The last time Esperanza Spalding performed on an Upper Valley stage, she left many of us wanting more.
That night in March 2014 at Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium, the Grammy award-winning jazz bassist and singer was following the lead of drummer Jack DeJohnette within the Spring Quartet, with precious few windows through which to solo.
This Saturday night at the Lebanon Opera House, she promises, “You will definitely get a dose of me.”
Indeed, Spalding will be sharing doses of different sides of herself. Since the end of 2014, she’s been enacting, adding to, subtracting from, tinkering with and projecting onto screens pieces of her concept album Emily’s D+Evolution, which mixes rock and funk rhythms with jazz vibes in an exploration of the alter ego she calls Emily, her middle name. Some nights on stage, even puppets play a role.
Around the time she played with the Spring Quartet at Dartmouth, Spalding said during a phone conversation last week, “I would have been about to do, or just done, a first experiment of the show with just the songs — no staging, no development.
“I was looking for a way to get the music out of the house, out into the world,” she continued. “As it went along, I fleshed the initial sketches out into completed songs, then started putting together the group I wanted to collaborate with.
“From the beginning, I was reaching for more than I knew how to do.”
While Spalding finally released the album version of Emily in March of 2016, she was also putting together a lineup of musicians and technicians with whom to take the onstage version onto the road.
“We spend a lot of time in development mode, between touring times,” said Spalding, who will turn 32 on Tuesday. “The last few months, I’ve been working with the kinds of collaborators who got what I was trying to go for — finding the aesthetics and the imagery to go with the songs.
“In this version, we’re going to be closer to meeting it.”
And what version can we expect this weekend?
“What we’re bringing up now is kind of the last hurrah of Emily,” Spalding said. “I’m not sure if it’s 3.0 or something more. I lost track.”
Whatever the number, she deems it worth the journey and the time.
“My hero is Wayne Shorter,” Spalding said of the saxophonist and composer. “He’s 83. He’s touring and working on projects. That’s the nature of this life. We do what we have to do. This is something I have to do.
“When you’re doing something you believe in, it doesn’t feel like you’re using up energy. It gives you energy.”
Esperanza Spalding performs Emily’s D+Evolution at the Lebanon Opera House on Saturday night at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($36 to $51) and learn more, visit lebanonoperahouse.org or call 603-448-0400. Samples of the music are viewable at esperanzaspalding.com/videos. For tickets ($25 to $58) to Spalding’s show at Burlington’s Flynn Center on Friday night at 8, visit flynntix.org or call 802-863-5966.
Shaker Bridge Theatre in Enfield opens its 10th season tonight with the first performance of its production of Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love and Sex. Over the coming week, subsequent stagings of the drama, which follows the complications arising from the evolution of an interracial, interfaith relationship between longtime friends leaning toward greater intimacy, are scheduled for 7:30 on Friday and Saturday nights, 2:30 on Sunday afternoon and next Thursday night at 7:30. The production runs through Oct. 30. To reserve tickets ($16 to $32) and learn more, visit shakerbridgetheatre.org or call 603-448-3750. After tonight’s show, there will be a season-opening reception with the actors at 56 Main Street Bar and Grill.
Soprano Chiho Kaneko sings works of Bach, Handel and other composers on the theme of “What Really Matters” at Damon Hall in Hartland on Friday night at 7. Peter Beardsley will accompany Kaneko on piano and harpsichord. Admission is free.
The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra performs the world premiere of composer George Tsontakis’ O Mikros, O Megas at Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium in Hanover on Friday night at 8. The ensemble also will take on Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major with MacArthur Genius Grant-winnger Jeremy Denk on piano, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 2 in B flat. To reserve tickets ($17 to $50) to the concert, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
The barbershop quartets Aged to Perfection and Fast Track fill Lebanon’s First Congregational Church with song during a Music in the Meetinghouse collaboration on Saturday night at 7. The a capella ensembles are the reigning women’s and men’s championship quartets in the Northeastern District of the Barbershop Harmony Society.
Michael Doucet and his Grammy-winning Cajun ensemble BeauSoleil swing between the French-inflected musical traditions of eastern Canada and Louisiana at Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall on Saturday night at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($11 to $38), visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
For a different perspective on who crosses the border from Mexico, consider the sextet Troker, which fills Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium with rhythms of jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop and mariachi music on Saturday night at 8. For tickets ($17 to $25) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
The folk ensemble Bellehouse performs at New London’s Episcopal Church of St. Andrew on Sunday afternoon at 4. While admission is free, donations to the church’s medical mission in Haiti are welcome. The next concert in the church’s Sundays at Four series is scheduled for Nov. 13, with flutist Nicole Densmore and keyboardist David Almost playing works of Bach, Schumann, Enesco and Debussy.
Fiddler Yann Falquet and guitarist Pascal Gemme of the Quebecois folk ensemble Genticorum tune up for the Christmas Revels on Sunday night at 6:30, at the Skinny Pancake in Hanover. Joining them with steps and songs from the tale of the Flying Canoe will be step-dancer Louis Gloutnez and members of the cast for the Revels’ “French Canadian Celebration of the Winter Solstice.” For more information, visit revelsnorth.org.
