From classic jazz to the cutting edge, there’s so much to see at San Jose Jazz Summer Fest. Here is a round-up of great performers taking stages all over downtown San Jose this weekend.

Tia Brazda
Sat, 2:30pm
Jade Leaf Stage
A popular fixture on the festival circuit, the Canadian jazz vocalist has a sultry, kittenish voice that floats above the big-band arrangements found on her debut EP (2012’s Cabin Fever) and her thrilling 2015 full-length, Bandshell. That album presents a variety of jazz styles, positioning the Toronto-based singer as a kind of walking musical catalog of 20th century jazz styles. Overall, Brazda’s approach has one foot in the tradition of postwar big-band jazz, with the other planted firmly in a modern sensibility; the result is music that should please fans of old-school jazz as well as those who prefer a less retro-minded musical aesthetic. (BK)

Pedrito Martinez
Sat, 3pm
Hammer Theatre Stage
The music of Cuban expatriate Pedrito Martinez is built around percussion. Martinez was the recipient of the 2000 Thelonious Monk Award for Afro-Latin Hand Percussion, and he was a founding member of Yerba Buena. In 2005 he started his own group. The Pedrito Martinez Group released its self-titled debut album in 2013; it was nominated for  a Grammy Award. Habana Dreams followed in 2016, earning raves from critics and soaring to the No. 1 Latin Albums spot on NPR’s Jazz Critics Top Jazz Albums poll. His band brings together some of the finest players in the Americas. (BK)

Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio
Sat, 5pm
Hammer Theatre Stage
The “Doctor” may be an honorific title, and the turban is a fashion accessory, but when it comes to soulful jazz, Dr. Lonnie Smith is as real as it gets. A master of the Hammond B-3 organ, Smith plays with inventiveness, nuance and style. He co-led a jazz quartet in the 1960s with guitarist George Benson, and began his solo career in 1967. With more than two dozen albums in a funky, soulful vein, he’s one of the most expressive exponents of the B-3. His most recent release—2016’s Evolution—is an exemplar of his kinetic, engaging musical approach, but Smith and his trio truly deserve to be experienced live. Keep an eye on that walking cane of his: it’s more than it appears. (BK)

Samantha Fish
Sat, 5:15pm
Blues/Big Easy Stage
Though the Kansas City native came to fame as a fiery electric guitar-slinging blueser, in recent years Fish has expanded her musical vision. Earlier this year she released Chills & Fever, a garage and R&B collection featuring members of the Detroit Cobras. And her upcoming album—described by those who’ve heard it as “a swampy mofo”—moves in an Americana direction, with production from Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars. But no matter what style the 28-year-old singer-guitarist pursues, she does it with authenticity and enthusiasm. And she never, ever leaves behind her blues roots nor her sizzling guitar work. (BK)

Jackie Gage
Sat, 10pm
Jade Leaf Stage
Vocalist Jackie Gage got her start as a jazz singer in San Jose before relocating to New York to pursue her dream. While she’s remained true to her jazz roots, she has expanded her repertoire, showing her ability to apply her talents to electronica and hip-hop. Gage’s debut album, 2016’s Siren Songs is a collection of original songs and new interpretations of standards. And it’s a concept album, one centered around the legend of the siren who lures sailors to their rocky demise. Siren Songs displays Gage’s command of soul, rhythm and blues, and—most notably—the torchy jazz with which she began her career. (BK)

Peanut Butter Wolf
Sat, 10:30pm
Blues/Big Easy Stage, San Jose
This won’t be Peanut Butter Wolf’s first show in San Jose. Not even close. The beatmaker and Stones Throw label head actually got his start here. In fact, one of his first gigs was spinning for KSJS, San Jose State’s college radio station. Decades later a lot has changed, but the music hasn’t. Though he hasn’t been producing as much lately, Wolf—a.k.a. Chris Manak—is still an expert selector with a penchant for spinning up great mixes full of off-kilter beats and classic deep cuts. As one of the earliest fans and promoters of J. Dilla’s music, his set is certain to be jazzy. (YK)

Robert Glasper Experiment
Sat, 9pm
Blues/Big Easy Stage, San Jose
As the name of his current project suggests, Robert Glasper is not afraid to try something new. He and his band play a forward-thinking brand of jazz fusion with a particular focus on in the intersection between jazz, R&B and hip-hop. Glasper’s most recent album, 2016’s ArtScience, features a heavy dose of old-fashioned jazz instrumentation, guitars, keyboards, auto-tuned vocals and plenty of electronic flourishes that all sound oddly at home together. (YK)

Joomanji
Sat, 5:15pm
SJZ Boom Box Stage, San Jose
What started as three friends at UCSC messing around in their spare time between classes has bloomed into six-piece L.A. jazz and hip-hop outfit Joomanji. The group blend live instrumentation with chopped-up instrumental samples ripped from their vinyl collection. Many of the songs on their 2013 full-length, Manji, skew toward hip-hop, but no matter where you are on the tracklist you’re never far from some beautiful jazz instrumentation either. Rapper Austin Antoine and singer Lindsay Olsen will appear alongside the rest of the band for this year’s Summer Fest. (YK)

Jazz by 5
Sun, 2pm & 7pm
Main Stage & Hammer Theatre Stage
Jazz of the 1950s was often characterized by ad-hoc groupings of top-notch players; rather than establishing and maintaining a set group, players would assemble the best musicians for the project at hand. That’s the modern-day mindset of this collective, featuring some of the most respected names in jazz. Trumpeter Randy Brecker has played with everyone from Blood, Sweat & Tears to fusion pioneers Eleventh House, from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers to Frank Zappa to his own Brecker Brothers band. Bassist Eddie Gomez is best known for his long tenure in the Bill Evans Trio. Drummer, former Miles Davis sideman and and NEA Jazz Masters award recipient Jimmy Cobb is a jazz legend. George Cables (piano) has released nearly three dozen albums as bandleader. The youngest of the lot, saxophonist Javon Jackson is the head of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford (Connecticut). (BK) 

