Places - September/October 2013

Places A preview of Performing Arts at Johnson County Community College www.jccc.edu/TheSeries September/October 2013

Susan Werner, The Hayseed Project Nick Charles Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns New Dance Partners Owen/Cox Dance Group Bach Aria Soloists, Zarabanda Hungarian State Folk Ensemble Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns

Orchester Jakobsplatz M端nchen The Kinsey Sicks Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby with Kentucky Thunder Taj Mahal, Vusi Mahlasela and Fredericks Brown, World Blues

Songwriter lends wry humor to songs about farming

Songwriter Susan Werner, who has been singing about farms and farmers for years, will appear at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7.

Her show, called The Hayseed Project, refers to her latest album, called Hayseed, which came out in June. Her performance will take place in the Carlsen Center’s Polsky Theatre.

On the recording, Werner once again lends her wry humor and passionate voice to subjects such as farmers markets, agrochemicals, climate change, longing for a sense of place and the move toward sustainable farming.

With Hayseed, Werner continues her reign as one of the most bold and creative forces on the acoustic music scene today.

Werner grew up on a farm outside Manchester, Iowa. She made her debut at the age of 5 playing guitar and singing at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Manchester. She learned both guitar and piano by ear. After earning a degree in voice at the University of Iowa, she attended Temple University in Philadelphia where she took up opera. She opted to forego a career in that genre in favor of songwriting.

She launched her career with the self-released Midwestern Saturday Night in 1993. Hayseed is the fourth in a series of concept albums, beginning with 2004’s I Can’t Be New. “I like concept albums because they give the audience and the artists a place to meet – something in common to talk about right from the word ‘go,‘“ Werner states on her website.

She made Hayseed to honor her parents and their way of life.

“There‘s a changing of the guard taking place in American agriculture,” Werner said. “Farmers like my father and mother are retiring and new farmers are starting out. I wanted to honor my parents and their way of life and I want to be part of the conversation about what happens next, what farming looks like this year, next year, 10 years from now.”

Tickets $25 www.jccc.edu/TheSeries 913-469-4445

A farmer’s fair will take place in the lobby before and after the show to allow the audience to meet vendors and taste samples. The evening is supported by the JCCC Sustainability Committee.

Hayseed was commissioned by the Lied Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Nick Charles brings his brand of fingerpicking to Polsky Theatre Guitarist Nick Charles, one of Australia’s best acoustic roots and blues fingerpickers, will appear at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 15, in the Carlsen Center’s Polsky Theatre.

Charles is a regular at international festivals from Edinburgh, Scotland, to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kan. He’s played alongside B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Guy Clark, Chris Smither and Dan Crary.

The world-class composer’s fingers pick and fly across the frets as he performs an eclectic mix of blues, folk and early ragtime jazz on six- and 12-string guitars. Attending a Nick Charles concert, the audience travels through 25 years of stories and songs from his musical highway that spans the globe.

The Black Rose Acoustic Society in Colorado describes him as “a world-class stylist and composer,” and the Melbourne Age has labeled him as “Australia’s virtuoso of acoustic roots and blues.”

Charles has released many albums on major roots and guitar music labels.

He has garnered world-wide recognition for a series of releases on Black Market Music, beginning with My Place and now his most recent albums, Closer to Home and Return of the Traveling Fingerpicker. He also has been signed to the Grammy award-winning label of Solid Air Records USA. He averages 150 shows a year in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Tickets $25 www.jccc.edu/TheSeries 913-469-4445

“Perfect band” features horns, rhythm and lead singers Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns, a band that has been a crown jewel for years in Las Vegas, Nev., will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, as part of the college’s Performing Arts Series.

The band has been a “farm club” for many headline acts, shows and bands and incredible musicians have honored its ranks. It’s also been a regular gig at The Lounge at the Palms Hotel Casino in Las Vegas.

The band, led by guitarist Jerry Lopez, includes a six-piece horn section, a six-piece rhythm section and five lead singers. The group will perform in the Carlsen Center’s Yardley Hall.

