The Bollard Bulletin for June 11, 2025
The ubiquitous Emma Stanley
Highlights
Trumpeter, pianist, vocalist and arranger Emma Stanley is everywhere. Last Saturday, for example, she was at Colby College performing opera music. On Sunday, she was playing with jazz-funk big band The Fogcutters at the Resurgam Music and Arts Festival on Portland’s waterfront. Monday night, she was at Portland House of Music backing soul sensation Gina Alibrio with the rest of the Red Eye Flight Crew. And tonight she’s making music with two bands at The Apohadion Theater (107 Hanover St., Portland): first as a leader with a group of jazzy friends, then as a member of the Danny Fisher-Lochhead Large Ensemble. If you can’t make tonight’s show (7:30 p.m., $20, all ages), you can catch Emma with OC and The Offbeats at Portland Lobster Company next Thursday, or as part of the orchestra performing during Maine State Music Theatre’s upcoming production of Tootsie, or with the experimental act Talons of Spring when their forthcoming album drops, or next Monday with Gina at PHOME, etc. Bravo!
The new Portland Music Hall venue being proposed by concert behemoth Live Nation has sparked outrage in the local community due to worries about parking, traffic, and unfair competitive practices. The documentary The Day the Music Stopped shows what happened in Nashville, where an indie venue called the Exit/In struggled to fend off a corporate takeover. It screens at SPACE (538 Congress St., Portland) at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A with Stephen Parker, head of the National Independent Venue Association, musician Scott Mohler of the Maine Music Alliance, and SPACE music booker Peter McLaughlin. It’s free.
Sans Souci, a Maine group that reinterprets the jams of the Jerry Garcia Band, begins their Wednesday night summer residency at Portland House of Music (25 Temple St.) at 9 p.m. Tix: $15 (21+).