The Classics on Elmwood concert series returns tonight from a two-year hiatus with a performance featuring internationally renowned guitarist Mir Ali. Accompanying him will be members of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Amelie Fradette (cello), Betsy Reeds (flute), and associate concertmaster Amy Glidden (violin). This concert will also function as the quartet’s release of their collaborative CD, Amistad. Mir Ali, the Pakistani-born virtuoso, has graced these pages many times, and more notable accomplishments include composing music for movies, theater, radio, and TV—most recently for the documentary “Roots and Branches” which won the Award of Excellence from the Film Advisory Board of Hollywood. Amistad is Ali’s first recording in seven years, making this event a long-awaited revival for both the muscians and the Classics on Elmwood series.

—alan victor

Unitarian Universalist Church, 695 Elmwood Ave. / 8pm / $15

Tonight (Nov. 7), Artvoice is presenting a Jeff Garbaz production, in tribute to Pink Floyd and the best in audio-visual psychedelia. You don’t have to be an aficionado to know that Floyd was seriously into pigs, and featured inflatable, custom-designed porcines as props at their live shows dating back to the mid-1970s. The first Pink Floyd pig was reportedly named “Algie” and designed by Roger Waters himself for the cover of the 1977 album Animals. Reflecting Orwellian themes during the heyday of punk rock’s reign, Animals has often been tagged by rock historians as the band’s “forgotten” album, though its iconoclastic status is indisputable today. Perhaps such a deep dive into symbolism and psychedelia (the song “Dogs” on the album is 17 actual minutes long—basically the entire A side) wasn’t easy to receive in the Sex Pistols-enthralled culture of late 1970s Britain. But the album is largely dedicated to pigs, with three songs out of its five titled on that subject (Waters’s Orwell-inspired political commentary is quite fitting in these late aughties, no?), and the other two songs being the aforementioned “Dogs” and the 10-minute “Sheep.” Still, don’t expect any 10- to 20-minute overtures from the bands playing on Saturday night. The set list will be more in keeping with the kind of Floyd you don’t have to lay down in a dark room all alone to listen to. Garbaz’s head-spinning visual FX and set design will accompany choice covers from local bands Appestra, Cowboys of Scotland, Peanut Brittle Satellite, the Project, Relics of WNY, Rogue Science, Stu Fuchs, and the Vegetable Men. And even if you think you’ve heard it all before, just show up to see some pigs fly.

8pm. Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St. $6.

WBFO’s Wednesday night concert series continues at Allen Hall on UB’s South Campus with Buffalo-born folk troubadour Greg Klyma. Although Klyma now spends most of his time on the road touring, and he did relocate to Austin, Texas in 2004, Klyma is still considered a hometowner by his fans and the local media (he continues to get votes in Artvoice’s annual Best of Buffalo polls, having already won the honor of best folk/acoustic performer in the past), and he considers himself the same. This is where he comes “home,” to visit his family and to record his albums. Although a description of this singer/songwriter/storyteller almost invariably includes the word “troubadour” (that adjective appears everywhere—except Klyma’s own website), he prefers to describe himself by the title of his fifth album: as a “Rust Belt Vagabond.” He’ll make his way to Vermont right after Wednesday’s (Oct. 4) gig, then tour around the northeast until he returns for a show at the Sportsmen’s on Dec. 2. We’re always glad when he wanders back through our neck of the woods.

—k. o’day

UB Allen Hall, UB’s South Campus 3435 Main St. / 8pm / free / 829-6000 / wbfo.org

Karl Blau

Influential indie label K Records (former home of Modest Mouse, Built to Spill) is coming through town on Monday (Oct. 26) with a cast of underground innovators hand-plucked from the rich musical landscape of the Pacific Northwest. A new find—ear candy out of Olympia, Washington—called LAKE will be serving up songs from all over the musical map. Sometimes they sound like Sufjan Stevens covering Broken Social Scene; sometimes they sound like label-mates the Microphones; sometimes they just sing songs about sandwiches.  LAKE is six-members—all of whom have side projects—and has released 12 full-length albums since 2005.  Their latest effort, Let’s Build a Roof, was recorded by label-mate and tour-mate and visionary Karl Blau (pictured), who will be accompanying LAKE on this tour, performing songs from his new album, Zebra.  Blau is equally eclectic, choosing for this album to integrate elements of African music into his signature style.  And as if enough weird ground hasn’t been covered, Seattle’s the Curious Mystery will be providing bluesy, drug-soaked psychedelia.
Oh, the beautiful unevenness of it all.
—sal viglietta

LAKE, Karl Blau, the Curious Mystery
Sugar City, 19 Wadsworth | 7pm | $6/donation

It seems as though a year cannot pass in WNY without the weather claiming some victims. Back in August, the first victim of the season was Griffis Sculpture Park. Due to a series of heavy wind storms the park suffered approximately $50,000 in damage; many of their trails either destroyed or  rendered a danger to hikers. The park was closed down because it was deemed a danger to visitors, and there is still work to be done to reopen it. The band 10,000 Maniacs has decided to hold a benefit concert to raise funds for the park, on Saturday (Oct. 24) at Essex Art Center. The Maniacs, along with A Potter’s Field and Red Window, will be hosting the event. With over 250 sculptures located in the park’s fields, ponds, and forests, Sculpture Park is considered to be the United States’ first and largest of its kind. The Ashford Hollow organization that owns and operates the park subsists on grants and donations, providing arts and education programming to over 4,000 area students each year. This will be the second benefit held for the park by 10,000 Maniacs The first—back in 1991 when the band was fronted by Natalie Merchant—attracted over 5,000 fans. Hopefully we no longer need the star power to make a difference.
—ann marie awad

Essex Arts Center, 30 Essex St. | Doors at 7pm | $40/presale | Available at TerrapinStation, 1172 Hertel Ave.; Urban Threads, 736 Elmwoood Ave.; Queen City Gallery, 617 Main St./Market Arcade, or $45/at door.

