Keyboard Virtuoso

Solo piano recitals are a rare occurrence in Ventura County, unless attached to a special event like the Ventura Chamber Music Festival. Recitals by artists of international renown, in a space as intimate and flattering as the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Scherr Forum, are truly unexpected.

But thanks to the new Ventura Chamber Music Series, in its brief but impressive first season, the respected Russian pianist Mikhail Voskresensky will perform Saturday.

Voskresensky, who graduated from and now teaches at the Moscow Conservatory when not touring, has a resume that reaches back to his winning the bronze medal at the first Van Cliburn Competition in 1962. Among his many achievements, he has performed and/or recorded the 32 Beethoven sonatas and the complete works of both Chopin and Scriabin, whose Sonata No. 5 will be played in Thousand Oaks. Also on the program are Schumann’s “Davidsbundler,” three songs of Schubert-Liszt and six preludes from Opus 23 of Rachmaninoff.

All in all, a meaty musical feast seems to be in store.

DETAILS

Mikhail Voskresensky, 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. Tickets are $21.50; 449-ARTS (449-2787).

Unplugged: The Los Angeles-based group called, truthfully if generically, Acoustic Jazz Quartet has a flowing, poetic sound that defies most stereotypes of the kind of jazz that comes out of its home city. As heard on its fine, spirited album for the Naxos Jazz label last year, the group projects a chamber jazz character reminiscent of the group Oregon with other spices of its own devising tossed in.

Acoustic guitarist Jamie Findlay sticks mostly to acoustic guitar, of the classical and steel string varieties, and saxophonist David Sills is sometimes heard against a chordless rhythmic backdrop laid down by bassist Zac Matthews and drummer Dean Koba. They’ll play at California 66 tonight, no doubt mixing smartly designed originals with standards like “Stomping at the Savoy” and “Soul Eyes,” done up in their own sweet unplugged way.

DETAILS

Acoustic Jazz Quartet, 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. today at California 66, 66 California St. in Ventura. No cover charge; 648-2266.

Jazz Roots Revisited: Jazz is very much in the air and on the airwaves these days, thanks to much ado over Ken Burns’ 18-hour PBS documentary “Jazz,” which continues through this month. The general critical buzz has been that Burns’ affections glow the warmest when dealing with early jazz history and grow cooler by the decade as he approaches the legacy of modern jazz.

For a live dip into the stream of jazz history, check out the two-man show, called simply “Jelly Roll!,” a virtuosic valentine to jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1940). A hit in New York and abroad, the production is making its West Coast premiere at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara today and Saturday as a benefit for the Santa Barbara Blues Society.

Center stage is singer-actor-dancer Vernel Bagneris, a New Orleans resident of Creole descent, like his subject. Bagneris has fashioned a narrative largely from the 1938 interviews done with Morton by music historian Alan Lomax. He sings Morton’s wry songs, and applies thespian and dance elements in the 90-minute show, but he couldn’t do it alone. Norwegian pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen, with whom Bagneris began developing the production in Oslo in 1990, plays a mean, Mortonian mode of piano jazz.

Together, they summon up the spirit of the man who claimed to invent jazz as an adolescent playing houses of ill repute. From humble, spurious beginnings, the great American music sprouted.

DETAILS

“Jelly Roll!,” 8 p.m. today and 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Lobero Theater, 33 E. Canon Perdido in Santa Barbara. Tickets are $32.50-$52.50; 963-0761.

Significant numbers: Santa Barbara’s Community Arts Music Assn., a.k.a. CAMA, has been around longer than most of the architecture in Santa Barbara. It all began in 1919, as did the Los Angeles Philharmonic. That same year, the L.A. Phil began its annual trek up the road to play in the CAMA season.

When the orchestra plays there Saturday, led by the estimable Esa-Pekka Salonen--just returned to the podium after a year’s sabbatical--it will be the 250th concert in CAMA’s 82-year history. Somewhere in all these numbers is a milestone worth trumpeting, a cultural liaison worth toasting. More to the point, the Philharmonic’s musical machinery is always worth hearing, especially when we don’t have to make the trek to where it normally resides.

On the menu, speaking of neatly arranged numbers, are the seventh symphonies of Sibelius and Bruckner, respectively.

DETAILS

Los Angeles Philharmonic, 8 p.m. Saturday at the Arlington Theater, 1317 State St. in Santa Barbara. Tickets are $30-75; 963-4408.