“This band is the culmination of the dreams of all of the individual musicians in the band,” Lopez states on his website. “We all dreamed about what the ‘ideal’ gig would be, and it went something like this: To play music that moved, challenged and inspired us without the usual external restrictions, influences or boundaries that come with every other (paying) gig … To make that music with people we love and respect both personally and musically. And to be able to share it with others. That is what Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns is about.”

Old School and raw, but polished with pride and discipline, the “perfect band” plays cover tunes without restrictions — without concern for what it would cost, what they would make, what entertainment executives or even audiences would think. The result: Pure passion and respect for music that heals the heart, soul and mind.

The band’s first two live recordings were instant hits with fans of bands like Tower of Power and Earth Wind & Fire. Santa Fe’s recordings include When the Curtain Goes Up, Santa Fe: Let the Healing Begin and Live! Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns.

Tickets $30, $20 www.jccc.edu/TheSeries 913-469-4445

Supported by Bob and Sally Bibb

JCCC finds new partners in Kansas City dance troupes Three local dance companies will perform an evening of original works this September titled “New Dance Partners.”

“The board that Emily works with and the college should all take a bow for this because it is really special,” he said.

The performances, which will be created by nationally-known choreographers commissioned by the college, will take place in Yardley Hall at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, and again at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28.

Jodie Gates from San Francisco has been working this summer with the ballet, while KT Nelson, also from San Francisco, has been working with the Owen/Cox Dance Group and Autumn Eckman of Chicago has been working with the Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company.

Behrmann approached the ballet and modern dance companies with the idea after visiting with Michael Uthoff, artistic director of Dance St. Louis, who premiered a similar program in 2012. “Michael’s vision at DSL inspired me to think beyond our usual work with commissions,“ she said.

The series has commissioned dance works in the past, she said, but this is the first time it will involve Kansas City dance companies.

“The performances feature world premieres of three different works on the same program which is something we’ve never done before,“ said Emily Behrmann, general manager of the Performing Arts Series at JCCC. “Our goal is to raise the profile of dance here at the Performing Arts Series and help build dance audiences throughout the metropolitan area.”

Jeffrey J. Bentley, executive director of the Kansas City Ballet, said the ballet’s leaders thought that Behrmann’s invitation to participate was “almost too good to be true.”

New works are essential for the ballet to remain relevant, he said, but they are by their nature high risk so finding a donor or another resource to support them is often difficult. And while expanding the area’s dance audience is a long-term effort, the college event “should move that ball forward measurably,” he said.

The Kansas City Ballet is well known, of course, but Owen/Cox and Wylliams/Henry also have been doing very good work for years without as much notoriety, Behrmann said. The project will give the three an opportunity to perform on the same program and hopefully will encourage audiences to discover what each company has to offer.

“With the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts raising the profile of the performing arts in Kansas City and with the ballet’s popularity, now is the time to speak to Kansas City’s dance audience and showcase the wonderful things happening here in our city,” Behrmann said. “You don’t have to travel to New York, Chicago or San Francisco to see great dance.”

The Yardley Endowment in the JCCC Foundation is funding the expenses for the project, which will be about $60,000. The dance companies will pay their dance troupes for their rehearsal time and underwrite any costs for costumes or music.

Owen/Cox dancers to appear at Polsky Theatre

Owen/Cox Dance Group

Owen/Cox Dance Group launches its new partnership with Johnson County Community College on Sept. 21 and 22, 2013, with a performance in collaboration with Park University’s International Center for Music. The program will feature Jennifer Owen’s version of Petrouchka, set to Stravinsky’s Trois mouvements de Petrouchka for solo piano, and other works.

On Dec. 21 and 22, 2013, the Owen/Cox Dance Group will present its modern jazz adaptation of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King with The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City.

Sixteen musicians of The People’s Liberation Big Band, horn sculptor Mark Southerland, artists Peggy Noland and Peregrine Honig (costume design), vocalist Lilah Wilder, nine dancers of the Owen/Cox Dance Group, and six students of Paseo Academy of the Fine and Performing Arts will collaborate on this work. Returning to the original and notably darker E.T.A. Hoffman story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816), this production features both original music and radical rearrangements of Tchaikovsky melodies created by a host of innovative Kansas City jazz musicians.

