Rogovoy Report 12/29/17

It’s New Year’s Eve weekend, so as one might expect there are a lot of concerts and events celebrating the New Year, most of which take place on Sunday night, New Year’s Eve itself.

The Crescendo Vocal Ensemble will perform a concert of Spanish polyphony and Latin American folk songs of the Renaissance and Baroque in “Three Wise Kings Follow a Star,” Crescendo’s annual Early Music Holiday Concert, at St. James Place in Great Barrington, Mass., tonight at 6pm, and again at Trinity Church Lime Rock, in Lakeville, Conn., on Sat at 3pm. The concert features Venezuelan soprano and Baroque guitarist Salome Sandoval, Chilean tenor Pablo Bustos, and Latin American and Baroque period instruments.

Emerson String Quartet founder and internationally renowned soloist Eugene Drucker takes the directorship of Berkshire Bach’s annual “Bach at New Year’s” concerts as well as performing as featured soloist with the Berkshire Bach Ensemble at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington on Sun at 6pm. The program traces the transition from the high Baroque to the early classical periods with works by Purcell, Boyce, Telemann, Mozart, and, of course, Bach. (Performances also take place at the Academy of Music in Northampton, Mass., on Sat, Dec 30, at 7:30pm; and at the Troy [N.Y.] Savings Bank Music Hall on New Year’s Day, Monday, at 3pm.)

Jazz vocalist Alexis Cole has drawn comparisons to classic jazz singers such as Sarah Vaughan and Anita O’Day. Cole presides over a Jazz New Year’s Eve concert at the Olde York Farm Distillery & Cooperage in Claverack, N.Y., on Sunday from 8 to 11pm. Cole has recorded with Fred Hersch, Eric Alexander, Matt Wilson, Harry Pickens, Don Braden and Pat LaBarbara and performed at top jazz venues including Dizzy's Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, the Jazz Standard, Blues Alley, and Billboard Live, Tokyo.

And last but definitely not least, singer and trombonist Glen David Andrews will once again help revelers ring out the old and ring in the new when he brings his jazzy, horn-laced New Orleans funk and soul band – familiar to fans of the TV series Treme as well as all those who love homegrown New Orleans funk - back to Club Helsinki Hudson on New Year’s Eve at 9pm.

Thanks so much for listening, and best wishes for the New Year.