CASSANDRA WILSON
Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Nov. 6.
MUSIC
• The Exit Zero Jazz Festival takes place twice a year, in the spring and in the fall. And this year’s fall edition is scheduled for Nov. 6-9, kicking off with a benefit for The Cape May Jazz Festival Foundation, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. at Cape May Convention Hall. The lineup for this show will consist of NOJO 5 (musicians associated with The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, including drummer Adonis Rose, vibraphonist Jason Marsalis and singer Phillip Manuel) and the Jersey-based band Ocean Avenue Stompers.
Performers from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9, at Convention Hall and other Cape May venues, will include Stanley Clarke, Cassandra Wilson (celebrating the 30th anniversary of her New Moon Daughter album), Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos, Endea Owens & the Cookout, Gabrielle Cavassa, Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, Edgardo Cintron (performing a jazz tribute to Carlos Santana) and others.
Also, three members of the late Roy Hargrove’s Crisol sextet (drummer Willie Jones III, bassist Gerald Cannon, trombonist Frank Lacy) will perform Hargrove’s music with saxophonists Jacques Schwarz-Bart and Justin Robinson, trumpeter Camerahn Alforque, pianist Tyler Bullock and percussionist Yusnier Sanchez.
MICHELLE CANN
• Pianist Michelle Cann will be featured on George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” at New Jersey Symphony concerts taking place at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, Nov. 6 at 1:30 p.m. and Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m.; Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m.; and The State Theatre in New Brunswick, Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. Tito Muñoz will conduct, and the program will also include Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement; Carlos Simon’s Zodiac (a New Jersey Symphony co-commission, in its Northeast premiere); and Aaron Copland’s Suite from Billy the Kid.
• The “Jersey Jazz Live!” concert taking place at The Madison Community Arts Center, Nov. 2 at 3 p.m., will feature Don Braden (saxophone/flute), Mariel Bildsten (trombone), Ted Chubb (trumpet), Alvester Garnett (drums), Caili O’Doherty (piano) and Mary Ann McSweeney (bass) performing with New Jersey Jazz Society 2025 scholarship winners Joseph Foglia (saxophone), Kyra Cioffi (vocals), Matt Cline (multi-instrumentalist), Nate Tota (saxophone), Sophia Varughese (vocals) and Aiden Woods (saxophone).
• The New Jersey Symphony Chamber Players will join the progressive-rock band Kansas (“Dust in the Wind,” “Carry On Wayward Son,” “Point of No Return”) for a 7 p.m. Nov. 2 concert at BergenPAC in Englewood.
The show will be part of the new Encore Series of fundraisers for BergenPAC’s arts education offerings and its nonprofit mission. Concert-only tickets are available, but premium tickets will include prime seating plus admission to pre- and post-show receptions.
CHRISTIAN LOPEZ
• Singer-songwriter Christian Lopez, who has performed at The Ross Farm Music Series in Basking Ridge every year since the series began in 2015, will perform with his band — all in costumes — at Ross Farm, Oct. 31 at 7 p.m. Attendees who wear costumes will receive a free autographed poster designed by Basking Ridge native Kayleigh Torcivia. “A few playful Halloween touches” in the music are promised, as well.
• Marc Ribler & Friends — led by the guitarist for Stevie Van Zandt’s Disciples of Soul band — will perform at the We Take Care of Our Own awards ceremony and auction taking place at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m.
We Take Care of Our Own is a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to provide financial aid and support to roadies and their families in times of hardship and tragedy.”
• Freedy Johnston and Warren Zanes will perform music and talk about the new movie “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” (based on Zanes’ 2023 book “Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska”), Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. at Little City Books in Hoboken. Johnston presents these shows, which are streamed live online, every Tuesday, from a different location and with a different guest.
In addition to being a writer, Zanes is a singer-songwriter who got his start in the band The Del Fuegos in the 1980s.
There will be no admission charge, though pre-registration is recommended.
