Do It: An evening of jazz, Sesame Street, guitarist McKee

FRIDAY

>> Music, art and civil rights come together at a First Friday event

In their annual celebration of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the Hawaii Friends of Civil Rights hosts a free, family-friendly First Friday event at the Hawaii State Art Museum with art and live music, along with reflections on civil rights and liberties in the islands, with support from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. Museum galleries will be open during the event.

The Sixth Annual First Friday Star-Studded Evening of Jazz includes song and music from Al Harrington, Ginai, Starr Kalahiki, Renee Ebalaroza, Amber Ricci and Mike Ebalaroza. Mike Lewis and his Friends provide a big-band sound. Notables including poet and professor Kathryn Waddell Takara, entrepreneur Wally Amos, and “Yellowman” actors Wendy Pearson and Curtis Duncan are expected.

The event pays tribute to activist Jewel McDonald, a longtime member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Coalition-Hawaii, who urged the state to adopt the holiday honoring King; and Edward “Ash” Ruggiero, a Peace Corps veteran who taught at the Outreach College at the University of Hawaii-Manoa for 30 years. Both died in 2016. Hawaii Friends of Civil Rights’ Faye Kennedy, Amy Agbayani and John Nichols will honor the late judge James Burns, who died March 9, with a tribute by his wife, Emme Tomimbang Burns.

FRIDAY-JULY 16

>> Sesame Street gang cheers new neighbor

Sesame Street comes to the Blaisdell Concert Hall over the next two weeks with a show featuring new and familiar friends, and a musical message, too.

“We’re getting a new ‘neighbor’ on the street,” said director Jerry Dumars. “Her name is Jenny the music teacher, and on the way to Sesame Street, her moving van with all musical instruments goes missing. So, through song and dance and with the help of the characters on Sesame Street, they come up with some creative ideas on using everyday household items to make music — cookie jars, Coke bottles, pots and pans — and body parts, clapping their hands, stomping their feet, their voices.

“The characters pretty much show her that anything can make music.”

There’s enough for the whole family to enjoy in the show, Dumars said. “It’s written on two levels, so it’s for the children, but the adults will have a great time, also,” he said. “There’s some great one-liners that the adults get a chuckle out of.”

Expect some new characters as well as all your favorite friends from Sesame Street — Big Bird, Elmo, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Rosita — and, of course, Bert and Ernie, whom Dumars, with a laugh, identified as the show’s creators.

SATURDAY

>> Guitarist McKee will dazzle with techniques and sound

Guitarist Andy McKee brings his inventive stylings to Blue Note Hawaii on Saturday.

The Kansas native was inspired by metal bands but plays acoustic guitar. Primarily a self-taught musician, he’ll use both hands to pluck the strings, his right (plucking) hand traveling up the fingerboard to create contrapuntal melodic lines. He’ll slap the strings, drum on the case or tap on the body to add percussive elements, and use unusual tunings.

Those techniques, plus an ear for mixing styles into his eclectic, unique brand of music, have made him a favorite among fingerstyle guitar aficionados, particularly in live performance and on YouTube, where they can watch his fingers and hands at work. One of those fans turned out to be Prince, who invited McKee to tour Australia with him in 2012 after seeing him perform his song “Rylynn” on YouTube. The song, written for a friend’s daughter who died in infancy, has reportedly inspired expectant parents to give the name to their child.

McKee appears in Honolulu for one night only. He’ll also perform in Kona on Tuesday and Wednesday and Maui on July 14, then goes back to Hawaii island for both a guitar workshop and performance in Kohala on July 15. Visit bluesbearhawaii.com for more details on the Hawaii tour.

TUESDAY

>> ‘Tapestry’ film to screen at Dole Cannery

In July 2016, singer-songwriter Carole King performed all of the songs from her masterful 1971 album “Tapestry” at the British Summer Time Hyde Park music festival in London. It was the first time she had ever performed the album in its entirety, and it had concertgoers singing along in tears.

A film of the concert, “Carole King: Tapestry,” will be screened Tuesday at Dole Cannery in a Fathom Events broadcast.

King’s legacy in popular music cannot be understated.

She is one of the most successful songwriters from the heyday of pop music, with more than 100 songs that she wrote or co-wrote between 1955 and 1999 on Billboard’s Top 100 sales charts. Multiple songs and albums have gone gold and platinum, and she’s earned countless awards.

More impressive than the numbers are the depth and breadth of the songs King has written, from cutesy dance tune “Locomotion” to romantic anthem “Natural Woman” and ode to connection “You’ve Got a Friend.”

Her 1972 album “Tapestry” is a landmark in pop music, winning four Grammys and spending 15 straight weeks at No. 1 on the charts. With songs like “You’ve Got a Friend” and “So Far Away,” it’s “an intensely emotional record, the songs confessional and direct,” writes Allmusic.com’s Jason Ankeny. “In its time, it connected with listeners like few records before it, and it remains an illuminating experience decades later.”