NICOLE RECOMMENDS:
ELVIS CRESPO -- (Billboard-charting, Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning New York-born Puerto Rico-raised singing sensation Crespo became a household name in the mid-’90s with his hit “Suavemente,” and he hasn't stopped since. Playing with a full band, blending merengue, salsa, bachata, vallenato and Latin dance, you can bet this is going to be a wildly energetic show that gets you out of your seat and moving to some sweet ritmos picante.) -- Fri 9 p.m., Mayan Theater, DTLA, $38.
RECOMMENDED:
TONIGHT! -- POWER TO THE PEOPLE! - LA PHIL presents TERENCE BLANCHARD “Songversation” -- (the USA Fellow, five-time Grammy-winning trumpeter/composer has been an artistic force making powerful musical statements about American tragedies past and present, here discusses his legendary career and nearly three decades-long collaboration with director Spike Lee) -- Thurs 7 p.m., California African American Museum, Exposition Park LA, free.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE! - The Movie Music of Spike Lee and TERENCE BLANCHARD (the renowned trumpeter-bandleader’s lush scores have augmented the political heart and humanitarian spirit of Lee’s movies, now the music comes to life at the hands of Blanchard’s E-Collective and guest vocalists including Ben Harper, Anthony Hamilton, Valerie June, with specially curated images of the films projected throughout the performance, this sounds like a rare, terrific multimedia experience) -- Sat 8 p.m., Walt Disney Concert Hall, DTLA, $52-$97.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE! - CECILE MCLORIN SALVANT (Salvant is truly a jazz phenom vocalist apparently unwilling to rest on her considerable talents and reputation, now offering probably her most ambitious project yet, combining jazz and bluegrass in a poignant fairytale “Ogresse,” a wicked work about a human-eating monster who lives in the woods, a clear departure from her lauded interpretations of standards, this program has real implications for life in America in the 21st century, told from the distinct perspective of a young black woman, a revelatory and too-timely masterwork) -- Sun 7:30 p.m., Walt Disney Concert Hall, DTLA, $60-$127.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE! - DR. ANGELA DAVIS -- (lordy, a name from my college days of social upheaval, Davis was an outspoken advocate of an American society equal for all and now half a century later we have people calling such a notion espoused by presidential candidates radical and unacceptable, not so fast, it will be most interesting to hear her cultural perspective on the role art has played in social justice movements and its potential to effect change today, from the unique life path she has travelled) -- Wed 8 p.m., Walt Disney Concert Hall, DTLA, $10.
KINKY FRIEDMAN, Phil Cody -- (the Kinkster is back! the self-described Texas Jewboy is always a welcome sight but maybe even a more welcome sound this time around because he will likely play from his newest album that leads off with a different, unexpected take on “Mandela’s Blues,” then into title cut “Resurrection,” the video single a touching tale of the singer’s down and out friends, with Willie chiming in, am I reading too much in but the vid ends at 4:08 and then we see a photo of the two caballeros, then an ending clip of a mule neighing and horses running through until it takes it to exactly… 4:20, was that your idea, Willie?) -- Fri 8 p.m., McCabe’s, SM, $35.
PUSSY RIOT -- (I saw PR some months ago at the Broad and hadn’t done my homework to know that I would not be seeing the brave quartet of Putin-defying rock and roll dissident Russian women, two of whom wound up in Siberian prison camps after a societal-shifting “trial,” and was wondering how I felt about the whole show being just leader Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, but Pussy Riot was always a collective with a shifting lineup and if this performance is again just Tolokonnikova, you will marvel that her dazzling, provocative multimedia stage show meets all expectations) -- Fri 8 p.m., 1720, DTLA, $28.
BURGERAMA 5 -- (Burger Records’ annual blowout, 30 bands! -- got to be somebody there you’ll fall in love with, headlining the Mummies, Flaming Groovies, Hollywood Stars, the Cosmonauts, and Apache’s last show ever! ...they say) -- Sat 12N-12M, Echo/Echoplex, $25-$35.
JACARANDA - AGONY & ECSTASY -- (Ravel and Messiaen, and contemporaries Andres and our own Billy Childs, Jacaranda promises a wild ride, a “dangerous journey” from just now back to 1908, with pianists Steven Vanhauwaert and Mark Robson) -- Sat 8 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, SM, $20-$45
SNOOP DOGG, Travis Barker -- (@The FanDuel WFBBC After Party, I’m not going to pretend I know or, let’s be honest, care, what this is and I’m not going to take the time to look it up but I would go see Snoop at a Bat Mitzvah, 7-11 opening or, heck, even coaching a kids’ football game if he promised to rap, show up when the doors open and you can knock back part of your 40 buck cover charge from the open bar, 10-11) -- Sat 10 p.m., Globe Theater, DTLA, $40.
HOT CLUB OF L.A. (they rocked it, or, swung it, really, hard and fast at the Ruskin Group Theatre last Sat, a nearly two hour set for their release party of “Cinema Swing,” including several terrific originals sounding 100 years old, but you can catch them again every Monday night for going on nine years now at the cramped but cool Culver City dive Cinema Bar, for no cover, so come hear one of LA’s music treasures says Jackson Browne and me, these guys just whale on Django-style jazz at breakneck speed but virtuosic precision and a whole lot of gypsy soul) -- Mon 9 p.m., Cinema Bar, Culver City, free.
SOUNDWAVES - COLD BLUE MUSIC -- (Venice-based Cold Blue Music label celebrates three new albums of atmospheric and melodic postminimalism with this concert, "The Basketweave Elegies" by Peter Garland, nine short movements for solo vibraphone, performed by Michael Jones, "Splectra" by Robert Carl, performed by harpist Alison Bjorkedal with the composer on electronics, and "Bridges of Pearl and Dust" by Michael Byron, performed by Jordan Curcuruto, Kevin Good, Katie Eikam and Michael Jones on three vibraphones, all are world premieres) -- Wed 7:30 p.m., Main Library, SM, free.
GRACE POTTER -- (I loved her first band Grace Potter & the Nocturnals 10 years ago the first time I heard “Paris, Ooh La La,” an explosive, perfect rock song, then I saw the video, ooh la la indeed, long legs to make you forget Tina Turner, she left the band behind to perform with everyone from Heart, just killing their best songs going toe to toe with soprano shouter Ann Wilson, to the Avett Brothers, the Rolling Stones, Gov’t Mule, Flaming Lips, Jackson Browne, Lucius, Trey Anastasio, CMA music video of the year with Kenny Chesney, she’s a songwriter, writer, actress, multi-instrumentalist, voiceover talent, but mostly a really powerful singer who takes over a stage) -- next Thurs 8 p.m., El Rey Theatre, Miracle Mile LA, $40.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: TAJ MAHAL QUARTET 3/20, The Canyon Agoura Hills. 3/21 The Canyon Montclair, 3/22 The Canyon Santa Clarita; JESSE DAYTON 3/21, McCabe’s, SM; MONTY ALEXANDER TRIO 3/21, BILL HOLMAN’S BIG BAND 3/28, PETER ERSKINE TRIO 3/29, Jazz Bakery, SM; SARAH SILVERMAN & ALL STARS 3/22, Largo, LA; SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS 3/28, Teragram Ballroom, DTLA; NATHANIEL RATELiFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS 4/1, 2, 3, Theatre at Ace Hotel, DTLA; SOUNDWAVES - MICHAEL ROTH 4/2, Main Library, SM; DIONNE WARWICK 4/11, BETH HART 4/18, The Saban Theater, Beverly Hills.
