Josef Woodard

Portland-based, kitsch-driven Pink Martini brings its holiday show back to the Arlington Theatre, in the band’s 30th anniversary year.

Angelina Jolie stars as Maria Callas in "Maria," from director Pablo Larraín | Photo: Pablo Larraín Writer-director Pablo Larraín has made a specialty and cottage industry creating biopics about mythic women on the verge and/or in crisis. The Chilean-born auteur has thus far chronicled the politically spun lives in Spencer (Lady Di) and in Jackie (O), and now shifts over into high culture land with the impressive if flawed Maria (Callas). In a sense, the collision of fates and dramatic dimensions for all three could be the stuff of opera, although Maria (with a stunning performance from Angelina Jolie as the protagonist) is the most definitively “operatic” of the trio. In those terms, Maria can be best described as a tragedy as conveyed in the last chapter — or third act — of Callas's life, with legendary career highlights folded into the narrative. As with last year's overly ballyhooed Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro Maria tells its character's life story from the perspective and backward-glancing prism of the artist's final phase. The prominent milieu in Steven Knight's script deals with Callas facing the faded glory of her voice, the haunting specter of her former legendary status, and the ghostly memory of a cruel mother who forced her to sing and make other compromising positions for Nazi officers back in Athens. There is also the matter of a mercurial but deep relationship with Aristotle Onassis. All of these sinister forces have driven her to excessive use of prescription drugs and hallucinatory states which lend a surreal air to the film's mise-en-scène. As she says, fatalistically and with twinges of mortality-awareness, “Tick tock, tick tock; my man is dead; my voice is gone. What am I going to do?” All is not dour or downward spiraling, however; many of the film's most glorious moments come in the form of black-and-white vignettes demonstrating Callas's mastery on the world's finest stages and fleeting moments of romantic/emotional glow, if tempered by Callas's cool offstage composure. And some of the most striking scenes in the film involve snippets of the historic diva at her best intercut with the fading diva attempting but failing to match her past self. For all of its considerable merits — including the very fact of its giving a vibrant mainstream showcase to the typically marginalized and esoteric opera world — the film sometimes loses its way and succumbs to distracting moments of sentimentality. That's an ever-present danger, in opera, cinema, and life. A primary reason to celebrate Maria is its Maria. In one of her most powerful yet restrained performances to date, Jolie embodies her legendary character and conveys her fierce pride mixed with vulnerability — and does it without lunging into scene-munching histrionics. She gives credible veracity to the close-up singing scenes (during shoots, the well-rehearsed Jolie sang along with Callas recordings) and imbues this complex character with a palpable emotional undertow. Regarding the Maestro Maria comparisons, let's just say that Jolie becomes Callas while Bradley Cooper as Bernstein stayed largely in the realm of “I am Bradley Cooper!” bravado. (On a local note, Jolie will be the subject of an evening-length tribute at the 2025 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. See story here On a larger cultural front, Maria takes its rightful place on a list of notable recent big-screen sensations — including Maestro and Todd Fields's satirical gem Tár – dealing with music in high cultural settings, and with respectable portions of actual musical content. Could these films help to spread the gospel of serious music in the mostly mass cultural public marketplace? That hopeful result remains to be seen, but the prospects are enticing. One more thing: Although Maria is available now in living rooms everywhere, courtesy of Netflix, this is one film best appreciated on a big screen with a full-bodied sound system. It's impolite, after all, to go for a bathroom or beverage break at the opera. Ditto the movies, when serious business is at hand. Fri, Dec 13 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara

JACK Quartet performing | Photo: Courtesy As a premier proponent of contemporary string quartet music, the now 20-year-old JACK Quartet has inherently embraced the idea of moving ever forward with its work. In a fascinating concert at Hahn Hall last Friday, JACK essentially made forward motion by veering backwards and sideways. In a program logically dubbed “Modern Medieval,” the quartet spanned a range from 14th century music arranged by violinist Christopher Otto to 21 st century pieces, and a critical third “M-word” emerged as a theme of the evening: Microtonalism. That term can trigger fear and confusion in listeners accustomed to — and some might say brainwashed by — the standard equal temperament tuning of a piano's 12 keys. To the uninitiated Western ear, microtonal music can seem like an off-putting fringe zone. But this seemingly “out of