A Brotherly Love of Music

For many years, the Canadian-based Brott family name has been an important part of the fabric of classical music in the region. Conductor Boris has led the Ventura County Symphony and then the New West Symphony for nearly a decade now. Around the same time Boris landed here, his brother, cellist Denis, took up part-time residency, as a faculty member of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara every summer.

This weekend’s New West Symphony program amounts to a brotherly reunion. Denis will perform as soloist, which he last did six years ago. On an interesting program, Denis will perform “Hebraic Rhapsody: Schelomo” by Ernest Bloch. For his part, brother Boris will lead the orchestra in “And God Created Great Whales,” by the late Armenian American composer Alan Hovhaness, with the tasty warhorse of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony for familiarity’s sake.

* New West Symphony, 8 p.m. Friday, Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way, 8 p.m.; Saturday, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., 8 p.m. $8 to $64. (805) 449-ARTS (449-2787).

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Jazz Chanteuse: Seattle-based singer Edmonia Jarrett’s career got a late-inning boost a decade back under odd circumstances. She appeared as Bessie Smith in a play about Janis Joplin and made a strong enough impression to begin appearing as ... Edmonia Jarrett. Since then, the now 60-something vocalist, with a strong gospel background and blues-tinged jazz overtones, has made the jazz club rounds in the Northwest and put out two albums on the MNOP label, “Live, Live, Live!” and the aptly named “Legal at Any Age.”

This Saturday, she shows up at the Church of Religious Science, as the jazz component in the “Performances to Grow On” series.

* Edmonia Jarrett, Saturday,, Church of Religious Science, 101 S. Laurel St., Ventura, 7:30 p.m. $15. (805) 646-8907.

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Jazz Doings, Part 2: Jazz concerts arrive in Ventura only periodically these days, but there are two this week. Apart from Jarrett’s concert, the ongoing Ventura Vanguard Jazz Club series continues Tuesday, with pianist Marc Seales. Coincidentally, Seales also hails from Seattle, where he is the head of the jazz department at the University of Washington and is one of the stronger jazz players in that fine city.

Seales will be joined by bassist Henry Franklin--a familiar face and musical presence around Ventura--and drummer Steve Clover, as part of the Three Worlds Trio, Tuesday in the makeshift jazz club downstairs at the Laurel Theatre. The trio has recently released a lovely CD on the new Beezwax label, out of Clover’s hometown of Elkhart, Ind.

Beezwax (www.beezwax records.com) is a boutique indie label, with an attention to detail that includes hand-packaging each CD and stamping the manufacture date. It’s almost a subversive statement about the distinction between tiny indie labels and the mega-corporate products. The embossed seal and serial number confirm that your product has been assembled with care.

Oh, yes, this product is musically impressive, as well. An empathetic connection is evident among the players, who come from three worlds and meet in this enticing middle ground. The acoustic piano trio format is a common one by now, but their unhurried approach and attitude toward material take some refreshing detours around norms.

On the song list is a swinging waltz take on “Mr. Bojangles,” Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “Serenade to a Cuckoo” and originals by Seales (including the airy energy blast of “New Stories”) and Franklin. On this recorded evidence, the Vanguard show should be hot and smart.

* Three Worlds Trio, Tuesday, at the Ventura Vanguard Jazz Club, downstairs room at the Laurel Theatre, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura, 8 p.m. $19. (805) 644-9247.

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Second Time Out: The Rubicon Theatre Company began its season on a thoughtful high note last month, with the premiere of Jenny Sullivan’s satisfying “J for J.” Next up is a more familiar piece, George Bernard Shaw’s “The Devil’s Disciple,” opening tonight and running through Dec. 16. The cast for the Revolutionary War melodrama will include Joe Spano and James O’Neill, and it is directed by William Keeler. (See Saturday Best Bets.)

* “The Devil’s Disciple,” Rubicon Theatre Company at the Laurel, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. Ends Dec. 16. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Matinees on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. $28 to 38. (805) 667-2900.