THURSDAY, FEB. 5
JAZZ
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT
One never knows what Cécile McLorin Salvant will do next. At 36, with three Grammy Awards and a shelf full of other honors, she seems as creatively restless as ever. After releasing two loose concept albums, Salvant created her strangest and most personal project last year with Oh Snap, a consistently surprising session laced with found sounds, synth-pop and folk influences. If she includes any of the recent material at her Cal Performances concert, it’s likely to be entirely reimagined. She’s joined by a superlative trio led by the most widely admired pianist of his generation, New Orleans-native Sullivan Fortner. – ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: Thu, 7:30pm, Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 101 Zellerbach Hall #4800, Berkeley. $37-$117. 510.642.9988.
THURSDAY, FEB. 5
THEATER
‘THE MOUNTAINTOP’
Climb into Oakland Theater Project (OTP)’s 2026 season launch with Katori Hall’s reimagining of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final night. In room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, a maid and the great civil rights leader fall into conversation. Starring OTP co-artistic director William Hodgson as King and Sam Jackson as the maid, the limited two-week run sets a high standard. The work is potent, provocative, political and personal. Outside the company’s home base at FLAX art & design, authoritarian strong-arming attempts to rip out the core of what has long been America’s bedrock. The country that welcomes and protects all people is achieved not by silencing diverse voices, but through open dialogue. – LOU FANCHER
INFO: Thu, 7:30 pm, Oakland Theater Project, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. $10-70. 510.646.1126.
FRIDAY, FEB. 6
BRAZILIAN
CANTA VIOLINO! BRAZILIAN TRIO
A virtuosic instrumental trio that focuses on original compositions representing state-of-the-art samba and choro, Canta Violino! brings together a triumvirate of award-winning masters. Asheville composer and violinist Andrew Finn Magill is known for his bluegrass prowess and international collaborations—he lived in Rio for several years and studied with percussion legend Airto. L.A.-based, São Paulo-reared percussionist Clarice Cast is an expert on the frame drum pandeiro. And Rio-born, seven-string guitarist Nando Duarte served as music director for the great vocalist Elza Soares before moving to L.A., where he’s worked extensively in film and performed and recorded with artists such as H.E.R., Melody Gardot and Empire of the Sun. – AG
INFO: Fri, 7:30pm, The Sound Room, 3022 Broadway, Oakland. $34. 510.708.9691.
FRIDAY, FEB. 6
ROCK
DARK STAR ORCHESTRA
With the recent passing of Bob Weir, Deadheads will likely flock to this performance of a group that’s been around almost 30 years, celebrating the Dead’s music and featuring, from time to time, Weir himself. The current seven-piece band performs shows based on actual Dead set lists, but also creates their own sets, giving younger fans a chance to see and hear what a Grateful Dead concert might have been like—a true communal event for people who know and love not just the music, but what the Dead represented: freedom, creativity and really, really long drum solos. Performance on Saturday as well. – JANIS HASHE
INFO: Fri, 7:30pm, Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $56. 510.302.2250.
SATURDAY, FEB. 7
DEATH-ROCK
ALTAR DE FEY
There would be no goth scene without death-rock, the forgotten stepchild of punk-rock with a goth aesthetic that came out of the late 1970s and birthed bands like 45 Grave, Christian Death and Altar De Fey. While Los Angeles was known as ground zero for the genre, San Francisco’s Altar De Fey quickly gained notoriety as one of the Bay Area’s premiere bands. Like all good things, they burned out quickly and broke up in 1986 after only three years. However, the band reunited in 2011, stitching musicians together into a Frankenstein’s monster of a group that proves nothing stays dead forever. – MAT WEIR
INFO: Sat, 8:30pm, Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany. $17. 510.526.5888.
SATURDAY, FEB. 7
HEAVY METAL
SAVAGE MASTER
Savage Master trades in classic heavy metal drama without treating it like museum work. Balancing street-level grit with occult flair, the band takes pleasure in galloping riffs, sharp hooks and a simmering undercurrent of menace. Their 2025 release, Dark & Dangerous, is sleek, aggressive and unapologetically theatrical, keeping one foot in heavy metal heritage and the other in a darker, charismatic world of flame and prophecy. Onstage, Savage Master favors forward motion over excess, with tight tempos and razor-edged solos. It’s metal that knows its lineage and makes old-school urgency into something lean and eccentric. – SONYA BENNETT-BRANDT
INFO: Sat, 9pm, Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. $20-$25. 510.808.7565.
SUNDAY, FEB. 8
HIP-HOP
GZA
GZA, a.k.a. “the Genius,” brings a rare focus to the stage. While Wu-Tang’s mythology thrived on volatility, GZA’s presence is controlled and exacting, with cool delivery and chessboard logic. His U.S. tour is centered on his second studio album, Liquid Swords, now 30 years old. The record was built on grimy beats and martial arts imagery, and the material still cuts clean and rewards close reading: no excess, no nostalgia gloss. GZA is a technician at heart, more interested in structure and precision than spectacle. – SBB
INFO: Sun, 7pm and 9pm, Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. $56-$99. 510.238.9200.
TUESDAY, FEB. 10
METAL
CORONER
When it comes to metal, nobody does it quite like Europeans who come from countries that are known for snow. And Switzerland’s Coroner is a great example of this. Technically formed in 1983, but known for their solidified lineup from 1985, they incorporate the brutality and speed of thrash-metal with the technical stylings of jazz, classical and prog-rock, earning them the nickname the “Rush of thrash metal.” Which makes sense considering the original members started as roadies for another infamous Swiss avant-garde metal band, Celtic Frost. What’s more metal than that? After a 15-year break-up, Coroner reunited in 2011 and recently released their sixth studio album, Dissonance Theory, last October. – MW
INFO: Tue, 7:30pm, Cornerstone, 2367 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. $40. 510.214.8600.
TUESDAY, FEB. 10
LATIN JAZZ
PEDRITO MARTINEZ & ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ
Cuba has produced numerous remarkable musicians, among them, Martinez and Rodriguez, who buddy up to bring their Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz sound to Yoshi’s. Infinitely rhythmic, simmering with vibrant color tones, and gracefully curving the parameters of folk, jazz, rumba and classical music, it’s no surprise their 2019 album, Duologue, garnered high praise. Every now and then, when two artists braid together their individuality, they create a never-before-exactly-this kind of partnership. Which makes right now the moment to see and hear them perform live. Delivered by two masters of the form, the show makes it plain why the East Bay is a land for music lovers. Show on Wednesday as well. – LF
INFO: Tue, 8pm, Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. $35-79. 510.238.9200.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 11
FOLK
LEO KOTTKE
Leo Kottke’s first album, Twelve String Blues, was recorded in 1968 on a Viking quarter-inch tape recorder. But since that time, he’s been a quietly influential presence in the guitarist community, nominated twice for Grammys and simply continuing to make music his own way, a fingerpicking style that draws on folk, jazz and other genres. Not a stellar vocalist, he nonetheless does occasionally sing, describing his own voice as “geese farts on a muggy day.” Worth noting: This now-80-year-old artist resides in Minneapolis, where many hearts and minds are right now. – JH
INFO: Wed, 8pm, The Freight, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. $64-$69. 510.644.2020.