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André Jaquez on October 18, 2017
Walking a tightrope between chaos and cool, Chicago-based indie trio OHMME is like Kate Bush meets PJ Harvey. The avant-garde trio’s new eponymous EP drives femme rock into the 21st century. They play discordant harmonies and their voices compliment each other very well. Their songs range from serious themes like compassion to…
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Years ago, vibraphonist Jason Marsalis flew up to Seattle to play a studio session with Christian Fabian and Ed Littlefield. Months later, while on an Alaskan radio show, he learned from Littlefield’s answer to the host that they had recorded modernized versions of folk songs by the Tlingit Native American tribe.
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Traditionally speaking, mariachi as a musical form comes from a specific place. It is played on specific instruments, and its practitioners often limit performances to specific spaces within a specific region. However, while the New York-based Mariachi Flor de Toloache certainly respect the traditions of their art, they are far from a traditional…
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Nick Veronin, John Flynn, Mike Huguenor, Stacy Torres on August 25, 2016
In decades past, five big arts groups dominated the Silicon Valley culture scene, slurping up the majority of public support and private donations, while dozens of much smaller organizations fought over the table scraps. With annual budgets that in better times passed the $5 million mark, Ballet San Jose, San Jose Rep,…
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It’s buried deep in the heart of every boom-bap beat; it’s churning hot at the center of every rip-roaring rock & roll riff; and it’s slyly creeping in the smoky shadows of every soulful R&B jam. As we argued last week, jazz, and the music from which it sprang—the blues—are the purest…
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Mike Huguenor on March 30, 2016
Let’s get the word out of the way. Because in many ways, the word itself has become the problem. I’m talking of course about the J word. The big J. Jazz. Arturo Riera has been curating Latin jazz at SJ Jazz for over 10 years, but has only recently been given a formal…
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Nick Veronin on February 24, 2016
San Jose Jazz Winter Fest is back with a lineup of classic and cutting-edge jazz performances from some of the world’s best-known performers, as well as some exciting up-and-comers. Beginning Feb. 28 and running through March 8, Winter Fest will host 25 concerts at a variety of venues around downtown San Jose,…
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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.
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Like many great artistic movements, jazz was born out of rebellion—growing, in some cases quite literally, from an underground. Speakeasies, those often subterranean and always illicit watering holes, which sprung up all over America during prohibition served as the launch pad for America’s indigenous music. And so it makes sense that San…
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Richard Faulk on August 5, 2014
He didn’t invent funk, but for five decades Bootsy Collins has been one of the genre’s most recognized ambassadors. From behind his signature star-burst glasses, outsized top hats and custom made “Space Bass,” his lilting vocals bespeak depths of mellow most of us mere mortals can only imagine.
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