(No subscriber discounts)

Photo by Charles Stonewall

Both programs will take place in Polsky Theatre, Carlsen Center, JCCC. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students and are available online at www.jccc.edu/TheSeries or at 913-469-4445.

Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance

The Kansas City Ballet has augmented the fee for Gates, Bentley said, because it wants to do a piece that will be a little longer than the one initially envisioned. The ballet plans to perform the new work as part of its fall program on Oct. 11 after its debut at JCCC. Gates has established herself among the elite in neo-classical dance choreography. She has choreographed ballets for companies worldwide and is the founder and artistic director of the award-winning Laguna Dance Festival based in southern California.

Jennifer Owen, who founded the Owen/Cox Dance Group with Brad Cox in 2007, said New Dance Partners would give audiences a wonderful chance to see all three groups during one evening. Nelson is interested in choreographing a piece to live music, Owen said, which sounds good to her and her partner. Cox is a composer and musician and he often writes original works to accompany Owen’s choreography.

Nelson is co-artistic director of the Oberlin Dance Collective in San Francisco.

Since 1976, she has choreographed more than 54 works as well as composing and commissioning numerous scores. In 1986, she choreographed and directed the collective’s first full-length family production, The Velveteen Rabbit, which has been performed annually in the Bay Area and nationwide.

The Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company began its 21st concert season last fall. It is named for Leni Wylliams, a founder who died in 1996, and Mary Pat Henry, a professor of dance at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.

Eckman, who will be choreographing the work for Wylliams/Henry, serves

Kansas City Ballet dancer Rachael Coates

as artistic associate at Giordano Dance Chicago, where she is also director of Giordano II and resident choreographer.

Henry said she was looking forward to working with Eckman, whom she described as “an interesting young choreographer who is doing lots of great things all over the country.”

Pairing the ballet with two modern dance companies, she said, is a unique idea – one that should produce a wonderful smorgasbord of high-quality art.

“It’s a gutsy, bold venture,” Henry said. “In the arts today, that’s the kind of energy and forward-thinking we need.”

Eckman, who was classically trained at the Houston Ballet Academy, began her performance career as a Giordano company member. She has performed with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Lucky Plush Productions and State Street Ballet (Santa Barbara). Eckman has created several works for the Giordano main company and has been commissioned by companies such as DanceWorks Chicago, Chicago Repertory Ballet and Missouri Contemporary Ballet. She was awarded Dance Chicago’s New Artistic Voice in 2009 and named a Standout Choreographer in the Chicago Tribune in 2010.

Tickets $40, $32; youth $20, $16 www.jccc.edu/TheSeries 913-469-4445

Showcase featuring local dance shows will begin each evening at 6:45 p.m. in the Carlsen Center lobby.

Michael Uthoff, artistic adviser Inspired by Dance St.Louis

Bach Aria to take audience on wondrous journey through Iberia The Bach Aria Soloists, an adventurous chamber music ensemble, will perform a Spanish-influenced program called Zarabanda, Music from Spanish Baroque and Beyond, at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11, in the Carlsen Center’s Polsky Theatre.

The Bach Aria Soloists, based in Kansas City, are dedicated to presenting the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries by bringing their brilliant music to new life. Zarabanda will feature works by Gaspar Sanz, Jose Martin, Manuel de Falla, Domencio Scarlatti and more. It will take a wondrous journey through Iberia, discovering intriguing dances and folk songs. This performance is part of JCCC’s Hispanic Heritage Month.

Guest drummer Brandon Draper and Grammy award-winning soprano Sarah Tannehill will join the Bach Aria Soloists for this special program.

The group was founded by Elizabeth Suh Lane, who plays 1st violin and is the artistic director. In 2006, she and Elizabeth Koeppen, principal dancer and assistant director of the world-renowned David Parsons Dance Company collaborated to create the world premiere of Accompagnata, a ViolinDance, which was performed that year.

Education in the community is important to the ensemble. Members take their program, Bachreach, into schools from preschool to college,

introducing youth to Bach and baroque arias, chamber music and popular tunes in a live interactive presentation.

