The press release that went out in late June put Sidney Jacobs in front of a quartet. The band taking the Sierra Madre Playhouse stage at 8:00 p.m. tonight, Sunday, August 2, has six musicians behind him and a name of its own: The Monsters.
Jacobs was in Pasadena six weeks ago, performing “Civil Soul” at Boston Court Pasadena on June 20 — a program the theater describes as a journey through jazz and the protest music of the 1970s, presented with support from the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts. The Playhouse describes tonight’s set differently: original music alongside reimagined standards.
That makes two stages in six weeks for a singer whose work keeps landing within a few miles of Pasadena and Altadena. The Playhouse, which describes its own town as just east of Pasadena, is a straight run out Sierra Madre Boulevard.
The full billing, as the Playhouse lists it: Marlonius, Adam Ledbetter, Marcello Carelli, Chris Powe, Aaron Janik and Greg Porée. No instruments are listed for any of them. That first name recurs on the fall calendar, when the Marlonius Jazz Orchestra plays the same theater on November 8. “I’m a bass player, composer and Music Director of the Marlonius Jazz Orchestra,” bandleader Marlon Martinez said in a published interview.
Porée’s role is more direct. “I am the curator of the Jazz Series at the Sierra Madre Playhouse,” the guitarist and composer wrote on his website. He also played guitar on Jacobs’ 2017 album “First Man.”
The presenter’s description of the group has two versions in circulation. The late-June press release, reproduced by Patch, MusicalAmerica, San Francisco Classical Voice and BroadwayWorld, said Jacobs would lead a dynamic quartet. An earlier version of the Playhouse’s own event page described four accompanying musicians. The current event page and box office listing name six players.
The Playhouse describes Jacobs as a Los Angeles-born vocalist, songwriter, arranger and producer, and identifies him as a member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and a solo artist on Resonance Records. Boston Court, in its own materials, describes him as a former member of The 5th Dimension. His catalog includes “Been So Long” in 2013, “First Man” in 2017 and “If I Were Your Woman.”
“Jazz is, and always has been, a living breathing thing,” Jacobs said when asked what kind of music he sings and writes, in an exchange reproduced in his artist biography.
Sierra Madre Playhouse is at 87 West Sierra Madre Boulevard. Tickets are $35, by phone at (626) 355-4318 or at app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=306770. Doors open one hour before curtain, the box office opens 30 minutes before, and walk-up sales are welcome subject to availability. TeenTix pass holders ages 13 through 19 pay $5. Street parking is free, and free public lots behind the theater and along Sierra Madre Boulevard close at midnight. From Pasadena, the Metro A Line’s Sierra Madre Villa Station connects to the 268 bus, which the Playhouse lists as running until 9:26 p.m. Accessible seating can be arranged at (626) 355-4318, extension 2.
Porée curates this series and will be onstage playing in tonight’s concert — nine years after his guitar turned up on “First Man.”