Taimane
Sun, 2:30pm
Jade Leaf Stage
In recent years the ukulele has earned some long-due respect. In the hands of staggeringly accomplished players like Jake Shimabukuro, the diminutive stringed instrument has been shown to possess great expressiveness and musical versatility. Hawaiian artist Taimane Gardner is a bright star in the ukulele idiom. Unconstrained by genre classification, she is as likely to play songs typically associated with hard rock as she is to dazzle with flamenco-style musicianship, classical and jazz. And her original material—showcased on three studio albums including her latest, 2015’s thematically unified We Are Made of Stars—distills those varying styles into something the 28-year-old can truly call her own. (BK)

Maceo Parker
Sun, 4pm
Main Stage
Funk royalty, saxophonist Maceo Parker made his name as a key member of James Brown’s band. He was part of the Parliament-Funkadelic collective for a decade, and after years as a sideman, stepped out full-time as a bandleader with 1990’s Roots Revisited. Never completely forsaking his sideman status, Parker lent his talents to recordings by a wide array of artists in the ’80s onward, and supported Prince on a number of concert dates in the 2ist century. His most recent album is 2012’s Soul Classics, a live album that finds him backed by the WDR Big Band. And live onstage is where he truly shines: at 74, the indomitable Parker still maintains a packed schedule of concert dates. (BK)

Naughty Professor
Sun, 2pm
Blues/Big Easy Stage, San Jose
New Orleans soul and funk outfit Naughty Professor are having a busy 2017. Luckily for San Jose they still managed to find time to stop by and show off their rock solid groove. The band’s eclectic style has allowed them to collaborate with a diverse set of artists, including Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na and New Orleans singer songwriter Dexter Gilmore. Only a little over a year out from the release of their last album, 2016’s In the Flesh, the guys say they already have a ton of fresh material in the works. (YK)

Youth Performances
Various Times
Various Stages
A long-standing focus of the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest has been the showcasing of young talent; 2017’s schedule is no different. This year’s lineup includes two performances each by the San Jose Jazz High School All Stars, the Monterey Jazz Festival High School Honor Vocal Jazz Ensemble, the San Jose Jazz Summer Camp Combo, and Junior Dixieland Czech Republic. Also on the bill featuring up-and-coming talent are Mariachi Los Toritos, the Valley Christian Jazz Combo, Genius Wesley Quartet, Mikailo Kasha Group, Mr. Clifford’s Young Jazz All Stars, the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco, East Bay Jazz High School All-Stars, and the Mike Sanchez Septet. (BK)

—Yousif Kassab & Bill Kopp

When hip-hop heads lovingly refer to the “West Coast sound” or Prince fans regale his potent pairing of musical prowess and sartorial eccentricity—or when a kid in suburbia picks up a bass after hearing “Give It Away” by Red Hot Chili Peppers, or a new Talking Heads convert is pulled into the fold after watching the synth-punk-worldbeat collision in the new wave band’s seminal concert film, Stop Making Sense—it all leads back to one far-out dude from Plainfield, New Jersey. Call it the six degrees of George Clinton.

The ringmaster of a rotating collective of virtuosic musicians known as Parliament-Funkadelic, Clinton has been making music and influencing the world of pop tunes for more than 60 years. During this time he’s helped to define the genre of funk, create a sub-genre—aptly dubbed P-Funk—and provide the backbone for a sub-genre of gangster rap, known as G-Funk.

At 76 years old, Clinton is still touring and keeping his finger on the pulse of contemporary culture. That’s him performing the spoken word intro to “Wesley’s Theory,” the opening salvo on Kendrick Lamar’s blistering, jazz-infused sophomore LP, To Pimp A Butterfly. He’s partnering with Flying Lotus to release his forthcoming album on the taste-making producer’s boutique label, Brainfeeder. And he continues to tour the country—he and Parliament-Funkadelic headline the main stage of San Jose Jazz Summer Fest on Friday night.

How does the septuagenarian stay so funky fresh? A healthy lifestyle probably isn’t the answer. In a Rolling Stone interview from 2014, Clinton admitted to smoking crack well into his 60s. If you ask him, the key is that he’s always on the lookout for the next big sound.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” Clinton says on a recent afternoon, speaking over the phone from his home in Tallahassee, Florida.

Starting his career leading a doo-wop group called The Parliaments, Clinton parlayed that into a job at Motown, where he rubbed elbows with R&B greats like Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye. But even the Motown sound got old for Clinton. When he heard Led Zeppelin and other psychedelic rock bands of the late ’60s and early ’70s, he took notes—merging their lysergic aesthetics with the new, funkier rhythms of James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. He also took a page out of the playbook of artists like Sun Ra and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, mixing a healthy dose of afrofuturism into his sound and image.

“We changed to accommodate whatever was happening,” Clinton says, explaining his general philosophy for making music.

When rap took off in the ’80s, many record labels and artists fought back against the practice of sampling—claiming that the use of repurposed snippets of recorded audio constituted copyright infringement. Rick James sued MC Hammer over the latter’s use of the “Super Freak” hook on “Can’t Touch This.” Biz Markie went head to head with Gilbert O’Sullivan in front of a judge over a sample pulled from the track “Alone Again (Naturally).” But Clinton & Co. embraced the new creative mode.

“When they started sampling us in the ’80s, with hip-hop, we put out ‘Atomic Dog,’ which was a perfect song for that genre, and then we started catering to hip-hop,” he says.

Fans of early hip-hop will find samples of Clinton’s solo work and P-Funk all over the rap world. There’s “Me, Myself and I,” by De La Soul; “Bring the Noise” by Public Enemy—and of course many of the Dr. Dre-produced G-Funk beats, starting with the The Chronic in 1992.

While East Coast gangster rap sounds during the “golden era” of hip-hop were classified largely by stark, hard-chopped jazz samples and so-called “boom-bap” beats, there was something decidedly more funky going on in Southern California.

The G-Funk sound featured snaking monosynth leads, often referred to as the “G-Funk whistle,” buoyant bass lines performed on electric bass guitars (as opposed to the more muted sound of the upright acoustic jazz bass).

