Judy Collins
Judy Collins’ Wednesday concert here at The Magnolia should be unusually poignant.
The legendary singer-songwriter’s husband of 28 years, Louis Nelson, died in New York on Dec. 4 at the age of 88.
That was just one day before Collins’ “Holidays & Hits” tour was set to stop at The Magnolia.
The show was postponed, along with the rest of her December tour dates. Ever the trouper, Collins resumed touring on Jan. 6 in Florida.
It might be presumptuous to posit that sharing her music is even more essential now for Collins than before the ing of her husband last month. But her glorious singing has always had the ability to lift listeners up.
“Music means everything to me, not just now, but always. It’s always part of the fabric of recovery, always, no matter what’s going on,” Collins told me in our December Union-Tribune interview.
Her quote came in response to a question about music’s role in the wake of a tumultuous political year. However, the fact she went back on the road so soon after the death of her husband of 28 years strongly suggests the healing power of music remains a constant for Collins, who turns 86 on May 1.
She is now finishing work on a Broadway musical, several books and a new album that will feature her duetting with Graham Nash on the David Crosby-penned song “Radio.”
Her performance here next week should be a testament to her resilience. It is still billed by The Magnolia as a “Holiday & Hits” tour date, although her recent January concerts have not included any holiday songs.
6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Magnolia Performing Arts Center, 210 East Main St., El Cajon. $38.50. livenation.com
Irving Flores Quartet, with special guest Salvador Padilla
Music buffs with little or no interest in watching the Super Bowl have an enticing option Sunday.
Irving Flores, one of the most gifted jazz pianists in San Diego and Tijuana, will take the stage with his Afro-Cuban band 30 minutes after the big game’s mid-afternoon opening kickoff.
The performance, which launches Bodhi Tree’s 2025 concert series, is a benefit for City Heights Community Development’s New Roots Garden program.
Flores and his group will be ed by baritone singer Salvador Padilla, who specializes in opera, musical theater and jazz.
4 p.m. Sunday. St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, 743 Prospect St., La Jolla. $20-$50. bodhitreeconcerts.org/2025-tickets
Veronica Swift
Anyone who attended vocal sensation Veronica Swift’s March 2019 San Diego debut may be surprised, if not taken aback, when she returns Tuesday.
Her 2019 Athenaeum Jazz at TSRI concert here teamed her with esteemed pianist Benny Green and his all-acoustic trio for an evening steeped in jazz traditions. That won’t be the case at her return gig here Tuesday at the Music Box.
One of the most acclaimed young jazz singers of her generation, Swift last year reinvented herself as a “transgenre” artist and pivoted to her greatest musical loves, rock and soul.
How big a pivot?
The 30-year-old Swift’s recent concerts have included just one jazz standard, Duke Ellington’s “Do Nothing ‘Till You Hear From Me.”
The rest of her sets have featured songs by Nine Inch Nails (“Closer”), Queen (“Dreamer’s Ball” and “Keep Yourself Alive”), Jefferson Airplane (“White Rabbit”), Dresden Dolls (“Sing”) and Led Zeppelin (the Jake Holmes-penned blues-rocking “Dazed and Confused”).
For good measure, she has also been performing “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” a snap-your-fingers highlight from the 1966 Barbara Streisand film musical, “Funny Girl.” In Swift’s hands, “Parade” sounds like a punk-pop rave-up sung by a deeper voiced Gwen Stefani or Paramore’s Hayley Williams, backed by blink-182 or The Offspring. It should be a highlight of her show here.
9 p.m. Tuesday. The Music Box, 1337 India St., downtown. $44.25. musicboxsd.com
