Cut, color and a side of jazz in one location
For those of us whose attention to hair styling involves hoping the 150-year-old guy in the white coat doesn't give us a '50s buzz cut or that the 17-year-old beauty-school dropout doesn't nick an ear, the idea of getting live music, custom-blended coffee and all manner of perks and amenities along with our trim sounds positively alien. But Huntingdon Valley's Blue Hair Studio has provided an unlikely home for jazz musicians for a decade, featuring live musicians on weekends.
For those of us whose attention to hair styling involves hoping the 150-year-old guy in the white coat doesn't give us a '50s buzz cut or that the 17-year-old beauty-school dropout doesn't nick an ear, the idea of getting live music, custom-blended coffee and all manner of perks and amenities along with our trim sounds positively alien. But Huntingdon Valley's Blue Hair Studio has provided an unlikely home for jazz musicians for a decade, featuring live musicians on weekends.
The stellar Afro-Cuban Elio Villafranca Quintet will help provide literal homes for Philadelphians in need as headliners of a benefit for the Ray of Hope Project, a nonprofit dedicated to rehabbing homes whose owners can't afford the repairs. Ray of Hope, co-founded in 2002 by Blue owner Willard Bostock and now-president Raymond Gant, has rehabbed more than 63 homes.
The quintet, led by former Philadelphian pianist Elio Villafranca, features legendary flutist Dave Valentin, bassist Charles Flores, drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, and percussionist Juan Castellanos.
Blue Hair Studio, 2550 Huntingdon Pike, Huntingdon Valley, 8 p.m.-midnight tomorrow, $100, $600 (VIP table for four), $300 (VIP table for two), $50 artists/students, 215-947-2963, bluehairstudio.com.
- Shaun Brady