Freebie of the week: All kinds of musicians are playing all kinds of music at free community concerts enlivening the Bay Area this summer. On Thursday, one of the world’s finest fiddler-violinists appears in San Mateo, performing a form of roots music that will have you busting a move or two. Tom Rigney, an Alameda native and son of a professional baseball player and manager, plays Cajun and Zydeco music that’s a joy to behold. He’s been a busy part of the Bay Area music scene for some 50 years, fronting such bands as Back in the Saddle, The Sun Dogs and now Flambeau. The acclaimed Cajun-swing outfit is revered for impressive and passionate performances and tunes that will put a smile on your face and a spring in your step. Tom Rigney and Flambeau has released close to a dozen albums over the years, the latest being “Let the Four Winds Blow.” He writes much of his band’s music, although his concert setlist has been known to include a Cajun classic or two. Tom Rigney and Flambeau perform for free from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday as part of the San Mateo Central Park Music Series, 50 E. Fifth Ave. A wide variety of food vendors on hand as well as purveyors of beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages. More information is at www.cityofsanmateo.org/1367/Central-Park-Music-Series.
Epps branches out: Mike Epps has said that performing comedy saved his life, after he endured a rough and impoverished childhood in Indiana. But standup isn’t his only game these days. He’s made steady strides acting, starring or appearing in big- and small-screen comedies and dramas. He currently produces and stars in the sitcom “The UpShaws,” with Wanda Sykes and Kim Fields (on Netflix), which is based on his early years. He’s also been in films ranging from “Next Friday” and “Friday After Next” (with Ice Cube), to 2012’s “Sparkle,” a Supremes-inspired film with Jordin Sparks and Whitney Houston (it was his first dramatic role); and the provocative dark comedies “Meet the Blacks” and “The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2.” Epps, who kicked off his comedy career in the Def Comedy Jam Tour, is hardly turning his back on standup, however. He’s bringing his current tour to San Jose Improv for five performances Friday through Sunday. Tickets are $61.53 (including service charges); go to improv.com/sanjose.
Third World in Berkeley: It was 51 years ago that Third World, an upstart reggae band, joined the Wailers, an already-well-established band, as opening acts for the Jackson Five at the Jamaica National Stadium in Kingston. The Wailers were well on the way to becoming global superstars, but Third World, until then, had been playing mainly small clubs and hotels. The stadium gig helped Third World get signed to a major label (Island Records) and land a European tour. While the band never achieved the same level of fame as The Wailers, it’s still going strong today. Its tour comes to The Freight in Berkeley on Saturday. The band, which has seen some personnel changes, frequently broadens its traditional Jamaican sound with elements of soul, funk, rock, dancehall and disco. As bassist Richard Daley once put it, “We took roots reggae music and put branches on top of it.” The band’s most recent album, “More Work To Be Done,” was produced by Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and nominated for a Grammy for best reggae album. The band has released more than two dozen studio and live albums in all and received nine Grammy nominations. Music at The Freight starts at 8 p.m.; a portion of the venue will be open for dancing. Tickets are $42-$44; go to thefreight.org.
The genius of G&S: “We sail the ocean blue, and our saucy ship’s a beauty; We’re sober men and true, and attentive to our duty.” Catchy, no? Just begs to be sung loud and lustily. And so it is, as the merry opening, sung by the crew, to “H.M.S. Pinafore,” the first big hit that W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan had back in 1878, now being brought to the stage by The Lamplighters at three Bay Area theaters, debuting at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek at 2 p.m. Saturday. Lowly sailor Ralph Rackstraw loves Josephine, the Captain’s daughter, but her loftier social status is a problem—that gets comically and happily resolved. The production stars Max Ary as Rackstraw, Syona Ayyankeril as Josephine, Carly Ozard as Sir Joseph Porter, Tony De Lousia as Captain Corcoran and Sarah Szeibel as Buttercup. The production repeats at 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday in Walnut Creek before moving to the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts for 2 p.m. performances Aug. 9-10. It concludes at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, at 2 p.m. Aug. 16 and 8 p.m. Aug. 17. Tickets, $35-$95, are available at lamplighters.org.
A world premiere: It’s a true story about an indefatigable woman that seems tailor-made for a grand operatic treatment. Labor activist Dolores Huerta, in the third year of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow rabble rousers for-a-cause César Chavez and Larry Itliong in the national farmworkers strike and the grape boycott, shares a triumphant moment in the Ambassador Hotel ballroom with U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy—right before he is felled by assassin Sirhan Sirhan. The struggles involved in the prequel and aftermath of that fateful event have been transformed by Southern California composer Nicolás Lell Benavides and librettist Marella Martin Koch into West Edge Opera’s “Dolores,” a co-commission with San Diego Opera, at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center. Starring mezzo-soprano Kelly Guerra as Huerta, bass-baritone Rolfe Dauz as Chavez and tenor Alex Boyer as Kennedy, the opera will have repeat performances at 2 p.m. Aug. 10 and 8 p.m. Aug. 16. Find tickets, $22-$172, at westedgeopera.org.
The post Best Bets: Tom Rigney and Flambeau, Mike Epps, Third World’s reggae, ‘H.M.S. Pinafore,’ ‘Dolores’ opera premiere appeared first on Local News Matters.