January 2013 Concerts & Events At Musical Instrument Museum

The Musical Instrument Museum has a slew of events planned throughout January — from kid-friendly events and its Music In Motion series to performances by the ASU Dixie Devils and its winter/spring concert series.

January 2013 Concert & Events at MIM:

Mini Tour: Christmas Sports and the Junkanoo Festival

• Friday, January 4 | 1:30 p.m. & 2:30 p.m.
• Tickets: Free with museum admission
• Join a docent-led mini tour featuring the colorful instruments and traditions of Christmas Sports and the Junkanoo Festival in the Caribbean.

Museum Encounter: Desert Ridge Music Academy Steel Drum Band

• Friday, January 4 | 11:30 a.m.
• Tickets: Free with museum admission
• Members of Desert Ridge Music Academy, a steel-drum band, will play selections of calypso music and more.

Family Day: New Year’s Jazz Masquerade

• Saturday, January 5 | 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
• Tickets: Free with museum admission
• This family-friendly day will be full of the vibrant sights and sounds of American jazz and Caribbean masquerade traditions. Enjoy mini tours, make drums from recycled materials, create festive masquerade masks, participate in a jazzy story time, and march (or dance) into 2013 by joining a performance with the ASU Dixie Devils.

Costume and Instrument Craft

• Saturday, January 5 | 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
• Tickets: Free with museum admission
• Use recycled materials to make unique instruments and costumes inspired by the sights and sounds of the Bahamas Junkanoo Festival.

Story Time: The Jazz Fly

• Saturday, January 5 | 10:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., & noon
• Tickets: Free with museum admission
• Listen to the story of “The Jazz Fly,” by Matthew Gollub. Learn the importance of improvisation and listening to new sounds. A MIM docent will help bring the story to life with simple interactive activities. The program is best for ages 3–6. Seating is limited and is available on a first come, first served basis. Please check in for story time at the Family Center and the Experience Gallery.

Family-Friendly Mini Tour: The Bahamas and the Junkanoo Festival

• Saturday, January 5 | Noon & 3:30 p.m.
• Tickets: Free with museum admission
• Take a short, family-friendly tour featuring the colorful and festive Junkanoo tradition of the Bahamas. Learn about its origin and the customs and costumes associated with it.

Museum Encounter: Join in the Parade with the ASU Dixie Devils!

• Saturday, January 5 | 12:30 p.m. & 2 p.m.
• Tickets: Free with museum admission
• Don’t miss out on the fun as the ASU Dixie Devils get down with some early jazz and Dixieland music. This all-star ensemble is composed of ASU undergraduate, graduate, and alumni musicians from the School of Music at the ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Be sure to join them in a short parade where participants can play and model their Junkanoo crafts and show some New Year’s spirit!

World Community Drum Circle Workshop: Indian Sounds

• Saturday, January 5 | 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $12 (museum admission may be purchased separately)
• Join the circle! In each class, Frank Thompson, founder of AZ Rhythms, offers a chance to experience community drumming for all levels, from absolute beginners to enthusiastic professionals. This month, the fun, relaxing and family-friendly session will focus on the sounds of India and a special artist will stop in to demonstrate, share and provide guidance on Indian rhythms and instruments. As always, there will be plenty time for making music.  Bring your own drum or use one provided.

Evan Shinners

• Saturday, January 5 | 7:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $19.50 – $24.50
• Preconceptions of how Bach should be played fly out the window with the wildly talented pianist and 2010 Juilliard graduate Evan Shinners. His compilation of two live, unedited performances recorded at Juilliard and Rockefeller University last spring, called “@bach,” bursts with raw musicality, spontaneous and calculated virtuosity, and an ebullient energy. Shinners connects with today’s audiences in a way that has seldom been seen for a classical artist. Shinners can play anything from classical to jazz, from ragtime to Billy Joel. He is an avid performer of his own original music, influenced by Bob Dylan and Jack Kerouac. But it’s his special affection for Bach that drives his career.

Museum Encounter: World Holiday Tour with the Desert Echoes Flute Project

• Sunday, January 6 | 12:30 p.m. & 2:30 p.m.
• Tickets: Free with museum admission
• The Desert Echoes Flute Project, directed by Christina Steffen, will perform holiday music from around the world. The 23-member group features flutes of all shapes and sizes, from the piccolo to the unusual contrabass flute. The Desert Echoes Flute Project is sponsored by the Music Department of Mesa Community College.

