Lowe continues to take chances, improvising in the moment in a sublime and swinging concert at the new Dizzy's.

There is something magical, and instructive about watching guitar great Mundell Lowe perform. Years of living "in-the-moment" have been honed into a personal improvising aesthetic where the proof of virtuosity involves what he doesn't choose to play as much as …

International orchestra, singers, and dancers bring in the new year at Symphony Hall.

New Year's Day can be all about football and hangovers but it can also be about the waltz. The San Diego Symphony is taking a chapter out of Vienna's book and offering a concert of waltzes on Tuesday January 1st. …

Featuring a core group of Gerald Clayton on piano, Hamilton Price on bass and Kevin Kanner on drums, the trumpeter invited tenor saxophonists Ben Schachter and Brian Levy to celebrate a group that dominated the Onyx for ten years.

It is difficult to imagine the San Diego jazz landscape without the Herculean amount of energy that trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos has infused it with since he came here 20-some years ago. Among the many things we have to thank him …

Most popular Jam Session entries of 2012

1) FM 94/9 Cancels Morning Talk Mikey Show by Barnaby Monk 2) Joe Walsh: Saving the World, One Monk at a Time by Dave Good 3) Lana Del Rey on SNL: Coup or Crap? Local Reaction by Jay Allen Sanford …

Alto saxophonist David Negrete joined forces with like-minded improvisers for a hypnotic and compelling set of original music.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/29/37610/ Alto saxophonist David Negrete returned to San Diego last night with Tribe of D, a quartet featuring NYC bassist Danny Weller, local piano hero Joshua White and LA drummer Dan Schnelle for a long set of riveting and spiritual, …

Dark metal band Daemos playing Feb. 2 w/Dumest Animals, On Decent, and Mojave Green

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/28/37571/ Daemos plays hardcore dark metal loud and aggressive enough to make Metallica cover its ears. The group has been haunting San Diego venues since the early '90s, as well as landing slots opening for Judas Priest at L.A.'s House …

AMSD hosting Sloan and Creed Bratton (Grass Roots) in Normal Heights Jan. 12

“I stayed in hiding for twenty-five years because people threatened to kill me,” says PF Sloan, songwriter behind '60s hits like “Secret Agent Man,” “Where Were You When I Needed You,” “California Dreamin’” and the anti-war anthem “Eve Of Destruction.” …

Perrin closes out the year in style, with three excellent concerts beginning this Friday with David Negrete, continuing Saturday with Gilbert Castellanos and concluding on Sunday with Mundell Lowe.

As the year 2012 winds down, the San Diego jazz scene heats up this weekend for a slew of must-see concerts. As it often does, this Friday begins with a conflict. The Gilbert Castellanos curated series at the Westgate Hotel …

Back to the Future themed party in East Village.

The Enchantment Under the Sea Dance was a pivotal affair for a young unstuck-in-time Marty McFly. It was here that Marty successfully got his teenage future-parents to fall in love and thereby prevented himself from being erased from existence while …

Alternative electronic dance night brings in the New Year at Spin Nightclub

Promoter Bryen Beglinger started Wobble Events nearly two years ago as an underground answer to what he saw as uninspired, mainstream nightlife. “The mainstream is all about being treated like cattle by bouncers herding you in to buy $13 drinks …

Rataplan means rataplan in comic opera.

Chorus rehearsal started last week for San Diego Opera's production of Daughter of the Regiment. Even with all the Christmas music, there is one tune I cannot get out of my head. It goes like this, "Rataplan, rataplan, rataplan. Rataplan, …

O Holy Night will take a singer to the edge so give them a hug for New Years.

Once again O Holy Night turned into “O holy crap here comes the high note” There will be a day when I’m not riding that battle horse at eleven o’clock at night after a full day of kids, two hours …

No opera singer ever sang better than Bing and Karen

I've been listening to a lot of the KOGO 95.7 Christmas mix this season. There are a lot of repeat songs but you get to hear a lot different singers sing them. A few things have impressed and terrified me …

A rundown of artists and bands hitting Los Angeles, but skipping San Diego this month.

