Do It: Christian McBride, Little Dragon, T.S.O.L.

SATURDAY

>> Punk band T.S.O.L. headlines festival celebrating “Sailor Jerry”

Honolulu’s tribute to revered tattoo artist Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins (1911-1973) returns for a fourth year on Saturday, with a Chinatown festival featuring music, burlesque, comedy, drag and fashion, tattoo art displays, work by local artists and amotorcycle giveaway.

Punk and indie music is a central part of the fest, with 30 bands in the lineup.

This year’s headliner is T.S.O.L. With a turbulent, decades-long history marked by lineup changes and evolution in its sound, T.S.O.L.’s latest album, 2017’s “The Trigger Complex,” is a bold, assured mix of propulsive punk and lush, dark ballads, markedby Jack Grisham’s ragged-yet-melodic voice.

Co-headliner Larry and His Flask, a rootsy five-man band founded by brothers Jamin and Jeshua Marshall, has been on the scene since 2002, with seven albums out and one on the way. The band embodies a full-throttle, optimistic, anarchic energy thatenlivens every show. After we talked to them in 2011, this writer said, “If the human race is going to avoid an apocalypse, Larry and His Flask just might be a saving grace.”

T.S.O.L. and Larry and His Flask appear at Nextdoor, 43 N. Hotel St., open to all ages with an adult guardian for those under 18. A $10 wristband grants admission to that show and all-ages music, art and carousing at The Arts at Marks Garage, 1159Nuuanu Ave., and Madre Chocolate, 8 N. Pauahi St., as well as nine bars and clubs, some providing admission to those age 18 and older and most for ages 21 and up. See the full list of acts and venues at sailorjerryfestival.com.

— Elizabeth Kieszkowski, Star-Advertiser

MONDAY

>> Manoa Valley Theatre performs powerful play

“Flyin’ West,” a powerful play about a group of African-Americans hoping to build a free community for themselves after the Civil War, gets a staged reading at Manoa Valley Theatre on Monday.

Written by Atlanta-based writer Pearl Cleage, “Flyin’ West” is set in Nicodemus, Kansas, a town established mostly by former slaves in 1877. The town had large appeal to African Americans after the failures of Reconstruction in the South. In “Flyin’ West,”the people hope to build a school and library for their town, but they face challenges including sexism, domestic violance, interracial tensions and greed.

Two years after its 1992 debut in Atlanta, “Flyin’ West” was the most produced new play in the country. The New York Times, in a story about the many playhouses that staged it that year, called it a “lyric, militant comedy drama.” “Ms. Cleage writes withamazing grace and killer instinct,” the Times said.

This reading is part of Project1VOICE, a national program aimed at promoting forgotten classic American plays. MVT is staging the reading in conjunction with readings around the country, including Nicodemus. The reading is directed by Jeanné WynneHerring and stars Tony Jaimeson, pictured at top, as Miss Leah, a freed slave, and Shervelle Bergholz, pictured above, as Minnie, a headstrong young woman who was born free. Barbara Harvey-Jackson, Derrick Brown, Dezmond Gilla, Mary Ann Shirley-Grayand Nikki Guess round out the cast.

WEDNESDAY

>> Little Dragon brings its dream-alt sound to The Republik

Little Dragon, a Swedish group distinguished by lead singer Yukimi Nagano’s ethereal vocals, brings its blend of traditional R&B, EDM and dreamy alternative to The Republik.

The group first formed in 1996 when Nagano, bassist Fredrik Wallin and drummer Erik Bodin were in high school in Gothenburg, Sweden. With keyboard player Hakan Wirenstrand joing them, they played mostly at poetry readings early on, at one point touring as a reggae band.

The band gained attention internationally with 2006 tune “Twice,” which within three years was played on the ABC drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” Little Dragon’s third album, a dance-oriented opus titled “Ritual Union,” would be named one of Rolling Stones top 50 albums of 2011.

The band’s fourth album, 2014’s “Nabuma Rubberband,” features moody down-tempo tunes inspired by Sweden’s long, dark winters. It featured a wide range of collaborations, from rapper Dave of De La Soul, Danish producer Robin Hannibal to string musicians from the Gothenburg Symphony, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance Album.

Little Dragon gots its name from the temper tantrums that Nagano would throw during work sessions. “We are four strong wills who find it really frustrating to compromise. … It gets harder and harder for us to make records, but we still love it,” the band said in a statement accompanying the release of its latest album “Season High,” out last year.

THURSDAY-JUNE 21

>> Jazz bass great plays Blue Note Hawaii

Christian McBride, one of the most versatile bassists around, drops by for a two-night gig at Blue Note Hawaii.

Over his nearly 30-year career, McBride has worked with stars in all genres, from Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins and McCoy Tyner in jazz to Sting and Paul McCartney in rock, from soul singer James Brown to classical musicians like opera singers Kathleen Battle and Renee Fleming. He is host of National Public Radio’s “Jazz Night in America,” one of his many projects aimed at promoting the genre.

A child prodigy among a family of musicians, McBride started his music studies on bass guitar playing tunes he heard on the radio in his native Philadelphia, receiving encouragement from Wynton Marsalis to pursue the art. He went on to Juilliard with the intention of playing both jazz and symphonic music, but immediately got immersed in New York’s jazz scene, getting work with jazz/R&B star Bobby Watson’s band.

He has some of the fleetest fingers to ever strum the bass strings, keeping pace with the likes of guitarist John McLaughlin and pianist Chick Corea in the Five Peace Band, a fusion group that won the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album in 2010. McBride has shown his chops as a band leader as well, winning the Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Recording in 2011 with “The Good Feeling” and again in 2017 with “Bringin’ It.” He also won the Grammy for Best Improvised Jazz Solo in 2016.

Accompanying McBride will be Josh Evans on trumpet, Marcus Strickland on tenor sax and Nasheet Waits on drums.