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Pop, Rock and Jazz in NYC This Week
Music
Our guide to pop and rock shows and the best of live jazz.
Pop
A CONCERT FOR ISLAND RELIEF at Radio City Music Hall (Jan. 6, 7 p.m.). As the Caribbean region continues its recovery from the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma, musicians are stepping up their relief efforts. A solo set by Dave Matthews and a performance by the Trey Anastasio Band — two modern jam-band masters, appearing without their usual troupes — are the main attractions at this all-star benefit concert for Puerto Rico and the United States and British Virgin Islands. But the most meaningful performance may come from Hurray for the Riff Raff, the band led by the Bronx-raised singer-songwriter Alynda Segarra, whose recent album, “The Navigator,” is a complex expression of Puerto Rican realness.
800-745-3000, concertforislandrelief.com
GUNN-TRUSCINSKI DUO at Union Pool (Jan. 9, 8 p.m.). This instrumental duo’s work is based on a simple idea: The guitarist Steve Gunn plays languid, dreamy notes while the drummer John Truscinski keeps an understated beat. The two musicians have found ample inspiration in this format, releasing three albums together, most recently the well-received “Bay Head” in late 2017. At the right time and in the right settings — including, perhaps, this Brooklyn date, free with RSVP — Mr. Gunn and Mr. Truscinski’s music is transportive.
union-pool.com
THE KILLERS at Barclays Center (Jan. 9, 8 p.m.). In an era short on arena-level rock ‘n’ roll heroes, the Killers perform a valuable service simply by continuing to exist. The group’s fifth album, “Wonderful Wonderful,” is a good example: It’s a fun listen, and it provides a welcome excuse for the band’s frontman, Brandon Flowers, to strut through a decade-plus of Killers hits at concerts like this one in Brooklyn.
917-618-6700, barclayscenter.com
LONG NECK at the Silent Barn (Jan. 5, 8 p.m.). Lily Mastrodimos, formerly of the archly named punk band Jawbreaker Reunion, shifted her focus to this new project around the same time the real Jawbreaker reunited after a 20-year split. The change has proved apt, giving Ms. Mastrodimos room to show off her honed skill as a songwriter. The jokey air of her previous group is gone on Long Neck’s new album, “Will This Do?,” due out later this month, and this performance at the Bushwick community arts space the Silent Barn is a good choice for fans of emotionally direct indie rock. With Coping Skills, Mallrat and Leia Campbell.
silentbarn.org
PURLING HISS at Sunnyvale (Jan. 11, 8 p.m.). Led by the laid-back guitarist Mike Polizze, a worthy adjunct of the Philadelphia psychedelic-rock scene led by Kurt Vile and the War on Drugs, this group specializes in pleasantly meandering jams with plenty of electric fuzz on top. It’s a sound that’s well suited to spaces like this neighborhood dive in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
877-987-6487, sunnyvalebk.com
RZA at City Winery (Jan. 5, 8 p.m.). One of the most innovative producers of the 1990s, the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA mined endless gold from dusty vinyl racks for the songs and albums he produced for the Clan and its many affiliates. His brilliant use of samples has made him an elder statesman to later rappers and producers like Kanye West, even as RZA himself has seemingly devoted more energy to acting than music. At this downtown show, he will perform alongside his longtime compatriot Inspectah Deck at a party for a new line of branded rolling papers (“100% organic, 100% Wu-Tang approved”).
212-608-0555 ext. 6023, citywinery.com
SIMON VOZICK-LEVINSON
Jazz
ORRIN EVANS SEXTET at the Jazz Standard (through Jan. 7, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). Mr. Evans’ career is going through big change: This 42-year-old pianist just joined the Bad Plus, a trio known for fusing forms and reframing jazz tropes. But Mr. Evans isn’t giving up his life as a postbop bandleader and a nurturer of young talent, especially in his hometown, Philadelphia. This run at the Jazz Standard should be a reminder of how distinctive and catalytic his voice has become in the world of straight-ahead jazz; his band here includes J. D. Allen and Bill McHenry on tenor saxophone, Ingrid Jensen on trumpet, James Genus on bass and Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums.