Every music fan in San Diego is all too familiar with the traditional skipping of America’s Finest City by some of America’s laziest bands. We all know the pattern: Play Phoenix or San Francisco, hit LA and then COMPLETELY SKIP …

Bar Pink hosting Pony Death Ride's release party for Not a Foal, Not Yet a Horse Jan. 15

"We had no idea that this year is the 50th anniversary of Beatlemania, but we're really lucky it turned out that way," says Jaye MacAskill, who with husband Joe is one half of Pony Death Ride, whose full-length Not a …

Future beat technician Mike Gao releases second full-length album.

Mike Gao's sophomore LP dropped yesterday via L.A. label Huh What & Where. Elaborating on textures from his April, 2011 debut Sun Shadows, Beta World Peace showcases Gao’s signature lurching bass lines, asymmetrical percussion, and glowing synth leads - orchestrated …

Ian Tordella and Gerard Nolan lit fires and swung like crazy.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/22/37327/ Local tenor sax man Ian Tordella teamed up with musician Gerard Nolan Thursday night at 98 Bottles for a concert billed as Twin Tenors, evoking a time in jazz history ('50s & '60s), when such pairings were commonplace. There …

Last year, it was Jeff Kaiser's massive 23 piece "big band" that earned top honors. This year, it's a solo concert for contrabass.

The San Diego jazz talent pool is deep, very deep. So much so that after attending more than 200 shows this year, and taking days to sort through them all for this list of the top-twenty, 18-time Grammy winning guitarist …

San Diego/Tijuana minimal garage rockers The Electric Healing Sound will be playing at Moustache Bar on Calle Sexta and Madero in Zona Centro, Tijuana tomorrow, Saturday, December 22. Moustache Bar is a cozy venue a block east of Revolucion that …

After over a dozen lineup changes, here's (today's) band roster...

Pathology's former singer Matti Way and former guitarist Tim Tiszczenko are back in the local metal outfit, while latterday members Jonathan Huber and Oscar Ramirez are out. For today, anyway. "Pathology is happy to announce the return of singer Matti …

A night of ’80s boogie funk, beats, baby-makin’ medleys, future funk, and future wife jams

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/19/37212/ Sweet Cheeks host Mawkus Every third Wednesday, hosts Mawkus and Bencey coat happening downtown cocktail lounge El Dorado (1030 Broadway) with a rich layer of “future sexual chocolate” — a mingling of ’80s boogie funk, beats, baby-makin’ medleys, future …

Musicians and music industry locals name their favorite hometown CD releases of the year

DIANA DEATH / Rock N Roll Preservation Society: The New Kinetics In Stereo "I'm stoked they put out their second album on vinyl, and the last track on side one, "Reverie," is a haunting doo-wop number you just gotta hear." …

Roni Lee is the latest local to get ripped off while playing House of Blues

"Leaving the House of Blues tonight," Roni Lee posted on Facebook last night, "car windows broken, band gear, iPad etc stolen. Christmas presents to mom and dad (sorry guys), CDs. Sigh. BUT, good news, I take my PRS [guitar] everywhere …

NYC based artist brought solo violin and electronics to the East Village.

Bonnie Wright's Fresh Sound concert series continued Tuesday night at Space 4 Art with a solo violin/electronics performance from NYC artist Todd Reynolds to an almost-packed house. Reynolds began "Trans America," by sputtering vocals into a microphone, which activated a …

When you listen to patrons, you realize Mozart shopped at Walmart.

I enjoy eavesdropping when I'm at a classical music concert because it's a win/win situation. I've heard illuminating conversations and spectacularly mundane conversations, both are good. The illuminating is obviously beneficial but what of the glorious mundane? Whenever we hear …

The San Diego Symphony gives a fantasy performance of Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique.

