Francis Vanek is a Pennsylvania-born but West Coast rambling ace saxophonist of the latter-day jazz genre. He is bringing his Quartet back to the Basement tonight at 7:30 p.m. for an evening of the good stuff that will heal what ails you for a mere $5.
Francis Vanek
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Land Speed Record
The title of this week’s edition comes from Minnesota punk pioneers Hüsker Dü’s intense 1981 concert album, after the group had — allegedly — discovered a performance-enhancing drug that sometimes goes by the second word in the said title, but before they essentially invented pop punk. It is a rough and wonderful crash course of […]
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Music Tonight: Thursday, July 9
Francis Vanek is an exceptional tenor sax player who is likely familiar tomany of you in the jazz community, having played around these parts quitea few times over the years with local jazz studs RLA along with othervarious groups. Whether you are a returning audience member oruninitiated fan-to-be, you should roll through the Basement after […]
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The Pan Piper
A few weeks ago, I wrote an intro here about a dawn chorus of birds I heard while camping. I titled that column “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” after a famous chapter from The Wind in the Willows, in which the pagan god Pan appears as a benevolent shepherd of animals to help the […]
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Get the Folk Up
Thursday You might want to start getting comfortable up in Blue Lake in the run up to the Humboldt Folklife Festival. Start off this evening at the Mad River Brewery with folky fiddle tunes from Fingal, which will be starting it up around 6 p.m. and for free. Remember, kids and dogs are welcome, but […]