• As part of the Nov. 2 Hoboken Artists Studio Tour, The 503 Social Club will offer free music, with this schedule: Greg Amici, 1 p.m.; Lahna Deering, 2 p.m.; Mavrothi Kontanis, 3 p.m.; Bob Perry, 4 p.m.; and Wendy Joyner & Jeff Surawski, 4:30 p.m. The venue is current showing “The Passenger,” an exhibition featuring photos taken by its owner, musician James Mastro, while on tour.
Click HERE for Cindy Stagoff’s interview with Mastro about the exhibition and more.
RICHARD BARNES
The new Princeton University Art Museum.
VISUAL ARTS
• The Princeton University Art Museum, which has been closed since 2020, will reopen on Oct. 31 with a 24-hour open house including guided tours of the artwork; food trucks; a family-oriented Halloween Fair and a Halloween Dance Party from 5 to 10 p.m.; a costume contest at 7 p.m.; screenings of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (at 6 p.m.), “Hocus Pocus” (at 6 p.m.), “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (at 1 a.m. Nov. 1), “Ratatouille” (at 7 a.m. Nov. 1) and “Coco” (at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 1); yoga classes at 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Nov. 1; a cabaret performance featuring singer Kate Baldwin and pianist Georgia Stitt at 1 p.m. Nov. 1; and more.
Click HERE for Tris McCall’s review of the reopened museum.
THEATER
• Centenary Stage Company will present “Watson: the Final Problem” at The Kutz Theatre at The Lackland Performing Arts Center in Hackettstown, Nov. 6-9 and 12-16, as part of its Fringe Festival. This play — co-written and directed by Bert Coules and co-written and performed by Tim Marriott — is based on the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but is told from the perspective of his friend and associate, John Watson.
• The Holmdel Theatre Company will present “Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson — Apt. 2B” at The Duncan Smith Theater, Nov. 8-9, 14-16 and 21-23. Written by Kate Hamill and set in the post-pandemic London of 2021, this is a modern, female, comedic reimagining of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic detective team Sherlock Holmes and John Watson (here, Ms. Sherlock Holmes and Ms. Joan Watson).
DANCE
• The Five Birds Farm event space in Ringoes will host a benefit for moe-tion dance theater, Nov. 2 at 4 p.m. According to a press release, the event will include “immersive, site-specific performances where the natural landscape becomes part of the stage.”
Attendees will have the chance to meet artistic director Maureen Glennon Clayton and members of the company to “exchange ideas, and learn more about their vision for the future of dance in Hunterdon County and beyond.”
This event was originally scheduled for Oct. 12 but was postponed to Nov. 2 because of the threat of inclement weather.
Barry Bostwick with Susan Sarandon in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
FILM
• Barry Bostwick, who played the young, innocent Brad in the enduringly popular 1975 film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” will speak and answer questions following a screening of it at The Music Box at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, Nov. 1 at 8 p.m.
• New Jersey Symphony, conducted by Conner Gray Covington, will perform John Debney’s score for the 2003 comedy “Elf,” live, at screenings of it at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m., and The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Nov. 7 at 2 p.m.
WORDS
• Country superstar Kenny Chesney will talk about his new memoir “Heart • Life • Music” at BergenPAC in Englewood, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m.
According to publicity material, in the book Chesney “shares the stories of a kid from small town East Tennessee with a dream fueled by the sports and music around him. When high school football came to an end, he knew there must be something more. In college, Kenny Chesney found himself on a barstool with a guitar and an unexpected connection between people, life and songs. His heart caught fire. With Nashville’s vibrant creative scene, characters, legends and places now long gone from the city he encountered in those early days, Chesney explores the quest to find himself as an artist and a man, as well as a sense of home anywhere there’s an ocean. These are the stories of the unlikely game changer who became the sound of coming of age in the 21st century, made friends with his heroes, rocked stadiums, and founded a No Shoes Nation.”
Chesney will discuss the book at BergenPAC with Holly Gleason, the music critic, author, publicist and songwriter who co-wrote it with him, and also co-wrote Chesney’s 2008 hit “Better As a Memory,” under the name Lady Goodman.
