ongoing

Don't know about you, but when I was in high school my history courses concerned the US and Western Civilization. There was almost the unspoken agreement that nothing else mattered and, as a kid, I didn't really question it. Didn't all that matter concern these areas? Hopelessly naive and stupid, I know. But I'll also confess I didn't get much more world history in college - that's when we specialize, y'know - and what I've picked up I've done on my own. I'm kind of enjoying Newsweeks new, more worldly focus - even if the articles are brief, there's acknowledgment that in this self-absorbed land of ours, other places and people matter. I bring this up because I went to the opening party/screening at the Museum of Science for the film "Arabia," where 2000 years of Arabian history is compressed into a 45-minute film.

Tues. March 9 

Jazz-rock fusion has a negative connotation in a lot of people's minds because they invariably think each genre is compromised, not enhanced. They have a point. The Boston quintet Esthema makes a very good counter-argument. (It's not exactly jazz-rock fusion, either.) After listening to their second disc, "The Hereness and Nowness of Things," I'd agree with Gerald Van Waes of Phyyche Music, who says, the band creates "a new new form of chamber folk (rock) music with a total world music fundament." Violinist Onur Dilisen was raised in Turkey and graduated from the Boston Conservatory; oud and bouzouki player Tery Lemanis is a Berklee grad; drummer Bruno Esrubilsky hails from Rio and is currently at Berklee; bassist Ignacio Long was born in Argentina and is another Berklee grad; guitarist Andy Milas has been performing traditional and contemporary Greek music for two decades and has written and arranged for various prog-rock, metal, jazz and new age projects. So, you might expect this seamless blend of Eastern and Western music, a sinuous, flowing work that snakes its way through the brain and hits a variety of pleasure receptors. They're playing a free gig from 9-10 p.m. at Bradeis' WBRS-FM Tuesday March 9.

415 South St., Waltham, www.esthema.com

 ongoing - April 2

The Boston Wine Festival, kicked off with a whiz-bang party Friday Jan. 8.  It was a wonderful party. Great food, great wine. No surprises there. Yum.  But, as grand as the night was, Daniel Bruce’s 21st annual festival is not just a weekend spurt. It goes on three to four nights a week through April 2 (we're going March 12) and features a different winery and menu each night. Dinners are capped at 78 people, seated at tables up to eight. Their website, www.bostonwinefestival.net will give you particulars of the myriad dinner-wine nights, but we talked to Bruce – who orchestrates the pairings and is cooking every night – about the heart and soul of it all.

“The ‘wine festival’ name may be a misnomer,” says Bruce, “because you think of tables and wine poured at multiple levels. We do have the opening reception [where that happens]. But the essence of what the festival is is winemaker-and-owner joining us at dinner. It’s an intimate setting, a round table, which allows for conversation to take. You may buy a ticket with two or four people and sit with people you don’t know.”

Wednesdays in March

 The biggest band on the Cape - well,they certainly have a lot of players - is at the Midway Cafe on Wednesdays, the month of March. This wild bunch is known as the Chandler Travis Philharmonic. What gives the CTP its appeal? Says Travis: "The Chandler Travis Philharmonic is a band that has grown accustomed to being detained. Their magical mixture of Ray Davies' steadfast provinciality, Charo's gelatinous combustibility and Hopalong Cassidy's swarthy good looks has been drawing the kind of crowd that prefers unpredictability to being set aflame and cast into a pit of angry rodents." Some of this maybe true, some not. Travis continues, "The band is concentrating more lately on frolics, rhumbas, and  indecipherable mumbling, and that the horn section (the June Trailer Dancers, led as always by maverick saxophonist Mark Chenevert), has been paying a lot more attention to its gardening, despite the nasty weather. The band has just come off the cancellation of a tour to Memphis, in which they almost played in Washington DC, Asheville, NC, and Worcester, MA; as usual, the condition of drummist Rikki Bates is described as "stable, with squirrels." Do you need more enticement?" Let's just say jazz, pop, lounge music and all kinds of genres get scrambled up in the CTP's hands and the singer can be counted upon to be barefoot and pajama clad. Ready for bed it migh seem, but not really: This is his stage uniform. He's ready to perform.  Tickets: $10. Of the St. Paddy's Day gig, Travis says, "We have some history with this oh-so-special holiday: the very first Chandler Travis Philharmonic album was 'Raw Blarney,' an all-St. Patrick's Day Calamity .. We intend vengeance for every listening of "The Unicorn Song' suffered over our long histories." JSInk note: As a wee child, we thought it was cute! So was "Lily the Pink," Then we grew up and realized good Irish music was about scrappin' and drinkin' and lovin' and losin' and getting up the next day to do it again. CTP shows start at 8:30. Cover: Don't know. Called the club, they didn't know.

