The 2015 edition of Cheap Trick (above) takes the Count Basie Theatre stage this Wednesday — and keyboard wiz Chick Corea teams with banjo master Béla Fleck (below) on Saturday — during a week’s worth of classic rock, country and jazz.
The two-show Red Bank return of Jackson Browne has long since sold out all available seating for this night and the next — but the well-trod stage of the Count Basie Theatre doesn’t lack for musical heavyweights in the coming evenings; an early-autumn interlude that clicks into place this Wednesday, September 23 with an encore appearance by Midwest-bred powerpopsters Cheap Trick.
The core trio of Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson and Robin Zander — working these days without (still technically a member) founding drummer Bun E. Carlos — have kept themselves busy on the touring circuit since their last Red Bank retrospective of hits and deep-album cuts (a scheduled solo gig by Zander a few seasons back was scrubbed and relocated to the cozier confines of Long Branch’s Brighton Bar). And, when the Tricksters roll into town with Nielsen’s son Daxx on skins, they’ll be playing selections from their latest (2009) studio album The Latest — an effort that was released on CD, vinyl and 8-track tape — as well as highlights from a 40-year career that’s spanned radio-rock perennials (“Surrender,” “I Want You to Want Me,” “Dream Police”), power ballads (“The Flame”), Elvis/ Beatles covers, and the themes from such long-running TV series as That 70s Show and The Colbert Report. Take it here for tickets to the 7:30 pm concert, which range from $49 to a VIP Tour Package ($150) and exclusive Meet and Greet ($250). Then flip the record over for more from the Count.
Nashville’s Josh Turner returns to Red Bank on Thursday, in an event co-presented by radio station Thunder 106.5.
Also making a Red Bank return this week — at a venerable venue that likes to foster long-standing relationships between crowdpleasing entertainers and area audiences — is Josh Turner, the platinum-plated Nashville hitmaker and serial Grammy nominee whose chartbusting releases include the LP Punching Bag and the Number One sensations “Time Is Love,” “Your Man,” “Why Don’t We Just Dance” and “All Over Me.” The singer and guitarist who turned author with Man Stuff (and actor, as a co-star in a Billy Graham bio-pic) is supported by country chanteuse Raquel Cole in an 8 pm concert co-presented by radio station Thunder 106.5. Reserve tix ($30 – $69) right here.
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For the latest in a series of concert events loosely grouped under the banner “Jazz at the Basie…Where It Belongs,” the Count’s crib welcomes back a pair of virtuosi who’ve wowed the crowds for decades in their own solo and combo settings — with the twist here being that Chick Corea and Béla Fleck are together for the first time on the Red Bank stage, as part of a celebrated recording project (and attendant coast-to-coast tour) that brings them to town for an 8 pm summit on Saturday, September 26. The prolific grandmaster of contemporary jazz piano and the guy who made jazz banjo a thing are rolling across state lines, on the goodwill of their Grammy-winning album The Enchantment and the momentum generated by Two, a double-disc anthology of “super-magic” live performances collected and curated from over the course of their seven-year road duet. Expect the unexpected and then some, with tickets ($30 – $79.50) gettable right here.
