The PNC Bank Arts Center will present a “Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration,” Aug. 29.
Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Sept. 3.
MUSIC
• Jerry Garcia, who died 31 years ago this month, will be honored with a Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration concert at The PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, Aug. 29 at 8 p.m. Participants will include Jerry Garcia Band members Melvin Seals (organ) and Jacklyn LaBranch (vocals); the late Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh’s son Grahame Lesh (bass); guitarist Tom Hamilton; drummer John Morgan Kimock; and singer Kanika Moore.
A Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration show earlier this summer with the Boston Pops Orchestra included two sets with the orchestra — featuring songs such as “Dark Star,” “Bird Song,” “China Cat Sunflower,” “Scarlet Begonias” and “Terrapin Station” — as well as a two-song encore (“That’s What Love Will Make You Do,” “Deal”) without the orchestra.
• This year’s edition of the New Jersey Folk Festival, an annual tradition since 1975, will take place Aug. 29 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Davidson’s Mill Pond Park in South Brunswick, with Jackson Pines, The Mike Montrey Band, Redbird, The Zydeco Revelators, Tommy Strazza, Maribyrd, Charlie Apicella, The Long Hill String Band, Spook Handy, Water Street and many others, plus dance ensembles, storytelling, workshops, agricultural displays, tractor rides, children’s arts and crafts, vendors and more. There will be no admission charge.
• The avant-garde jazz musician Sun Ra died in 1993, but his Sun Ra Arkestra continues to play his music under the leadership of saxophonist Marshall Allen, who began playing with the group in 1958, and is now 102. They will perform at The Berlind Theatre at The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m.
LUIS FERRA
AARON LAZAR
• A few days into rehearsals for the 2022 run of the musical “The Bridges of Madison County” at The Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal, leading man Aaron Lazar found out he had been diagnosed with the progressive neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. He told his co-star Kate Baldwin, who was an old friend, and director Hunter Foster, but others working on the show, and those attending performances, knew nothing about it.
Since then, the Cherry Hill native has not just gone public with his struggle, but has started a video podcast series, “Impossible Dreams,” which features “meaningful conversations about resilience, healing, and the human spirit,” according to a description on adamlazar.com. He also has released a Grammy-nominated album, Impossible Dream, devoted to inspirational songs and featuring guests such as Baldwin, Josh Groban, Sting, Kelli O’Hara and Leslie Odom Jr.; proceeds benefit The ALS Network.
Aug. 31 at 7 p.m., Baldwin will host “Extraordinary: Broadway Sings for Aaron Lazar,” a benefit concert at The Bell Theater at Bell Works in Holmdel, with Foster directing. Participants will include Norbert Leo Butz, Miguel Cervantes, Victoria Clark, Katie Rose Clarke, Mandy Gonzalez, Kara Lindsay, Michael Minarik, Christiane Noll, Tony Yazbeck and others. Also, the Axelrod cast of “The Bridges of Madison County” will reunite.
• Morristown native John Ginty — an organ player whose career has included stints with The Allman Betts Band, The Dixie Chicks and Robert Randolph & the Family Band — is now living in Florida, but will return to New Jersey to perform with his John Ginty Band at the Breastfest breast cancer benefit concert at Bernie’s in the Field at Bernie’s Hillside Lounge in Chester, Aug. 29 from 2 to 9 p.m. Other bands will include Groove Gangstas, Cold Hill and Wilma!
Proceeds will benefit the I Love You More Foundation, funding screening and diagnostic procedures for those in need of financial assistance at the Pink Breast Centers in Paterson and Flemington.