The second half of the San Diego Symphony concert was Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique. Nuvi Mehta came out and talked us through the different episodes of the symphony and the feminine inspiration behind them. The insights that Mehta shares are invaluable. …

Destiny forces itself politely while Jeremy Denk gets quirky with it.

The San Diego Symphony put on a well-balanced, well-played, and well-received concert on Saturday night at Symphony Hall. The program was Verdi's overture to La Forza del Destino, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21, and Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique. The Verdi was …

Experimental beat monthly Liquid Geometry goes out with a boom

The apocalypse. Here it is, in just five days. The Big One. It’s amazing to think that just a work week away, life as we know it will be inverted in dimensions we never knew existed. Everything we know about …

Instrumental math rock outfit returns from hiatus to go out with a bang

Heralding the end of the world (just in case), polyrhythmic instrumental mathematicians Japandi are reuniting for a couple of shows after a two year hiatus which saw members joining up with outfits including Cults, Weatherbox, and Realization Orchestra. Decorative Duck …

On this day in local rock history, the DKs played one of their final shows with Jello Biafra

12-14-85: The Dead Kennedys played one of their final shows with original singer Jello Biafra, at downtown’s California Theater. As the set wrapped up, raucous fans tore up the seats and pulled curtains down from walls, causing police to call …

A ton of fans and musicians made Castellanos's debut at the North Park venue a night to remember

San Diego trumpet master Gilbert Castellanos opened a new chapter in the local jam-session era last night with his premier performance at Seven Grand located at 3054 University in North Park. I am happy to report that by most tangible …

Local jazz musicians gather in a private jam session to sharpen their skills

I'm traveling north on the 15 freeway in a small car with a drummer and a trumpet player. It gets dark early this time of year, and the premature evening has come with fog. We proceed at a snail's pace. …

Claudeo returns home after gaining friends, experiences, and a few pounds on tour

Indie electronic pop duo Claudeo recently returned from a U.S. tour that included dates in Stanley, Idaho (pop. 100), New Orleans, and an impromptu festival date in San Antonio, Texas. Cue up Claudeo’s debut Sing it Out EP as half …

92 year-old sitar master, Encinitas (by way of India) resident and musical legend was just nominated for a 2013 Grammy Award

Indian musical legend Ravi Shankar has passed away. The 92 year old's album Living Rooms Sessions Part 1 (recorded at his Encinitas home) was just this past week nominated for a Grammy Award as Best World Music Album. Ravi Shankar …

New album Tiresian Symmetry concerns Tiresias, blind seer said to have lived seven different lifetimes

"Mythology seems related to the kinds of storytelling that we, as jazz musicians, like to do," says former San Diegan Jason Robinson, whose new full-length Tiresian Symmetry concerns Tiresias, a blind seer said to have lived seven different lifetimes. "I'm …

Lovers Andrea and Maddalena decide to get their heads cut off as one.

After revisiting La mamma morta I went ahead and did a YouTube survey of about a dozen different performances of the finale duet from Andrea Chenier, Vicino a te. The real Andrea Chenier was a poet from the French Revolution …

Orchestra Nova files for chapter seven bankruptcy.

“Orchestra Nova is announcing today that it has decided to cease operations and has filed a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy case. This announcement is the result of the impasse in our negotiations with the Local 325 American Federation of Musicians …

Wilson's "Christmas Tree-O" put an entirely new spin on yuletide classics.

NYC-based drummer Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O landed in San Diego last night to deliver two sets of fractured Holiday classics that ranged from the hard swinging to blistering free jazz and comic-strip joviality, sometimes in the course of the same …

Remember that movie where Tom Hanks had AIDS? It also had opera.

