Posts filed under ‘upcoming shows’
SF Offside Returns
The SF Offside jazz festival is back for a second year, gracing three different Bay Area venues at the end of May.
The best resource to learn more is going to be sfOffside.com, where they’ll be posting profiles on the musicians and where you can already see the full 2013 lineup, cut-and-pasted below.
But first, a taste: A video snippet of the Wiener Kids Family Band, which currently tops the Wiener Kids video page.
Here’s the full lineup:
NIGHT 1 – “STREAMS” – THURSDAY, MAY 23, 8-11PM
Awaken Café, 1429 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612
New collaborations, new directions
WAYSTANDERS
Aram Shelton – alto sax
Jason Gillenwater - tenor sax
Alex Pinto – guitar
Doug Stuart – bass
Shaun Lowecki – drums
MUCHO STEREO
Jaz Sawyer – drums
Asonic Garcia – sampler, synth, electronics
Mike Boo – turntable, sampler, electronics
WIENER KIDS FAMILY BAND
Jordan Glenn – conductor
Cory Wright – clarinet
Aaron Bennett – soprano sax
Christina Stanley – violin
Kate McLoughlin – bassoon
Rob Ewing – trombone
Damon Waitkus – banjo
Karl Evangelista – guitar
Dominique Leone – synth
Kevin Thaxton – bass
Jon Arkin – drums
NIGHT 2 – “CURRENTS” – FRIDAY, MAY 24, 9pm-midnight
Duende, 468 19th Street, Oakland, CA 94618
Leading-edge local jazz
MADS TOLLING QUARTET
Mads Tolling – violin
Dave MacNab – guitar
George Ban-Weiss – bass
Eric Garland – drums
HOWARD WILEY TRIO
Howard Wiley – sax
Marcus Shelby – bass
Sly Randolph – drums
NIGHT 3 - “TIDES” – SATURDAY, MAY 25, 8-11pm
Community Music Center, 544 Capp Street, SF, CA 94110
“The traveler hastens toward the town…”
LISA MEZZACAPPA-STEVE ADAMS DUO
Lisa Mezzacappa – bass
Steve Adams – saxophones
SHELDON BROWN GROUP
Sheldon Brown – soprano & tenor saxophones, clarinet
Dave MacNab – guitar
Jonathan Alford – piano
Michael Wilcox – bass
Alan Hall – drums
DAVE MIHALY & THE SHIMMERING LEAVES ENSEMBLE
Dave Mihaly – drums, guitar, voice
Ara Anderson – trumpet, percussion
David Boyce – saxophones, bass clarinet, percussion
Michael Cavaseno – guitar
Charith Premawardhana – viola
Coltrane’s Epic: Ascension Day on KFJC
What does John Coltrane’s “Ascension” mean to you? A pinnacle of his attempt to communicate spirituality in music? A joyous escape from the tyranny of chord changes? An ambitious, marathon version of a modally structured song? An excuse to make a lot of noise?
I’m leaning towards the first answer, but I’m sure all those elements will be explored on May 9 during KFJC-FM‘s six-hour special about the piece.
Titled “Ascension Day,” the show is part of KFJC’s Month of Mayhem, a tradition where they pepper the May schedule with ambitious, well researched specials. These are programs not to be missed — and considering this one runs from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time, there aren’t a lot of excuses for missing the whole thing.
The special will pay particular attention to the reworkings of “Ascension” by the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, who are producing a DVD video of their most recent “Electric Ascension” concert. The latest updates about that are available on their Kickstarter page.
Check the KFJC site for the full Mayhem schedule.
More about “Ascension:”
- Electric Ascension Went Well
- ROVA’s Ascension
- Coltrane, R.E.M., Beginnings, Endings
- Freddie Hubbard Playlist, Dec. 30
(Photo source: The Vinyl Records Shelf, which doesn’t appear to have been updated since 2004, but here’s a link anyway.)
Day of Noise 2013
KZSU is doing its 24-plus-hour Day of Noise again, starting just a couple of hours before Sunday, April 14.
You can see the whole schedule, and descriptions of the artists, at that link above.
It’s an impressive undertaking managed by some very motivated students who are into drone, electronics, laptop improv, and … well, noise! I love that they’ve filled the entire day with music, including some afternoon hours that will apparently be broadcast at Stanford’s White Plaza.
Do tune in, starting midnight tonight — 90.1FM if you’re within range in the Bay Area, or kzsulive.stanford.edu/ if you’re not. As my kids said last year: “It’s just noise!“
Weekend of the 23rd: Vexations, Sonny Sharrock, Switchboard Music, Martha & Monica
Somewhere in San Francisco right now, someone is playing Erik Satie’s “Vexations.”
The 840-cycle piece started at Berkeley Arts in the afternoon of March 23 and is continuing until noon Sunday, March 24. It’s organized by Joe Lasqo, who organizes a previous “Vexations” in September that was “straight,” with musicians at the piano reading notes on paper — but even that had its twists and variations, he says. This time, the artists are playing a variety of instruments, including some that don’t play musical notes. (Berkeley Arts: 2133 University Ave., Berkeley.)