Tickets $25; student $15 (no subscriber discounts) www.jccc.edu/TheSeries 913-469-4445

Hungarian folk ensemble showcases authentic dances When the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble was established in 1951, its aim was to preserve the folk dances and traditional costumes of Hungary by performing them on stage.

It’s not only preserved the dances. It’s also revitalized the culture of Hungary.

“It’s marvelous,” a New York Times reviewer wrote of a performance, “crackling with dancing that snaps like a whip in a program framed successfully by a sophisticated context.”

The ensemble has performed in 44 countries across four continents.

It will appear in Yardley Hall at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12.

The choreographies are based on authentic dances, some of them collected in isolated villages with dance elements dating back hundreds of years. The extraordinary folk music that inspired Liszt, Bartók and Kodály is put on stage by both the Folk Orchestra and the Gipsy Orchestra.

The members of the Folk Orchestra play authentic, traditional instruments and perform Hungarian folk music at its highest artistic level. The Gipsy Orchestra plays dance accompaniments and it also performs alone.

Tickets $44, $36; youth $22, $18 www.jccc.edu/TheSeries 913-469-4445

Munich orchestra features works rarely played Daniel Grossmann

Orchester Jakobsplatz München, made up of musicians from more than 20 countries, will perform in Yardley Hall at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20.

The Munich orchestra was founded in 2005 under the leadership of Music Director Daniel Grossmann. The programming focuses on rarely played works by Jewish composers combined with music of the 20th and 21st centuries. The orchestra also commissions works with Jewish connections.

A conductor’s talk will take place earlier in the day at 2 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center campus at 5801 W. 115th St. in Leawood. The college is grateful for the support of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education and funding from the Norman Glazer and Jean Burstein Glazer Fund, the Louis and Frances Swinken Supporting Fund and the Earl J. and Leona K. Tranin Special Fund through the Jewish Community Foundation.

Providing a pre-concert talk will be Dr. William Everett, professor of musicology at the Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of MissouriKansas City. He will speak at 6 p.m. in the Recital Hall.

The orchestra, which is touring North America for the first time, has toured as ambassadors of German-Jewish musical culture to Hungary, Israel, Moldova, the Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Sweden.

It also has engaged in a series of co-productions with the Bavarian State Theater. And it has performed with well-known soloists who include Tanja Becker-Bender, Adrian Brendel, Kevin Conners, Anne-Sophie Mutter and more.

The Orchestra Jakobsplatz Munich has recorded two CDs for the label NEOS Music. A well-received recording included works by John Cage and an additional new release presented works by the Jewish composer Paul Ben-Haim, who has once again received significant attention in recent years.

Tickets $33, $27 www.jccc.edu/TheSeries 913-469-4445

Here’s the program: Felix Mendelssohn, String Symphony No. 12 in G Minor Erwin Schulhoff, Hot Sonata (Arranged for saxophone and chamber orchestra by Harry White) Gideon Klein, Partita for Strings Gustav Mahler, Adagio from Symphony No. 10 (Arranged for chamber orchestra by Daniel Grossmann)

Drag Yourself to the Theater!

The Kinsey Sicks serves up music and comedy The Kinsey Sicks began in 1993 as a group of guys who went to a Bette Midler concert in San Francisco dressed as the Andrew Sisters.

They assumed they would be among many drag queens but they found themselves to be the only ones (other than Bette, of course.) They were approached that night to perform.

Their reply – “we don‘t sing” – was disproved when they realized they all had musical backgrounds. And the seed for The Kinsey Sicks was planted.

The barbershop harmonizing foursome, now a phenomenon, will perform at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25-26, in the Carlsen Center’s Polsky Theatre. The show, which is rated R, is called America’s Next Top Bachelor Housewife Celebrity Hoarder Makeover Star Gone Wild.

The Kinsey Sicks drew a large crowd at its first public performance in 1994 on a street corner in San Francisco’s Castro District. Since then, the group has produced and performed full-length theatrical productions around the country. Their early shows, such as Sicks Appeal, The Balled Sopranos and Motel Sicks: A Dragapella Summer Vacation all premiered in San Francisco.

Their more recent musicals – I Wanna Be a Republican, Condoleezzapalooza, Oy Vey in a Manger, Wake the F@#k Up, America and Each Hit & I, have toured internationally.

