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Entries
We just got handed an envelope, man...
Bands often get paid based on how many fans they bring in the door. On Wednesday, April 3, local glam rockers Purple Church may have set a record. They got paid an eye-popping $100 for each head they brought through …
Geoffrey Keezer: solo piano April 9, @ Jazz Live
The brilliant pianist performs a rare home-town gig at SD City College
Virtuoso pianist Geoffrey Keezer will perform solo, on April 9, at Jazz Live, on the campus of San Diego City College in the Saville Theatre at 8 pm. It's easy to forget sometimes that Keezer lives in our fair town. …
Temecula: Lightning in a Bottle announces lineup
Art, music, and wellness festival relocates to Temecula with biggest lineup to date.
Lightning in a Bottle just announced the lineup for their July 11-14 art and music festival at a Toonami and Adult Swim. Australian glitch hop gypsy Kayla Scintilla conjures visions of the deep East and inner realms with organic instrumentation …
Gerald Clayton Quartet live in La Jolla
Clayton's group delivered an excellent example of modern, small group improvising.
Athenaeum Jazz led off their new concert series with a performance by the Gerald Clayton Quartet on April 3, at TSRI in La Jolla, featuring special guest tenor saxophonist Mark Turner alongside Joe Sanders on bass, Justin Brown on drums …
SpringFest 2013: a week of experimental music
UCSD hosts multi-venue experimental music and performance art festival.
A couple of years ago, my former roommate Eli took me to a party on a fire road in the hills of Descanso, where a handful of UCSD kids had built a small stage and projector screen to showcase a …
V Elements festival integrates alternative power and wellness at Liberty Station
The nation's largest solar sound and stage setup comes to Point Loma
Alternative comedy was popularized in the ‘80s. Alternative music broke through in the ‘90s. Alternative media found a new outlet via the user-generated information boom of the ‘00s. Now, local pioneers of alternative power and wellness are coming together to …
Rez Abbasi, Mark Dresser, Satoshi Takeishi : Live
Free wheeling solos and rhythmic adventure characterized this excellent trio of sonic explorers.
These Bonnie Wright concerts just keep getting better. On the last day of March, NYC guitarist Rez Abbasi assembled a special trio with his longtime associate Satoshi Takeishi on drums and SD bassist Mark Dresser for a riveting performance of …
The difficult life of Josquin
Josquin had family members burned alive, had his employer arrested by a king, and escaped the plague.
While looking for information about musical settings of David’s lament--”Absalom, oh my son" etc, I found Josquin des Prez. Josquin’s setting of Absalom, fili mi is quintessential High Renaissance music. Josquin was born in 1450 and died in 1521. Some …
Joshua White, Tripp Sprague & Gunnar Biggs @ Westgate Hotel
Three masters explore, deconstruct, and reinvent standards in the moment.
Piano virtuoso Joshua White cemented another step in his quest for self-fulfillment on March 29, with a smoking performance at the Westgate Hotel featuring tenor saxophonist Tripp Sprague and bassist Gunnar Biggs. Unwinding soft honeyed tones over the solid time …
Robin Adler & Mutts of the Planet: April 6
The next best thing to seeing Joni Mitchell herself is catching Mutts of the Planet.
"We're looking forward to presenting a newly learned suite of Joni music on April 6, and have been spending the last few months in preparation so we can honor it properly," says Mutts of the Planet guitarist Dave Blackburn, "It …
RIP Paul Williams, North County rock journalist
Crawdaddy Magazine founder and Dylan biographer passes away
North County writer Paul Williams has passed away after a long illness, at the age of 64. The founder of Crawdaddy Magazine (the first national U.S. magazine of rock music journalism) also wrote several noted biographies, including what many consider …
Four new local jazz releases
Road Work Ahead, Rob Thorsen, Steph Johnson and the Peter Sprague String Consort all have brand-new discs available.
Four local jazz recordings hit the open market this month, including efforts by Road Work Ahead, the Steph Johnson Trio, Rob Thorsen Trio and the Peter Sprague String Consort. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/27/42696/ This group began as the Bob Magnusson Quartet back in …
Eric Whitacre
A brief introduction to living composer Eric Whitacre
As promised, we’re going to look closer at When David Heard by Eric Whitacre. According to Whitacre’s website: “The text, one single, devastating sentence, is from the King James Bible; II Samuel, 18:33:” ‘When David heard that Absalom was slain …
Shrinking the carbon footprint with a "virtual" tour
Using technology only available at certain universities, jazz musicians are performing together from different geographic locations.
UCSD's contrabass virtuoso Mark Dresser strikes boldly into the world of technology in a series of concerts coordinated from the UC campus, with a core quartet featuring flutist Nicole Mitchell, trombonist Michael Dessen, and pianist Myra Melford--performing live in real …
Rez Abbasi Trio: March 31
Expect sparks to fly when the guitarist performs with fellow New Yorker, SatoshiTakeishi and SD bass great Mark Dresser.
Bonnie Wright's Fresh Sound @ Space 4 Art concludes this month with a bang by virtue of a performance from the Rez Abbasi Trio on March 31, at 8 pm. Abbasi won #2 Rising Star Guitarist in the Down Beat …
Musician murdered in guitar shop robbery
Down in the valley
Singer/guitarist Larry Robinson, who once played in the “summer of love” band Things to Come, was a roadie for Canned Heat, and was known to many for his open mics in Fallbrook and Temecula, was brutally beaten Friday night, March …
The son dies and the father laments
The story of King David and his favorite son Absalom.
“And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, …
Prince is coming to downtown's Hard Rock Hotel?!
$250 "standing room only" tix for shows on May 3 and 4
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/22/42432/ Twice now, I've had tix for Prince concerts that ended up being cancelled. The last time, I actually camped out in front of Cox Arena to score "purple section" seats up front, only to have the little stinker cancel …
Hills Like Elephants celebrate release of Feral Flocks at Bar Pink
"Motown with keyboards" quintet drops sophomore album in North Park.
Just back from a weeks of nonstop shows at SXSW in Austin, Hills Like Elephants will be celebrating the release of the sophomore album, Feral Flocks (Requiemme Records/BMG Chrysalis), on Friday, March 29 at Bar Pink with Barbarian and Keith …
Danielle LoPresti battling stage III non-Hodgkins lymphoma cancer.
Her band is "taking a break indefinitely until Danielle is restored back to full health"
"Life wildly turns, and sometimes it wraps around our hunger, to teach from the burn..." - "Run With It," Danielle LoPresti http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/21/42385/ "Two months ago, Danielle was diagnosed with Stage III Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer," according to a statement circulated today …