Lake Tahoe - the land of beautiful chaos

ûIt's easy for us locals to forget just what a great attraction Lake Tahoe is to the rest of the world. We pretty much take it for granted and stay away during the high season.

An hour or so Monday at Zephyr Cove was an eye-opener - the crowd was immense, and it wasn't even a weekend. Great for the tourism business, but the mob was enough to send one up the mountains for the rest of the summer.

BIG-TIME JAZZ

Fans won't want top miss multiple Grammy-winner jazz singer Dianne Reeves on Friday and Saturday at the Nugget in Sparks. Reeves was awarded the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for three consecutive recordings - a Grammy first in any vocal category.

Reeves has recorded and performed extensively with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She was a featured soloist with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. Good chops.

Tickets are $50 at (800) 648-1177 or 356-3300 or by visiting janugget.com.

PAST GLORIES

Rock 'n' roll legends Sha Na Na play Squaw Valley tonight. Back in 1969, the young Sha Na Na rocked at the original Woodstock Festival. In the second-to-last set, just before Jimi Hendrix closed the festival, the band smashed ahead and won instant fame and fortune.

Sha is back with a lot of new arrangements of old hits that should strike both memory and new enthusiasm. Gate open at 5 p.m., and the concert begins at 7. Tickets are $50 for upscale seating, $35 for the rest of us and $15 for those under 16. Picnics are welcome. Bring low-back chairs.

Call (530) 581-1184.

JUICE UP AT TAHOE

Pop and country star Juice Newton will keep things moving Saturday at Squaw Valley. She has won everything from CMA's New Female Vocalist of the Year to Billboard's Album Artist of the Year. Same ticket and time info as Sha Na Na.

MORE JAZZ AND BLUEGRASS

Sam Rudin, a solo pianist with lightning-fast fingers, clean clarity and the rhythmic intensity of an entire band, will play at 7:30 tonight in the Boathouse Theatre in Tahoe.

While his roots remain in blues, Rudin's songs also contain jazz, rock, country, folk and bluegrass. Tickets are $15 and $5 for 12 and under. Call (530) 416-0337 or (530) 541-4975.

GREAT IDEA, MORE PLEASE

"A Touch of Rodgers" was a new venture of Carson singers, a two-hour show offering a collection of the songs of Richard Rodgers, over the last two weekends.

Friday night's show was a sellout. It was a sort of ad hoc kind of program with fine singers telling the Rodgers story in his own music.

This is the kind of groundbreaking performance that opens up new ways of thinking and doing. Do it again; how about "A Night with Steven Sondheim"?

FROM THE VAULT

A real classic: "The Seventh Seal," a 1957 film directed by Ingmar Bergman, won the Cannes Film Festival's top Prix D'Or. Stars are Max von Sydow as a knight returning from the Crusades in the 14th century and Gunnar Bjornstrand as his servant, Jons.

Does God exist is the question, and the answer isn't all that clear, but it's an absorbing drama. It introduced Bergman's longtime favorite actress Bibi Anderson to the world.

It includes a macabre look at death as played by Bengt Ekrot.

• Contact Sam Bauman at 881-1236 or sbauman@nevadaappeal.com.