Ensemble Newsletter · October 26, 2026
Billy Hart keeps time for Aaron Parks, Michael Blake plays Halloween in Brooklyn, and the Philharmonic breaks into small pieces
NYC picks, jazz and classical, updated weekly
Three picks for the week of October 26: a trio at the Vanguard with an 86-year-old drummer in the chair, a Halloween set in Bed-Stuy, and a Sunday afternoon of chamber music from players who usually sit in a full orchestra. The Vanguard run goes six nights. Here is where we would be.
Aaron Parks Trio — Village Vanguard
Parks on piano, Ben Street on bass, Billy Hart on drums. Hart recorded with Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band in 1970 and has not stopped since, and the generational gap in this trio is the point: he plays loose where Parks plays deliberate. Runs Tuesday through Sunday.
Event details →Michael Blake's Halloween Tales — Bar LunÀtico
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and the saxophonist Michael Blake is spending it in a Bed-Stuy room with Tony Scherr on bass, Marius van den Brink on piano, and Michael Sarin on drums. Blake came up in the Lounge Lizards, so the spooky-standards premise is in capable and slightly unhinged hands. Two sets, 9pm and 10:15pm, ten dollars suggested.
Event details →New York Philharmonic Ensembles — David Geffen Hall
Philharmonic players program themselves into small groups for this series, and the result is a Sunday matinee of a septet arrangement of Sibelius's En Saga, Eric Ewazen's Quintet for Trumpet and Strings, and Brahms. Hearing section musicians step forward one at a time is the closest thing to meeting an orchestra individually.
Event details →