Kali Malone @ Northrop—Previously better known in the electronic/avant-garde realms, the Denver-born, Stockholm-based Malone became one of her generation’s pre-eminent neoclassical composers with the 2024 release of her extended organ work All Life Long. The New Yorker’s Alex Ross praised its “gnawing beauty,” and the album’s long tones, shifting harmonies, and enveloping textures add up to a majestic minimalism. Tonight, Malone will play the composition on the Northrop’s Aeolian-Skinner Opus 892, a nearly 100-year-old organ with nearly 7,000 pipes, and she’ll be joined by Stephen O’Malley of heavy drone-rockers Sunn O))) (who’s also her husband), and choral and brass ensembles comprised of U of M music students.

Carly Pearce @ Treasure Island—I’ve never seen Pearce live, so I can’t promise that she’s worth the hike out to Red Wing (or the traffic jam after the show). But I can tell you that her latest, Hummingbird, is my favorite country album of 2024, topping solid releases from lovelorn wisecracker Megan Maroney, Morgan Wade, and the queen herself, Miranda Lambert. As on 29, her brilliant concept EP about a short-lived marriage to fellow country singer Michael Ray (and 29: Written in Stone, the full-length she padded it out to), Pearce collaborated on Hummingbird with the cream of Music Row (namely writers/producers Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne), and together they cover all the old familiar ground with fresh perceptiveness. After the statement of purpose “Country Music Made Me Do It” (“Everything that I've done wrong or I've done right”), Pearce gets stuck in and/or breaks free from dead-end relationships, sulks and gets over it, and, yes, sets a truck on fire. My personal favorite number is the vulnerable “Pretty Please” (as in “tell me I’m…”) but I even reluctantly chuckle along to the prissy “Heels Over Head,” an eloquently mean-spirited jab at a girl who’s more fun in bed.

Shabaka @ Walker Art Center—Shabaka Hutchings has been at the center of the resurgence of British jazz for a decade now, receiving acclaim stateside primarily as the saxophonist for the galvanic combos Sons of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming (both of whom have passed through town). But last year he announced that he was setting his saxes aside indefinitely, and he’s turned largely to flutes (including the Japanese shakuhachi and the Slavik svirel) and clarinet. His 2024 album Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, is as ruminative as you might expect from a flautist’s record, with big improvisatory names including harpist Brandee Younger, pianist Jason Moran, and fellow flute-convert André 3000, while Moses Sumney, Saul Williams, and Elucid are among the vocalists who contribute. Unspiritual fella that I am, harps have never eased my jangled nerves and my favorite song here is the busiest, “Breathing.” But for neo-New Age, this is smart stuff, and Hutchings is such a titan I’ll be at the show regardless.

Friday, March 21

L.A. Buckner & BiG HOMiE + Obi Original @ Dakota—Helluva local double bill here. Buckner is a north Minneapolis-raised jazz drummer with strong churchy roots who I've written about in the past. You'll read more about Obi Original on Racket in the next couple days. The Nigerian highlife music preservationist has a busy week ahead—he's also playing a single release show at the Turf tomorrow with Black Market Brass.