THURSDAY
JAZZ
SAMORA PINDERHUGHES
Modern celebrities wear causes like fashion fads; they’re activists for a moment and then they’re on to the next “in” thing. Not Samora Pinderhughes. He’s not only an acclaimed jazz musician and singer—he graduated from the Juilliard School to perform at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Sundance Film Festival, for instance—but he’s also the founder of The Healing Project, an artistic collection of 100 intergenerational interviews reflecting on themes like the complex realities of trauma and passed-down self-care methods. He is also a Blackout for Human Rights member and has worked on other projects that mix art, politics and radical history. – MAT WEIR
INFO: Thu, 8pm, Cornerstone, 2367 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. $33. 510.214.8600.
THURSDAY
FOLK
JULIE BETH NAPOLIN
Ever met or read about someone gifted at whatever they do? That’s Julie Beth Napolin, and while she’d probably be the first to point out that she worked incredibly hard to get where she is, a healthy dose of talent certainly didn’t hurt. Along with being a musician who helped form Bay Area acts Meridians and Citay, and an author of multiple publications on sound, media and literature, she’s also an editor and professor at The New School. Her debut album, Only the Void Stands Between Us, just dropped, and Bay Area experimental musician Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance) described her esoterically ethereal music as “cosmic folk of the highest caliber.” – MW
INFO: Thu, 8pm, Thee Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $13/adv, $16/door. 510.859.8709.
THURSDAY
POETRY
OAKSLAM25
Twenty-five years of fermentation have produced some of the Bay Area’s shining stars in spoken word poetry. Led by Oakland Slam founder Sonia Whittle and producer Dahled Jeffries, this anniversary celebration showcases local performers running the gamut from elite, highly established literary lips in action to the edgiest poetry pioneers of today—and tomorrow. The all-ages event offers the best way to experience the power of a community and a city that’s not shy or shaming about its flaws and pockmarks, but also not hesitant to call out the highlights, speak forth the joy and revel in the glory of poetry that holds the potential to transform every listener. – LOU FANCHER
INFO: Thu, 8pm, Crybaby, 1928 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $20/adv, $32/door.
FRIDAY
HIP-HOP
NUEVE LIO
There’s no question: Nueve Lio is a charmer. “If being a bad bitch was a crime / you’d be locked up,” he sings at the start of his hit single, “DATS MY BABY!” Blending R&B, trap and other hip-hop influences, the Inland Empire rapper has developed a sleek image and catchy sound over the last few years. His album, 5L NUEVE, features popular tracks like “LANDMINE” and “FEELIN’ SMOOVE,” proving that this confident lyricist has an endless supply of words up his sleeve. Also, with his Filipino roots, he’s making waves as an Asian-American rapper on the rise. – ADDIE MAHMASSANI
INFO: Fri, 8pm, New Parish, 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. $26. 510.227.8177.
FRIDAY
METAL
ZEAL & ARDOR
Black metal’s atmospheric intensity and raw emotional power make it a surprisingly effective base for brewing other sounds. Formed in 2013, Swiss band Zeal & Ardor emerged from an experiment to merge two seemingly incompatible genres: black metal and the African American spiritual. Frontperson Manuel Gagneux rose to the challenge, and the recipe didn’t disappoint him. Zeal & Ardor’s music blends the holy and the occult, idiosyncratically exploring themes of rebellion, identity and mysticism in tortured riffs and haunting melodies. – SONYA BENNETT-BRANDT
INFO: Fri, 8pm, UC Theater, 2036 University Ave., Berkeley. $39. 510.356.4000.
FRIDAY
INDIE
SOUR WIDOWS
The Bay Area’s Sour Widows whisk rock, shoegaze, folk and grunge into some deeply emotional storytelling. The group was created by childhood summer camp friends Maia Sinaiko and Susanna Thomson, and expanded to include drummer Max Edelman and bassist Timmy Stabler. The quartet preserves the intimacy of lifelong friendship, creating a sound oscillating between serene harmonies and cathartic, feedback-laden bursts. As they write on their website, their music is “a way to process real-time woes so as to transmute them into something beautiful, useful, real and lasting.” With poetic lyricism, Sour Widows balances pain with warmth. – SBB
INFO: Fri, 8pm, Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. $15/adv, $18/door. 510.808.7565.
SATURDAY
DANCE
‘THE NUTCRACKER SUITE’
Michelle Dorrance and company sweep into Berkeley with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s reinterpretation of Tchaikovsky’s classic, adding the click-clack of tap dance to their compilation of jazz magic. Out of the romp comes a dance with on-purpose, shoe-generated acoustics—none of that “don’t make noise with your hard-as-tacks ballerina pointe shoes” garbage. The company offers soaring, vivacious and vigorous physicality to boot, and even in boots. What’s not lost is the story of a girl who dreams big and dances bigger. It’s imaginative, fantastically performed and runs 80 minutes without intermission. – LF
INFO: Sat, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall, 101 Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. $30-$125. 510.642.9988.
SATURDAY
JAZZ
NICOLAS BEARDE
As a soulful jazz crooner equally adept at delivering American Songbook and R&B standards, Nicolas Bearde is a Bay Area treasure whose welcoming warmth is as dependable as a well-tended hearth. In its 17th season, his annual holiday concert is something of an institution, a setting in which he ranges across a repertoire gleaned from Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Lou Rawls. He’s joined by a superlative combo featuring veteran pianist John R. Burr and the tandem rhythm section of drummer Sylvia Cuenca and bassist Essiet Okon Essiet, who’s a former member of Art Blakey’s the Jazz Messengers. A reception follows the performance. – ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: Sat, 5:30pm, Piedmont Piano Company, 1728 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. $30/adv, $35/door. 510.547.8188.
SUNDAY
INDIE
YUMA ABE
Tokyo-based singer-songwriter Yuma Abe is always up to something surprising. As a solo artist and a member of the band Never Young Beach, he’s crafted dreamy soft-rock worlds—often with a strong visual component—for two decades. His solo debut, Fantasia, allowed him to work with a hero-turned-mentor, Japanese pop legend Haruomi Hosono. Most recently, he released Hotel New Yuma, a concept album of nine jingles from a fictional variety show set in prewar Japan. “I wanted to go back to that time,” Abe says. “I wanted to touch and smell it. But that was not possible, so I decided to create my own version.” – AM
INFO: Sun, 8pm, Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany. $15/adv, $18/door. 510.526.5888.
MONDAY
JAZZ
MIKE STERN BAND
Mike Stern catapulted to renown during his early ’80s stint with trumpet legend Miles Davis, contributing incendiary solos on Star People and the live album, We Want Miles. He’s been recording as a leader ever since, building an indecently pleasurable discography brimming with interesting settings for his thick, tangy tone. For this tour, Stern is joined by British electric bassist Janek Gwizdala and saxophonist Bob Franceschini, who has been a close collaborator for the past quarter century. Most enticing is the drum-chair presence of powerhouse Dennis Chambers, who has been a funk fusion force since joining Parliament-Funkadelic in 1978 at 18, a gig he kept until 1985. – AG
INFO: Mon, 7:30pm, Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. $29-$74. 510.238.9200.
