But his drawings are nimble and nuanced. Working on paper with pencil, charcoal, ink, gouache, watercolor and crayons, he portrayed himself and others with infectious avidity. There’s hardly a single sheet here that doesn’t warrant close looking for its virtuoso draftsmanship and psychological acuity. 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street, 212-628-6200, neuegalerie.org. “(Johnson)

Guggenheim Museum:
Guggenheim Museum: ‘On Kawara — Silence’ (through May 3)
The first retrospective of this Conceptual Art giant turns the museum’s spiral into a vortex suffused with the consciousness of time, life’s supreme ruler, in all its quotidian daily unfoldings, historical events and almost incomprehensible grandeur. The presentation of date paintings, “I Got Up” postcards and “I AM Still Alive” telegrams echoes Mr. Kawara’s exquisite sense of discipline and craft. This is an extraordinary tribute. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, 212-423-3500, guggenheim.org. (Smith)

Kandinsky Before Abstraction, 1901–1911 (through spring 2015)
Early in his career Vasily Kandinsky experimented with printmaking, produced brightly-colored landscapes of the German countryside, and explored recognizable and recurrent motifs. This intimate exhibition drawn from the Guggenheim collection explores the artist’s representational origins.

Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (continuing):
The stately doors of the 1902 Andrew Carnegie mansion, home to the Cooper Hewitt, are open again after an overhaul and expansion of the premises. Historic house and modern museum have always made an awkward fit, a standoff between preservation and innovation, and the problem remains, but the renovation has brought a wide-open new gallery space, a cafe and a raft of be-your-own-designer digital enhancements. Best of all, more of the museum’s vast permanent collection is now on view, including an Op Art weaving, miniature spiral staircases, ballistic face masks and a dainty enameled 18th-century version of a Swiss knife. Like design itself, this institution is built on tumult and friction, and you feel it. 2 East 91st Street, at Fifth Avenue, 212-849-8400, cooperhewitt.org. (Cotter)

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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 dated 04/01 and 03/30.