THE JIMMYS
• The Wisconsin-based blues group The Jimmys will headline this year’s edition of the free, annual Long Branch Jazz and Blues Festival, taking place on the city’s Great Lawn & Promenade, Aug. 29 from 1 to 9 p.m. They will perform at 7:30 p.m., after sets by The Sweet Academy Youth Band (1 p.m.), Jane Stuart (2:15 p.m.), Soul Project (3:30 p.m.), Nth Degree (4:45 p.m.) and Sharon Lasher & Jersey Blues (6 p.m.). The event is presented by The Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation
• As part of the Summer Opera Festival at The Kelsey Theatre at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, New Jersey Lyric Opera will present the following works: Giuseppe Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” Aug. 28 at 7:30 p.m.; Georges Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers,” Aug. 29 at 2 p.m.; Charles Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet,” Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m.; and Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” Aug. 30 at 2 p.m.
The Kelsey partnership “has been very fruitful for us, and the Kelsey staff has been very supportive and welcoming,” says NJLO founder John Calkins in a recent interview that you can read HERE. “I think it has created this wonderful relationship of, ‘We have an audience for this and people are looking forward to this every year.’ ”
• Orpheus Chamber Players will perform a program titled “Night Revels” — described as “a celebration of dance and storytelling” — Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the outdoor Back Deck series at The Morris Museum in Morris Township. The concert will include works by Antonin Dvořák, Valerie Coleman, Paquito D’Rivera, Jim Parker and Darius Milhaud.
Performers will include Gina Cuffari, bassoon; Alan Kay, clarinet; James Austin Smith, oboe; Elizabeth Mann, flute; and Eric Reed, horn.
LYNETTE SHEARD
• Also in the Back Deck series at The Morris Museum … singer Lynette Sheard will present a tribute to jazz icons Charlie Parker and Dinah Washington, Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. Both Parker and Washington were born on Aug. 29 (in 1920 and 1924 respectively). Sheard will be backed by John Lee & Friends; Lee is a bassist who has played with Dizzy Gillespie and many others and now leads The Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars, The Dizzy Gillespie Big Band and the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Latin Experience.
Sheard’s daughter Monet Sheard, who is a visual artist, will create a “live painting” throughout the performance.
• Raul Malo, frontman of The Mavericks, died in December, but surviving band members are continuing to play Mavericks music on a tour that will come to The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Aug. 27 at 7:30 p.m., and will return to New Jersey for a show at The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m.
Drummer Paul Deakin, guitarist Eddie Perez and keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden, who were in the last version of The Mavericks with Malo, will participate in the tour, as will bassist Robert Reynolds, who was a co-founder of the group in 1989 and remained in the lineup until 2014. The singers will include Emily West and James Otto; both performed at the tribute “Dance the Night Away: A 35 Year Musical Legacy Celebration Honoring Raul Malo,” which took place at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Dec. 5 and 6.
Perez said in a press release: “Raul used to tell me that every time we released new music, it didn’t belong to us anymore; it belonged to the fans. To me, the band has always transcended the people in it. It’s more about the feeling, the vibe, and the high-energy entertainment we give people. We want to continue giving that spirit to our fans.”
DANCE
• The House of Independents nightclub will host the Asbury Park Dance Festival, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m., with performances by The Martha Graham Dance Company (in celebration of the company’s centennial year), New York City Ballet principal dancer Taylor Stanley (in a solo choreographed by Kyle Abraham), New Jersey Ballet, Pilobolus, The Paul Taylor Dance Company and others. The festival raises funds to support arts education.
FAMILY
• Montclair Early Music will present its annual Medieval Fest at The Montclair Art Museum, Aug. 29 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with performances of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music (featuring the ALBA Consort, The Musettes, bagpiper Charlie Rutan and others) plus armored knights, bellydancing, crafts and food vendors, and more. Costumes are encouraged.
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REVIEWS
“Claybash” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Sept. 6)
“Bascha Mon: Mindscapes” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Sept. 6)
“Valerie Huhn: The Wound Is the Place Where the Light Enters You” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Sept. 6)
“Steamroller Group: Uncharted Territories” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Sept. 6)
“Henri Matisse: Beyond Color” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Sept. 13)
“Salvador Jiménez-Flores: Raíces & Resistencias” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through Aug. 1)
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