Kinsey’s lovely Trampolina (in pink at right) is also known in Kansas City as Daisy Buckët, songstress (and drag queen) extraordinaire.

Their performance record includes an Off-Broadway show, an extended run in Las Vegas, two feature films, seven albums and appearances throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia.

Tickets $30 www.jccc.edu/TheSeries 913-469-4445 Rated R

Ricky Skaggs, Bruce Hornsby with Kentucky Thunder collaborate in Yardley Hall Virginia cool meets Kentucky thunder in a quintessential collaboration between multi-instrumentalist virtuoso Ricky Skaggs and genre-bending pianist Bruce Hornsby.

The two will bring their love of musical diversity to Yardley Hall at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25.

The two first collaborated on a track for a Bill Monroe tribute album and went on to record an entire album together in 2007. Combined, the pair lay claim to an astonishing 15 Grammy awards.

The New York Times has praised the depth of the partnership. ”Whether they were playing Mr. Hornsby‘s songs or reworking Bill Monroe‘s repertory, the arrangements often reached back to Celtic drones and modal fiddle tunes, the sounds of an isolated rural America,” the Times stated.

“With Mr. Hornsby on piano, another Americana also peeked in: the polytonality of Aaron Copland and of modal jazz harmony, which happens to dovetail with those Celtic drones.”

Skaggs is an icon of American music whose career has come full circle. He has evolved from his beginnings in bluegrass to mainstream country stardom in the 1980s to a recent series of acclaimed and best-selling bluegrass albums.

Bruce Hornsby and his band, The Range, emerged in 1986 with the release of his multi-platinum album, The Way It Is. To date, he has sold more than 10 million records and collaborated with artists such as Bob Dylan, Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson. In the early 1990s, he performed about 100 concerts as a part-time member of the Grateful Dead.

Tickets $125, $60, $50 www.jccc.edu/TheSeries 913-469-4445

Performing Arts Events J o h n s o n

C o u n t y

C o m m u n i t y

C o l l e g e

September 2013 Monday

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Tuesday 3

Wednesday 4

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@JCCCTheSeries

Facebook.com/JCCCTheSeries

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Ruel Joyce Recital Series Allegresse Noon Recital Hall Free

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16 Ruel Joyce Recital Series Elisa Bickers, harpsichord Noon, Recital Hall Free

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22 Owen/Cox Dance Group Petrouchka 2 p.m.

Polsky Theatre $20, student $10

23 Ruel Joyce Recital Series Lyric Arts Trio Noon Recital Hall Free

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30 Ruel Joyce Recital Series Alan Wenger, trombone Noon Recital Hall Free

Nick Charles 7 p.m.

Polsky Theatre $25

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Owen/Cox Dance Group Petrouchka 8 p.m., Polsky Theatre $20, student $10

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Susan Werner The Hayseed Project 8 p.m.

Polsky Theatre $25

Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns 8 p.m.

Yardley Hall $30, $20 25

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Jazz Series Roger Wilder Quintet Noon Recital Hall Free

27 New Dance Partners 8 p.m.

Yardley Hall $40, $32 Youth $20, $16

28 New Dance Partners 8 p.m.

Yardley Hall $40, $32 Youth $20, $16

For best seats, order early. Call 913-469-4445 or buy tickets online at www.jccc.edu/TheSeries.

Box Office: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday • Call 913-469-4445. Tickets are required for most events in Polsky Theatre and Yardley Hall.

Programs, dates and times are subject to change. Discounts are available for students.

PAS Administrative Office: Open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday • Call 913-469-4450. Requests for reasonable modifications should be made by contacting Access Services, 913-469-8500, ext. 3521, or by email at accessservices@jccc.edu. Interpreters for the deaf may be requested by email at accessservices@jccc.edu. Please place “Interpreter Request” in the subject line.

Be sure to include the date of the performance you will be attending. A 72-hour advance notice is required.

Kansas City’s Guide to the Visual and Cinematic Arts

October 2013

www.kcstudio.org

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday 1 Academic Concert Laudas and Fugues 7:30 p.m.

