[comfusion Archive] Indie 500: One Thousand Great Independent Bands, by D.M. Holler Define indie. —I dare you. To some it is a sound, to others it has more to do with remaining aloof from corporate influence. The sad truth is that the line between those who actually create the sound and those record company mavens who actually pull the strings has irrevocably eroded. >>>Read more
[Review]
Word for Word Theatre
Production Brings A lone spotlight is ignited and the bare stage of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre lights up with the anonymous glow of a city street corner: “I read about in the paper, in the subway, on the way to work. I read it, and I couldn’t believe it, and I read it again.” >>>Read more
[Review]
Herbie Hancock Receives
two 2008 Grammies: Looking back at his San
Francisco Performance at the Masonic, November
11th, 2007, by Steven Mayers In a ceremony that usually snubs the jazz and classical worlds, the Grammies, Herbie Hancock was awarded the �Best Album� and �Best Contemporary Jazz Album� awards last Sunday for his 2007 album, The River: The Joni Letters, beating out Amy Winehouse, Kanye West, and the Foo Fighters. >>>Read more
[Review] Dynamics: The Ahmad Jamal Trio at the Herbst Theatre on Sunday, October 27, 2007, by Steven Mayers The Herbst Theatre fills up just before seven with almost all of the seats taken, and the band – James Cammack on bass and James Johnson, a Lincoln Center drummer, filling in for Idris Mohammad – takes the stage pick up their instruments, the members of the trio nodding to each other, and Ahmad Jamal is off on a lingering robatto introduction to the first song, a new ballad, full of trickling descents and ascents of chromatic staircases and steep climbs and falls up and down diminished shoots, only the crashing breaks bringing the band together out of the ever-changing tempos. >>>Read more
[Review] North Beach Jazz Festival’s 13th Annual “Jazz on Grant” and “Jazz and Heritage in the Park,” July 25 and July 28, 2007, by Steven Mayers Referred to by its founders as “The Soul of San Francisco,” Alistair Monroe and Sunset Productions present the 13th annual North Beach Jazz Festival, with over 100 artists at over thirty locations, including five main events: “Jazz on Grant,” “Latin Jazz Block Party,” “Jazz Forward,” “World in the Park,” and “Jazz and Heritage in the Park.” >>>Read more
[Review] Harlem of the West: Fillmore Jazz Festival Features Local Talent on Saturday, June 30, 2007, and Sunday, July 1, 2007, by Steven Mayers The largest free jazz festival on the west coast, which happens to gracefully land on my birthday, brings in some 90,000 jazz fans every year to amble the promenade from Ellis Street to California, taste local wine, take in local art, and listen to jazz and soul at the three stages. >>>Read more
[Review] Out West: Paula West’s Soulful Cabaret at the Herbst Theater, June 15, 2007, by Steven Mayers Paula West is not a vocalist to improvise long scat solos, or to show off the technical versatility of her voice; instead, her silky contralto, true and unaffected, chooses to lurk in the shadows of each song’s melody, showing that subtlety and true emotional content can bring out the romance of the American Songbook as much as technique and vigor, her dusky molasses tone, her soulful sense of swing, and her native sense of space allowing her to create prolonged states of anticipation and get inside the melody, pushing at its edges before erupting out of its shell. >>>Read more
[Review] Nickel Creek at the Warfield on “Farewell (For Now) Tour,” Saturday, April 21, 2007, by Steven Mayers Arriving straight from their South by Southwest Tour, which has taken them this spring to Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, California and Nevada, bluegrass-inspired, “new folk” band, Nickel Creek, lit up the Warfield Theater on Saturday with some serious picking and beautiful vocal harmonies, on perhaps their last tour together for a while, as these old friends and musical companions have decided to venture into solo projects and explore new directions. >>>Read more
[Review] Joshua Redman Quartet with Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade, Interpret Monk and Trane’s Carnegie Hall Concert at the Herbst Theater, May 4th, 2007, by Steven Mayers As a votive offering to the late Thelonious Monk, whose music has been a focus in the concerts and lectures of the spring season of the San Francisco Jazz Festival, SF Jazz Artistic Director, and alto-saxophonist, composer and bandleader, Joshua Redman, brings his all-star quartet to the Herbst Theatre, in order to devote the evening to the remembrance of Monk and Trane’s Live at Carnegie Hall recording of their November ’57 concert, which was recently discovered at the Library of Congress. >>>Read more