A fellow chorister from San Diego Opera posted a question on the chorus group's wall. She was asking for suggestions for a mix CD of opera highlights she was putting together for her mother-in-law. There was a tremendous response and …

Exclusive Spirit comic strip bio and complete history of local shows w/setlists, photos, more

RIP Ed "Cass" Cassidy - the drummer and co-founder of Spirit died yesterday (Dec. 6) at the age of 89. Damn. He'd been in a nursing home, having been diagnosed with prostate cancer several months ago. Here's my Spirit Rock …

Jessica Crosby of IB re-invents that scene from the movie Pitch Perfect, the one where Anna Kendrick sings and gets jiggy at the same time with a drinking cup

A commercial photographer named Jessica Crosby sent me a link to a music video she made and posted on Youtube. It's just her, doing an inspired cover version of "Cups" from the film Pitch Perfect. I admit -- at first, …

Limited run Eddie Vedder radio show airing this week, talks up his San Diego days on XM

This week, famous former neighbor Eddie Vedder is hosting a new, limited-run show on SiriusXM's Pearl Jam Radio channel, the Eddie Vedder Radio Show, which premiered on December 5 on Pearl Jam Radio, channel 22. He's been playing many of …

Ambient dreamgazers PL DVNA and craft grapefruit IPA at Nony House

A few weeks ago, my old friend Kyle and I headed down to Tijuana to see what we could get into. Kyle, visiting from San Francisco, hadn’t been to Tijuana in years, and even then he admittedly stuck to the …

A Scribe Amidst the Lions dropping "by far the strangest album we've ever made"

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/06/36532/ "This is by far the strangest album we've ever made," says A Scribe Amidst the Lions frontman Kris Towne of their new full-length Last Sting Trilogy Volumes II & III, which drops on Tuesday, December 11, with a release …

Forecast jazz duo playing Humane Society’s annual Holiday Doggie Café concert

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/05/36527/ "For the eighth year in a row, the Forecast Jazz Duo will be playing jazzed up versions of your favorite holiday songs along with a wide variety of classic jazz and standards from the Great American Songbook," says flutist …

Anthology suspends booking for repairs, refurbishment, upgrades

Anthology, the high-end restaurant/music venue in Little Italy, is temporarily postponing its concert schedule. No national acts have been booked for 2013, says co-owner Howard Berkson. "We're spending a few days in January to close to assess the scope of …

Athenaeum Jazz's Dan Atkinson brings the explosive drummer to the Park Blvd. venue for an evening of Holiday classics like you've never heard.

Once again, jazz decisions must be made for Friday, Dec. 7. On one hand, the weekly series at the Westgate Hotel hosted by trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos is always a "can't miss" proposition, especially when LA pianist Joe Bagg and the …

The legendary film composer visits San Diego for two concerts.

John Williams will be conducting the San Diego Symphony this coming weekend. Yes, it’s that John Williams, the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Close Encounters, Harry Potter, E. T., Schindler’s List, et al John Williams. The concerts will be on …

After being off the radar for five years, the composer returns to action with a soon-to-be released CD, and a sold out show featuring many of SD's finest improvisers.

Reclusive composer/pianist Joe Garrison staged a triumphant return to action last night with a sold-out, standing-room-only performance of his all-star San Diego ensemble Night People at the new Dizzy's. Opening with a delicious 5 horn sigh of dissonance, Night People …

How to start a band without being a jackass

Two-and-a-half years after beginning the project, writer and one-man band Toothless George is ready to release his book, Band Together: The Definitive Entry Level Guide to Forming a Rock Band. The 200 page opus includes advice from prominent voices in …

Sacra/Profana serves up a variety of musical styles along with homemade cookies.

The choral group Sacra/Profana gave a free community Christmas concert Sunday night at Mission Hills United Methodist. The atmosphere was casual and relaxed. The singers wore decorative Christmas sweaters and scarfs. The program for the concert was included 16th century …

Unveiling a new, seven-part suite, trombone virtuoso Dessen led his ace trio into a remarkable ebb and flow of organic intensity.

A less than voluminous audience gathered at Space4Art last night for the Michael Dessen Trio, perhaps because of competing options--who knows? It brought to mind George Foreman's observation that the problem with jazz is, "The better it gets, the less …