It’s been a busy month in Lake Santa Barbara, and the going is getting extra-busy this weekend. Choices will have to be made for serious music fans of many stripes. An embarrassment of riches, as they say, is before us. For one, two of the most legendary names in jazz on this year’s concert calendar happen to be flying into the 805 zone within the next few days.
Tonight, May 15, the kinder, gentler guitar hero Bill Frisell finally makes it back to the ideally Frisell-friendly venue of the Lobero Theatre, as part of the Good Dog band’s west coast tour (see story here), with old pals Greg Liesz on pedal steel, drummer Rudy Royston, and bassist Tony Scherr. Expect to be bathed in the left-of-rootsy goodness of material from the 1999 album Good Dog, Happy Man (listen here), which extends its appeal from jazz fans, as such, to general warm-spirited music, as such.
Two nights later, on Saturday, May 17, famed trumpeter-composer-bandleader-arts-advocate Wynton Marsalis returns to town, at the Arlington Theatre, in one of his many visitations hosted by UCSB Arts & Lectures (see story here). He was last in town with his septet in a casual jam-style set. This time around, he brings a 13-piece ensemble to play the live score to Daniel Pritzker’s impressive 2010 silent film LOUIS — roughly speaking, a companion piece to Pritzker’s fine Buddy Bolden biopic Bolden, on which passionate jazz historian Marsalis played much of the trumpet and cornet work. Marsalis and co. will also supply a purely musical set to follow the film component.
This week, Santa Barbara definitely qualifies as a “jazz town.”
Fiddler-cum-Violinist Extraordinaire Walks the Classical-Bluegrass Line
One of the clear high points of this spring’s musical menu in town came from a worldly violinist Gilles Apap, who wowed the crowd at his CAMA-sponsored recital at the Lobero in March. He was up to his old “tricks” (very musical tricks) of blending his classical virtuosity with his love of old-timey, Romani, Hot Club jazz, and other musical leanings. No prim fussiness here, just a fount of entertainment…