Nightspots

Mid-Michigan rock ’n’ roll quartet.

Jazz-funk-blues fusion quartet led by local composer-saxophonist Streng.

Performers of all skill levels invited. With a short set by James Bourland & the Staches, a local quintet fronted by Bourland, a singer-guitarist who specializes in all forms of American roots music. 6–9 p.m.

Jazz & blues standards by an ensemble led by WCC jazz guitar instructor Somers.

Local 10-piece big band led by tubaist Chris Smith that specializes in the old-time big band music of the late 1920s and early 1930s associated with Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver.

A veteran English electric guitar virtuoso whom Eric Clapton once called  “the greatest guitarist in the world,” Lee is a master of just about every style of Anglo-American vernacular music, but he is best known for his influence on country guitarists, via both his stints in the Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, and the Everly Brothers bands and from his 1979 song “Country Boy,” which helped redefine country guitar. $35.

Veteran local jazz guitar virtuoso. He is joined tonight by guitarists Steve Rich & Pete Bullard for a set of gypsy jazz tunes.

Award-winning 14-piece big band led by bassist Keller and featuring vocalist Sarah D’Angelo and occasional guest vocalists. Also, each week features a middle set by a guest college or high school student ensemble.

Veteran sextet from County Donegal in northwestern Ireland that performs traditional Irish music in a style that blends the melodic sweetness of Irish tunes with the power and drive of Scottish music. Led by fiddler and vocalist Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, who sings in Gaelic and English, the group also includes bouzouki player Ciarán Curran, guitarists Dáithí Sproule and Mark Kelly, fiddler Clare Friel, and accordionist Martin Tourish. The Chicago Tribune calls Altan “the most influential traditional group to emerge from Ireland since the seminal Bothy Band.” An Ark favorite for more than 3 decades. $35.

All acoustic musicians invited. Hosted by Skinned Knees.

Early jazz classics from Scott Joplin and Bessie Smith to Louis Armstrong and beyond by this veteran local septet led by trombonist Terry Kimura.

Most Americans discovered Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Paul Simon’s 1986 Graceland album, but this celebrated black South African male a cappella chorus has been around since 1958, when it was founded by lead tenor Joseph Shabalala as the Durban Choir. The group is the prime exponent of “isicathamiya,” the indigenous music of rural black workers in South African cities. At once celebratory and mournful, this music fashions an exhilarating fusion of playful, antic craftiness and somber, haunting spirituality, and is accompanied with mesmerizing effect by equally intricate dance movements. $51.

Grand Blanc rock singer-guitarist. Openers: the local garage rock trio The Reference, the Detroit-area psychedelic hard-rock band The End Of Ends, and Valaura, a Detroit-based rock band, led by vocalist Casey Cafego, who play a brand of lounge rock with blues & jazz influences that’s been described as “Paramore meets Pink Floyd.” $14.

U-M jazz student ensemble led by composer-pianist Patterson.

An eclectic mix of covers from the 50s–70s, along with originals & parodies.

Monthly gathering of live electronic production musicians, using beat machines, samplers, modular systems, synths and similar instruments.

Acoustic quintet of veteran bluegrass and country musicians who play new interpretations of songs from the Appalachian regions. One Bluegrass Today reviewer described their sound as “not old time, not straightforward bluegrass, but a mixture of the two, with bits and pieces of history thrown in for good measure.”

Chicago-based jazz, pop, and rock fusion band, led by saxophonist and composer-arranger Neil Carson, that boasts a big, brassy 5-piece horn section backed by driving powerhouse rhythms and searing guitar. Their 2019 self-titled debut, a killer mix of up-tempo originals and 80s & 90s pop covers, was hailed by Downbeat as “power-polychord instrumental rock at its finest.”

Local husband-and-wife acoustic duo of Jill & Wolf Reuter.

Jackson classic rock cover trio.