New York-based band Innov Gnawa performs traditional healing music of Morocco, a trancey, rhythmic participatory music. They play on Dec 27 at The Owl Music Parlor.

Smoke Jazz Club continues the annual John Coltrane Festival and the sax player Vincent Herring's Quintet are acting as a kind of house band, with different guest soloists each night. 

Mamady Kouyate's Mandingo Ambassadors play on Dec. 24 at Barbès in Brooklyn.

The Masterwork Chorus, 120 voices strong, presents a cherished holiday tradition: a complete performance of Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall on Dec. 23.

M Lamar’s boundless voice soars between the countertenor and male soprano ranges. He performs at Alphaville on Dec. 19. 

ModernMedieval performs holiday music from the British Isles, featuring beloved English medieval and Renaissance carols at the at Church of St. Luke in the Fields on Dec. 18. 

Master musician and sax player Ravi Coltrane, (and son of John Coltrane), is also a versatile improviser, composer, and bandleader. He and his quintet play at Smoke Dec. 17-21. 

Steve Gunn’s far-out fingerstyle acoustic work draws from the drones of Eastern music, and Western avant-garde. He plays at Le Poisson Rouge on Dec. 17th.

Montreal band The Besnard Lakes' latest is The Besnard Lakes Are The Ghostly Nation, a collection of arty, often psychedelic songs about a society in crisis. They play in-studio.