✔️= Critic's Pick
✔️ St. Petersburg Jazz Festival Kickoff w/Tal Cohen Israeli-born pianist Tal Cohen takes to the Side Door for an opening night performance. Cohen’s 2017 album, Gentle Giants, was a DownBeat darling, praised by the jazz magazine for elevating post-bop jazz while stimulating listeners throughout the album’s many moods. (Side Door Cabaret at Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
✔️ Phil Provenzano and the Jazz Experience If you missed Phil Provenzano’s jazz ensemble at this new Tampa venue in January, then here’s your mulligan. It’s straight-ahead jazz, and medicine for the whiners who say that there’s no jazz happening in the Bay area. For even more jazz, see this story where we detail the 10th annual St. Pete Jazz Festival. (The Blue Note, Tampa) INFO
WE GOTCHER JAZZ RIGHT HERE
St. Pete jazz festival founder David Manson talks shop
✔️ Chuck Prophet w/The Bottle Rockets/Bella’s Bartok He’s 54 years old, but Chuck Prophet has been a favorite over at WMNF 88.5 FM for the better part of three decades now. On Wednesday he joins the community radio station at another long-running, much-loved Tampa Bay institution — Skipper’s Smokehouse — for a set in support of his 2017 Yep Roc records release Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins. Fuller was an interesting rock-and-roll one-hit-wonder who was found dead in his car in the mid-’60s, but Prophet brings Fuller’s spirit back to life on Sins, a well-traveled, rocking bit of classic American music that adds another colorful chapter to Chuck’s vibrant 14-piece discography. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
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✔️ Eric Johnson w/Arielle It’s been a year since Austin, Texas singer-songwriter and guitar-slinger Arielle joined Eric Johnson on a spring tour, and the young phenom who should’ve been born in the ’60s or ’70s is doing it again in 2018. Gearheads will love Arielle’s self-built two-tone guitar (plus her Schecter custom and 2010 Gibson 339), but the rest of us can just gawk at the way Arielle channels the spirits of Joni Mitchell, Queen, and Jeff Beck into her own style of self-described “classic folk-rock,” which rocks a lot harder when she’s backed by a bigger band. Don’t be surprised if Johnson — a Grammy-winning guitar virtuoso who has been a god since he released “Cliffs of Dover” in 1990 — joins Arielle onstage at some point on Wednesday night. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater) INFO
✔️ Mary J. Blige Mary J. Blige has been busy on the silver screen starring (and getting Oscar-nominated) opposite Carey Mulligan in Sundance/Netflix highlight Mudbound, but the 46-year-old singer, actress and multiple Grammy-winner is taking a break from movieland to get it percolatin’ for Tampa Bay. Blige — who performed at the USF Sun Dome in 2015 — probably doesn’t want to “Be Without You” at this downtown Tampa gig, where we’re hoping she plays a lot of her still-forthcoming 14th studio album Strength of A Woman, which is slated to be released on April 28. (Amalie Arena, Tampa) INFO
Mustard Plug w/Dial Drive/Help! Police! Michigan ska band Mustard Plug was just in Ybor City last fall for Pre-Fest, but that doesn’t mean that the punk heroes won’t be welcomed back with open arms when the group headlines a show at Crowbar alongside Orlando pop-punk trio Dial Drive and Matt Bartholomay-fronted ska six-piece Help! Police!, which features one of the Tampa Bay area’s best drummers (Woody Bond) keeping time. (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
ALSO PLAYING
February 19-24, Busch Gardens Real Music Series w/the Temptations' Glenn Leonard/the Platters' Joe Coleman/the Drifters' Joe Blunt (Stanleyville Theatre at Busch Gardens, Tampa) INFO
Joshua Alan Lester (Orbit 19 Lounge, Holiday) INFO
TC Carr & Bolts of Blue (Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
University of Tampa Symphony Orchestra (Falk Theatre at University of Tampa, Tampa) INFO
USF Jazz Ensemble (Barness Recital Hall at University of South Florida, Tampa) INFO
Tropico BLVD (Ringside Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
Luvu (Ferg’s Live, Tampa) INFO
Trae Pierce & the T-Stones (Safety Harbor Art & Music Center, Safety Harbor) INFO
Liz Pennock & Dr. Blues (The Hangar Restaurant, St. Petersburg) INFO
Rodriguez (Florida Theatre, Jacksonville) INFO
This article appears in Feb 15-22, 2018.