It’s Open Mic Night at Trend Coffee & Tea House in Montclair. Share your talent: poetry, spoken word, short story, music, comedy…anything goes. Anyone who has the nerve to get up and perform will receive a free large coffee. Or, just hang out and enjoy the show.
Open Mic Night at Trend Coffee & Tea House
Thursday, January 26 from 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Trend Coffee and Tea House, 411 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07042
Free
Also tonight in Montclair, MSU history professor and resident Zoë Burkholder will discuss her book Color in The Classroom at Watchung Booksellers. The book examines the way that American schools have created and disseminated specific ideas about race over the course of the twentieth century. Read our full review here.
“Color in The Classroom” with author Zoë Burkholder
Thursday, January 26 at 7 pm
Watchung Booksellers, 54 Fairfield Street, Montclair, NJ, 07042
Free
On Friday night, sit back and enjoy The Sounds of Sarah Vaughn at SOPAC. Broadway vocalist Rosena M. Hill (Come Fly Away, The Color Purple) and her husband, Grammy-winning trombonist Jason Jackson (Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band), pay tribute to the legendary vocalist nicknamed “The Divine One.” With jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut, saxophonist Don Braden, trumpeter Greg Gisbert, bassist David Wong, and drummer Neal Smith, the South Orange couple will present a unique musical experience of jazz, blues, standards, Latin, show tunes, spirituals, and original arrangements into their performances, telling the story of Sarah Vaughan through the music she recorded.
The Sounds of Sarah Vaughan
Friday, January 27 at 8 pm
SOPAC, 1 SOPAC Way, South Orange, NJ
Tickets: $30, $40 / SOPAC Members: $25, $35. Purchase online or call 973.313.ARTS
John Wesley Harding calls his style of music “folk noir” and “gangsta folk.” Under his real name, Wesley Stace, he has written three novels. Harding most often plays solo or as a duo, but has also done concerts with various backing bands: The Good Liars, The Family Values, The Radical Gentlemen and a band in NYC called The English UK. His work includes “I’m Wrong About Everything”, which was included on the soundtrack for High Fidelity. He also does a great cover of Madonna’s Like a Prayer. Harding has released 15 albums, including 2009′s Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead which he recorded with The Minus 5. A new album, which he recorded with The Decemberists came out earlier in 2011. @the Art Studio is very excited to have John Wesley Harding perform on Saturday night!
I love his song There’s a Starbucks (Where the Starbucks used To Be)
John Wesley Harding
Saturday, January 28. Doors open at 7:30 pm, show at 8 pm
@The Art Studio, 211 Glenridge Avenue, Montclair, NJ, 07042
$15. Purchase online here
On Sunday, enjoy the music sf Sean Harkness as part of the Music at the Mansion series at Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center. Guitarist Sean Harkness recently garnered both the Outstanding Instrumentalist of 2011 Backstage Bistro Award, and a MAC Award [Manhattan Association of Clubs and Cabarets] for his New York solo shows. Sean has appeared as an artist and sideman extensively in New York’s finest jazz venues including the Blue Note, Smoke, Small’s, the Jazz Standard, Birdland, Iridium, Feinstein’s, Edison Ballroom, Mile’s Café, the Metropolitan Room, St. Nick’s, and Top Of The Rock at Rockefeller Center. He has six commercial recordings released to date. Also performing will be Wendy Lane, whose performances in venues across the country have earned critics’ praises for her versatility and sophistication, and the cabaret and songwriting team of David Alpher (pianist/composer), an NYU graduate and Jennie Litt (singer/lyricist). They have delighted audiences with cabaret shows that offer in-depth explorations of the Great American Songbook.
Music at the Mansion
Sunday, January 29 at 3 pm
Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center, 240 Belleville Avenue, Bloomfield, NJ
Tickets are $10 per person and are available at the door or by calling 973.429.0960 to make reservations.
Another option on Sunday is a book signing at Words in Maplewood. Frank Brady will discuss and sign copies of his book Endgame, which charts the story of Bobby Fischer’s remarkable rise and fall — from America’s brightest prodigy to the edge of madness. The NYTimes called Endgame, ““…a rapt, intimate book, greatly helped by its author’s long acquaintance with Fischer, who died in 2008, and his deep grounding in the world of chess.”
“Endgame” with author Frank Brady
Sunday, January 29 at 2 pm
Words, 179 Maplewood Avenue, Maplewood, NJ
Free
To see what else is going on in Baristaville, make sure to check our calendar.
