8 THENEWYORKER,NOVEMBER29, 2021
ILLUSTRATION BY RACHELLE BAKER
After a lengthy delay, the singer Bruno Mars and the drummer Anderson
.Paak finally share their long-awaited collaborative album, “An Evening
with Silk Sonic,” which finds comfort and warmth in the earnestness and
fidelity of throwback soul. Originally conceived during the pandemic
as a tonic for an extended period without concerts, the record attempts
to simulate the feel of live performance. The actual project comes up
short of this objective, but it stands as its own lower-stakes achievement.
Teaming up with prominent soul figures of the past and present—the
P-Funk legend Bootsy Collins, the R. & B. crooner Babyface, the H.E.R.
producer D’Mile, the bassist Thundercat, the multi-instrumentalist Boo
Mitchell, and more—the duo create a meticulous pastiche that plays
into their individual skill sets and their unbelievable chemistry. Though
only nine tracks long, with four of those previously shared, the feel-good
album has proved worth the wait, if only for “Put On a Smile,” a charged
avowal that finds the two playboys penitent.—Sheldon PearceSOUL
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MUSIC
Dev/Null: “Microjunglizm”
ELECTRONIC The Bostonian Pete Devnull, who
produces electronic dance music as Dev/Null,
is a self-described “rave archivist”; he posts
many excellent mixes of nineties tracks on his
site, Blog to the Old Skool. His new album,
“Microjunglizm,” is a modernistic variation
on early-nineties breakbeat hardcore, the
slap-happy style that would later take sleeker
shape as jungle and drum and bass. Devnull
occasionally upends a track’s tonal center with
contemporary production tricks—effects that
pop out of the mix and float along its already
effervescent surface.—Michaelangelo Matos
Mary Lattimore
EXPERIMENTAL In more than a decade of work
as a celestial composer and a prolific collab-
orator, the harpist Mary Lattimore—who
is Los Angeles-based, but often roves—has
earned a reputation for modular movement:
fitting into physical spaces and sonic con-
texts that one might not expect from the
carrier of such a colossal instrument. Her
recent endeavors put the literal weightiness
of the harp itself into her deep, entrancing
music, including the EP “GAINER,” with
the noise band Growing, and her quaking
2020 album, “Silver Ladders”—produced
by Neal Halstead, of the shoegaze band
Slowdive—in which her chiming notes glide
into and echo beyond blistering drones. A
predilection for adventure, and an embrace
of the unknown, ring loud and clear. Latti-
more shares this sense of fluidity with her
current tourmate, Ana Roxanne, an ambient
artist whose poetic début album, “Because
of a Flower,” from 2020, was a luminous
balm. They each fill the intimate room of
Union Pool with poised possibility.—Jenn
Pelly (Dec. 1 at 8.)Metropolitan Opera:
“La Bohème”
CLASSICAL Franco Zeffirelli’s production of “La
Bohème,” a sure thing with audiences season
after season, has long provided a platformfor introducing new talent to the house. In
its present run, the focus is on the orchestra
pit, where Eun Sun Kim—who’s already made
history as the first female music director of
the San Francisco Opera—is conducting at
the Met for the first time. This year’s ap-
pealing cast includes Anita Hartig as Mimì,
Federica Lombardi as Musetta, Charles Cas-
tronovo as Rodolfo, and Artur Ruciński as
Marcello.—Steve Smith (Metropolitan Opera
House; Nov. 26 at 7 and Nov. 29 at 8.)New York Philharmonic
CLASSICAL The outsized celebrity Joshua Bell
has attained during a professional career that
now extends past the three-decade mark can
overshadow an enduring truth: Bell’s sterling
technique and onstage impetuosity make him
an ideal advocate for thrice-familiar works
from the mainstream canon, which assume
new life in his hands. For his latest Philhar-
monic appearance, he performs Beethoven’s
Violin Concerto in D Major; the Phil’s music
director, Jaap van Zweden, also conducts Chen
Yi’s “Duo Ye” and Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella”
Suite.—S.S. (Alice Tully Hall; Nov. 24 at 7:
and Nov. 26-27 at 8.)Wadada Leo Smith: “A Love
Sonnet for Billie Holiday”
JAZZ One might assert that Wadada Leo
Smith has had the most momentous sec-
ond act in jazz history, considering how few
witnessed his first one. But there is a note-
worthy disparity between the decades that
saw this ceaselessly creative trumpeter and
composer investigating the outer boundaries
of the avant-garde and his years of visible
ascent, beginning in the nineties, which found
him continually performing and recording
(and even making room for a Pulitzer Prize
nomination, in 2013). Among the avalanche
of albums that celebrate Smith’s eightieth
birthday is the new “A Love Sonnet for Billie
Holiday,” which puts Smith in the inspiring
company of both the pianist Vijay Iyer and
the drummer Jack DeJohnette for the first
time.—Steve Futterman1
THETHEATRECullud Wattah
This powerful new play, written by Erika Dick-
erson-Despenza and directed by CandisC.
Jones, begins with a poetic overture: Five
Black women are dressed in white, like priest-
esses. One of them, seemingly the youngest,
gets into a tub; the rest stand around her in
a semicircle, spouting phrases and snatches
of song. Then a family play begins—utterly
realistic, but shot through with the spectral
music and religious intensity of that opening.
Marion (Crystal Dickinson) is a stressed-out
mom, sister, and daughter in Flint, Michi-
gan. She counts bottles of clean water, and
money for her multiplying bills. She’s a G.M.
employee, like her mother, Big Ma (Lizan
Mitchell), before her. Her daughter Plum
(Alicia Pilgrim) is sick—likely poisoned by
the water—and her sister, Ainee (Andrea Pat-
terson), has her eye on a lawsuit against the
state. On an astounding water-overwhelmed