Oumou Sangare

Mon
15
April 15 @ 8:00 pm

Oumou Sangare

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

“The Songbird of Wassoulou” brings the music of Mali to Michigan! Oumou Sangaré is a true icon of West Africa whose powerful music and fierce feminism have inspired artists from Alicia Keys to Aya Nakamura to Beyoncé. The songs on her most recent album, “Timbuktu,”  were largely written in Baltimore during the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic. The album blends the sounds of traditional West African instruments with those of instruments most associated with the blues. Oumou will share music from this ambitious album as well as sounds from throughout her acclaimed career. How acclaimed? The New Yorker says, “Percussive, danceable, and haunting, the singer’s visionary mix is the primary reason that her voice has come to carry as much respect as Aretha Franklin’s.”

$35
Mon
25
September 25, 2023 @ 8:00 pm

Larry & Joe

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela, and is a legend of Llanera music. Joe Troop is from North Carolina and is a Grammy-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina. Joe, after a decade in South America, got stranded back in his stomping grounds in the pandemic. Larry works construction to make ends meet. Joe’s acclaimed “latingrass” band Che Apalache was forced into hiatus, and he shifted into action working with asylum seeking migrants.

Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina, both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. As a duo they perform a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, guitar, maracas and whatever else they decide to throw in the van. The program they offer features a distinct blend of their musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.

$25
Sun
22
October 22, 2023 @ 7:30 pm

Hawktail + Väsen

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

Sweden’s Väsen-Duo, Mikael Marin and Olov Johansson, have, after almost 40 years of interaction and touring, refined their sound and their stage presence to the extent that today they are unique in their kind. They perform on a variety of stringed instruments, including kontrabasharpa, oktavharpa, three-rowed nyckelharpa, violoncello da spalla and a blue electric base-viola. Väsen comes to Michigan with a new album, “Melliken.”

Hawktail brings together musicians you’ve heard in a dozen other places into an exciting new combination! Fiddler Brittany Haas was a member of Crooked Still and a fixture on Chris Thile’s “Live from Here” radio shows. Bassist Paul Kowert is a longtime member of Punch Brothers. Guitarist Jordan Tice grew up in bluegrass and has played with The Dave Rawlings Music Machine. And mandolinist Dominick Leslie has studied with Thile, Mike Marshall, and David Grisman, and has performed with Noam Pikelny & Friends. Put it together, and you have a band that can range across genres and recombine them with ease, imagination, and brilliant virtuosity.

$25
Sun
27
August 27, 2023 @ 7:30 pm

The Lunar Octet

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

The Lunar Octet (a.k.a. The Lunar Glee Club) plays highly original and eclectic music drawing on jazz, Cuban and Puerto Rican salsa, rock, African highlife music, and Brazilian sambas, forging a vital new sound enriched by these traditions. Almost all of the band’s music consists of original compositions involving rich arrangements and strong focus on solo improvisations, and all of the band members contribute to the compositional process. Since its debut in February 1984, the band has carried its high-energy message to dancers and listeners, jazz, R&B, and rock fans alike. The Lunar Octet has performed at the Detroit Jazz Festival (five times), the Flint Jazz Festival, the Columbus Arts Festival, the Lancaster Festival, the Ann Arbor Art Fair, the WEMU/Depot Town Winter Jazz Series, Rusty’s Jazz Cafe, Ann Arbor’s Top of the Park, the Bird of Paradise, the Del Rio, Mr. Flood’s Party, the Blind Pig, the Detroit Festival of the Arts, Detroit’s New Center Park, Toledo’s CityFest, Toledo’s Rib-Off, and more. The band has released five albums.

$20
Tue
28
Artist Spotlight Series Live and Virtual
March 28, 2023 @ 8:00 pm

Kanekoa

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

Kanekoa is one of Hawaii’s premier live music experiences, consistently selling out shows wherever they perform. Playing what is described as “ukulele-powered Hawaiian jam-rock,” their sound is based on the untapped potential of the electrified Hawaiian ukulele. Guided by the culture and land of Hawai‘i, Kanekoa is right at home playing any type of genre from traditional Hawaiian to 80s Pop to Jamband Blues, uniquely offering their signature electric ukulele sound to everything they play. Wherever this band plays, people are mesmerized. They have caught the ear of some of the biggest names in music including Mick Fleetwood, Los Lobos, and Bill Kreutzman from the Grateful Dead who called Kanekoa “The Hawaiian Grateful Dead.” With every show they play, Kanekoa continues to gain new loyal fans.
 
This program is made possible with support from the Ford Motor Company Fund. It is presented live, and also livestreamed on The Ark’s Facebook page.

This is a FREE show. Nonperishables accepted for Food Gatherers.

Free
Sat
12
November 12, 2022 @ 8:00 pm

Alex Cuba

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

Alex Cuba is a multiple Latin Grammy/Grammy/Juno winning singer-songwriter who is not tied to tradition. His musical evolution for years was all about searching for the simplicity and soul in Cuban music –taking apart the complex arrangements, mixing it with North American influences, adopting the melodic simplicity of pop music, looking to Cuban folk traditions for inspiration—he’s always exploring, always creating something fresh and new, and always, it seems, getting it just right.

$20
Wed
26
October 26, 2022 @ 7:30 pm

Acoustic Eidolon

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

A benefit for Rogel Cancer Center.

$25
Thu
19
Live and Virtual
May 19, 2022 @ 8:00 pm

Waipuna

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

The Hawaiian word “waipuna” translates as “spring water,” an essential resource for supporting life, the very definition of wealth. Just like the refreshing spring water that continually bubbles forth from the ground, the Hawaiian music group Waipuna, which burst upon the music scene in 2008, has sustained a steady pulse of creative energy. Livestream access is made possible with support from Ford Motor Company Fund.

$20
Tue
20
September 20, 2022 @ 7:00 pm

Herb Alpert & Lani Hall

Royal Oak Music Theatre 318 W 4th St Royal Oak, MI 48067 United States

Music icon Herb Alpert and his wife, the Grammy award-winning vocalist Lani Hall, perform an eclectic mix of Brazilian jazz, classic Tijuana Brass & Brasil ’66 songs as well as many surprises.

$40, - $75
Thu
21
April 21, 2022 @ 7:00 pm

The Mavericks

Royal Oak Music Theatre 318 W 4th St Royal Oak, MI 48067 United States

The Mavericks are true American originals, heirs to the great songwriting traditions of Cuba and Miami, of Nashville and San Antonio and Memphis. Now, on their 30th anniversary as a band, they’re back to remind the world why they’re so good.

$40, $69.50