There’s also a fundraiser for the SF Offside festival. The show should be starting right about now — it’s the Sonny Sharrock Experience, a quartet that includes Offside co-organizer Alex Pinto playing the all-important guitar part as they cover Sharrock’s music (and McCoy Tyner’s, and Alice & John Coltrane’s). So, you could catch that show (Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco) then cross the Bay to camp at Berkeley Arts for a night of “Vexations.”
Then, there’s the Switchboard Music Festival — an eight-hour celebration of creative, modern, quasi-classical music presented with a dynamic, almost indie-rock vibe. That starts at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, at Brava Theater (2781 24th St., San Francisco).
If you got restless just before 4:00, you could leave that venue (possibly missing part of Ava Mendoza’s Unnatural Ways’ set, which would be a tough call) to see martha & monica, the piano/cello duet, perform the world premiere of a piece by Matt Ingalls (of the sfSound troupe) and pieces by Elliott Carter and Dmitri Shostakovich. (Old First Church: 1751 Sacramento St., San Francisco).
Then you could head back to the Brava Theater for the concluding hours of the Switchboard Festival. Could you take the bus there and back! Sure! I think. (My Muni mojo is about a decade old.)
Someday, someone is going to look back at this as one hell of a musical weekend. Why should it be you?
A Busy Start to March
The good news is that I got a chance to go to Barcelona and took it.
The bad news is that I missed these shows while I was gone: Surplus 1980 and ReCardiacs Fly; Craig Taborn, Amy X. Neuburg and Pamela Z at Other Minds; Other Minds in general; Emily Hay visiting from L.A.; Lotte Anker visiting from Europe; a couple of rare Tin Hat group appearances; Miya Masaoka (another rare in-town appearance) in a show that also included Lisa Mezzacappa’s new strings band; the ROVA Saxophone Quartet performing with a guitar quartet; The Residents’ anniversary show at Bimbos; and Chris Potter, whose new ECM album is quite compelling. In Barcelona also missed a chance to see Spanish pianist Agusti Fernandez, due to evening work commitments.
Sure, there’s no way I would have seen all those shows, since many of them conflicted. Chris Potter probably would have been outa luck, going up against The Residents. I’m just complaining on principle.
Meanwhile, it’s a really busy week of music coming up, with too many things to mention. I’ll list a few, but I’m unfairly leaving out so much — take a look at Bayimproviser.com to see what I mean.
- William Parker is in town at the end of the week, starting Friday, March 8, doing a lot at Stanford’s Bing Hall and a Sunday afternoon performance at San Francisco’s Center for New Music. The latter is a solo show followed by a set from Lisa Mezzacappa’s Bait & Switch.
- Mills College is running its annual Signal Flow series (concerts of new works by students) starting Thursday, March 7 through the weekend.
- Great lineup for the Monday, March 4 installment of monthly jazz at The Makeout Room (San Francisco): Karl Evangelista’s Ai Ai, Dave Slusser’s new quartet, and Aram Shelton’s Ton Trio II.
- Larry Ochs has some new composing for quintet that debuts on Friday, March 8 at the Center for New Music; he’ll have trumpeter Nate Wooley in his band, who’s also appearing Weds. March 6 at Berkeley Arts Festival.
I didn’t get a chance to do any serious record shopping in Barcelona, but luckily, there are four CD stores along Calle dels Tallers [Street of Workshops, in Catalan, I think]. Mostly, they specialize in American/British rock — i.e., they look just like CD stores here, but with a lot more metal and a lot of classic rock. Revolver Records had a section set aside for Spanish and Catalonian bands, so that’s where I concentrated my time. Using the principle of judging a CD by its cover, I picked up some poppy, mellow electronica from a Catalan trio called Lasers and an indie rock album from a Spanish indie-pop band that looks like it’s been around for a while, Los Planetas. Pretty happy with both of them, but I’m hoping to dig a little deeper if I ever make it back.
Surplus 1980 and ReCardiacs Fly: Raucous Musicks Coming Saturday
Cool avant-rock show happening Sat. Feb. 23 at The Starry Plough in Berkeley:
Moe! Staiano‘s Surplus 1980 is the headliner, and he’ll be preceded by ReCardiacs Fly, the Cardiacs tribute band make up of members of Reconnaissance Fly (plus others such as Moe!).
They’ve done a good job using Facebook as a promo hub for the show. Check it out here.
It’s a chance to experience new Surplus 1980 songs and rarely heard Cardiacs complexities, and to rock the Starry Plough (which happens with some regularity, admittedly, but is still a good cause).
Previous posts about the two bands, which have shared a bill before:
Tape Music Festival 2013: Parmegiani
Cover of Parmegiani’s album, L’œil écoute/Dedans-Dehors. Futuristic in a 1970 way. Source: Bowlegs Music.
This year’s San Francisco Tape Music Festival will include an evening-long celebration of acousmatic composer Bernard Parmegiani. The festival runs Jan. 25-27 at ODC Theater (3153 17th St., San Francisco).
