Today’s Super 7  NYC Events > SATURDAY/ AUGUST 26, 2017

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events be sure to check the tab above: “Notable NYC Events-August”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you’ll find anywhere.

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

CHARLIE PARKER JAZZ FESTIVAL
“This yearly festival, celebrating its 25th anniversary through Sunday, is free, outdoors and judiciously programmed, with an emphasis on both blues tradition and diffuse innovation: basically, something close to the Platonic ideal of jazz festivals. It culminates this weekend, with concerts on Friday night and Saturday afternoon in Marcus Garvey Park, in Harlem, then an afternoon program on Sunday,downtown in Tompkins Square Park. Friday’s headliner is the Anat Cohen Tentet. On Saturday, the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, the drummers Terri Lyne Carrington and Louis Hayes, and the vocalist Charenee Wade all lead groups. Sunday’s show features the saxophonists Joshua Redman, Lou Donaldson and Tia Fuller, as well as the vocalist Alicia Olatuja.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

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6 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)

>>DAFNIS PRIETO BIG BAND
>>SHABAKA HUTCHINGS, MOSES BOYD EXODUS AND NATIVE DANCER
>>TRIO DA PAZ AND FRIENDS
>>Songbook Summit
>>Art Wars! The Founding of the Met, MoMA and the Whitney
>>Ready Yourself for Battle!
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Music, Dance, Performing Arts

DAFNIS PRIETO BIG BAND (Aug. 25-27)
at Jazz Standard / 7:30 and 9:30PM, $30
“Mr. Prieto, a buoyant drummer, writes music that lends an illusion of constant expansion to even the smallest ensembles. Whether he’s playing with a trio, a quartet or a slightly bigger band, he’s always assembling and realigning his components, pushing into new directions and adding layers without bogging things down. Until now, he’s never led a big band, but it’s easy to see why the challenge would appeal to him. These shows will be the first for this 17-piece band, which includes the remarkable saxophonists Roman Filiu and Chris Cheek, the pianist Manuel Valera, and the percussionist Roberto Quintero.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Elsewhere,  but this one looks worth the detour:
SHABAKA HUTCHINGS, MOSES BOYD EXODUS AND NATIVE DANCER
at Baby’s All Right, 146 Broadway, Brooklyn / 10PM, $
“London’s jazz scene is on a hard upswing, experiencing a renaissance similar to the one underway in Los Angeles: Young musicians of diverse backgrounds are swimming in all sorts of new directions, drawing on the music of the Caribbean, Indian classical, halcyon jazz, house music and grime. A lot of this artistic growth has been fostered by Jazz Re:freshed, an organization based in West London that has presented concerts since 2003. It’s responsible for this showcase, featuring three leading names in British jazz’s new wave: the saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, leading a trio; the drummer Moses Boyd’s band, Exodus; and Native Dancer, fronted by the vocalist Frida Mariama Toura. Saturday’s show, at Baby’s All Right, is an after party for the Afropunk music festival.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

TRIO DA PAZ AND FRIENDS (Aug. 15-20 and 22-27)
Dizzy’s Club / 7:30PM, +9:30PM, $40
“Trio Da Paz has been around for 31 years, and it’s held down a summer residency at Dizzy’s for the last 10. With Romero Lubambo on guitar, Nilson Matta on bass and Duduka Da Fonseca on drums, the group calls its music “samba jazz.” It’s not false advertising; the triumvirate is given to up-tempo excursions, high on friction — not the lilting bossa nova that you might expect from a Brazilian guitar trio. These comrades will find new angles of engagement over their two-week run, during which they will welcome various special guests on different nights, including the vocalist Maucha Adnet and the trumpeter Claudio Roditi.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Songbook Summit
59E59 Theaters,/ 7PM, $35
“It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely.
Will Anderson and Peter Anderson are identical twins who play the saxophone and clarinet. They will perform in a six-piece ensemble throughout August highlighting four great American composers: Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, and Richard Rodgers. The first week is Porter, so anything goes!