tune” music has been a standard of “in tune” music for centuries and across many global cultures. That's not to mention the rare microtonal superstar, like iconoclastic American composer Harry Partch, with his 43-note octave. For true believers, variations on what is loosely identified as “microtonalism” can be revelatory, as was this sublime JACK encounter, to these ears. To others, it may seem a bit cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. For this concert, the most daring of the events in the Music Academy of the West's “Mariposa” series, opinions varied widely. In a post-concert Q&A with the musicians — also including the since-departed founding violinist Ari Streisfeld, a Music Academy alum — Streisfeld noted a certain acquired taste factor surrounding microtonal practices and listening. After becoming attuned to and enamored with the microtonal way, he suggested, traditional intonation music “can sound kind of flat. This music has this three-dimensional or even four-dimensional quality.” After the concert, I spoke to a listener who confessed he found the first half of the concert to be jarring and “out of tune” sounding, but that he had maybe been trained to better appreciate the second half. In its Hahn Hall concert, the modernized Medievalism came in the form of Otto's striking and resourceful arrangements of cryptic music by 14 th century French composer Rodericus — the rhythmically complex “ Angelorum Psalat ,” by Solage — contributor to the Ars Nova–era Chantilly Codex — and 16 th century English composer Nathaniel Giles. These pieces reminded us of disarming commonality of early music's adventurism, from before musical rules were set, and contemporary music, which often attempts to unravel established rules. JACK Quartet performing | Credit: Courtesy A framework for the program came with segments from Taylor Brook's mesmerizing and time-stretching piece “Drift,” between the opening Organum, the closing nod to Medieval sources, Ars Nova, and the short balm-like Phrygea in the middle. Another memorable modern piece rooted in ancient musical practice is JACK violinist Austin Wulliman's “Dave's Hocket,” which playfully blends the technique of “hocketing” — phrases articulated through interlaced pieces by different musicians — and what he described as a “mash-up of Arvo Pärt, Guillaume de Machaut , and Umberto Eco.” Mashing up references, but with musicality in tow, was also heard in Vincente Atria's jazz-tinged “Round-about,” which includes aspects of the canonical round, a quote from Thelonious Monk's “Round Midnight” and rugged overtone-enriched clusters suggesting a Mexican organ grinder. Disparate though it sounds, the piece sings and swings in an affecting way. In its own expressive corner, Juri Seo's “Three Imaginary Chansons” is alternately ersatz, folky, rustic, and Modernist of its own unique devising, also within the running theme of “microtonal” fixings. JACK, an heir to the mantle of standard-bearing contemporary music string quartet culture by the Arditti and Kronos quartets, fulfilled its promise of opening our ears and minds at Hahn Hall. In this case, the group banked on the proposition that microtonalism — beyond its already established subculture niche — could be a new/old frontier for exploration. Call me cuckoo, but as this avid/professional concertgoer begins the process of making sense of the past year in live music, JACK's “Modern Medieval” concert ranks up towards the top of the 2024 list. I was taken somewhere, guided by expert hands on an ensemble mission to explore a brave new-world world. Their musical field report felt, in the end, four-dimensional. Fri, Dec 13 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 15 9:00 AM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 15 2:00 PM Goleta Sun, Dec 15 3:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 15 9:00 AM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 15 2:00 PM Goleta Sun, Dec 15 3:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara

MCASB 'Sangre de Nopal' gallery shot | Photo: Courtesy With its current exhibition/project, the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) is presently densely packed and aswirl with collaborative sight, sound, and touch energies; multimedia resources; and sociohistorical ideas. But at the center of this thought-provoking maelstrom is a tiny insect. That would be the tiny but mighty cochineal, found in the nopal cactus in Oaxaca and long cultivated by the Zapotec people as a source of a mythic red dye coveted for fabric and textile work. The cochineal, exported from Mexico to distant lands for centuries, becomes both a literal subject and central metaphor for a show whose title conveys its ambitious objective: Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Contemporary Art MCASB's exhibition, involving a wide array of artists and video subjects, was curated by John Connelly, Dalia García, and Audrey Lopez and is a companion piece to an exhibition at UCLA's Fowler Museum. Both are part of the large-scale PST Art project “Art & Science Collide.” In MCASB's segment, the expansive context involves education of young artists in