There are the direct samples, like on Snoop Dogg’s “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?,” as well as textures inspired by Clinton, such as the whistling monosynth lead deployed on “Gin and Juice,” and the computerized vocal hook on Tupac’s “California Love,” which comes courtesy of onetime Parliament-Funkadelic member Roger Troutman.

Scott Fulton, who works for San Jose Jazz coordinating the High School All Stars program and managing the SJZ Boom Box Project, says Clinton and P-Funk are easily one of his “all-time biggest influences.”

“To this day, there’s not another group that sounds the way they do,” he adds.

Clinton and his entourage truly excel at creating a festive atmosphere—through their stage show and their innovative approach to crafting party anthems consisting mostly of choruses, which allows audiences to sing along more easily and lose themselves in the experience. “You just can’t help moving your feet,” Fulton says. “It’s pandemonium.”

Which isn’t to say the music is simplistic. Fulton was inspired to pick up the bass after hearing the virtuosity of P-Funk bassist Bootsy Collins.

“Bootsy’s space bass was very unique,” he says, recalling the juicy auto-wah effect Collins often applied to his instrument. Additionally, Bootsy’s bass was often placed high up in the mix, where it worked as a sort of lead instrument, while a synthesizer played a simpler sub-bass line underneath it all.

The idea of a bass working as a lead is nothing new today, though back in the ’70s it was a revelation, Fulton says. “If you listen to (Primus bassist) Les Claypool’s bass, it is very related to Bootsy’s—the nastiness of it.”

And it was, in part, due to Clinton’s progressive stance on sampling that Fulton found his way to hip-hop, while the musicianship of Parliament-Funkadelic sent him digging up older jazz records. Fulton remembers the feeling of coming full circle when he realized the squiggling synth sample on “Me, Myself and I” was taken from Funkadelic’s “(Not Just) Knee Deep.”

“Connecting the dots on that was amazing,” he says.

Clinton’s acceptance of sampling, Fulton adds, was more than a savvy business move—it was a way of ensuring his legacy. “If a Parliament songs gets new life via a sample, then a whole new generation gets to participate.”

The legacy of Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic is preserved by the Smithsonian Institution, which recently acquired the “Mothership”—a stage prop the group toured with during the ’90s. The original Mothership from the ’70s could not be located, according to Kevin Strait, curator for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Part of the museum’s exhibit titled “Musical Crossroads,” the Mothership, Strait says, served as a visual representation of freedom and the potential of African Americans, which was at once forward looking as well as a tribute.

“The Mothership owes a nod to Sun Ra, Jimi Hendrix and other avant garde musicians who imagined space as a metaphor for freedom for African Americans beyond earthly constraints,” Strait says. “And it helped the audience understand that this was a new era of music making in general.”

George Clinton
Aug 11, 9:30pm, $20+
Main Stage, San Jose Jazz Summer Fest

Winter Fest is barely in the rear view mirror, but San Jose Jazz is already announcing it’s preliminary lineup for its flagship Summer Fest. This year, things are gonna be funky; George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic are topping the bill, along with Chris Botti, Maceo Parker, and The Whispers.

Tickets for the festival—which runs from Aug. 11-13—will unfold across 10 stages, with more than 120 performances at venues all over San Jose and around Silicon Valley. Early bird tickets are on sale now through April 24. For more details, read the press release below:

San Jose, Calif. — Silicon Valley’s premier annual music event, San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2017 returns for its 28th festival season from Friday, August 11 through Sunday, August 13 in and around Plaza de César Chavez Park in downtown San Jose, Calif. A showcase for jazz, blues, funk, R&B, salsa and related genres, SJZ Summer Fest is also nationally recognized as one of the biggest Latin festivals in the country. A standout summer destination for music lovers, concert-goers and families alike, the three-day event features 120+ performances on 10 stages, attracting tens of thousands of visitors to downtown throughout the weekend.

Three-day passes and single tickets are on sale at Early Bird prices now through April 24. Four distinct levels of access are offered to best experience SJZ Summer Fest. VIP, Priority and All Stages levels allow access to all outdoor stages plus four indoor venues: the beautiful Hammer Theatre, intimate Cafe Stritch and Jade Leaf Lounge, plus iconic Club Regent at the Fairmont San Jose, offering many of the festival’s premier world-class jazz and global artists indoors in air-conditioned, acoustically-rich environments. General Admission (GA) gives basic access to all outdoor stages only. Three-day passes: GA: $45 early bird through April 23, $60 advance April 24-July 31, $70 gate; All Stages (includes all indoor venues): $70 early bird through April 23; $90 advance April 24-July 31, $100 gate; Priority Access (skip-the-line privileges and more): $140 early bird through April 23, $160 advance April 24-July 31, $170 gate; VIP (exclusive main stage seating, complimentary food and wine, garage parking): $285 early bird through April 23, $325 advance April 24-July 31, $345 gate. Single day tickets, ranging from as low as $15 to $150 for a VIP experience advance, April 24-July 31; see website for benefits and pricing. All ticket prices will increase to Gate Price on August 1.

For nearly three decades, San Jose Jazz has embraced its steadfast commitment to presenting today’s most distinguished acts from around the world and homegrown Bay Area talent at one of North America’s foremost festivals: GRAMMY® Award-winning artists, the hottest salsa and Latin bands, classic jazz pioneers, world music stars, top local emerging musicians, and genre-busting hip-hop, R&B, and soul artists.

The 28th Annual San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2017 features an acclaimed lineup, and today San Jose Jazz announces its initial round of confirmed artists including Main Stage headliners: Chris Botti; George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic; Maceo Parker; The Whispers; Angélique Kidjo’s Celia Cruz Tribute with Pedrito Martinez; Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio; Jazz By Five with Javon Jackson, George Cables, Randy Brecker, Eddie Gomez & Jimmy Cobb; San Francisco String Trio with Mimi Fox, Mads Tolling and Jeff Denson; Cyrille Aimée; The Seshen; Pacific Mambo Orchestra; Danny Green Trio; Carmen Lundy; Sasha Masakowski; Emilio Solla Quartet; Dmitri Matheny Jazz Noir; Tia Brazda; Gregory Page; Kavita Shah; Ray Obiedo; Tommy Igoe Groove Conspiracy; Brian Andres Afro Cuban Cartel; Somos el Son; and additional artists to be announced!

