Today’s Elite 8 NYC Events > WEDNESDAY/ JULY 17, 2019

“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, check the tab above:  “July NYC Events”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.
OR to make your own after dinner plans TONIGHT, see the tab above;  “LiveMusic.”

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

CARLY RAE JEPSEN (July 17-18)
at the Hammerstein Ballroom / 8 p.m.; $36+
“In an age of maximalism and overexposure, Carly Rae Jepsen oozes earnestness and small-grain sentimentality. These qualities are not the stock in trade for your average star these days, but they have made her one of the most versatile — and seemingly guileless — figures in pop music. At the Hammerstein she celebrates the release of “Dedicated,” her fourth album, which shows that she’s only broadened her scope since its widely acclaimed predecessor, “Emotion” (2015). On the new record, she ranges from lovesick electro-soul (“Julien”) to singalong, reverb-drenched splendor (“Want You in My Room”).” (NYT-Giovanni Russonello)

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7 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> Ken Peplowski Quintet: The Legacy of Tram
>> MERCE CUNNINGHAM: SUMMERCOOL
>> The Magic Flute
>> RYAN KEBERLE AND CATHARSIS
>> Maria Kochetkova
>> Steve Smith’s Groove Blue Organ Trio
>> Blockchain: Stephen Williams

You may want to look at previous days posts for events that continue through today.

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Music, Dance, Performing Art

Ken Peplowski Quintet: The Legacy of Tram
Dizzy’s Club / 7:30PM, $?
Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame Celebration
“The votes are in, and now it’s time to celebrate the 2019 Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame inductees! Night two of this year’s festivities kicks off with Ken Peplowski paying tribute to the great Frank Trumbauer. Ken Peplowski is a clarinetist and saxophonist cherished for keeping the fire bright in traditional jazz and swing styles. Always with a group of expert swing stylists, he performs vivacious and virtuosic arrangements of classic, early jazz. Though the music is timeless, it’s rare and rewarding to experience renditions that so deftly balance authenticity with individuality.

Tonight he’ll be honoring saxophone genius Frank Trumbauer, the nonpareil master of the C Melody saxophone who, famously in collaboration with Bix Beiderbecke, mastered a singing lyrical line that set the gold standard for the jazz ballad. Peplowski is here for one set only, so don’t miss out!”

MERCE CUNNINGHAM: SUMMERCOOL
at Rumsey Playfield / 8 p.m.; FREE
“The choreographer is the subject of another tribute in his centennial year. On Wednesday, SummerStage unveils a program put together by Catherine Tharin of the 92nd Street Y. Along with a selection of solos and duets performed by Melissa Toogood, a former Cunningham company member, and Calvin Royal III, a soloist at American Ballet Theater, the A-Y/dancers, a repertory group, presents “A to Y MinEvent.” In addition, Stephen Petronio Company offers another showing of “Tread,” a sleek charmer from 1970. (NYT-Gia Kourlas)

The Magic Flute (July 17-20)
(New York production premiere)
NYS Theater, Lincoln Center / 7PM, $55
“Mozart’s beloved comedic opera is richly reimagined by director Barrie Kosky and British theater group 1927, resulting in a spectacular kaleidoscope of 1920s silent films, Weimar cabaret, and the dark whimsy of fairy tales. A stellar cast from Komische Oper Berlin interacts with vividly rendered animated projections in a live fantasia that pays audaciously delightful homage to the power of love, the birth of the movies, and the pioneering genius of Mozart.”

RYAN KEBERLE AND CATHARSIS
at Jazz Standard / 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.; $30
“This trombonist and composer is celebrating the release of a fine new album, “The Hope I Hold,” featuring his long-running combo, Catharsis. Over the past five-plus years he has steadily expanded this group’s instrumentation and palette: It now includes Scott Robinson on saxophone and various other horns; Camila Meza on guitar and vocals; Jorge Roeder on bass; Eric Doob on drums; and Keberle on trombone, vocals, keyboards and synthesizers. On “Hope,” all those tones give the music a lovely, splayed-out energy, turning his sighing compositions into big, open canvases. At this concert, Matt Clohesy will fill in for Roeder.” (NYT-Giovanni Russonello)

Maria Kochetkova (July 16-21)
at the Joyce Theater / 7:30 p.m.; $55+ (may need to try another night)
“Maria Kochetkova is one of those can-do ballerinas with limitless technical capacities and boundless energy. In her eleven-year career at San Francisco Ballet, she danced everything from Petipa to William Forsythe and Wayne McGregor—always with rigor and style. For the past year, she has been freelancing. Now she has a project of her own, a program of new and recent works, called “Catch Her if You Can,” by a cluster of big names such as Forsythe, David Dawson, and Marco Goecke, which she will perform along with friends and colleagues, including Drew Jacoby and Sebastian Kloborg. In addition, the French dance-theatre choreographer Jérôme Bel has created a sort of mini-portrait of Kochetkova, the title of which, “Masha Machine,” references the nickname by which she is best known to dancers and fans alike.” (Marina Harss, NewYorker)

