Create
Weekend spotlight: Some jazz, some country and a looper
Anyone thirsting for “island-infused drum n’ bass gospel ninja soul”? You’re in for a tall drink tonight, as Savannah-bred solo artist Zach Deputy takes the stage at Bayboro Brewing.
Deputy is a “looping” artist. He records, live onstage, guitar and bass, plus drums and other sounds, and harmony and chorus vocals. He plays and sings to the track he has created on the spot (he has a four-octave vocal range).
“Early on, I had no intention of being a loop artist,” he told this writer some years ago. “It was something I was doing on the side. But over the course of time, I found that the things I was trying to achieve, I was able to communicate as well as I was able to just do it through the loop machine.”
Deputy performs at 7 p.m. Tickets for the Reggae Rise Up-produced show are at this link.
Tonight at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center, it’s country singer Carly Pearce (“Every Little Thing,” “Hide the Wine,” “What He Didn’t Do,” “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” with Lee Bryce, and “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” with Ashley McBryde). Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are at this link.
That’s not all she wrote for country music fans, no ma’am, no how. The inaugural St. Pete Country Fest takes place in Vinoy Park Friday through Sunday, with some 50 on four stages. Headliners are Red Clay Strays, Treaty Oak Revival and Parker McCollum. This Catalyst story from earlier in the week will tell you everything you need to know.
At the Suncoast Jazz Festival: Professor Cunningham and His Old School.
Clearwater jazz
There are lots of fine local and regional jazz players, plus nationally-known names, at the 2026 Suncoast Jazz Festival, all of which takes place inside Clearwater Beach’s Sheraton Sand Key Resort (and outdoors on the beach) Friday through Sunday. It’s the 35th annual.
National headliners making return Suncoast Jazz Festival appearances are trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, guitarist Diego Figueiredo, clarinet/sax player Ken Peplowski and vibraphonist Jason Marsalis.
Also scheduled: New Orleans’ Tuba Skinny, New York’s Adrian Cunningham (Professor Cunningham and His Old School), Dave Bennett Quartet, Chuck Redd, Ehud Asherie, Jonathan Russell, St. Louis Stompers and Tom Rigney & Flambeau.
With some exceptions, the Tampa Bay gang’s pretty much all here too; players include James Suggs, La Lucha, Nata Najar and Daniela Soledade, the Simon Lasky Trio, Bryan J Hughes and The Crew, the Al Downing All-Stars and the ageless John Lamb.
View the entire lineup, get pertinent info and purchase tickets at this link.
Tampa jazz
Mauricio J. Rodríguez: At New Tampa Performing Arts Center.
There’s jazz on the other side of the bay Sunday, as Cuba-born bassist Mauricio J. Rodríguez brings his MJR Latin Project to the New Tampa Performing Arts Center, at 3 p.m. The band also includes saxophonist Zach Bornheimer, pianist Pablo Arencibia, drummer Andy Fornet and Cuban percussionist Carlos Javier Navarro. The New Tampa theater will be arranged like an intimate jazz club, with candlelit cabaret seating and a cash bar. Tickets are at this link.
Friday at the Palladium Theater Side Door Cabaret: J.P. Soars & the Red Hots. Blues guitarist Soars, based in South Florida, is a versatile musician who previously played in metal and jazz bands. Find tickets for the 8 p.m. show at this link.
Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater: Offbeat British comedian Sarah Millican, on her second-ever American tour. Find tickets here.
Radio Theatre Project (a live onstage “radio broadcast”) returns to The Studio@620 Monday at 7 p.m. Tickets.
Ann Morrison stars in the touring production of “Kimberly Akimbo,” through Sunday at the Straz Center in Tampa.
On theater stages
It’s the second and final weekend for Art, Yasmina Reza’s dark comedy at the Off-Central in St. Petersburg. There are performances tonight through the Sunday matinee – visit the website for showtimes and tickets.
Broadway musical theater veteran (and Sarasota resident) Ann Morrison is starring in the current national tour of the Tony winner Kimberly Akimbo; it’s onstage through Sunday in the Straz Center’s Morsani Hall, in Tampa. There’s a link for showtimes and tickets in this Catalyst interview with the ever-effervescent Morrison.
Ybor City’s LAB Theater Project is opening the drama So Long Life tonight (it runs through Dec. 7). It’s an original play by company founder Owen Robertson, the story of former stage actor Ned Masters battling Alzheimer’s, as his daughter Maggie struggles to care for him while putting her own life on hold. It’s produced in the round, with an operating bar to add to the atmosphere. Find showtimes and tickets at this link.
Still going strong at freeFall in St. Petersburg is the classic stage thriller Deathtrap. See this link for tickets and showtimes; the production continues through Dec. 7. There won’t be a show Friday night, however – that’s reserved for a single-show performance of the epistolary play Lark Eden, by playwright Natalie Symons (who happens to be co-starring in Deathtrap). She appears in this one, along with Katherine Michelle Tanner and Teri Lazzara. It’s at 7 p.m. Friday; tickets are here.
The classics
St. Petersburg Opera’s 2025 edition of the hourlong storybook opera for children, Pinocchio, is entering its final weekend (schedule and tickets at this link). And Opera Tampa, with The Florida Orchestra, has Benjamin Britten’s adaptation of The Turn of the Screw onstage Friday (8 p.m.) and Sunday (2 p.m.) in the Straz Center’s Ferguson Hall (tickets at this link).
This weekend’s performances of Mozart & Handel by The Florida Orchestra, in Tampa and St. Petersburg, are conducted by the esteemed Jeanette Sorrell. We spoke to the conductor this week (there’s a link for showtimes and tickets in the story).
Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section.
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