Nov 09 Sunday
Seattle’s Royal Room will host We Are Stardust — a one-night-only celebration of the music and legacy of Joni Mitchell. The concert brings together five of the Northwest’s finest vocalists — Jean Lenke, Elnah Jordan Heather Ward, Nicole Yvette & Nancy Erickson Lamont — backed by an outstanding band: Nelda Swiggett (piano), Dean Schmidt (bass), Jeff Busch (drums & percussion), Steve Kirk (guitar), and special guests.
Audiences can expect an evening of folk roots, jazz colors, and Joni’s timeless songs, including favorites such as Both Sides Now, River, California, Big Yellow Taxi, Help Me, Coyote, Woodstock, Shadows & Light, and The Hissing of Summer Lawns.
With limited seating and high demand, early reservations are strongly encouraged for this unique musical tribute.
The Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra (SWOJO) was formed in 2000 to encourage women and girls to become involved in jazz performance and composition as a career or avocation, to develop the musical, educational and artistic growth of individual musicians, and to foster appreciation of jazz as an art form. SWOJO has become a dynamic force for jazz in the Puget Sound and Pacific Northwest. It has performed at clubs, jazz festivals and concert halls on two continents.
SWOJO proudly features the contemporary, original music of regional and international women composers and arrangers including Jill Townsend, Ann Reynolds, Leigh Pilzer, Christine Jensen, Jessie Smith and Nelda Swigget. SWOJO has performed with many female jazz artists including Dee Daniels, Grace Kelly, Mimi Fox, Christine Jensen, Jill Townsend, Sherrie Maricle, Greta Matassa, Sheryl Bailey, Ingrid Jensen and many others. SWOJO has performed at Benaroya Hall, the Vancouver (WA) Wine and Jazz Festival, Seattle Jazz Vespers, Triple Door, Dimitrious Jazz Alley, Bumbershoot, Festival Jazz en Lima (Peru) and many others.
It’s almost like being in love! Dance your way back in time to one of the most romantic musicals ever written, Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon. Americans Tommy and Jeff are hiking the Scottish Highlands, when out of the mists they stumble upon the enchanting village of Brigadoon, which appears for only one day every 100 years. But this dreamlike place is far more than it seems—and those who fall in love there might never be the same.
From the writers of My Fair Lady and Camelot comes this soaring love story, full of glorious ballet and favorite tunes like “Come to Me, Bend to Me,” “The Heather on the Hill” and “Almost Like Being in Love.” This production features an exquisite new adaptation, which enhances all the romance and magic that makes Brigadoon a truly timeless masterpiece.
Welcomed by KNKX. Frank Vignola is one of the most extraordinary guitarists performing before the public today. His stunning virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world’s top musicians, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Donald Fagen, John Lewis, Tommy Emmanuel, Lionel Hampton, the Boston Pops, the New York Pops, and guitar legend Les Paul, who named Vignola to his “Five Most Admired Guitarists List:” for the Wall Street Journal.
His dynamic genre-spanning music has brought him to 21 countries on three continents – and still growing – performing in some of the world’s most illustrious venues, including the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, New York’s Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, and the world’s oldest indoor concert hall, Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy.
Pasquale Grasso - It was the kind of endorsement most rising guitarists can only dream of, and then some. In his interview for Vintage Guitar magazine’s February 2016 cover story, Pat Metheny was asked to name some younger musicians who’d impressed him. “The best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life is floating around now, Pasquale Grasso,” said the jazz-guitar icon and NEA Jazz Master. “This guy is doing something so amazingly musical and so difficult. “Mostly what I hear now are guitar players who sound a little bit like me mixed with a little bit of [John Scofield] and a little bit of [Bill Frisell],” he continued. “What’s interesting about Pasquale is that he doesn’t sound anything like that at all. In a way, it is a little bit of a throwback, because his model—which is an incredible model to have—is Bud Powell. He has somehow captured the essence of that language from piano onto guitar in a way that almost nobody has ever addressed. He’s the most significant new guy I’ve heard in many, many years.”
