Seun Kuti – the son and musical heir of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti – brings his father’s legendary band, Egypt 80, and his blend of West African genres and American funk and jazz to the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., tonight at 8pm. Seun Kuti has spent most of his life preserving and extending his father’s political and musical legacy as the leader of his father’s former band Egypt 80. As a developing saxophonist and percussionist, he entered the formal ranks of the band before he was 12. After Fela passed away in 1997, Seun assumed the mantle as head of Egypt 80. (Fri, Jul 12)
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy brings its blend of swing, jazz, and jump blues to the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., tonight at 8pm. The band, co-founded by singer Scotty Morris and drummer Kurt Sodergren, was at the forefront of the swing revival of the 1990s. (Fri, Jul 12)
Josh Dolgin aka Socalled is a pioneer of klezmer/hip-hop fusion, and the Montreal-based performer will be bringing his pathbreaking sounds to the annual, four-day Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music, with his band Gephilte, to the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass., on Saturday, July 13, at 8pm. Other artists at Yidstock -- which runs today through Sunday -- include the Klezmatics, Eleanor Reissa, Hankus Netsky, and Daniel Kahn. (Fri-Sun, Jul 12-14)
Vance Gilbert originally set out to be a jazz and R&B vocalist, but quickly stumbled upon his storytelling and songwriting talent and fell in with the new-folk crowd of singer-songwriters in Boston. From there it was a short leap to headlining at folk festivals and opening concerts for stars ranging from Arlo Guthrie to Anita Baker to Southside Johnny. It comes as no surprise that Gilbert warmed up audiences for George Carlin, as Gilbert himself is such an engaging, hilarious entertainer that he could easily have had a career doing stand-up comedy. Gilbert will play songs and make you laugh at the Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday at 8pm. (Sat, Jul 13)
The life and work of poet, publisher, and gallerist Geoffrey Young will be celebrated with the New York premiere of a new documentary, The Figures: An Abstract on Geoffrey Young, screening at Time & Space in Hudson, N.Y., on Sunday at 5pm. The screening will be immediately followed by a Q&A with Geoffrey Young, filmmaker Nadia Szold, and editor Navzad Dabu. The screening is in conjunction with a solo show of Geoffrey Young’s drawings, Panegyrics, opening at the Pamela Salisbury Gallery in Hudson on Saturday, July 27. (Sun, Jul 14)
Five years ago, Chrissie Hynde brought her band, the Pretenders, along with her phenomenal catalog of hits and her still-superhuman vibrato, to MASS MoCA for a concert that attendees are still raving about. The group returns to the Berkshires, this time to perform in the Shed at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., on Tuesday, July 16, at 7pm. (Tue, Jul 16)
Also of note:
The U.K.’s Gandini Juggling brings its program Smashed2, a hybrid of juggling and dance inspired by Pina Bausch -- a hilarious, inventive, character-driven work akin to dance theater that challenges our ideas about what contemporary juggling can be -- to PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., tonight and Saturday at 8pm.
Aston Magna artistic director Daniel Stepner will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Three Partitas for Solo Violin at St. James Place in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday at 6pm.
The ensemble Heard brings its self-styled world-jazz to the New Marlborough Meeting House in New Marlborough, Mass., on Saturday at 4:30pm.
Kat Wright brings her sultry blend of soul, rock, and jazz, that should appeal to fans of Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse to the Stationery Factory in Dalton, Mass., on Saturday at 8pm.
Haitian-American vocalist, flutist, and composer Natalie Joachim performs an eclectic style of music incorporating her ancestral roots blended with indie-pop, rock, and new classical that has garnered her a Grammy Award nomination for Best World Music album. She brings her trio to the Clark in Williamstown, Mass., on Wednesday, July 17, at 8pm.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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