Makaya McCraven is a prolific drummer, composer, and producer. His newest album, In These Times, is the triumphant finale of a project seven-plus years in the making. It’s a preeminent addition to his already-acclaimed and extensive discography, and it’s the album he’s been trying to make since he started making records.
SpiralPhonics isn’t burdened by the long-cast shadows of guitar/sax/drum trios that have contributed to the lineage of creative music. In fact, with each twist and turn, these guys challenge your own lens of expectation.
Crosstown Arts presents The Bad Plus & Marc Ribot and the Jazz Bins at Crosstown Theater.
SHEENA, a show curated and performed by Nubia Yasin, begs the question “What would make the pain of transformation desirable?” With a blend of original poetry and music, Yasin tells the story of her own transition from girlhood to womanhood against a backdrop of deep rooted shame. By walking through her own shame, she aims to allow the audience a chance to shine a light into their darkest corners, and say to what lives there “I see you. I don’t hate you.”
Amrita “Ami” Kaur Dang is a South Asian-American vocalist, sitarist, composer and producer from Baltimore. Her sound blends elements of North Indian classical, noise/ambient electronics, beat-driven psych and experimental dance pop. The work references her hybrid identity as a first-generation South Asian-American, Sikh upbringing, musical education, as well as the chaos and spirituality of the landscapes of both Baltimore and urban India.
With guitar, fiddle, button-box, banjo, harmonicas, rhythm-bones, and Willi's booming baritone, this is bonafide populist folk music in the tradition of cowboys, frontier fiddlers, and tall-tale tellers. Carlisle recognizes that the only thing holding us back from greatness is each other. With a quick wit and big sing-alongs, these folksongs bring us a step closer to breaking down our divides.
Saxophonist, multi-reedist, and composer Gregory Tardy is one of the most versatile jazz musicians of his generation, equally comfortable in a variety of musical and improvisational situations. He has recorded fourteen CDs under his own name, blending his love of traditional jazz with a more modern seeking style. His latest project, If Time Could Stand Still, was released in the fall of 2020 on WJ3 Records.
The father of video art and coiner of the term “electronic superhighway,” Nam June Paik was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Director Amanda Kim tells the remarkable story of Paik as a citizen of the world and trailblazing artist, who both saw the present and predicted the future with astonishing clairvoyance.
For this month’s MicroCinema, Indie Memphis and Crosstown Arts are ecstatic to have partnered with IF/Then Shorts to present an array of incredible, often touching documentary shorts from filmmakers throughout the South. We’re glad to be able to include in this program a preview screening of Zaire Love’s SLICE, which was a part of the 2021 IF/Then + Hulu Short Documentary Lab and the recipient of the 2020 Black Creators Forum Short Film Grant!
Like a quasar burning past the gaslight, director Lisa Cortés’ eye-opening documentary explodes the whitewashed canon of American pop music. Little Richard: I Am Everything shines a clarifying light on the Black, queer origins of rock ’n’ roll, and establishes the genre’s big bang: Richard Wayne Penniman.
Crosstown Arts announces its spring 2023 arts programming — “Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Seas” by McLean Fahnestock, “Edgewise: Exploring Pattern and Rhythm with Line” by Khara Woods, “Entrances, Exits and the Spaces Betwixt” by Tangela Mathis, and “Color Thread” by Carl Fox.
The opening reception is scheduled for Friday, April 21, 6-8 p.m. The exhibitions run from Saturday, April 22, through Sunday, August 6.
Art rockers from Chicago, NOHMADS weave layers of noir, sludge, and pop to create their unique sound, combining songs, spoken word, and visual elements to tell stories. The band's debut LP, Chartreuse, contains seven original tracks. Soaring guitars, dynamic percussion, and haunting vocal harmonies escort the listener on a ride through everyday silenced small town dramas, into murky backwoods of past lives, and along hopeful deserted dream landscapes.
Join Grammy-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum for Kafé Kirk, an ongoing jazz series in Crosstown Theater featuring musical and spiritual collaborations with special guest artists. This iteration’s performance will feature jazz singer Jazzmeia Horn.
John Cassavetes’ hymn to that berserk business of performing, Opening Night is enhanced by its intense “old Hollywood” pedigree as Ben Gazzara, John Blondell, Paul Stewart and Cassavetes himself are the backing band for Rowlands’ knife-edged soloing.
Gareth Pearson is referred to as “The Welsh Tornado” which is particularly appropriate, seeing as this special talent combines fingerstyle pyrotechnics, with explosive lead runs making Pearson one of the most exciting acoustic musicians gigging today.
The Mahogany Chamber Music Series is a series of three chamber music concerts curated by Dr. Artina McCain, spotlighting Black and other underrepresented composers and performers.
