Fuse News: Arts and Culture Tips — What Will Light Your Fire This Week

Arts Fuse critics select some of the most promising in music, theater, and film for the coming week. A new feature!

By The Arts Fuse Staff.

Roots & World Music

Local bluegrass heroines Della Mae celebrate their national debut on Rounder Records with a packed week of appearances. Photo: David McClister.

SuperSka
May 31, 9 p.m.
Sally O’Brien’s, Somerville, MA

This aggregation features top-shelf veterans of Boston ska acts like Bim Skala Bim and Steady Earnest stretching out on foundation classics. Bring your dancing shoes and get ready for lots of Skatalites numbers as well as some surprises.

El Trono de Mexico
May 31
Wonderland Ballroom, Revere, MA

The impending closure of the Wonderland Ballroom will be deeply felt by the Latin music and reggae fans who comprised most of the historic venue’s customer base in recent years. The club has hosted many Mexican stars like Duranguense combo El Trono de Mexico—who around here play to mostly Central American audiences.

Della Mae CD Release Shows
Various dates and locations

Local bluegrass heroines Della Mae are celebrating their national debut on Rounder Records with a packed week. They’ll be playing shows at the Lizard Lounge, Club Passim, the Middle East—and at several Clover food truck locations. Full details and schedule here.

Five Blind Boys of Mississippi
June 2, 4 p.m.
Russell Auditorium, 70 Talbot Ave., Dorchester, MA (Info: 617-980-1131)

In recent years, the current incarnation of the Blind Boys of Alabama have become roots music icons thanks to albums featuring their interpretations of “spiritual” pop compositions.

Back in the golden era of gospel their rivals the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi were just as popular on the gospel circuit, with lead singer Archie Brownlee reportedly jumping off balconies despite his visual handicaps

Unlike the Alabama group, which mostly appears at mainstream festivals and performing arts centers, the Mississippi Blind Boys can still be found on the church circuit. While current lead singer Sandy Foster is actually a sighted man from Cleveland, he can outshout just about anyone. They’ll close out a long afternoon of music featuring short sets by nine other quartets, choirs, and soloists. The program celebrates the anniversary of veteran radio host Bishop Harold Branch whose 6 a.m. Sunday morning program on WRCA (1330) is required listening for local gospel fans.

A Tribe Called Red
June 2
Middle East, Cambridge, MA

One of the most buzzed-about bands at this winter’s globalFEST, this Canadian group mixes Native chants into the up-to-date sounds of hip-hop and electronic dance music.

Zouk En Folie
June 2
Wonderland Ballroom, Revere, MA

The mellow island rhythms of zouk originated in Guadalupe and Martinique before becoming ubiquitous on Haitian radio. This night features three of the music’s younger stars, Aly Angel, Tina, and Karizma.

McAuley, Horan, and O’Caoimh
June 5
The Burren Backroom, Somerville, MA

Two years ago this trio kicked off a series of intimate concerts programmed by WGBH host Brian O’Donovan. The series has proved to be a godsend for Celtic music buffs, and now its first act returns for an encore performance. Fiddler Win Horan and accordionist Mick McAuley are best known for their work with the traditional Irish supergroup Solas. Here they collaborate with young guitarist Colm O’Caoimh.

— Noah Schaffer


Film

William and the Windmill — a remarkable story.

William and the Windmill
The DocYard Series
June 3, 7 p.m.
Brattle Theater, Cambridge, MA.

The film documents the remarkable story of young William Kamkwamba, a Malawian inventor and author who gained fame in his country when, in 2002 when he was 15, he built a windmill to power a few electrical appliances in his family’s house in Masitala using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrap yard. Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other windmills and went on to win a 2010 GO Ingenuity Award,and enter an intensive, two-year academic program at Cambridge University.

— Tim Jackson


Classical Music

Aliana de la Guardia, Brian Church, Jennifer Ashe, and Jonas Burdis in Guerilla Opera’s world premiere of Adam Robert’s “GIver of Light.” Photo: Stephanie J. Patalano.

Giver of Light by Adam Roberts
Staged by Guerilla Opera
May 31, 8 p.m.
Zack Box Theater, Boston Conservatory, Boston, MA

The opera is based on the true life events of eleventh-century poet Rumi. Composer Adam Roberts transposes this story to the American mid-west to explore what love is and who can share it. Andrew Eggert directs.

Chorus Pro Musica
May 31, 8 p.m.
New England Conservatory, Jordan Hall, Boston, MA

The evening includes a performance of Mozart C Minor Mass and a Chorus pro Music commission by Peter Child.

Coro Allegro: Coming Full Circle—Celebrating 20 Years with David Hodgkins.
June 2, 3 p.m.
Church of the Covenant, Boston, MA

On the program: Schubert’s “Mass in G,” Jennifer Higdon’s “Southern Grace,” and Greg Bullen’s “The Orchard: Songs of Fruit and Love,” which is set to the poetry of William Carlos Williams.

— Susan Miron


Theater

In the Heights
Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Book by Quiara Alegría Hudes.
Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company
Through June 30
The Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA

Fuse Critic Evelyn Rosenthal writes that the “plot line sometimes lurches a bit, but the characters are moving (in many senses of the word), and what will really stick with you is the pure energy and joy of the music and dancing in this marvelous production.”

WHAT’S “Utility Monster”: Marc Carver (Alan) and Laura Latreille (Ruth), Lily Flores (Sadie), and Ryan Rudewicz (Claude). Photo: Michael A. Karchmer

Utility Monster by Marina Keegan.
Through June 22
The Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Wellfleet, MA, through June 22.

The American premiere of a drama about world hunger, a topic that isn’t explored often on our stages, given the current hunger for “amusing ourselves to death” shows. The playwright, Marina Keegan, died tragically on May 26, 2012.

— Bill Marx


Jazz

Drummer Ron Savage returns to the Cambridge River Festival

Cambridge River Festival
June 1, 12-6 p.m.
Cambridge, MA (map and directions)

Every year the Cambridge River Festival reliably populates its jazz stage with some of the top musicians from the Boston area. 2013 is no exception: you’ll have it made in the shade listening to Tre Corda, the Ron Savage Trio, the Marco Pignataro Jazzet, the Kevin Harris Project, and the Joel Larue Smith Afro Cuban Jazz Trio.

— J. R. Carroll

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