Max Carl: Songs, Souls & Stories

• Sunday, January 6 | 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $19.50 – $24.50
• Don’t miss Max Carl’s one-man show at the MIM Music Theater. Carl will perform a variety of pieces using a number of instruments, including fifes, drums, pianos, accordions, harmonicas, mandolins, and guitars. Carl’s show is a sharing of what he learned from James Brown, as well as what he absorbed from living in the South, and from traveling and playing in every state in America. He has recorded with Dusty Springfield, Bette Midler, Cher, Bonnie Raitt, Wynonna Judd, Elton John, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Rod Stewart, Bad Company, Richard Marx, and many others. His songs have been recorded by Bette Midler, Aaron Neville, Joe Cocker, Huey Lewis, Kenny Loggins, Garth Brooks, Brian White, .38 Special, as well as other major musicians. Carl has been on the road with Jack Mack & The Heart Attack, Donnie Van Zant and .38 Special, and Grand Funk Railroad.

Arizona Opera Up Close Series: An Evening with Craig Bohmler and Friends

• Wednesday, January 9 | 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $32.50 – $37.50
• Composer and pianist Craig Bohmler makes his first appearance at MIM with Arizona Opera’s Resident Artists for an evening of this composer’s original works and musical inspirations. Time Magazine called Bohmler “clever,” while the London Times says he’s “polished and snappy.” Don’t miss this very special performance.

Lucinda Williams

• Friday, January 11 | 7:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $52.50 – $62.50
• This will be a rare and intimate solo performance by one of the country’s most celebrated songwriters. Multiple Grammy-winner Lucinda Williams is one of American music’s most uncompromising and consistently fascinating writers and performers. Over the course of her four-decade recording career, the Louisiana-born singer has moved through the dust-bowl starkness of her 1978 debut “Ramblin’” (recorded on the fly with a mere $250 budget) to the stately elegance of 2007’s “West” (which Vanity Fair called the “record of a lifetime”) to last year’s “Blessed,” which AllMusic calls one of her finest recordings to date.

John Jorgenson’s Gypsy Jazz Quintet with Special Guest Connie Evingson

• Saturday, January 12 | 7:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $29.50 – $37.50
• Although John Jorgenson is renowned in the pop, country, and rock world, gypsy jazz is the style of music closest to his heart. After cofounding the Desert Rose Band with Chris Hillman as well as the virtuosic guitar trio, the Hellecasters, followed by scores of A-list recording sessions and six years of touring with Elton John as a featured musician on acoustic and electric guitars, saxophone, pedal steel, mandolin, and vocals, Jorgenson created what is generally considered America’s best gypsy-jazz band. Because of his international reputation as a gypsy-jazz player, Jorgenson was tapped to portray Django Reinhardt in the Charlize Theron feature film, “Head in the Clouds.” Vocalist Connie Evingson will join Jorgenson’s quintet in a special MIM preview of the new album they’ve just recorded together.

Classical Jazz Connections: A Lecture-Recital with Pianist Stuart Isacoff

• Sunday, January 13 | 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $19.50 – $24.50
• Stuart Isacoff is an award-winning writer on the arts, pianist, and composer with one foot in the classical world and the other in jazz. Don’t miss this this special performance and lecture.

Kronos Quartet

• Monday, January 14 | 7 p.m.
  Tuesday, January 15 | 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $47.50 – $67.50
• Having sold more than 1.5 million records and with more than 3,000 performances, Kronos Quartet is one of the world’s most renowned string quartets. They are the only recipients of both the Polar Music Prize and the Avery Fisher Prize, two of the most prestigious awards given to musicians. The group’s other awards include a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance (2004) and as “Musicians of the Year” (2003) from Musical America. The ensemble’s origin dates back to 1973 in Seattle, Washington, although it is now based in San Francisco, California. Having worked with masters ranging from Shostakovich and Webern to jazz legends Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman, Kronos performs work that is adventurous as it is inspiring. Their dedication and commitment to new music is matched by their in-depth collaborations with many of the world’s foremost composers.

Music in Motion: Future Loves Past

• Thursday, January 17 | 6 p.m.
• Tickets: Free with museum admission or $7 for performance only
• Groove to the sounds of Arizona under the stars and take a musical journey around the world in MIM’s galleries! “Future Loves Past somehow combines indie rock, psychedelia, Americana, outright folk music, country embellishments, a touch of British invasion and hints of 1970s classic rock with flourishes of ‘80s synth work … the aural amazement at their shows can’t be denied in any capacity.” – Mitchell L. Hillman, JAVA Magazine

Leo Kottke

• Thursday, January 17 | 7:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $37.50 – $42.50
• Armed with his humor and wit, his idiosyncratic tunings and charmingly scratchy voice, and a twelve-string guitar technique that has amazed and pleased for nearly 40 years, Leo Kottke makes his debut at MIM. When he released his first album on legendary guitar player John Fahey’s Tacoma label, there were no photos or cover. Many listeners assumed it was John Fahey doing a 12-string album under an assumed name, because that level of technique and musicianship seemed unlikely from an unknown artist. Those questions have long since faded and Kottke himself has become one of the world’s revered masters.

