Gospel music greats unite

The gospel music Reunion Tour that’s headed to Oakland Arena this weekend features a musical A-list of talent, including Yolanda Adams, who has one of the finest voices in all of gospel music.

She’s put it to great use during her career, fashioning a body of work that has thrilled listeners and sold more than 10 million albums across the globe. Adams also won the first-ever Grammy award for best gospel song in 2006 for “Be Blessed” and hit platinum-plus status with 1999’s “Mountain High… Valley Low.”

Adams is just one of many reasons why gospel fans will want to turn out for Friday’s Reunion Tour. Others include Fred Hammond, the Clark Sisters, Marvin Sapp and Kirk Franklin, who is once again leading this tour. The latter is a gospel music icon with a staggering 19 Grammys to his credit. Sapp has released a string of No. 1 gospel albums, including 2007’s “Thirsty” and 2012’s “I Win.” Hammond is known for his 2009 chart-topper, “Love Unstoppable.” And then there are the Clark Sisters, the legendary vocal group with hits such as “I Can Do All Things Through Christ That Strengthens Me” and “Jesus Is a Love Song.”

Details: Showtime is 7 p.m. and tickets start at $53, theoaklandarena.com.

— Jim Harrington, Staff

From scrap to art

Plastic bags, perfume-bottle straws and shoelaces — these are not things you’d commonly associate with high art. But why not? Many hallowed artists in the modern canon use lowbrow materials for their inspiration, from Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s sculptures of household rubbish and taxidermied animals to Charles Long’s cigarette butts and bird poop salvaged from the L.A. River.

“The Poetics of Dimensions,” a new group exhibition in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, celebrates the clever reuse of such ordinary objects. Put on by Ghanaian-American curator Larry Ossei-Mensah, the show gathers nearly a dozen artists working with materials like scrap leather, cosmetics containers and single-use plastic. Anthony Akinbola, a Brooklyn artist who’s exhibited at the Guggenheim, weaves colorfully abstract tapestries out of durags, the inexpensive hair covering. Moffat Takadiwa, who lives in Zimbabwe, sources the post-consumer waste that Western countries dump in his country’s junkyards to make intricate sculptures out of toothpaste tubes, computer keyboards and spray cans. You might just walk away from this one with a new hesitation about hucking things in the trash.

Details: The show runs Wednesday-Sunday through Feb. 23, at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, 345 Montgomery St., San Francisco. Free admission; icasf.org.

— John Metcalfe, Staff

Classical picks: Score one for the Bates Motel

So far, the fall classical music season has offered an exceptional range of new and seldom-performed works. This week brings an iconic film with score by composer Bernard Herrmann, along with events featuring Bates, Brahms, and Schoenberg.

A Halloween treat: The latest installment in the San Francisco Symphony’s Film with Live Orchestra series brings a Halloween-perfect pairing — “Psycho” plus score. Watch Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful 1960 classic, starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins, on the big screen at Davies Symphony Hall, as conductor Scott Terrell leads the orchestra in a live performance of Bernard Herrmann’s creepily idiosyncratic score. R rated. Details: 7:30 tonight, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. Tickets are $69-$199; sfsymphony.org.

Three Bs: The music of award-winning composer Mason Bates — perhaps best known for his 2017 “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” a hit at San Francisco Opera a few seasons back — is just one of the Bs on the California Symphony program this week. Music director Donato Cabrera leads Bates’ “Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra,” as well as Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 and Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” Details: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday at the Lesher Center, Walnut Creek. Tickets are $25-$50; californiasymphony.org.

Fall Cabaret: The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble returns this weekend with an intimate chamber music setting of 20th and 21st century works — with an emphasis on drama and poetry. Hear Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunairé” and music by Tomàs Peire-Serrate and Maria Schneider. Details: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco; also 4 p.m. Sunday, Hillside Club, Berkeley. Tickets are $5-$35; leftcoastensemble.org.

— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent

Dramatic hijinks

What happens when six mysterious guests assemble at Boddy Manor? If you’re talking about the Broadway production of “Clue,” what ensues is a hilarious — and very dramatic, of course — night of murder. Expect knife work in the study, a wrench in the works and plenty of Colonel Mustard and Mrs. Peacock sightings.

The show, presented by Broadway San Jose this weekend, is based on the 1985 Paramount Pictures movie. That flick, in turn, was inspired by the classic midcentury board game that introduced American children to billiard rooms and conservatories and taught us that candlesticks can be fatal. Fun!

Catch “Clue” on stage at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts for evening and matinee performances through Sunday. Tickets start at $68.50; https://broadwaysanjose.com/.

— Jackie Burrell, Staff

Fantastic Negrito’s latest

Oakland blues/soul/R&B singer Fantastic Negrito has just released a new album — “Son of a Broken Man” — and odds are, a Grammy will follow.

After all, that’s what Fantastic Negrito albums do, right? The 56-year-old singer — who was born Xavier Dphrepaulezz — has won three Grammys for best contemporary blues album for three consecutive releases. Fantastic Negrito first won that category in 2017 with “The Last Days of Oakland,” followed up in 2019 for “Please Don’t Be Dead” and 2021 for “Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?”

The new album promises to be his most personal yet, as he explores the struggle between father and son. “Son of a Broken Man” landed on Oct. 18 and is available via Fantastic Negrito’s own Storefront Records, fantasticnegrito.com.

— Jim Harrington, Staff