ON the Beat | La Vie en Madeleine and Blues Society Hit the Town

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This edition of ON the Beat was originally emailed to subscribers on March 21, 2024. To receive Josef Woodard’s music newsletter in your inbox each Thursday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

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Doing the Timeless Dance

Madeleine Peyroux has performed in Santa Barbara many times over the years in venues of various sizes, and her latest appearance, in the happy home of the Lobero Theatre on Sunday, reminded us why she matters and survives the test of time. Her unique mix of blues, jazz, French turns, and shades of Lady Day was never plugged directly into a fashion-plated genre or synced with a specific era. She emerged and rose to popularity in the 1990s, but we think of her more as a timeless artist than a product of the ‘90s scene, or any era or any scene.
        
Joined by a sharp trio, with keyboardist Andy Ezrin earning extra points for his chops and expressive powers, Peyroux ventured through old favorites, including her hit version of Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” and a splash of Bessie Smith. She also previewed fine new tunes from her forthcoming album Let’s Walk. From the album, highlights included the teasing, male harmony-flecked “Blues for Heaven” and the title track, a loping gospel anthem in praise of recent protest marches (regarding the Gaza travesty? She didn’t specify.)

Opener Joy Clark, from New Orleans and signed to the Righteous Babe label, was a real discovery (we have to resist the temptation to say a “real joy”). A fine guitarist and singer, her songs blend folk and country blues, and her originals convey a warm intimacy worth knowing more about, but the highlight of her set was her great version of Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights.” (Historical bookkeeping note: Toussaint put on a memorable show at the Lobero in 2014).
        
The Toussaint connection continued at evening’s end, when Peyroux brought Clark out for an encore version of Toussaint’s “Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky.” Then, as a final nightcap, Peyroux offered a brief solo run through “La Vie en Rose,” with her dusty rose-colored timbre.

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Blues Society B-day

Santa Barbara’s healthy population of blues lovers, and her blue culture in general, owes a large debt to the Santa Barbara Blues Society (SBBS). It is the oldest continuous blues society in the nation, as the organization is justifiably inclined to remind us, and this Saturday, March 23 at the Carrillo Rec Center, the society celebrates its 47th birthday. The milestone half century mark is just around the corner.

To lube the celebration and get the historic venue’s spring-loaded dance floor shimmying, the SBBS has enlisted the mighty and respected Chris Cain Band. Cain, a formidable guitarist, keyboardist, and singer of no small power and grit, has racked up awards in his forty-something year long career thus far. But the truest test of his strength is in the live wire moment, on record — as on his new Raisin’ Cain album on Alligator — or when firing up a room full of blues lovers, of which Santa Barbara has its fair share. No doubt, a lot of them will be in the house on Saturday.

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TO-DOINGS:

Chamber music once again makes its intimate presence known in the ideally suitable venue of Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s (SBMA) downstairs Mary Craig Auditorium, with the appearance of the Verona Quartet tonight, March 21. The Verona falls into the general agenda of accomplished string quartets which make up the majority of the concerts in the SBMA series, but this group has the distinction of being dedicated champions of new and contemporary music, as seen in recent releases of music by György Ligeti and the adventurous album SHATTER, with music by Michael Gilbertson and women composers Reena Esmail and Julia Adolphe.

With a resumé including performances at Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, and beyond, not to mention topping the Billboard classical charts last summer for SHATTER, the Verona comes well-recommended. At the Museum, their program mixes it up between old and new, with Dvorak’s Quartet No. 14 and Walton’s Quartet No. 2 counterbalanced by “Ritus Sanitatem,” music by Korean-born composer Texu Kim, currently alive and well.

We are in a concert season uncommonly enriched by important and forward thinking string quartets — with the Danish String Quartet and the Kronos Quartet coming soon to Campbell Hall. Add the Verona to that list.

Also coming to SBMA, on Tuesday, March 26, is a return visit from the fine reed player Ted Nash (Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra), joined by respected New York players Ben Allison on bass, and the stellar guitarist Steve Cardenas.

As it happens, jazz is in the neighborhood that night. One can catch the Nash show at 5:30 p.m. and walk up a block to the Granada to hear pianist Antonio Artese — the fine Italian in Santa Barbara — with his trio, with bassist Jim Connolly and drummer Matt Perko, in the Granada onstage concert series. Jazz remains underrepresented in town lately, but suddenly, a double-header hits State Street.