The four San Diego concerts you totally shouldn’t miss this week!

Stick Men, featuring Tony Levin, with Andre Cholmondeley’s We Are Ants To Them, featuring Tom Griesgraber

Apart from former San Diegan Nathan East, it’s difficult to think of another bass guitar great who has performed on more standout albums by a more diverse array of artists than Tony Levin.

A Boston native whose first gig of note was as a contrabassist with New York’s Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Levin will perform Sunday in San Marcos with Stick Men, the fiery prog-rock instrumental trio he has co-led for the past 18 years. The band is named after his 2007 solo album, “Stick Man,” which features his dazzling playing on the Chapman Stick, an all-neck, body-less instrument that has 13 strings and is played with all 10 fingers.

Levin has been a key contributor to albums by Robert Fripp, Bryan Ferry, Carly Simon, Lou Reed, Buddy Rich,  Laurie Anderson, James Taylor, Joan Armatrading, Warren Zevon, Cher and Phil Collins. His voluminous list of credits also includes collaborations with David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, Herbie Mann, Genesis, Dire Straits, Liza Minelli, Peter Frampton, Tracy Chapman, Indigo Girls, Kenny Loggins, Yes, Ivan Lins, Todd Rundgren, Pink Floyd and hundreds more.

Levin is featured on songs you have heard many times, even if you never realized it was him you were hearing. That’s Levin on Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” “Shock The Monkey” and “Red Rain”; Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover and “Late in the Evening”; Joan Armatrading’s “Walk Under Ladders” and “I Love It When You Call Me Names”; King Crimson’s “Elephant Talk” and “Thrack”; Alice Cooper’s “Welcome To My Nightmare”; John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s “(Just Like) Starting Over”; David Bowie’s “Where Are We Now?” and a good number more.

For good measure, Levin is also the co-creator of “Funk Fingers,” which utilizes the chopped-off tips of drum sticks as bass guitar picks to achieve a uniquely percussive attack.

He is now on tour with Stick Men, whose July concert here at The Bornemann Theater mixed group originals with such King Crimson favorites as “Red” and “The Talking Drum.” Levin also performed two sold-out 2024 shows here at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay with the incendiary King Crimson offshoot band BEAT.

His seventh solo album, “Bringing It Down to the Bass,” came out last year, followed this year by Stick Men’s new EP, the very aptly named “Brutal.” This month sees the publication of his newest photography collection, “The Book of BEAT.”

5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14. The Bornemann Theater at the TERI Campus of Life, 555 Deer Springs Road, San Marcos. $35-$40. thebornemann.com

San Diego Troubadour 25th anniversary concert, with The Bastards, the Zzymzzy Quartet, Dolly’s Revenge, Chuck Schiele’s American Grind, Zavala Sol and Blame Betty

A labor of love since its inception a quarter-century ago, San Diego Troubadour was founded as a free monthly newspaper to chronicle folk and roots music. It has since expanded to provide invaluable coverage of a broad array of performers from many genres.

The dramatic decline in advertising caused by the 2020 pandemic shutdown forced the Troubadour to become an online-only publication. But its tenacious publishers, Liz Abbott and Kent Johnson, have tirelessly forged ahead with their labor-of-love periodical.

In addition to showcasing countless San Diego solo artists and bands, the Troubadour has also featured articles written by some of these same musicians, including Bart Mendoza, Sue Palmer, Eric Lieberman, Wayne Riker, Sven-Erik Seaholm, Peter Bolland, Lauren Leigh Stucky and Jose Sinatra.

Sunday’s 25th anniversary party will be both a celebration and fundraiser for the plucky Troubadour. The headliners, The Bastards, is a San Diego super-group that features Jeff Berkley, Tim Flannery, Shawn Rohlf, Ben Zinn, Danny Campbell and Patrick McClory.

5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14. Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa Street, Bay Park. Free (but donations to the Troubadour are welcome). tioleos.com

Tower of Power “Holiday and Hits Tour”

“Down to the Nightclub” and “The Christmas Song?” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “What is Hip?”

For anyone who wants to get their groove on while reveling in the spirit of the season, the brassy Oakland funk-soul band Tower of Power — now in its 57th year — is a surefire bet to please.

Their “Holiday and Hits” shows are designed to combine seasonal spirit with brassy dancefloor favorites. Their show here will be your only chance this month to hear “O Holy Night” and “Silver Bells” performed alongside “Diggin’ On James Brown” and “Knock Yourself Out.”

6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 16. The Magnolia, 210 East Main Street, El Cajon. $40-$170. 619-651-2004. ticketmaster.com

Ángela Aguilar

It’s been quite a year for 22-year-old Música Mexicana vocal star Ángela Aguilar. She performed two concerts this summer with her famous musical family — led by her father, mariachi legend Pepe Aguilar — at the nearly 18,000-seat Hollywood Bowl.

Ángela is a five-time Latin Grammy nominee who released her first album when she was 8 years old. She specializes in romantic ballads and sings with authority. To date, her recordings have received nearly seven billion global streams.

The Los Angeles native is now on tour to promote here 2025 album, “Nadie Se Va Como Llegó” (“Nobody Leaves As They Arrive”), her first since her marriage last year to fellow Latin-music singing star Christian Nodal. The album finds her mixing traditional Mariachi elements with tumbado, cumbia and vallenato.

8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10. The Magnolia, 210 East Main Street, El Cajon. $75.50-$172. ticketmaster.com