Anyone who wonders what hip-hop could possibly have in common with traditional Punjabi music has never heard Ustad Lal Singh Bhatti sing. “He’s the ultimate freestyler,” says rapper Vijay Chattha of his bandmate in the San Francisco hip-hop-funk-jazz group BlackMahal, who perform at Summer Fest in downtown San Jose on Saturday
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When Cajun rock up-and-comer Amanda Shaw belts out a punk cover—say, The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” or a gender-modified take on the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”—it’s not a novelty-type thing, like string-music versions of Metallica. Her versions, especially the Clash song, burn with the same power…
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For millions of people, Prince is an enigmatic musical genius, one of the greatest songwriters of his generation, and perhaps the most celebrated icon of funk in history. To Morris Day, who plays San Jose Jazz’s Summer Fest on Friday, he’s the guy he was stuck in the basement with every night…
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Boston electro duo Sonnymoon generated a lot of buzz when they played San Jose in June, and left a lot of people who missed their show at the Pagoda chomping at the bit to see them. That explains why tickets are already being snapped up for the group’s return on Friday, Aug.…
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by
Andrew Gilbert on May 18, 2012
Whether one’s proclivities run toward Afro-Caribbean grooves, straight-ahead swing, rockin’ fusion or sultry singers, there’s a wealth of jazz talent on tap in the South Bay this summer. Best of all, there’s no shortage of free concerts, with just about every city in the valley offering a free outdoor concert series. Here…
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The question for an artist like Rupa Marya must be: what do you do when you’re so well known for your unpredictability that it threatens to become predictable? Her sold-out show Sunday with her band Rupa & The Fishes—the finale of what appears to have been an extremely successful Winter Fest for…
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Rupa Marya calls her style “intentionally unclean.” Beyond that, it’s difficult to explain. Cooler and crazier than useless phrases like “world music” could hope to describe, her San Francisco-based band Rupa and the April Fishes takes gypsy jazz on a punky, border-crashing joy ride that sprawls across multiple styles, cultures and languages.…
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