Courtesy of the artist

Burque's fixation with the bright and shiny continues when a certain storied musical concert series called Jazz Under the Stars hosted by the New Mexico Jazz Workshop, continues to thrill with top talent mixed thoroughly with local flava. On Saturday, June 16, gather at the Albuquerque Museum Amphitheater for a good old gig featuring ace guitarist Tony Cesarano. This graceful axe-handling magician will be backed by a band that includes Bonnie Schmader on flute, Pat Rhoads playing piano, Mark Tatum handling bass, Doug Cardwell on drums and percussionist Joey Trujillo. That sextet equals hot jazz, folks! The tuning up starts at 7pm and tickets range from $15 to $18, so get thee out to this all ages show, dig?

Photo by Jim Gale

There are many cool things about the yearly series of sunshine-soaked and rico suave, evening-included events produced by the City of Albuquerque as part of Summerfest, which thank the baby Jesus happens again on Saturday, July 21 from 3 to 10pm along Route 66 in Historic Nob Hill. For one thing, amigos, these outdoor, all-ages, multi-attraction events are free. Two, speaking of those many diversions, there are all sorta local vendors at this week's site to sell lucky participants everything from locally grown vittles to beer and wine, too—visitors really can have a dandy retail experience whilst trotting through the best of what this Nob Hill has to offer. Additionally, this year's second in the series is back to its original size and location, on Central Avenue, between Girard Boulevard and Washington Street. This return to form will not only please business owners who were excluded last year, but should spur more participants of all sorts, individual, creative and commercial. Check out this Albuquerque tradition for yourselves! There are three music stages, so get there early because performers include stars like Grammy Award-winning singer Irma Thomas, The Memphis P. Tails, Wagogo, Fat City and Silver String Band. Thanks, Mayor Keller!

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Have you been to a roller derby bout before? Did you know that roller derby is just a bunch of tattooed badasses beating the crap out of each other while roller skating? Well, there’s an Albuquerque Roller Derby mashup bout this Saturday, July 21, at the Manuel Lujan Building at Expo NM (take entrance 3 at Copper and San Pedro). And just in case we had to sell you on it more, the theme of this bout is heroes and villains—so expect to see some DC and Marvel representation on the rink. There are also vendors selling food, beer and crafts for you to consume and peruse. Doors are at 6pm and the game starts at 7pm. Tickets are $10 on holdmyticket.com and free for kids 12 and under.