Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary captures the art world’s 2023 pulse, LP and the Vinyl re-imagine pop-rock favorites, and a Cannes-winning movie opens in Lake Worth Beach. Plus, Devendra Banhart and more in your week ahead.
FRIDAY
What: LP and the Vinyl
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Arts Garage, 94 N.E. Second Ave., Delray Beach
Cost: $45-$50
Contact: 561/450-6357, artsgarage.org
This quartet’s name is a play on words for record collectors, but it also describes the twin aspects of its formula: The “LP” stands for vocalist Leonard Patton, whose soulful tenor echoes Stevie Wonder’s. The “Vinyl,” therefore, is the jazz trio that backs him up, namely pianist Danny Green, bassist Justin Grinnell and drummer Julien Cantelm. They’ve enjoyed distinguished careers separately but have found a certain kismet together, one that marries their arranging talents with their improvisatory skills. The group’s debut album, 2020’s Heard and Seen, finds them reinterpreting favorites from their eclectic slate of influences: Glam rock (David Bowie’s “Life on Mars?”), alt-rock (Oasis’ “Wonderwall”), contemporary jazz (the Modern Jazz Quartet’s “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise”), show tunes (Sondheim’s “Night Waltz”) and more, with each expansive composition allowing all of the players to shine. Their Arts Garage program is subtitled “Blues to Beatles to Bowie.”
What: Mark de Clive-Lowe: MOTHERLAND
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $29
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Composer Mark de Clive-Lowe has a carved out a niche that only he has the imagination and bona fides to fill. Born in Auckland to a Japanese mother and New Zealand father, the young de Clive-Lowe nourished his musical education through his dad’s jazz collection and, after dropping out of the Berklee College of Music after two semesters, would go on to combine jazz’s freeform polyrhythms with electronic, funk and world-music flourishes. At once an organic musician and a digital DJ, he performs feats of herculean musicianship onstage, juggling piano, synthesizer, beat making and live sampling. His 2022 release MOTHERLAND plumbs Japanese mythology and folklore into a sonic tapestry supplemented by multimedia projections. For a deeper dive into the project, check out our interview with Mark.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary art fair
When: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Palm Beach County Convention Center, 650 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $25-$35, or $65 for multiday pass
Contact: 305/517-7977, artpbfair.com
This sixth-annual celebration and sale of all things contemporary art returns to its capacious home at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, offering countless works from dozens of galleries spanning much of the U.S., Austria, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Israel, Colombia and Venezuela. Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary typically offers a snapshot of sorts for the most relevant art of the moment while also showcasing classics of modernism; Galeria Cortina, for instance, will present Joan Miró’s “Escalade Vers la Lune” and Andy Warhol’s “Mao II. 98.” Special events this year include Palm Beach philanthropist and arts advocate Frances Fisher receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, and a 20-work collection by the great octogenarian painter Rupert García at the entrance to the fair.
What: “Close” screenings
When: 6 p.m. Friday; 3, 5 and 7 p.m. Saturday; 3 and 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Lake Worth Playhouse’s Stonzek Theater, 713 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach
Cost: $9
Contact: 561/296-9382, lakeworthplayhouse.org
This sophomore feature from co-writer/director Lukas Dhont arrives in theaters riding a wave of near-universal praise, first winning the Grand Prix at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and then being nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the most recent Oscars. Set in rural Belgium, it follows the tumultuous relationship—platonic, but perhaps more than that—between two 13-year-old boys, Léo and Rémi, affectionate BFFs whose friendship is tested when they enter high school and face questions and judgments from their peers. A critique of toxic masculinity, this quietly devastating feature has been lauded by critics as “emotionally rich” and even “miraculous.”
SUNDAY
What: The Symphonia: Wind
When: 3 p.m.
Where: Roberts Theatre at Saint Andrew’s School, 3900 Jog Road, Boca Raton
Cost: $55-$90
Contact: 561/376-3848, thesymphonia.org
It’s all about the wind this Sunday for the third program in The Symphonia’s season-wide exploration of works inspired by the four elements. Experience the rushing sensation of the titular force of nature through sprightly works that span from the 18th century orchestral canon to a 2008 commission. The latter, Jessie Montgomery’s rarely performed “Voodoo Dolls,” a string quartet work punctuated by African percussion, is sure to be a highlight among highlights. It joins Fritz Kreisler’s violin and piano composition “Praeludium and Allegro (in the style of Pugnani),” Mozart’s effervescent “Serenade No. 6, ‘Serenata notturna’” and one of Astor Piazzolla’s defining works, “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.” David Kim, concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, will guest-conduct.
MONDAY, MARCH 27
What: Devendra Banhart
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Miami Beach Bandshell
Cost: $51.50
Contact: miamibeachbandshell.com
The influential figurehead of the so-called “freak folk” subgenre of Americana, native Texan Devendra Banhart has been blending hippie throwback music with outside cultural influences—namely from Venezuela, where he was partly raised—to create a pleasing, rhythmic and psychedelic stew all his own. Sometimes singing in Portuguese, sometimes ending his songs in less than a minute, and often singing about surrealist or fantastical topics, Banhart’s clearest inspiration of late may be the legendary Brazilian psych-rockers Os Mutantes, with dollops of the Doors and Vashti Bunyan. But his 10 albums are distinct enough that it’s hard to pin down his elusive sound. A live South Florida show from Banhart is a rare occasion indeed; check it out and expand your ears.
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