Oh Seok Hoon

Albany Symphony Orchestra

Programs that trace the intersection of classical music and jazz are usually winners, but Inspired by Jazz, to be presented tomorrow (Friday) at the Palace by the Albany Symphony, is particularly special.

For one thing, the ASO will be joined by Joyce Yang, recent winner of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, on Ravel’s thorny but entertaining Piano Concerto in G. For another, they’re playing Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Suite: Catfish Row.

Finally, there are two rarely performed pieces by Morton Gould, American Symphonette No. 3 and the Chorale and Fugue in Jazz. The latter work hasn’t been performed in decades, and will be recorded by the ASO following this performance.

The Albany Symphony Orchestra will perform Friday (April 18) at 7:30 PM at the Palace Theatre (19 Clinton Ave., Albany). Tickets are $21 to $44. For more info, call 465-4663.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Return to the golden age of 1960s American corporate culture with Home Made Theater’s production of the Frank Loesser musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

These were the days when a giant company like World Wide Wickets was so big, one could get lost in a corner office and not be found again until retirement. Or, like the musical’s “hero,” J. Pierpont Finch, one could climb one’s way up the corporate ladder without any business acumen—as long as one was adept at office politics. Loesser captured this beautifully in songs like “I Believe in You” and “The Company Way.”

It was also the “golden age” (sarcasm intended) of workplace sexism, hence the show-stopping number “A Secretary Is Not a Toy.”

Home Made Theater’s production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying opens tomorrow (Friday, April 18) at 8:15 PM at the Spa Little Theater (Saratoga Spa State Park, Saratoga Springs) and continues through May 4. Tickets are $25 and $22. For reservations and information, call 587-4427.

Deerhoof

WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio serves up a booking coup this week: Deerhoof, everyone’s favorite art-spaz-noise-rockers from San Francisco, will grace the Linda’s stage with their pleasantly cantankerous indie sound. Metroland news editor Chet Hardin totally bought tix, like, weeks ago, and the rest of us here at Metroland who, one, can’t afford tickets, or, two, have to be elsewhere working, or, three, are simply out-hipped by Deerhoof, will be waiting on pins and needles for Hardin’s report.

But seriously folks, the Deerhoof show is one worth checking out like whoa. Pitchfork describes the band as indie-prog and relates listening to the band’s albums to listening to the great prog bands of the ’70s (but don’t let that turn you off). Said Chris Dahlen of Pitchfork, “With art-rock, there’s a lot of mumbo-jumbo and funny time signatures, and sometimes there’s like 10 or 15 minutes of really boring shit (see: Yes, ‘Awaken’). But when the ‘good part’ hits? Holy shit—the band crescendos and the singer, smooth as silk but loud as God, rams Buddha down the throat of a giant silver dragon. If I sound like I’m growing a mullet, I’ve done my job.”

Deerhoof will perform tomorrow (Friday, April 18) at 8 PM at WAMC’s Linda Norris Auditorium (339 Central Ave. Albany). Tickets are $15. For more info, call 465-5233 ext. 4.