Rogovoy Report For 5/13/16

The cultural highlights in our region in coming days include a string quartet, a jazz concert, an art exhibit by a legendary rocker, a folk-rock jamband, and a whole lot more.

First a quick review of events that took place last weekend. John Hiatt was at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington last Friday night, and he proved that he still has what made him a true musicians’ musician and songwriters’ songwriter several decades ago. He also is a masterful entertainer, and he kept the audience with him without let-up over the course of the evening, sprinkling his perfectly etched ballads and rockers with bits of his quirky, ironic humor. If you have never seen John Hiatt, do yourself a big favor and go see him next time he comes around.

Then on Saturday night, I saw Allison Miller’s ensemble, Boom Tic Boom, at MASS MoCA. The drummer, composer and bandleader led a veritable all-star lineup of jazz talent, including the phenomenal pianist Myra Melford and violinist Jenny Scheinmann, through tunes on their brand-new album, “Otis was a Polar Bear.” Miller, who is also one of the greatest drummers I’ve ever seen or heard, has figured out how to walk that minuscule fine line between the avant-garde and the accessible, and her sextet put forth a triumphant set that had the crowd in Club B-10 lining up by the dozens at the end to meet the musicians and to buy their new CD, a testament to the power and dazzling genius of Miller’s music.

Now to this weekend: The Dover Quartet, dubbed by the New Yorker “the young American string quartet of the moment,” will perform works by Beethoven, Dvorak and Alban Berg at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington on Saturday at 6pm, as part of the Close Encounters With Music chamber series.

Alto saxophonist Grace Kelly will front the Phil Woods Quintet in a memorial concert paying tribute to the late jazz saxophonist, at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield on Saturday at 8 pm. 

Also in Pittsfield, folk-rock jam-band Rusted Root brings its world-music-influenced sounds to The Colonial on Saturday at 8pm. Originally from Pittsburgh, the group is known for its fusion of acoustic, rock, world and other styles of music, with a strong percussion section that draws from African, Latin American, and Native American influences.

You all know Richard Butler as frontman of the early 1980s art-rock band Psychedelic Furs. Or at least you know the title track to the movie “Pretty in Pink,” which was a P-Furs song. Well, Butler was an artist before he was a rocker, and he continues to exhibit his artwork, as he will this weekend, when Quietus, an exhibition of new paintings, goes on view at BCB Art in Hudson on Saturday, with an artist’s reception from 6 to 8pm. The exhibit, featuring expressionistic portraits, remains on view through Sunday, July 3. With his daughter as his muse, Butler depicts lush expressionistic portraits of a pensive female, who he says serves as a stand-in for himself.