From a star jazz pianist in Walnut Creek to new shows at Santa Clara’s Triton Museum of Art and a two-day festival honoring David Bowie, there are a lot of cool shows and concerts to catch in the Bay Area. Here is a partial rundown.
Jazz great comes to Walnut Creek
Like many musicians who have grown to achieve iconic status, Kenny Barron was introduced to music lessons at an early age (in this case, 6) — but there was one significant difference.
“I hated it,” he once said in an interview. “I wanted to be outside playing with the other kids.”
Fortunately for music fans the world over, Barron overcame his disdain for music and rehearsing and grew to become one of the most top jazz pianists in the world — revered for both his technical prowess and ability to connect with both casual and serious jazz fans. He’s played with such jazz stalwarts as Roy Haynes, Lee Morgan, Dizzy Gillespie — who reportedly hired the pianist without an audition — and Yusef Lateef, whom Barron credits as a key inspiration, especially with regards to his famed improvisational skills.
You have a chance to catch the jazz legend on Jan. 10 when he brings his Trio — featuring rising-star vocalist Tyreek McDole — to Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts, as part of the venue’s new series SFJAZZ @ The Lesher. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.
Details: Tickets are $66-$101; www.lesherartscenter.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
4 new shows at the Triton
A new year means new museum shows. And at Santa Clara’s Triton Museum of Art, there’s not one but four exhibits opening in January, ranging from slashed-and-bleached abstractions to uncanny paintings of suburbia that hearken to Edward Hopper and David Lynch.
That latter show, opening Jan. 10, comes from South Bay artist Jonathan Crow, who gained fame with drawings of U.S. vice presidents wearing octopuses on their heads. Crow’s latest exhibit, “Cul-de-sac,” explores the false utopia of suburban life, where divisive topics on race and gender often lurk below the surface. These eerie set pieces are designed to generate a sense of “growing unease,” the artists says, and suggest “menace that looms just outside the frame.”
Opening on Jan. 17 is “Seams” by Berkeley’s Cynthia Ona Innis, who forcefully manipulates various media into abstract expressions of the artistic process. The museum explains: “The dialogue between the pigments and the textiles are uncovered through the way they respond to each other; pigments poured directly onto the fabric, bleach used to remove color, materials cut, stitched, assembled and reassembled.”
Then on Jan. 24, the museum opens shows by local artists Jacqueline Boberg and Emanuela Harris Sintamarian, featuring — respectively — design-influenced mixed media and something intriguing called “polyphonic images.” All in all, it’s plenty of art to kickstart 2026.
Details: 1505 Warburton Ave., Santa Clara; hours are 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday; free admission; tritonmuseum.org.
— John Metcalfe, Staff
Iconic ‘Riders’ song is reborn
The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” is one of the greatest rock songs of all time.
And fans can experience this classic — which was released as the second single from The Doors’ fantastic sixth album, 1971’s “L.A. Woman” — in a whole new way beginning on Jan. 9.
That’s the day when a drastically reimagined version of the song will be released on YouTube. The project was spearheaded by, and acts as a fundraiser for, Playing for Change, a nonprofit organization that supports music and arts education in more than two dozen countries.
This new “Riders on the Storm” video also celebrates the 60th anniversary of The Doors, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame act that was formed by vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore in the great city of Los Angeles in 1965. Krieger and Densmore, the two surviving members of The Doors, are the backbone of the video, revisiting the signature guitar and drums parts more than a half-century after they were originally laid to wax.
From there, however, the video leaves The Doors’ native SoCal and heads off around the world to draw upon musical contributions from more than 20 musicians and dancers from eight different countries. Performers include the Lakota Drum Group, Lukas and Micah Nelson, Sierra Ferrell, Rami Jaffee, Boboulay Sissokho, Macarena Montesinos, Guarani Andeva Group, Iron Cult Dancers and Don Was.
