A. Spencer Barefield Super String Quartet
Friday, June 22, 8 pm

By Paul Erickson
Photo by Barbara Barefield 

Faster than a speeding bullet?  More powerful than a locomotive?  Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound? Superlatives come and go—Music in Homes is proud to present an ensemble that truly deserves the adjective super, musically miles ahead and far more colorful than Clark Kent. Sorry, Lois.

With a superhero’s quest for adventure, Music in Homes offers a Marvel-ous musical offering from composers as diverse as John Coltrane, Enrique Granados, Billy Strayhorn, Thelonius Monk, Astor Piazzolla, and Charles Mingus, plus original works by Barefield. Breaking tradition with the axiom that “there’s always room for ‘cello,’ ” the Super String Quartet offers up a fantastic foursome comprised of guitar, violin, viola and double bass.

Guitarist A. Spencer Barefield combines his stunning artistry with a lifelong commitment to the arts, as evidenced by his tireless work with the Creative Arts Collective. At home at once with the classic jazz guitar sound of the 1940s and the leading edge of today’s ever-evolving sound, Barefield continues to boldly go where lesser players leave off.

Ralphe Armstrong Quartet
Saturday, June 23, 8pm

By Larry Gabriel
Photo by W. Kim Heron 

Coming from a musical family has its pitfalls. Ralphe Armstrong’s father, violinist Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, started five-year-old Ralphe on his little fiddle. “Playing it was like feeding a kid spinach,” he told the MetroTimes for a 2009 article. Ralphe had a penchant for the big fiddle, and when he was seven his father built him one. The rest, as they say, is history. Armstrong won a scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy where he studied classical bass. Scored a job with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra at age 17 in 1973. He toured so much over the next 10 years with McLaughlin, Jean-Luc Ponty, Herbie Hancock, Eddie Harris and others he was able to “stay home” off the road for most of the next 20 years to raise his three children.

MICHE BRADEN
with Keyboardist Gerard Gibbs, Bassist Jeff Pedraz, Guitarist A. Spencer Barefield
Saturday, Dec. 17, 7 pm
Palmer Woods Holiday Concert & Soirée

It may be the devil’s music, but Miche Braden has the voice of an angel, a funky down-home one, but an angel just the same. Detroiter Braden returns home for the holidays where she’ll bring the same chops to an intimate setting that she uses on the big stage of Off-Broadway’s St. Luke Theatre in New York, where her original production The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith has been running to rave reviews.

The New York Times describes Miche: “A big voice full of blues, bawdy and unapologetic… she knows when to let it soar and when to keep it at an insinuatingly low simmer.”

Taslimah Bey’s New Orleans Jazz Band
Saturday, January 28, 8pm



By Maureen McDonald
Bey photo by Rick Smith; Adams photo by Barbara Barefield

Delight to the fast, syncopated rhythms of Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin and Tom Turpin with consummate ragtime pianist Taslimah Bey and her all-star quartet featuring trumpeter Dwight Adams (a regular in Stevie Wonder’s band), bassist Dan Pliskow and percussionist Djallo Djakate Keita. Experience a slice of jazz history with Grand Marshal and author Larry Gabriel, along with a creole-style feast during intermission. The New Orleans spirit will get your toes tapping to the timeless beat.