A joyous celebration of departed ancestors, Bon is a Japanese Buddhist festival that’s been marked for more than five centuries with a traditional dance known as Bon-Odori. Held in conjunction with the 16th World Buddhist Women’s Convention across the street at the Marriott Marquis, American Bon Dancing – An Invitation to Dance features an array […]
Songs of Love Honoring Migrants And Refugees ** Updated 09.06.19: Download song lyrics to sing along at the concert. ** As the draconian response to the crisis on the southern border continues to wrench children away from parents seeking safety and opportunity, Bay Area artists have been working together to formulate a response to the […]
A creative force since 2000, the wildly eclectic Jazz Mafia collective brings together many of the Bay Area's most creative and accomplished jazz instrumentalists, soul vocalists, hip-hop MCs and composer/arrangers. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the Jazz Mafia’s most ambitious work to date, the SFJAZZ-commissioned Brass, Bows & Beats: A Hip-Hop Symphony. Premiered […]
Faisal Zedan The great Bay Area band Kugelplex is steeped in the secular, celebratory music of Eastern European Jewry, preserving and building on a tradition that was almost wiped out by the Holocaust. Always looking to collaborate—they’ve worked widely with powerhouse soul/funk/jazz singer Linda Tillery—the group teams up with Syrian-born percussion master Faisal Zedan his […]
La Misa Negra is one reason why Oakland maintains its vaunted reputation as a proving ground for new sounds. Steeped in cumbia but inspired by the Afro-Caribbean rhythmic continuum, this seven-piece combo brings the compressed energy of punk rock and the call-and-response cadences of hip hop to the Latin music dance floor. Founded in 2011 by […]