Not only will SJZ Summer Fest 2017 transform downtown San Jose into an explosive hub of jazz, it’ll be the nation’s epicenter of Latin jazz, drawing on both a mix of internationally renowned Latin artists and top Bay Area salsa bands, co-curated by Mister Latin Jazz. The 2017 Salsa Stage includes featured sets by Pacific Mambo Orchestra, Brian Andres Afro Cuban Cartel, Somos el Son, and many other acts to be announced in the coming weeks.

Brendan Rawson, executive director of San Jose Jazz, comments about this year’s Summer Fest: “Summer Fest 2017 is gearing up to be an incredible weekend celebration of jazz in all its forms as well as jazz’s influence on so many contemporary styles of music including R&B, Latin, electronic, world and funk on 10 different stages. In addition to the outdoor Plaza Park setting for our Main Stage and the shady San Fernando and Post streets for our Salsa and Blues/Big Easy stages, we also have a couple of excellent new indoor venues involved this year including the newly revitalized Hammer Theatre. We’re also excited to welcome back the JazzWeek Summit conference (Aug 10-11) on the front end of Summer Fest that will bring broadcasters, artists, agents and label representatives together for two days of industry meetings before the Fest kicks off.”

Bruce Labadie, one of the founders, is the Artistic and Festival Director, and with the help of locally-based co-curators programs the artists for the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest.

Highlights of Confirmed Artists @ 28th Annual San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2017
Among the very few American trumpeters who’ve garnered the status of becoming a “household name,” Chris Botti won a GRAMMY® Award for his latest album, Impressions. Winning the GRAMMY® for “Best Pop Instrumental Album,” Impressions features Botti with special guest artists Andrea Bocelli, Vince Gill, Herbie Hancock, Mark Knopfler, and others in a warm, intimate celebration of melodic balladry. Botti is one of the world’s largest selling jazz instrumentalists; he has had four albums reach the No. 1 position on the Billboard jazz albums chart.

From revolutionizing R&B during the ’70s with three platinum albums and over 40 R&B hits to performing on Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 GRAMMY®-winning album To Pimp A Butterfly, George Clinton has remained a constant musical icon. He has received an MTV Music Video Award, a Gospel Music Association Dove Award and has been recognized by BMI, the NAACP Image Awards, and Motown Alumni Association for lifetime achievement. Clinton’s Parliament Funkadelic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

It’s nearly impossible to separate which came first, Maceo Parker or the funk as he’s played with each and every leader of funk, including James Brown, George Clinton and Prince. He’s collaborated with Ray Charles, Ani Difranco, James Taylor, De La Soul, Dave Matthews Band and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 2012, Maceo Parker was presented with Les Victoires du Jazz in Paris: Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to music and with an Icon Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam.

As one of R&B’s most beloved vocal groups, The Whispers produced a string of hits throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Their biggest hit, “And The Beat Goes On” was featured on their most successful album, The Whispers, which went double platinum. The Whispers’ 1987 release, Just Gets Better With Time, went platinum and featured R&B number one hit and US Top 10 pop entry, “Rock Steady.” The Whispers were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003 and were presented with the prestigious Governors Award by the San Francisco Chapter of the GRAMMY® Awards in 2005.

GRAMMY® Award-winning singer Angélique Kidjo is a definitive 21st century world artist who’s come to world acclaim through her recorded catalogue and collaborations with the likes of John Legend, Lionel Loueke, and Dianne Reeves. At Summer Fest 2017, Kidjo alongside Latin jazz percussionist phenom Pedrito Martinez pay tribute to the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz. The BBC included Kidjo in its list of the African continent’s 50 most iconic figures, and she’s the first woman to be listed among “The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities In Africa” by Forbesmagazine.

With a career spanning over five decades, Dr. Lonnie Smith is an unparalleled artist who stands as the preeminent Hammond B-3 organist in jazz today. At the age of 73, he’s still growing as an artist, as witnessed by his remarkable new Blue Note Records album, appropriately titled Evolution. The New York Times recently wrote that Smith “really seems to be up to something bigger than music, and older, and deeper.”

The quintet Jazz By Five is made up of established jazz musicians Javon Jackson, George Cables, Randy Brecker,Eddie Gomez, and Jimmy Cobb. Tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson has been a highly sought out composer, live performer and jazz educator since coming into international prominence through his work with the legendary Art Blakey. As a major voice in modern jazz, George Cables has performed and recorded with many jazz greats including Joe Henderson, Roy Haynes, Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Hutcherson and more. Jazz trumpeter and composer Randy Brecker has helped shape the sound of jazz, R&B and rock for more than four decades and his music has graced hundreds of albums by a wide range of artists such as James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan and Frank Zappa. Legendary bassist and two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning Eddie Gomez has performed and recorded with artists in all genres including Art Garfunkel, Jennifer Holliday, McCoy Tyner, and Nancy Wilson. Jazz drummer and elder statesman of all of Miles Davis’ bands, Jimmy Cobb has collaborated with an array of musicians and is an active performer in New York City, Japan, China, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and South Africa with his group Jimmy Cobb’s Mob.

Two-time GRAMMY® winner violinist Mads Tolling, six-time DownBeat Magazine International Critics Poll Winner guitarist Mimi Fox, and internationally acclaimed bassist and composer Jeff Denson, have forged their musical talents in a new group, the San Francisco String Trio. An all-acoustic ensemble defying categorization, the San Francisco String Trio provides its audiences with a poignant and compelling musical experience. Together, these singular artists have developed The Sgt. Pepper Project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of the groundbreaking Beatles album.

