Highlights include saxophonist Jaleel Shaw at MASS MoCA, comedian Caitlin Reese at the Colonial, Mary Fahl at Towne Crier, Slavic Soul Party at Hudson Hall...

Saxophonist and bandleader Jaleel Shaw brings his smoky tone and his funky trio to Club B10 at MASS MoCA on Saturday, February 15, at 8pm. Shaw won the 2014 Downbeat Critics Poll for Rising Star Alto Saxophonist. Shaw has performed and recorded with Roy Hargrove, Mingus Big Band, Christian McBride, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, and Jason Moran. Now fronting his own trio, Shaw is an engaging new voice well on his way to jazz stardom.

 

Brooklyn’s Caitlin Reese brings her edgy, urban standup comedy to the Comedy Garage at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass., on Thursday, February 13, at 7:30pm. Reese was a finalist on Amazon Prime’s Comics Watching Comics and at Gotham Comedy Club’s “Ladies of Laughter Competition.” She regularly performs at New York Comedy Club and has been in many festivals including HBO’s Women in Comedy Fest.

 

Barrington Stage Company’s 10X10 New Play Festival kicks off on Thursday, February 13 and runs through March 8, on the St. Germain Stage, located at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, 36 Linden Stt, in Pittsfield, Mass. Where else can you see 10 new 10-minute plays all in one sitting? And the great thing is, if you’re not enjoying one of the plays, you don’t have to wait any longer than 10 minutes for it to end.

 

The third annual Hudson Jazz Festival — this year featuring performances by veteran saxophonist Billy Harper, Balkan fusion band Slavic Soul Party, and vocalist Aimée Allen, hailed by JazzTimes as a “brilliant singer and even more thoughtful lyricist,” accompanied by the engaging pianist Armen Donelian, the superb bassist Jay Anderson, and veteran Jeff Siegel on drums – takes place at Hudson Hall on Friday-Sunday, February 14-16. Aimee Allen cut her teeth in Parisian jazz clubs and will present a contemporary spin on jazz standards, bossa nova, and strikingly beautiful original compositions, perfectly timed for Valentine’s Day.

 

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with top New York City bluesman Popa Chubby at the Falcon in Marlboro, N.Y., on Friday, February 14, at 8pm, when he will not only perform for you – he’ll be celebrating his own wedding.

 

Rockland County-native Mary Fahl, best known as lead singer of the October Project, performs her gorgeous melodies and her expressive vocals at the Towne Crier in Beacon, N.Y. on Saturday, February 15, at 8:30pm. Fahl’s elegant, cinematic songs draw on classical and world music sources, American art song, as well as classic folk-pop performed with an earthy, viscerally powerful contralto.

 

Concerts in the Village continues its 10th Anniversary Season at The School | Jack Shainman Gallery in Kinderhook, N.Y., with a program called “Glorious Strings in a Glorious Space – Celebrating 20th Century American Music,” on Sunday, February 16, at 3pm. The program features outstanding instrumental soloists in a program of American orchestral masterpieces written between 1928 and 1955, including Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, composed for Benny Goodman in the late 1940’s, and played here by virtuoso clarinetist Paul Green. Also included will be Walter Piston’s tranquil Fantasy for English Horn and Harp (1952), Irving Fine’s “Serious Song: A Lament” (1955), and George Antheil’s whirlwind Serenade (1948).

 

Alan Chartock & the Berkshire Ramblers and the Wanda Houston Band perform for Construct’s annual Warm Up the Winter Variety Show benefit concert, for Construct at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Monday, February 10, at 7pm.