Top instrumentalists star on area stages this week including many with long track records here.
Hawaiian-born ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro returns Monday, April 20 to the recently renovated Troy Savings Bank Music Hall (30 Second St.), a frequent tour-stop. The solo virtuoso has expanded the capabilities of the humble acoustic four- or six-string to stratospheric levels of skill and imagination. He comes onstage alone and delivers epic dazzlement and depth.
Jake Shimbukuro. Photo provided
For all his unprecedented flash, Shimabukuro’s music doesn’t feel like show-off tricks since he communicates feeling in such a personal way.
Since he explored George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in a YouTube video that made him an international sensation, he’s played here many times, most often in The Hall. 7:30 p.m. $52.50 ukulele workshop and concert, $41.50 concert only www.troymusichall.org 518-273-0038
Half a musical generation before Shimabukuro took the ukulele to new heights, Bela Fleck was doing the same with the banjo; so it’s not terribly surprising that both busy collaborators have played together.
These days, Fleck leads a handful of ensembles, most famously his fusion Flecktones, most cozily his duo with fellow banjoist-wife Abigail Washburn; and maybe most surprisingly in BEATrio with harpist Edmar Castaneda and drummer Antonio Sanchez. After playing one of the top shows I saw all last year, at Universal Preservation Hall, Fleck leads BEATrio Thursday into Troy Savings Bank Music Hall where he’s played many shows with many collaborators.
Like Fleck, Castaneda has played almost everywhere hereabouts since his 2008 area debut at the Spa Little Theatre in Saratoga Springs, while Sanchez played The Hall with jazz guitar great Pat Metheny even before his score for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s film “Birdman” earned him a Grammy and the picture took home four Oscars including Best Picture.
At UPH, Fleck – who’s won 19 Grammys – explained he chose Castaneda and Sanchez since, like himself, nobody else plays like them. Their ensemble combines combustible elements into a fierce fire of shared inspiration. All compose, all contribute to a distinctive blend and all solo out past where the Artemis astronauts just explored.
BEATrio at UPH. From left: Bela Fleck, Antonio Sanchez, Edmar Castaneda. My photo
As I reported here, “the self-proclaimed ‘world’s most unlikely band’ blended bluegrass, folkloric Latin dances and brisk jazz invention into something unprecedented and irresistible. Each member introduced a segment around their own repertoire, but their unified ensemble force dazzled throughout.” 7:30 p.m. $66.50, 54.50
The next night – Friday, April 24 – the highly elastic ensemble Club D’Elf plays the (also recently refurbed) Egg (Empire State Plaza, Albany).
How elastic? Thanks for asking. Around the core trio of Mike Rivard, bass; Dean Johnston, drums; and Mister Rourke, turntables, spins a galaxy of stars from jazz, world-music, fusion and rock worlds. Their website lists dozens as Special Guests and dozens more as Rotating Cast members including Mike Gordon (Phish).
Club D’Elf; John Medeski at right. Photo provided
Guitarist Reeves Gabrels (David Bowie, Tin Machine, The Cure) was originally set to play Friday’s show, but a scheduling conflict required a sub. In came pianist John Medeski, another frequent flyer on area stages and a student of the late great Lee Shaw whom A Place for Jazz honors in its tribute show/season announcement Sunday April 19. In addition to his longstanding trio Medeski, Martin & Wood, Medeski collaborates in all directions across a stylistic range wide as you’d find in a good record store.
Club D’Elf’s new album “Loon & Thrush” hit last week, described as “offering Moroccan-infused takes on Grateful Dead classics ‘Bird Song’ and ‘New Speedway Boogie;’’ within an “overarching theme of ‘flight’ itself.” 8 p.m. &39.50–64.50. http://www.theegg.org 518-473-1845
FYI: Jake Shimabukuro – at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Monday – also plays Grateful Dead tunes.
Among Albany Musicians Union offerings here in Jazz Appreciation Month is Sunday’s Neil Brown Memorial Jazz Gala at Margarita City (1118 Central Ave., Colonie).
The three-act show by local jazz heroes honors bassist Linda Brown’s late brother Neil. Pianist Azzaam Hameed and singer Jeanne O’Connor play first, at 2 p.m., Brown follows at 3 p.m. with her trio, and the Teresa Broadwell Quartet plays at 4. Admission is free, thanks to support by the American Federation of Musicians Local Union 14 and the Jim Clark Community Trust Fund.
Hoke's Jukebox 