Polsky Theatre Free

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Thursday

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11 Academic Theatre A Lie of the Mind 7:30 p.m.

12Academic Theatre A Lie of the Mind 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Jazz Series Tim Whitmer Trio Noon, Recital Hall Free 6

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Jazz Series Dan Bliss and Rod Fleeman, guitars Noon, Recital Hall Free

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Ruel Joyce Series Sylvia Stoner, soprano Wayne Hawkins, piano Noon, Recital Hall Free

Free

20 Orchester Jakobsplatz München 7 p.m., Yardley Hall $33, $27 Academic Theatre A Lie of the Mind 2 p.m.

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22 Jazz Series James Ward Band featuring Ron Gutierrez Noon Polsky Theatre Free

Ruel Joyce Recital Series The Goldenbergs Noon Recital Hall Free

Jazz Series Everett Freeman Quartet Noon Recital Hall Free

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Hungarian State Folk Ensemble 8 p.m.

Yardley Hall $44, $36 Youth $22, $18

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Free

World Blues Featuring Taj Mahal, Vusi Mahlasela and Fredericks Brown 7 p.m.

Yardley Hall $80, $50, $40

Bach Aria Soloists Zarabanda – Music from Spanish Baroque and Beyond 8 p.m.

Polsky Theatre $25, Students $15

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Bodker Black Box Theatre

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Bodker Black Box Theatre

14 Ruel Joyce Recital Series Tomoko Iguichi, violin Noon Recital Hall Free

Bodker Black Box Theatre

Free

18 Academic Theatre A Lie of the Mind 7:30 p.m.

19 Academic Theatre A Lie of the Mind 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Bodker Black Box Theatre

Bodker Black Box Theatre

Free

Free

25 Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby with Kentucky Thunder 8 p.m., Yardley Hall $125, $60, $50

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13 Academic Theatre A Lie of the Mind 2 p.m.

Bodker Black Box Theatre

28 Ruel Joyce Recital Series Stephanie Zelnick, clarinet, and Ellen Botorff, piano Noon, Recital Hall Free

29 Jazz Series John Brewer Quintet Noon Recital Hall Free

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The Kinsey Sicks 8 p.m.

Polsky Theatre $30

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The Kinsey Sicks 8 p.m.

Polsky Theatre $30

JOHNSON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE 12345 COLLEGE BLVD OVERLAND PARK KS 66210-1299

NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID Johnson County Community College

www.jccc.edu/TheSeries

Taj Mahal leads lineup in celebration of the blues From the Mississippi Delta blues to African rhythms, World Blues will celebrate the influence of American blues from three points of view and three international points of origin.

Anchored by iconic folk-blues legend Taj Mahal, the evening also will feature the soulful South African blues of guitarist/vocalist Vusi Mahlasela and the more modern rock and roll perspective of Fredericks Brown, a band featuring Taj’s daughter, Deva Mahal, and Stephanie Brown, who hails from New Zealand.

The World Blues show will take place at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27, in Yardley Hall.

Taj Mahal, a composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, is one of the most prominent and influential figures in late 20th century blues and roots music. Though his career began more than four decades ago with American blues, he has broadened his artistic scope over the years to include music representing virtually every corner of the world. What ties it together is his insatiable interest in musical discovery.

Taj Mahal was born Henry St. Claire Fredericks in Harlem on May 17, 1942. He grew up in Springfield, Mass. His father was a jazz pianist and his mother was a gospel-singing schoolteacher from South Carolina. At a young age, he learned to play the clarinet, trombone and harmonica and he loved to sing. He has released numerous recordings over the years, including Maestro in 2008.

Vusi Mahlasela, a folk singer, world troubadour and poet-activist, recorded his first album 20 years ago. The title track from When You Come Back became an anthem in South Africa and Mahlasela became known as “The Voice” as his country fought to end the brutal apartheid regime that had divided the country since 1948. This year, in celebration of that 20th anniversary, ATO Records released SING TO THE PEOPLE. The Fredericks Brown band is renowned for its energetic show, rich harmonies and beautifully crafted songs.

Tickets $80, $50, $40 www.jccc.edu/TheSeries 913-469-4445