Wednesday • 22
MUSIC
George Winston
He made New Age waves in the early ’80s when his seasonally themed albums Summer, Winter into Spring and December hit the shelves. This week, pianist George Winston brings his textured piano playing and jubilant sounds to the Max M. Fisher Music Center for a special holiday performance with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Winston will tickle the ivories at 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-576-5100.
Thursday • 23
Salt Miners
MUSIC
Room to move around onstage is becoming scarcer and scarcer for the Salt Miners these days. The former Motor City bluegrass fivesome has become a sixsome. With the addition of Kevin Stripling (Immortal Winos of Soul, Ethos) on the upright, the Salt Miners have freed up their string-picking hands for a little bit more of that banjo-picking, mandolin-strumming, zookie-playing, squeezebox-pumping fun that metro Detroiters have grown to love. With the Deadstring Brothers and the High Life at the Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; 313-961-4668.
Thursday • 23
Third Annual Holiday Sights and Sounds Holiday Spectacular
MUSIC/FUNDRAISER
So, if you were looking to rub elbows with some of your favorite resident rock stars this week, you can hang with almost all of them at this year’s Sights and Sounds Holiday Spectacular. Seriously folks, take a gander at who will be performing: the Dirtbombs, the Paybacks, Brendan Benson, Outrageous Cherry, Blanche, Terror at the Opera, Rosie Thomas, the Volebeats, the Sirens, the Fondas, Pas/Cal, the Hentchmen, Waxwings, the Come Ons, Night Moves, Thunderbirds are Now!, The Holy Fire, His Name is Alive, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Jawbone and American Mars. Sassy and the Wolf — co-hosts of the über-cool Radio Fever program on WKRK-FM (97.1) — will emcee this event with their own brand of kooky, music-wonk humor. Proceeds will benefit Detroit’s Coalition on Temporary Shelter (COTS). At the Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-9700.
Thursday • 23
Holiday in the Sun III
MUSIC
The DJs who make up Paris ’68 are not your typical wax-spinnin’ megalomaniacs. In fact, the DJs noscene and nosoul claim that their collaboration is “a critical sonic-art collective that combines music, images and rhetoric to provoke abstract thinking and visionary dancing.” Expect anything from Gil Scott-Heron to Matthew Dear. At Oslo, 1456 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-963-0300.
Sunday • 26
Barry Harris
HOLIDAY/MUSIC
The Black Concerns Working Group of the First Unitarian-Universalist Church presents its 18th annual Kwanzaa Jazz Concert. Detroit legend and all-star jazz pianist Barry Harris will be serving up his famous bebop and jazz stylings for the event. Performing in recognition of the Kwanzaa holiday, the evening is to celebrate to the fullest what it means to be African and human. Experience the festivities and pride at the First Unitarian-Universalist Church, 4605 Cass Ave., 313-833-9107.
Sunday • 26
Third Annual Holiday Blues Bash
MUSIC
For the third year in a row, the Motor City Music Foundation will host an evening of 12-bar bliss, featuring performances from some of the local blues scene’s biggest hotshots, including the Whoodoo Band, the R&B Pioneers with RJ’s Rhythm Rockers, Cherri and the Violators, Instant Blue and Monster Chuck Lyon’s BBQ’d Blues Band. There will also be a special section marked off for “The Local Legends of the Blues” — such as Dick Wagner, Robbie Noll, Sweet Claudette, Stoney Mazur and Bugs Beddow — to meet and greet fans. At Sweet Lorraine’s Café and Bar, 17100 Laurel Park Dr. N., Livonia; 734-953-7480. Proceeds to benefit the Detroit Music Awards.
Tuesday • 28
In the Spirit of Ujima
HOLIDAY/COMMUNITY
The modern holiday of Kwanzaa is an African-American and Pan-African celebration of family, community and culture with a different principle as the focus of each day for a week. And on Day 3, the Nsoroma Institute of Detroit will celebrate Ujima. The principle of Ujima — which means collective work and responsibility — reinforces the need to build and maintain community from within. Festivities will include a candle lighting ceremony, a discussion on the importance of community activism and a performance by the Thiosane Performing Arts Company’s African dance troupe. At the Akwaba Center, 8045 Second St., Detroit; 248-541-2548.
Ongoing
Richard Lewis
ART
Detroit native Richard Lewis paints still lifes and figurative works that “explore the downbeats and upbeats of the jazz musician.” Lewis cites music as his main source of inspiration. His works fuse color and texture, senses and soul to create beautiful paintings that illustrate both the mood and style of jazz music itself. At Sherry Washington Gallery, 1274 Library St., Detroit; 313-961-4500. Runs until Jan. 29.
Ongoing
Fighting the Fire of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings
ISSUES & LEARNING
This traveling exhibit from the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., makes its first stop in Detroit. The installation uses photos and news clippings to give viewers a historical look at the the burning of thousands of books from libraries, schools and bookstores in 1933 as an “Action against the Un-German Spirit.” At the Detroit Public Library in the Adam Strohm Hall, 5210 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-4042.
Ongoing
The Enduring Art of the Korean Potter
ART
Korea has lost much of its cultural heritage to the ravages war. In fact, due to the devastation this country has endured, archaelogists have discovered that it is not possible to trace the development of Korean architecture or painting from the works that survive on the Korean peninsula. Remarkably, the one art form that has endured — and the only one that can trace the entire lineage of human history in the country — is pottery. Enjoy The Enduring Art of the Korean Potter, a rare look at an important part of Asian history. At the University of Michigan Museum of Art, 525 S. State St., Ann Arbor; 734-764-0395. Runs until July 24.
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