Soul singer Darlene Love, perhaps best known for her legendary #1 holiday classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” brings her “Love for the Holidays” program to Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, N.Y., on Saturday at 8 p.m. A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Darlene Love was featured in the 2013 documentary film 20 Feet from Stardom, in recognition of her unheralded work as a backup singer for the likes of Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, Bill Medley, the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, and Sonny and Cher. (Sat, Dec 9)
Lila Blue, Phillip Roebuck, and Saskia Lane will join forces for a program of acoustic roots-rock blended with blues at TSL in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 7 p.m. The group will be performing from their repertoire of original material by each player individually as well as a bevy of tunes they have created in collaboration. Roebuck is a singer-songwriter from Virginia, who plays resonator guitar and percussion at the same time. Lila Blue is a queer folk musician, singer-songwriter, playwright, and performer based out of Brooklyn. And Brooklyn-based Saskia Lane is a Juilliard-trained bassist, composer, performer, puppet maker, and educator whose work spans many genres, including jazz, rock, folk, R&B, and klezmer. (Sat, Dec 9)
Jazz reedman and composer Michael Moss brings his new group, Ensemble Bows, to perform his singular fusion of avant-garde jazz and orchestral music at Bridge Street Theater in Catskill, N.Y., on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The group will perform Moss’s compositions including “Superstring” (a chamber jazz “blowing tune” with a “head” and a solo section in which players are backed by the group playing a repetitive phrase which in Indian classical music is called a nugma), “Abyss” (which expresses the pain and suffering of people who are in religious groups scapegoated by other religious groups), and “Ain Soph Aur” (a musical interpretation of the Jewish mystical philosophy called Kabbalah). (Sat, Dec 9)
Cellist Oliver Herbert will perform rarely heard masterworks by Saint-Saëns, Shostakovich, Schnittke, and Poulenc at Union College’s Memorial Chapel in Schenectady, N.Y., on Sunday at 3 p.m. Pianist Xiaohui Yang will accompany Herbert, the recipient of a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, in the concert presented by Capital Region Classical. (Sun, Dec 10)
Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Josh Deutsch and guitarist Nico Soffiato bring their Redshift Trio to Avalon Lounge in Catskill, N.Y., on Sunday at 8 p.m., and to Quinn’s in Beacon on Monday evening. Deutsch and Soffiato have been working together since 2006 and recently formed Redshift Trio, which plays a blend of original compositions and works by Sufjan Stevens, Big Thief, and Robert Schumann. (Sun, Dec 10; Mon, Dec 11)
ALSO OF NOTE:
Conor McPherson’s Tony Award-winning musical Girl from the North Country, based on songs by Bob Dylan, at Proctors in Schenectady, N.Y., runs tonight through Sunday. (Tue-Sun, Dec 5-10)
Bob Meyer and his Circular Quartet pay tribute to composer-musician Bert Wilson at Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield, Mass., tonight at 8. (Fri, Dec 8, 8pm)
Everett Bradley brings his Holidelic funk revue to Kaatsbaan tonight and Saturday and again next weekend. (Fri-Sat, Dec 8-9, Dec 15-16)Singer-songwriter Melissa Ferrick performs at WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio The Linda tonight at 8. (Fri, Dec 8, 8pm)
Maxine Lyle’s Step Show: The Musical -- showcasing African American step dance and its role in Black college life -- gets a work-in-progress showing in the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA on Saturday at 8 p.m. (Sat, Dec 9, 8pm)
Veteran a capella quartet Windborne brings its harmonies and songs of social activism to the Stissing Center in Pine Plains, N.Y., on Saturday at 7 p.m. (Sat, Dec 9, 7pm)
And finally, pianist Yefim Bronfman joins the Albany Symphony Orchestra to perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Saturday and again on Sunday. (Sat-Sun, Dec 9-10)
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.