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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | OCTOBER 24, 2021
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Musicfest bringing amazing concerts to Scottsdale Nov. ABBA, The Concert (tribute act) 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1 Highlands Church, 9050 E. Pinnacle Peak Road, Scottsdale Tickets are $49 to $111
PROGRESS NEWS STAFF
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rizona Musicfest unveiled its starry lineup of exceptional artists to celebrate the return of live indoor concerts in northern Scottsdale. Musicfest has regrouped and renewed its commitment to bringing the joy of music. In its largest season, Musicfest will produce 30 concerts between November and April. “As our community emerges from the difficulties of the last year, we are honored to engage and entertain audiences with exceptional performances that will uplift and reunite friends, neighbors, and artists around our shared love of music,” says Allan Naplan, Arizona Musicfest’s executive and producing director. Featured artists include Paul Anka, Bernadette Peters, Kenny G, LeAnn Rimes, Sergio Mendes, Sarah Chang and Emanuel Ax, as well as Pink Martini, Broadway’s John Lloyd Young and The
LeAnn Rimes 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13 Highlands Church Tickets are $49 to $84
Bria Skonberg will be performing Nov. 15 (Special to the Progress)
Texas Tenors. The season also features the Festival Orchestra, comprised of musicians from some of the nation’s finest orchestras. For tickets, call 480-422-8449 or visit azmusicfest.org.
Bria Skonberg 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15 Gathering Place, La Casa de Cristo Church, 6300 E. Bell Road, Scottsdale Tickets are $39 and $59 Ray on My Mind 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19 Highlands Church Tickets are $35 to $72
Young Musicians Fall Concert 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21
Musical Instrument Museum Tickets are $20 Dec. The Christmas Serenade 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3 Highlands Church Tickets are $49 to $84
A Brassy Christmas with The Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10 Gathering Place, La Casa de Cristo Church Tickets are $29 to $66 Jan. Chris Mann Celebrates the Tony Bennett Songbook 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7 Highlands Church Tickets are $49 to $84
see MUSICFEST page 27
Cuban jazz star plays at Lakeshore Music’s new venue BY LEE SHAPPELL Progress Guest Writer
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or more than a half century, Cuba and the U.S. have performed an odd dance of politics, including a still-standing embargo. Nevertheless, their bond is deep and strong, expressed most forcefully through culture, especially music. Walk the streets of Havana on any day and you’ll hear the soul of Cuba: music pouring from private homes and bustling restaurants, windows rattling from the parties inside, nightclubs pulsing with throngs of people dancing. Havana-based jazz pianist and composer Harold López-Nussa captures that stirring sensation with an exhilarating marriage of
Havana-based jazz pianist and composer Harold López-Nussa captures that stirring sensation with an exhilarating marriage of jazz and Cuban pop music. (Special to Progress)
jazz and Cuban pop music, defiantly standing up to the doubters who failed to share his radical vision. The title track on his “Te Lo Dije” makes this point with playful braggadocio: Doubt if you will, scoff if you must, but LópezNussa will play his music, his way. And on Oct. 30, he will play it in Scottsdale. López-Nussa comes to Ravenscroft Hall, the beautiful new venue in exciting, culture-appreciative Scottsdale, to perform this special 7:30 p.m. cultural exchange concert for Lakeshore Music. A combustible blend of Afro-Cuban and modern jazz enlivens López-Nussa’s work, thrilling audiences from the iconic Montreux Jazz Festival on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, to the world-
acclaimed Blue Note jazz club in New York City. Audiences from Cuba to Europe to North America, where he currently is on tour, embrace his capture of the pulse that runs through the streets of Havana. Lopéz-Nussa’s work reflects the range and richness of Cuban music and its embrace of jazz improvisation and interaction with a distinctive combination of classical, folkloric and popular elements. The ease and invention with which López-Nussa improvises at the piano make it hard to believe that he did not take up jazz until age 18. Initially, he was emboldened by Herbie Hancock’s The New Standard. López-
see LAKESHORE page 27
