THENEWYORKER, NOVEMBER 4, 2019 9
ILLUSTRATION BY JAMIEL LAW
Rap music often finds its major hubs in bustling cities where business,
creativity, and culture thrive in unison. In the South, that’s historically
meant Houston, Miami, and Atlanta, but some of the region’s most gifted
lyricists hail from tiny towns: Big K.R.I.T., from Meridian, Mississippi, and
Rapsody, from Snow Hill, North Carolina, have emerged as quiet forces
within the genre. K.R.I.T.’s latest album, “K.R.I.T. IZ HERE,” situates
his country-fried rhymes against beats made of soul and bass; Rapsody’s
recent release “Eve” is a monument to black women—living and deceased,
fictional and historical—erected with her iron-sharpened tongue. Theirs
is hip-hop that eschews Dirty South rap tropes without sacrificing sonic
(and personal) identities that are still uniquely Southern. On Nov. 5, the
rappers bring their deep and multidimensional catalogues, along with a
generous dose of hospitality, to Webster Hall.—Briana Younger
HIP-HOP
poser and saxophonist to adapt his voluminous
musical output for multiple ensembles. One
such group, his Masada quartet—with Dave
Douglas, Greg Cohen, and Joey Baron—was an
acclaimed acoustic outfit that wired together
Jewish-themed music and free improvisation.
This updated version includes the guitarist
Julian Lage, the bassist Jorge Roeder, and
the drummer Kenny Wollesen.—S.F. (Oct.
29-Nov. 3.)
The Japanese House
Warsaw
Sometimes it sounds as though Amber Bain,
the English indie musician behind the delicate
dream-pop project the Japanese House, is
singing to her listeners from a distance. The
careful restraint of her voice is fitting; she
spent the beginning of her career releasing
music anonymously, and her work under the
Japanese House moniker is imbued with an
irresistible sheen of mystery. But on her new
album, “Good at Falling,” Bain sheds some of
her enigmatic layers to draw from her personal
experiences, particularly those dealing with
loss.—Julyssa Lopez (Oct. 30.)
Halloween Haunted Hop
Knockdown Center
Presented by the dance party New York Night
Train and its throwback d.j. Jonathan Toubin,
this annual bash taps into Halloween’s giddy,
mischievous energy with a series of uncorked
rock-and-roll acts. Chief among them are
the Make-Up, a revived Washington, D.C.,
band that stars the charismatic howler Ian
Svenonius, and Quintron & Miss Pussycat,
the rare rock act to incorporate puppetry.—Jay
Ruttenberg (Oct. 31.)
Len Faki
53 Scott Ave.
Subtle builds that swell into artful bombast
have long been the musical calling card of
Berghain, a legendary Berlin techno club—
which means they’re a signature sound of Len
Faki, one of Berghain’s longest-running resi-
dents. As a producer and a d.j., Faki specializes
in arrangements that unfold gradually, one in-
strument or element at a time, and break into
celebratory percussive bursts before re-stating
the groove and moving into another ascent.
That reverberant style should suit this Bush-
wick warehouse space perfectly.—Michaelan-
gelo Matos (Nov. 1.)
ECM Records at 50
Rose Theatre
Few recording labels are imprinted with the
vision of one creator as indelibly as ECM
Records has been with that of its founder,
Manfred Eicher, by now an iconic figure. Hav-
ing turned out more than a thousand jazz and
classical albums since its inception, in 1969,
ECM remains a blue-chip label. Though this
gala event concentrates on jazz artists, in-
cluding Bill Frisell, Jack DeJohnette, Wadada
Leo Smith, and Joe Lovano, such important
ringers as Egberto Gismonti and Meredith
Monk also take part.—S.F. (Nov. 1-2.)
Marc Anthony
Barclays Center
After growing up in the seventies and eighties
New York City scenes that bred today’s pop-
ular forms of salsa, Marc Anthony spent the
next three decades adapting the style into pop
music, which has won him two Grammys and
a Guinness World Record. The genre has lost
some of its mainstream magic in recent years,
and even a loyalist like Anthony has had to
dabble in new styles. But his heart remains
with salsa: his latest release, “Opus,” is an
ode to the sounds that made him a star.—J.L.
(Nov. 2.)
Cash and Cooder on Cash
Carnegie Hall
Few children of musical icons have managed to
sidestep their parent’s shadow with the grace
of Rosanne Cash; when you write songs as
well appointed as hers, nobody thinks about
parentage, Man in Black or not. Yet in recent
years she has increasingly grappled with her
father’s legacy, and for this performance the
singer exchanges her songbook for that of King
Johnny. Cash is accompanied by the venera-
ble roots instrumentalist Ry Cooder—“the
only person on the planet,” she has claimed,
“I would do a show of Johnny Cash songs
with.”—J.R. (Nov. 2.)
Ash Lauryn
Nowadays
Born in Detroit and based in Atlanta, Ash
Lauryn is a wide-ranging d.j. whose remit is
embedded in the title of her monthly show on
NTS Radio, “Underground and Black.” She
specializes in house and techno with heavy jazz
tinges—a very Detroit feature—and moves
afield at will, as exemplified on a recent epi-
sode that featured her spinning roots material
from Dawn Penn, Bootsy Collins, and Lou
Donaldson. Her club sets are similarly rangy,
and this open-to-close session should be worth
attending in full.—M.M. (Nov. 3.)
Clairo
Brooklyn Steel
In 2017, a teen-aged Clairo sat on her bed,
clicked open the Photo Booth app on her
computer, and recorded herself mouthing the
lyrics to her sweet D.I.Y. ditty “Pretty Girl.”
The video was sparse, but its candid sincerity
captured the blitheness, the boredom, and
the public-performance style of adolescence
in the Internet age. On her début album,
“Immunity,” released in August, the singer-
songwriter graduates from the self-made
sounds of her childhood bedroom, but her
music preserves its instinctual honesty.—J.L.
(Nov. 4 and Nov. 6.)
