The Culture Circuit, Oct. 22-28

From Emily Day's swinging Alley Cats and sad canine farewells to Albany rockers Desoto Reds and Jackie Rago's Venezuelan grooves, the East Bay brims with activities that celebrate what's good in life.

Please help keep this list lively and well informed by sending details about upcoming concerts, readings, performances and workshops to events@albanyscanner.com.

Emily Day's Cosmo Alley Cats swing sweetly

Berkeley vocalist Emily Day knows that jazz was born as celebratory music designed to keep dancers moving and grooving. Fresh off a trip to New York City, where she played a sold-out night at Birdland, Day returns to the East Bay to mark the release of the new Emily Day and the Cosmo Alley Cats album More Sweet Songs on Thursday at Ashkenaz (and Mr. Tipple's in San Francisco on Sunday). She's deeply versed in standards from the 1920s and '30s, swinging gracefully through hits by Fats Waller, Jimmy McHugh and Irving Berlin (while also contributing pitch-perfect originals that sound like lost American Songbook standards). Day started making a name for herself during the heyday of Club Deluxe in the Haight, a compact room where dancers, tabled guests and the standing-room audience often encroached on the bandstand. She thrived on the energy. "As a performer, one of the greatest things is the blur between the band and audience, when it feels like an amazing house party," she says. Thursday, Oct. 22, 8 p.m. Ashkenaz (Berkeley). $20-$25

Bidding adieu to loving companions at The Marsh

The death last week of The Marsh's beloved canine mascot Marsha adds a fresh jolt of pain to the always relevant production Our Loving Companions, which celebrates the abiding pleasures and inevitable grief that define our relationships with animal companions. Conceived from a shared artistic vision between Grief Dialogues founder Elizabeth Coplan and co-producer and playwright Alan Stewart, Our Loving Companions is an animal-centered immersive experience envisioned as a space that focuses on the distinct and deeply personal relationships with the creatures who share our homes, routines and unconditional love. Most performances are followed by a facilitated discussion, and audience members are encouraged to bring a small photo of their loving companion, past or present, to add to the production's art installation at the Marsh's entryway. Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 22-24, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, 3 p.m. The Marsh (Berkeley). $35-$100

Straight outta Albany (and Richmond)

With roots dating back to the waning years of the 20th century, Desoto Reds' latest incarnation launched during the dark days of the pandemic in 2021 with a Masonic Avenue driveway show as part of Albany COVIDchella. Albany vocalist and guitarist Alex Sterling fronts the band. A community college English teacher by day, Sterling cites Gen X indie rock acts such as Guided by Voices and Quasi as primary influences. Albany bassist Dan Lieberman also provides backing vocals. Richmond drummer Jeremiah Johnson has powered various versions of Desoto Reds since 2002, while San Francisco keyboardist Jeff Hashfield is known for his work in bands such as Saucy Jacks and the Pleasure Kills. Over the past five years the indie psych-pop band has released two albums and two EPs and performed widely around the region. The quartet plays Alameda's Fireside Lounge on Friday as part of a triple bill with Wonderland Rejects and Soraia, and hits San Francisco's Kilowatt Bar on Dec. 13 as part of a multi-act matinee with Chaos Fiction, Briget Boyle and Madeline Tasquin (to be confirmed). Friday, Oct. 23, 8 p.m. Fireside Lounge (Alameda). $15

Lora Arbrador's tempera dreams

Dating back to the Bronze Age, egg tempera painting is a technique that has been passed down for thousands of years. Lora Arbrador was 19 when she was given a recipe for creating this luminous medium at home, and she's been working in the challenging format ever since. Many of her pieces are inspired by her vocation as a registered nurse, exploring themes of mortality, sensuality and the power and frailty of the human body. In 1997, she co-founded the Society of Tempera Painters, and her first book, A History of Roman Calligraphy, is housed in the Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center at the San Francisco Public Library. The San Francisco-based artist comes to Albany for a workshop, "Art & Love: My Life Illuminated in Egg Tempera," an introduction to egg tempera painting detailing the materials, tools and techniques she uses to create her artwork. She will also give a live demonstration, creating a simple egg tempera painting from start to finish. The session is limited to 20 attendees (first-come, first-served). Saturday, Oct. 24, 3:30 p.m. Albany Library. Free

Jackie Rago's full-spectrum view of Venezuela

When piano star Jon Batiste premiered his American Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 2022, he called on Jackeline Rago to provide the rhythms of Venezuela. It's a role she's been playing in the Bay Area music scene for decades as a master on percussion and cuatro, the diminutive four-string national instrument of Venezuela. In the final concert of the Jazzschool's Latino Heritage Month ¡Sonidos Latinos! series, Rago presents Venezuela 360, an immersive program that explores the South American nation's verdant cultural landscape via the galloping rhythms of joropo and merengue, the soulful tonada llanera, familiar lilt of calypso, and the powerful traditions of Afro-Venezuelan drumming. She's joined by Venezuelan-born vocalist Anna-Maria Violich-Oliver, Venezuelan-American guitarist Carlos Caminos, and bassist Sascha Jacobsen (a Latin Grammy nominee who accompanies the Monday tango classes at Ashkenaz). Saturday, Oct. 24, 8 p.m. The Jazzschool (Berkeley). $25

Getting Kink-y with the Rubinoos

Junior high school buddies growing up in Berkeley, Jon Rubin and Tommy Dunbar started gigging as teenagers in the Rubinoos. Signed by the influential indie label Beserkley Records (along with Jonathan Richman and Greg Kihn), they earned an avid cult following with the theme song for the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds and the singles "I Think We're Alone Now" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." They've disbanded and reassembled over the decades, with a burst of activity in recent years sparked by the use of their song "Rock and Roll is Dead" at the end of the first episode of HBO's 2022 hit Irma Vep. Relaunched with a set at 2022's Mosswood Meltdown, the Rubinoos have been performing internationally assisted by the visibility of Yep Roc Records' 2023 reissue of the group's second LP, Back to the Drawing Board. Featuring Rubin on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Dunbar on lead guitar, keys and vocals, Donn Spindt on drums and vocals, and Al Chan on bass guitar and vocals, the Rubinoos play an afternoon set devoted to the brilliant catalog of the Kinks. Sunday, Oct. 25, 2 p.m. The Ivy Room. $15-$20

Atom Ensemble's fusion ignites the Annex

The Bay Area has been a hotbed of jazz innovation for decades, particularly when it comes to melding the African-American art form with other cultural currents. The Asian-American jazz movement was born here in the 1970s and flourished for the next quarter century. In recent years, it's been reinvigorated by a new generation of musicians, including Atom Ensemble, a new supergroup that brings together artists who mostly lead their own projects.

Carnatic vocalist Roopa Mahadevan previews an upcoming album during the performance with Atom Ensemble next week in El Cerrito, followed by a show at the SFJAZZ Center with her own genre-fluid band Roopa In Flux on Nov. 1. In El Cerrito, she's joined by pianist and flutist Erika Oba, a Berkeley High grad who has become a sought-after composer working in a wide array of settings. Oba has worked frequently with bass guitarist and synth bassist Chris Trinidad, a prolific bandleader and recording artist, playing music of influential Asian-American jazz innovators like saxophonist Francis Wong and pianist Glenn Horiuchi. Kevin Amos rounds out the quartet on drum set and steel pan. Wednesday, Oct. 28, 6 p.m. Natural Grocery Company Annex (El Cerrito). $20 donation suggested

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