Previews this Week and Early Next
Maruja Limon, six women from Barcelona who look enough alike to be sisters – several actually are – kick off the six-show Music Haven Passport series Thursday at Proctors GE Theatre.
The series alternates between the GE Theatre in Schenectady and Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs; both are Proctors venues. Like Music Haven’s summer shows in Schenectady’s Central Park, this series showcases international acts, usually in their area debuts and sometimes in their first-ever US shows.
Maruja Limon. Photo provided
Formed in 2014, Maruja Limon is Sheila Quero and Esther Gonzalez, vocals; Mila González, trumpet; Vicky Blum, guitar; Eli Fabregas, drums and percussion, and Carla Gonzalez, bass.
They first made their mark in their homeland and across Europe and North Africa, starring in Festival Cruïlla, Festival Actual, Festival de los Sentidos, MMVV, Guitar BCN, Festival Bioritme and Pirineos Sur (Spain); Trans Musicales (France), Eurosonic (Holland), Sziget Festival (Hungary), Sudwave Arezzo (Italy), and Maré de Agosto (Portugal).
Like many acts Music Haven has brought here from around the world, Maruja Limon assembles sometimes unexpected ingredients into new recipes. Catalan and flamenco elements from home blend with modern electronics, jazz freedom and dance and pop fun.
Their international renown earned Billboard’s On the Radar Latin recognition after Maruja Limon played their U.S. debut in the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York. Their first U.S. tour hit Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and other major music centers.
Their latest album “Vidas” (2022) follows “Ante Mí” (Kasba Music, 2019) and “Más de ti” (2018); their debut that won the “Best Emerging Artist” at the ARC Awards. Their album was nominated for “Best World Music and Fusion Album” at the 2020 MIN Awards.
Their songs build from often quiet introductions to stirring exuberance without losing intimacy. Or they charm in more quiet ways – but always sound entirely themselves, even when their vocals erupt in hip-hop cadences and the trumpet goes all jazzy.
For both venues, Passport Series shows begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $34.50 individually, or three shows for $100. 518-346-6204 http://www.proctors.org.
After Maruja Limon’s Thursday show at Proctor’s GE Theatre, the Passport Series continues into spring.
Nov. 5: The Naghash Ensemble from Armenia at Universal Preservation Hall. This ensemble accompanies lyrics from ancient poetry on equally venerable instruments: duduk, oud, and dhol.
Feb. 4: Gili Yalo from Ethiopia and Israel at Proctors GE Theatre. A trans-Africa/Middle Eastern fusion spiced with contemporary soul and jazz under lyrics of resilience, identity, and hope.
March 6: La Banda Morisca from Andalucia, Spain at Universal Preservation Hall. Sounds from a busy international, inter-musical crossroads, including both indigenous traditions and modern flamenco zip.
April 16: Yacouba Sissoko from West Africa at Proctors GE Theatre. Master of the 21-stringed kora, ancient cross between a harp and a lute, he tells tales of community while incorporating contemporary elements.
May 14: Kiran Ahluwalia from India via Canada at Universal Preservation Hall. Maybe this season’s single most international artist, she makes songs that hybridize Indian melodies with North African desert blues and American styles.
Opener to Headliner
Only an extra-strong headline set by the Gibson Brothers kept opener Sara Milonovich from stealing their Music Haven show this summer. She returns as headliner – a role she’s long earned as both band-member and leader of her own Daisycutter crew – at Caffe Lena on Friday.
As reported here, their Music Haven show felt like this:
Sara Milonovich, above; with her band, below
Review excerpt:
Both North Country creatives the Gibson Brothers and Sara Milonovich built from the particular to the universal with music that often described a snowy homeland but whose emotional truth and sonic power reached out to everywhere.
Milonovich opened; 45 minutes of well-received originals old and new and some covers. Her Daisycutter crew played and sang like the seasoned pros they are: Boo Reiners, banjo and electric guitar; Greg Anderson, guitar; and Bob Buckley, bass. Milonovich grabbed and held the spotlight, a star with voice and fiddle.
Some originals told local tales. “87 North,” for example, is their “Route 66” or “Highway 61,” minus the romance but with icy spots and hot fiddle and banjo. “What We Did with the Place” decries Adirondacks gentrification by come-here folks, like Michael Jerling’s “How Can People Live Like That.” Others spun out wider; any touring musician could relate to “Last Resort Motor Inn,” Sara M’s high strong voice recounting the sleaze of the place, washed away in a serene fiddle break. Maybe the only bluegrass crew on the road that covers Led Zeppelin, their late-set highlight of Zep’s “Friends” hit hard, but lyrical. (They’d opened with Josh Ritter’s [geo-specific/universal] folkie “Lawrence, KS.”) An album in the making sourced the devotional “Planting and Harvest,” a strong live number that helped earn a standing ovation for a compressed but strong showcase.
Now that album – “Last Resort Motor Inn” – is complete, available and provides an expanded repertoire for the Amsterdam born, farm-raised Milonovich who’s carried the sounds of home to Europe and Asia in a State Department tour and to Broadway in the Tony Award-winning “Come From Away.”
Closer to home, she’s co-starred in the McKrells and leads her own crew, Daisycutter. She won as “Americana Artist of the Year” at the Capital District Thomas Edison Music Awards (the “Eddies”); she also won the national-scale Bluebird Golden Pick songwriting contest at Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Cafe.
The Gibson Brothers played Caffe Lena September 4; and this Friday is Sara Milonovich’s turn. 8 p.m. General admission $27.11, members $23.86, children and students $13.56. 518-583-0022 www.caffelena.org
Joy, in Troy
Samara Joy has also moved up since her area debut. She headlines Tuesday, Sept. 29 at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall after early-in-the-day sets at Albany’s Riverfront Jazz Festival (2023) and the Saratoga Jazz Festival and Jazz at the Lake (2024).
Samara Joy at Saratoga Jazz Festival
Since winning the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition after studying at SUNY Purchase, the Bronx-born Joy released her self-named debut album in 2021. When her second, “Linger Awhile” won two Grammys, she was on her way to everywhere. Her EP “A Joyful Holiday” won the Best Vocal Jazz Album Grammy and Best Jazz Performance in 2025 while her latest, “Portrait,” won an NAACP Image Award in 2025 for Outstanding Jazz Album and the Grammy for Best Vocal Jazz Album in 2026.
Joy’s performing warmth makes even large outdoor venues feel intimate. The Hall’s celebrated acoustics seem ideal for her easy-flowing voice; for her well-honed touring band, too. 7:30 p.m. $87.50 and $67.50 518-273-0038 www.troymusichall.org
