Sea.Hear.Now will take place in Asbury Park, Sept. 14-15.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Sept. 19.
MUSIC
• Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band will perform on the Asbury Park beach for the first time ever when they co-headline this year’s Sea.Hear.Now festival in Asbury Park, performing last on the second day of the Sept. 14-15 event. Other performers in New Jersey’s biggest annual music festival will include Noah Kahan, The Black Crowes, 311, The Revivalists, The Hives, Grace Potter, Guster and Robert Randolph on Sept. 14; and The Gaslight Anthem, The Trey Anastasio Band, Norah Jones, Kool & the Gang, Action Bronson and Gogol Bordello on Sept. 15.
The festival will also offer surfing events and late night shows (tickets sold separately) at The Stone Pony (Grace Potter, Sept. 13; Tangiers Blues Band and The Ocean Ave. Stompers, Sept. 14) and The Wonder Bar (Tide Bends, Not Yer Baby and Surfing for Daisy, Sept. 13; Grateful Dead drag cover band Bertha, Sept. 14). And there will be an after-party show at Asbury Lanes, Sept. 15, with The Chesterfield Kings, Bobby Mahoney, Wyldlife, The Shang Hi Los and Joy Buzzer.
• Jazz House Kids’ 15th annual Montclair Jazz Festival will culminate Sept. 14 with a free “Downtown Jamboree” featuring music on two downtown Montclair stages by Kenny Garrett, Lisa Fischer & Grand Baton, Christian McBride & Inside Straight, Jerome Jennings & ill Philosophy, The Edmar Castañeda Quartet, The Steve Turre Sextet, Brianna Thomas and others, with comedian Alonzo Bodden co-hosting. Much of downtown Montclair will be closed to vehicular traffic to allow people to explore the music stages, the food and arts vendors, the festival’s Verizon Family Jazz Discovery Zone, the downtown Montclair stores and more.
JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR
• The free, annual Morristown Jazz and Blues Festival will take place at its usual location, Morristown Green in downtown Morristown, Sept. 14, with five acts scheduled to perform. Blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor will headline at 8 p.m. Frequent festival performers Louis Prima Jr. & the Witnesses will present their high-energy stage show at 6 p.m. Richie “LaBamba” Rosenberg’s 19-piece Rock ’n R&B Big Band, will perform at 4 p.m., with singer and harmonica player Rob Paparozzi featured as a special guest. The 18-piece U.S. Navy Band Commodores will play jazz at 2 p.m. And “hot jazz” group The Hot Sardines, featuring singer Elizabeth Bougerol and pianist Evan Palazzo, will open the show at noon.
• Riverview Jazz and the Exchange Place Alliance will present the free Jersey City Latin Jazz Festival, Sept. 14 from 1 to 8 p.m. at Exchange Place Plaza, with Jimmy Bosch Salsa Masters, John Benitez, Chino Pons & Grupo Irek, Ariacne Trujillo Quartet, United Children’s Music Project Latin Ensemble and others, plus Salsa dance lessons, food trucks and children’s programming.
• The blues-rock band The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Weight Band (featuring guitarist Jim Weider of The Band) and the Grateful Dead cover band Dead On Live will perform at the free Union County Fall Festival taking place at Oak Ridge Park in Clark, Sept. 14 from 4 to 10 p.m. The event will also feature a micro beer garden and food trucks. Diapers and other baby supplies will be collected for donation to local charities.
TOM JONES
• Tom Jones, who is 82 and still singing as well as he ever has, will perform at the Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. Jones’ 2021 album Surrounded by Time included an extremely eclectic batch of songs such as Bob Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee,” the Mike Scott-written Waterboys song “This Is the Sea,” Todd Snider’s satiric “Talking Reality Television Blues” and the pop standard “The Windmills of Your Mind.” Jones’ shows typically combine some of his recently recorded material with hits such as “It’s Not Unusual,” “What’s New Pussycat?” and “Delilah.”
