MUSIC

MATA Festival 2022

WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, MAY 4 – 7, 2022
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY
7:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
FRIDAY & SATURDAY: National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: $20 online; $25 door; free live stream
FRIDAY & SATURDAY: $25
TICKETS + INFORMATION

The venerable MATA New Music Festival, having veered a little institutional in later years, goes back to its renegade roots — and good for it! This year’s festival was curated by MATA’s first (I think he’s the first) Artist-in-Residence, the superlative alto saxophonist/composer Darius Jones — and how great that MATA reached across genre boundaries for that initial appointment! The first three nights feature carefully selected emerging composers — and I would be shocked if anyone came out of any of them without at least a couple of new favorites to watch. The last night features a new extended piece by Jones himself. Throughout, there will be playing by the peerless International Contemporary Ensemble.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Wednesday and Thursday in person, I would be pleased to recommend the new Brooklyn branch of the Paris Franco-Japanese Café Kitsune — if they would be so good as to publicize their hours. Streaming at home those nights, have an Empire (special prize to anyone who can guess why I chose to recommend this old Harry Craddock recipe here): pour 1-1/2 oz. Gin, 3/4 oz. each Calvados and Apricot liqueur, and 1/3 oz. water into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake (that’s right: Harry says to shake this). Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with an orange twist (or, if you have one, an apricot slice). Friday and Saturday, it’s getting to be time again for the endless Caribbean party at Kokomo.