Ellis Marsalis, Lou Rawls
Friday-Saturday, Jan. 30-31,
Grove Park Inn

The Grove Park Inn: it’s not just 18 holes, $500 rooms, and pesto-crusted Colorado lamb loin. There’s also tennis courts. And facials. The annual gingerbread house competition. And, every January, a couple of weekends of world-class jazz. Last weekend was the 13th annual Big Band extravaganza; now, it’s the 12th annual All That Jazz weekend. Headlining are Ellis Marsalis and Lou Rawls, two heavyweights that need no introduction. But they’ll get one anyway.

Ellis Marsalis is a kingpin of New Orleans jazz, father to four great musicians and teacher to many more. It may have taken Wynton and Branford’s emergence for Ellis to get his due, but he’s been cherished as a top-flight bop pianist for years. He’s also the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of New Orleans. If the old mantra “each one teach one” holds any water, Marsalis has done more than his share.

When you think Lou Rawls, you might not think jazz. He got his start in gospel, after all, singing with Sam Cooke and once holding a spot in the legendary Pilgrim Travelers. He made his name in R&B, segued seamlessly into soul, and scored with a series of romantic and happenin’ hits. He regularly spoke out on social issues, often from the stage, and ran the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon for years. He’s done his share of acting and voice-over work, and his last album was a collection of Sinatra standards. But through it all, Rawls has known his way around the standards, and could steam up “Stormy Monday” with the best of them. Whether he still can is another question, and one that will be answered Saturday night. When you think Lou Rawls, you might not think jazz, but then again, jazz has always been a giving term. The big tent welcomes Lou.

Ellis Marsalis plays Friday at 8:30 p.m.; tickets are $32. Lou Rawls plays Saturday at the same time, and those tickets are $40. Weekend passes are also available, which provides access to a series of receptions, clinics, and concerts by lesser lights. Visit www.groveparkinn.com or call 1.800.438.5800 for more info.

Taj Mahal Trio
Friday, Jan. 31, Orange Peel

Looking back, I can’t remember which changed my life more: getting my hands on a cassette copy of Taj’s 1969 two-fer Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home, or seeing the man live back in 1986. Either way, I bought the Taj gospel hook, line and sinker, and since that time have roamed around with tunes of chickens and fishin’ and big-legged mamas runnin’ round in my head. I’ve been a richer man for it. Most folks file Mahal under country blues, and with good reason, but it’s a country blues delivered with a wink and a grin, shot-through with gospel, jazz, and R&B, and spiked with a world’s worth of other influences (African, Hawaiian, and Caribbean among them). His latest album of hula blues, Hanapepe Dream, clocked in at Number Four on the Great Gordo’s Best of 2003 list, and the 1998 retrospective In Progress & In Motion remains in heavy rotation on the home player. He’s a charismatic and cunning performer who always comes to play and just about defines easygoing soul. Come with me, I’ll take you where the taste of life is green ...

Energetic blues itinerant Corey Harris opens. The show starts at 9 p.m., and tickets are $22.50 Call 828.225.5851 for more info.

Itals
Sunday, Feb. 1, Grey Eagle

Skipping the Super Bowl this year? Feelin’ low on roots and riddim? Looking for something a little more vital and Ital than a Meat Lovers’ Supreme with Extra Cheese? Consider this show from the Itals, the roots-reggae and harmony trio that vaulted to Jamaican fame on the strength of the 1976 hit “In a Dis Ya Time.” (Keith Richards once described the tune as the perfect reggae track.) The Itals’ lineup has shifted over the years, but lead singer Keith Porter is still on board, and he comes to town to promote his latest, Mi Livity. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m betting this is a better show than the Janet Jackson halftime “spectacular” ...

The show is at 9 p.m. and tickets are $15. Call 828.232.5800 for more info.

Also Playing in Asheville

° Rickie Lee Jones, Orange Peel, 1/30

° Eta Carina, Tressa’s Downtown

Jazz and Blues, 1/30

° Shawn Mullins, Grey Eagle, 1/31

° Laura Blackley Band, Jack of

the Wood, 1/31

° Trailer Bride, Grey Eagle, 2/4

Three Good Fishing Spots, according to Taj Mahal

1. Cabo San Lucas, Baja California

2. Kaua’i, Hawaii

3. Fiji Islands

They Said It

“Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.”

— John Philip Sousa