Jazz at Lincoln Center presents: “New Orleans Songbook/Spirit of Mardi Gras,” featuring Quiana Lynell, Milton Suggs & Luther Allison, with the Mission Bay Preservationists
You won’t have to travel to New Orleans this year to celebrate Mardi Gras and immerse yourself in the Big Easy’s perpetually nourishing musical gumbo.
Both options will be available Sunday at a single concert at California Center for the Arts, which will showcase three rising talents who each exude major star potential.
The three — pianist Luther S. Allison, Texas-born singer Quiana Lynell and Chicago-born singer/pianist Milton Suggs — together embrace a range of styles, including jazz, blues, gospel, funk, soul, and more.
Lynell, who was mentored in part by trumpeter and film and opera composer Terence Blanchard, is a wonderfully expressive and versatile singer who soars in any musical setting. She won first-place honors at the 2017 edition of the prestigious Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, which is presented under the auspices of the James Moody Jazz Festival (named after the late San Diego saxophone legend).
That victory led to her impressive debut album for Concord Records, 2019’s “A Little Love,” which found her shining equally on the blues-infused “Tryin’ Times,” the luminous Duke Ellington ballad “Come Sunday,” the inspirational contemporary gospel gem “Sing Out, March On,” and the Chubby Newsome’s classic 1948 rave-up “Hip Shakin’ Mama.”
The concert here will be preceded by a 6:30 p.m. courtyard performance by the JP Balmat-led Mission Bay Preservationists, a talented trad-jazz band featuring 11 Mission Bay High School students.
7:30 p,m Sunday. California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 North Escondido Blvd. $24-$78. (800) artcenter.org.
Dusty Brough, Eva Scow, Miles Jay & Julian Cantelm
Fresno-bred mandolinist Eva Scow has yet to attain the high profile of such mandolin greats as David Grisman and Mike Marshall, but she has collaborated with both of them.
Scow, who doubles on violin, is also a member of The Mighty Mighty, an all-star global music ensemble that features veteran Rolling Stones saxophonist Tim Ries, Paul Simon and Yo-Yo Ma percussionist Jamey Hadad, Perla Batalla/Doug Lunn oud player Dimitris Mahlis, former Chick Corea/Alanis Morrissette drummer Gary Novack and San Francisco Jazz Quartet keyboardist Nolan Gasser (who is the author of “Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste”).
For good measure, Scow also performs in The Experience, a progressive funk band.
Scow first came to my attention through her performance on award-winning San Diego jazz pianist Danny Green’s 2012 album, “A Thousand Ways Home.”
Her fluidity on mandolin is matched by her stylistic versatility and an impeccable sense of taste that ensures she serves the music at hand, rather than showboat. Scow’s partnership with nimble acoustic guitarist Dusty Brough was first documented on their genre-leaping 2007 album, “Sharon by the Sea.”
8 and 10 p.m. Saturday. Lou Lou’s Jungle Room at the Lafayette Hotel, EL Cajon Blvd. Free, but advance reservations are suggested; must be 21 or older to attend. loulous.truntabletickets.com
Isaiah Collier — “The World is on Fire”:
How ambitious is 25-year-old saxophonist, band leader and composer Isaiah Collier?
On Jan. 21, in a one-time only stream on Bandcamp Live presented by the Chicago Black Artists Union, he performed his 13-movement suite, “The Story of 400 Years.”
Six years in the making, it featured 12 musicians — including a chamber ensemble — six dancers and live on-stage visuals. The sprawling opus was created to “showcase the 400-year lineage of Black American Music and the impact that sound and memory have had on our collective memory within America.”
Collier’s La Jolla-bound winter tour is named after “The World is on Fire,” his audacious 2024 live double-album.
Clocking in at more than 75 minutes, it’s a socially and politically charged opus that is by turns combustible and lilting, pensive and poignant, and always infused with palpable ion.
8 p.m. Tuesday. The Loft at UC San Diego, 3151 Matthews Lane, La Jolla. $25. artpower.ucsd.edu
