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Mino Cinélu at The Presidio Theatre
by Steven Roby
Mino Cinélu Presidio Theatre Mino 4 Miles San Francisco, CA September 6, 2025 The room begins with absence--no band, no chatter--just a white gauze curtain hanging like a flag with no country. A looped rhythm creeps in from the edges, dry and sandy, like shoes on stone. Then the words ...
Cory Henry and The Funk Apostles at Miner Auditorium
by Steven Roby
Cory Henry and The Funk Apostles Miner Auditorium San Francisco, CA September 5, 2025 SFJAZZ Center's digital director, Ross Eustis, started the evening with a brief welcome, highlighting more than 350 shows on the new season's schedule. The crowd greeted the band with the kind of enthusiasm associated with Cory Henry's ...
Anthony Wilson Nonet At Joe Henderson Lab
by Steven Roby
Anthony Wilson Nonet Joe Henderson Lab San Francisco, CA September 4, 2025 Anthony Wilson chose a high-wire debut for his first time leading his own band at SFJAZZ: nine musicians packed onto the Joe Henderson Lab's stage--roughly 20 by 12 feet--to open the 2025-26 season. The Nonet fit like a ...
OKAN: Joy as Resistance, Rhythm as Home
by Steven Roby
Afro-Cuban duo OKAN creates music that bridges gaps--between Havana and Toronto, ritual and dance floor, refined conservatory training and raw street style. Their name, taken from Santería, means “heart." That rhythm energizes everything they perform: violin complemented by luminous vocals, batá drums, and cajón intertwined with jazz harmony and songs that emphasize joy as both an ...
Dominique Fils-Aimé: Jazz as Freedom, Healing, and Connection
by Steven Roby
Montreal vocalist--composer Dominique Fils-Aimé discusses music as essential as breath--something vital, grounding, and shared. In conversation, a few recurring themes emerge: freedom as the driving force of jazz, healing as the restorative power of music on the body, and connection--among people, across generations, and through history--as the quiet foundation that allows songs to travel. These ideas ...
LabRats: Groove Experiments and the Mwandishi Connection
by Steven Roby
LabRats didn't aim to fit neatly on a shelf. The Sacramento-based collective, led by drummer and bandleader Jacob Swedlow, moves wherever the groove takes them--through jazz fusion, hip-hop, and live improvisation--while maintaining a tight, communal vibe both on stage and in the studio. “LabRats was an idea I had about two years before I ...
Lady Day Reimagined: Stella Heath’s Jazz Story
by Steven Roby
Vocalist Stella Heath describes Billie Holiday the way a director describes a great actor--precise about choices, attentive to subtext, and focused on how a story resonates in the room. “Stories are front and foremost for me," she says. Heath's connection to Holiday starts with feeling. What drew her in wasn't just her timbre or ...
ELEW Finds His Frequency: From Camden Roots to ELEW Plays Sting at SFJAZZ
by Steven Roby
Pianist Eric Lewis (ELEW) grew up in a house where music was infrastructure. He is the fourth generation of classical musicians in his family, raised in Camden, New Jersey, where practicing the piano felt like another chore alongside washing dishes and mowing the lawn. That immersion, combined with conservatory training, forged a touch that is both ...
Taj Mahal Quartet At Miner Auditorium
by Steven Roby
Taj Mahal Quartet Miner AuditoriumSan Francisco, CA August 16, 2025 The sold-out Sunday afternoon performance closed a four-concert SFJAZZ residency with a reminder that Taj Mahal keeps tradition not just intact, but in motion. The 83-year-old bandleader entered to Bunji Garlin's “Differentology (Ready for the Road)," clapping in a straw hat and patterned jacket, ...
Anthony Wilson’s Nonet Blooms Again on House of the Singing Blossoms
by Steven Roby
Guitarist-composer Anthony Wilson is circling back to a format that has shaped his voice since the beginning: the nonet. His new live album, House of the Singing Blossoms (Sam First Records, 2025)), documents two nights at Los Angeles listening room Sam First and sets the stage for four shows at SFJAZZ's Joe Henderson Lab on September ...
