Arturo Sandoval will perform at NJPAC in Newark, Nov. 13.
The 14th annual TD James Moody Jazz Festival will get underway this week, at NJPAC and other Newark venues, and continue through Nov. 23. Some of the biggest names — including The Christian McBride Big Band, Savion Glover and Carlos Varela — will not perform until later in the month. But here are some of the festival’s early attractions (i.e., those scheduled from Nov. 8 to Nov. 13).
Nov. 8, 6 p.m.: Jazz Vespers at Bethany Baptist Church. Featuring George Cables, piano; Alexander Claffy, bass; Jerome Jennings, drums. FREE
Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m.: Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos at Victoria Theater at NJPAC. Featuring Omar Sosa, piano; Sheldon Brown, saxophone, clarinet and flute; Ernesto Mazar Kindelán, bass; Josh Jones, drums.
Nov. 9, 3 p.m.: Stanley Clarke’s *N* 4EVER at Victoria Theater at NJPAC. With bassist Ben Williams appearing as “special guest.”
Nov. 12, 4:30 p.m.: TD Jazz for Teens performance and reading of Yo-Yo Ma’s “Playing at the Border: A Story of Yo-Yo Ma” at Newark Public Library, Springfield Branch. FREE
Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m.: Arturo Sandoval at Victoria Theater at NJPAC.
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The Everything Fab Four Fest will take place in Asbury Park, Nov. 6-8.
Here is a roundup of other major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Nov. 13.
MUSIC
• E Street Band members Max Weinberg and Jake Clemons will be among the participants in a Beatles festival, Everything Fab Four, that will be held at The Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel in Asbury Park, Nov. 6-8. According to a press release, the event will feature “curated content, concerts, conversations and more” and celebrate The Beatles’ 1965 Rubber Soul album.
It is spearheaded by Kenneth Womack, who is a professor of English and popular music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, the host of the “Everything Fab Four” podcast, and the author of many books about The Beatles and other musical subjects. And it is presented by Wonderwall Communications and Salon, in association with The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University.
Nov. 7, Weinberg will be interviewed by Bob Santelli (executive director of the Springsteen Archives), perform several Beatles songs with the band The Weeklings, and participate in a meet-and-greet session.
Clemons will perform with his band on Nov. 8, and participate in a meet-and-greet session to benefit The Light of Day Foundation, which raises money and awareness for the fight against Parkinson’s disease and related disorders.
Other performers will include Nellie McKay (Nov. 8), Blac Rabbit (Nov. 6), The Black Ties (Nov. 7) and The Magical Mystery Girls (Nov. 8). Authors and Beatles experts who will participate include Jamie Bernstein, Rob Sheffield, Bruce Spizer, Scott Freiman and Jude Southerland Kessler.
STEVE EARLE
• Although Steve Earle released his first full-length album, Guitar Town, in 1986, he started his career as a musician more than a decade earlier. And he will present a solo acoustic show with the title “Fifty Years of Songs and Stories” at The Outpost in the Burbs at The First Congregational Church in Montclair, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m., with singer-songwriter Zandi Holup opening.
• Bassist and bandleader Mike Griot has put together a 16-piece orchestra — including string and horn sections and harmonica player Rob Paparozzi, with Vivian Sessoms, Mike Davis and possibly one more vocalist to be announced later handling the singing — for his “The Soul of Burt Bacharach” concert, being presented by the Kean Stage series at Enlow Recital Hall at Kean University in Hillside, Nov. 8 at 2 and 7:30 p.m.
Working with Hall David and other lyricists, Bacharach — who died in 2023, at the age of 94— composed the music for 52 Top 40 singles, including hits for Dionne Warwick (“Walk On By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”), B.J. Thomas (“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”), Jackie DeShannon (“What the World Needs Now Is Love”), The Carpenters (“Close to You”), Tom Jones (“What’s New Pussycat?”), Christopher Cross (“Arthur’s Theme”), Dionne Warwick & Friends (“That’s What Friends Are For”), and others.
Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin.
• Singer-songwriters Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin will bring their Together Onstage Tour to The Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.; and The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
“We’ve played many shows together and they’re always a blast,” wrote Colvin on social media when the tour was announced.
• The Maplewood Strollers will present a concert version of Georges Bizet’s renowned 1875 opera “Carmen,” Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. at The Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts in Maplewood, with mezzo-soprano Victoria Thomasch in the title role.
FILM
• RaMell Ross — who directed and co-wrote the crime drama “Nickel Boys,” which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar this year, with Ross receiving an additional nomination in the Adapted Screenplay category — will appear at a screening of it, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. in The Visiting Filmmaker Series at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. Ross will be interviewed by Patrick Stettner, director of The Rutgers Filmmaking Center.
The screening is free, though advance registration is required.
SNACKTIME
OTHER
• The Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in Elmer will present a 65th Anniversary Weekend Festival, Nov. 7-9, with music — by artists such as Snacktime, Minka, The Tisburys, Stereo League and Polaroid Fade — art workshops, an art show, an interactive memory wall, campfires and more.
• “It ain’t over ’til it’s over,” the late baseball legend and Montclair resident Yogi Berra famously said. And “It Ain’t Over” is the title of an event, revolving around the “It Ain’t Over” theme, that will be presented by The Montclair Story Salon at The Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Little Falls, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m., to benefit the venue’s educational performing.
Storytellers will include Lindsay Berra (a journalist who is Yogi’s granddaughter), Frank Isola, Todd Smith and Kate Tuttle. Keyboardist Ed Alstrom (who plays organ at New York Yankees baseball games) will perform, and visual artist Fernando Mariscal will create a work of art, during the evening, that will be auctioned off for the cause.
• The Rialto Center for Creativity in Westfield will present a program, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m., titled “Celebrating Local Harlem Renaissance Artists” and focusing on writers Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, who collaborated on the 1930 play “Mule Bone” while living in Westfield. Tanya Birl-Torres (a choreographer, and the artistic director of The Washington Heights Womanist Arts Festival) and Monica L. Miller, professor of Africana studies at Barnard College, will participate in the discussion.
According to The Rialto Center, “This conversation will explore their partnership, the tensions that arose from it, and how their complex legacy continues to influence modern Black creativity and cultural studies.”
REVIEWS
“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)
“Our Town,” presented by America Theater Group at Sieminski Theater in Basking Ridge (Through Nov. 9)
“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” at F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University, Madison. (Through Nov. 16)
“The Drop Off” at New Jersey Repertory Company, Long Branch. (Through Nov. 23)
“Crumbs From the Table of Joy,” presented by Crossroads Theatre Company at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.
“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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