the Oaxacan diaspora in working with the famed dye, and a corralling of artists spinning around the idea of reflecting roots and venturing into personal artistic directions. The gallery itself plays host to an array of sensations and concepts, virtually transforming into a contemporary curatorial weaving project unto itself. Our first impression comes in the realm of sound. The series of video monitors distributed around the gallery linked to the project called “LISTEN” show indigenous people speaking in an array of native tongues. It all coheres into a buzzing, bustling sonic mesh in the room, alluding to the dignity and fragility of often ancient but endangered indigenous languages. Artifacts, tools, and subtle references to aspects of the dyeing and weaving arts are well-represented. Tania Candiani shows a large wooden loom, “Zanfona,” with occasional “performances” on the structure, as well as a set of grinding stones for creating the coveted cochineal dye. That dye is put to good, contemporary use in Sarah Rosalena 's “Eight-Pointed Star” — its shape faintly visible in the woolen thicket. Edgar Jahir Trujillo also uses cochineal pigment and textile fiber on canvas in his evocative woven work “Radiación adaptive.” Contrasts between indigenous cultural references and Eurocentric ideas enter naturally into the exhibition's thematic fabric. Painter Darío Canul (Tlacolulokos) shifts between native Oaxacan iconography in his painting “2020” to a radically revised variation on the Renaissance tradition of depicting the crucified Christ. In this case, Christ's body is adorned with indigenous Zapotec tattoos and markings. In the rumpled, jungle-referential installation side gallery, Wendy Cabrera Rubio slyly addresses the frictional interface of native Mexican life and colonial invaders/interlopers in her mixed media piece “Vitality and the utopian imagination in post-revolutionary Mexico.” She flies in quotes from alienation guru Kafka and has created a pillowy effigy of the dubious 1901 book, The Blood of the Nation: A Study of the Decay of Races Through the Survival of the Unfit by David Starr Jordan, touching on the exploitation and dehumanization of imperialist New World entities. “Zapotec, March 2024” by Andy Medina | Photo: Courtesy Another cross-historical juxtaposition takes on an organic form in the blend of ancient Oaxacan signifiers and modern graffiti “street” art, in Andy Medina 's boldly graphic “Zapotec March 2024.” Medina, a 31-year-old Oaxacan-born artist, perfectly embodies a cultural synthesis objective proposed by the MCASB show. Histories, landscapes and languages — artistic and otherwise — collide and collude here, with a powerful insect issuing symbolic and actual marching orders. Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Contemporary Art is on view at MCASB (653 Paseo Nuevo) through April 27, 2025. See mcasantabarbara.org

This weekend’s Christmas Choral options arrive in triple time.

Will Ferrell and guests at SBIFF's Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom Although there are still nearly two months of shopping days before the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) officially opens, an opening salvo landed at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara this week. The occasion was the annual gala fundraising dinner and presentation of the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, which found the Ritz-Carlton ballroom awash in a black-tie crowd savoring an elegant surf-and-turf dinner and up-close tribute to comic actor Will Ferrell. Past recipients of the Kirk Douglas Award and this gala tribute include Michelle Yeoh, Martin Scorsese, Hugh Jackman, Dame Judi Dench, Jessica Lange, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Quentin Tarantino, John Travolta and, last year, Ryan Gosling, then high on the buzz of his Barbie moment (“I'm Ken!”). Celebrity and epicurean buzz aside, the event is an important fundraiser for SBIFFs rich educational component and program. As SBIFF head Roger Durling said in his introduction, Ferrell has a special skill and driving mission to get his audience laughing. Durling dubbed him the “king of American comedy” and a “combination of adult and child.” Montages during the night illustrated Ferrell's range of characters and sometimes feral comic instincts, with clips from such career highlights, stocked with memorable characters, as Anchorman Talladega Nights Elf Blades of Glory , and Barbie Some truth rang out from a clip from his role as the wild-maned Mugatu in Zoolander : “I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!” Ferrell is also the man who put the phrase “more cowbell” into common vernacular, during his long, career-establishing run as a Saturday Night Live SNL ) cast member. But the most recent item in his filmography takes a very different turn: the documentary Will & Harper chronicles a cross-country road trip taken by Ferrell and his longtime friend and former SNL screenwriter Andrew Steele, who came out to Ferrell as trans, had undergone a gender transition, and is now named Harper. On hand to pay tribute to Ferrell were friends and sometime co-stars