Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival

This weekend, the annual Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival will be held for the fifth time in downtown Albany’s Corning Preserve. This festival has brought top names in jazz to Albany in the past, and this year is no different. Featured performers this year include Sarah Pedinotti, an upstate native whom Billboard magazine calls “one of the best Jazz/Blues musicians in the country today.” Alejandro Torrens and Grupo Sabor will perform a mix of salsa, meringue and jazz; Grammy-nominated Mose Allison (pictured) will bring his snarky blues style; Grammy winner Diane Schuur (who boasts a staggering three-and-a-half octave vocal range) will appear, supporting her new release, Diane Schuur: Live in London; and Grammy-winning saxophonist, composer and pianist Branford Marsalis will headline the day.

In addition to the music, there will be food and beverage vendors, activities for the children, and more. And, there’s a new addition to this year’s festivities: There will be fireworks at the end of the day full of concerts. Because, really, who doesn’t like fireworks?

The Fifth Annual Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival will take place Saturday (Sept. 9) from 1 to 7:30 PM at Albany Riverfront Park at the Corning Preserve in Albany. The rain site for this event is the Palace Theatre (corner of 19 Clinton Ave., Albany). For a full schedule of performers and times, visit albanyevents.org or call 434-2032.

Meshuggah-Nuns

You probably thought that the minds behind the beloved Nunsense theater juggernaut couldn’t find a way to keep the series going. You, of course, were wrong. The creators sat down and asked themselves, “What’s missing in a comedy about zany Roman Catholic Nuns?” And they replied to themselves, “Jews.”

That was in 2002. Now, the good folks at the Glove Theatre are doing their version of Meshuggah-Nuns, in which the Little Sisters of Hoboken join forces with the cast of a traveling production of Fiddler on the Roof to bring you this amalgam of Catholic and Jewish humor. Did we mention it all takes place on a cruise ship where most of the passengers are ill?

Can you handle the zany?

Meshuggah-Nuns opens tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 8) at 8 PM at the Glove Theatre (42 N. Main St., Gloversville), and continues through Sept. 17. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, and Sundays at 2 PM. Tickets are $12, $6 students. For more information, call 773-8255.

Selections From the Studio Museum in Harlem

The latest visiting exhibit in the Bank of America Great Art Series at the New York State Museum—the 16th installment, going back to when it was Fleet Bank—is this selection of works from Harlem’s Studio Museum. The Studio Museum is, per NYSM director Clifford Siegfried, “the premiere institution for the presentation of artworks created by artists of African descent.”

The exhibition is organized around three specific eras: the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, the “politically and socially charged” 1960s and ’70s, and today. Artists include James VanDerZee, Barkley Hendricks (Lawdy Mama, 1970, pictured), Adia Millett and many more.

Selections From the Studio Museum in Harlem opens Saturday (Sept. 9) at the New York State Museum (Empire State Plaza, Albany), and continues through Feb. 25, 2007. For more information, call 474-5877.