French-Dominican vocalist and actress Cyrille Aimée and winner of the Montreux Jazz Festival’s Vocal Competition, the Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Vocal Competition and finalist in the Thelonious Monk Vocal Competition, she is – in the words of Will Friedwald of The Wall Street Journal – “one of the most promising jazz singers of her generation.” The New York Times?referred to Aimée’s major label release, It’s a Good Day, as “a bravura turn, presented with a smile.”?Featuring originals as well as covers of classics, the band is the result of Aimee’s unique musical vision: bass, drums and three guitars (Brazilian, gypsy and jazz).

The San Francisco Bay Area-based six-piece, The Seshen, released their debut studio album, Flames & Figures, in 2016. They’ve garnered the attention from OkayPlayer, The Fader, and EarMilk. The Seshen remains in high demand and has performed alongside Hiatus Kaiyote, tUnE-yArDs, Thundercat, and Petite Noir.

The GRAMMY® Award winning 20-piece band hailing from San Francisco, Pacific Mambo Orchestra (PMO) is known for leading the rebirth of the Latin Big Band sound. Band members and contributors bring forth decades of collective experience playing with a variety of musical greats, from Dizzy Gillespie, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock and Tito Puente, to Art Garfunkel, Blood Sweat and Tears, Jerry Garcia and Mariah Carey.

Canadian-born Tia Brazda has a sparking presence on the jazz scene in Canada and beyond through performances in major international cities and at notable festivals including Bestival, Toronto International Jazz and Vancouver International Jazz. Her debut album, Bandshell, debuted at #1 on the iTunes Jazz Chart in Canada, was ranked #5 by Jazz FM 91 in Toronto on their list of Top 10 Canadian jazz albums of 2015, and it ranked at #24 on the CMJ national jazz radio chart in the U.S.

Pianist and composer Danny Green‘s music engages listeners with evocative melodies and infectious rhythms. Hailed as “one of the important up-and-comers on the scene today” by All About Jazz, Green hails out of the San Diego area and he’s performed at The Blue Whale, The Blue Note (NYC), TEDxUCSD and KSDS Jazz 88.3 Ocean Beach Jazz Festival.

Highly regarded for her innovative musicianship and songwriting, jazz singer Carmen Lundy has received noteworthy praises from The New York Times, Village Voice, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. As a composer, Lundy’s music has been recorded by artists Kenny Barron, Ernie Watts and Straight Ahead (with Regina Carter), among others. On her 2009 release, Solamente, Lundy arranged, produced, recorded, mixed and played every instrument on the entire album.

Listed as one of Vanity Fair’s top jazz musicians in the world, Sasha Masakowski‘s music is playful, charismatic and as spontaneous as her personality. She has earned a reputation internationally as a fearless improviser working often alongside other progressive musicians such as Jason Lindner, Zach Danziger, Cliff Hines and Aurora Nealand. She has performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival consecutively for five years and has toured across the United States, Asia, Europe and Central America.

GRAMMY® Award-nominated Argentina born and NY based pianist and composer Emilio Solla‘s first band Apertura was praised by Astor Piazzolla as “one of the most interesting sounds in the Buenos Aires scene since 1986.” Solla has arranged for and performed with Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo O’Farrill, Edmar Castañeda, Pablo Aslan and Cristina Pato. In addition to touring worldwide with his Barcelona based quartet, Emilio Solla & Afines, he is currently a faculty member at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and has given clinics in Jazz Composition at Emory University, Gotemburg Music School (Sweden), and Jazz & Pop Conservatory (Helsinki, Finland).

All About Jazz notes the Dmitri Matheny Group as, “an all-star jazz band featuring some of the most accomplished musicians in the western United States.” Matheny became the protégé of the legendary Art Farmer, and it was Farmer who encouraged him to devote himself exclusively to the “Big Horn.” Matheny has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and has performed with The Temptations, Martha Reeves, The Four Tops, Frankie Avalon and the O’Jays.

Songwriter and producer Gregory Page was born into a family of musicians in London, England. Page has worked with an eclectic array of artists such as Jason Mraz, John Doe, Jewel, Tom Brosseau and more. He has earned love from audiences from California to the Southern Hemisphere and throughout Europe. Mraz praises Page by saying, “He’s the real deal, a rare gift.”

Praised by NPR for her “amazing dexterity for musical languages,” native New Yorker of Indian origin Kavita Shah is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French. She incorporates her in-depth knowledge of diverse cultural traditions into her jazz-based repertoire, placing seemingly dissimilar songs, instruments, and artists in dialogue with one another. She is a member of the Steve Newcomb Orchestra, and has collaborated with Lionel Loueke, Wilson, Greg Osby, Peter Eldridge, Yacouba Sissoko and others.

Contemporary jazz guitarist Ray Obiedo has steadily emerged as a standout Bay Area talent. He has played with many of the jazz community’s most celebrated musicians, including legendary jazz organist Johnny “Hammond” Smith, trombonist Julian Priester, Azteca featuring Pete & Sheila Escovedo and Fourplays’ Harvey Mason, and performed on a world tour with jazz superstar Herbie Hancock.

The son of acclaimed big band drummer Sonny Igoe, Tommy Igoe has worked with an impressive range of artists including Dave Grusin, Art Garfunkel, the New York Voices, Stanley Jordan and more. His most recent project, Tommy Igoe Groove Conspiracy, boasts many of the Bay Area’s finest instrumentalists, including Pacific Mambo Orchestra leader Steffen Kuehn, Tower of Power’s tenor saxophonist Tom Politzer, and Doobie Brothers’ alto saxophonist Marc Russo. The group’s self-titled debut features guest artists Randy Brecker, Carlos Santana’s Karl Perazzo, and Snarky Puppy’s Michael League.

Brian Andres has shared the stage with Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Little Anthony and the Imperials, Tony Award winning Broadway star Faith Prince, Leroy “Sugar” Bonner from The Ohio Players, blues greats Sam Myers and Lonny Mack, and television and movie star Woody Harrelson. His interest in Latin music and culture brought him to the Bay Area. Not only does he perform with Dr. Loco’s bands The Rockin’ Jalapeño Band and Los Tiburones Del Norte, but in 2007 he stepped into a new role as bandleader for the Afro Cuban Cartel.