Kristen Wiig and Octavia Spencer. Spencer, who played along with Ferrell in the 2022 holiday movie Spirited , told Ferrell from the stage, “The world is a better, brighter, and funnier place because of you.” During her introduction, Wiig commented, “Over the many years, his audience, his friends, his family have come to feel that he is our safe place in his work. We know that whatever road we take with him is a place we want to go with the ability to laugh until we cry. He holds our hand and walks us through more doors into the human experience. “That being said, I have to mention his latest documentary. This film is profound, and it will shift thinking and save lives.” Opening his acceptance speech, Ferrell held the award and asked, “Are you sure?” before paraphrasing Sally Field's iconic acceptance moment: “You really like me.” Ferrell then turned local, noting, “This is a full-circle moment for me for a number of reasons. I actually was here at the Santa Barbara Film Festival In 1997, with a little film called Men Seeking Women , which went straight to DVD. I read a little blurb on it, which said ‘mixed reviews.' “So, it is good to be back,” he said with a sly grin. “And I was married here 24 years ago, with an amazing reception in the Santa Barbara courthouse. So, Santa Barbara means a lot to us.” He launched into a story of being a student at USC and hearing Kirk Douglas speak, and afterward telling the star about his acting aspirations. In his best deadpan, Ferrell said, “He put his hand on my heart and he said, ‘You have stories to tell, and one day you're gonna tell,' and he walked away.” After a beat, Ferrell added a rim shot, leaving the room in peals of laughter: “Actually, no, that never happened. Would have been such a cool story, though.” Ferrell closed by thanking SBIFF for acknowledging the art of comedy with this tribute — in what was likely the funniest Kirk Douglas tribute to date. “When it's good,” he said, “it looks easy, but it's hard. This is recognition for the 20 studios and financiers that said no to us when we were shopping around Anchorman . This is recognition of when I'm sitting in my trailer on the first day of shooting on Elf in my elf suit, staring at myself in the mirror, going, ‘This better work, buddy. Otherwise, you're done. What happened to the cool guy from SNL , now dressed up in tights in New York City like a crazy man?'” Ferrell continued, “Thank you for awarding what I've always felt like I needed to bring a sense of play to whatever I did.” The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place February 4-15, 2025. Official events, including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes, will be held at SBIFF's Riviera Theatre and its new Film Center, plus the historic Arlington Theatre. Passes for the 2025 Festival are on sale now at sbiff.org Will Ferrell on the red carpet to receive the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film from SBIFF | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom Fri, Dec 13 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 15 9:00 AM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 15 2:00 PM Goleta Sun, Dec 15 3:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 15 9:00 AM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 15 2:00 PM Goleta Sun, Dec 15 3:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 13 7:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 14 7:00 PM Santa Barbara

Jesse Eisenberg’s inventive, serio-comic A Real Pain takes on Holocaust legacy-tracing, and sports a firecracker performance by Keiran Culkin.

The Santa Barbara Choral Society's "Hallelujah Project 10" concert, December 15, 2024 | Photo: Max Hennard Choral music geeks and aficionados — as well as dabblers — got a blissful earful of inspiration last weekend, when the season's choral concert greetings included both the Santa Barbara Choral Society's (SBCS) Hallelujah Project and the Quire of Voyces' Mysteries of Christmas . Both events are, by now, solidly implanted in the Christmas season calendar locally — the Project celebrating its 10th anniversary and the Quire its 31st — and with defining differences between the two. Most saliently, the long JoAnne Wasserman–directed Choral Society's intentional variety show concept, including an orchestrated reading of “The Night Before Christmas” (actor Meredith Baxter doing the reading-in-the-rocker duties this year), comes equipped with a scaled-down orchestra. By contrast, the a cappella Quire of Voyces, founded by intrepid director Nathan Kreitzer, is inherently instrument-free — focused on the primal and pure vocal instrument. Heard in the compacted space of a weekend, and in two enlightening venues — the Lobero Theatre and the old worldly-esque St. Anthony's Chapel — the concerts added up to a double dose of seasonal inspiration. For this observer and many others, the twofer succeeded as a holiday mood-stoker, while also showcasing the innate diversity of what qualifies as Christmas music. Collectively, the weekend's playlist ranged from the 15th-century German song “There Stood in Heaven a Linden Tree” (the Quire's reading of an arrangement