• The four original members of the indie-rock band The dB’s (guitarist Chris Stamey, guitarist and keyboardist Peter Holsapple, bassist Gene Holder and drummer Will Rigby) are reuniting for some shows this fall, including one at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City, Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. The band reissued its debut album, Stands for deciBels (1981), in June, and will do the same for its sophomore effort, Repercussion (1982), on Oct. 18.
MUSIC/VISUAL ARTS
• Singer-songwriter Marti Jones will display her art in an exhibition titled “People and Motion” at 503 Social Club in Hoboken, from Sept. 14 to Oct. 13, and perform at the opening reception, as a duo with her husband Don Dixon, Sept. 14 at 6:30 p.m.
Jones has said: “I love to paint people doing things. I try to convey their movement from the canvas. I want the figure to give a clue as to what happened before and after that frozen moment. A simple endeavor has the potential to tell a story. There is always a story. … I’ve included a variety of paintings for this particular gathering. Some are old and some are new. There are a number of references for these works — friends, films, family, drinkers, diners, and dancers.”
Andy Bright and Isabella Rossellini.
THEATER
• Isabella Rossellini and her longtime stage and screen collaborator Andy Bright will present a new work, “Onward,” at ArtYard in Frenchtown, Sept. 13-14 at 8 p.m. It is described on the ArtYard website as an “exploration on how art can be used to interpret the various animal behaviors of the birds and the bees. … Presented through dance and film, puppets and projected animations, as well as commentary by Isabella Rossellini, ‘Onward’ playfully illustrates some of the ethological discoveries that have continued to move the cycles of life in the animal kingdom forward.”
• The 1986 low-budget horror film “The Toxic Avenger” was improbably made into a musical in 2008, with music by Bon Jovi member David Bryan and a book by Joe DiPietro (“Memphis,” “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”). It premiered at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick and ran off-Broadway in 2009, winning the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Off-Broadway Musical. The South Camden Theatre Company will present it at The Waterfront South Theatre from Sept. 13 to Sept. 29.
• The comedian Lewis Black is also a playwright, and Hunterdon Hills Playhouse in Hampton will present his “One Slight Hitch” — which has been described as a “wedding-day farce” — from Sept. 18 to Oct. 12.
Gena Rowlands in “A Woman Under the Influence.”
FILM
• Gena Rowlands, who died last month at the age of 94, won a Golden Globe Award and received one of her two Academy Award nominations for “A Woman Under the Influence” — John Cassavetes’ harrowing 1974 drama about a mentally ill woman — and The Clairidge in Montclair will screen it, Sept. 13-19.
• Continuing its tradition of screening the 1980 horror classic “Friday the 13th” — filmed in and around Blairstown — every time the 13th of the month falls on a Friday, Roy’s Hall in Blairstown will show the movie, Sept. 13, with screenings at 6:30 and 9 p.m.
OTHER
• Luis A. Miranda Jr., a veteran community organizer, activist and political adviser (and also the father of “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda) has written a book titled “Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America” and will talk about it, and sign copies of it, at Room A of Bethany Hall at Seton Hall University in South Orange, Sept. 19 at 6 p.m.
• Sept. 17 marks the 141st anniversary of the birth of the poet and doctor William Carlos Williams, and on that day, the venue named after him — The Williams Center in Rutherford — will celebrate with a William Carlos Williams Day, including three free events: A discussion with his granddaughter Daphne Williams Fox about her upcoming book, “The Poet’s Granddaughter,” at 6 p.m.; a screening of the 2016, Jim Jarmusch-directed movie “Paterson,” at 7 p.m. ; and a listening session featuring Williams’ poetry at 9 p.m.
While Williams, who died in 1963, lived in Rutherford for most of his life, he often wrote about Paterson; the movie “Paterson” is about a modern poet and bus driver, played by Adam Driver, who lives in Paterson.
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REVIEWS
“Sense and Sensibility” at Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey at Drew University, Madison. (Through Sept. 22)
“Diversion” at Bauer Boucher Theatre Center at Kean University, Union. (Through Sept. 22)
“Suleika Jaouad and Anne Francey: The Alchemy of Blood” at ArtYard, Frenchtown. (Through Sept. 22)
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 2)
“Bony Ramirez: Cattleya” at Newark Museum of Art. (Through March 9)
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