ON the Beat | Greeting the Season, Incoming

December Arrives, with Seasonal Concert Options Aplenty in Santa Barbara

Mariachi Sol de Mexico, “A Merri-achi Christmas” | Credit: Courtesy

This edition of ON the Beat was originally emailed to subscribers on November 30, 2023. To receive Josef Woodard’s music newsletter in your inbox each Thursday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

Making a Musical List

That season is upon us, when the actual or implied presence of the Holidays hovers over the cultural calendar, and Santa Barbara is blessed to have a number of ongoing holiday/holy day traditions — including the choral goodness of the Santa Barbara Choral Society’s “Hallelujah Project” and the sumptuous reverence of the Renaissance-to-modern a cappella Quire of Voyces (in the magical St. Anthony’s Chapel venue). Traveling revelers bring their Christmas music–stocked goods to town as well this year, a list including fast-rising jazz sensation Samara Joy (see story here), the return of Santa Barbara-bred Foo Fighter Chris Shifflet and his “Holiday Hoedown” at SOhO, and trusty troubadour Jose (“Feliz Navidad”) Feliciano at the Lobero.

In chronological order, here is a list of Holiday happenings of the musical sort over the next few weeks, leading up to Christmas.

Westmont Christmas Festival, Granada Theatre, December 2 and 3

Opera Santa Barbara, El Gato con Botas, Center Stage Theatre, December 1-3 (not directly a Christmas program, but a family friendly chamber opera outing)

Adelfos Ensemble chamber choir, Trinity Episcopal Church, December 5

Mariachi Sol de México, José Hernández’ Merry-Achi Christmas, Arlington Theatre, December 6

Samara Joy, Campbell Hall, Friday, December 8

UCSB Gospel Choir, UCSB Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall, December 8

Santa Barbara Chorale Society, “Hallelujah Project,” Lobero Theatre, December 9 and 10

A Winter Music Showcase, Grace Fisher Foundation fundraiser, Granada Theatre, December 10

Jose Feliciano, Lobero, December 11

Messiah Sing Along, conducted by Philip McLendon, First Presbyterian Church, Tuesday, December 12

Quire of Voyces, St. Anthony’s Chapel, December 16 and 17

Santa Barbara The Revels, Lobero, December 16 and 17

Big Christmas Brass Show,December 16

The 3rd Annual Outdoor Trinity Backstage Holiday Show, Trinity Episcopal Church, December 16
Chris Shiflet Hometown Holiday Hoedown, SOhO, December 22 and 23

Samara Joy comes to the Granada Dec. 8 | Credit: Meredith Truax

Deep into Bruce Cockburn’s inspiring recent concert at the Lobero, the 78-year-old Canadian folk legend took a little yet arduous trip. He moved over from his center stage post, where he intensely hunched over his guitars with a leg propped high on a suitcase, over to a hammer dulcimer to play “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” — but his diminished physical state requires two canes and a slow-going process. Cockburn joked, “that’s the choreography part of the show.”

It was also the only sign of diminishment for an evening in which he sang, naturally waxed activist and Biblical and maneuvered all over his guitar with expert grace and feeling. Cockburn’s current state embodies the concept that an artist’s spirit and talent can prevail even when the flesh starts giving out.

Songwriting skills are also riding high in this phase of his life, as evidenced by the raw and polished gems from his new album, O Sun O Moon, in a discography going back to his 1970 debut and now counting more than 20 titles. One dark-ish and slightly surreal new song, “King of the Bolero,” required a bit of post-song disclaimer: “Sometimes, you know where a song came from, and sometimes, you have no idea. That’s one of those.” And a strange beauty, it is.

Aside from a juicy handful of new concoctions, Cockburn’s set sampled from 50 years worth of old favorites and rarities, including the greatest hits, “Wondering Where the Lions Are,” “Going to the Country,” “Stolen Land,” and the night-closing “Last Night of the World.”

To cap off the evening, Cockburn invited his opening act, Steve Postell (also in the band Immediate Family) to flesh out the sonorous and lyrically wise goods of songs including “Waiting for a Miracle” and “Festival of Friends.” The warmed and willing crowd hopped aboard the feel-good train, en route to a happy ending for a wholly satisfying show.

Another High-Flying Piano Twofer

Sir Stephen Hough at the Lobero (left) and Daniil Trifonov at UCSB Campbell Hall | Credit: David Bazemore

Recently, lovers of upper-tier, classical piano virtuosos got a one-two punch across organizational lines, with the CAMA-sponsored recital by Sir Stephen Hough and, one night later, the stunning Russian piano poet Daniil Trifonov, sponsored by UCSB Arts & Lectures. (See review here). Yet another such double serving hits town in the form of young sensation Seong-Jin Cho, who returns to town as recitalist on Friday, December 1, at Campbell Hall — an A&L special — and again on Tuesday, December 12, in orchestral soloist garb with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with the eminent Zubin Mehta as conductor — a CAMA night out.

The 29-year-old South Korean pianist has dazzled the classical scene since bursting forth with a First Prize win in Warsaw’s coveted Chopin International Competition in 2015, followed by travels to all the right halls as soloist and recitalist, and a discography leading up to this year’s Deutsche Grammophon release, The Handel Project. At Campbell Hall, his program is a promising menu of Haydn segueing into two Ravel works (including Menuet sur le nom de Haydn), a Mozart Adagio, and a Liszt-ian flourish (from Annees de pelerinage, also a climactic piece in Hough’s recent recital).

They Took Manhattan, in Song

The Manhattan Transfer | Credit: F. Scott Schafer, Courtesy Lobero

Chalk up another one for notable music world names hanging it up this year (or are they really, we wonder?). November saw the “finale of the finale tour” of Santa Barbara’s own Kenny Loggins at the Santa Barbara Bowl, and the well-known vocal jazz group Manhattan Transfer is stopping at the Lobero Theatre on Thursday, December 7, as part of its “50th Anniversary & Farewell Tour.”

It’s a good news/potentially bad news equation for a group whose name has been synonymous with its friendly and sometimes intricate vocal arrangements and accessible mix of jazz with pop and other additives. Fittingly, Fifty is the title of its latest album, from last year, recorded with the sharp German WDR Funkhausorchester. The album is up for a Grammy, a win which would further weigh down a collective mantle housing 10 Grammy trophies over the years.

As a peripheral note, re: projects on the periphery of their main stage presence, I always loved what the Transfer summoned up on Weather Report’s “Where the Moon Goes,” from its 1983 album Procession, a complex-yet-earthy tune presently bustling in my ear (listen up here).