The Brooklyn Rail

Brooklyn Rail Highly Selective Music Events

A thoughtful, discerning, and carefully compiled list of the most notable, promising and unique musical events for the month of February in New York City.

Winter Jazzfest

Diary of a Mad Composer

By George Grella

The first notes I heard in the Winter Jazzfest were the elegant, intelligent, muscular sounds of trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and his ensemble, Sicilian Defense.

Winter Jazzfest

Legacy in Action: Pharoah Sanders

By Vilde Aaslid

When jazz legends grace the bandstand, it’s tempting to hope for an experience of time travel. Who among jazz fans hasn’t imagined themselves into the clubs of the music’s storied golden age?

Winter Jazzfest

Optimism, Restraint, and Repetition

By Marshall Yarbrough

One of the perils of a winter festival is its overlap with cold and flu season. A music critic is trained to be receptive, but sometimes the things you pick up are the wrong kind of infectious.

Winter Jazzfest

Dreaming Of A Not-White Winter Jazzfest

By Daniel Gold

For those who had been dreaming of a white 2017 Winter Jazzfest (I certainly hadn’t), that dream came true Saturday, January 7, the second and final marathon day of this annual festival.

Winter Jazzfest

Fusing Beauty with Anger
The Liberation Music Orchestra

By Jeff Tobias

Once the initial trauma wore off, those left shaken by the 2016 election were left to oscillate between two extremes: sublimation in everyday ignorance versus mobilizing a robust public response.

Winter Jazzfest

Outtakes

By Steve Dalachinsky

David Crosby said, “If you remember the ’60s, then you probably weren’t there,” and I always contended that no matter how stoned I got I remembered almost everything, and that he most likely wasn’t there. But I have felt lately as if the better part of the ’80s, that mostly white, Lower East Side world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, was a total blur.