Kaplansky, Jarret, Russell and Rouse Among this Week’s Live Music Highlights on the Westside

Compiled by Tomm Carroll, Music Critic

Fri., Mar. 11-Thurs., 17 -- Folk and Jazz are the overriding themes of this week’s live music offerings on the Westside. Here are your best bets in Clubland for the next seven days:

Friday
After singing in a duo with Shawn Colvin, Lucy Kaplansky left a promising musical career for the pursuit of a doctorate in psychology. Lucky for her -- and her fans -- she made another foray into music, and her career as a singer-songwriter took off with a vengeance.

Kaplansky eventually rejoined singing partner Shawn Colvin, and started wowing folk audiences all over again. She did more of the same teaming with Richard Shindell and Dar Williams on Cry Cry Cry. She has sung with Nanci Griffith and John Gorka, to name but a few. She performs tonight at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica.

Saturday
Moving seamlessly from jazz pianist and master improviser to award-winning classical musician, Keith Jarrett has helped to redefine contemporary piano music. Recognized as one of the most creative and uncompromising artists on the international music scene, Jarrett is the recipient of numerous honors including five Grammy nominations and critics’ and readers’ polls in The New York Times and Time Magazine.

This legendary musician plays in a trio format with a pair of longtime collaborators: renowned bassist Gary Peacock and celebrated drummer Jack DeJohnette, tonight at UCLA’s Royce Hall on the Westwood campus.

Saturday
National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion in the year 2000, Pete Huttlinger has toured worldwide and backed up John Denver from 1994 to 1997, playing on several Grammy-winning albums.

An excellent flatpicker as well, Huttlinger excels in every style of music from classical and jazz to Latin and country and was a featured artist with the San Diego and Houston Symphonies. See and hear him in action tonight at Boulevard Music in Culver City.

Sunday
His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Nanci Griffith, Dave Alvin, Joe Ely and others, and he's credited (along with Alvin) with establishing the Americana radio format with Tulare Dust, their co-produced tribute to Merle Haggard.

This was the longest running No. 1 record on the Americana charts. Never one to rest on his laurels, Tom Russell's 1999 release, The Man From God Knows Where, was called "one of the most important folk records ever recorded," by no less an authority than John Lomax III. Rolling Stone magazine noted: "Russell is one of America's great songwriters ... this record is as close to a Homeric treatment of American history as we're ever likely to see."

In a long-awaited return appearance at McCabe’s this evening, Russell is accompanied by guitar wiz Andrew Hardin.

Monday
As composers, Babbie Green and John Boswell are both known for their inventive, can't-get-them-out-of-your head melodic twists and turns. Green is revered for her astonishing way with words, Boswell for his agility and good taste at the keyboard.

Their voices blend effortlessly; their musical styles defy boundaries, and this evening’s one-night show at Culver City’s Jazz Bakery should prove a perfect balance of humor and heart.

Tuesday
Band Name of the Week Wolfgang Bang lives up to that moniker tonight at 14 Below in Santa Monica. Also on the bill are Good Ol’ Boys, Funktion and Petti Coat Thieves.

Wednesday
New York-based, Missouri-born composer/filmmaker Mikel Rouse mixes an urban aesthetic with Middle American surrealism in a unique approach to storytelling in the media age.

Ranging from song collections, string quartets and chamber music to video operas, dance scores and electronic compositions, Rouse’s works embrace formal elements of classical music alongside a diverse variety of styles, including rock, pop, hip-hop, electronic and world music. The Village Voice described Rouse’s 1996 talk-show opera Dennis Cleveland, as “the most exciting and innovative new opera since Einstein on the Beach and Perfect Lives.”

Rouse’s new solo multimedia work Music for Minorities is a reflection of his recent time spent in North Louisiana during a three-year Meet the Composer residency. Video images are combined with the various stories and insights of numerous personalities interviewed in Louisiana and New York, to create an illustration of memory: the views of the Silent Minority.

Rouse plays guitar and sings live, accompanied by a recorded soundscape of percussion and multiple guitars as he weaves stories and interacts with synchronized video. The Music for Minorities music is a stunning display of polyrhythms and counterpoint all filtered through the influence of delta blues.

Commissioned especially by UCLA Live, Rouse’s Music for Minorities premieres tonight and runs through Sunday at UCLA’s MacGowan Theatre on the Westwood campus.

Thursday
The band Green Sugar is suddenly appropriately named for tonight’s St. Patrick’s Day Party at Harvelle’s in Santa Monica, a club more geared to the color blue than green. Hodges also joins the festivities.