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This week, catch shows with Cuban pianist, singer and percussionist Jorge Luis Pacheco and eclectic fusion band ALO touring behind its new album; hear Pulitzer-winning humor columnist Dave Barry discuss his new memoir; see dance and art come together in nature at Djerassi Resident Artists Program; and enjoy a ballet fairy tale with “Beauty & The Beast.” Plus Ensemble Continuo performs a splashy choral work and California Pops Orchestra and special guests team up for the “biggest” big band.
Jorge Luis Pacheco
Cuban pianist, singer, percussionist and composer Jorge Luis Pacheco brings his distinctive fusion of jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms, incorporating classical influences and improvisational skills, to a pair of performances at Meyhouse Palo Alto. Pacheco has collaborated with the likes of Wynton Marsalis and Dave Weckl and performed internationally, including at the Kennedy Center and the Apollo Theater.
May 9, 6 and 8:30 p.m., Meyhouse Palo Alto, 640 Emerson St., Palo Alto; $50; meyhousejazz.com.
ALO
The rock band ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra) has local roots, having originated (albeit under a different band name) in Saratoga more than 30 years ago, formed by childhood friends Zach Gill (keys and vocals), Steve Adams (bass and vocals) and Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz (guitar and vocals). With Ezra Lipp (drums and vocals) now in the lineup, ALO is on tour in celebration of its newest album “Frames,” which was released in April. All four members write and sing lead, and the band’s website describes its latest record as a fusion of rock, alt-pop, electronic, R&B, folk, dance, funk “and a touch of subtle wit.”
May 9, 8 p.m., The Guild Theatre, 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park; $54-$118; .theguildtheatre.com.
MovingGround Dance and Art Experience
Woodside’s Djerassi Resident Artists Program offers artists the time and space to do creative work in a picturesque setting, and on occasion the public is able to experience its art and landscape as well. This weekend, Djerassi Program alumna Krista DeNio, along with MovingGround dancers, theater artists, and musicians, leads an interactive performance along the wooded trails of the Djerassi property, followed by refreshments and conversation in the Artist House. “MovingGround will be bringing their past work and research at the Djerassi Program together with their current project, Sanctuary Spaces, an art-action network that shares narratives and sheds light on real stories from people in our communities through conversation, performance, and co-creating real Sanctuary Spaces together,” the event website states.
May 10, 2-6 p.m., 2325 Bear Gulch Road, Woodside; $50-$200; interland3.donorperfect.net.
Ensemble Contonuo
Not all sacred music channels the solemnity of the church: one movement of Francis Poulenc’s “Gloria” was reportedly inspired by the composer witnessing Benedictine monks playing soccer, according to a description of the work from Ensemble Continuo that notes that the piece as a whole, composed in 1959, raised eyebrows at the time for its theatricality. Ensemble Continuo, a Peninsula-based chamber choir, will perform “Gloria” in a concert that also features a more restrained composition by Poulenc, “Vinea Mea Electa,” along with two 21st-century compositions: Caroline Shaw’s pensive setting of Psalm 84 titled “and the swallow,” and Ēriks Ešenvalds’s ethereal a capella work “Stars,” which incorporates the ringing tones of choir members playing water-filled glasses as they sing.
May 10, 3-4 p.m., at All Saints Episcopal Church, 555 Waverley St., Palo Alto, $12.51-$17.85. eventbrite.com/e/poulenc-gloria-tickets.
‘Beauty & The Beast’
The classic fairy tale romance of “Beauty and the Beast” is brought to life in balletic form with Western Ballet’s production. The magical tale features the brave and beautiful Belle, the mysterious Beast, and a whole host of other beloved characters, such as the enchanted castle servants-turned-household objects, who long to be human again.
May 9-10, 7 p.m., Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View; $39-$42; tickets.mvcpa.com.
Swing Time at the Pops
With driving percussion and an emphasis on saxophones, trumpets and other horns, big band music always packs a powerful sound. But for its latest concert, the California Pops Orchestra is teaming up with the Black Tie Jazz Band, ensuring that the sheer size of the band also lives up to the genre’s name. The two ensembles come together in what they’re calling the “biggest Big Band on the West Coast” for “Swing Time at the Pops,” a celebration of big band music by favorite composers, bandleaders and performers of the 1930s, ’40s and beyond, including Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett and Michael Bublé.
May 11, 3 p.m., at San Mateo Performing Arts Center, 600 N. Delaware St., San Mateo. $21-$61. calpops.org.
Dave Barry
Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist Dave Barry (he won in 1988, for commentary) comes to Cañada College for an event presented by Kepler’s Literary Foundation, in conversation with Angie Coiro. Barry’s memoir, “Class Clown” (he was literally granted that title in high school), covers his childhood through his celebrated career as a journalist and author, written in Barry’s trademark humorous style, following the advice from his Midwestern parents to “never to take anything too seriously.”
May 12, 7 p.m., Cañada College theater, 4200 Farm Hill Blvd., Redwood City; $16.74-$80.79 depending on ticket and book option;.eventbrite.com.