Details: New video will be available on YouTube on Jan. 9 and after.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Here’s your freebie of the week
Museums and art galleries don’t often throw parties for an exhibit that is about to go away, but 111 Minna is not your typical gallery. The edgy South of Market venue in San Francisco that showcases works from up-and-coming artists is also known as a cool place to host gatherings and celebrations, especially among the city arts crowd. On Jan. 8., 111 Minna is hosting a closing party for its lively exhibit “Year of the Snake,” which features striking works from more than 40 Bay Area artists. The exhibit is the gallery’s third collection inspired by the Chinese zodiac, following “Year of the Dragon” (2024) and “Year of the Tiger” (2023). It’s also the gallery’s third collaboration with San Francisco’s Seventh Son Tattoo on Clementina Street, with both parties interested in exploring the intersection of contemporary art and the ever-emerging world of tattoo art. All of which gives you plenty to chat about if you attend the closing party at 7 p.m. Jan. 8 at the gallery.
Details: Free admission; tunes will be spun by DJ Keybumps; more information is at 111minnagallery.com or www.seventhsontattoo.com.
— Bay City News Foundation
All about Bowie
This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of David Bowie, an artist whose vast impact on 20th- and 21st-century popular culture far exceeds his career as a constantly evolving rock star. He tackled musical forms ranging from simple folk to classical, art rock and metal/industrial; he championed sexual and intellectual freedom in ways that no one had ever witnessed before and turned androgyny into an art form; and he wrote astounding lyrics that ranged from clever and mischievous to delightfully raunchy to the quietly profound observations of his “Space Oddity” astronaut protagonist Major Tom (“Planet Earth is blue/and there’s nothing I can do”). His life, music and art is deserving of a celebration and the Great American Music Hall is serving up just that with its 15th annual Bowie Bash on Jan. 9-10.
Mirroring Bowie’s career, the event serves up a little bit of everything – drag performances and burlesque; puppets; performance art and of course lots and lots of Bowie music. The Jan. 9 event will feature the album for which Bowie is arguably best known, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars;” Jan. 10 will highlight “Station to Station” and “Let’s Dance.” Both nights feature performances by The First Church of the Sacred Silversexual, which bills itself as the “world’s only worship band devoted to the teachings of David Bowie.”
Details: Doors open 8 p.m. each night and show starts at 9:30; tickets are $20-$29 and $30-$45 for a two-day pass; Great American is 859 O’Farrell St. in San Francisco; more information is at gamh.com.
— Bay City News Foundation
Spice up your week
An iconic rapper and an up-and-coming comedian are teaming up on Jan. 8 for the second installment of Oaktown’s Most Wanted. The rapper is none other than West Coast rap legend Robert L. Green Jr., aka Spice 1, who grew up in Hayward and has been a mainstay of the Bay Area hip-hop scene since he dropped his first album, a self-titled release, in 1992. In all, he’s released 16 albums while helping to create the blueprint for West Coast rap and gangsta rap, with their vivid, hard-edged tales of life on the East Bay streets. He was mentored by another East Bay legend, Too Short; and perhaps his best-known record, “AmeriKKKa’s Nightmare,” featured contributions from 2Pac, E-40 and Method Man. Several of his albums have been certified gold, and while some have opined that he deserves to be a bigger star, his uncompromising approach to music has made him a hero to ironclad fans of classic hip-hop. Also performing in the Most Wanted show is comedian Jerry Law, an Oakland-based comedian with a similarly raw approach to his art. Having spent 15 years in prison, Law directs much of his humor at his hard life and the redemptive power of humor. Music artists Gianna Farren and LGFROMTHEBAY are also on the bill.
Details: Show starts 8 p.m. Jan. 8 at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, Oakland; tickets are $35-$69; go to yoshis.com.
Hooray for the hornblowers
The San Francisco Symphony’s ultra-impressive brass section players were lined up and ready to entertain the holiday crowd on Dec. 20, when, as the band Journey puts it, the lights went down in the City. The concert spoiled by the power outage that day has been rescheduled for Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Davies Hall, and the holiday theme still prevails. The brass, timpani and other percussion instrumentalists, led by guest conductor Brad Hogarth, will kick off with selections from Handel’s festive “Royal Fireworks Music” and continue with a program lineup that includes Gaetano Maria Schiassi’s “Christmas Symphony,” excerpts from Bizet’s “Carmen,” the traditional carol “Fum, Fum, Fum,” the Suite from Astor Piazzolla’s “Maria de Buenos Aires” and Gustav Holst’s “Christmas Day.”
Details: Ticketholders who have already purchased will have their seats preserved; those who can’t attend can contact the Symphony box office to arrange an exchange, and everybody else can find tickets, $150-$275, at sfsymphony.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
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