Thursday, Feb. 29
Ant the Symbol (full band) w/Weekend Plans and Hip Hop Henry at Richmond Music Hall
In a Style Weekly profile published last summer, Richmond-based producer Ant The Symbol referred to “I Know Who I Am” as “the album that I’ve been dying to make my entire career.” Judging by that LP’s presence on the Newlin Music Prize shortlist, many in Richmond are inclined to call it the finest album to be released by a local artist in 2023. Following closely on the heels of its vinyl release, courtesy of growing label Shockoe Records, Ant will perform with a full band at Richmond Music Hall on Thursday, Feb. 29. Weekend Plans and Hip Hop Henry will also perform. Doors open at 7 p.m and music starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 ($20 at the door) and can be purchased at thebroadberry.com. –Davy Jones
VCU Jazz Plays Motown at the Singleton Center for the Performing Arts
Virtually every VCU Jazz Ensemble will mine the decades-deep songbook of Motown music at this concert. Rooted in the church, the blues, early rock-and-roll, with a strong admixture of jazz, the Detroit music label was an American counterbalance to the European surge of the Beatles and the British Invasion. Although the songs were mostly about teen romance, the resonance with the Civil Rights movement and the then-novelty of having top songs on “white” stations from Black artists, gave the music a fundamental moral integrity. It was product, of course, but product with a heart, conscience, and to use the defining term for the genre, soul. The sample-ready clarity of the recordings has kept them fresh and accessible, a critical part of a shared intergenerational musical heritage. It is a rich, hit-filled seam to explore with thousands of songs and dozens of epochal artists like Marvin Gay, the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and many more. This has been a concert long in the making, with music newly arranged by the faculty for the VCU Jazz Orchestra, the Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, the VCU Choirs, and the Jazz Faculty Septet. Bring your dancing shoes if you want, but be prepared to sit and listen. 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 ($5 for VCU students).—Peter McElhinney

Friday, March 1
First Fridays: Gallery5 has “Offering” presented in conjunction with “Coalescence,” the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) 2024 conference.
Come enjoy First Friday at Gallery5 which will be featuring music by Pebbles Palace, Fado Noso and Ben Butterworth and featuring work by Merenda Cecelia, Sam Page, Shannon Leighty, Paul Klassett and Kourtenay Plummer. 5 to 11 p.m.

Richmond Home and Garden Show at the Richmond Raceway (March 1-3)
There will be more than 250 home and garden exhibitors this year (over 70 are brand-new) with the majority of them local or Richmond-based. Celebrity guests this year include Jeff Devlin, carpenter and woodworker for HGTV and Magnolia Network host, and People magazine writer Virginia Chamlee, author of the bestselling book, “Big Thrift Energy: The Art and Thrill of Finding Vintage Treasures.” Seniors get in free on Friday, March 1 only. Visit richmondhomeandgarden.com for more info.
Saturday, March 2
Prabir Trio’s Shockoe Record Release Party with Pebbles Palace and Dhemo at Bandito’s Burrito Lounge
Come help celebrate the original music of local band, Prabir Trio, which has a new limited edition single; only 50 copies will be available. With Dhemo opening the show and Pebbles Palace closing it out. $10 at the door, cash only.
Sunday, March 3
Diana Krall at Dominion Energy Center
Cool and sultry Canadian singer Diana Krall is “the only jazz singer to have eight albums debut at the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. Her albums have garnered two Grammy awards, ten Juno Awards and have earned nine gold, three platinum, and seven multi-platinum albums.” 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $59.50.

Monday, March 4
The R4nd4zzo Big Band plays Ember Music Hall
When scheduling permits, as it will this coming Monday, the R4nd4zzo Big Band often seems like a vastly extended edition of leader Andrew Jay Randazzo’s other band, Butcher Brown. Bandmates Devonne Harris (DJ Harrison) and Marcus Tenney have always been a part of the project. Out-of-RVA members Morgan Burrs and Corey Fonville have joined on occasion. The full ensemble played on Butcher Brown’s 2022 album “Triple Trey.” The rest of the band is a who’s who of the local scene, with only saxophonist Charles Owens playing in every gig since the band started playing the Rabbit Hole in the basement of Vagabond (a feat for which he received a “perfect attendance” certificate at the big band’s now traditional Charlie Brown Christmas Concert). The band’s roots go back even farther, arguably to Randazzo’s senior recital at VCU, which seemed to have every musician in school onstage performing his arrangements. Those charts are half the key to the band’s success. Both loose and coherent, with the straightforwardness of popular music while leaving room for technical acrobatics in the solos. The other half is Randazzo. Leading an elite cross-section of the local scene onstage at irregular intervals, the bassist/hybrid guitarist embodies the prime directive of NoBS! Brass founder Reggie Pace: “Be the person other people want to play with” and then, when the time comes, show they were not wrong. 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. -Peter McElhinney