On Wednesday the holiday season officially began at the UC Davis Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. “An Nollaig in Éirinn,” or “Christmas in Ireland,” was the theme for the evening of entertainment by award-winning Irish ensemble, Danú. The performance was all about sharing Irish Christmas traditions – both those that include music and those that don’t.  Christmas in Ireland must be a whole lot of fun. The six-member group shared the stage throughout the night, each taking the mic on different occasions to introduce a song, story or joke to educate and amuse the Jackson Hall audience. Lead vocalist Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh had a voice that was powerful, smooth and entirely enchanting.

David Sedaris approached his appearance at the UC Davis Mondavi Center like a typical book-reading tour stop. Never mind he was in the 1,800-seat Jackson Hall versus a bookstore. Still, Sedaris created the same sense of rapport with the sold-out house that he would in a smaller setting. Sedaris is good at this. He is a very popular contributor to National Public Radio, and a lot of his success on NPR can be attributed to how well he connects with his audience. After a technical glitch — which was fixed by alerting an audience member with hearing loss that they could not both use their hearing aid and the theater listening device without blasting the rest of the audience and Sedaris with

“Beyond Tango,” pianist Pablo Zielger’s 17-song performance, fused the sharp sexiness of tango music with the jaunty improvisation of jazz to create an enlivened and engaging musical experience at the Mondavi Center on Friday. Zielger began performing classical music at age 14 in his hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the 1960s, Zielger’s career made the leap to jazz music. Inspired by both classical and jazz compositions, as well as classic tango rhythms, Zielger formed his Quartet for New Tango in 1990. The Mondavi Center’s 1801-seat Jackson Hall was nearly full for the performance, accommodating all ages of music lovers, from the young family to my left to the college-aged women

Sarah Silverman played to a full house Sunday in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center, and was greeted enthusiastically. The audience responded with much laughter and applause to each of her jokes or riffs on things. Silverman is well known for her body function humor. After all, her recent book is titled, “The Bedwetter,” now out in paperback. It’s not just body function humor, it is nearly all body functions humor. Part of the humor is the outrageous being delivered by such a sweet, innocent looking and sounding person. As my dear departed mother used to like to say, “I would hate to have in my hand what you just had in your mouth.” She would have been saying this a lot to Sarah Silverman

The excitement of dancing with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater just pours out of Rachael McLaren. SacPress reached McLaren by phone recently while she waited for another flight on the current Alvin Ailey North American tour. She will be dancing with Alvin Ailey in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center April 5th and 6th. McLaren began by talking about dance. “Dance comes from the people.” “(It is) human connections-celebrating together.” Rachael McLaren started dancing when she was five years old. She was always all about movement, bouncing around the house. She grew up watching her hometown, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, where she would eventually go on to study. At first, it was all about

Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aries Tango presented “Tango Inferno” in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis Thursday night. The show was a World Stage: Dance Series Event and brought out fans of visually dazzling dance and enthralling music performance. They were well-rewarded. The stage of Jackson Hall had been recreated as a milonga, a dancing hall, where tango is danced. The band was on a simple stage slightly raised above the dance floor and. A half-dozen standard industrial light shades in red hung over the dance floor and few tables ran down the sides of the floor. A large square scrim behind the band changed from one vidid color pattern to another

Wedensday evening last week Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center was buzzing with pre-show excitement. The packed house was waiting for the curtain to go up on the Mark Morris Dance Group, part of the Hallmark Inn Davis Dance Series. The group did not disappoint their avid fans or those new to the ensemble. They opened with “Visitation,” set to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Op. 102 No. 1, performed by Wolfram Koessel on cello and Colin Fowler on piano. Maile Okamura was the principal dancer.  Watch the video on this page for an excellent explination of Morris' relationship to music and his choreography.  This was a light, fun, playful dance overall. It

Playing a combination of their own songs and classic covers, Latin rockers Los Lobos had the baby boomers out of their seats and dancing at the Mondavi Center’s gorgeous 1800-seat Jackson Hall in Davis on Wednesday night. Many genres are used to describe the music of “The Wolves” – roots rock, folk, Norteño, blues – and what Los Lobos does so well is blend the different styles to create a hybrid euphony that has given them a unique identity. Essentially they started out 30 years ago in East Los Angeles with classic Mexican songs that were deceptively simple, added various styles of music and elevated the sound into music that has garnered the band three Grammy Awards. The talented group

How to be a saxophone legend, step one: When you walk onto the stage with a five-inch afro, beard and dark sunglasses, don't even introduce yourself. Just start playing and let that do the talking. At age 79, Sonny Rollins is perhaps the greatest saxophone player around, and he proved it Thursday at the Mondavi Center in Davis. He treated the nearly full 1,800-seat Jackson Hall to an almost three-hour performance of jazz flecked with Caribbean and Latin vibes. After finishing his opener, a 10-minute cover of Noël Coward's "Someday I'll Find You," Rollins introduced his four backing musicians: guitarist Russell Malone, percussionist Victor See-Yuen, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Kobie

It's been said that saxophone legend Sonny Rollins is just as good as jazz greats John Coltrane and Charlie Parker were. It's a reputation he pretty much holds alone because at age 79, Rollins has outlived nearly all the jazz musicians of his era. The "saxophone colossus" will return Wednesday to the Mondavi Center in Davis, which he said has "very good acoustics we (musicians) salivate at." He'll bring to Jackson Hall some of his classics as well as new material from an album expected to debut next year. Born in New York City, Rollins picked up a saxophone as a teenager. By the time he was 20, he had played with jazz legends Thelonious Monk, J.J. Johnson and Bud Powell. In the decade t