212-576-2232, jazzstandard.com
VIJAY IYER SEXTET at Birdland (Jan. 9-13, 8:30 and 11 p.m.). Mr. Iyer’s sextet was one of the most discussed stories in creative music last year, when it released a stalwart debut album, “Far From Over.” The group plays this pianist’s compositions, which cut and weave while maintaining solid structures, and build much of their energy around the jagged interplay of the three-horn front line. The sextet appears here with the lineup from the album: Graham Haynes on cornet, flugelhorn and electronics; Steve Lehman on alto saxophone; Mark Shim on tenor saxophone; Stephan Crump on bass; and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. (Marcus Gilmore takes Mr. Sorey’s place on Jan. 12 and 13.)
212-581-3080, birdlandjazz.com
AMIRTHA KIDAMBI AND SAM NEWSOME/JAMES BRANDON LEWIS AND ARUAN ORTIZ at the Clemente (Jan. 9, 7 p.m.). The vocalist Amirtha Kidambi, who frequently doubles on harmonium, takes a holistic approach to singing, which can mean treating every element as unfixed: Words can be opened up, rendered nonspecific. Melody can be repeated and frozen and stuck in place. Markings of rhythm can become utterly abstract, freed from cadence. She appears here in duo with Sam Newsome, a soprano saxophonist whose solo performances often deconstruct the workings of his own instrument in a similar way. Earlier in the evening, the tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and the pianist Aruan Ortiz — both prodigious experimenters — will also play in a duo. This concert is part of Arts for Art’s monthlong “Justice Is Compassion, Action Is Power” festival, which ends later in the week. artsforart.org/evolving
LEE KONITZ at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (Jan. 9-10, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). An early exponent of Lennie Tristano’s hybridized theory of improvising, Mr. Konitz cut a distinctive path on the alto saxophone in the 1940s and ’50s, when most others were tracing the footsteps of Charlie Parker. Last year Mr. Konitz celebrated his own 90th year with the release of a lovely quartet disc, “Frescalalto.” These shows at Dizzy’s — featuring the pianist Dan Tepfer and other members of Mr. Konitz’s inner circle — are a kind of belated birthday fête.
212-258-9595, jazz.org/dizzys
JOSÉ JAMES at Le Poisson Rouge (Jan. 11, 7 p.m.). Mr. James sometimes uses his sleepy baritone to boast, or to posture, or to console — typical soul singer stuff — but it’s hard to get lost in his singing. He’s a shy romantic, relativist and self-questioning and complex: Whether by design or not, it’s the uncertainty that makes his work interesting. His newest project is a tribute to Bill Withers, another singer whose music always seemed more defined by his internal life than by his public persona. Mr. James presents Mr. Withers’ music here with an expert quintet. The concert also includes sets from three acts with their own ideas about how to make dance music surprising: My Brightest Diamond, the No BS! Brass Band, and Knower.
212-505-3474, lpr.com
SAMORA PINDERHUGHES’S ‘THE TRANSFORMATIONS SUITE’ at Joe’s Pub (Jan. 7, 7 p.m.; Jan. 9 and 14, 9:30 p.m.). The young, Bay-Area-reared pianist Samora Pinderhughes released “The Transformations Suite” on CD in 2016, but ideally it belongs onstage. A work of protest and incantation, it mixes stout horn arrangements with fierce improvisations and radical poetry confronting the scourge of racial violence — physical and political — in the United States. At Joe’s Pub, Mr. Pinderhughes appears with a full band, adding film and theatrical performance to the mix.
212-967-7555, publictheater.org
JOSHUA REDMAN QUARTET at the Blue Note (Jan. 9-14, 8 and 10:30 p.m.). Mr. Redman’s place is secure as one of the most effusive and engaging tenor saxophonists in straight-ahead jazz. He appears here with three longtime compatriots — the pianist Aaron Goldberg, the bassist Reuben Rogers and the drummer Gregory Hutchinson — all well attuned to his language of elastic tenacity. 212-475-8592, bluenote.net
GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO
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