Many music genres will be breezing across metro Atlanta this spring
This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
In its 49th year, the Atlanta Jazz Festival has stepped up its game. The lineup for the Memorial Day weekend staple on May 23-25 is impressive. The Roots, a powerhouse ensemble probably best known as the house band for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” will headline Sunday night. On Saturday night, Kamasi Washington will top the bill. Washington is one of the most acclaimed jazz musicians of our time and has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar (winning a couple of Grammys in the process), St. Vincent, Flying Lotus and George Duke. The lineup also includes Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding, Morehouse graduate and Maroon 5 keyboardist PJ Morton, Christian McBride and soulful Atlanta singer-songwriter Donnie performing his 2002 album “The Colored Section.” Buddy Red, a rising Atlanta talent, will kick things off at 1 p.m. May 23 at Piedmont Park.
The Atlanta Opera has big things in store for opera fans this spring. Beginning April 25, it is performing a new Tomer Zvulun production of Puccini’s final work, “Turandot,” which opens exactly 100 years after its premiere. The story follows Prince Calaf’s obsessive quest to win the heart of the icy Princess Turandot, a woman whose cruelty masks a deeply troubled soul. Beginning May 30, the company will conclude its ambitious mounting of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” when the epic struggle between good and evil reaches its climactic conclusion, “Twilight of the Gods (Götterdämmerung),” as the battle for the ring of power brings about the destruction of the gods’ world. The cast includes Atlanta native and acclaimed bass Morris Robinson as Hagan, whose deceptions and desire for the magic ring drive the action. All performances take place at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
Music Director Laureate Robert Spano returns to Symphony Hall for a two-week run with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in late April and early May. In both weeks, he’ll be leading the orchestra in the music of Leonard Bernstein. On April 30 and May 2, the composer’s brass-heavy Symphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”) is on the program. Stellar pianist Stephen Hough joins for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. The following weekend (May 7 and 9), pianist Conrad Tao is featured in Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 (“The Age of Anxiety”), inspired by W.H. Auden’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poem.
It’s been 18 years since Atlanta’s The Yum Yum Tree released an album, but that changes in April with “Turn Down the Noise.” Vocalist and bassist Andy Gish co-founded Kimono My House in March 2020 as a way to stay connected to the Atlanta music community. Gish and bandmates Matt Harr (drums) and John McNicholas (guitar/vocals) were invited to record at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Box, England, which is where the album came together. Gish calls the experience a “watershed week where our only job was to be artists. Among the beauty and the hush of Real World, I remembered why I started writing music in the first place.” “Turn Down the Noise” will be released April 10, and the band has an album release show planned for the EARL on April 4.
More music highlights …
— Cat Power, aka Atlanta native Chan Marshall, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of her milestone 2006 album, “The Greatest,” with a series of shows where she performs the album in its entirety. She’ll play The Eastern on Thursday.
— Puma Blue is the alias of artist, producer and songwriter Jacob Allen. Originally from South London, Puma Blue is now based in Atlanta. With his second album, “Holy Waters,” things took a turn toward darkness and death. That theme continues on his recent third album, the aptly titled “Croak Dream,” inspired by literal nocturnal visions of death. He’ll play the Masquerade on Thursday.
— Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann, one of the great interpreters of this exalted work, leads a stellar lineup of soloists with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Bach’s immersive Mass in B minor. Performances take place at Symphony Hall at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and at 3 p.m. Sunday.
— The Brandee Younger Trio will perform the final Jazz at All Saints’ concert of the season on Friday. Younger is carrying on the harp’s role in modern jazz, inspired by the pioneering work of Alice Coltrane. Now the custodian of a harp played by Coltrane, one of the women who created the harp’s distinctive voice in jazz, Younger played it in a recent Carnegie Hall concert dedicated to the late virtuoso’s compositions. In 2022, she became the first Black woman to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition.
— Enigmatic guitarist Marc Ribot has released six solo albums, but his distinctive sound is probably best known through his work with Tom Waits in the ’80s. Waits’ brilliant 1985 album “Rain Dogs” is practically a showcase for his barbed-wire twang. He’s also all over a more recent classic, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ “Raising Sand.” He’ll play the Wild Heaven Garden Club on March 20.
— The peerless Dionne Warwick will bring her timeless catalog of hits, a list that starts with 1962’s “Don’t Make Me Over,” to Atlanta Symphony Hall on March 20.
