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Musicfest bringing amazing concerts to Scottsdale

PROGRESS NEWS STAFF

Arizona 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

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.

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

LeAnn Rimes

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13 Highlands Church Tickets are $49 to $84

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

seeMUSICFEST page 27

Cuban jazz star plays at Lakeshore Music’s new venue

BY LEE SHAPPELL

Progress Guest Writer

For 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 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 worldacclaimed 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-

Havana-based jazz pianist and composer Harold López-Nussa captures that stirring sensation with an exhilarating marriage of jazz and Cuban pop music.

John Lloyd Young: Broadway’s Jersey Boy

7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 10 Highlands Church Tickets are $49 to $84

Bernadette Peters

7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28 Highland Church Tickets are $49 to $111

Sergio Mendes

7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31 Highlands Church Tickets are $49 to $84

Feb. Steve Tyrell

7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4 Highlands Church Tickets are $49 to $84

“A Star is Born:” The Concert

7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 7 Highlands Church Tickets are $35 to $72

Music City Hit-Makers

7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14 Highlands Church Tickets are $35 to $72

Kenny G

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19 Highlands Church Tickets are $49 to $102

Festival Sinfonia

2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20

ABBA The Tribune act will be kicking off Musicfest Nov. 1.

(Special to the Progress) The Callaway Sisters will present "Sibling

Rivalry" March 7. (Special to the Progress)

Neil Berg’s 50 Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll: Part 2

7:30 p.m. Monday, March 28 Highlands Church Tickets are $39 to $76

April The Texas Tenors

7:30 p.m. Friday, April 1 Highlands Church Tickets are $49 to $84

Pinnacle Presbyterian Church, 25150 N. Pima Rd. Scottsdale Tickets are $55 and $81

Sarah Chang and the Festival Orchestra

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22 La Casa de Cristo Church, 6300 E. Bell Road, Scottsdale Tickets are $25 to $94

Inon Barnatan and the Festival Orchestra

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24 La Casa de Christo Church Tickets are $25 to $89 Tickets are $25 to $94

March Callaway Sisters in “Sibling Revelry”

7:30 p.m. Monday, March 7 Highlands Church Tickets are $35 to $72

Paul Anka: Anka Sings Sinatra

7:30 p.m. Monday, March 14 Highlands Church Tickets are $49 to $111

Pink Martini with China Forbes

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 22

The McCartney Years

7:30 p.m. Monday, April 4 Highlands Church Tickets are $35 to $72

Emanuel Ax

7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 21 La Casa de Cristo Church Tickets are $41 to $102

The Of�icial Blues Brothers Revue

7:30 p.m. Friday, April 29 Highlands Church Tickets are $35 to $72

Festival Orchestra Pops: A Salute to Arizona and the Wild West

7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25 La Casa de Cristo Church Tickets are $25 to $89

Beethoven’s 9th—Ode to Joy!

2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27 La Casa de Cristo Church

LAKESHORE ���� page 26

Nussa later found inspiration from Cuba’s great jazz pianists — the reigning master Chucho Valdés, and recordings of Chucho’s father, the late Bebo Valdés.

The Spanish phrase “Te lo dije,” much like its near equivalent in English, “I told you so,” can be deployed as a boast or a put-down – often both at once. López-Nussa throws down that gauntlet on his “Te Lo Dije.”

López-Nussa is among a star-packed lineup that Lakeshore Music has assembled for its debut season at Ravenscroft as the long wait for the return of live music ends. The nine-concert season runs monthly through May 2022. Tickets, with a variety of packages and pricing, are on sale at lakeshoremusic.org.

“It’s an exciting new beginning for us in an area thirsting for cultural activity and live music,” said Woody Wilson, Lakeshore Music founder and president. “It has been a long and painful ordeal since February of 2020 when we were forced into shutdown by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Ravenscroft, at 8445 E. Hartford Drive in the Scottsdale Perimeter Complex, is just off Loop 101 at Princess Drive.

“The new venue, our great lineup and moving to Scottsdale: It’s the ticket,” Wilson said. “We’ve really stacked our lineup for our debut season at Ravenscroft. We are thrilled to get back to doing what we do best in this beautiful state-of-the-arts performance space.”

OCT. 2021 THURSDAY – SATURDAY / 7-9 P.M.

THURSDAY / OCTOBER 28

NEON CIRCUS Brooks & Dunn Tribute

FRIDAY / OCTOBER 29

PEOPLE WHO COULD FLY Indie Pop

SATURDAY / OCTOBER 30

JALEO Latin

www.GlendaleAZ.com/LiveAtMurphyPark