{"id":40087,"date":"2025-11-06T01:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/40087\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T01:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:56:11","slug":"best-bets-free-fridays-in-san-jose-and-oakland-jez-butterworths-hills-of-california-blues-with-j-c-smith-los-angeles-guitar-quartet-pianist-faranak-shahroozi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/40087\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Bets: Free Fridays in San Jose and Oakland, Jez Butterworth’s ‘Hills of California’, blues with J.C. Smith, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, pianist Faranak Shahroozi\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freebie(s) of the week: The first Friday of the month is a pretty good day for free artsy fun. San Jose\u2019s South First Fridays Art Walk finds a host of art centers and galleries staying open until 9 p.m. and offering free admission. Check out Indonesian artist Susiyo\u2019s trippy and colorful creations on display in his \u201cRider of Reverie\u201d exhibit at the Anno Domini gallery, 366 S. First St. At the MACLA Latin America cultural center at 510 S. First St., catch the interactive exhibit \u201cThere Are New Suns,\u201d examining the struggle between cultural resilience and gentrification; it\u2019s in its final week. Also on Friday, the center hosts Voces del Campo Poetry Party celebrating new books by acclaimed Latinx poets Mayra Flores and Cristal Gonzalez. At the California Theatre, 345 S. First St., members of Opera San Jose perform highlights from \u201cMadama Butterfly.\u201d And the San Jose Jazz Break Room, 310 S. First St., hosts a steady stream of performances topped by the terrific sax man Howard Wiley. There\u2019s a lot more on tap during South First\u00a0Fridays; find the complete rundown at southfirstfridays.com<\/a>. Meanwhile, Oakland First Fridays is hosting a special \u201cSeason of Giving\u201d edition of its monthly First Fridays celebration. You\u2019ll find live music and arts performers, a light show, and a jam-packed marketplace full of all kinds of products. The free event runs 5 to 9:30 p.m. Friday on Telegraph Avenue between West Grand Avenue and 27th Street. More information is at oaklandfirstfridays.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nL-R, Amanda Kristin Nichols, Karen Killeen and Aimee Doherty star in Jez Butterworth\u2019s \u201cThe Hills of California\u201d onstage at Berkeley Repertory Theatre through Dec. 7. (Liza Voll\/Berkeley Repertory Theatre via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

Betting on Butterworth: Playwright and screenwriter Jez Butterworth has created such a deep and varied collection of plays and films, it\u2019s hard to believe they all come from the same guy. The Tony- and Laurence Olivier Award-winner has\u00a0a fertile imagination he applies to gripping storylines that combine realism, fantasy and folklore and to intriguing characters often forced to adjust to life\u2019s twists and turns. His first play, the 1995 crime-caper-dark comedy \u201cMojo,\u201d won an Olivier award for best new comedy and he has been on a roll ever since. His slice-of-life comedy-drama \u201cJerusalem,\u201d which follows a colorful British \u201cwaster\u201d and his friends, has been called the best British play of the 21st century. He\u2019s also an in-demand screenwriter, whose resume includes \u201cFair Game,\u201d based on the Valerie Plame story and starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts; the Whitey Bulger crime drama \u201cBlack Mass\u201d; the James Brown biopic \u201cGet On Up\u201d and even a James Bond movie, \u201cSpectre.\u201d Berkeley Repertory Theatre is staging his most recent play, \u201cThe Hills of California,\u201d a comedy-drama about four singing sisters gathering at a run-down beach house where their domineering mother is close to death. The play, which premiered last year, runs through Dec. 7. It\u2019s directed by former Magic Theatre director Loretta Greco. Tickets are $24-$137 at berkeleyrep.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Bay Area bluesman J.C. Smith appears with his band at Biscuits & Blues in San Francisco on Nov. 8. (J.C. Smith via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