[Profile w/ Interview] Bishop’s Bop: Saxophonist Bishop Norman Williams Swings from Kansas City to San Francisco, by Steven Mayers Meeting saxophonist extraordinaire “Bishop” Norman Williams in the early ‘90’s, and sitting in on guitar at his jam session with local legend B.J. Papa on piano at North Beach’s Gathering Café which closed in the late ‘90’s, I was first taken by his extraordinarily swinging melodies – here’s a seasoned Kansas City be-bop player with a boundless ability to improvise – and then by his humble and magically mystifying nature, the impish gleam in his eyes, and the understated depth of his passion that imbues his playing. >>>Read more
[Music Junkie] Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, Reviewed by Mike Skott McCullough “We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank” because our last album was a corporate orgy filled with radio hits that tight-jeaned, polo-shirted, assholes with faux-hawks blared at full volume and sang along to while driving forest green BMWs their rich daddies paid for on their way to a university that is more expensive for one semester than a year's rent at my apartment. This caused the devoted fans of Modest Mouse to vomit in their mouths and lose faith in the sinister, beautifully self-destructive sounds of early (good) Modest Mouse albums. >>>Read more
[Review] Dave Brubeck Classic Quartet and Big Band at the Masonic, the Centerpiece of Jazz Appreciation Month with the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Sunday, 4/15/07, by Steven Mayers The Jazz Appreciation Month is in full swing with the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and with appearances by Freddie Cole, Bill Riley, and Dave Brubeck, I am beginning to think that April is not always “the cruelest of months. >>>Read more
[Review] Keep your Ears Open for the Voice and Words of Guinea’s Chanteur Fémenist Oumou Dioubate, by Steven Mayers I place Oumou Dioubate’s 1998 release, Wambara, into my CD player. Play. The rhythm section commences in unison, as if awaking out of the same dream. A delicate balance of electric bass and drum, the organic peal of the balafon, and the beautifully mellifluous melodies on the steely electric guitar by Djely Moussa Kouyaté, the sound is at once silky, funky, and mesmerizing. >>>Read more
[Review] Stanley Jordan at Kimball’s East, Saturday, May Day, 2004, by Steven Mayers It is indeed an incredible experience to behold this master at work. Having revolutionized the “touch” or “tapping” style of playing, he is able to tap bass lines and harmonies with his left hand alone, allowing his right hand to tap or pick melodies simultaneously with the rhythmic freedom of a pianist. >>>Read more
[Indie 500] Indie 500: Song Structure Edition, by D.M. Holler * updated February 22, 2007 @ 1:03pm PST with 23 new tracks Friends, time once again to start your search engines. The Indie 500 is back. Herewith, week by week, we'll be adding reviews and selected links to 500 great independent songs. >>>Read more
[Review w/ Interview] Habib Koité’s Bamada from Mali at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, February 5, 2004, by Steven Mayers On a seemingly ordinary night of January 29th, Habib Koité and his five-piece band, Bamada, blessed the Great American Music Hall with mesmerizing blends of voice, strings, and drums. After the auditorium filled and music lovers found their seats, in front of which they would soon be dancing, the lights on stage faded on unhurriedly, and Bamada (which roughly means “a resident of Bamako,” Mali) appeared before us. >>>Read more
[Profile] Rising Star in the West: Ivorian Singer and Recording Star Felicite “Fely” Tchaco’s debut in San Francisco, by Steven Mayers I was introduced to Felicite by a friend who spoke some Bambara and had just met this "African salsa star" on a cable car who had recently come to San Francisco. While secretly ecstatic, for I play the guitar and have an affinity for Latin American music, I never get too excited about anything in this talkative city until it actually happens. >>>Read more