Five members of the cast of Choir Boy, which JAG Productions will stage in White River Junction in November, will sing a capella selections from the Tarell Alvin McCrany play next Thursday afternoon at 5 at Woodstock’s Norman Williams Public Library. The play explores the lives and motivations of members of the gospel choir at an elite prep school for young black men. Admission is free to next week’s sneak preview. To learn more and to reserve tickets ($18 to $30) to the production, which will run from Nov. 3 to 20 at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, visit artistreevt.org/choir-boy or call 802-457-3500.
The Bradford-based Wild Roots trio will play at the Lyme Inn next Thursday night from 6:30 to 9:30. For dinner reservations, call 603-785-4824.
Northern Stage continues its adaptation of Macbeth at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction, with performances this afternoon at 2, tonight, Friday night and Saturday night at 7:30, Sunday afternoon at 5 and Wednesday night at 7:30. For tickets ($14 to $54) and more information, visit northernstage.org or call 802-296-7000.
The World Under Wonder theater troupe holds auditions at Claremont Opera House this afternoon at 3 for aspiring actors of all ages and experience levels interested in performing in its March production of Through Cern’s Eyes. While no monologue will be required at the auditions, performers should be ready to do cold reads of the play, written by ensemble director Sean Roberts, in which a girl discovers a fairy realm full of magical beings, some darker than others. Twice-weekly rehearsals begin Nov. 29, and the performance is scheduled for March 4. The troupe also is looking for backstage crew to work on costumes, sets, makeup and props. To learn more, visit claremontoperahouse.org or call 603-542-4433.
The folk ensemble Meadowlark serenades the season’s second-to-last Feast and Field Market in Barnard tonight from 5:30 to 7:30.
The Julian Gerstin Sextet plays a free concert at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret on Friday night at 7:30. To learn more, visit artistreevt.org or call 802-457-3500.
The Upper Valley Young Liberals host a karaoke sing-along at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction on Friday night from 8 to midnight.
The ever-soulful Aaron Neville croons at the Flying Monkey Performance Center in Plymouth, N.H., on Saturday night at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($55 to $65) and learn more, visit flyingmonkeynh.com or call 603-536-2551.
Conductor Hal Sheeler leads the first in a series of open sings, a recital of Faure’s Requiem at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon, on Sunday afternoon at 3. Pianist Henry Danaher will accompany the performance, at which soprano Chiho Kaneko and baritone Kevin Quigley will sing solos. Admission is by donation. Any members of the public interested in singing along are encouraged to arrive a little before 3, or to alert Sheeler ahead of time by emailing hsheeler@gmail.com or calling 603-398-2151.
The North Carolina-based singer/multi-instrumentalist Breadfoot plays a set of Americana at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction on Wednesday night at 8.
Pianist Bob Lucier commands the keyboard at the Canoe Club in Hanover at 6:30 tonight. Performing at the club over the coming week with shows from 6:30 to 9:30 are pianist William Ogmundson on Friday, pianist Randall Mullen on Saturday, guitarist Ted Mortimer on Sunday, pianist Emma Howeiler and bassist Mali Obamsawin on Tuesday, singer Cyn Barrette with bassist Peter Concilio and pianist Bob Merrill on Wednesday and signer-songwriter Timothy Gurshin next Thursday night. On Monday night between 5:30 and 8:30, Marko the Magician performs his weekly sleight-of-hand.
Off the Rails pulls into Windsor Station tonight at 7 for a set of blues and rock. Following the band to the venue over the coming week are Funkwagon on Friday night at 10, Borderstone on Saturday night at 9:30, Breadfoot with a set of Americana on Tuesday night at 6, and Australian singer-songwriter Grayson joined by troubador Tadd Davis next Thursday night at 7.
Singer-guitarist Guy Burlage appears at Bentley’s restaurant in Woodstock tonight at 8. Next Thursday night, Arthur James sings and plays the blues.
The weekend of live music at the Upper Valley’s Salt hill Pub begins tonight at 8 with Australian singer-songwriter Grayson performing at the Newport venue. Following him to the mic in Newport will be bluesman Arthur James on Friday night at 9 and the rock duo of Mark and Deb Bond at the same time on Saturday. Shows in Lebanon include Better Days with a set of classic rock, blues and funk on Friday night at 9 and the John Lackard Blues Band on Saturday night at 9. The lineup at Hanover’s Salt hill stage features the Dave Clark Trio with a session of classic rock on Friday night and The Mountain Sound in Hanover on Saturday night.
The Twangtown Paramours play a session of Americana at the Sunapee Community Coffeehouse on Friday night at 7.
The Incognito Duo performs at the tavern at Jesse’s in Hanover on Friday night at 5.
Singer-guitarist David Greenfield ranges across genres from folk and pop to rock on Friday night at 8, at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners.
Out on a Limb plays the Bluegrass Brunch at the Skinny Pancake in Hanover on Sunday afternoon from 12 to 3. And on Wednesday night at 7:30, Bow Thayer performs his weekly set of Americana at the venue.
Jim Yeager hosts open-mics at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret at 7 tonight and the same time on Oct. 27.
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic starting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Participants get a free large cheese pizza.
String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
Joe Stallsmith leads a weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass at Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Monday nights starting at 6.
Bradford’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic on Tuesday nights at 8
The Seven Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon runs an open mic on Tuesday nights, beginning at 8.
Jim Yeager hosts an open mic at Hartland’s Skunk Hollow Tavern, at 8:30 on Wednesday nights.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.comand at 603-727-3304.