Welcome to Under The Stars, where we(eventually) talk about San Francisco music: past, present, and future. We’ve been doing it for about five years. Thanks for hanging with us. Let us get to it.
NUBYA GARCIA AT THE CHAPEL, APRIL 17
In the past decade, we’ve witnessed jazz transform itself through a glow-up of new voices suggesting how the music shall next evolve. UK tenor sax player Nubya Garcia, one of the top talents to emerge from this era, has indicated such directions throughout her two cross-pollinating, best-selling albums. Through a series of dazzling compositions on Source from 2020 and last year’s Odyssey, Garcia has brought Soundsystem culture live and direct into the jazz sphere with resounding command, while adding string scores to arrangements and enlarging the scope and scale of rigorous orchestration.
In advance of her upcoming performance at The Chapel, she shared with us five albums that influence her craft.
THE CAVEMEN, ROOTS
“I came to this album and The Cavemen through a recommendation from a friend, and they have been regularly playing in my house since. Their album at the Village Underground in 2022 presented by Touching Bass remains one of my favorite gigs ever.”
X ALFONSO, EME ALFONSO, SÍNTESIS; ANCENSTROS SINFONICO
“I’ve been checking this out recently, and I love it! It has such a deep energy and encompasses so many sounds I love.”
SONNY ROLLINS, SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS
“One of the first albums ever gifted to me (age 10 or 11) and probably the one that made me truly fall in love with jazz and the saxophone.”
WILLIE COLÓN, SIEMBRA
“A classic! And a frequent morning album in my house.”
JOHN COLTRANE, A LOVE SUPREME
“I must have listened to this album thousands of times, and it still reaches right into my soul and centers me in a way like nothing else. I think I first heard this when I was about 15, and then felt called to listen to this album every morning on my walk to university a few years later. And in the years listening since, it still is as if it’s brand new to me, even though I know it inside out.”
Get tickets to Garcia’s show at The Chapel here.
IDRIS ACKAMOOR AND THE PYRAMIDS W/ DANNY GLOVER AND RHODESSA JONES AT THE LAB, APRIL 19
One would think after 50 years in show business, it might be time for a breather. But lemme ask you this: Have you seen Idris Ackamoor, live and direct, performing in the past couple of years, mixing it up with the young upstarts in the ambient jazz wing? Ackamoor, a former student of legendary pianist Cecil Taylor and a sort of spiritual disciple of Sun Ra—who founded his legendary free-jazz band The Pyramids in 1972—is still out here doing it, Jack. And he’s doing it wearing gold, shimmering outfits from hat to jacket and even pantaloons.
This limber septuagenarian is keeping his collaborators, heavyweight youngsters Nate Merceau and Carlos Niño—established stars in their own orbits and currently the backing band for André 3000’s ever-evolving spiritual jazz projects—on their zen-like toes.
Ackamoor is still what the kids would call a heater.
At the midpoint of “Rhapsody in Berlin,” from his 2016 We Be All Africans, the composition is moving, raging in full regalia. Then, without warning, it’s stripped down to just congas, bass drums, and vocal calls. Next, the once-masterful horn statement is reduced to a distant ghost of itself, with tones muted and bouncing off soundly secured walls. It’s reminiscent of hearing a horn line in a tunnel in the wee hours of the morning from a great distance away. And then those beautiful wind beasts start marching and swinging towards you again, slowly gaining footing. Upon the track’s return to full volume, Ackamoor manifests a sax solo that reminds you he’s still here, ready and able to deliver that fire, with the smoke. All day.
Ackamoor and the Pyramids return to The Lab to celebrate the release of their double album Artistic Being, which will be released on Strut Records on Sat/12. Recorded live at The Lab in February with The Pyramids, the release also features Danny Glover and Rhodessa Jones.
This, right here? A San Francisco treat.
Grab tickets here.
MANU DIBANGO, DIBANGO 82 (WEWANTSOUNDS)
Don’t wanna tell no tales, but for anybody who is only familiar with Manu Dibango through his international pop-funk archetype model “Soul Makossa,” it’s time to live a little outside the algorithm. Dibango 82, a live performance from the Cameroonian musician and songwriter who plays saxophone and vibraphone and has developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music, is a loose, moody celebration of this oft-cornered artist, who is all-too-often thought of one-hit wonder.
Yes. 1972 single “Soul Makossa” has been referred to as the most sampled African song, but on this wide-eyed album, which samples improvisational “social music” (a Miles Davis term for jazz), Santana vibes are present. Dibango’s stellar eight-piece group has no problems switching gears. On “Waka Juju Part 3,” Dibango lets the crowd in on his Ramsey Lewis-type keyboard chops.
Unrushed and very particular, this unreleased live recording gives the world a taste of the very-large menu this artist, who passed five years ago at the age of 86, was cooking with.
Grab it here.
