There are bells for alarms, for church services, for the striking of noon. There are dinner bells, at least somewhere one still hopes, and school bells and maybe even bells when angels get their wings.

Vest Fest

See you later harbingers of spring, and say hello to summertime sneak peaks, portents, auguries, forerunners, what have you. Tonight the Lampost in Oak Bluffs gets loud with its first live show of the season.

It’s the first annual Vest Fest, kissing cousin to Best Fest. Music is the main ingredient for both festivals. Vest Fest just dresses it up a notch.

When jazz goes on vacation, it goes to Martha’s Vineyard. So trumpets the tag line of the inaugural 2011 Martha’s Vineyard Jazz Festival, which officially takes place August 6-13, but enjoyed an unofficial kickoff at Lola’s in Oak Bluffs this past weekend. Throughout the summer, you can find jazz all over the Island leading to the weeklong festival in August.

Minnesingers Encore

In Paris the audiences screamed oui, oui. In Prague it was prosim, prosim prídavek (yes, yes, encore). And here on the Vineyard we begin by saying, Welcome back to the high school Minnesingers.

After taking Europe by storm, they perform for us this weekend at their annual spring show at the high school performing arts center. Bravo.

Baby boomers may shudder at the thought but Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna founding member Jorma Kaukonen is entering his sixth decade of performing. It may be somewhat reassuring, then, to know that Mr. Kaukonen, he of blistering licks and subtle fingerpicks, is still at the top of his game.

Beatlemania at the Oak Bluffs School

It is billed as O.B.eatles, and when you get past the oddity of the name it is actually quite accurate. The kids at the Oak Bluffs school have been eating the Beatles.

Art by Kids Speaks to Kids and More

This Thursday, June 23 at 7 p.m. IMP for Kids, the YMCA dance program and Joanne Cassidy’s vocal students are coming together to present an evening of entertainment and importance entitled Assertions: Kids Speak Out Through the Arts.

One could argue that all art is important, but this performance lends itself to a category all its own.

In the end, it came down to a shoe box full of microcassettes, 75 interviews, two years of research and a lifetime of listening to Let It Be, Déjà Vu, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Sweet Baby James.

The Martial Art of Mixing It Up

This weekend at the Yard there’s a merging of the professional and the personal. The opening weekend at the dance colony in Chilmark features the H.T. Chen dancers, the Yard’s company in residence this summer, and the boys and girls next door. Say what?

The concept is this: Earlier the professional dancers visited Island schools to find local talent to take part in the show. Some young dancers will be hitting the boards for the first time.

On Sunday, May 22 at 10:30 a.m., the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center will present Howard Frazin’s oratorio, The Voice of Isaac, as a retelling of the Abraham and Isaac story, from Isaac’s perspective.