Mickey Hart is best known for his nearly three decades as an integral part of an extraordinary expedition into the soul and spirit of music, disguised as the rock and roll band the Grateful Dead. As half of the percussion tandem known as the Rhythm Devils, Mickey and Bill Kreutzmann transcended the conventions of rock drumming. Their extended polyrhythmic excursions were highlights of Grateful Dead shows, introducing the band's audience to an ever-growing arsenal of percussion instruments from around the world. Exposure to these exotic sounds fueled Mickey's desire to learn about the various cultures that produced them. His tireless study of the world's music led Mickey to many great teachers ...
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With Brass, Bows & Beats, Adam Theis (principle composer/arranger) has brought together a fearless group of musical innovators at the top of their game delivering a major contribution to the constantly evolving American and global art form known as jazz. Rick Marianetti of The San Francisco Examiner calls Brass, Bows & Beats "one of the most exciting new works of American music in years--a seamless fusion of jazz, funk, hip-hop, electronica, and digital turntable that deserves to be heard world wide." Approached with innovation and improvisation, Brass, Bows & Beats was developed over the course of a year with help of a $50,000 grant from The Wallace Alexander ...
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Amp Live is building a rep as one of Cali's most talented and diverse music producer/DJs. After his dreamy soulful beats for the hip hop group Zion I, he has been able to produce for major and independent artist such as Akon(Warner), Flipsyde(Interscope Records), Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussy Cat Dolls(Interscope), Tokyo Police Club, MGMT, Linkin Park , Goapele, and Mystic. Most importantly, Amp Live's most recent success has been his critcally acclaimed "Rainydayz Remixes" album for the rock group Radiohead's In Rainbows LP. Always experimenting, Amp Live has also took on genres of rock, dance, electro, mashups, and drum 'n bass. In the past years, Amp Live has been a ...
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Crystal Monee Hall is one of the most extraordinary vocal talents to emerge in recent years. Her voice, an intoxicating synthesis of effortless clarity and raw, soul-bearing grit, is an instrument capable of tremendous power and sensitivity. Matched with a down-home songwriting style marked by poetic lyrics and simple, elegant arrangements, Crystal’s music smoothly combines the sounds of folk, gospel, jazz and blues. Before she began her solo career, Crystal was a featured vocalist with the nationally touring and Broadway productions of the Tony Award winning musical RENT. Only one year out of RENT, Crystal has broken onto the scene in 2010 with performances at major festivals such as the ...
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San Francisco has a storied background of organized crime. From the Mob ridden speakeasies of the prohibition era to the Nortenos y Suerenos that currently tug at the seams of the Mission District, the Bay Area underground has been home to every imaginable form of nefarious business over the course of the past century. It's appropriate, then, that the ten year old Jazz Mafia collective formed as a product of the same environment. An elite team of instrumental outlaws, The Jazz Mafia has taken many shapes since its inception, the most notable of which is certainly The Shotgun Wedding Quintet. Fresh off their nationwide tour with hip-hop stalwarts Zion I ...
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A British singer-songwriter with “a golden voice“ (Rolling Stone) and sounding like “a strange mix of something between Jeff Buckley and Oasis“ (Vanity Fair). James has critics scrambling around for comparisons to such distinguished musicians as Tom Waits, Violent Femmes, Tim Buckley and Damian Rice, to name but a few. Already a platinum selling artist, James Harries releases his album Days Like These (Dekkor Records) in the UK. James took a trip to Prague a few years ago, after busking the streets of Paris with his guitar. Whilst in Prague James met a young lady, learned the lingo, got married and ended up taking residence in the Czech Republic ...
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Flipsyde, who first hit the airwaves in 2005 with their debut hit single, "Someday", have returned. Now just three members (Piper/MC, Steve Knight/vocals & acoustic guitar and Dave Lopez/lead guitar), the group just released their new politically charged single, "Act Like A Cop Did It, " along with the b-side single "Livin' It Up" on May 3rd. Lauded by The Washington Post as "the best hip hop album of the year," Flipsyde's debut album We The People went on to sell a quarter of a million units world wide and 750,000 singles- embraced by audiences as far and wide as Japan, India, and Germany, where "Happy Birthday" became a top ...
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When Tim Hockenberry opens his mouth to sing, all talk ceases, faces turn towards the stage and hearts quicken. Out of this movie-star handsome face comes an impossibly emotional voice redolent of Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Louis Armstrong and Tom Waits. Singing, arranging, writing and playing; Tim expresses a voice and musical sensibility of irresistible power and harsh beauty. Tim’s musical odyssey began in Michigan, where he sang in the choir, taught himself to play the piano and fervently played the trombone; and circuitously landed him in Northern California 17 years ago. Since arriving, he has shared stages with Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray and Steve Miller among others and has established ...
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New Orleans, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York are bona fide jazz capitals. You can add Minneapolis to that illustrious list, thanks to groups like Madhouse, The Bad Plus, and Happy Apple – that town’s non-traditional trio consisting of bassist Erik Fratzke, soprano-alto-tenor saxophonist/keyboardist Michael Lewis, and drummer David King – with Happy Apple Back on Top, the long-awaited follow up to their 2005 Sunnyside release, Peace Between Our Companies. On this eleven-track recording, their genre busting, take-no-prisoners approach to the “tradition” continues to change the shape of jazz in the twenty first century. Think of Happy Apple as a hyper-band, created from the DNA of the Sonny Rollins Trio, Dreams, Tony ...
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Boasting an industry resume as long as your arm, singer/songwriter Shayna Steele has acquired many labels over the course of her 12 year career, from “Broadway crooner” to “disco screamer”, “Chaka Khaner” to “r&b belter”, and “jazz chanteuse” to “electro diva.” But, while each denotes a unique facet, no one term is able to capture the whole. With her latest album, Steele delivers her most confident and cohesively eclectic set to date, answering the question “Who is Shayna Steele?” with a definitive (and defiant) I’ll Be Anything. Born in Sacramento to a black, Air Force dad and a white mother, Steele lived the itinerant childhood of an American army brat. Moving ...
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