Results for "san francisco"

Meklit Hadero

If Joni Mitchell were East African and met Nina Simone for tea in San Francisco’s Mission District, she might end up sounding like Meklit Hadero. Meklit is a true modern global artist: born in Ethiopia, raised in US and nurtured for the last several years in San Francisco’s richly diverse arts scene. Add in a warm and luminous singing voice and lyrical songwriting that moves from the starkly personal to the poetically metaphoric, and you have her entrancing debut full-length recording, “On a Day Like This…”, released on the San Francisco-based Porto Franco Records on April 20, 2010. While Meklit’s music is like a sponge soaking up influences from all over the world, in some ways she’s the perfect embodiment of the City by the Bay

Allison Miller

NYC-based drummer Allison Miller defies all boundaries bringing her individual sound to diverse types of music while preserving their stylistic authenticity. Allison goes from playing with legendary songwriting vocalists Ani DiFranco, Brandi Carlile and Natalie Merchant, to touring with avant- garde saxophonist Marty Ehrlich and legendary organist Doctor Lonnie Smith. She approaches each of these musical situations with her own stylistic identity and a creative, fresh and energetic approach. Allison was chosen as “Rising Star Drummer” in Downbeat’s 53rd Annual Critics Poll. Raised in the Washington D.C

Steve Bissinger

Born: April 9, 1964

Steve Bissinger is a Bay Area based guitarist, producer and sound designer for film and television.

Coto Pincheira

Born: July 17, 1968

Chilean-born pianist Coto Pincheira is an internationally experienced pianist and musical leader with over 20 years of education and experience, playing a variety of musical styles which include but are not limited to; Classical, Jazz, Afro-Cuban Jazz, Cuban Salsa, to Pop music. Coto started his studies of music at the early age of nine, studying Organ at the Yamaha Academy in Vina Del Mar with Leonardo Barrientos, at the Conservatorium of the Catholic University of Valparaiso with Professor Anibal Correa, Chile most renowned classical pianist. Coto also studied classical music in several conservatoriums of Vina del mar and Santiago

Andrea Fultz

Born: September 17, 1974

Jazz is an infinitely malleable art form, and Andrea Fultz may be the first vocalist to stretch the music in such a convincingly Teutonic direction. A singer who combines a thespian’s emotional resourcefulness with a jazz vocalist’s rhythmic flexibility, Fultz can infuse fresh drama to American Songbook standards, croon lilting bossa novas, and keep a dance floor gyrating with insinuating electronica grooves. But the Munich-born Fultz defines herself with The German Projekt, a tough, unsentimental new album that plunges jazz into deliciously dangerous waters. More than a singular cultural synthesis, The German Projekt is a riveting musical journey that brings Fultz’s savvy jazz sensibility to the sardonic Weimar repertoire of Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Friedrich Hollaender, and Hanns Eisler

Dan Zemelman

Born: August 6, 1973

Currently, Dan is touring and performing with The Jeff Denson Trio, which has featured the legendary alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. The Jeff Denson Quartet is also recording an album that features jazz bassoonist, Paul Hansen, who toured with Bela Fleck for 4 years. Dan Zemelman has been active in the SF bay area jazz scene for over 7 years, playing with innovators such as Marcus Shelby, Adam Theis, Natasha Miller, Doug Beavers and more. In 1998, he was chosen as a Jazz Ambassador to India and Sri Lanka and performed at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., a great honor courtesy of the U.S

Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert

Born: March 3, 1960

Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert was born in Paris, France in 1960. He grew up in a musical family and was encouraged at an early age to develop his talent as a composer and instrumentalist. Note: it has been said that Bruno's father had played with gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. That is true. However, it should be mentioned that they only played pool together... Studied guitar and Jazz Composition at the University of Miami, FL with Randall Dollahon & Ron Miller. Also studied with John Hart, Dave Creamer, Barry Harris and film-scoring with Laurent Petitgirard. Moved to San Francisco in 1987 where he now works as a free-lance guitarist and bandleader-- with performances at the world-renowned Jazz club "Yoshi's" with his own Quartet, at the SF Museum of Modern Art, at local Jazz Festivals, and at the Mill Valley International Film Festival

Mariah Parker

Born: January 20

Mariah Parker has been playing music from the time she could reach the keys on the grand piano in her family home. As a composer, pianist and bandleader her work crosses cultural boundaries with an exuberant quest for defying musical labels or categorization. Her academic tenure at UC Santa Cruz was distinguished by her involvement with ethnomusicologist Fred Lieberman and the iconic drummer Mickey Hart on the “Planet Drum” project, marking her early foray into the fusion of musical traditions. Parker’s prowess as a composer and bandleader was further cemented through her vibrant performances in festivals in the U.S

Ken Brown

Born: August 21

"I knew at an early age that I was destined to express myself with music. I've always longed to touch hearts and minds with the special depth and breadth possible only through the intimate sound of the guitar." A look at Ken's formative years confirms this. The son of a night club singer and dancer, he was exposed early on to the rhythms of latin jazz. The guitar was to become his vehicle for expression. In high school he formed his own rock group The Interns, and became known as a "hot guitar soloist." These rock and roll days saw him playing with many talented bay area artists such as Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, Dave Jenkins of Pablo Cruise, and Lydia Pense of Cold Blood, came over to sing a few tunes

