• Saturday night at Molly Malone’s in Covington, The Beau Alquizola Band (pictured) celebrates its new album, Weddings in Louisville, with the solid support bill of Kyle English, Messerly and Ewing and Mike Fair and the Adventure Seekers. Alquizola — who got his professional start singing Soul and R&B in Florida — has shown his strengths on previous releases, showcasing one of the strongest honey-dipped voices in local music and a firm grasp on songwriting.
On Weddings (his first effort since 2006’s Unbalanced, Alquizola’s debut release with his band), Alquizola and Co. add a more evident Rock element to their soulful, poppy core, with a few more upbeat songs and teethier guitars. Weddings is also a testament to the strength of Alquizola’s backing band of deft local aces, including pianist Sharon Udoh and singer Joan Schneder, whose presence as a harmony singer/duet partner reinforces the already sturdy vocals and draws more attention to the muscular melodies. (Get show details here.)
• Saturday at downtown’s Blue Wisp Jazz Club, local tenor saxophonist Brent Gallaher hosts a CD release party for his latest creation, Lightwave. Gallaher — a CCM grad who has toured with the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and performed with some of Cincinnati’s best players and groups, including Psychoacoustic Orchestra and Over the Rhine — follows up his 2004 debut with a set featuring Dan Karlsberg on piano, Steve Whipple on bass and Anthony Lee on drums. (Show details here.)
• The new power trio featuring Cincinnati Funk bad-ass Freekbass, versatile turntablist DJ Logic and Steve Molitz from the progressive Electronica Jam band Particle was supposed to perform its debut in Cincinnati a couple of months ago, but a foot injury suffered by Logic postponed the show. Foot now healed, the band has a name (Headtronics, bestowed upon the group by Freekbass’ pal/mentor Bootsy Collins, a master nickname/band name creator) and while Cincinnati doesn’t get to be the first stop on the trio’s mini-tour, you’ll still see them very early on in their career. The trio plays Play By Play Saturday. (Show details here.)
• Fresh off of his annual “Baseball Show” (which coincides with Opening Day each Reds season), local Folk singer/ songwriter Jake Speed continues another cool tradition Friday at the College of Mount St. Joseph as he brings back WoodyFest for the 10th straight year. The long-running event is a tribute to the iconic Woody Guthrie, and this year Speed will be jamming on Woody classics solo and also with members of his backing band The Freddies and with The Tillers’ singer/ multi-instrumentalist Mike Oberst. The fest kicks off at 7 p.m. and admission is $10 (free if you’re a MSJ student). Proceeds from the event will go to the school’s general scholarship fund. (Show details here.)
• Lovers of local Jazz will definitely want to be on hand for the debut show by Jada. The all-star ensemble features some of Cincy Jazz’s finest: Mike Wade, Marc Fields and Kevin Engel provide the three-horn frontline attack, Dan Karlsberg plays keys and Mike Sharfe and Art Gore are the top-notch rhythm section. The band plays Thursday at 7:30 p.m. for The Redmoor’s weekly Jazz night. Admission is just $5. (Show details here.)
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: [email protected]
