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 […]
Above photo: AXIS dancers DeMarco Sleeper, Lani Dickinson, Yuko Monden Juma, AJ Guevara and JanpiStar. Photo by David DeSilva. For more than three decades, AXIS Dance Company has insistently stretched the possibilities of dance. Founded in 1987 and located in Oakland, the contemporary dance institution is the nation’s most acclaimed company featuring disabled and […]
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 […]
Lines and lyrics from Litquake Nation! Enjoy line breaks during your lunch break, as some of the Bay Area’s best poets and musicians share their work in the great outdoors. Natasha Dennerstein was born in Melbourne, Australia. She spent many years working as a psychiatric nurse which gave her an interesting perspective on the human condition. She […]
Launched in the drizzly climes of Portland, Oregon by smoky-toned singer Gillian Wolfe and producer, guitarist and harmony vocalist Tyler Ryan Miller, Tumbledown House has thrived since relocating to the Bay Area in 2012, honing a sinewy, speakeasy sound with some of the region’s finest musicians. Focusing on beautifully crafted original songs, the band balances […]
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 […]
About a decade ago Anita Lofton was known as one of the hardest rockin’ guitarists around, a gonzo player whose punk power trio Sistas In the Pit opened for Iggy and the Stooges on their 2007 reunion tour, including a near-legendary show at the Warfield celebrating Iggy Pop’s 60th birthday. But somewhere along the line, […]
Raised by Angolan parents in Congo’s capital Kinshasa (when the country was known as Zaire), charismatic Los Angeles vocalist Ricardo Lemvo has honed an irresistibly grooving Afro-salsa sound, blending Congolese rumba and soukous with Cuban charanga and son. Belting out his original songs in Spanish, Portuguese, Lacumi, Kikongo and Lingala, Lemvo is a longtime favorite in Yerba […]
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 […]
Oakland-reared Kev Choice is a renaissance man with hip hop and jazz running through his veins. Committed to creating hip hop that uplifts, informs and inspires, he’s a leading force on the Bay Area scene with four critically hailed solo albums and various ambitious compositions, like 2017’s Oakland Symphony-commissioned orchestral work “Soul Restoration Suite.” The […]
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 […]
The Community Music Center’s Older Adult Choir program was conceived in 2011 as a way to reach out to older adults and provide them with the many personal, social, artistic and quality of life benefits that musical activity can bring. This joyful concert features the CMC Aquatic Park Older Adult Choir and guest musicians, conducted […]