E. Doctor Smith

Born: December 2, 1956

E. Doctor Smith, inventor of the Drummstick, began his musical journey as a teenager playing percussion in the District of Columbia Youth Orchestra and in Maryland’s Montgomery County Youth Orchestra. Inspired by the Miles Davis fusion bands of the mid-70s, he continued his studies with Paul Sears, drummer of the Muffins. His first group, Oranus Rey, featured guitarist Paul Bollenback, bassist Ed Howard, and saxophonist Tim Chambers. In 1980 Smith moved to New York where he met fellow Music Building tenants Madonna and her co-writer, Stephen Bray. With Bray, Smith performed in the Breakfast Club and The Same. The Same was produced by Brian Eno and featured keyboardist Carter Burwell, guitarist Chip Johannsen, singer Clodagh Simmons, bassist Stanley Adler, and the motto "Semper Mutants." Following Bray and Madonna to Los Angeles, Smith assisted on many of Madonna's biggest albums as well as other of Bray's projects including Nick Kamen, Gladys Knight, The Breakfast Club, Bryan Ferry, and Steel Pulse. In L.A. Doc’s sound engineering skills were honed in sessions working alongside Michael Verdick and Tony Shepperd. Back on the East Coast, Smith performed with the New England groups K2, Flash to Bangtime, and Feat of Clay using a Simmons kit he called the “Beast." Inspired by that of British drummer Bill Bruford, Smith’s 12-piece kit was the first embodiment of his love of digital drums. In 1995, as a member of the trio Between The Lines, and influenced by the work of Roy "Future Man" Wooten, Smith designed and built the Drummstick, a percussion controller consisting rather humbly of a 2x6 piece of wood with 16 finger-pads. Borne of a desire to walk on stage, plug in and play like a guitarist, while accessing his beloved and virtually infinite world of digital sounds, Smith’s Drummstick developed a life of its own. In 2000 Smith debuted his first CD of original music, The Drummstick, with his band of the same name, which featured core members Jack Wright on guitar, Neil Mezebish on horns, and Celia DuBose on bass. That year he also performed using the Drummstick with guitar legends including Bon Lozago of Gong, Tom Principato, Bill Kirchen, Paul Bollenback, as well as bansurist John Wubbenhorst, tabla master Sandip Burman, and the famed Howard Levy. Now living in San Francisco, Smith performed at the Edgetone New Music Summit of 2006 with horn player Eric Dahlman. In March 2007, Smith will release a new Drummstick 2 CD, a long-distance collaboration with the original Drummstick band and other musical friends (and the re-release of his first Drummstick CD) on Edgetone Records. Smith also produced and performed on an Edgetone release entitled Robert Anbian and UFQ: the Unidentified Flying Quartet. This timely and troubling work of jazz and poetry features poet Robert Anbian, saxophonist Charles Unger, keyboardist Sam Peoples, and bassist Mike Shea. Smith has collaborated with 7 string bass virtuoso Edo Castro and Seth Elgart for his upcoming release on Edgetone Records, "K2". His sixth album on the Edgetone Records label 1s entitled "Quantum ", and reunites Smith with his former Drummstick band mate, guitarist Jack Wright (Quantum Kids, Temporal Chaos Project), the Quantum Kids' bassist, Tom Shiben, and Smith's Feat of Clay co-founder, trumpeter Eric Dahlman. Quantum is Smith’s first album using the new Zendrum EXP, MIDI percussion controller, the first commercially sold EXP, designed by David Haney of the Zendrum Corporation. “FutureJazz” (Edgetone EDT4171) is Smith's latest work and his seventh album on the Edgetone Records label. FutureJazz unites Smith with guitarist Peter McKibben (Savant Garde) and features flautist, Laura Austin Wiley (Resonance). Smith continues his unique fusion approach with the Zendrum EXP, combined with McKibben’s inspired guitar looping mastery and Wiley’s thoughtful flute playing to create music swirling between the sublime, the beautiful, the incendiary. Inspired by the music of iconic jazz fusion pioneers like Return to Forever, progressive rock groups like King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Tangerine Dream, and the 1970 classic tome “Future Shock” by author Alvin Toffler, Smith and McKibben’s compositions are borne out of an appreciation for the those musical masters, and the shock that accompanies the reality today’s musicians face in our rapidly changing, ever-evolving, digital age. Smith, McKibben and Wiley have not shied away from it. To the contrary, they have sought to embrace it by using some of the latest musical technology, instruments and signal processing to explore the boundaries of the analog and digital, musical frontiers. Smith currently performs with bansurist John Wubbenhorst's Facing East, and with keyboardist Steve McQuarry's "Echelon" electric quartet, featuring violinist Michele Walther and bassist Ted Burik. Doc's latest projects are with bansurist John Wubbenhorst and his group Facing East; "FutureJazz”, his seventh album on the Edgetone Records label with guitarist Peter McKibben, and flautist Laura Austin Wiley; Steve McQuarry's Electric Quartet featuring bassist Ted Burik and violinist Michele Walther of McQuarry's Resonance Jazz octet. Doc also performs regularly with the Laura Austin Wiley Electric Quintet with keyboardist Jim Lang, guitarist David McFarland and bassist Edo Castro Woodhouse. Doc recently completed a tour and album with bassist Jason Everett’s Deep Energy Orchestra, featuring Trey Gunn of King Crimson on Warr guitar, guitarist Fareed Haque of Billy Cobham’s Crosswinds band, Radhika Iyer on electric violin, Phil Hirschi of the Mahavishnu Orchestra on cello, Chaz Hastings on tabla, Rachel Nesvig on violin and Aleida Gehrels on viola. His newest effort is the Trio Electrique with bassist Edo Castro Woodhouse and violinist Michele Walther. In 2023 he will release his 9th album on the Edgetone Records label, "Ketu" featuring Seth Elgart, Claudia Paige and Peter McKibben, and a duo album with keyboardist Thollem McDonas.