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Entries
Orchestra? No va
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 …
Reinventing Christmas music with the Matt Wilson Trio
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 …
Tom and Denzel
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 …
RIP Spirit drummer Ed Cassidy: w/ Spirit in San Diego concert archive
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 …
In her cups
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, …
Eddie Vedder gets Sirius
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 …
Divine Skin in Tijuana
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 …
Out there, man
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 …
Live local jazz is going to the dogs on Friday, Dec. 7
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 …
Pardon our dust
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 …
Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O: Dec. 7, Jazz at The Studio
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 …
John Williams
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 …
SRO for Joe Garrison & Night People
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 …
Band Together: rock band guide book release party
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 …
Cookies and choral music
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 …
Michael Dessen Trio: Resonating Abstractions @ Space4Art
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 …
Strange Stage Stories from San Diego Musicians: Chris Warner (Jet West), Bill Ray (Ike Turner), Nena Anderson and more...
Chris Warner of Jet West, Nena Anderson, Bill Ray of Ike Turner's Band, Drew Douglass aka Grandpadrew and Bob Sale of Rockola etc., relate odd and interesting moments that have happened while performing...
Nena Anderson - “At a show with Cash'd Out in Aspen, CO, I had a bottle of whiskey sitting on top of my amp and the band also had a pitcher of beer on the stage. A man got on …
Free Jazz Reality Television
Join the struggle of all music to be free.
This Sunday, December 2 at the UCSD Department of Music, percussionist and performance artist Leah Bowden will present an evening of “Free Jazz and Reality Television” featuring compositions by Cecil Taylor, Sven-Ake Johansson, Peter Brotzmann, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Clint …
Review: JazzMikan+ / Preview: Leah Bowden D.M.A. recital
Zlatkovich and company delivered a blistering fusion set at Anthology; Drummer Leah Bowden will draw on music from Peter Brotzmann, Cecil Taylor and her own pen Sunday at UCSD.
Mikan Zlatkovitch brought his unique conception of "jazz-fusion" into Anthology last night for an evening of wide-ranging, virtuosic and rhythmically challenging music, fueled by the electric bass of Dave Curtis and the powerhouse drumming of Duncan Moore. Opening as a …
Family Matters: esoteric bass and beats collective opens to public
A rare open session by the monthly meeting of musical minds at Kava Lounge
For over a year-and-a-half, some of San Diego’s most innovative electronic music producers have been getting together for under-the-radar hob nobs at the Kava Lounge (2812 Kettner – Middletown) to share formative sounds with fellow musicians. Kava manager and musician …