Smokey Robinson
If Smokey Robinson has any intention of slowing down now, one month after his 85th birthday, he’s doing an excellent job of disguising it.
The satin-voiced Motown singing legend’s current tour schedule stretches from his concert Friday night at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula until an Aug. 2 date at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, including five July dates in between in the United Kingdom.
On April 25, the 1987 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee will release his latest album, “What The World Needs Now.” In addition to the Burt Bacharach/Hal David-penned title track, it features Robinson’s versions of such classics as Sam Cooke’s “Stand By Me,” the Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There,” Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” and the Louis Armstrong staple “What a Wonderful World.”
The new release comes barely two years after Robinson’s previous album, “Gasms.” His Spanish-language album, which he began working on a few years ago, is apparently still in the works. Ditto what will either be a film or multi-part TV series documenting his life and music.
Robinson succinctly summed up his seemingly nonstop pace in a 2022 Union-Tribune interview, declaring: “Retirement doesn’t work for me!”
Clearly, not.
His current tour is timed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s third solo album, 1975’s “A Quiet Storm,” whose title track he has been featuring in recent concerts.
At his March 6 show in Huntington, N.Y., Robinson performed no fewer than 15 selections. At least five of them are from his tenure as the lead singer and principal songwriter with his chart-topping band, The Miracles, including such gems as “The Tears of a Clown,” “Ooh Baby Baby,” “I Second That Emotion” and “You Really Got a Hold On Me.”
You can experience that enduring hold for yourself, musically speaking, in Temecula on Friday.
8 p.m. Friday. The Summit at Pechanga Resort & Casino, 45000 Pechanga Parkway, Temecula. $86-$106. ticketmaster.com
Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos
Genres and geographic borders happily blur in the music of Cuban-born piano fireball Omar Sosa, whose vibrant music fuses various jazz and Latin-American styles with hip-hop, Gnawa music from Morocco, and much more.
Sosa, 59, moved in 1993 from his native Cuba to Ecuador, then moved again in 1995 to San Francisco. Also a skilled vibraphonist and marimba player, he has composed commissioned for orchestras in California and Spain, and has collaborated with such diverse artists as Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita, Venezuelan percussionist Gustavo Ovalles and Chinese sheng player Wu Tong.
Sosa is the subject of the award-winning 2022 film documentary, “Omar Sosa’s 88 Well-Tuned Drums,” whose title references his exuberantly percussive keyboard playing. It is now streaming on Amazon.
He and his dynamic three-man band’s San Diego debut should kick off the Athenaeum Jazz at Scripps Research’s 2025 concert series with multiple bangs.
7:30 p.m. next Thursday, March 27. Scripps Research Institute Auditorium,10620 John Jay Hopkins Drive. $50-$55. ljathenaeum.org/jazz/#scripps
Duff Thompson, Steph Green, Sleepy Pearls
Is Canadian-born, New Orleans-based singer-songwriter Duff Thompson a fan of the landmark 1927 Louis Armstrong recording, “Potato Head Blues?”
Or of the multiple “Potato Land” recordings made by the Randy California-led Spirit in the early 1970s?
Or, perhaps, of San Diego guitar and keyboard wiz Mike Keneally’s 1997 musical spud opus, “Potato?”
It’s possible, given that Thompson is the founder of Mashed Potato Records, the label on which he has released all three of his solo albums and two by his band mate, Steph Green.
Thompson’s two most recent albums, both released last year, 2024’s “Shadow People” and “Shadow People II,” at times suggests an earthy, distortion-happy mash-up of The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leitha, Yo La Tengo and Velvet Underground, by way of Rufus Wainwright, Neil Young and “The Basement Tapes”-era Bob Dylan and The Band.
But Thompson’s best songs rise above his influences with their quirky charm, musical curves and unapologetic earnestness. He gets bonus points for sometimes performing “Grandma’s Song,” Gail Davies’ 1986 chestnut, whose opening line never fails to evince a wry smile: “My grandma used to love, me but those days are over.”
7 p.m. Sunday. Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. $24.21. sodabarmusic.com
