If you feel like learning something before grooving out, go to keet.org to register for a seat at the Arcata Playhouse for a free screening of the new documentary We Want the Funk! about the history of that groovy, butt-rattling genre of music. Afterward, you can enjoy a set of some of that good stuff […]
Arcata Playhouse
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Music Tonight: Sunday, May 11
More jazz on the docket tonight, when the Creative Sanctuary presents Jazz is Peace: A tribute to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn at the Arcata Playhouse tonight at 7 p.m. The line-up features a rogues gallery of top-notch musicians, including James Zeller, Katie Belknap, Danny Gaon, Ramsey Isaacs, Allison Muench, Matt Seno and Tree. There’s […]
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Music Tonight: Saturday, May 3
True North Duo are Kristen Grainger and Dan Wetzel, who together have crafted a sound built of the finest aspects of bluegrass, pulling off large feats of instrumental prowess and vocal intensity that break containment from the usual restrictions of a less populated act in this genre of music. You can enjoy that sound this […]
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Music Tonight: Sunday, April 27
One thing I learned a long time ago in my playing days, especially in New Orleans and Nashville, is that groups and artists come and go with the charts, but studio musicians and backing bands endure because they are made from a different style of workmanship than your average stage-dweller. They have the chops and […]
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Music Tonight: Tuesday, April 1
Due to the increasingly absurd seriousness of the world married to an also increasingly evil and clownish state of domestic affairs, plus my previous underestimation of how painfully literal some people take in information in this column and beyond, I have learned not to engage in April Fool’s gags in print anymore. So I am […]
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Music Tonight: Tuesday, March 11
The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet — and drums — are an interesting group, as are most of the musical caravans who drift through the oasis of the Arcata Playhouse. Named in homage to the late, pioneering, transgender saxophonist Billy Tipton, this all-female sax quartet — again, with drums added — has a wide range of styles […]
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Burn, Baby, Burn
When Mavis Muller found herself in Arcata last year, she knew she had landed somewhere special. A renowned basket weaver, storyteller and installation artist — as well as a self-described “migratory artist” — Muller leaves her Alaskan nest during the fall and travels south for several months. While on the road, she exhibits her work […]
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Theater Tonight: Monday, March 3
Πr2 is a multi-media performance of dance — aerial and otherwise — and theater performed solely by women, a trio of international performers, Catalina Nicoletti, Pia Nicoletti and Borja Caraval, all of whom have been crafting their art for most of their lifetimes. It certainly looks like an interesting event, and 8 p.m. isn’t too […]
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Theater Tonight: Sunday, March 2
In deference to different voices and live theatre, I will mention two gigs happening today, Terry Baum’s Lesbo Solo: A Gay History Play at the EXIT Theatre at 3 p.m., and Rebecca McGlynn’s Asexuality: The Musical at the Arcata Playhouse at 7 p.m. Both shows are $20, and might provide a nice counterpoint to the […]
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Music Tonight: Monday, Feb. 17
Up in the Canadian side of the Rocky Mountains you will find the home-turf stamping grounds of The Wardens, a ground of Canuck songsters named after their chosen profession of national park wardens. Expect harmony-laden tales of the wilds of the backcountry and the experiences of the people who oversee its vast wilderness. I think […]
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Music Tonight: Friday, Jan. 31
Master violinist Andrew Finn Magill has taken the time he lived and played in Brazil and created Canto, Violino!, a trio which slithers and pulses between the funnels of choro music, the early fusion ancestor of samba, jazz, and bossa nova. The rest of the group are world class musicians, with Brazilian percussionist Clarice Cast […]
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Music Tonight: Wednesday, Jan. 22
Tonight is the first of a two-night residency at the Arcata Playhouse for the Jamie Baum Quartet. Headed by the namesake flautist, this is modern jazz played about as good as it gets, as the CVs of each member is a who’s who of the big players out there making and defining the genre in […]