Tucson stages to light up with banda, a Beatle and reggae's Buddz

That's how we describe banda, the regional Mexican music dominated by brass and percussion instruments.

You can decide for yourself when "The ’90's Banda Tour with Banda El Recodo, Banda Los Recoditos & Banda El Mexicano" pulls into the AVA at Casino del Sol on Saturday, May 30.

Banda El Recodo was the first to capture the sound of banda. Cruz Lizárraga started the ensemble in Sinaloa in 1938 and ran it until his death in 1995. The group was the first Mexican brass banda to take the music to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North and South America.

Banda Los Recoditos was the 1989 spinoff of El Recodo, comprised of Lizárraga family members and friends, while Bando el Mexicano pioneered the 1980s technobanda, modernizing the sound by replacing brass and percussion with synthesizers, electric bass, drum machines and electric guitar.

Tickets for Saturday's show at the AVA, 5655 W. Valencia Road, start at $57.40 through casinodelsol.com. 

Also this weekend

• New Orleans-born/Bermuda-raised reggae artist Collie Buddz (aka Colin Patrick Harper) brings his "Spark Up Tour" to La Rosa, 800 N. Country Club Road, on Friday, May 29. As far as we can tell, this will be the reggae singer's first Tucson show since he played the Rialto Theatre in 2010. His only other Tucson concert in 2008 was also at the Rialto.

Tucson's own DJ Jahmar (Jahmar Anthony) will open the show, which starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $39.48 through larosatucson.org. 

•  Ringo Starr released a country album last year, which might seem a stretch from the former Beatle. But "Look Up," written and produced by the Grammy-winning producer/songwriter T Bone Barnett, has garnered mostly positive critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone praising Starr's "cowboy cool" that shines a spotlight on his naturally down-home vocals. Americana Highways said it was a "confident, affectionate return to the country idiom that has long been part of Starr’s musical DNA."

It also was not the first stroll down the country aisle for the singer, who returns with his All Starr Band to Linda Ronstadt Music Hall on Wednesday, June 3, for his first Tucson concert in three years.

"Look Up" came 45 years after Starr released his first country album, "Beaucoups of Blues," in 1970.

Not wanting to let as much time lapse before his next country record, the 85-year-old Starr put out "Long, Long Road," another collaboration with Barnett, in April. 

We're not sure if we'll hear much of any of those records when Starr and his band take the stage at Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave., at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The show is likely to be more focused on his 1970s solo hits, including "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen" alongside a few Beatles classics; our money is on "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Yellow Submarine."

Tickets start at $171 through ticketmaster.com.