Blues time: Longtime Bay Area bluesman J. C. Smith has been around the block, traveling not only across the U.S., but also to far-flung places like Argentina, Armenia, Canada, Chile, China, Latvia, Portugal, Russia, even Siberia.\u00a0But he and his band always enjoy appearing at home around town. The award-winning musician, a crowd-pleaser in the South Bay, is excited about a gig at San Francisco\u2019s Biscuits & Blues this weekend.\u00a0Now playing with bandmates Stevie Q on bass, Noel Catura on saxophone, Scott Porter on keyboards and Tim Richard on drums, vocalist-guitarist Smith has made six albums over the past two decades or so, starting with 2004\u2019s \u201cThat\u2019s What I\u2019m Talk\u2019n Bout.\u201d The most recent, 2019\u2019s \u201cIn the Groove,\u201d includes original tunes and fun covers of songs made famous by Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, George Benson and Stevie Wonder.\u00a0Still, the band is best known for soulful, rockin\u2019 live shows that really get the audience going. Smith\u2019s motto has been to \u201ckeep the blues alive and take the message to the people.\u201d He and his group live up to it.\u00a0On Saturday, Biscuits & Blues patrons may want to arrive early and enjoy a meal from the club\u2019s great menu featuring Southern and soul food. Shows are at 6:30 and 9 p.m. at 401 Mason St.; tickets are $35-$40. Visit biscuitsandblues.com.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nThe virtuosic Los Angeles Guitar Quartet returns to the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco on Nov 8. (Adam Almeida\/San Francisco Performances via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

A fantastic four: The Grammy-winning Los Angeles Quartet, a longtime favorite of Bay Area arts presenters San Francisco Performances, returns to the Herbst Theatre Saturday night in a concert cosponsored by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts that amply demonstrates the depth and diversity of the ensemble\u2019s repertoire. As is customary, the musicians will perform a couple of works written by members: William Kanengiser\u2019s \u201cAir & Ground,\u201d and \u201cMaracasalsa,\u201d a work fusing Brazilian rhythmic traditions with classical forms (toccata and fugue) by the newest member, Douglas Lora, who joined the quartet in 2023. Also in the lineup are the Adagio movement from Beethoven\u2019s famed \u201cMoonlight Sonata\u201d (arranged by Kanengiser), the third movement from J.S. Bach\u2019s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, the \u201cDanse N\u00e9gre\u201d from Sanuel Coleridge-Taylor\u2019s \u201cAfrican Suite,\u201d Franz Liszt\u2019s Hungarian Rhapsody No 2, Philip Houghton\u2019s \u201cOpals,\u201d Hermeto Pascoal\u2019s \u201cDe S\u00e1bado pra Dominguinhos,\u201d Heitor Villa-Lobos\u2019 \u201cA Lenda do Caboclo\u201d and Paulo Bellinatia\u2019s\u00a0\u201cA Furiosa.\u201d Performance time is 7:30 p.m.; tickets, $60-$80, are available at sfperformances.org.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nConcert pianist Faranak Shahroozi plays some of her own compositions in her program with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra on Nov. 9 (Scott Telstad via Bay City News) <\/p>\n

A special guest: Iranian-American concert pianist and composer Faranak Shahroozi, who emigrated to the United States a few years after the Iran Revolution threw her home country into turmoil, specializes in lush, ultra-romantic works for the keyboard. She earned her degree in classical piano performance from at San Jose State University, so it is entirely appropriate that the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Barbara Day Turner, has put her front and center in Sunday\u2019s 7 p.m. concert in the St. Francis Episcopal Church in the city\u2019s Willow Glen neighborhood. The program, titled \u201cAn Evening of Persian Delights,\u201d consists of works she has written, including \u201cPersia\u201d and \u201cBehind the Veil\u201d from her \u201cEternal Love\u201d album, \u201cCircles of My Mind,\u201d \u201cLovestruck\u201d and other pieces to be announced. Find her version of John Lennon\u2019s \u201cImagine,\u201d played for an audience including Jill Biden at the 111th Congressional Club First Lady\u2019s Luncheon,\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0 Tickets, $20-$85, for the San Jose performance are at sjco.org.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freebie(s) of the week: The first Friday of the month is a pretty good day for free artsy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[27335,27336,27337,27338,27339,27340,27341,27342,27343,27344,27345,2229,27346,7675,27347,27348,27349,27350,7676,27351,88,27352,90,89,27353,27354,27355],"class_list":["post-40087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-barbara-day-turner","tag-berkeley-repertory-theatre","tag-cristal-gonzalez","tag-douglas-lora","tag-evening-of-persian-delights","tag-faranak-shahroozi","tag-hills-of-california","tag-howard-wiley","tag-in-the-groove","tag-j-c-smith","tag-j-c-smith-band","tag-jez-butterworth","tag-los-angeles-guitar-quartet","tag-madama-butterfly","tag-mayra-flores","tag-noel-catura","tag-oakland-first-fridays","tag-omni-foundation-for-the-performing-arts","tag-opera-san-jose","tag-san-francisco-performances","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-chamber-orchestra","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-south-first-fridays-art-walk","tag-susiyo-rider-of-reverie","tag-william-kanengiser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}