Best 9: Top events for the week ahead in Santa Cruz County arts & entertainment, Sept. 25-Oct. 2

Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the October-surprise B9:

➤ New York-born Jai Uttal drifted out to California while still a teenager to study music with the immortal Ali Akbar Khan, an Indian master of the sarod (who taught for many years at UC Santa Cruz), and then on to India. Many decades later and Uttal is at the center of a broad movement making hypnotic music for kirtan and yoga. He and his band, Pagan Love Orchestra, put it all together for a big show Saturday at the Rio. 

➤ Comedian Rene Vaca, a proud son of Michoacan, came out of the San Fernando Valley, a college dropout, determined to become a stand-up comedian. And now he’s making big strides with his takes on his upbringing and stories from his youth. He comes to the Rio Theatre for two shows on Friday. 

➤ Mariachi music is not some archaic, dying art form. It’s alive and well, thanks in big part to the Chicago-based outfit Mariachi Herencia de Mexico, a virtuosic band of 14 players, all of them 32 years old or younger. For the past five years, the band has been collecting Grammy nominations and touring for audiences across North America. The band comes to the Rio Theatre next Wednesday, Oct. 1, in a show presented by the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. 

➤ For more than 20 years, singer-songwriter Eef Barzelay has been making sweetly desperate music under the stage name Clem Snide, including songs I can’t get out of my mind, “Jews for Jesus Blues” and “Roger Ebert.” Santa Cruz lucks out as Clem Snide plays the stage at The Crepe Place on Saturday. 

➤ The Portland, Oregon, band once known as the Water Tower Bucket Boys — now, just Water Tower — plays bluegrass and old-timey music, but there’s an energy there that feels distinctly punk rock. They’ll bring that antique swagger to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Friday. 

➤ On Friday, the Watsonville Film Festival brings to the Green Valley Cinema a documentary film called “American Agitators,” about political activism in the mid-20th century, focusing especially on the legendary labor organizer Fred Ross. The film will be followed by a panel discussion. If you’re looking for a little political motivation, here’s your ticket. 

➤ Redwood Records gets its corner of downtown hopping on Sunday with its second Cedar Street Festival, featuring musical acts from Santa Cruz and beyond on two stages, a record swap, food trucks, a beer garden, vintage market, interactive art exhibits and a family fun zone.

➤ Alaska-born jazz singer Hilary Gardner has a soft spot for the sweetly swinging cowboy music of the old West. She’s made a gloriously romantic album of cowboy songs that are as beautiful as the full moon over Santa Fe. She performs live at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Oct. 2. 

➤ Seattle singer and songwriter Damien Jurado is certainly a distinctive voice, a folksinger with a sweetly expressive tenor and gorgeously produced songs that often have found-sound elements to them. He performs at Moe’s Alley on Wednesday.