THE GIG

Devil's Ink

New Music, March 6

"Floratone II," Jenny Scheinman's "Mischief & Mayhem"

Sure Are You

 

Photo courtesy of Greg Aiello

New Music, Feb. 14

Jim Black Trio, "Somatic"

Central Park Groove

Chad Batka for The New York Times

Medeski Martin & Wood with Josh Roseman and the King Froopy All-Stars and Jim Black's AlasNoAxis

Summerstage, June 11

Veiled Shade

Playlist, June 10

Aaron Goldberg and Guillermo Klein, BB&C,

Woods, Diskjokke, Youssou N’Dour

Astereotypical

Pachora

Rose Live Music, March 17

Absence & Noise

MadLove, AlasNoAxis

Southpaw, Sept. 16

Assail Axon? No Sax Alias!

Photos appear courtesy of Greg Aiello

I first encountered Jim Black a dozen years ago in Philly, on a gig with Dave Douglas’ Tiny Bell Trio. His playing nailed me to the spot, in a way that it hadn’t on record: he was capable of so much texture in the midst of so much propulsion. I soon sought out more of his sideman work -- Tim Berne had just issued an obscenely aggressive Bloodcount box, Unwound, that was in heavy rotation for over a year -- and caught dozens more gigs, especially after I made the jump to New York. *  

AlasNoAxis, Black’s improv-enabled indie-rock band, dropped out of the sky not long after this. And it prompted me to reconsider him yet again. Here was a rounded, yearningly forthright, deeply modern-sounding music, nearly devoid of the craggy complexities Black was usually compelled to tackle. “It takes confidence in this world sometimes just to bring out those things that actually come out very quickly and honestly,” he told me in 2000, before the band’s Philadelphia debut. “And it wasn’t until I heard the music with the band that I was convinced I was doing the right thing.”

He should be secure in that conviction by now. AlasNoAxis released its fifth album, Houseplant, on June 9. (Europe got it first; I Playlisted it last month.) At the Bowery Poetry Club last night, Black announced that the album had sold out its run, going into a second printing. As if that weren’t encouragement enough, his show -- presented by Adam Schatz’s organization Search and Restore -- was legitimately packed.