Since it’s inception in 2013 by Peruvian percussionist, singer, composer and dancer Braulio Barrera, Somos el Sonis quickly becoming one of the Bay Area’s hottest salsa orchestras. As a self-taught percussionist and drummer, Barrera has composed jingles for various Peruvian commercials, toured with Cecilia Barraza’s ensemble through Europe, Costa Rica and the U.S., and performed with various Peruvian dance companies and salsa bands including Chino Espinoza, Tabaco Eron and the GRAMMY® Award-winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra. His work can also be heard on the Motorcycle Diaries soundtrack and in the 2007 NBC film, Cane.

Get ready for an electrifying lineup of acclaimed artists appearing at the 28th San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2017! Additional artists will be announced in the coming weeks.

28th Annual San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2017
When: August 11 – 13, 2017
Where: Plaza de César Chavez Park, San Jose, CA
Admission: summerfest.sanjosejazz.org/buy-now
More info: summerfest.sanjosejazz.org; 408.288.7557

Gazing up from the orchestra section of the California Theatre and observing the ornamental lattice work flanking the stage, you would be forgiven for mistaking the South First Street landmark for The Fox Theatre in Oakland. After all, the theater was built by the very same architects who erected the Fox.

And if you happened to catch Dakhabrakha’s performance at the historic hall on Sunday, it would be totally understandable for you to wonder why the California doesn’t regularly host the kinds artists that the Fox does most nights of the week. The sound is phenomenal, the space is gorgeous and the city surrounding it—San Jose—seems as if it could easily support a premier venue.

There are plenty of reasons why the California isn’t the Fox. We’ve written about at least one of them, the radius clause, quite extensively. But that’s neither here nor there, because this weekend the entirety of downtown San Jose proved—just as it proves every year around this time—that it has the venues, the population and, ostensibly, the desire to support a thriving live music scene.

San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2016 roared into town this weekend, filling a litany of local bars, clubs and public spaces with the sounds of New Orleans brass, sultry soul, chilly jazz, rollicking blues, swinging bop and so much more. Check out photos from the three-day event here.

Adrian Younge. Photo by Greg Ramar.

The festival—which in recent years has taken a page out of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass playbook by “hardly strictly” sticking to traditional jazz—also presented a bevy of artists on the periphery of jazz: boundary-pushing artists adept at taking the pre-proto-punk ethos of jazz and running with it. Dakhabrakha, a Ukranian quartet specializing in a style of music they call “ethnic chaos,” falls into this category.

They also fall into the category of performers who make appearances on taste-making programs like NPR’s “Tiny Desk” and record impromptu “takeaway shows” for La Blogotheque.

They are pretty damn hip is what I’m saying. And that’s exciting.

Walking around downtown San Jose on Saturday night, as people both young and old scurried between venues, queuing up in long lines to get into venues, it felt a bit like Austin during SXSW—maybe not E. 6th Street, but one of the surrounding thoroughfares—bustling with excited music fans, struggling to figure out which show they ought to check out next. It’s one of those problems that’s a luxury to have, and one we should all hope San Jose has plenty more of in the near future.

Nia Andrews. Photo by Greg Ramar.

Miguel Zenon Quartet. Photo by Greg Ramar.

Terrie Odabi. Photo by Greg Ramar.

Josh Johnson with Mark De Clive-Lowe. Photo by Greg Ramar.

Freddie Joachim. Photo by Greg Ramar.

In a sense, Los Angeles-based jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington had it all. At just 19, he began touring with Snoop Dogg, which led to gigs backing up greats like the “Queen of Funk” Chaka Khan and jazz fusion bassist Stanley Clarke. More recently, his resume landed him a credit on Kendrick Lamar’s latest LP, To Pimp a Butterfly.

As a virtuoso, he could have easily carved out a career of steady work as a session player and hired gun on the road. But Washington and his friends, a loose collection of musicians known as the West Coast Get Down, knew they didn’t want to settle for in-demand support gigs, as their fathers had. They wanted the world to hear what they had to say.

And so Washington came out swinging. His debut full-length is a sprawling, no-holds-barred, three-disc opus, fittingly titled The Epic. With it, Washington has announced himself as one of the most talented and visionary figures on the burgeoning Los Angeles jazz scene.

This weekend, local audiences will have two opportunities to see Washington. He is scheduled to open San Jose Jazz Summer Fest’s Kaiser Permanente Main Stage at noon on Sunday with his band, The Next Step. Sunday night, he’ll close the California Theatre Stage with the West Coast Get Down collective.

To understand The Epic, it’s important to grasp Kamasi Washington’s musical past. As a teen in South Central Los Angeles, he formed the Young Jazz Giants with pianist Cameron Graves, drummer Ronald Bruner and Ronald’s brother, Stephen—better known as the Kendrick Lamar collaborator and producer, Thundercat—on bass.

“We were really focused,” Washington says, reflecting on that period. “We knew what we wanted to do in life. We were playing all day long, all night, going to jam sessions, sneaking into concerts, driving all over the city.”

Washington and his crew formed a “creative core” and found support in the greater L.A. area. The trick was pushing their ideas beyond the region.

The decades-long struggle among L.A.’s jazz community to step out from under the shadow of the New York scene may help explain the powerful tension that exists on Washington’s nearly three-hour outing, with its domineering, maximalist approach.

The album features hard-driving solos and a double rhythm section, composed of two drummers, two bassists and two keyboard players. String orchestra and choir arrangements float in and out of the mix, adding musical density to the already massive sound.

Ten seconds into the opening track, “Change of the Guard,” Kamasi and company live up to the album’s lofty title, unleashing a wall of sound that pushes the record to its limit. Eight minutes in, Washington’s tenor sax screams while pianos stab out sharp chords; the supporting strings slather on a layer of unruly tension that doesn’t let up over the track’s 12-minutes.

“Re Run Home,” the 14-minute opus that opens Epic’s third disc, simmers with urgency from start to finish, firmly grounded by the dual drum work of Ronald Bruner Jr. and Tony Austin. Ryan Porter and Igmar Thomas trade trombone and trumpet licks until their solos weave into one another, creating a musical synergy at once competitive and supportive. This open interplay is a hallmark of the album, and a testament not only to Washington but the world-class talent surrounding him on this project.

