Feb 25 Wednesday
AfroCuban Dance is HERE and you’re invited!
Experience the roots, rhythms, and soul of AfroCuban dance with the phenomenal Takechi Ruiz every Wednesday at 7:15 PM.
This is more than a class, it’s a celebration of culture, community, and movement. Perfect for all levels. Let’s move!
Location: Tacoma -1105 Martin Luther King Jr. WayDay: WednesdaysTimed: 7:15 – 8:15 PMAge: Ages 12+Contact: 253-327-1783
Registration Link: https://app.jackrabbitclass.com/regv2.asp?id=532322&preLoadClassID=20477009
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.”
Feb 26 Thursday
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.
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.
Feb 27 Friday
3rd annual festival on 6 stages in downtown Poulsbo with 36 performances. The event sells out early every year so get your tickets early. Details at Poulsbobluesandjazzfestival.com.
Early folk, gospel, and Western swing musicians laid the groundwork for Americana, extending back to the founding mothers and fathers of country music, including Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, and the Carter Family. From the mid-20th century through the present day, more singer-songwriter luminaries followed: Bob Dylan, The Band, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, and Brandi Carlile.
Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding, A Celebration of American Music from Bob Dylan to Bonnie Raitt brings together some of today’s most accomplished and expressive female artists for an exuberant exploration of this expansive and singular American genre.