[Review] I Remember Ray: Ray Brown’s 79th Birthday Bash at Yoshi’s featuring Christian McBride, John Clayton, Benny Green, Russell Malone and Gregory Hutchinson, October 14th, 2005, by Steven Mayers Ray Brown. From Duke to Dizzy to Ella to Peterson to Pass to Vaughan to Bennett to Clayton, McBride, Green, Hutcheson and Malone, Grammy-winning master-bassist touched more musicians in a single life, including many young musicians who he brought into his paternal warmth and his selflessly sharing guidance. >>>Read more
[Theatre Review] Chicago's Neo-Futurists Lend Satire to the Oval Office, by D.M. Holler If the Minutemen did theatre instead of sonic nuggets, the result might be something like 43 Plays for 43 Presidents. The Rough and Tumble Theatre company's latest gem plays at La Val's in Berkeley through Jan. 27, 2007. >>>Read more
[Review w/ Interview] New Year’s Eve with My Morning Jacket and Wax Fang at the Fillmore, and an interview with Production Manager Eric Mayers, 12/31/06, by Steven Mayers While I write my ears are still ringing and my head is still spinning from the hard-hitting rock of My Morning Jacket and the stunning stage set-up and production by none other than my brother, Eric Mayers, the new year emerging with a Gibson Les Paul and a Flying V wailing into the morning, the band reenacting the Donner Party Expedition on which the bassist is eaten, ascends the “Stairway to Heaven,” and is summoned back to the stage to finish the show and ultimately take his revenge. >>>Read more
[Review] The String Cheese Incident at the Concourse Expedition Center in San Francisco with Lotus, Zap Mama, DJ Mara Farino, and the Circus Contraption on Saturday, 12/30/06, by Steven Mayers The halls decked with gigantic disco balls, psychedelic masks, mobiles lit with black lights, and two stages, the Concourse Expedition Center filled up with a motley throng of fans: one guy on stilts with goat hooves and a furry vest, another in a white satin suit reminiscent of Jimmy Page’s dragon suit, flappers, deadheads, hippies, punks, and all around partiers. >>>Read more
[Review] Pure Melody: Ornette Coleman at the Masonic Center, November 5th 2005, by Steven Mayers Pure melody. The kind of swirling hive of notes that Charlie Brown comes walking out of. The rhythm section were in another worlds, a world apart, double, triple time, humming, crashing behind the web, the womb. >>>Read more
[Review] Dave Holland and his Big Band Bring “Monterey Suite” to Yoshi’s Friday, April 8th, 2005, by Steven Mayers Along with his celebrated quintet, with Steve Nelson on vibes, Robin Eubanks on trombone, and Chris Potter on alto saxophone (and Nate Smith playing drums for Billy Kilson), Dave Holland brought along seven outstanding horn players and a bunch of new compositions and arrangements from his latest recording, Overtime, including the “Monterey Suite” which he first played at the Monterey Jazz festival. >>>Read more
[Review] Choreographer Robert Moses Provokes Thought Fusing Dance and Spoken Word, by Steven Mayers Culminating in an arresting piece entitled “Cause,” that featured poets from Youth Speaks, renowned choreographer, Robert Moses, fiercely fuses music and word with movement in four conceptual modern dance pieces shaped to confront the audience with an emotional rendering of personal struggles with human life, touching on everything from racial to sexual to spiritual. >>>Read more
[Review] Alice Coltrane’s Love Supreme at the Masonic on November 4th, 2006, by Steven Mayers The Alice Coltrane Quartet featuring Ravi Coltrane with Charlie Haden and Roy Haynes flew above the Masonic Auditorium with the same soaring magnitude of her music heard on the final releases by her late husband, the giant, John Coltrane. >>>Read more
[Review w/ Interview] The Decemberists Bring Music and Myth to the Warfield: Friday, October 20th, 2006, by Steven Mayers Following up their 2006 release of The Crane Wife on Capitol Records, The Decemberists graced the Warfield with the intimacy that has become an expected trademark of their hitherto performances in smaller community theaters. Includes an interview with Jenny Conley. >>>Read more
[Music Junkie] Wolf Parade "Apologies to the Queen Mary", Reviewed by Mike Skott McCullough Stuff your Pod's white ear buds halfway into your brain and crank up the volume. As soon as the drum line on the first track of Apologies to the Queen Mary kicks in and crashes into your grey matter, you won't turn the music down. >>>Read more |
