THENEWYORKER,OCTOBER3, 2022 5
As ever, it’s advisable to check in advance
to confirm engagements.
OPPOSITE:
© MYRIAM BOULOS / MAGNUM; RIGHT: ILLUSTRATION BY XAVIERA ALTENA
In 2019, the singer and rapper Lizzo as-
cended to pop-star status when “Truth
Hurts,” her snappy single from two
years prior, resurfaced as a viral No. 1
hit. Known up to that point for her ver-
satile vocal performances, her focus on
body and sex positivity, and, of course, her
flute, she cemented herself as an outsized
presence in a somewhat tame mainstream
landscape, as well as a savvy purveyor of
feel-good pop. After again topping the
charts, earlier this year, with the song
“About Damn Time,” she brings the funk
of her new album, “Special,” to Madison
Square Garden, Oct. 2-3. The record ex-
pands her confessional music to include
disco grooves and bluesy ballads. On her
albums, Lizzo is most enthralling when
her cadences blur genre lines; onstage,
she turns songs of self-love into raucous
crowd-pleasers.—Sheldon Pearce
POP
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MUSIC
Carnegie Hall: Opening Night Gala
CLASSICAL Last year, the Philadelphia Orches-
tra and its music director, Yannick Nézet-
Séguin, opened Carnegie Hall’s season with
Valerie Coleman’s “Seven O’Clock Shout,”
a stirring tribute to frontline workers. In a
seemingly comfortable return to normalcy,
Nézet-Séguin kicks off this year’s gala with
a most gala-like piece: Ravel’s “La Valse,”
from 1920. A gorgeous orchestral tribute
to Johann Strauss II, the waltz king of the
nineteenth century, “La Valse” swirls with
gilded melodies and mounting ecstasies—
and attests to none of the horrors that Ravel
surely witnessed as an ambulance driver in
the First World War. In that sense, it may
be the perfect piece for bleary-eyed New
Yorkers who, after more than two years,
yearn to look beyond the pandemic. Liszt’s
dazzling Piano Concerto No. 1 (with the
soloist Daniil Trifonov), Gabriela Lena
Frank’s spirited “Chasqui,” and Dvořák’s
optimistic Symphony No. 8 complete the
program.—Oussama Zahr (Carnegie Hall;
Sept. 29.)
John Coltrane: “Blue Train:
The Complete Masters”
JAZZ Promise is sweet, fulfillment sweeter.
In 1955, John Coltrane, beginning to accrue
attention after joining Miles Davis’s ground-
breaking hard-bop quintet, was the young
tenor saxophonist to put money on. Two
years later, after exhibiting rapid growth—
and, not incidentally, kicking a heroin addic-
tion—Coltrane assembled a polished sextet to
cut “Blue Train,” his only album as a leader
for Blue Note. As a sixty-fifth-anniversary
celebration, the label has now released a re-
mastered double-LP version of the enduring
landmark, featuring six alternate takes. The
record has lost none of its initial impact.
Coltrane’s sound is massive, his fertile ideas
spilling out in a passionate torrent of inven-
tion. His memorable themes—many still
heard on bandstands today, including the
darkly shaded yet invigorating title tune—
further enliven the sparkling session, which
announced that Coltrane had busted out
of the corral for good.—Steve Futterman
(Streaming on select platforms.)
Tribute to John Abercrombie
JAZZ The parting decades of the past century
were rife with jazz-guitar heroes, among
them Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, John Sco-
field, and the elder of the crop, John Aber-
crombie. Although he never lost sight of
his bebop roots,Abercrombie, who died
in 2017,evolved into a lyrical stylist whose
exceptional ECM recordings are bathed in
texture and mood. What makes this tribute
show special is theabsenceof a guitarist;
instead, a quartet featuring threeAber-
crombieassociates—the keyboardist Gary
Versace, the saxophonist Adam Kolker,
and the drummer Anthony Pinciotti—
essaythe late musician’sdistinctive com-
positions.—S.F. (Bar Bayeux; Sept. 29.)
Moritz von Oswald
TECHNO Working with his partner Mark Er-
nestus under a slew of monikers, including
Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound—and on
occasional projects with the Detroit techno in-
novators Juan Atkins and Carl Craig—the Ber-
lin dance producer Moritz von Oswald builds
patiently unfurling dub-drenched tracks that
have long been d.j. mainstays. His own d.j.’ing
functions in a similar manner—partly because
von Oswald’s sets are heavy on his own record-
ings, but mainly because his steady hand tends
to turn anything he selects deliciously inside
out. He headlines the city’s longest-running
techno party, the Bunker, in its first event at
this Ridgewood space; the night also features
a back-to-back set from Derek Plaslaiko and
Bogotá’s Leeon.—Michaelangelo Matos (H0L0;
Sept. 30.)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
ROCK In the course of two decades, the
three musicians behind the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
have perfected the art of reinvention while
holding onto their feral essence. Amid the
Lower East Side rock explosion of the early
two-thousands, they reimagined No Wave.
They then embraced the time-honored tra-
dition of punks blazing into pop. Avoiding
a standard rock flare-out, they now carry a
combustible sound forward. With “Cool It
Down,” the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first album in
nine years, the live-wire trio re-stake their
place in a music world that has finally caught
up to them. At this Queens concert, the band
headlines a bill composed of beloved groups
that happen to be fronted by Asian women,
including the memoirist Michelle Zauner’s
Japanese Breakfast and the teen-aged Linda
Lindas—a band that, at its earliest perfor-
mance, covered the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, accom-
panied by Karen O herself.—Jenn Pelly (Forest
Hills Stadium; Oct. 1.)
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THETHEATRE
Asi Wind’s Inner Circle
The magician Asi Wind is a consummate
host: a keen listener who puts his guests at
ease—and scrambles their attention—with
a perfectly gauged blend of grace and goofi-
ness. His specialty is card tricks, but in this
dazzling showcase of his talents he person-
alizes the form by working only with cards
on which audience members have written
their names. Much of the resulting chica-
nery, astonishing as it is, can (presumably)
be explained as sleight of hand of the highest
calibre. Some bits, though, are so intimate
and baffling that they haunt the mind, as
when he correctly identifies, after asking a
few short and seemingly irrelevant questions,
not only the specific name that an audience
member secretly wishes were hers but also
the reasons she wishes it. Adam Blumenthal
designed the satisfyingly circular perfor-
mance space.—Rollo Romig (The Gym at Jud
son; through April 2.)
Fauna
The Argentinean playwright Romina Pau-
la’s dreamy, love-drunk play fits neatly into
the tiny parlor-floor theatre at Torn Page,
a Chelsea row house where Rip Torn and
Geraldine Page once lived. Paula’s drama
deals with a director (David Skeist) and
an actress (Veraalba Santa) making a film
about a poet named Fauna by interviewing
her grown children. Legacy is in the air:
just as the fictional, taboo-breaking Fauna
haunts the play’s present (her empty suit,
