Today’s Elite 8 NYC Events > SUNDAY/ AUGUST 04, 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:  “August 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.”

==========================================================

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

Ben Wolfe Quintet featuring Randy Brecker and Warren Wolf
Dizzy’s Club / 7:30PM, +9:30PM, $40
Ben Wolfe is a bassist and composer who “swings with authority,” according to Wynton Marsalis.Wolfe’s annual return to Dizzy’s Club is always an anticipated occasion, and his shows this year will be extra special, serving as a combined birthday and album release celebration. From August 1–4, Wolfe will give audiences exclusive access to his upcoming album, Fatherhood, set for release on August 30.

Special guests include trumpet icon Randy Brecker (8/1-8/3), a six-time Grammy Award winner as a bandleader, and Warren Wolf, one of the leading voices on the vibraphone and protégé of the all-time great Bobby Hutcherson. The entire lineup is outstanding, and anyone interested in contemporary jazz should make sure to catch at least one of these sets.”

======================================================

7 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> The New York Musical Festival 2019
>> Freddie Falls in Love – Al Blackstone
>> Avishai Cohen Trio
>> Hong Kong Dragon Boat Race
>> NYAFAIR • TriBeCa’s Contemporary Art Fair
>> More coming soon.

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

=======================================================

Music, Dance, Performing Art

MORE COMING SOON.

The New York Musical Festival 2019 (LAST DAY)
Tonight: Closing Night Celebration
Sony Hall / 9:30; $30
“NYMFomaniacs, rejoice! The impressive annual feast of new musical theater takes over multiple venues on 42nd Street for its 16th annual edition. Selections include 30 productions, readings, concerts and other events. Among the full stagings: Riley Thomas’s My Real Mother, about the bond between a birth mother and the women who adopts her child; Cordelia O’Driscoll and Tom Williams’s Buried, a romantic comedy about serial killers; Leo Schwartz and DC Cathro’s Till, about the murder of a black teenager in 1955; and Yuri Worontschak and Paul Western-Pittard’s Illuminati Lizards from Outer Space, about exactly what it sounds like it’s about. Buried treasure could lie anywhere, so dig around.” (TONY)

Freddie Falls in Love – Al Blackstone (LAST DAY).
at the Joyce Theater / 2PM; $50+
“Dance as long-form narrative storytelling tends to be the domain of ballet and Broadway, but Blackstone brings it to the contemporary dance stage in his Joyce debut, “Freddie Falls in Love.” Blackstone, known for his choreography in “So You Think You Can Dance,” infuses his work with humor, theatrical flair and sharp technique — a combo that has earned him many fans. Here, his wordless tale about two people losing and finding love proves an entertaining journey, thanks to his brisk staging and charming performances by the Broadway alumni Melanie Moore and Matt Doyle, as well as a stellar ensemble.” (NYT)

Avishai Cohen Trio (Aug.1-4)
Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St./ 8PM, +10:30PM, $20-$35
“Avishai Cohen, the Israeli bassist (not the fine Israeli trumpeter of the same name), has been drawing attention as a first-rank instrumentalist since he began associating with Chick Corea, in the late nineties. As a leader of his own small, inquisitive groups, Cohen aligns his superlative gifts with those of topnotch players; here, he reunites with a 2008 trio that featured the pianist Shai Maestro and the drummer Mark Guiliana, two questing improvisers who have since gone on to individual acclaim.” (Steve Futterman, NewYorker)

=========================================================

Smart Stuff / Other NYC EventS

Hong Kong Dragon Boat Race (Aug.3-4)
Attend an ancient dragon festival
Flushing Meadows Park/ 9AM-5PM; FREE
“The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Race — now in its 29th year in New York City — honors the story of Qu Yuan, an exiled poet and activist who drowned himself in 278 B.C. Legend (and the event page) has it that the local fishermen, in an attempt to save the poet, raced into the river, throwing rice into the water as an offering. On the days of the Dragon Boat Festival, you can snack on dumplings, watch over 120 dragon boats race across the lake, and see music and dance performances.” (thrillist)

GD: Great food and drink, especially the bubble tea.

NYAFAIR • TriBeCa’s Contemporary Art Fair (Aug.2-4)
NYA Art Center, 7 Franklin Place / 12-6PM, FREE
“Head downtown to check out this four-day fest that spans the NYA Gallery and features works from more than 100 artists and spanning several types of media.” (amNY)

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)

MM

===================================================

COMING SOON (WFUV)

8/4 Corinne Bailey Rae, Jose James and more, SummerStage Central Park
8/6 Mac DeMarco, Celerate Brooklyn
8/6 Keane, Bowery Ballroom
8/7 Chuck Leavell, The Gramercy Theatre

♦ 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.
================================================================================

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)

===========================================================
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).
==============================================================
For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar dated 08/02 and 07/31.
============================================================

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.

=======================================================