by Susan LaBarr, b. 1981) through a bite-size portion of Handel's Messiah , sung by the Choral Society in the in-house crowd-choir. We also got fresh twists on the standard Christmas Carol jukebox — the stuff of SBCS's Mark Wilberg–arranged “Joy to the World” and their Randol Alan Bass–arranged closer “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and Quire's traditional finale of “Silent Night,” via Malcolm Sargent's tranquil arrangement. A decade ago, The Hallelujah Project emerged on the season scene as a reasonable and resourceful answer to the ongoing question of how to deal with a Christmas-timed program, with all of its potential variety, versus just another Messiah on the calendar. The result was a judicious sampler plate of “serious” and festive shorter pieces, a pinch of Hanukkah music, the inclusion of younger singers in the mix, and a family-centric reading of “'Twas the Night Before Christmas” — set to Philip Lane's orchestral backing — with rotating celebrities in the reading rocker and a Santa visitation in the house. Ten years into the successful venture, the program ranged from acclaimed choral composer John Rutter's glorious Gloria segueing into an appearance by the youth choir group SING! (directed by Erin McKibben), to such tunes as John Williams's “Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas” (from the film Home Alone ) and the Catalan carol “Esta Noche,” fancified by Rutter's arrangement. For Sunday afternoon's Quire encounter, I wended my way back to the invitingly secluded St. Anthony's Chapel — now part of a property, recently bought by new owners, whose future is uncertain. Let's hope the Quire's long-standing residency can remain intact: the sumptuous and hypnotic ensemble sound they produce benefits from the resonant expanse, not to mention the historical ripples, of the performance container. As Kreitzer told me before the concert, this Mysteries of Christmas program was different from past models — often mixing renaissance with contemporary music, and stopovers in olde-ish British choral zones — in that the program leaned heavily on “Christmas music.” What a concept. Of course, what that meant in Quire terms was a set of inventively restaged and rearranged music by living composers sculpting from often early musical clay. To open, composer-in-residence Stephen Dombek showed his inspired touch with “Hodie” — a Christmas chant used by Pergolesi and many another composer over the centuries — and the Polish carol “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” (“W żłobie leży”). From the outset, the group's mastery was evident and established a sense of musical place we wanted to be. Among the highlights of the one long set of music were Kenneth Leighton's score for “Lulla, lulla, Thou Little Tiny Child,” with its luminous and lovely solo by soprano Nichole Dechaine. From my perspective, the star of the program among composer/arrangers was Matthew Culloton, from the Minnesotan motherlode of choral fortitude, inked with famed choral director Dale Warland. Culloton's inventive reworking handiwork was on display on intelligent treatments of the magnificent (and underrated) German carol “Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming,” with a melody floating semi-freely atop sustained choral clouds of sound. Even more impressive is Culloton's revitalized vision of the classic “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” rhythmically subdivided and almost contrapuntally Cubist in design, and delivered with expected polish and, well, mystery, by Kreitzer's Quire. It was an inspiration to head, soul and heart, an ideal hopeful toast to the Christmas spirit. And to all a good and, SpaceX permitting, silent night. Sat, Dec 21 4:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 22 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 5:30 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 8:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 9:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 4:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 22 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 5:30 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 8:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 9:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 4:00 PM Santa Barbara

Miriam Dance Gospel Brunch at SOhO | Photo: Josef Woodard Santa Barbara's Christmas music calendar has grown into a dense thicket of savory goods, tempting our partaking each year. Last weekend, for instance, the glorious sound of choral music in the form of the 10th annual “Hallelujah Project” at the Lobero and the magical a cappella Quire of Voyces “Mysteries of Christmas” at St. Anthony's chapel for the 30-ish time (see review here Meanwhile, I had to miss the Nutcracker at the Arlington and the Westmont Christmas Festival at the Granada, for its 20th anniversary. In short, the town was jumping with things Yule-ish, in seasonal traditions running deep. This weekend, Christmas Revels busts out its own more secular Winter Solstice regalia at the Lobero, in its 17th edition. The city's seasonal musical institution list might seem