The Culture Circuit, Nov. 12-18
What to do around the East Bay this week.
What's on tap this week in Albany and its environs? There are Noelle Fiore's honky-tonk anthems and centuries-old Ladino love songs, farmers market fingerstyle guitar and deep Afro-Cuban grooves.
Please help keep this list lively and well-informed by sending details about upcoming concerts, readings, performances and workshops to events@albanyscanner.com.
Tales from the dry side with Noelle & The Deserters
The Bay Area isn't typically considered a country music hotbed, but there's a rich vein of torch and twang running through the region. One of the better bands on the scene is Noelle & The Deserters, still riding high since the 2024 release of their debut album High Desert Daydream.
Led by singer-songwriter Noelle Fiore, the honky-tonk combo ranges across the parched Southwestern landscapes of the heart, delivering jukebox tales of love, loss, relationship turmoil and sundry daily struggles. The band is built around her powerhouse voice, which can sound boisterous, confiding, boastful, lusty or tender, often in the course of a chorus. She's corralled a top-notch band in the Deserters, with guitarist Graham Norwood, bassist Alicia Vanden Heuvel, David Cuetter on pedal steel and drummer Jerry Fiore.
But this isn't her first rodeo. As a guitar player and vocalist, she was a founding member of Sweet Chariot and went on to launch the band Magic Trick with Tim Cohen. When she's not fronting the Deserters, she can be found providing guitar and vocals for the Shannon Shaw Band (which plays Bottom of the Hill on Dec. 30-31).
Noelle & The Deserters share a double bill with Petunia and the Vipers, a stomping Western swing-inspired combo led by Petunia, a glam cowboy crooner, with ace guitarist Stephen Nikleva and lap steel guitar maestro Jimmy Roy. Thursday, Nov. 12, 8 p.m. The Ivy Room. $15
A Ladino journey with Qadim Ensemble
Often remembered as the year Columbus sailed the ocean blue, 1492 also marked the year the Spanish monarchy signed the Alhambra Decree ordering the expulsion of unconverted Jews from the newly reunified kingdom. There's a direct line connecting that cataclysmic edict to the music that the Qadim Ensemble presents Thursday at Ashkenaz, where the Berkeley ensemble celebrates the release of Entre Las Huertas.
The group is known for its expansive repertoire illustrating the deeply enmeshed cultures of the Near and Middle East. But the latest collection focuses on Ladino songs from the Sephardic tradition of Jews who fled Spain and resettled in the Ottoman Empire.
Featuring Rachel Valfer on oud and vocals, Eliyahu Sills on the ney (reed flute) and upright bass, Dan Cantrell on accordion, Moshe Vaturi on the 78-string Turkish qanun, renowned Syrian percussionist Faisal Zedan and dancer and percussionist Miriam Peretz, Qadim Ensemble is a revelatory Bay Area combo that celebrates often-overlooked history embedded in gorgeous songs. Thursday, Nov. 12, 8 p.m. Ashkenaz (Berkeley). $28 in advance, $35 day of show
Organic guitar at the farmers market
San Francisco fingerstyle guitarist Andy Drake can often be found at the El Cerrito farmers market, one of many such gatherings where he regales shoppers with his vivid, evocatively titled tunes. He recently released his third album, The Hills & The Tides, a collection of solo instrumental acoustic guitar pieces that unfurl like well-wrought short stories. Saturday, Nov. 14, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. El Cerrito Plaza. Free
Joel Harrison gives Miles the silent treatment
As a budding jazz fan, I came across the 1969 Miles Davis album In a Silent Way, and it changed my life. A transitional project for the legendary jazz trumpeter, the album marked his move from acoustic post-bop toward electric instrumentation and rock and funk rhythms.
In a Silent Way was seductively celestial, with a swirling, lapidary soundscape featuring Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Joe Zawinul on electric keyboards. Many facets of Davis' music have been explored during this year's centennial celebration, but New York guitarist Joel Harrison is taking a different tack with his In a Silent Way Project.
An essential part of the Bay Area jazz scene in the 1990s, Harrison makes a rare return to present his loose interpretations of the epochal album with a powerhouse group featuring electric bass master Michael Manring, Scott Amendola on drums and effects and Paul Hanson on bassoon. Sunday, Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m. The Back Room (Berkeley). $25 general admission, $20 for students
Teamwork for healing on the res
The Albany Library presents the documentary For Walter and Josiah as part of its Native American Heritage Month programming. Directed by Jamie Elias and Grady Justice, the 2022 film is set on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, where an epidemic of teen suicides has devastated the community.
The film follows a high school basketball team that lost two players to suicide during the previous season. The surviving players contend with grief while playing to uplift their community and honor their departed teammates. Tuesday, Nov. 17, 6:30 p.m. Albany Library. Free
Michael Spiro & Modupue = Havana at The Annex
San Francisco percussion maestro Michael Spiro has been at the center of the Bay Area's Afro-Caribbean music scene for some four decades, though a lengthy faculty stint at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music made the 10-time Grammy Award nominee a less frequent presence on Bay Area stages for more than a decade.
Meanwhile, his international profile continued to expand, particularly via a Cubadisco award nomination (Cuba's equivalent of the Grammys) for the 2017 album he co-led, Mabagwe, a tribute to "Los Mayores."
Spiro brings his recent Cuban jazz project Modupue to The Annex, featuring pianist Ken Cook, bassist David Belove, drummer Kendrick Freeman and Javier Navarrette on percussion. Wednesday, Nov. 18, 6 p.m. Natural Grocery Company (El Cerrito). Free (donation requested)
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