Saxophonist Grace Kelly first garnered attention as a jazz saxophonist as a young teenager. At age 14 she played with the Boston Pops, and at age 16 she performed at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. A few years ago, Kelly, now 31, reinvented herself as a pop-jazz singer-songwriter, with slick music videos and occasional rapping on her funk- and fusion-filled dance numbers. Kelly brings her new sound and style to the Stationery Factory in Dalton, Mass., tonight at 8. (Fri, Sep 29)
Ronald K. Brown / EVIDENCE returns to the ‘62 Center at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., tonight at 8, to perform works including The Equality of Night and Day (TEND) with a commissioned score by Jason Moran, spoken word by Angela Davis, and photo curation by Deb Willis, and Open Door, a hot Afro-Cuban offering, set to a score by Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro-Latin jazz ensemble. (Fri, Sep 29)
Wu Man and the Attacca Quartet team up to perform Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera, a pioneering work that dramatically combines elements of both Chinese and Western cultures, as part of the fall festival at Kaatsbaan in Tivoli, N.Y., on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Ghost Opera evokes the spirits of Bach and Shakespeare – in the manner of ancient folk traditions and traditional shamanistic Chinese music, complete with elements of paper, water, stone, metal, and vocals. (Sat-Sun, Sept 30-Oct 1)
SmaÏl Kanouté & Compagnie Vivons! (Mali/France) bring their program Never Twenty One to PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., on Saturday at 5 p.m. The program infuses a variety of styles, from krump to wave, to convey the stories of victims of gun violence from New York to the favelas of Rio and the townships of Soweto. (Sat, Sep 30)
New York pianist Roger Peltzman’s one-person show, Dedication, recounts his family’s tragic history fleeing the Nazis in war-torn Europe using drama, humor, powerful images, and musical performances of everything from blues to Chopin. Peltzman brings Dedication to the Doctorow Center for the Arts in Hunter, N.Y., for performances tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. (Thu-Sat, Sep 28-30)
Singer-songwriter and pianist Vienna Teng is in residence this weekend at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with performances tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 7 p.m. Teng calls her music “chamber folk” or “indie pop,” and she is also an environmental activist. (Fri-Sun, Sep 29-Oct 1)
Grammy Award-winning soul singer Macy Gray, known for her distinctive raspy vocals, and piano-playing singer-songwriter Ben Folds perform back-to-back concerts at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, N.Y., tonight and Saturday night respectively. Gray was an overnight success in 1999 with her huge hit, “I Try.” Ben Folds is known for his innovative melodicism, his sense of humor, and his work with jazz players, symphony orchestras, and klezmer bands. (Fri, Sep 29; Sat, Sep 30)
Hudson Valley singer-songwriter and pianist Sarah Perrotta brings her alluring voice and thoughtful, keyboard-driven songs that navigate the depths of jazz complexity dressed in pop sensibility to Park Theater in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 8 p. m. In Perrotta’s imagination, strange worlds converge, doors open to rooms that are not there, people come and go in circles and waves, in songs that hark back to the Lilith Fair aesthetic. Recommended if you like Sarah McLachlan, the Roches, Tori Amos or Paula Cole. (Sat, Sep 30)
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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