“Virtuosos on clarinet and saxophone,” (The New York Times) identical twins Peter & Will Anderson return to 59E59 Theaters by popular demand for a celebration of the great American Songbook. Shining the spotlight on the work of four of its most distinguished composers (one composer each week), a 6-piece ensemble featuring vocalist Molly Ryan will perform hits such as ‘Summertime’, ‘My Favorite Things’, ‘Night & Day’,’Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, and ‘Rhapsody in Blue’.
August 22 – 27: Richard Rodgers
Featuring ‘My Favorite Things’, ‘Blue Moon’, ‘My Funny Valentine’, ‘Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered’, ‘Blue Moon’, and more!

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures, Discussions, Book Talks, Literary Readings, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

Art Wars! The Founding of the Met, MoMA and the Whitney with Deborah Zelcer
The Municipal Art Society of New York, 111 W. 57th St./11AM, $30
Walking tour of the Upper East Side’s Museum Mile
“Deborah Zelcer will show how the keepers of our first cultural collections defined art and decided what would or would not hang within their walls. Tour includes viewing and discussion of the exterior of the National Academy of Design, the Whitney Museum uptown, the landmarked Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums, and details about their newer incarnations. And, learn about how our government secretly manipulated the art world for political gain worldwide…” (ThoughtGallery.org)

Elsewhere, but this looks worth the detour:

Ready Yourself for Battle!
Green-Wood Cemetery, 500 25th St., Brooklyn / 7PM, $25
“Mark the 241st anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn with a truly revolutionary night. Amidst the glow of campfires Brooklyn Contra will lead dance demonstrations to festive music, along with storytellers regaling with tales of battles won and lost, musical interludes by the duo Charming Disaster, and a sampling of delicious beverages (for all those over 21 years old). Brews to refresh you throughout the evening are generously donated by Lagunitas Brewing Company.

Fought on August 27, 1776 across Brooklyn, including land that is now part of Green-Wood Cemetery, the Battle of Brooklyn was the first battle of the American Revolution to be waged after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In terms of the total number of British and American troops poised and ready to fight, this was the largest battle of the Revolution.” (ThoughtGallery.org)

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Bonus NYC events– Jazz Clubs:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. Here are my favorite Jazz clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(5 are underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 are within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. South, villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com / 212-864-6662

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

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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  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017.  Quality shows draw crowds.
Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just on day of performance.

NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

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WHAT’S ON VIEW
These are 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)

Museum of the City of New York
‘A CITY SEEN: TODD WEBB’S POSTWAR NEW YORK, 1945­-1960’ (thru Sept.04)
“Webb, a Detroit native who lost his money in the 1929 crash, served as a Navy photographer during World War II. His first major solo exhibition, “I See a City,” opened at the Museum of the City of New York in September 1946. Now the museum is putting the photographer, who died in 2000, in the spotlight again with more than 100 of his pictures of the city, including this shot of 125th Street in Harlem in 1946.
WHEN | WHERE Through Sept. 4, at the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave.
INFO $18; 212­534­1672, mcny.org ­­ (STAV ZIV-Newsday)

NY AT ITS CORE (ongoing)
“Ten years in the making, New York at Its Core tells the compelling story of New York’s rise from a striving Dutch village to today’s “Capital of the World.” The exhibition captures the human energy that drove New York to become a city like no other and a subject of fascination the world over. Entertaining, inspiring, important, and at times bemusing, New York City “big personalities,” including Alexander Hamilton, Walt Whitman, Boss Tweed, Emma Goldman, JP Morgan, Fiorello La Guardia, Jane Jacobs, Jay-Z, and dozens more, parade through the exhibition. Visitors will also learn the stories of lesser-known New York personalities, like Lenape chieftain Penhawitz and Italian immigrant Susie Rocco. Even animals like the horse, the pig, the beaver, and the oyster, which played pivotal roles in the economy and daily life of New York, get their moment in the historical spotlight. Occupying the entire first floor in three interactive galleries (Port City, 1609-1898, World City, 1898-2012, and Future City Lab) New York at Its Core is shaped by four themes: money, density, diversity, and creativity. Together, they provide a lens for examining the character of the city, and underlie the modern global metropolis we know today. mcny.org” (NYCity Guide)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum  (now-9/6/17)
“This newest show, Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim, provides a rare chance to explore in-depth some of the key artists of this essential New York institution. Framed by the interests of six leading patrons, Visionaries brings together canvases from masters like Max Ernst, René Magritte, and Yves Tanguy, and sculptures by Joseph Cornell and Alberto Giacometti. In addition, Jackson Pollock’s Alchemy (1947) is being shown in the U.S. for the first time in nearly 50 years. More than a dozen works on paper by Picasso and Van Gogh, rarely on view to the public, can be seen in the Thannhauser Gallery, and paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin, and Édouard Manet are displayed on the museum’s legendary ramps.”

