Four final shows for Earthwise

Earthwise culminates its year with four final productions in November. On Friday , November 3, at the Palo Alto Art Center, Jovia Armstrong Eunoia Society presents a cd release show.

On Saturday November 11, at The Mitch, Young Dubliners return to the region to perform their unique brand of Irish folk rock. (They played The Guild in Menlo Park earlier this year — it marks the first time an Earthwise show features a band that previously headlined The Guild; about 10 Guild shows have featured bands that appeared at Earthwise). Local opener is Finians Call trio from Half Moon Bay.

The following weeks brings back-to-back jazz on Thursday and Friday. At the art center, Ben Goldberg leads a combo on the 16th. His group is Ben Goldberg, clarinet; Will Bernard, guitar; Ben Davis, cello and Hamir Atwal, percussion.

Anat Cohen then performs two shows at The Mitch on Friday, 7 pm and 9:30. This represents a new format for Earthwise shows, turinng over a room for early and late shows. Anat is Israel’s most famous jazz musician, and was voted top clarinet in a Downbeat critics poll. She appeared at Stanford Jazz Workshop in consecutive summers.

Mark Weiss says he is on a short sabbatical after that, but will announce a spring season, indoors and outdoors, soon enough. Earthwise topped out with some 50 shows this year, its all-time high, eclipsing the 43 from 2022.

EventBrite lists 44 Earthwise shows so far this year, and five upcoming. But there were also several pop ups: Rachel Sage, Steve Poltz, Rachel Baiman Good Fast Cheap. I will have to scrutinize my cell phone records to get a definitive tally, Weiss says or writes. edit to add: I’m forgetting about having sponsored andvco-produced stages and acts at Third Thursday, three times, which pushes the total to more like 56. 

Edit to add: I’ll take it as an omen that Ethan Iverson, a long-time favorite and sometime correspondent and collaborator writes today with news that he wrote a cover story for the nation about jazz and specifically not JoVia but Louis Armstrong; I first heard about Ethan in winter of 2001 from a member of Mark Morris dance— This was before The Bad Plus. I first heard of JoVia Armstrong, the percussionist and composer, from the publicist Matt Merewitz; it’s possible that I wasn’t sure about Louis Armstrong until the Stevie Wonder song that goes and still goes: Basie, Miller, Satchmo and the king of all Sir Duke.

and you can tell right away at letter “A” when the people start …