We’ve got news for you boppers…. You’re a winner. By taking the time to hang with us here at Under The Stars this week, you are privy to a free three-hour mix, curated by San Francisco’s own DJ Circuit73. Created to celebrate 2024’s year in music and to soften the blow of returning to our routines (psst… Work), DJ Circuit73’s Mix Tape called Eye See Color In The Sound is a self-described “eclectic mix of genres, styles, pace, and taste” that I know you will dig for sure. Give it a spin:
And thanks for spending time with us. Let’s go!
KARL DENSON’S TINY UNIVERSE AT SWEETWATER MUSIC HALL, JANUARY 29 & 30
In a Pop Matters piece, funk-jazz saxophonist Karl Denson told a crowd at The Fillmore last January that when the band started off, people used to think he was from San Francisco because he played a lot of shows at the Elbo Room in the 1990s. The band drove such good business to the bar that it could lose money playing less well-attended shows in Sacramento and other distant points where they weren’t as well known.
As someone who lived in that neighborhood at the time, it totally tracks. In those days it was Karl Denison’s Tiny Universe aka KDTU, Greyboy All-Stars, Alphabet Soup, and the main draw for the decade, Charlie Hunter. All that concentration of live music, funk and groove, made Elbo Room and Valencia street the spot to be at on any given evening.
KDTU is still the band to see. When Denson is not called away to play for the Rolling Stones, you can find his world-renowned band performing as Sexual Chocolate (Karl was in the original band in the movie Coming To America and its sequel), being the first late night act at the inaugural Bonnaroo festival, performing sold-out concerts during Jazzfest in New Orleans, and playing in the fields of Naeba in Japan at the infamous Fuji Rock Festival.
When KDTU touches down, that’s the reason to celebrate. Don’t flub it up for yourself.
Grab some tickets here.
VEOTIS LATCHISON
From time to time, we miss dates here. Period. The music world, especially in the SF Bay Area, is non-stop, and no matter how strict your hydration regimen is, you’re going to miss some things. But we can still illuminate what’s promising. Enter Oakland’s own Veotis Latchison.
I first came across the artist on a listing for a show, which has passed, at the Black Cat Jazz Supper Club. This venue has been doing a sterling job booking top-grade up-and-coming talent and also bringing local artists into view. Salute to them and go support that local venue here.
So when I stumbled across a video of singer-keyboardist Veotis Latchison at the Golden Gate Park Bandshell with John Palowitch on alto sax, Sheldon Alexander on drums, and Leela Paymai on bass, I was blown away. The Oakland performers’ presser outlines being influenced by “a mix of hip hop, R&B, soul, and jazz,” which may be true. But in this snapshot, where the band is letting go and flowing with Latchison vocalizing so freely in the wind tunnel, using first-hand colorful keyboard accompaniment, early Billy Paul vibes, when he was a jazz fusion performer, came to mind.
People, go out and purchase Latchinson’s release Minutiae here, the path, for sure, is bountiful.
SAMARA JOY AT ZELLERBACH HALL, FEBRUARY 5
What are the odds? The 21st century sees the genre of jazz fusing with soundsystem culture from the UK by the masterful sax lioness Nubya Garcia, swerving through bass and club music by the young keyboard master Joe Arman-Jones, and then LA’s Kamasi Washington pushing his saxophone prowess into epic arrangements reserved for J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic journeys. Mang. With all of this innovation surrounding America’s classical music, a traditionalist in the vein of Sarah Vaughan, a storyteller in the style of Carmen McRae—and let’s just speak the truth—a jazz throwback, vocalist by the name of Samara Joy, the multiple Grammy winner, swings the genre to its simpler roots.Â
Honoring the tradition with astute readings of classic material, svelte timing, and a voice that reflects halcyon days, Joy, a native of the Castle Hill neighborhood in the Bronx, is beyond the real deal. A lovely and justly needed addition to the 21st-century patchwork mural that jazz has endeared itself to. She performs on Wednesday, February 5 at 7:30pm at Zellerbach Hall as part of Cal Performances at UC Berkeley.
More info and tickets here.
19 VOICES IN SOLIDARITY: A BENEFIT CONCERT FOR THE ACLU, SUNDAY, JANUARY 26
Voice. It remains the most consistent instrument of resistance.
Nineteen Bay Area musicians and songwriters are once again meeting the moment with their voices, facing the prospect of formidable challenges to democracy in the year ahead. Bay Area songwriter Deborah Crooks has organized this fundraiser modeled after the “19 Voices for Choice” show she co-organized with Aireene Espiritu in 2022. The event will feature a diverse bill of 19 women and non-binary artists, with 19 referencing the 19th Amendment, which famously gave women the right to vote in 1920, lifting their voices to raise funds for the American Civil Liberties Union.
With women’s rights on the cutting floor with the oncoming Presendetial tenure, concerned musicians are banding together in solidarity to raise funds to help protect our fundamental freedoms.
Amelia Ray performs, along with the all-star group of locally-based talent including: Aireene Espiritu, Azere Wilson, Cecilia Long, Claudia Russell, Deborah Crooks, Emily Bonn, Jacqui Naylor, Jaeger & Reid, Kate Burkart, Kimberlye Gold, The Keller Sisters, Laura Benitez, Maggie Forti, Marina Crouse, Megan McLaughlin, Roberta Donna, MC Mindi Levine. More to be added.
The benefit concert takes place Sunday, January 26, doors open at 3pm and the show beginning at 4pm. At Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Ave, Albany, CA. $15-$40 Sliding scale donation.
Grab tix here.
