NICOLE RECOMMENDS:
PARASITE -- LIVE TO PICTURE (whether you've seen the Academy Award-nominated film Parasite yet or not, this is sure to be a special experience. The film will be screened with its score performed live to picture, featuring the 37-piece Hollywood Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the composer, Jung Jaeil, with an introduction by director Bong Joon Ho, only in LA, what a town), Sun 7:30 p.m., Ace Hotel Theatre, DTLA, $32-49.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
HARRIET (sensational performance, discussion following with lead actress Cynthia Erivo), Tues 6:30 p.m., Aero Theatre, SM, free with RSVP.
RECOMMENDED:
TONIGHT! --JOHN MAYALL (if I have to tell you who John Mayall is you probably don’t have a deep interest in the blues, he’s the bedrock of British blues whose bands fostered a blues who’s who like Clapton, Mick Taylor, Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, Jack Bruce, Aynsley Dunbar, Harvey Mandel, Red Holloway, up through Coco Montoya, Walter Trout, in his mid-80s, catch him now), Thurs 8 p.m., The Canyon Agoura Hills, Fri 8 p.m., The Canyon Montclair, also Sat 8 p.m., The Rose, Pasadena, $ $24-$38.
THE GRANDMOTHERS OF INVENTION -- (two nearly-original members of Zappa’s The Mothers of Invention, Bunk Gardner blows tenor sax and woodwinds and the great Don Preston, now a respected jazz and rock keyboardist, both creeping pretty close to 90 but still freaking out, and two kids 30 years their junior play Mothers music and how cool is that, they don’t pop up that often, back from their 2018 farewell tour, so I think you ought to haul on out to Highland Park and call any vegetable), Fri 8 p.m., MorYork, Highland Park, $20.
ROBBIE BURNS NIGHT (the party of the year as far as I’m concerned, the friendly confines of our own famous watering hole -- famous for having one of the best selections of both whiskeys and craft beers in the country, and Quentin Tarrantino wrote Kill Bill there, fueled I’m sure by three- or four-digit bar bills of exquisite Scotch -- but this is the night proprietor Phil McGovern acknowledges his Scottish roots and honors Mr. #1 Scot Robert Burns, poet, farmer, politician and lyricist, Olde Lang Syne, with a bountiful table of imported foods like Courageous Cock-A-Leekie soup, Orkney Clapshot, Scotch Eggs and of course the Heroic Haggis which will be processioned solemnly around the bar preceded by a kilted bagpiper, until Burns’ Ode to a Haggis is read by some Scotsman either drunk or Scot enough that you won’t understand a word, the haggis is pierced and the festivities crank up, whiskey specials featuring The Balvenie, be still my soul, any man showing up in a kilt gets 10 percent off his tab, and Phil will probably trot out what I call his kilt tuxedo, worth the price of admission, which is free), Sat 8 p.m., The Daily Pint, SM, free admission, free food, free kilt-watching, pay for drinks.
EDDIE HENDERSON BAND (did you hear him with Herbie Hancock’s amazing configuration in the ‘70s, probably not unless you’re as old as dust but I’m betting he’s even better now, nearly 50 years later, he’s got another legend on drums in Roy McCurdy, worth the price of admission by himself, and I can tell you for sure that his bassist Mike Gurrola is on his way to stellar territory because I saw him there last week with the incomparable Benny Green Trio), Sat 8 p.m., Jazz Bakery, SM, $30-$35.
ERIC ANDERSEN, SCARLET RIVERA (McCabe’s continues to snag the significant troubadours of yore, and while Andersen just missed being part of the original Village and North Beach scenes, he absorbed it all through playing with everyone and having everyone record his songs, like Dylan, Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, Grateful Dead, Kingston Trio, Linda Ronstadt, don’t you want to hear those songs, of course you do, out of the original mouth, and accompanied by the magical violin of Scarlett Rivera, she of Dylan’s Desire and his Rolling Thunder Revue), Sat 8 p.m., McCabe’s, SM, $30.
PACIFIC OPERA PROJECT Presents PUCCINI’S Gianni Schicchi, RAVEL’S L’Enfant et Les Sortilèges (as always, POP promises wonderful, and often weirdly wonderful, as they link Puccini’s only comic opera with Ravel’s The Child and the Spells, bringing to life right there on the stage a mule, a princess, frogs, a dead body, singing chairs, a bat, a math teacher, in total 84 costumed characters, some cohabiting both one-act operas, I can’t wait ), Sat 3 p.m., Occidental College, Highland Park, $15-$60.
BEETHOVEN with EMANUEL AX (can you make it through Ludwig’s Carolan Overture and heroic Piano Concerto #3, I’ll bet you can and will already be in heaven listening to one of the greatest pianists of our time and then after intermission, Beethoven’s 5th, gimme a break) Fri, Sat 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., Disney Hall, DTLA, $103-$239.
BAD HABITS (what took me so long? I’ve been advising you every week to go see this based on the outstanding track record of the Ruskin and in particular of Liar, Liar/Sneaky Ole Time writer Steve Mazer, not to mention getting to see a real pro on the boards in 90-something Orson Bean and his Wonder Years/Bold & the Beautiful wife Alley Mills, I tempted you by saying it’s full of nuns but turns out those nuns and Bishop Bean are really funny, and pretty potty-mouthed when not in front of a congregation, last chance it’s ending Sun!), Fri, Sat 8 p.m., Sat, Sun 2 p.m., Ruskin Group Theatre, SMO, $20-$35.
LITTLE WOMEN (the new one, with discussion after screening by director Greta Gerwig, producer Amy Pascal, composer Alexandre Desplat), Sun 1 p.m., Aero Theatre, SM, $15.
BALLET FOLCLORICO NACIONAL DE MEXICO DE SILVA LOZANO (when you are tasked with being the one institution that preserves and shows to the world the music, dance, costumes and traditions of a proud nation, you better be dang good at it all and Lozano is so if you don’t have a ticket to Mexico in your hip pocket, let Mexico come to you this night) next Thurs 8 p.m., The Soraya, CSUNorthridge, $36-$79.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: ENGLISH BEAT 1/31, The Rose, Pasadena; MARCUS KING BAND 1/31, Fonda Theatre, Hwd; REFLECTIONS IN A D’BACK’S EYE 1/31, 2/1, Highways Performance Space, SM; LA OPERA - EURYDICE 2/1-23, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, DTLA; PHAST PHREDDIE & THEE PRECISIONS Reunion! 2/1, Joe’s American Bar & Grill, Burbank; BENNIE MAUPIN ENSEMBLE 2/1, Jazz Bakery, SM; ELTON JOHN 2/1, The Forum, Inglewood; PACIFIC OPERA PROJECT Presents PUCCINI’S Gianni Schicchi, RAVEL’S L’Enfant et Les Sortilèges 2/1, 2 Occidental College, LA; JACARANDA - PAX AMERICANA I & II, 2/2, First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica; WYNONNA & CACTUS (yeah, that Wynonna) 2/4, McCabe’s; THE WORLD IS MY HOME - THE LIFE OF PAUL ROBESON 2/9, Santa Monica Playhouse; MAVIS STAPLES, 2/13, The Soraya, CSUN; NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALL STARS 2/13, Teragram Ballroom, DTLA; LONNIE LISTON SMITH 2/23, Lodge Room, Highland Park; MARIA MULDAUR 2/27, McCabe’s, SM; ELLYN MAYBE POETRY RODEO 2/29, Beyond Baroque, Venice.
Charles Andrews has listened to a lot of music of all kinds, including more than 2,000 live shows. He has lived in Santa Monica for 34 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com
