Innovative violinist and composer Todd Reynolds brings his genre-defying sounds to Heart’s Pace in North Adams, Mass., tonight at 7pm. As a frequent performer at Carnegie Hall and in concert halls around the world, Todd’s compositional and performance style is a hybrid of old and new technology, multi-disciplinary aesthetic, and pan-genre composition and improvisation. Reynolds plays a classical violin wired into cutting-edge digital technology. (Fri, Jan 3)
The fabulous singer-songwriter and violinist Simi Stone performs at the Colony in Woodstock, N.Y., tonight at 7pm. Appearing as Simi Stone & The Shaker, featuring poet Nick Flynn, Simi will bring her self-styled “Mountain Motown” sounds, blending American roots music and original folk-rock with a heavy undercurrent of classic soul. (Fri, Jan 3)
Japanese dancer-choreographer Ruri Mito makes her US debut with a double bill of U.S. premieres at PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., on Saturday and Sunday at 3pm. Matou is a solo performance exploring the body as a mysterious, haunted vessel, impressively contorted across multiple forms, impossible to comprehend or observe in its entirety -- what one critic called “an extreme sport...a mesmerizing spectacle, ghastly and grueling, but also gorgeous.” In Where We Were Born, Mito continues to scrutinize and explore the body as the defining element of human existence. Performed by the seven dancers of her Co. Ruri Mito, the piece weaves and unravels the delicately and intricately connected dancers, creating one kaleidoscopic body. (Sat-Sun, Jan 4-5)
The Hot Club of New England brings its Django Reinhardt-inspired French swing to the Proprietor’s Lodge in Pittsfield, Mass., on Sunday at 4:30pm, in a presentation of Berkshires Jazz. Founding vocalist Atla DeChamplain and pianist Matt DeChamplain teamed up with violinist Jason Anick, guitarist Max O’Rourke, and bassist Greg Loughman on a mission to bring the elegant and classic style of the swing era and the Roaring Twenties to a modern audience. Their music contains echoes of Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and other legends of the so-called Great American Songbook, tinged with the French Manouche style of the great Django Reinhardt and the Quintette du Hot Club de France. (Sun, Jan 5)
And finally, I will be on hand to share my thoughts and moderate a Q&A after a screening of the new Bob Dylan “biopic” A Complete Unknown at The Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington, Mass., on Sunday at 3:45pm, following the 1:30pm screening of the film. (Sun, Jan 5)
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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