The Epic wasn’t created in a vacuum. It’s the latest work in a continuation of the sound Washington and his friends have collectively been creating for years—all with the steadfast support of Brainfeeder boss Steven Ellison, better known as Flying Lotus. The L.A.-based producer and leading voice in L.A.’s wide-open, forward-thinking, jazz-inflected music scene gave Washington the space and support to create whatever he wanted. For this, Washington is grateful.

“So often, the music has to struggle with the business,” Washington says. “It’s really cool when the business is just down and cool to let you do what you want to do.”

As Washington tells it, his father’s development was halted by the “pitfall of not believing in yourself enough to push your own music.” Washington doesn’t suffer from the same self-doubt about his musical ability. The way he sees it, the only real challenge is the clock. Washington is racing to get all his creativity out while he still can.

“In the end, time will run out,” Washington says. “There’s a time limit to how long you’ll have this gift at the highest level that you have it.” And so he will continue to play—as if his life depends on it.

Kamasi Washington plays San Jose Jazz Summer Fest on Aug. 9 at 12pm on the Kaiser Main Stage and at 7pm at the California Theatre Stage.

Odd Future offshoot The Internet sprang onto the scene in 2011, around the same time that another OFWGKTA associate, Frank Ocean, and a Drake-approved mystery-man (known back then only by his moniker, The Weeknd) began releasing throbbing, druggy, downtempo jams for free online. The music blogosphere quickly pounced. Music writers observed that The Internet—who will headline the Jazz Beyond Stage this Friday, during the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest—along with their peers, were making music that sounded familiar, yet somehow alien.

All of these artists were making R&B music—on that score, the critics all agreed. But there was something different about this R&B. Beyond their predilection for syrup-slow beats and reverberant, warped samples, all of these performers seemed completely comfortable with expressing their discomfort. Unlike their “pop” peers—Usher, R. Kelly, Chris Brown and Ty Dolla Sign, all of whom project confidence and hyper-masculinity—this new collection of crooners was doing just the opposite.

Instead of declaring dominance, they were broadcasting a distress call. Despite generating significant critical acclaim by early 2011, The Weeknd frontman, Abel Tesfaye, dodged the spotlight, refusing to grant interviews until mid-2013. Frank Ocean sampled Radiohead, sang about falling for a girl at Coachella and came out as bisexual in advance of his major label debut. And Miguel was heralded as an egalitarian lover in a sea of misogynists—interested not just in satisfying his own carnal desires but in fulfilling those of his partner.

Music writers scrambled to classify these neo-soul navel-gazers, and before long, a number of tags emerged: alt-R&B, R-Neg-B and PBR&B—a reference to the prefered beer of hipsters everywhere.

Predictably, many artists grouped under the alt-R&B umbrella don’t like the moniker. Syd the Kyd and Matt Martians—the production duo at the helm of The Internet—certainly aren’t feeling it.

“I think it’s kind of off-putting,” Matthew Martin, aka Matt Martians, says, reflecting on all of the various modifiers that have been tacked on to what he sees as the genre in which The Internet belongs. “I think it’s just R&B.”

Then again, Martin and Bennett aren’t arguing that they are out to invert the tropes of braggadocio and materialism that have wormed their way into the R&B genre. After all, the title of their latest album, released June 29, is Ego Death.

“It’s about vulnerability and being honest with yourself and what’s happening—who you really are and what you really have,” Bennett says, explaining what the record’s title means to her. “We wanted to make the most honest album that we could.”

Ego Death is certainly an honest, and earnest, record. Listening to the album’s 12 tracks, it’s clear that Bennett—The Internet’s lead vocalist and lyricist—is struggling to tell the truth with every song.

In her quest for veracity, she deploys an unreliable narrator on “Under Control,” a song about struggling to keep things together. “I woke up impatient and anxious,” Bennett sings on Ego Death’s third track. The words tumble out of her mouth before the song’s one-bar intro even finishes, and the listener must question whether she really is in command of her emotions.

Bennett also finds a kind of truth on “Just Sayin/I Tried”—albeit a truth rooted in the understanding that some things are just unknowable. The nearly 7-minute diptych begins with the singer relishing in telling a former lover that she has “fucked up,” before switching gears to a serenaded shrug. “I tried,” she sings. “I tried.”

The album’s production, just as much as Bennett’s lyricism and delivery, are crucial in making Ego Death a standout. Bennett, Martin, their recently expanded band, and a few other collaborators, have crafted a trippy, progressive and spaced-out sonic tapestry—borrowing equally from psychedelia, soul, jazz, hip-hop and trip-hop. The addition of a permanent guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboardist and backup singer mean the album was written to be played live. That, and a “harder element” in the form of infectious, punchy drum beats, have Bennett excited to get on stage. And Martin feels the same

“This is the most happy we’ve been with an album so far, for sure,” Martin says. “This one is our most complete, I feel. We’ve really, really found our sound.”

The Internet play San Jose Jazz Summer Fest’s Jazz Beyond Stage on Aug. 7 at 9pm. More info on SJ Jazz Summer Fest.

Tower of Power and The Internet are the latest acts to officially join the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2015 lineup. The addition of the Oakland-based funk, soul and R&B band, and the Odd Future offshoot was announced today.

Also added to the already overflowing bill: vocalist Storm Large (of Pink Martini), blues artist Selwyn Birchwood, organ trio Clark, Blades & Niswanger, and urban jazz group Times 4.

The dual announcement of the addition of Tower of Power and The Internet serves to highlight San Jose Jazz’s commitment to both veteran acts and boundary-pushing newcomers.

Tower of Power have been kicking out the jams for nearly 50 years. Founded in 1968, the band is recognized for its strong horn section and funky rhythm section. For many years now, they’ve been a regular at festivals around the Bay Area precisely because of their mass appeal.

The Internet, led by former members of the now-disbanded weirdo rap collective Odd Future, play a spacey brand of neo-soul—melding minimalist hip-hop beats with druggy instrumentation and introspective lyrics about love, loss and human condition. They join an already strong lineup of artists who are taking traditional jazz, soul, funk and R&B elements and spinning them forward for a new generation.

