CHRISTIAN McBRIDE
This year’s TD James Moody Jazz Festival started Nov. 5, and continues this week at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and other Newark venues. Concerts and other events include:
• Christian McBride’s “The Movement Revisited,” Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at Prudential Hall at NJPAC. The bassist and composer’s ambitious work for orchestra, vocalists, choir and orators pays tributes to Civil Rights Movement icons Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and the Rev. Martin Luther King as well as Barack Obama with spoken word segments that will be read by Sonia Sanchez, Willie Perdomo, John Murillo and Dion Graham. The evening will also feature a performance by the groundbreakiung Last Poets group (Abiodun Oyewole, Umar Bin Hassan and Babadon Babatunde), joined by Newark mayor (and published poet) Ras J. Baraka.
• Tony Award-winning actress (for “The Life”) Lillias White‘s “Divine Sass” tribute to Sarah Vaughan, Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Chase Room at NJPAC.
• Trumpeter Chris Botti, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. at Prudential Hall at NJPAC.
• The documentary “The WBGO Story: Bright Moments From Newark to the World,” Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. at Bethany Baptist Church. (The screening is free.)
• Singer Dianne Reeves with the group Artemis (pianist Renee Rosnes, clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, saxophonist Nicole Glover, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller), Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. at Prudential Hall at NJPAC.
• Dorthaan’s Place Jazz Brunch: Cyrus Chestnut, Nov. 14 at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at NICO Kitchen + Bar at NJPAC.
• Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, Nov. 14 at 3 p.m. at Victoria Theater at NJPAC. Christian McBride will host and perform with Dianne Reeves. Contestants will include Andrea Miller, April May Webb, Arta Jekabsone, G. Thomas Allen and Vik Gecyte.
Other events taking place around the state through Nov. 18 include:
KELLI O’HARA
MUSIC
• Kelli O’Hara is not just a seven-time Tony nominee; she has been nominated for every Broadway show she has starred in since 2005, and won in 2015 for “The King and I.” Also a Grammy-nominated recording artist, she will appear in concert at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m.
• Little Feat will present a “By Request” show — fans can vote for the setlist at LittleFeat.net — at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. The band currently contains three members who were part of the group when they made classic roots-rock albums in the ’70s — keyboardist Bill Payne, percussionist Sam Clayton and bassist Kenny Gradney — as well as guitarists Fred Tackett and Scott Sharrard, and drummer Tony Leone. Jack Broadbent will open the 8 p.m. show.
• New Jersey Hall of Famer Tommy James and his band The Shondells will headline the fourth annual Benefit Concert for the Homeless, presented by the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Newark, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. at the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway. Proceeds will support homeless services and programs provided by the organization in Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union counties. James, who grew up in Ohio and Michigan but has lived in New Jersey since the early ’70s, had a remarkable string of hits in the ’60s and ’70s — including “Hanky Panky,” “Mony Mony,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Crimson and Clover,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion” and “Draggin’ the Line” — and remains a dynamic concert performer.
• Richie Furay will present a “Farewell” concert at the Concert Hall at Drew University in Madison, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. A Rock and Roll Hall of Famer (as a member of Buffalo Springfield) who also co-founded the groups Poco and the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, Furay will be backed by a nine-piece band and include, in the show, a tribute to Poco members Paul Cotton and Rusty Young, who both died this year. He will also debut a new song that will be filmed for an upcoming documentary on him. A 5 p.m. meet-and-greet with Furay and dinner at Drew’s Mead Hall is available for an additional charge, and there will also be a meet-and-greet, dinner, rehearsal concert and question-and-answer session Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. at Alphawave Studios in Whippany.
RYAN TRUESDELL
• Arranger, bandleader and producer Ryan Truesdell, leader of the Gil Evans Project, will present a tribute to Mile Davis’ landmark 1957 album Birth of the Cool (co-arranged by Evans), featuring nine musicians playing the original scores, Nov. 14 at 4 p.m. at the Shea Center for Performing Arts at William Paterson University in Wayne. There will also be a meet-the-artist session (free to ticket-holders) at 3 p.m. at Shea Recital Hall.
• Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny brings his Side Eye project, which features a rotating cast of up-and-coming musicians, to the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. He will be joined by keyboardist James Francies and drummer Joe Dyson.
• Pianist Jenny Lin will play music by Philip Glass (Mad Rush, Passacaglia, Etude No. 2 and Etude No. 6) as well as pieces by Franz Schubert, Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, György Ligeti and J.S Bach-F. Busoni, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. at the Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum in Morris Township.
DANCE
• With Nutcracker Season just around the corner, the Princeton Ballet School will present “Nutcracker Suite: Scenes from a Holiday Classic” — featuring Princeton Ballet School students, pre-professional trainees and professional dancers from American Repertory Ballet — outdoors at Welkovits Pavilion in Highland Park, Nov. 13 at 1 and 3:30 p.m.
THEATER
• Combat Hippies, a Miami-based ensemble of performing artists and Puerto Rican military veterans, presents its “Amal” at the Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts at Ramapo College in Mahwah, Nov. 16 at 8 p.m. According to the Ramapo website, the piece “explores the search for meaning, purpose, and identity through enlisting in the military, as well as Puerto Rico’s cultural and military history … (and) delves into the impact of war on both combatants and noncombatants as people of color, and shares experiences of veteran’s adjustment to life after war.” (see trailer below)
The cover of Gina Schock’s “Made in Hollywood: All Access With the Go-Go’s.”
OTHER
• Gina Schock, drummer for The Go-Go’s (who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month), will promote her memoir “Made in Hollywood: All Access With the Go-Go’s” with an appearance at the Bookends book store in Ridgewood, Nov. 18 at 6 p.m.
• The poet Paul Muldoon, a Princeton University professor and Pulitzer Prize winner, has organized this year’s Princeton Poetry Festival, taking place at the Berlind Theatre at the McCarter Theatre Center, Nov. 12 from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The festival will feature panel discussions on the subject of “Poetry and Purpose,” a lecture by Sasha Dugdale on contemporary Russian poetry, and readings by Dugdale, Polina Barskova, Victoria Chang, Laura Kasischke, Daljit Nagra, Patricia Smith, Reginald Dwayne Betts and Javier Zamora.
• The New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival will take place at Showboat in Atlantic City, Nov. 12-14, with screenings, memorabilia vendors, cosplay and appearances by actors such as Tom Sizemore, Kimberly J. Brown, Felissa Rose, Alex Vincent, Mark Metcalf and John O’Hurley; musicians Lita Ford and Richie Ramone; comedian Jackie “The Joke Man” Martling; and others.
REVIEWS
“No Nukes” film and CD, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
“Dear Jack, Dear Louise,” presented by George Street Playhouse at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. (Through Nov. 21.)
“What Doesn’t Kill You” at NJ Repertory Company, Long Branch. (Through Nov. 21)
“Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through Jan. 2)
“Doug Herren: Color-Forms/Ceramic Structures” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Jan. 9)
“On and Off the Streets: Urban Art New Jersey” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Feb. 27)
“Bruce Springsteen Live!” at Grammy Museum Experience Prudential Center, Newark. (Through March 20)
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