“Acousmatic” is a word I learned just this week, and it seems to be a more accurate (but less fun) description of “tape music.” Either way, the concept is: sounds that are set down in recorded form and meant to be performed by playing the recording.
But it’s not like playing a record at home. The performance involves 16 or more speakers situated around the room, usually played in the dark to heighten the auditory experience. The sounds scatter about you with remarkable clarity — bells, liquids and thunders dancing about the room. Cinema for the ears, as they say. (See the Bruno Ruvario review, the 2012 Tape Music Festival review, and notes about the festival from 2012 and 2009.)
Here’s what else is happening during the festival:
- Recent pieces by Bay Area composers including Pamela Z (a 2008 piece called “Spangled”) and sfSound’s Matt Ingalls
- “Classic” works by folks like Luciano Berio (from 1961) and Hugh Le Caine (from 1955)
- A new realization of John Cage’s “Williams Mix,” which also got presented last year. The piece instructs the “performer” to record various urban sounds, so it’s a completely different piece every time.
- A 1980 piece by Jonathan Harvey, who passed away in December.
Given that last bit, it’s nice to note that Parmegiani is still alive at age 85. His evening of the Festival — Sunday, Jan. 27 — will feature pieces from the ’60s and one from 2004, followed by the 45-minute “De Natura Sonotorum,” created in 1975.
Parmegiani studied under one of the pioneers of this music, Pierre Schaeffer, and he’s considered a huge influence in the acousmatic music world. He was around when these sounds were just being pioneered, and his career has been voluminous. (If you’re curious and have some coin to spare, there’s a 12-CD collection of his work available on eMusic.)
Of course, there are study materials lying around the Web as well, albeit of YouTube audio fidelity.
Here’s a full reading of “De Natura Sonotorum:”
A small piece of “De Natura Sonotorum:”
A neat piece called dance, based on one sound source (voice):
Duende Hosts Nels Cline
Some time ago, I expressed skepticism about the “jazz” aspect of a new restaurant that was coming to Oakland. Boy, was I wrong.
Duende (468 19th St., Oakland) is giving the Nels Cline Singers a four-night residency starting January 23. Separately, co-owner Paul Canales has a blog entry where he mentions John Zorn as not only a friend but a source of inspiration for the restaurant — for the name, in particular.
I don’t expect Duende to become a full-time, all-out haven for the avant-garde. They’ve got rent to pay, and they’ve got ambitions as a restaurant. But it’s good to know the owners have sympathetic ears for good music. And the food and coffee — there’s a blog entry about the coffee! — sound intriguing too, albeit not cheap.
I love going to DIY music events in obscure corners. I fondly remember a trip to NYC where I stared in envy at show fliers for loft shows and experienced an invigorating Elliott Sharp concert in an upper-east-side apartment converted to a dance studio. But I think a plush setting is a nice treat occasionally, and I’d imagine many musicians agree.
So, let’s wish best of luck to Duende, and help them out by providing a good showing for Nels Cline.
Each show, Jan. 23 through 26, will feature one set of the Nels Cline Singers and a set of Nels plus a guest artist. More info here.
Addendum: As I reach for the “Publish” button, I see that Patrick Cress’ Telepathy will playing on Jan. 22. More about them here and here.
Chris Forsyth in Town, on the Air
I mentioned this obliquely two days ago but thought I’d give it a headline, so to speak.
Guitarist Chris Forsyth‘s solo tour has come to the Bay Area, and he’ll be performing on KZSU-FM this Sunday, Jan. 13, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Pacific time. Tune in at 90.1FM if you’re local to Stanford University, or listen from anywhere at kzsulive.stanford.edu. It’ll be a blast.
Or, you could actually go see him. He’s in Berkeley on Saturday night, Jan. 12, playing at the space known as the Berkeley Arts Festival, right near campus. (See previous post.)
What can you expect? Shimmering, beautiful music. Looped electric guitar with touches of psych and country. Here’s a live performance of “Downs and Ups,” the liveliest song on his recent album, Kenzo Deluxe. His other pieces can be more meditative and swirling, and that’s good, too.
A Good Cause, Friday Night in Berkeley
Two large improvising ensembles will play at Berkeley Arts Friday night, Jan. 11, in a benefit for musician Jay Korber, who’s been in a terrible accident.
Korber was hit by a street sweeping vehicle and dragged, suffering a shattered hip and other injuries. He’ll recover, but slowly, and any recompense from the city will probably take years.
I have to admit, I didn’t recognize Jay Korber’s name at first — but it turns out I’ve heard and appreciated his music. He’s the sax half of the sax/drums duo Ettrick.
So, a large gathering of friends will send Korber some good vibes Friday night. Moe! Staiano will conduct a big ensemble of multiple guitars, multiple saxes, and multiple percussion players. I’m guessing it’ll be loud.
Gino Robair will then conduct a large ensemble of a more normal shape: Lots of woodwinds, lots of guitars, some electronics, etc.
It’s happening at the Berkeley Arts Festival on Friday, Jan. 11, starting 7:00 p.m. The address is 2133 University Ave. near Shattuck.
