Grooves from down south -- and way down south, with roots in Puerto Rico -- are in store this week at the Elbo Room and Yoshi’s.

Joe Cuba CD Release Party
Antibalas’ Chico Mann pulls it out live alongside SF ensemble Afrolicious and resident DJs Pleasuremaker and Senor Oz at this Wax Poetics’ and Fania Records’ bash honoring the late boogaloo maestro Joe Cuba (ne Gilberto Navarro) and the release of the new double-disc retrospective El Alcalde Del Barrio (Fania) -- a monster comp destined to reestablish the Puerto Rican player as the “Father of Latin Boogaloo.” This is the sound of streetwise, poppin’ ‘n’ lockin’, fabulously frantic Nu Yorica -- and it doesn’t get much better when the handclaps and hip-swaying beat of “Hey Joe, Hey Joe” kick in and Cuba’s crew, including Willie Torres, chants, “Beat, beat, bang, bang! Ungawa! That’s power! To the bush, girl!” with joyful Latin soul abandon. Thursday, Feb. 11, 9:30 p.m. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia St., SF. $8. (415) 552-7788.



Mavis Staples
All you gotta do is revisit Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz and take another peek at “The Weight,” the still-powerful musical union of the Staple Singers and the Band. Prepare to levitate. And Mavis continues to reach out from the shores of American sacred music toward pop, rock, and jazz worlds with grace and ambition: Her most recent studio album, We’ll Never Turn Back (Anti-, 2007), produced by Ry Cooder, looked at the Civil Rights movement to much praise. There’s Hope at the Hideout -- as the title of her 2008 Anti- live disc goes -- and perhaps everywhere else, when Mavis is in the house. Friday, Feb. 12-Saturday, Feb. 13, 8 and 10 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 14, 7 p.m. Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakl. $40. (510) 238-9200.