Rogovoy Report For 5/6/16

The cultural highlights in our region in coming days include a concert by an all-star jazz lineup at MASS MoCA; a folk-rock legend at the Mahaiwe; an indie-pop artist from Austin at Helsinki Hudson; klezmer in Spencertown, and a whole lot more.

Honestly, I’ve been on the music beat now for over 30 years, and it’s not every day that I hear or see something that really makes me sit up and take notice. But when I first saw and heard drummer Allison Miller last summer performing with ToshiReagon at Jacob’s Pillow and then at MASS MoCA, I was an instant convert. Which is why I was super-thrilled to see that MASS MoCA is bringing Miller in her role as bandleader to North Adams on Saturday night at 8. But not only is Miller a terrific drummer and composer. Her funky jazz group Boom Tic Boom! is insane, made up as it is of a veritable all-star lineup of downtown jazz talent, including violinist Jenny Scheinman, pianist Myra Melford, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, bassist Todd Sickafoose, and cornetist Kirk Knuffke – all leaders of their own projects and legends in their own right. Together, on their just-released album, “Otis Was a Polar Bear,” they have made one of the most adventurous musical recordings of the year, leaping across genres, swapping rhythms and melodies with dizzying ingenuity, and simply expanding the notion of jazz and art music in the 21st century. Really, I can’t remember being so excited about seeing a band I’ve never seen before than I am about seeing Boom Tic Boom, Saturday night at MASS MoCA.

Of course, folk-rock singer-songwriter John Hiatt has already established his bona fides after four-decades as one of his genres best writers and performers, so I am equally excited to be seeing him tonight at 8 at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington. You may not even recognize his name, but you certainly know his songs, which have been recorded by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Rosanne Cash, the Jeff Healey Band, Mandy Moore, and Bob Dylan, many of which have been top 10 pop hits. He has also acquired a rightful reputation as an entertainer par excellence, delivering songs with brutal honesty and turning on a dime and making an audience laugh with a quip or a satirical number, an approach he shares with the likes of Randy Newman, Loudon Wainwright III, John Prine, and the late Warren Zevon.

Austin-based artist Bob Schneider brings his singular brand of indie-pop to Club Helsinki Hudson tonight at 8pm. Schneider stands out in Austin as not just another roots-music based artist, but as a kind of pop genius – a singer-songwriter who writes catchy, hook-laden melodies that connect the Beatles to soul music to New Wave to U2 to dream-pop to electronica. I like to think of him as Brian Wilson without the angst.

Paul Green and Klezmer East will perform a mix of traditional and contemporary klezmer favorites at Spencertown Academy on Saturday at 8pm. The concert will include Yiddish dance tunes and hits from the Yiddish theater. Led by clarinetist Paul Green, Klezmer East features Pete Sweeney on drums, Bruce Krasin on saxophone, and Alan Gold on keys.

An expansive solo exhibition of modernist landscapes by Tony Thompson will inaugurate the North River Gallery’s new street level space on Main Street in Chatham, marking the gallery’s new emphasis on contemporary landscape art. There will be an opening reception with the artist on Saturday from 4 to 7pm. The work will remain on view through May 29.

And finally, poet and author Michael Ives and novelist Ashley Mayne will read from their works at Hudson Opera House on Sunday at 3pm. Mayne is the author of two recently published novels, “Tiger” and “Mankiller.” Michael Ives’s poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous magazines and journals in the United States and abroad, and he is a founding member and composer for the sound/text performance trio, F'loom. Admission is free.