— “Klezmer: Old, New and NOW!” with the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars will blend traditional klezmer with the funk, R&B and Dixieland sounds of the ensemble’s namesake city March 22 at the Breman.
— Pat Metheny continues the evolution of his revolving band project Side-Eye with a new tour featuring new music. The lineup includes pianist/keyboardist Chris Fishman, drummer Joe Dyson and Jermaine Paul on bass. Metheny comes to Symphony Hall on March 23.
— Pianist Gabriela Montero returns to Spivey Hall with “Westward,” a program featuring extraordinary immigrant composers and anchored by her improvised accompaniment to Charlie Chaplin’s 1917 film “The Immigrant.” She’ll perform March 27.
— Grammy Award-winning American mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges joins with the Catalyst Quartet and pianist Spencer Myer for a program anchored in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Fantasiestucke, Op. 5. It’s part of the Candler Concert Series at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts and happens April 10.
— Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman come together for an evening of solo performances and collaborations at Symphony Hall on April 13, with special guest Brennan Wedl.
— Rory Block is a legendary blues guitarist, singer and songwriter known for her powerful and authentic interpretations of traditional country blues and original compositions. She’ll take the stage on April 17 at Eddie Owen Presents at Red Clay .
— This year’s Sweetwater 420 Music Fest will feature Umphrey’s McGee, Thievery Corporation, Chromeo and more as it moves to Shirley Clarke Franklin Park, formerly known as Westside Park. The festival takes place April 17-18.
— An Evening With Yo-Yo Ma: Reflections in Words and Music combines performance with the cellist’s reflections on how the music shaped his thinking about art, human nature and our search for meaning. He comes to the Fox Theatre on April 18.
— The Choral Guild of Atlanta’s season concludes April 19 with “Of Sea, Sky and Stars,” a program featuring treasured classics, contemporary gems and a tribute to America’s 250th anniversary. The performance happens at Peachtree Presbyterian Church.
— The roof-rattling vocals of U.K. pop sensation Raye will fill the Coca-Cola Roxy on April 28.
— The free, one-day, multiact Wig Wag Festival is reminiscent of the old Corndogorama Festival in East Atlanta and will return for its fifth year on May 2 in Avondale Estates. Local contemporary classical ensemble Bent Frequency will wrap up its season May 3 with a concert featuring winners of the fifth annual Underscore competition and a performance of the iconic, groundbreaking 1976 work “Music for 18 Musicians” (celebrating the work’s 50th anniversary and composer Steve Reich’s 90th birthday) in collaboration with the Atlanta Contemporary Music Collective, Ensemble Vim, Chamber Cartel and Smol Ensemble.
— Now in the seventh decade of his professional life, Herbie Hancock has been at the forefront of world culture, technology, business and music — from his days as a member of the groundbreaking Miles Davis Quintet in the ’60s to his innovative work in the ’70s and ’80s that combined electric jazz with funk and rock in a style that continues to influence contemporary music. The legendary musician comes to Symphony Hall on May 5.
— Hugely successful Atlanta-based contemporary Christian band Third Day has reunited for its 30th Anniversary Tour. For the first time in more than a decade, original members Mac Powell, Mark Lee, David Carr and Tai Anderson will hit the road together for a limited tour that brings them to Gas South Arena in Duluth on May 10.
— Virginia Highland Porchfest brings together up to 100 incredible area bands for a day of live music and family fun May 16.
— The Georgia Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 75th anniversary with a performance at Symphony Hall on May 23.
— Recently nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Atlanta’s own the Black Crowes join forces with Whiskey Myers for the Southern Hospitality Tour, which brings them to Ameris Bank Amphitheatre in Alpharetta on May 23.
— The Atlanta Contemporary Music Collective’s Outside the Lines spotlights two works for open ensemble that explore the space outside of the traditional rhythmic grid by Julius Eastman and Orynn Murphy. They’ll perform at Lost Druid Brewery in Avondale Estates on June 6.
— Stutzmann closes the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s season with one of orchestral music’s best-loved works. Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”) probes themes of life and death and the struggle to find meaning. Performances are June 4, June 6 and June 7.
— Grammy-nominated R&B singer and Atlanta’s own Summer Walker brings her “Still Finally Over It Tour” to State Farm Arena on June 12.
— Oscar-nominated composer Max Richter kicks off his North American tour at Symphony Hall on June 12, following his recent nomination for an Academy Award for the soundtrack to “Hamnet.” Richter and his ensemble will perform his 2004 release “The Blue Notebooks” and Richter’s most recent album, 2024’s “In a Landscape.”
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