No Matter The Makeup, Luna Group Enjoyable

Here’s the riddle for the day:

Can a band still be called Rich Luna and Sons if it no longer contains Rich Luna’s sons?

That’ll be one for Luna, the Spokane jazz-salsa virtuoso, to ponder.

It looks like Luna’s son and bass player, Mark, will be taking a teaching job in San Jose, Calif. And son Ron, the drummer, vibraphone player and singer, is considering a move to Phoenix.

That leaves Luna the elder on piano and youngest son Tim on congas and percussion.

Fortunately for the local music scene, Luna and his wife of 48 years, Virginia, still have a stash of talented offspring in reserve.

Daughter Cynthia, a singer and guitarist, may join the group if her brothers leave. The family also includes eldest son Richard, but he’s a pianist and arranger in Phoenix.

Like his children, Luna came from a musical family. His mother played in a band in New Mexico and Luna started piano lessons as a child.

“If it wasn’t for my mother, I probably would never be a musician,” he says.

Luna moved to Spokane in 1970, after years of playing in Los Angeles. The scene there eventually grew cold to his 12-piece big band.

“When I got to L.A., rock ‘n’ roll was getting hot,” he says. “I didn’t want to play no rock ‘n’ roll.”

Luna, now 67, says he decided late in life to play only the salsa and jazz he enjoys, instead of giving into what others wanted him to play.

“The happiest music in the world right now is salsa,” he says. “It’s also very difficult to play … It has a lot to do with culture and language. Anybody could play the music and it’ll be hot. But the only thing that changes it is the language. If you don’t have that necessary culture behind it … “

Check out the salsa and swing of Rich Luna and Sons while they’re still intact. They’ll play from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. tonight in the City Lights Lounge at the Shilo Inn, 923 E. Third. Cover is $5 (half price with dinner at Livingston’s Lounge or Restaurant, or after 11:30).

Not dead yet

Former Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro (born Darren Henley) is back, almost 15 years after the breakup of the influential punk band.

He’s now frontman of the punk-metal trio Peligro.

Peligro is joined by drummer Steve Wilson and Greg Hanna on bass guitar. The band will bring its “thrash bashing music” to some of the stops on the Vans Warped Tour (though not at Tuesday’s Gorge show).

But you can catch Peligro Thursday at Ichabod’s North, 1827 N. Division. The music starts at 9 p.m., with Trampoline Girl and Sea Wolf opening. Cover is $7.

Changing places

Spokane singer-songwriter Nancy Lynn Bright is releasing her third recording just before she gets out of Dodge.

Bright, a lifelong Spokane resident, moves to Tucson in October to expand her performing contacts and follow her muse, she says.

Her latest CD, “Orchestrate the Jubilee” is a thoroughly local creation. It features Spokane musicians Don Thomsen on mandolin and slide guitar and John Tillman on bass. It was recorded by local musician Michael Millham at several locations around town and was mastered at The Shop on the South Hill.

Bright will play her “eclectic country folk” at a CD release party at 7 p.m. Thursday at The Shop, 924 S. Perry.

Club-hopping

* Celtic folk-rockers The Clumsy Lovers play at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at the Fort Spokane Brewery, 401 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. Cover is $6.

* Spokane band Five Foot Thick and Portland rockers 36 Crazy Fists play at 7 p.m. tonight at The Met. Hedon opens the show. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door.

* Sidhe performs at 8 p.m. tonight at the Rocket Market, 726 E. 43rd.

* Blues-rock quartet Laffin’ Bones plays at 9 p.m. Sunday at Fast Eddie’s, 1 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. There’s no cover.