Joanna Ladd

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Joanna Ladd is a writer and affordable housing developer in San Francisco. She has been following the Bay Area local music scene since 2014.

Music

With ‘Sounds of Haejin,’ Caroline Chung at last releases an album of her own

April 2, 2021

The veteran bassist collaborates with a bounty of Bay Area talent for lush, jazz-rooted collection of songs.

Music

For Puerto Rican freedom, MaJo Montijo summons a bomba ‘Huracán’

October 27, 2020

Oakland musician fights "continuous colonial disaster," including Hurricane María aftermath, with gale-force release.

Pianist Holly Mead echoes quarantine angst on new album ‘Solitary Animals’

July 15, 2020

Pianist and composer Holly Mead picked the title Solitary Animals for her fourth album months before COVID-19 spun us all into cocoons of solitude....

The Onyx spirals upward, beaming ‘Black Girl Magic’

October 7, 2019

It’s a Thursday night at The Uptown in Oakland, and people are filtering in for the opening set. Six black women take the stage,...

Solate finds lush, soulful music in intimate connections

February 11, 2019

ALL EARS I’ve lived in California for 11 years, and feel pretty well-adapted, but the Golden State still springs the occasional culture shock on...

Somi sings of Harlem immigrants (and gentrification’s effects) on ‘Petite Afrique’

January 4, 2019

ALL EARS The sound of Harlem during its jazz heyday is so indelible that it jumps to mind instantly, almost a century later. For...

After the mudslides, Kendra McKinley’s musical dispatch from ‘Big Sur Island’

November 30, 2018

ALL EARS In the high season of May to October 2017, Big Sur was ghost town. The Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge was under construction in...

Arts + Culture

Old school Chinatown funk? 50 years of Jest Jammin’ with Rev. Norman Fong

October 9, 2018

ALL EARS If you’re not nostalgic for Chinatown nightlife circa 1970, it’s probably because you don’t know about it. Despite the passing of civil rights...

Making noise and empowering girls: 15 years of Women’s Audio Mission

September 13, 2018

ALL EARS For 15 years, the sound engineers at SoMa neighborhood-based Women’s Audio Mission have been applying their skills to one of the field’s trickiest...

Arts + Culture

A swell wave of female talent rolls in with TIDES

August 23, 2018

ALL EARS It makes sense that Suzanne Galal wants her new monthly party to be inclusive. A professor of pharmacy by trade, Galal started writing...