It’s Under The Stars, babe … A quasi-weekly column that presents new music releases, upcoming shows, opinions, and other adjacent items. We keep moving with the changes and thinking outside the margins.
‘BRANDEE YOUNGER: BRAND NEW LIFE’ AT SFJAZZ ON FRIDAY, MARCH 8
There is a stretch for an extended minute or so from “This Place That Place” off of Makaya McCraven’s gangbusters of an album In These Times from 2022, where jazz and electronic music moves about rapturously. Yes, McCraven, along with Brandee Younger, pushes tempos into LTJ Bukem territory. But this is live instrumentation, so Younger gracefully colors in these bombastic drum and bass landscapes with gossamer harp runs, while McCraven just goes off, shuttling, fueling the bottom of the arrangement forward.
Expect those types of moments when Younger presents her 2023 album Brand New Life on March 8th at SF Jazz with, for one night only featuring heavyweights Rashaan Carter, Makaya McCraven, String Ensemble, Mumu Fresh, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Pete Rock.
This will sell out.
It’s one night from Younger’s Resident Artistic Director series happening from March 6-10 which includes a listening party, live performances, and a special tribute to Alice Coltrane on March 9 and 10 with Rashaan Carter, Makaya McCraven, strings, and special guests.
Get info and tix here.
TRIP SHOW, 2
There seems to be an ongoing battle for the soul of electronic act Trip Show’s arrangements. Finding the balance between dubby disco and house music parameters appears to be the canvas our former SF resident, now a Honolulu-based, producer chooses to work within. It’s a fine chromatic wheel that always generates interesting amalgams: You’re gonna find your own get down in there. But on his newly self-released 2, when J.K. Friend takes off the restrictor plates and makes quick work with the foundational tones that “talk that shit” directly to bass cabinets, we’ve found the frequency, Kenneth.
Chunky avenues and boulevards such as “Call Me When It Hurts” and “Your Boots My Ground” and even the ambient sparkler “Trending Searches” with its tongue-in-cheek name, let us know, when it’s time for cooking, Trip Show gots the ingredients.
Pick up 2 here.
A NIGHT OF JUKE, JUNGLE, DRUM AND BASS, AND FOOTWORK WITH UFO! ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 27 AT VICTORY HALL, SF
The Rhythmic Remedies Bay Area-based DJ collective is going to keep it running, even in January, with this party featuring drum and bass experimentalist UFO!
He’s not kidding when he refers to his music as “Blade Runner funk.” It’s a true statement that encompasses austere Space Odyssey futurism and concussion pang-bump.
Born Ed Garro, UFO! is one of THEE ones who contributed to building SF drum and bass to the point that folks running it over in the UK, circa the late ’90s, concluded that SF was legit with it.
His “Enemy Infiltration” single, released on Thermal Recordings in 1999 was paramount in building that bridge and was so of the moment that drum and bass parties all over SF at the time ran that sucker eternally.
His recent collaboration with Bro Safari, aka ET FINGER, continues in that tradition of messing with the contemporary form by transporting listeners to boastfully strange IDM-goes-trap soundscapes.
Simply put, when UFO! gets behind the decks, be ready for bass music on the fringes.
With a line-up including Soeneido, Olly, DJ Sep, Bonesurf, and MF Mama, and placing this event in Victory Hall, it speaks to a new day for these types of events in San Francisco.
Grab your tickets here and rep your city!
YOUNG GUN SILVER FOX ON JANUARY 25 AT THE INDEPENDENT, SF
Grab a dose of this natural groove. With easygoing chords and windswept vistas leading the way, Shawn Lee and Andy Platts, otherwise known as Young Gun Silver Fox, have widened the lane for West Coast AOR on Ticket To Shangri-La Deluxe Edition.
These golden hour rays move through local heroes’ Once and Future Band terrain working at the fringes of slinky Bobby Caldwell topography.
Listen, this winter is built for transporting hearts and minds “to a magical, mythical world of sunshine and good vibes” so go to the show.
Come early to hear the deep crate stylings of Sweater Funk’s own Selecter DJ Kirk.
Consider it a connoisseur’s apéritif.
Grab tix here.
LIVING JAZZ & SFJAZZ PRESENT THE 20TH ANNUAL MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. CELEBRATION ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 13 AT THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE, OAKLAND
In its 20th year, Living Jazz, along with SFJAZZ, will present a Musical Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday—the first one since the pandemic. This special commemoration will feature an exclusive artist lineup of Bay Area musical luminaries performing the music of Stevie Wonder, under the musical direction of Kev Choice and hosted by RyanNicole.
Wonder’s version of “Happy Birthday” and his tireless campaigning with the King family led directly to the enshrinement of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, observed for the first time in 1986 (well, except for Arizona).
At this year’s celebration, Living Jazz will present its Oakland Citizen Humanitarian Award, which honors local civic trailblazers, to Sabrina Thomas of Building Futures. The program will present Stevie Wonder’s songs reimagined and reinterpreted through exclusive musical collaborations between Aneesa Strings, Awesöme Orchestra Collective, Rhonda Benin, Nona Brown, Living Jazz Children’s Project Choir, Oaktown Jazz Workshops, PHER, SFJAZZ High School All-Stars, Babatunji, the Howard Wiley Band, and more.
Grab tickets here.