On their latest full-length album, Ego Death, released just last month, The Internet tapped their friend and one-time Odd Future ringleader, Tyler, The Creator, as well as Janelle Monae. Watch their video for “Girl” below.

San Jose Jazz has just announced yet another bevy of musicians slated to play this year’s 26th annual Summer Fest.

On Wednesday evening, Jun. 17, a meet-and-greet was hosted by Summer Fest venue and SoFA bohemian hangout Cafe Stritch. At the event, San Jose Jazz organizers announced a glut of new performers just added to the festival bill. Over quiet drinks, whispers were heard of a few exciting artists yet to be confirmed.

The third round artist lineup announcement should be exciting for fans of all kinds of jazz. Whether you’re into traditional or modern, Latin or gypsy—even if you’re an electronically inclined acid jazz futurist—there is something for you.

Topping our personal list of most anticipated artists named today is Ali Shaheed Muhammad. The DJ, rapper and producer is best known as a member of the highly influential hip-hop group, A Tribe Called Quest. Muhammad served the group primarily as a DJ and producer from 1985 to 1998 and then again from 2006 to 2013—crafting boom-bap beats assembled from dusty jazz, soul and R&B records.

Muhammad will be playing as part of the festival’s lineup of “Jazz Beyond” artists, who take jazz influences and serious musician ship, throw it in a blender along with synthesizers and turntables, add some hip-hop and electronica season and hit the “frappe” button.

SoFA venues will factor heavily into this year’s festival. Summer Fest happens to fall on the first Friday of the month this year. As such, the festival will be teaming with the South First Fridays Art Walk & STREET MKRT by setting up a free stage featuring Sonex and Jesus Diaz on Friday, Aug. 7. The location of that stage has yet to be announced. Doug Beavers’ Titánes del Trombón will play the same night in Club Miami.

The following two days, Saturday, Aug. 8 and 9, Summer Fest will host a Salsa Stage featuring:

Jesus Diaz presents “Rumba Cubana/ A Cuban Rumba”

Jamie Dubberly & Orquesta Dharma; Fito Reinoso y su Ritmo y Armonia

Christian Pepin y Su Orquesta Bembé; Louie Romero y Mazacote

Conjunto Karab

San Jose Jazz Summer Fest will return this summer with iconic funk bassist Bootsy Collins headlining the festival.

Collins, known for rubbery baselines, outlandish style and signature voice (literally and musically) got his start working with James Brown before moving on to the acid funk of Parliament-Funkadelic in the 1970s and a solo career.

Joining Collins at the festival, August 8-10, is classic Bay Area funk and R&B act Con Funk Shun and New York Latin Jazz group Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band.

The initial San Jose Jazz Summer Fest lineup:

Bootsy Collins
Con Funk Shun
Pacific Mambo Orchestra
Snarky Puppy
Jerry González and the Fort Apache Band
Jimmy Bosch
Viento de Agua
Conjunto Chappottín y Sus Estrellas
Aaron Lington Quintet Plays the Music of Paul Simon
Pedrito Martinez Group featuring Ariacne Trujillo
Otonowa Project
Gypsy Allstars

Several more artists are expected to be announced before the festival arrives in downtown San Jose with 11 stages. Early bird tickets are available through May 18 starting at $35 for general admission. More info.

From a young age, bassist Derrick Hodge had planned to become a drummer, but an impressive performance by a bass player at church changed his tune.

Jazz Bassist Derrick Hodge’s debut album, Live Today, contains a hodgepodge of influences, but rather than creating jarring fusion, he takes all these elements he grew up with—R&B, hip-hop, rock, folk, gospel—and mixes them elegantly with jazz, creating a stylized and modern sound, which he will bring to the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest on Aug. 11 at 4pm on the Adobe Blackbird Tavern stage, and 8pm on the RBC Jazz Beyond stage at the Pagoda.

“Music should be a reflection of the times. I think Live Today is a melting pot of sounds. There’s nothing new under the sun. It’s how people take these elements and put them together. That’s always unique. The core elements of it are things that, one way or another, have existed or have evolved or came from something else,” Hodge says.

As much as the elements and styles on the album are eclectic and mixed in creative ways—there’s a song with Common rapping on it, and another song with Alan Hampton singing on it—Live Today has a uniform overall sound that transcends genre. It’s smooth, cool and even a bit uplifting.

“It’s my first album. It’s my baby. The album is really just me attempting to be honest with my influences, be honest about my take on music at any given moment, on any given day,” Hodge says.

While jazz is the prevailing sound on the album, it wasn’t really till college that Hodge truly discovered how great jazz was. Growing up in Philadelphia, Hodge consumed all sorts of musical genres around him, as Live Today demonstrates. When jazz came to him, it overwhelmed him.

“It was very much like, ‘Where has this been my whole life?’ I just hadn’t been exposed to it like that. It has such a great history and tradition,” Hodge says.
Since then his career as a bass player has led him to work with the Robert Glasper Experiment, Q-Tip, Jill Scott, Maxwell and other diverse artists.

His interest in the bass was much like his discovery of jazz. From a young age, he was determined to be a drummer, but when he witnessed Joel Ruffin, a guy at church, play the bass so flawlessly, it completely changed his musical trajectory.

“My mom brought me to church to keep me out of trouble. I literally did not move, from when service started till the service ended. I just sat there and stared at him, when he was playing, when he wasn’t playing. He was that amazing. That’s why I try to make sure I’m as honest as possible to what drew me to the instrument. Something about the way Joel played the instrument, it was that simple, he was just that good,” Hodge says.

When Hodge started playing bass, no one gave him formal lessons. He just learned by doing and by watching other string instrument players around him.
“I’m kind of an open palette, an open canvas with ideas, open to so many different ways of expressing on stage. I love the sound of bands and I love the feeling of a band’s sound overtaking a room, just making people feel good about life, about whatever. I try to have that openness when it comes to my own thing,” Hodge says.

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