COLE PULICE, “AFTER THE RAIN” (LEAVING RECORDS)
Cole Pulice is tapped in. This Oakland-based saxophonist and composer pulls a move at which many try and fail, dipping into that Coltrane pool of influence. Track “After the Rain” off his album Land’s End Eternal is a nonstop wash-you-’til-you’re-clean, moving chamber jazz piece for saxophone, multiple guitars, brass choir, and voice. According to its liner notes, it was written shortly after the heavy rains swept through the Bay. Pulice finds patience, care, and transparency here, forging an unrushed alignment with Maria BC, whose stately vox is charged with an emotional constitution that sends the nine-minute communiqué into the soaring ether.
Pick it up here.
DECK THE WALLS: VINYL EDITION AT 540 BAR, THU/10 TO JUNE 12
This group art show presented by 540 Rogues and Amoeba Records featuring vinyl records as canvases is a fundraising event for San Francisco Rock Project, an initiative that helps youth develop musical and live performance skills. All proceeds from the show’s sales will go towards music materials and classes for the students in the program. So come by 540 Rogues, put on your record album goggles, and plan to buy art that serves up opportunities for the kids while sipping a fine beverage.
Opening night is Thu/10, 7pm. Keep an eye on 540 Bar’s Instagram for info.
foamboy, “EDIBLES”
Here’s the remarkable thing about so-called socially awkward souls: They do their damnedest to be seen or heard in other ways than just the typical “hi, how ya doing?” And that alone makes their plight oh-so-much-more interesting and endearing.
Yup, you can smell it coming. Here’s the gush.
I’ve been following my fave indie-popper outfit from Portland, foamboy, ever since they put these scenarios of super-smart people feeling and acting less than on PDX’s Front Street on debut album My Sober Daydream. That thunk bass of “Alien” from 2021 transitioning into the slinky bump of “Logout”? That was it. Fan. I became one.
The lyrics of “Burnout,” the earworm banger of sorts from 2024’s Eating Me Alive, presents another scenario tracking the feeling of inferiority, expressed through the good feeling heights of producer Wil Bakula and vocalist Katy Ohsiek. The duo has found something in each other that makes this band work in different and complex ways. I had a couple of homies call “Burnout” that Suzanne Vega 2.0 jawn; sometimes the homies should self-censor.
“Edibles” follows the same scenario of feeling out of sorts “in social settings and comparing yourself to everyone around you,” according to Ohsiek. This time arrangements lean more into guitar-driven pop directions and loverly synth melodies that wind and grind around that insecure part of the brain.
This Bakula-Ohsiek combo, plus that heavyweight band they bring out on tour with them, continually churns out some of the best “get out of your head’ music documenting that human condition through a modern prism.
Buy some stuff from foamboy here, they would appreciate it.
THE CHARITIES, “FATAL ATTRACTION” (COLEMINE RECORDS)
Next time you step foot into your fave oldies DJ night, feel confident in asking for that new Charities joint. As opposed to the typical “what the fuck did you say?” look from the DJ, who knows? Maybe you get a smile as the requested tune plays, and, hey, perhaps a drink ticket.
“Fatal Attraction” is two minutes and change of R&B, and the broken-hearted lessons sung by a band typically of sunny California disposition. But as Uncle Billy Dee once said, “Don’t let the smooth taste fool ya.” Recorded at Penrose Recordings in Riverside, the song recounts how in some relationships, the very qualities that draw you in can also lead to your destruction. Cold, but accurate. Amen brudder.
You can snatch up the lesson, I mean song, here.
CRUCIAL REGGAE SUNDAYS AT THE GOLDEN GATE PARK BANDSHELL
All vibe and no fee? Sounds like a plan.
Crucial Reggae Sundays presents free reggae music at Golden Gate Park’s historic Music Concourse Bandshell every Sunday from 4:20-7:30pm through mid-November. Produced by Illuminate LIVE and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, the series is hosted by residents Irie Dole (Jah Warrior Shelter Hi-Fi), Guidance (Infinite Guidance Sound/Nice Up Radio), and DJ Sep (Dub Mission), and features special guests every week.
Bring the kids, the soccer ball, blankets, friends—and all the things you need to get open to what will be emanating from the bandshell during these sessions. Upcoming artists include Native Elements (May 25), Mighty Mystic (June 1), and Birds Of A Feather (June 22).
Illuminate’s free music series in the park will include more than 125 concerts this year on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday afternoons, plus select Saturdays. Over the past four years, Illuminate LIVE has made the 125-year-old bandshell a hub for diverse musical genres and legendary performances, with more than 600 free shows attracting nearly one million music lovers to the Music Concourse.
Now THAT is a major vibe! Here’s the Crucial Reggae Sundays April lineup:
April 6: DJs Ted Shred and O’Snap (Shogun Sound)
April 13: DJ Mr. E (45 Sessions)
April 20: Prezident Brown (special 4/20 live performance)
April 27: OG the DJ (moving-away party)
More info here.
