From Adam Theis’ stellar Jazz Mafia to rapper Cardi B and Livermore Valley Opera’s take on the classic “Cosi fan Tutte,” there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond.
Here’s a partial rundown.
Jazz Mafia takes over local clubs
Trombonist Adam Theis and his Jazz Mafia organization have always been smooth operators, finding creative ways to bend the often treacherous Bay Area music scene to their will.
By forging alliances with friendly venues, the Jazz Mafia has knuckled their way into two Bay Area residencies, playing monthly at Oakland’s Sound Room and North Beach’s Keys Jazz Bistro. A six-piece Mafia outfit featuring heavyweights Mike Olmos on trumpet and Colin Hogan on piano plays the Sound Room Feb. 27 and Keys Feb. 28 with soul-steeped jazz vocalist Tiffany Austin. With the whole year mapped out, the Mafia has already announced themes for upcoming shows featuring their original arrangements: exploring Herbie Hancock: ’70s and Beyond at Keys March 20 and the Sound Room March 21; and The Beatles Reimagined at the Sound Room April 24 and Keys April 25, featuring drummer and prolific composer Otis McDonald.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Sound Room in Oakland and 7 and 9 p.m. Feb. 28 at Keys Jazz Bistro in San Francisco; $32-$40; keysjazzbistro.com, and www.soundroom.org.
— Andrew Gilbert, Correspondent
Classical picks: American Bach Soloists, ‘Cosi fan Tutte,’ more
This week, artists from around the Bay and beyond are set to perform works honoring diverse and longtime traditions. Here’s a look.
“The Harmonic Labyrinth”: That’s the title of American Bach’s new concert devoted to Pergolesi’s 1736 “Stabat Mater”; company director Jeffrey Thomas leads four performances of the work featuring soprano Maya Kherani and mezzo-soprano Sarah Coit. Works by Bach and Scarlatti complete the program.
Details: 8 p.m. Feb. 27 at St. Stephens Church, Belvedere; 7 p.m. Feb. 28 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; 4 p.m. March 1 at St. Mark’s Church, San Francisco; and 7 p.m. March 2 at Davis Community Church, Davis; $44-$111; AmericanBach.org.
Lunar New Year works: This month, the San Francisco Symphony celebrates The Year of the Horse in its annual Lunar New Year concert with a program featuring Asian traditions. Under conductor Mei-Ann Chen, the symphony will perform works by Asian composers including Huang Ruo, whose opera “The Monkey King” thrilled audiences this season across the street in San Francisco Opera’s capstone production.
Details: 5 p.m. Feb. 28; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $125-$150; sfsymphony.org.
Piano thrills: Chamber Music SF presents Hong Kong-born pianist Tiffany Poon, who has been lauded for her recording of Schumann piano works, titled “Diaries, Schumann.” She’s set to arrive at Herbst Theatre for an upcoming recital presented by Chamber Music San Francisco.
Details: 3 p.m. March 1; Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; $42-$76; cityboxoffice.com.
Livermore’s sublime ‘Cosi’: Livermore Valley Opera opens this weekend with “Cosi fan Tutte,” one of Mozart’s most sublime comic masterworks — a special blend of love, loyalty and mistaken identity and an opera filled with expertly timed humor. The production, directed by Robert Herriot and conducted by Alex Katsman, will be performed in the great-for-opera Bankhead Theater and sung in Italian with English supertitles.
Details: 4 and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28, 2 p.m. March 1, and 2 p.m. March 7-8; Bankhead Theater, Livermore; adult tickets $65-$115 and $25 aged 20 and younger; Livermorevalleyopera.com.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Quakes to debut new jerseys
Two great Bay Area institutions — the San Jose Earthquakes and the Grateful Dead — are teaming up for something that should appeal equally to soccer aficionados and classic rock fans.
The Major League Soccer club is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Dead — which, for this purpose, is defined by when the band performed for the first time under the Grateful Dead moniker on Dec. 4, 1965, in a home located at 38 S. Fifth St., San Jose — with a brand new themed jersey.
The jersey pays tribute to the band’s influence on psychedelic music and the Bay Area’s counterculture history. It features a vibrant mix of colors — night navy, powder plum, blue dawn and trace royal — as well as an Earthquakes-style black-and-blue version of the band’s legendary “steal your face” skull logo.
