Live music is everywhere this week

Published 4:59 pm Thursday, July 10, 2008

Stevie Wonder, Janis Ian, Jack Bruce of Cream, American Idols, The Police, Elvis Costello, local outdoor concert series, jazz and folk music are among the options for summer music in the next week.

Three jazz-pop-R&B-gospel vocalists created Cocoa Martini, rooted in tradition yet open to fresh approaches to standards, performing Wednesday in Shoreline.

One of the trio, Karen Shivers, who opened last year for Grammy-winner Dianne Reeves and is featured in the July issue of Earshot Jazz magazine, has said that the three simply love each other’s sound created when drawing out the joys and pains they’ve lived through.

The trio is backed by a quartet of musicians.

The Hendricksons, Jillian Graham: The folk music series at the Everett Library continues Sunday with the Hendricksons and Jillian Graham. Fiddler Stew Hendrickson will open with Tommy Makem’s “Rambles of Spring,” so expect haunting melodies from the British Isles and America. Hammered dulcimer player Betty Hendrickson will do a set of Finnish tunes as well as an Irish set. Graham performed mostly in choral groups until she discovered songwriting and now has her own solo gigs.

The Red Hotz: Classic rock ‘n’ roll blues will cure what ails you when this band takes the stage at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The group is hot enough to make it to the semifinals of the 2008 International Blues Challenge held this year in Memphis. Last year they had a European tour. They’ll mix classics with originals, fronted by vocalist Suze Sims and searing guitar work by Teri Anne Wilson.

Stevie Wonder: This musician needs no introduction for his performance at 8 p.m. tonight, but it’s worth a look at some of his lesser-known highlights. Wonder was awarded the Polar Music Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music; recorded an instrumental jazz album using his name spelled backwards for the artist’s name (yes, it was Eivets Rednow); “Fingertips: Part 2” was the first live pop single to reach the top spot on the charts (he performed it when he was age 12); and he wrote the tribute for the section on Mariah Carey in Time magazine’s 2008 “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

The Police, Elvis Costello: This is the final reunion goodbye tour, according to Sting, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Gorge. The Police was greeted last year (reunion tours do go on and on) in Dublin, Ireland, by 82,000 fans. This year the tour takes The Police to several countries, including Serbia and Singapore. Remember, this is the last break-up. Costello has recently been in a Lexus advertisement talking about Beethoven and toured with Bob Dylan.

American Idols Live 2008: Led by the two Davids — champion David Cook and runner-up David Archuleta — the 10 Idols will perform at least 30 songs at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Tacoma Dome. The singers will do mostly solos, still hoping their showcase numbers will lead to record contracts.

HippieFest: Enjoy several hours with Jack Bruce of Cream, Eric Burdon and the Animals, The Turtles, Badfinger and Janis Ian at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Chateau Ste. Michelle. Electric bass guitarist Bruce is 65 and recently collaborated with guitarist Robin Trower on the CD “Seven Moons” while releasing two retrospective box sets. Janis Ian has a book coming out July 24 (“Society’s Child: My Autobiography”) and a new CD, “Best of Janis Ian: The Autobiography Collection.”

Golden Bough: The musical group Golden Bough plays it all, from songs to instrumental pieces ranging from ballads to lively jigs, reels and singalongs, while combining traditional Celtic tunes with a more contemporary acoustic sound.

Golden Bough provides music the whole family can enjoy and they are the featured performers at a free concert starting at 3 p.m. Sunday at Edmonds City Park.

Golden Bough’s three musicians — Paul Espinoza, Margie Butler and Kathy Sierra — blend their voices in such pristine harmony that it’s sometimes difficult to tell how many people are actually singing. They also masterfully back themselves by playing a variety of rare and more common acoustic instruments that includes the Celtic harp, penny-whistle, violin, octave-mandolin, mandolin, accordion, guitar, harmonica, recorder and bodhran, a small drum.

The concert will be canceled if it rains.

The next free concert in the park is planned for July 22 and features The Wooden O Shakespeare Company’s “Romeo &Juliet.”

Out and about: Grammy- and Latin Grammy-nominated salsa singer Jerry Rivera with Cambalache perform in Seattle (tonight, Showbox SoDo) … Art-pop duo Two Loons for Tea (Sarah Scott, Jonathan Kochmer) perform with a full band and music from “Nine Lucid Dreams” at the Choochokam Music &Arts Festival (Sunday, Langley) … Contemporary and straight-ahead jazz saxophonist Gerald Albright has sold more than a million albums and earned a Grammy nomination for best pop instrumental album … Pat Green plays along the edge of mainstream country with his optimistic country-rock approach (tonight, Showbox Market) … Vocalist and dancer Dobet Gnahore’s “Na Afriki” (“To Africa”) offers her vision of today’s Africa through charisma, emotion and range of voice, and eventually in the program, dance (Tuesday amd Wednesday, Jazz Alley). The Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour features Boys Like Girls, Good Charlotte and The Maine (Monday, Showbox SoDo) … Jimmy Eat World (Tuesday, Showbox SoDo) and Lyle Jennings (Wednesday, Showbox Market) lead two more Seattle shows … Retro-pop band Locksley is one of Billboard Magazine’s hot new artists and penned the theme song to MTV’s series “Why Can’t I Be You?” (Monday, Chop Suey).