Steve Smith’s Groove Blue Organ Trio (July16-19)
Birdland / 8:30PM, +11PM, $30-$40
“The former drummer for arena-rock monolith Journey has traipsed through all varieties of funky music over the course of his storied career, playing with the likes of Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale, Stanley Clarke and even Mariah Carey. Here Smith turns up with a hard-grooving trio to demonstrate his muscular chops in jazz-rock workouts and Buddy Rich–inspired jazz blasts.” (TONY)

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Smart Stuff / Other NYC EventS

Elsewhere, but this blockchain stuff is complicated, so this is us worth the detour:

Blockchain: Stephen Williams
McNally Jackson Williamsburg, 76 N. 4th St./ 7PM, FREE
“Demystify blockchain with author Stephen P. Williams, whose new book argues that the technology will transform our society as dramatically as the internet has. Learn the difference between Bitcoin and blockchain and the radical applications the latter is fueling.” (ThoughtGallery)

Continuing Events

“Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival will run from July 10 through August 10, 2019. Harnessing Mozart’s innovative spirit as its inspiration, this edition will feature groundbreaking, multidisciplinary, international productions and acclaimed artists from a variety of genres, introducing the audience to emerging creative voices, commissions and premieres.  The program will include performances from Mark Morris Dance Company, a panel discussion on Mozart’s Magic Flute, a screening of the film The Great Buster: A Celebration, and much more. For a full festival lineup, visit the Mostly Mozart Festival event page.” (nyc-arts.org)

NYC Restaurant Week 2019:
Start making your reservations.

“The more than three-week-long promotion featuring two-course lunches ($26) and three-course dinners ($42) at some of the city’s best restaurants is back for its summer edition starting July 22. This time around, the celebration features prix-fixe meals at more than 380 eateries, with deals through Aug. 16.

You can find links to menus and the restaurants involved here, but check out our picks for some of the most enticing deals below.” (amNY)

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COMING SOON (WFUV)

7/17 Okkervil River, City Winery
7/17 Aimee Mann, Music Hall of Williamsburg
more tomorrow.

♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, plus dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.6 million, had a record 65 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2018 – awesome! BUT quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just earlier on the day of performance.
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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)

‘SCENES FROM THE COLLECTION’

“After a surgical renovation to its grand pile on Fifth Avenue, the Jewish Museum has reopened its third-floor galleries with a rethought and refreshed display of its permanent collection, which intermingles modern and contemporary art, by Jews and gentiles alike — Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, and the excellent young Nigerian draftswoman Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze — with 4,000 years of Judaica. The works are shown in a nimble, non-chronological suite of galleries, and some of its century-spanning juxtapositions are bracing; others feel reductive, even dilletantish. But always, the Jewish Museum conceives of art and religion as interlocking elements of a story of civilization, commendably open to new influences and new interpretations.” (Farago) 212-423-3200, thejewishmuseum.org

Museum of the City of New York

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)

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

“In Praise of Painting” (thru Oct.4, 2020)

“How great are the Met’s holdings in the Dutch golden age? Very. This long-term installation rings the lower level of the Lehman Wing with scores of lesser-known gems from the mid-seventeenth century, many of them rarely on view before, amid masterworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Ruisdael. The period, vivified here, began in 1648, when the end of the Eighty Years’ War with Spain brought a boom in wealth and morale, expressed by genre paintings that exalt the national ideal of gezelligheid—social warmth, comfort, belonging. A key figure was Gerard ter Borch, who had travelled widely and worked at the court of Philip IV, in company with Velázquez. Ter Borch’s lustrous, ineffably witty domestic scenes inspired a generation of masters, notably Vermeer, whose genius rather eclipsed his elder’s. The pictures often star ter Borch’s younger sister Gesina, preening in satins or enigmatically musing. Herself a painter, she is cutely funny-looking—pointy nose, weak chin—and desperately lovable. There’s much to be said for a world with such a family in it.” (Peter Schjeldahl, NewYorker)

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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) for NewYorkers

Although technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection (closed Mon) (Wed 2-6pm PWYW; First Friday each month (exc Jan+Sep) 6-9pm FREE) 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 07/15 and 07/13.
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Bonus Live Music  – NYC Jazz Clubs:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. My favorite Jazz Clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide, feature top talent every night of the week.
Hit the Hot Link and check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(4 are underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 are within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. So., villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037 (1st 8:30)
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592 (1st set 8pm)
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883 (1st 7pm)
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346 (1st 8)
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346 (1st set 7:30pm)
The Stone at The New School – 55 w13 St. (btw 6/5 ave) – thestonenyc.com (8:30PM)

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595 (1st set 7:30pm)
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080 (1st 8:30pm)
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com/ 212-864-6662 (7pm)
Jazz Standard – 116 E27 St. (btw Park/Lex) – jazzstandard.com – (1st set 7:30)

For a comprehensive list of the best places to hear All Types of Live Music in Manhattan see the tab above “LiveMusic.”

In Memoriam:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538 (1st 7pm)
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprised with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It was my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.
Alas, Caffe V is no more, another victim of a rapacious NYC landlord. Owner Ishrat fought the good fight and Caffe V will be sorely missed.
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319
And more recently we have lost Cornelia Street Cafe. After 41 years, it too became another victim of an unreasonable rent increase.

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