3496 Washington St., Jamaica Plain, 617-524-9038 www.midwaycafe.com

Thurs. March 11 and Thursday March 25

 The Austrain-born Lukas Ligeti is a 44-year-old composer and electronic percussionist who's the son of noted composer Gyorgy Ligetti. He's performed with famed boundary breakers John Zorn, Henry Kaiser and Jim O'Rourke. His concert music has been commissioned by the America's Composers Orchestra, Bang On a Can and Kronos Quartet to name but three. On Thurday March 11, Ligeti brings his quartet (plus two singer-dancers) called Burkina Electric  to Johnny D's for an African-electronic concert. And on Thursday March 25, Ligeti plays the Axiom Gallery for New and Experimental Media in Jamaica Plain. There he'll be solo, playing his electric marima with cushioned mallets. The album he's touring behind is "Afrikan Machinery," and it's sort of a Philip Glass meets Brian Eno in Africa, with all sorts of polyrythmic and polytempo structures in the mix. A recent LA Times review said, "Ligetti represents, under a Clark Kent exterior, a new generation of musical Superan - a globally minded, technologically adept, technically sophisticated composer who also happens to be a virtuoso performer and accomplished improviser."

Fri. March 12 -Wed. March 17

It's a St. Paddy's Day tradition: The Dropkick Murphys play to packed houses on Lansdowne Street.  Maybe a dozen or so years ago, there was some skepticism about Dropkick Murphys. Ok, hometown Celtic/punk modeled on the Pogues, but concerning issues not of England or Ireland, but the local environs. Could work. But, derivative, you know. Well, any thoughts like that have been blown away partially because the Murphys have become huge locally and internationally and they so credit the Pogues. For their part, the Pogues return the favor by saying the Murphys constant name-dropping helped revive their band and helped them develop a new audience. Also: the Murphys are more of a punk band with a Celtic flavor and the Pogues tip the scales the other way. Plus the Pogues Shane MacGowan has sung with the Murphys on a record.

The Murphys are back on Lansdowne Street Fri. March 12 - Wed. March 17 - seven shows in six days at the House of Blues. I did an interview with Ken Casey ffor the Boston Phoenix on last year's skein and amended and added to it here. I also reviewed one of the shows and have an edited version of that, too.

 Review:  If Dennis Lehane has a rock ‘n’ roll equivalent, it’s Dropkick Murphys. And just as Lehane, author of “Mystic River” and “The Given Day.” deserves his props, so do the Murphys, the 14-year-old Celtic punk band. Has there ever been a more parochial rock entity? And we don’t just mean the Red Sox-and Bruins-identified anthems, “Tessie” and “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” – although those were obvious highlights of their hour-and-45 minute set.

Fri. March 12 & Fri. March 26

It's my theory that no female solo singer has a last name anymore. Or if it's a last name it's, like, Gaga. So bothersome. It is that universe that French-born, Berklee-schooled singer-songwriter Violette appears. She's mixes jazz, funk and soul; her heroes include Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. She also sings, mostly,in English. Violtte - who plays the Stork Club Fridays March 12 and 26, has just released her second album, "Joie de Vivre." We'll turn further informing over Michael Diamond, a San Francisco based musician and writer: "The title of this, Violette’s second CD, is most appropriate and harkens back to her first 'official' commendation – the 'Joie de Vivre' award she won in kindergarten while still living in her native country of France. Translated as “Joy of Living”, a quality that is reflected in her music to this day. The title song opens with the sound of children’s laughter as it moves into a jazzy vibe and Violette’s buoyant voice scarcely able to contain the “joie” within. Multi-tracked vocals on the chorus lift the song up to another level altogether...