For over 55 years, Tower of Power has delivered the best in funk and soul music.“We were a Soul band called The Motowns.” recalls Emilio Castillo. “Rocco was the bass player, I was there, and my brother was the drummer. I met “Doc” Kupka back in 1968, and gave him an audition. He came in the band, and we eventually changed our name to the Tower of Power.” The reason for the band name change was that they had a specific goal in mind.
East Bay Grease defined their sound and landed them with Warner Brothers. Bump City, their 1972 debut for the label, was a hit on both the Billboard 200 and the R&B Albums chart, and netted them the hits “You’re Still A Young Man” and “Down to The Nightclub.” The 70s were a boom period with radio classics like “So Very Hard to Go” and “What Is Hip?,” and the band continued to tour and record over the years. Castillo says their love of the stage is the same today as it was back in 1968.
50 years later, in 2018, they returned to Oakland to celebrate their landmark 50th anniversary. Tower’s window-rattling grooves and raucous party spirit has been a balm for the soul throughout their half-century existence, but the release of 50 Years of Funk & Soul: Live at the Fox Theater couldn’t have arrived at a better time.
The band has long since surpassed Castillo’s modest aspirations, traveling the world, enjoying hit singles on their own and backing legendary artists including Otis Redding, Elton John, Santana, the Grateful Dead, John Lee Hooker, Aerosmith, Bonnie Raitt, and countless others. In the process they’ve defined an “Oakland soul” sound as instantly recognizable as those from Castillo’s hometown, Detroit, as well as inspirations like Memphis and Philadelphia.
Nov 10 Monday
A group of visual artists have come together to express their concern over the current state of the nation/world due to today’s political situation. The show title “Degenerate” Art harkens back to the label used by the Nazis in the 1930s to attack modern art and the artists who did not adhere to the permitted view of racial purity, militarism, and obedience.
Pieces by six established Vashon Island artists will be presented: Gregory Burnham, Bill Cleaver, Bill Jarcho, Alice Larson, Marc Pease, and Lenard Yen.
“Every day this becomes a more important show as we see the arts attacked and erosion of our freedom of speech,” said Alice Larson. “What is happening parallels fascism in Germany under Hitler. Anything not toeing the line of the administration in power is deleted, banned, and those related to it punished.”Bill Cleaver summarized why the exhibit is particularly relevant to the group. “We are artists, so this is how we express our concerns. We hope this show will inspire others to find their own way to declare their distress.”
The “Degenerate” Art Show will be on display at Snapdragon Café, 17817 Vashon Hwy SW, Vashon Island, WA during November 2025, with an opening celebration on First Friday November 7, 6 – 9 p.m.
Echoes of the Floating World features a striking collection of 18th, 19th and early 20th-century Japanese woodblock prints from the Tacoma Art Museum and others, displayed alongside works by contemporary Northwest artists. This exhibition honors the rich legacy of ukiyo-e while exploring its cultural impact on today’s artistic expressions.
Hours-
Monday CLOSEDTuesday CLOSEDWednesday 10 am – 5 pmThursday 10 am – 8 pmFriday 10 am – 5 pmSaturday 10 am – 5 pmSunday 10 am – 5 pm
We are protesting project 2025. TacomaRama marching band will join us for the next 4 years. We will meet each month on the Saturday closest to the 18th each month. Always 10am, always Reconciliation park. Feel loved and supported.
The period from the 1870s to the 1900s, known as the Gilded Age, saw the rise of the railroad, textile industry, and production. It also saw a rise in migration to US cities, providing workers to fill low paying jobs producing many of the fashions of the era. This era marked a turning point in fashion as new technologies and changing cultural norms transformed the ways in which people dressed.
Explore this history and enjoy the rare chance to see clothing, notions, and artifacts of the period from the Washington State Historical Society collections.
Never Turn Back: Echoes of African American Music unveils the profound legacy of Gospel, Blues, Jazz, and Soul artists who shaped the soundscape of American culture and used their music as instruments of resistance, identity, and representation.
Gospel, Blues, Jazz, and Soul embody the profound influence of African American music on culture and history. From the spiritual foundations and transformative movements of Gospel hymns to the revolutionary improvisations of Jazz, the Blues’ Southern roots rising from the Mississippi Delta, and Soul’s powerful amplification of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, these genres have defined the unique sound and undying spirit of a nation that continues to echo through contemporary Black music today.