AV classical music correspondent Jan Jezioro sends us this heads-up on the kickoff to the BPO’s new season:

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra opens its 2009-2010 season this Saturday, October 3 at 8pm in Kleinhans Music Hall with a gala concert event. The evening is being billed, appropriately enough, as the “Ode to Joy,” since the centerpiece will be a performance of Beethoven’s mighty Symphony No.9, with the BPO and the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and vocal soloists under the baton of BPO Music Director JoAnn Falletta. Many BPO music directors in the past have concluded a season with a performance of Beethoven’s final symphony, but only one other music director, Semyon Bychkov, has ever opened a season with this work, and that was only once. This will be the second time that Falletta has programmed Beethoven’s incomparable Ninth Symphony on opening night. Every performance of the Ninth Symphony is a special event, given the deeply felt magnificence of the music and the massive performing forces involved, and it is a rare audience member who will not remember the occasion for many years to come.

Gil Shaham

The first half of Saturday’s concert will feature as guest soloists violinist Gil Shaham and his wife, violinist Adele Anthony. Shaham will perform the 1883 Carmen Fantasy by Pablo de Sarasate. Amazingly enough, this will be the BPO classic series premiere performance of the work based on themes from Georges Bizet’s Carmen, one of the most popular and often performed works in the entire operatic repertory. The Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) was one of the very greatest nineteenth century violin virtuosos. The playwright and music critic George Bernard Shaw once remarked that while there were many composers of music for the violin, there were few, genuine composers of violin music. Shaw felt that de Sarasate was one of these composers, and that he “left criticism gasping miles behind him.” Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony will also team up for a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor. One of Bach’s most performed works, the double violin concerto is a genuine masterpiece of late Baroque music. The expressive relationship between the two violins is subtly developed through the fugal writing and the extensive use of counterpoint. The intimacy of that expressive relationship can only be enhanced when the two performers are husband and wife, as are Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony.

Internationally recognized as one of today’s most virtuosic and engaging violinists, Shaham has long been a favorite of Buffalo classical music audiences. Shaham has performed here often, both as a soloist with the BPO and in Buffalo Chamber Music Society events, where he has also appeared, sometimes with his equally talented sister, pianist Orli Shaham, who has herself performed with the BPO. Gil has recently appeared in concert with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New World Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and Dallas Symphony orchestras, and outside the USA with the leading orchestras of Rome, Florence, Birmingham, Prague, Paris and London. Shaham, who plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius, has recorded more than two dozen best-selling concerto and solo CD’s, and is a multiple Grammy winner: in 2004 he founded Canary Classics, his own record label, featuring distinguished artists such as the pianist Yefim Bronfman, cellist Truls Mørk, and the conductor David Zinman.

Adele Anthony

Originally from the island of Tasmania, the Australian violinist Adele Anthony began playing the violin before the age of three. A winner of many violin competitions in her native Australia, Anthony also is a winner of the 1992 Aspen Music Festival Walton Competition and was First Prize winner of Denmark’s 1996 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition. Besides pursuing her own career as a soloist with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, Anthony has had several performances released on the Naxos label. Anthony, who performs on an Antonio Stradivarius violin, crafted in 1728, also appears often, both in concert and on recordings with her husband Gil Shaham. The couple and their two children currently reside in New York City.

Limited tickets for the concert are still available. Please call the BPO box office at (716) 885-5000 or visit online at www.bpo.org.

Last night at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Gurf Morlix won a nice award. He’s playing at the Sportsmen’s Tavern Tuesday night. Tickets are going fast. Here’s a link to this week’s AV interview with Morlix.

AV street correspondent John Duke sent in this invitation to come see two of his favorite local musicians:

Steve Balesteri and David Nolf

There are people that barbecue and then there are “Barbecue People.” Some of WNY’s best barbecue talent will be showcasing their ability to produce succulent, slow smoked ribs at Dunn Tire Raceway’s First Annual Rib Bash on Saturday, September 12, from 11am til dark. Lancaster’s Dunn Tire Raceway has a full bar, live entertainment, and fun for the whole family.  Join 103.3’s Shredd and Ragan for Summer’s Last Barbeque! Frontman Steve Balesteri along with David Nolf bring their bands to Dunn Tire Raceway Park for an end of Summer Gig to resist the Fall. This is a free event.

Nolf’s last big gig was opening for America at Artpark, so this show is instant karma: September 12 is the birthday of  Gerry Beckley, founding member of America. Balesteri promises to roll out a couple of the band’s new songs to mark the occasion.

Guitarist and inventor Les Paul has died. His contributions to music were vast, both as a performer and multi-track recording pioneer. His legacy lives on through the iconic series of Gibson solid-body electric guitars that bear his name.

He was 94.

Ladies and Gentlemen, for one night, and one night only, the incomparable Twangbangers are jamming the big rig into gear, and letting the air-horn blow for the swinginest, psychobilliest, cry-in-your beeriest, butt-to-nuttiest geetar apocalypto blowout at the Sportsmen’s Tavern. Bill Kirchen and Redd Volkaert.

That night is tonight, cats and kittens.