on the verge of overload or oversaturation, but there's always room for more worthy traditions at the Inn. In those terms, I vote for the shimmying sensation of the Miriam Dance Presents Gospel Bunch , a soul-stirring, holy-ghost-dancing-in-the-house afternoon of musical spirits. Now in its fourth annual affair, this event needs to be officially entered into the significant seasonal traditions, representing the timeless gospel cause. Dance does wonders putting the two-set show together, assembling a powerful front line of singers from in and out of town, as well as the dynamic Santa Barbaran Lois Mahalia. The lead singers — Dance, Lisa Daniels, Chris Blakk, the vivacious Vivian Storm, and Dakari Brown — were gloriously fleshed out by the sonorous back line of the long-running local Inner Light Gospel Choir — which filled the makeshift “choir loft” of the packed SOhO stage. Meanwhile, a versatile and plugged-in rhythm including bassist Santino Taferella, drummer Austin Beede, and guitarist Rob Moreno showed how firm a foundation can be laid down. A setlist ranged from Donny Hathaway's R&B jewel “This Christmas” (with its cool 7/4 rhythm section riff) through variations on carol themes, “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” audience adrenaline-pumpers “Joy in My Soul,” “Clap Your Hands,” and “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” The ever-inspiring Mahalia was especially moving with her performance of an inventive take on “Joy to the World,” opening in low, slow fashion, but kicking up heels a notch or four, in energy and upward, heavenward modulation. See you there next year: The fifth anniversary makes a show an annual tradition, after all. Baby, He's a Richman. In Carp. Jonathan Richman decidedly opted out of dipping into the Christmas music jukebox when he showed up for a rugged-cool and very sold-out show at Carpinteria's Alcazar Theatre last week. Richman — formerly of Modern Lovers and long a rambling indie-folk-pop artist of his own devising — is a hard one to describe or pigeonhole, bless his quirky heart, but he knows how to grab hold of a room. Locally, those rooms have included the great Mercury Lounge in Old Town Goleta, SOhO, and elsewhere, but the copiously charming and retro-renovated Alcazar seemed an ideal space for that Richman magic. He shuffled onstage with his well-traveled classical guitar — sans strap — his wandering way with his songs and post-beatnik songspiel — with drummer Tommy Larkin in sympathetic tow. The song list seems to flow and morph freely, materializing from whims and winds, from “When We Refuse to Suffer” to the autobiographical “They Showed Me the Door to Bohemia” to Modern Lovers' classics “That Summer Feeling” to a Cubist take on “Pablo Picasso” (no, he did not directly utter the naughty hook “Pablo Picasso is an asshole, but not in New York”). At the show's end, Richman closed on a tender note, in a song about “starving for affection.” After a long ovation, he re-emerged with a fourth wall spiel about his intention to have the house lights come up to indicate the show's end, without his succumbing to the “obligatory encore.” In that moment, the freewheeling, fumble-tongued Richman persona shifted to the sober artist-in-control. That, too, was part of the zeitgeist of Richman's Alcazar moment. Let there be more. Best Concerts/Musical Happenings in Santa Barbara Eclectic music fans, present company included, are allowed more than the standard “Top Ten” list at year's end. Although my tastes range widely and wildly, much of my concert-going tends to the classical/jazz corners of the Santa Barbara calendar, along with venturing into rock and pop cultural fodder. What follows is a loose but seriously-considered list of concerts which made a lingering impact–in reverse chronological order. Among the trends noted this year, three of the finest concerts were from famed string quartets pushing out from standard repertoire. The Danish String Quartet, ending their Schubert-ian “Doppelgänger” series with the U.S. premiere of a new Thomas Adès piece, Kronos Quartet celebrated its 50th year (!), and a stunning microtonalism-pitched program by the JACK Quartet this month at Hahn Hall. Call me an oddball, but JACK's performance may be the evening most indelibly imprinted on my memory, circa 2024. We all have our little things. JACK Quartet, “Modern Medieval,” Hahn Hall Santa Barbara Symphony, “French Connections,” pianist-guest conductor David Greilsammer Mahler, Song of the Wayfarer , bass-baritone Dashon Burton with LACO, Granada Theatre Mariza, Lobero (legendary fado queen) Patricia Kopatschinskaja, Shostakovich Violin Concerto, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Granada Julia Bullock, Messiaen's Harawi , Campbell Hall Messthetics with James Brandon Lewis, Deer Lodge, Ojai Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, Lobero (unique and Motor City–centric medicine show) John Adams, Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz, Music Academy of the West orchestra concert, Granada Jeremy Denk, lecture/performance of Charles Ives' Concord Sonata , Music Academy of the West Jörg Widmann, composer in the