and you should be sure to check out the special exhibitions at that little museum on Fifth Ave., The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(open 7 days /week, AND always Pay What You Wish)

at the very least you will want to see these three:

‘REI KAWAKUBO/COMME DES GARÇONS: ART OF THE IN-BETWEEN’  (through Sept. 4). The latest Costume Institute extravaganza is a beautiful yet challenging plunge through nearly 40 years of innovation and increasingly unwearable garments from Rei Kawakubo, the great Japanese designer, and her Comme des Garçons label. A village of blazingly white structures encourages concentration. Look, look, look, it says, at the clothes, their fabrics, colors, shapes, shocks, quotations, details, exaggerations and parodies. Art, fashion or in between, Ms. Kawakubo’s creations bring us close to the unmistakable whir of artistic ambition. (NYT-Smith) 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org

‘CRISTÓBAL DE VILLALPANDO: MEXICAN PAINTER OF THE BAROQUE’  (through Oct. 15). In 1683, the leading painter of colonial Mexico painted a stupefying altarpiece for the cathedral of Puebla: a 26-foot showstopper that merged a radiant vision of Jesus’ transfiguration into light with a grimmer narrative of Israelites attacked by snakes. Now, for the first time ever, Villalpando’s altarpiece has left Mexico and stands alone in the Robert Lehman Collection wing of the Met, where you could spend days gaping at its churning collision of saints and mortals, and puzzling over the strange confluence of Old and New Testament visions. Compared with Baroque painting in Italy or Flanders, the Mexican version was lighter and less rigid, making use of bright color and free ornamentation. Ten other paintings by Villalpando, all but one lent from Mexican collections, round out the presentation, but it’s the altarpiece that matters, and it’s here for your veneration into the fall. (NYT-Farago) 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org

‘TALKING PICTURES: CAMERA-PHONE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN ARTISTS’  (through Dec. 17). One of the wisest, savviest museum exhibitions of the summer may not have much actual art in it, but it circles the subject like a satellite around a planet. Using prints, slide shows, books and iPads, it presents image-only camera-phone exchanges between 12 pairs of artists and is full of flashes of wit, poetry, even genius. Observers will find occasional momentous events, both personal and presidential. (NYT – Roberta Smith) 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org

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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Eight museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio (closed Sun-Mon)*
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York (open 7 days /week)
•  92nd Street – The Jewish Museum (closed Wed) (Sat FREE) (Thu 5-8 PWYW)
•  91st Street  –  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (open 7 days /week)
•  89th Street –  National Academy Museum (closed Mon-Tue)
•  88th Street –  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (closed Thu) (Sat 6-8 PWYW)
•  86th Street –  Neue Galerie New York (closed Tue-Wed) (Fri 6-8 FREE)
Last, but certainly not least, America’s premier museum
•  82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art (open 7 days /week)*
*always Pay What You Wish (PWYW)

Although technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection (closed Mon) (SUN 11am-1pm PWYW) on the corner of 70th St. and Fifth Avenue and the The Morgan Library & Museum (closed Mon) (Fri 7-9 FREE) on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave.
Now plan your own museum crawl (info on hours & admission updated June 2, 2015).
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar dated 08/24 and 08/22.
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