Music Notebook: Rebecca Jade & Peter Sprague at Scripps, Daniel Nielsen at Winstons, John Craigie at Belly Up

Award-winning San Diego singer Rebecca Jade will re-team with ace guitarist Peter Sprague for a free concert this weekend. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A Cole Porter tribute, a Latin-jazz album release gig and a troubadour who maintains better songs are written when Republicans occupy the White House
BY GEORGE VARGA
NOV. 11, 2022 6 AM PT

Peter Sprague and Rebecca Jade, with Tripp Sprague and Justin Grinnell
The musical partnership between singer Rebecca Jade and guitarist Peter Sprague was blossoming even before they won Best Jazz Album honors at the 2018 San Diego Music Awards for “Planet Cole Porter.”

That release easily lived up to its name by giving a fresh spin to such Porter classics as “Night and Day,” “Love for Sale” and “Just One of Those Things.”

But the musical range of Jade and Sprague — who have both won multiple awards as solo artists — extends well beyond Porter.

Sprague has worked with such jazz greats as Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Dianne Reeves and Charles McPherson. Jade’s collaborators range from Sheila E. and Elton John to Rolling Stones’ saxophonist Karl Denson and smooth-jazz mainstay Dave Koz.

SAN DIEGO, CA – APRIL 3, 2022: Singer Rebecca Jade is up for a field-leading five nominations for the 2022 San Diego Music Awards, shown here on Sunday, April 3, 2022. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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At their free Sunday afternoon performance at Scripps Miramar Ranch Library Center, Jade and Sprague will revisit the music of Porter, along with favorites by everyone from The Beatles and Stevie Wonder to Jimmy Webb. Their band features Sprague’s brother, Tripp, on saxophones, flute, piano and percussion, and bassist Justin Grinnell.

2:30 p.m. Sunday. Scripps Miramar Ranch Library Center, 10301 Scripps Lake Drive, San Diego. Free (donations are welcomed). (858) 538-8158; srfol.org

Daniel Nielsen album release concert

San Diego Grateful Dead fans know tenor saxophonist and singer Daniel Nielsen best from his musical cameos with Electric Waste Band, the 33-year-old Dead tribute group that performs spirited weekly Monday gigs at Winstons in Ocean Beach.

Nielsen’s new album, “You Never Know,” is an inviting Lain-jazz outing that teams him with the powerhouse lineup of guitarist Peter Sprague, pianist Irving Flores, bassist Glen Fisher, drummer Richard Sellers and multilingual vocalist Allison Tucker Adams.

Apart from Sprague, all of them will perform with Nielsen at his album release gig this weekend, along with singer Kaylee Daugherty. If their performance matches the album, attendees should be in for a treat.

4 p.m. Saturday. Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., Ocean Beach. Free (must be 21 or older to attend). (619) 222-6822; winstonsob.com

John Craigie, with Anna Moss
Los Angeles native and University of California Santa Cruz alum John Craigie counts top-selling troubadour Jack Johnson among his fans and collaborators.

Johnson, also a UCSC grad, had Craigie open part of his 2017 tour. The two also teamed up to record Craigie’s suitably wry Bob Dylan parody, “I Wrote Mr. Tambourine Man,” which contains such memorable couplets as: “Never trust a musician who plays with their eyes open” and “When the apocalypse is over, I hope you like your job.”

Given that Craigie’s Belly Up performance Wednesday will take place just eight days after this week’s national midterm election, chances are he’ll play his 2018 song, “Presidential Silver Lining.”

In it, Craigie contends: “It’s historically proven that when the president’s a Republican we have better music / Artists are better when they’re bummed / That’s how it goes, that’s how its done.”