The Earthquakes will debut these cool new jerseys — or, in soccer speak, kits — when the team hosts Atlanta United for Grateful Dead Night at PayPal Park on Saturday.
Beyond seeing the Earthquakes (hopefully) triumph over the United, fans will also get to watch a live band perform and pick up a special commemorative poster designed by famed artist Stanley Mouse (while supplies last).
Details: Game is 4:30 p.m. March 1; tickets start at $38; sjearthquakes.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Here comes Little Miss Drama
Cardi B is bringing the Drama to the Bay Area.
And, really, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
So, get ready to experience the supremely talented hip-hop star’s Little Miss Drama Tour, which hits Chase Center in San Francisco on Feb. 27.
The Little Miss Drama Tour is Cardi B’s first-ever arena headlining trek. The road show supports last year’s “Am I the Drama?” — the long-awaited follow-up to Cardi B’s debut, 2018’s “Invasion of Privacy.”
“Am I the Drama?” features a bevy of guest stars, including Selena Gomez, Kehlani, Lizzo, Cash Cobain, Janet Jackson, Tyla and Megan Thee Stallion. The sophomore set — like Cardi B’s first album — debuted at No. 1 on the charts.
Details: Showtime is 7:30 p.m.; tickets start at $118; ticketmaster.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
New name, same old fun
It was formerly known as the Drag Me to the Cinema festival, but don’t let the name change fool you. Filmmakers and movie fans of all backgrounds will be welcomed at the Emeryville International LGBTQ+ Film Festival on Feb. 28 at the AMC Bay Street movie theaters.
The program gets divided into blocks with each showcasing an array of queer-themed shorts. As a bonus, there’s a world premiere of festival director Robby Kendall’s feature debut, “Sweet Nothing.” That hot ticket item, unfortunately, has sold out, but plans are in the work for future screenings. A couple other titles that pique our interest include Nana Duffuor’s 16-minute “Rainbow Girls,” about three Black trans women in San Francisco fighting against gentrification in a novel way, and Bay Area film critic and journalist Sean Au’s 13-minute narrative short “What We Said in the Blackout,” which revolves around two ex-lovers who wake up naked together during a blackout.
Details: Noon to 10 p.m. Feb. 28; AMC Bay Street movie theaters; $15-$50; tickets and more information are at fishnetsfilm.org.
– Randy Myers, Correspondent
‘Lehman Trilogy’ plays in San Jose
Why would anyone in their right minds want to go see a 3½-hour play about a bank? The answer is “why not” when that bank is the former Lehman Brothers financial company and the play is “The Lehman Trilogy,” now playing at San Jose Stage Company. Stefano Massini’s intensely captivating drama about how the stunning collapse of the 158-year-old financial institution helped bring about the 2008 subprime-mortgage-fueled collapse is way more than a recounting of financial principles and theories. The 2013 play, which was nominated for eight Tony Awards and won five (including for best play) digs into the three brothers who founded the company and how they were propelled by the American Dream, only to eventually trigger what came close to being the destruction of the global economic order. The play came to American Conservatory Theater in 2024 – fresh off its smash London and Broadway runs – and was the talk of the San Francisco theater scene. San Jose Stage is featuring a different production and a different cast, but it’s the I-can’t-believe-this-happened story line that will keep you glued to your seat past two intermissions.
Details: Through March 1; San Jose Stage, 490 S. 1st St., San Jose; tickets are $34-$84; go to thestage.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Two for the road’s end?
In what the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts is dubbing “One Last Ride with the Assad Brothers,” Sérgio and Odair Assad will be appearing in recital at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28. Now in their early 70s and both sporting distinguished, neatly trimmed silver beards, this fabulous classical guitar duo, called “the best two-guitar team in existence” by the Washington Post, has been wowing audiences across the world for six decades.
Hailing from Brazil, where they trained in Rio de Janeiro, elder brother Sérgio now lives in New York, while Odair resides in Brussels – and this tour represents his first trip back to the United States since the end of the pandemic. While no information about the brothers’ recital program was available on the Omni website, works they performed by Sérgio himself, Villa-Lobos and Gismonti at a recent sold-out concert on this tour in Tucson, Arizona, brought the audience to its feet, and the evening there ended with Sérgio wrapping his arms around his brother’s shoulders for a four-hand, single guitar performance. Now, that’s togetherness!
Details: Tickets, $55-$75, are available through omniconcerts.com.
— Bay City News Foundation