Dec 04 Thursday
The fruitcakes of the Reduced Shakespeare Company are coming to take you on an irreverent yet heartwarming trip through the holidays. It’s festive funny physical family fun as these Three Wise Guys send-up and celebrate your favorite winter holiday traditions. CONTENT ADVISORY: Contains comic depictions of violence, mild innuendo, bawdy language, and the occasional rude word.
Sponsored by KNKX. Métier Brewing Company and NW Folklife have partnered to host a monthly concert series, allowing NW Folklife to showcase our network of artists in a local business that celebrates the age-old craft of beermaking. MBC is all about strengthening community and creating a welcoming gathering space for families, friends, and those who appreciate exceptional beer. Located in the Central District, Seattle's Historic Black neighborhood, Métier is one of the few Black-owned breweries in the country. As part of last year's Cultural Focus, Metamorphosis, this partnership helps reclaim the dynamism of Folk as a way of life for people of all backgrounds, heritages, and traditions, not merely a stigmatized musical genre.
The series is every first Thursday.
November 6, December 4, February 5: Elnah Jordan's passion for singing was discovered when she was a child in the church choir. Originally from Ohio, Elnah was influenced and encouraged by her mother who is an accomplished pianist. She developed her natural and raw talent on a path that winded through the choir stands of her gospel roots to the streets of San Francisco and its clubs and eventually with much persistence, to the theater. She was awarded a nomination in 1986 in that city for Jazz Vocalist of the Year.
Having moved to Seattle, Elnah has been embraced by the community of gifted performers and artists here. She continues to grow in her appreciation of the music and for the blessing of being able to do what she loves dearly. She has graced stages through-out the Pacific Northwest: She been a featured performer at Egan’s Ballard Jam House, The Sorrento Hotel, Tula Jazz Lounge, The Royal Room , Grazies and the New Orleans to name a few. She even found her way into the Seattle theater scene performing in the last season of Black Nativity.
Stay tuned for more info about future concerts.
Northwest Folklife is truly excited to partner with Métier Brewing Company to share in our ethos that folk and craft is a product of and for Our Beloved Community.
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.”
Scrooge has no honor, nor any courage. Can three ghosts help him to become the true warrior he ought to be in time to save Tiny Tim from a horrible fate? Performed in the original Klingon with English supertitles, and narrative analysis from The Vulcan Institute of Cultural Anthropology.
Black Thunder is the dazzling, fully improvised, fully realized new album by Seattle-based musician, producer, and engineer Brittany Davis. Featuring the artist on keys and vocals, Evan Flory-Barnes on bass, and D’Vonne Lewis on drums, the Josh Evans-produced offering recalls artists like Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk in its immersive, incantatory spirit.
The trio — who barely knew each other previously — extemporized Black Thunder in a surge of interactive creativity across two days in the studio. The pressure-cooker environment did away with overthinking and brought each musician’s A-game. Steeped in Black and Afrocentric cultural influences, this is Davis’s most poignant and cathartic work to date.
“Brittany, Evan, and D’Vonne have, in some way, been preparing for this recording all their lives. Honing their instrumental craft and ability, of course — but more importantly, preparing their ears, emotions, and egos to be fully present and create absolutely in the moment,” Evans says. “To listen deeply and respond empathetically. To speak with uncomfortable honesty. To listen, and be vulnerable.”
Black Thunder marks a shift away from the drum machines and programmed keys of her previous album, 2024’s Image Issues. This is a fully live, organic performance, one that showcases her stylistic maturation and the breadth of her versatility.
Tumble out of bed and stumble to the theater for this delicious workplace revenge comedy from living legend Dolly Parton. Pushed to the boiling point by their sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical boss, three female co-workers concoct a plan to get even—a plan that spins wildly and hilariously out of control. Hey, a girl can scheme, can’t she?
Set in the Rolodex era, when shag rugs, pet rocks, and disco were the grooviest things around, this must-see, dance-filled musical is based on the hit 1980 film and features the blockbuster title song—plus a new score of 18 original numbers by Dolly Parton herself. Outrageous, big-hearted, and even a little romantic, 9 to 5: The Musical is about teaming up and getting credit, it’s about kicking butt and taking care of business, and it’s about to put a huge smile on your face.
For five unforgettable seasons, Harlequin’s A Christmas Carol has captured the hearts of audiences across the South Sound. Now, in our 5th anniversary production, we invite you to rediscover Dickens’ timeless tale of hope, redemption, and the true spirit of the season. Whether it’s your first visit or a return to a beloved tradition, this year promises to be the most memorable yet—with a reworked script, new characters, an updated set, new special effects, and all the warmth, music, and holiday magic you’ve come to cherish. Traditions evolve, and who knows what the future holds? Don’t miss this milestone year of A Christmas Carol at Harlequin.
Born in Miami, during World War II, Chris Smither grew up in New Orleans where he first started playing music as a child. The son of a Tulane University professor, he was taught the rudiments of instrumentation by his uncle on his mother’s ukulele. “Uncle Howard,” Smither says, “showed me that if you knew three chords, you could play a lot of the songs you heard on the radio. And if you knew four chords, you could pretty much rule the world.” With that bit of knowledge under his belt, he was hooked. “I’d loved acoustic music – specifically the blues – ever since I first heard Lightnin’ Hopkins’ Blues In My Bottle album. I couldn’t believe the sound Hopkins got. At first I thought it was two guys playing guitar. My style, to a degree, came out of trying to imitate that sound I heard.”
Dec 05 Friday
Slow Burn is a new high point in a remarkable career that now spans more than three decades and includes a long list of accolades; four GRAMMY nominations, three NAACP Image Award nominations, a Soul Train Award for Best Jazz Album and four RIAA Gold Record certifications. In 2009, Billboard named James one of the Top 3 Contemporary Jazz Artists of the decade. In 2024 year Boney became the first ever artist to score 20 number one singles on the Billboard Smooth Jazz chart.
But Boney James has never been one to look backwards and Slow Burn, which the artist produced, marks several firsts. Beginning with the album's opening track, 'Arcadia.' The very first notes on the album are the acoustic bass playing of the legendary Marcus Miller. It's one of the few times that Miller, known for his electric bass guitar work, has committed his standup bass playing to a recording and the first time that James has incorporated an upright bass into his own music.