Ojai Music Festival (German composer worth seeking out) Queens of the Stone Age, Santa Barbara Bowl Tedeschi and Trucks, Santa Barbara Bowl (slide guitar eloquence for days, in a night) Kronos' 50, Campbell Hall Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, world premiere of Vince Mendoza's Flight of Moving Days , Granada Danish String Quartet, U.S. premiere of Thomas Adès' Wreath , Campbell Hall Blue Note Records Road Show, featuring Joel Ross, Immanuel Wilkins, and Gerald Clayton, Campbell Hall Top Ten Left-of-the-805-Dial Radio Shows I like terrestrial radio, especially on the left end of the dial, where the music is weirder and commercials fear to tread. This is a selective list of favorite shows I try to tune into (or catch on the flip-flop, thanks to post-show streaming options). Let us now praise our grand non-commercial radio beacon, and one of America's finest college stations, KCSB (91.9 FM or kcsb.org ), offering a vast range of musical fare and a shifting array of new voices and ideas. KCBX , down San Luis Obispo way, is another sturdy source of eclectica, and good goods can be accessed on KDB (a k a L.A.'s KUSC ) and old school alt-radio landmark KPFK A good New Year's resolution: listen up, in real time, to real radio. “Country Kaleidoscope,” with Greg Drust, KCSB This year, it has been great to once again hear former Santa Barbaran-turned-Wisconsin-ite DJ Drust's friendly voice and mind in our town. Drust once delivered substantial blues and polka programming on KCSB, and now returns, remotely, with a fascinating old school classic country show on Saturday afternoon. “Joyful Cosmos,” Steve S, KCSB Probably the finest wide-berthed avant-garde show on the regional airwaves, cutting across genres and definitions to create cosmic joy. “Candy Mountain MixTape,” with Hattie Bell and the Candy Mountain Rambler, KCSB This true alternative radio classic makes for a late Friday afternoon segue into weekend consciousness, hosted by a pair of seemingly star-cross lovers and laconic charmers whose musical journeys go to rootsy, indie, and surprising places. And yet, it swings, and sings, and makes sense on its own time and terms. “Radio Cool Mojo,” Bryan D. Brown, KCSB One-time KCSB programmer Brown, long based in Long Island, brings us a Saturday afternoon feast of sonic adventurism, ranging from mostly avant-garde jazz, but including R&B obscurities and his favorite Toms — Waits and Lehrer. Cool mojo, indeed. “Bright Moments,” Marta Ulvaeus, KCSB Ulvaeus continues to deliver the most indispensable jazz show in our midst. “Secondhand Sounds,” Ashbee, KCSB Ashbee comes up with fascinating and well-researched shows celebrating old school soul and R&B tracks that get our mojo going, but explore and expose worlds of deep cut soul we are happy to know about. “Freak Power Ticket,” Ted Coe, KCSB Coe, alt-radio veteran and champion in town for years, funnels his inveterate curiosity and intellectual inquiry about selective subcultural byways — in music, film, and ramparts of various cultdom interests — into a rich Monday morning hour of power. Expect the unexpected, and learn a thing or three. “Global Village,” KUSC Hosts including John Schneider and others, living up to the show's name and agenda, surfing stylistic and global musical enticements, with live interviews and informed contextual backdropping. “The Morning Cup,” Neal Losey, KCBX Longtime KCBX force and music director Losey cooks up a savory stew of music, fresh daily (with Janelle Younger filling in occasionally), and making affable bedfellows of indie music, ear-friendly jazz, Americana, and more for our morning commute (a term which can also translate to mental commuting, from grogginess to wakefulness and wokeness). Other KCBX shows of note: the trad jazz go-to of Guy Rathbun's “Club McKenzie,” Americana-and-more jamboree Marissa Wadell's “The Road Home” and Fred Friedman's “Jazz Liner Notes.” “Modern Times,” Alan Chapman, KDB/KUSC Veteran classical DJ Alan Chapman presides over a late Saturday night program dedicated to the too-often under-exposed world of contemporary music, on a classical station not always known as a safe haven for things modern. Chapman's show manages to be provocative and evocative, by turns. (Then, he wakes up early on Sunday to do the Baroque “A Musical Offering” show. No rest for the early-to-late music DJ.) Sat, Dec 21 4:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 22 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 5:30 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 8:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 9:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 4:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Sun, Dec 22 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 5:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 5:30 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 8:00 PM Santa Barbara Fri, Dec 20 9:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 11:00 AM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 12:00 PM Santa Barbara Sat, Dec 21 4:00 PM Santa Barbara

Our senior arts writer sounds off on his favorite stories of the year.