June Music Lineup at the Wex: Jazz, Neofolk, Indie Rock

The Wexner Center’s June music roster includes appearances by neofolk guitarists Glenn Jones and James Blackshaw, European jazz and tango master Richard Galliano, and iconoclastic Japanese rock band The Boredoms. Tickets to the following shows are available now at the Wexner Center Ticket Office, 614 292- 3535, or Ticketmaster, 614 431-3600 or Ticketmaster.com.

GLENN JONES and JAMES BLACKSHAW

Date and time: Saturday, June 24 / 9 pm

Location: Wexner Center Performance Space. Standing-only event.

Tickets: $10 all audiences

Dubbed “an instrumentalist of astonishing grace and beauty” by Pitchforkmedia, London-based musician James Blackshaw is earning high praise as one of the most important artists in the neofolk underground. Echoing guitar greats Sandy Bull, Robbie Basho, and John Fahey, Blackshaw’s nimble fingerpicking produces cascading compositions that evoke haunting Appalachian ballads, tender Renaissance turns, and Eastern meditations. Glenn Jones (leader of the band Cul de Sac) is another major figure in this movement. The Boston Globe praised the “sensory magic at work” in Jones’s visionary solo 12-string guitar explorations, which are “etched in slow detail so every nuance of his vibrato and tone can be absorbed.” For more information on James Blackshaw: www.jamesblackshaw.com.

RICHARD GALLIANO NEW YORK TRIO

Date and time: Sunday, June 25 / 7 pm

Location: Wexner Center Performance Space. Cabaret-style show with table seating and cash bar.

Tickets: $16 general public / $14 students & Wexner Center members

Richard Galliano is one of the giants of the European jazz scene, and this date is one of only a few on a rare U.S. tour. A bop-influenced virtuoso of the accordion as well as a master composer, Galliano is also known as one of the foremost interpreters of Astor Piazzolla, master of nuevo tango. A Frenchman of Italian ancestry, Galliano is also a major figure in the movement that modernized musette, the Parisian dance hall music that was France’s answer to the tango. At this concert Galliano performs with his New York Trio, which features the impeccable rhythm section of George Mraz on bass and Al Foster on drums. For more information: www.richardgalliano.com.

THE BOREDOMS

Date and time: Tuesday, June 27 / 9 pm

Location: Wexner Center’s Black Box on Mershon Stage. Standing-only event.

Tickets: $18 all audiences

Japan’s Boredoms set the scene for supercharged cosmic drone rock in the late 1980s with their iconoclastic sound, inspiring such bands as Nirvana and Sonic Youth. The Boredoms wield metallic Krautrock noise, freeform jazz blasts, frenzied rhythms, acid-drenched trance tones, and anything else they can mischievously stir into the mix, that must be experienced live to be believed. This rare live show in the States promises to be a highlight of a Next @ Wex season that has already thrilled fans with the brash sonic experimentation of WolfEyes, Mogwai, Sunn O))), and Boris. For more information: www.boredoms.co.uk.

Also on June 27: a screening of Richard Linklater’s eagerly anticipated adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, starring Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder (tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for Wexner Center members and students).

UPCOMING MUSIC EVENTS

Other highlights in music coming this summer (tickets on sale June 19):

• Vetiver, among the leaders of the neofolk movement, bring its beguiling acoustic songs to the Performance Space on July 29.

•On August 3, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, a spin-off of Montreal collective godspeed you! black emperor, makes its Wexner Center debut with a set of its epic compositions. Black Ox Orkestar opens.

SEASON SUPPORT

Major support for the performing arts season generously provided by Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and The Columbus Foundation.

Significant contributions made by Altria Group, Inc., Morgan Stanley, Nationwide Foundation, and Ron and Ann Pizzuti.

Additional funding provided by the Ohio Arts Council, the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation, and Wexner Center members.

Preferred accommodations: The Blackwell Inn.