Fri. March 12

It's been 55 years since jazz great Charlie "Bird" Parker left this mortal coil. To the day. Has his groundbreaking reputation diminished? We'd say not. What wouldn't we give for a chance to see him live? Jeff Robinson - playwrite, actor and saxophonist - no doubt thought about these things when he wrote "Live Bird," a one-man play about Parker. It's at The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, one night only, Friday March 12 at 8.

The play is set in a bar in Harlem where Bird reminisces about his life and music and plays some of his own tunes.  Robinson researched the play in Parker's old neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. In Jazzis magazine Ed Hazell wrote: "Everyone's agreed on what Charlie Parker did for jazz.  The arguments start when anyone talks about who he was.  But there's a remarkable consensus - even among people who knew the alto saxophonist - that Live Bird, Boston-based Jeff Robinson's one man play about Parker gets him right."

Saturdays

First, there is the smell.Familiar. Intoxicating. Some say ED-preventing.Then, just when you can barely take anymore, a smiling head pops through the door - “Anybody want some chocolate?”
 
Welcome to two-and-a-half hours of educational heaven, aka the Taste of Chocolate Workshop.
 
Run by the folks who have been bringing the legendary Mystery Café to Boston and beyond for years and hosted in the Elephant and Castle Pub in Downtown Boston (the same site as one of the most popular Mystery Café dinners), the Workshop tells you perhaps more than you ever wanted to know about chocolate (pretty much right down to the molecular level) and then lets you get into it up to your wrists (at least) through a hands-on truffle-making party.

Wed. March 17

  Rock ‘n’ roll is such a fragmented entity these days, a huge field populated by many sub-genres. Here’s one – power pop – that’s made a comeback, of sorts, lately. Folks got a heaping helping when I last saw the Luxury, last year at the Paradise, celebrating the release of their second CD, “In the Wake of What Won’t Change.” They play Great Scott Wednesday March 17.  Now, ower pop was a term that came into vogue during the early-‘70s with bands such as Big Star, Badfinger and Raspberries, and it continued into the ‘80s with Cheap Trick, the Yachts and the dBs. At its best, it had heavenly vocal harmonies and glue-sticking melodies, backed by rock-ribbed rhythms. Sweet sounds delivered with punch and, sometimes, spiked with cynicism. And it had lots of pep. But, as the hip alt-rock world got more dissonant, power pop slipped to the sidelines.

Wed. March 17

KISS is the greatest marketing machine the rock world has ever known. I glimpsed this back in the mid-'70s when I first saw KISS live, bought the "Love Gun" album, with its cardboard gun and its groan of a metaphor. At the time, I was a young semi-rebellious teen in the pre-punk era and KISS served up horror movie spectacle and god of thunder rock - plus an anthem about getting buzzed on gin, which I could relate to. I first met the guys in the band in 1976, doing a feature on them for a long-defunct music magazine called Sweet Potato. It was my first run-in and I mean that in a good way. I didn't ask patronizing questions and they didn't give pat answers. KISS - especially bassist Gene Simmons - was pretty upfront about the desire to make money. Hey, he was living in a material world and he was a material boy. Simmons was a big captialist and a big hedonist. Oh, there were lots of things we didn't know, things that later came out in his bio, like he was born in Haifa, Israel and named Chaim Witz a lot about his attitude toward women, which couldn't help make you wince. And the anti-drink and drug attitude he and co-frontman singer-guitairst Paul Stanley have always had. I'm not so sure if it was a demand for mental clarity or the knowledge that being messed up might lead you to make business mistakes and let the opportunity to license a KISS doll pass you by - or worse, agree to have it made and not get enough of a cut.