Let the holiday season begin with the Celtic Yuletide Concert featuring the Magical Strings, a sensory treat of holiday songs rooted in Celtic tradition as well as songs with African, Japanese, Hawaiian and Jamaican influences, dances, storytelling and juggling.
The 26th edition Sunday in Shoreline features three generations of Philip and Pam Boulding’s Magical Strings clan.
Performers include juggler Ryan Mellors; National Scottish Fiddle Champion Brian McKasson and his sister, award-winning pianist and harpist Cali McKasson; Tom Creegan on the uilleann pipes; vocalist and guitarist Mark Raney, and the Raney Irish Dancers.
The Bouldings have been popular Northwest performers for decades, singing and playing Celtic harp, hammered dulcimer, violin, cello, pennywhistle and percussion.
Steve Smith &Vital Information: Marching bands turned a very young Steve Smith on to the drums; at age 9 he started studying them. He began playing professionally at 19 with a big band, performed with bebopper Buddy DeFranco, joined a free-jazz group, toured with rocker Ronnie Montrose and was the drummer for Journey.
Rock eventually fell by the wayside when jazz took over once again. He started his own fusion band, Vital Information, exposing more people to his explosive solos. In 2001, Modern Drummer magazine named him one of the top-25 drummers of all time, and he has a place in the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame. Tuesday and Wednesday, Seattle.
Maria Dunn: Packing influences of Celtic, country, country blues and Western, the Canadian gathers characters from the past and present and tells their stories in her original music. Saturday, Seattle.
Three Men and a Tenor: The quartet has been around since 1992 but this is its first Seattle performance. The high-energy a cappella group has its own Emmy Award-winning national PBS-TV music concert special and more than 2,000 performances to its credit. Expect arrangements of music as diverse as the Temptations, Garth Brooks, the Beatles and Bob Marley, plus some original songs. Wednesday, Seattle.
Little Charlie &the Nightcats: The world-class blues and jump masters are back, touring in support of their latest release, “Nine Lives.” Little Charlie Baty continues to lead the band with his guitar acrobatics. Tuesday, Seattle.
Count Basie Orchestra: The big band with the all-star cast, winner of 17 Grammy awards and nine Downbeat Readers and Critics Poll awards, is an American institution. The jazz orchestra’s latest recording is “Ray Sings, Basie Swings,” joining Ray Charles and Count Basie on a CD although they never played together, the orchestra added its music to vocal tracks Charles had recorded. Thursday through Dec. 3, Seattle.
Bogey Vujkov Ensemble: Smooth piano jazzman Vujkov returns for his third stint at the Triple Door this year, this time with holiday songs as well as classics and originals. Appearing with the ensemble will be Dick Foley, former lead singer of Seattle’s own Brothers Four. Monday, Seattle.
Steve Smith &Vital Information perform Tuesday and Wednesday in Seattle.
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