THURSDAY, FEB. 12
JAZZ
THE BAYLOR PROJECT
The husband-and-wife team of Jean and Marcus Baylor has mined a rich vein of Black music where jazz, R&B, gospel and fusion coalesce. She first gained renown as a vocalist in the R&B duo Zhané, while he spent a decade with the Yellowjackets. They joined forces in the Baylor Project, a group that boasts a stellar cast of side players, including pianist Keith Brown. Brandon Rose holds down the bass chair, while the horn section features trumpet great Freddie Hendrix and veteran saxophonist Keith Loftis. The Baylor Project’s latest album, The Evening: Live at Apparatus, captures the band in full flight, combining sanctified fervor, jazz improvisation and insinuating R&B grooves. – ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: Thu, 8pm, The Freight, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. $39-$44. 510.644.2020.
THURSDAY, FEB. 12
FOLK
HEATHER MALONEY
Heather Maloney released her ninth album, Exploding Star, just over a year ago, and has said that despite its sad inspiration—the death of her father—she’s experienced joy and healing in the process of writing, recording and performing it. The folk artist is known for the depth of emotion her songs and singing reveal. Her 2014 album, Woodstock, was praised by another musician known for capturing deep feelings, Graham Nash. Her soaring voice on Exploding Star’s title track sings, “Should I move to the desert, find your love among the stars?/Or are you also in the constellations made from little particles?” We all want to know. – JANIS HASHE
INFO: Thu, 8pm, The Back Room, 1984 Bonita Ave., Berkeley. $20. 510.654.3808.
THURSDAY, FEB. 12
COUNTRY
JONNY FRITZ
Ever heard of “Dad Country”? Singer/songwriter Jonny Fritz invented the genre to describe his combo of country and Western music. Note that he recorded his first few albums as “Jonny Corndawg,” which reveals quite a bit about this musician who is also a leatherworker, real estate agent and music director of “boutique music venue” Little Saint in Sonoma County. His tracks reflect this innate eclecticism, ranging from reasonably corny country, such as “Suck In Your Gut,” all the way to “Forever Whatever,” recorded in India and featuring a brother-and-sister duo who run a “music ashram.” Really. – JH
INFO: Thu, 8pm, Thee Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $20-$23. 510.859.8709.
FRIDAY, FEB. 13
JAZZ
STANLEY CLARKE
An unstoppable force has kept four-time Grammy award winner Stanley Clarke sitting behind an electric or acoustic bass for more than 50 years. With over 40 albums, draped with performance awards and honors, and celebrated for his work as a film and TV composer, Clarke keeps churning out cool-to-hot jazz. Never a musician to rest on laurels or coast comfortably on music stools, Clarke’s projects in recent years include a web series, a multi-year artist-in-residency that included arts education and curating a jazz festival, and ongoing work with his wife, Sofia, related to the Stanley Clarke Foundation that offers scholarships to young musicians. – LOU FANCHER
INFO: Fri, 7:30pm, Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. $49-$99. 510.238.9200.
SATURDAY, FEB. 14
WORLD
KAHIL EL’ZABAR’S ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE
More than gigs, performances by Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble are rituals designed to commune with the ancestors. Embracing the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s ethos—great Black music, ancient to the future—the Chicago percussionist, vocalist, composer and designer launched the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble in 1974. It’s been a creative force ever since. After years of touring as a trio anchored by baritone saxophonist Alex Harding, the group recently expanded with cellist Ishmael Ali joining trumpeter Corey Wilkes—the lineup featured on the upcoming album Let the Spirit Out, Live at “MU” London. The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble is the vehicle for his most audacious and enthralling music. – AG
INFO: Sat, 8pm, The Back Room, 1984 Bonita Ave., Berkeley. $25-$30. 510.654.3808.
SATURDAY, FEB. 14
DANCE
MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY
Martha Graham was the first person to dance at the White House, was a cultural ambassador for the arts, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction. However, possibly her greatest claim to fame is the Graham Technique, a modern dance style based on the opposition between contraction and release, which quickly became the cornerstone of American dance. Though she passed away in 1991 at the age of 96, the dance company she founded and still bears her name continues her legacy into the future. This week join the Martha Graham Dance Company for GRAHAM100, as they celebrate their extraordinary 100th anniversary with two shows over two days. – MAT WEIR
INFO: Sat, 8pm, Cal Performances at 101 Zellerbach Hall, #4800, Berkeley. $56-$94. 510.642.9988.
SATURDAY, FEB. 14
ROCK
RAGANA
Ragana and Drowse meet in the dark shadow cast by Ash Souvenir, a collaborative album that melds Ragana’s raw, politically charged blackened doom and Drowse’s stark, layered slowcore. The combination could have gone wrong, but doesn’t. Ragana’s blown-out distortion and anguished screams grind against Drowse’s hushed vocals, skeletal melodies and long stretches of negative space. Shrieks and howls are all the more ferocious because they alternate with a more soothing, restrained atmosphere. Together, the two acts create a heaviness of both volume and emotional density, and their songs linger and smolder. – SONYA BENNETT-BRANDT
INFO: Sat, 9pm, Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. $20. 510.808.7565
SUNDAY, FEB. 15
BLUES
CEDRIC BURNSIDE
The son of drummer Calvin Jackson, he keeps the surname of his grandfather, the legendary R.L. Burnside. By the time he was 13, he was touring with R.L., drumming for his grandfather’s band. These days, Cedric plays the guitar with nimble fingers, channeling the delta and electric blues from his roots in Tennessee and Mississippi. He’s a multi-Grammy Award-nominated artist recognized across the country for keeping the music of his ancestors alive. More recently, Burnside was featured on the soundtrack for the multi-Oscar-nominated hit movie, Sinners, further carrying the roots of all-American music to a new audience of young people. – MW
INFO: Sun, 7pm, The Freight, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. $39/adv, $44/door. 510.644.2020.
TUESDAY, FEB. 17
POP
MONETOCHKA
Rising out of Russia’s internet-era underground, Monetochka has built her reputation on weaponizing pop’s lightest tools: childlike melodies, cartoonish synths and a deliberately naïve vocal delivery that disguises sharp satire. On her “Fairytale World Tour,” she expands that aesthetic, pulling from more electronically refined material while keeping her lyrical bite intact. Warped fairy-tale imagery becomes a frame for skewering gender roles and cultural myths, all delivered with a girlish wink. With bright colors and danceable flair, Monetochka is able to slip between sincerity and irony without announcing where the line is drawn. – SBB
INFO: Tue, 8pm, UC Theatre, 2036 University Ave., Berkeley. $110. 510.356.4000.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 18
INDIE
CAT POWER
Two decades after Cat Power’s album The Greatest smoked the sound waves, the magnetic songstress returns to perform the album in its entirety along with a special offering, Redux. The new three-song EP includes an updated version of “Could We,” lays out Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” in a heartthrob ballad, and gets steamy blue in a rendition of James Brown’s “Try Me.” This is a show for lovers. A marvelous team travels along: musicians sweeter than a box of chocolates and as grounded in rhythm and rugged tone as boulders. If this troupe were water, the talent pool would be an ocean. If Cat Power’s music were a perfume, it would be musky, mercurial, magnetic and meant to be liberally applied behind, around and in human ears. – LF
INFO: Wed, 8pm, Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $56-$188. 510.302.2250.