BRIAN BAKER
• Brian Baker, a member of the band Bad Religion who has also performed with groups such as Minor Threat and Dag Nasty, with talk about his new book of photographs “The Road” at Bookends in Ridgewood, Nov. 3 at 6 p.m., and at The Asbury Book Cooperative, Nov. 15 at 5 p.m.
• The Hoboken Historical Museum will host a free launch party, Nov. 2 at 5 p.m., for the “The Jersey Slide,” a new book by the museum’s poet-in-residence, Danny Shot. Poets Vera Sirota, Eliot Katz, Anna Indelicato and Joel Lewis will attend.
A press release describes the book as “a pugnacious, colloquial, irreverent, and unapologetically Jersey meditation on friendship, family, ageing, gentrification (that) celebrates the unvarnished, working-class beauty of a diverse and scrappy community that stares, day in and day out, at the Colossus of Manhattan’s ‘glorious ass.’ ”
OTHER
• The record to be discussed at The Nov. 4 edition of the Tuesday Night Record Club series at Monmouth University in West Long Branch will be The Smithereens’ 1986 indie-rock classic Especially for You, and band members Jim Babjak and Dennis Diken will be on hand to answer questions. Author and Monmouth professor Kenneth Womack will host the event, which will take place at 7:30 p.m. and can be attended live (at the university’s Great Hall Auditorium) or via Zoom.
It is free, though pre-registration is required, HERE. (Note: Babjak will Diken will not perform any music as part of this event.)
Especially for You includes some of The Smithereens’ best known songs, including “Blood and Roses,” “Behind the Wall of Sleep” and “Strangers When We Meet.”
A detail from Tom Nussbaum’s “New Atlas,” which can be seen at The Montclair Art Museum.
• In conjunction with his “But Wait, There’s More!” exhibition at The Montclair Art Museum — and as part of the museum’s monthly Free First Thursday series — Tom Nussbaum will participate in an “Artist Takeover” at the museum, Nov. 6 from 5 to 9 p.m.
Nussbaum will meet fans from 6:15 to 6:45 in the museum’s Learning Lab, from 6:45 to 7:45 in the galleries, from 7:45 to 8 at the museum’s bar (where his specialty cocktail the Nusstini and other beverages will be offered) and from 8 to 8:30 in the museum store. Also, he has curated a musical playlist. Art activities, guided gallery tours and a performance by juggler Benjamin Lipman (at 7 p.m.) will be offered. And food will be available from the Colombian food truck, Antojitos de mi Tierra.
• In advance of his Nov. 6 concert at BergenPAC in Englewood, at which he will perform Bruce Springsteen songs with his EZ Street Band, actor Hank Azaria will sign autographs at the venue, Nov. 3 at 5:30 p.m. All ticketholders can attend, as can anyone who makes a donation to his Four Through Nine Foundation, which supports a variety of social justice, education and recovery causes. (The concert will benefit the foundation, as well.)
REVIEWS
“Bull Durham” at Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn. (Through Nov. 2)
“An Old-Fashioned Family Murder,” presented by George Street Playhouse at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. (Through Nov. 2)
“Our Town,” presented by America Theater Group at Union Arts Center (through Nov. 2) and at Sieminski Theater in Basking Ridge (Nov. 6-9)
“Léni Paquet-Morante: Extract/Abstract,” presented by Princeton University Art Museum at Art@Bainbridge. (Through Nov. 2)
“Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo: Homelife and The Zoo Story,” presented by Hudson Theatre Works at Weehawken Water Tower. (Through Nov. 8)
“Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library” at Luna Stage, West Orange. (Through Nov. 9)
“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” at F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University, Madison. (Through Nov. 16)
“Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through Dec. 21)
“Tom Nussbaum: But Wait, There’s More!” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through Jan. 4)
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 1)
“Salvador Jiménez-Flores: Raíces & Resistencias” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through Aug. 1, 2027)
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