Celtic, jazz and standards

On Thursday, Dec. 1, Rock City Café, 318 Main St., will transform into the Velvet Lounge with A Pint of Plain. The Celtic music combo features Jim Burke on fiddle; Jim Hyland on guitar, button accordion and fiddle; Hugh McGuinness on cittern; and Susanne Ward on the uilleann pipes.

On Friday, Dec. 2, Rock City Cafe’s Velvet Lounge will welcome back the 14 Strings jazz trio featuring Jon Luoma on viola, Harry Richter on guitar and Doreen Conboy on bass, playing jazz standards, original compositions and tunes with Latin and European flavor. The trio gets their unique sound from the unusual combination of viola, bass and guitar. Innovative arrangements and provocative rhythms give contemporary appeal to jazz standards, soulful ballads, Latin bossas and sambas, plus a twist of Django Reinhardt and Svend Assmussen. To round out the sets, Luoma adds original compositions.

On Saturday, Dec. 3, Rock City Cafe’s Velvet Lounge will present Anne Delaney. Delaney learned the great standards of the 1920s to ’50s on piano when she was 12 and started singing them in public in her mid-20s. She has worked with jazz trios, quartets, big bands and, most recently, the Novel Jazz Septet. Her influences include Sarah Vaughan, Irene Kral and Johnny Hartman.

The music will run from 7 to 9 p.m. all three nights. As usual there is no cover charge; however, tipping the musicians is highly encouraged. For more information on this and other events happening at the coffeebar/cafe, call 594-4123.