Jose Feliciano

• Friday, January 18 |7 p.m. & 9 p.m.
• Tickets: $52.50 – $62.50 (7 p.m.)
  $47.50 – $57.50 (9 p.m.)
• Jose Feliciano has been acclaimed by critics around the world as “the greatest living guitarist.” Referred to as “the Picasso of his Realm,” Jose Feliciano’s accomplishments are highly celebrated. He’s been awarded over 45 Gold and Platinum records; he has won 19 Grammy nominations, earning nine Grammy Awards, including the LARAS Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Spanish Brass

• Saturday, January 19 | 7:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $27.50 – $32.50
• Founded in 1989, Spanish Brass rose to the top of its genre in 1996 when it won the Narbonne International Brass Quintet Competition, the most prestigious event of its kind in the world. In the past two decades, Spanish Brass (also known as “Spanish Brass Luur Metalls”) has established itself as one of the world’s finest brass quintets, often mentioned in the same breath as the Canadian Brass and the Empire Brass Quintet. Always maintaining the highest artistic standards, the ensemble is known for its virtuosity as well as the wide variety of its programs. Each of their concerts—from Hong Kong to New York, from Krakow to Verona, and from Kiev to Lisbon—confirms their special ability to delight their ever-growing legions of fans and admirers.

Marc Cohn

• Saturday, January 20 | 6 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $37.50 – $47.50 (6 p.m.)
  $32.50 – $42.50 (8:30 p.m.)
• As a singer-songwriter, Grammy winner Marc Cohn combines the precision of a brilliant tunesmith with the passion of a great soul man. He’s a natural storyteller, balancing the exuberant with the poignant, and he’s able to distill universal truth out of his often romantic, drawn-from-life tales. Powerful stories with meaningful lyrics have been his hallmark since his debut album, which yielded classic songs such as “Walking in Memphis” and “Silver Thunderbird.” In 2007, he released one of his most critically acclaimed albums, “Join the Parade,” featuring hit single “Listening to Levon.” His latest, “Listening Booth: 1970,” features beautifully reimagined classics from the 1970s. He finds the emotional essence in vintage songs by Lennon and McCartney, Cat Stevens, Van Morrison, Smokey Robinson, and more, transforming them into tracks that are warm, soulful, more than a little sexy, and full of easy-going charm.

Get a little bit louder now! The Science of Sound at MIM

• Friday, January 25 | 6 p.m.
• Tickets: Free with museum admission
• Enjoy a night out at MIM and celebrate the SciTech Festival with an evening full of events planned especially for adults. Programs focus on the science of sound and include a rare tour of MIM’s Conservation Lab and a Gallery Walk featuring the fascinating music and engineering of mechanical instruments. Other programs encourage you to discover unique electric instruments, explore the science of sound with some hands-on experiments, and enjoy a beverage while listening to some great local music. Specialty sodas, beer, and wine will be available for purchase at the MIM Café.

Jorma Kaukonen

• Saturday, January 26 | 7:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $37.50 – $42.50
• In a career that has already spanned a half-century, Jorma Kaukonen has been the leading practitioner and teacher of fingerstyle guitar, one of the most highly respected interpreters of American roots music, blues, and Americana, and at the forefront of popular rock-and-roll. Kaukonen is best known as a founding member of two legendary bands: Jefferson Airplane and the still-touring Hot Tuna. He has proven himself to be the stuff legends are made of as a Grammy nominee, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the most in-demand instructor in the galaxy of stars who teach at the Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp that he operates in southeastern Ohio.

Arizona School for the Arts: Guitar Ensemble

• Sunday, January 27 | 12:30 p.m. & 2:30 p.m.
• Tickets: Free with museum admission
• Please join the ASA Advanced Guitar Ensemble, a group of talented young musicians from grades eight to 12 from Arizona School for the Arts, as they perform selections and arrangements from the classical-guitar ensemble repertoire both old and new.

International Guitar Night

• Sunday, January 27 | 7 p.m. & 9 p.m.
• Tickets: $34.50 – $38.50 (7 p.m.)
  $25.50 – $29.50 (9 p.m.)
• International Guitar Night (IGN) was founded in 1995 as a forum for the world’s finest guitarists/composers to play their latest original songs and share musical ideas and talent with their peers. This year, IGN’s 12th North American tour features Martin Taylor, Solorazaf, Guinga, and Brian Gore. IGN founder and San Francisco guitar poet Brian Gore has a reputation as one of the most interesting and influential performers of “the next generation” in acoustic guitar. British jazz guitarist Martin Taylor has recorded more than 25 albums and enjoyed a musical career spanning more than thirty years. Solorazaf is a French-Malagasy guitarist and singer who has toured with legendary artists such as Miriam Makeba and Nina Simone. Latin Grammy-nominated guitarist and composer Guinga is widely considered to be Brazil’s most innovative songwriter and foremost guitarist.