Long Play Festival Brings the World to Brooklyn
Brooklyn’s annual Long Play Festival, organized by Bang on a Can , is set for May 3-5 . The festival will feature more than five dozen concerts covering a great variety of music genres. Performers from all over the world will share stages with local talent at several venues, including Brooklyn Academy of Music (Opera House, BAMcafé and Stoop), BRIC Ballroom, Murmrr Theatre, Public Records, Roulette Intermedium and The Space at Irondale.
Musicians will perform pop, jazz, Afrobeat, soul, R&B, hip hop, techno, classical and opera, or, in the words of the festival’s curators, “music that is loud and soft, music that is driving and meditative, music that is for winding up and for winding down.”
Alex Paxton/ photo by Elischa Kaminer/ courtesy of the artist
Among the highly anticipated highlights are the U.S. debut of U.K. trombonist-composer Alex Paxton; “Correspondences,” a joint project between Soundwalk Collective and iconic New York singer-songwriter-poet Patti Smith; American Opera Projects’ “The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language”; the Bang on a Can All-Stars’ tribute to world-renowned Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and the return to Brooklyn of Deerhoof, one of the most highly revered experimental bands of the last 30 years.
Marc Ribot /photo by Ebru Yildiz/courtesy of the artist
Brooklyn’s own talent is well represented as well and includes multi-genre guitarist-composer Marc Ribot, whose 40-year-plus career includes collaboration with the likes of Elvis Costello and Tom Waits, will accompany Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” with his new score.
DoYeon Kim and her quartet bring traditional Korean music into the 21st century. Pop diva, pianist, and music storyteller Du Yun fronts OK Miss, an all-star avant-garde band. Violinist and composer Jessica Pavone, an alumnus of Brooklyn College, explores alternative avenues for musical expression with the J. Pavone String ensemble. Lima, Peru-born Brooklynite Maria Chavez will play her distinctive brand of experimental and electronic music.
The Mivos Quartet / photo by Andrej Grilc /courtesy of the artists
The Mivos Quartet, which includes a pair of which includes a pair of Brooklyn-connected violinists, Maya Bennardo and Victor Lowrie Tafoya, will perform works of Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Reich. Local sisters Shayna and Nava Dunkelman front NOMON, featuring a blend of percussion, drum machine and synthesizers. Brooklyn College alumnus Jessica Pavone fronts the J. Pavone String ensemble.