This weekend residents get their first crack at seeing award-winning Benin-born jazz genius Lionel Loueke conjure his spellbinding progressive jazz right live in Alamo City. Though based for some time in the U.S., his trio has never performed here before. In 2008, The New York Times declared, “He’s one of the most striking jazz artists to emerge in some time,” and since then Loueke’s fusion of traditional African rhythms with fluid modern harmonies has catapulted the guitarist from a virtuoso innovator in international jazz inclinations to a bona-fide star in the international constellation. The singer and guitarist leads his equally worldly trio, completed by bassist Massimo Biolcati (who grew up in Sweden and Italy), and Hungarian drummer Ferenc Nemeth, whom Loueke met at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Loueke has released four albums, the most recent being Mwaliko in 2010, a follow-up to his highly acclaimed 2007 Karibu, both on the Blue Note label. The Lionel Loueke Trio plays Saturday at The Carver, a cultural cornerstone of the African-American community since 1929, having hosted such names as Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louie Armstrong.

With an 18-year run on Broadway that contributed a reported $3.12 billion to New York City’s economy, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats proved that tourist dollars could keep a musical afloat — even one with special needs totaling 1.8 million pounds of dry ice and 3,247 pounds of yak hair. Based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats — a slim collection of ’30s-era poems about alley cats — Cats debuted in London in 1981, opened in New York in 1982, and won Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Costume Design, and Best Lighting Design at the 1983 Tony Awards. Though it closed in London after a record-breaking 3,358 performances and in New York after 7,485, the megamusical still has its claws in the title of “the longest continuously touring show in American theater history.” Celebrated more for its music and over-the-top production value than its skimpy plot, Cats charms families with such classics as “Memory,” “Magical Mr. Mistoffelees,” and “The Rum Tum Tugger” — and clearly has a few lives left.

A life-size mechanized doll built by the mysterious Doctor Coppélius is at the root of Coppélia’s goofy misunderstandings. Based on the E.T.A. Hoffmann stories Der Sandmann (The Sandman) and Die Puppe (The Doll), the comic ballet unfolds a bizarre love triangle when a young man named Frantz leaves his real-life girlfriend Swanhilda to pursue Coppélia, a life-like figure he sees every day and assumes is human. Heralded as “ballet’s most celebrated comedy,” Coppélia comes to a head when Swanhilda slips into the doctor’s pad and disguises herself as the dancing doll.

With a Doctorate in Violin Performance from the Moscow Conservatory, classical musician and painter Mark Cheikhet has been described as a "modern day Curlionis." Cheikhet is one of the many artists participating in SA's Beethoven Festival and will present a free concert at Gallery Nord on Saturday, February 4.

EntreFlamenco Company's first production of 2012 is a full-length dance performance featuring internationally acclaimed Spanish artists Antonio Granjero and Estefania Ramirez along with singer Roberto Lorente and guitarists Ricardo Anglada and Brent del Bianco.

SAMA celebrates Black History Month with an afternoon of activities inspired by artists such as Kara Walker, Sam Gilliam, Faith Ringgold and Jacob Lawrence. Children and families can also learn about the Harlem Renaissance, participate in storytelling and a poetry reading, and enjoy a special performance by local artists and musicians. 

Regarded as "one of the finest creative improvised music festivals in the world" (Paris Transatlantic), No Idea Festival brings together a select group of musicians and intermedia artists from around the U.S. and Europe for five nights of collaborative performances in Austin, Houston and San Antonio, Texas. Focusing on three established ensembles of artists who share multiple configurations at various stages of development and experience, No Idea creates a space where the individual artist is presented in relation to others, as well as to his/ her own working groups. Co-presented by heavy Denim and SMART Art Project Space, No Idea 2012 features Andrea Neumann (inside piano, electronics; Berlin), Bonnie Jones (electronics, text; Baltimore), Jason Lescalleet (tapes, electronics; Maine), Bhob Rainey (saxophone; New Orleans), Greg Kelley (trumpet; Boston), Chris Cogburn (percussion, electronics; Austin), Vic Rawlings (prepared cello, surface electronics; Boston), Bryan Eubanks (electronics; NYC), Maggie Bennett (dance, constructions; NYC), Nick Hennies (vibraphone; Austin), Rick Reed (electronics; Austin), and Gill Arnò (amplified slide projectors, electronics; NYC).