DANIEL LANOIS, ROCCO DELUCA
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) Producer Daniel Lanois’ name is most often associated with other artists, most notably U2 and Peter Gabriel—although the list is much longer than that, whether it was early on with fellow Canadians Simply Saucer or with Willie Nelson, Luscious Jackson, and Bob Dylan, or his collabs with Brian Eno. With all that, it can be easy to forget that Lanois is a musician himself. His latest, Flesh and Machine, is among his best solo work, an album that draws from his skills as a musician and producer, but also the myriad artists whom Lanois has helped shift their sound. It’s also an instrumental work, which goes well with Lanois’ knack for creating moody sonic worlds. MARK LORE Also see My, What a Busy Week!
MIMICKING BIRDS, THE GHOST EASE, KEVIN LEE FLORENCE
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) Mimicking Birds have been Portland’s go-to sound therapy for the past seven or eight years, with their lushly arranged, heavy-lidded meditations in styles ranging from nu-jazz to folk to dreamy shoegaze and beyond. The band’s sophomore LP, Eons, was released by Isaac Brock’s Glacial Pace Records last May, and comes bursting with warm compositions, and heavy vocal melodies lilting in marshmallow clouds—soft and sweet and pillowy. The production itself is a triumph, and complements the plaintive nature of the psych swirls and spacey fissures of tunes like “Acting Your Age.” The band’s in good company tonight, as the Ghost Ease take a break from tracking their second record to lay waste to the Mississippi Studios stage. RYAN J. PRADO
JMSN, ROCHELLE JORDAN, GILBERT FORTE
(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) Hailing from the undistinguished northern Detroit suburb of Warren, JMSN is a neo-soul man who could be viewed as a Midwestern Allen Stone: a wunderkind with surprising emotional depth and vocal dexterity. On his 2015 album JMSN (The Blue Album), JMSN excels in vaporous balladic mode. Although his songs sometimes tilt into the sort of maudlin territory that marred Michael Jackson’s later albums, JMSN overcomes those lapses with sheer vocal control, expressive improv instincts, and textural smoothness. He modulates his sincerity just right. Taking after Motown stars like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye circa their ’70s heydays, JMSN shows vaulting ambition and talent to (slow) burn. He’s gonna break a lot of hearts if he keeps this up. DAVE SEGAL
BENNY GREEN TRIO, RON CARTER TRIO
(Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway) If you own more than, say, a dozen jazz albums, you’ve heard the playing of Ron Carter whether you realize it or not. The 77-year-old bassist has, by some counts, appeared on over 2,000 recordings, including Miles Davis’ “Second Great Quintet,” Herbie Hancock’s modal experiments of the ’60s, and the smoother output of Hubert Laws. He’s also dabbled in the pop and hiphop worlds, most notably providing the titular bass boom of A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory. The most striking thing about Carter’s work over the years is that his approach to the bass has never changed no matter who he’s playing with. Even when backing up Grace Slick (which he did for one song on her album Manhole), his resonant, weightless tone is immediately recognizable and always welcome. ROBERT HAM