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Rob Thorsen Trio: Live

There is a special, exploratory chemistry happening with these three.

Veteran double bass artist Rob Thorsen celebrated the recent release of his CD, Rob Thorsen Trio: Live on May 18, ...

Ben Wanicur Quartet live at Dizzy's

Wanicur's charts are tricky, but with Peter Sprague, Ian Tordella and Charles Weller in the band, easy to digest.

San Diego bassist Ben Wanicur held a CD release party May 17, at Dizzy's celebrating his new disc The Excluded ...

Parker Trio live in the East Village

The creative Chicago/ Southern California guitarist brought his tight trio to town for some jagged explorations on the jazz aesthetic.

Concert promoter Bonnie Wright's importance to the music and arts community received some rare public acknowledgement on May 14, when ...

The shape of jazz to come: Dresser Quintet at Dizzy's

Jazz should always be like this: exciting, connected to the blues, swinging, grounded in tradition while surging into the future.

When jazz is hitting on all of its cylinders, there is no more important art form on this planet. On ...

Jason Moran & The Bandwagon live at TSRI

Moran, bassist Tarus Mateen and especially drummer Nasheet Waits laid it down.

The May 8 Athenaeum Jazz concert featuring Jason Moran & The Bandwagon was a fascinating conceptual affair that's reach occasionally ...

Danny Weller Quintet does Ella at 98 Bottles

Weller led a superb ensemble through the music of vocal icon Ella Fitzgerald.

Young double-bass virtuoso Danny Weller is back in town for a week or so, and he somehow found time to ...

Anthony Smith CD release party at 98 Bottles

The vibraphonist led a stellar sextet celebrating his new music in front of a sold-out house.

Vibraphonist Anthony Smith celebrated the CD release of two new discs on April 27 at 98 Bottles, leading an all-star ...

White, Schachter & Biggs at the Westgate

Endlessly inventive and swinging, White really shines in the small room.

San Diego pianist Joshua White continues to demonstrate that he is ready for virtually any high-profile gig. I can see ...

Exploring the solo guitar with Gyan Riley

Alternating between the classical instrument and a highly processed electric, Riley impressed on both axes.

I really had no idea who Gyan Riley was before attending his Fresh Sound @ Space 4 Art debut on ...

Janklow Quintet live at Dizzy's

The LA saxophone virtuoso delivered a smoking set.

Alto saxophonist Danny Janklow made his San Diego performance debut as a bandleader on April 20, teaming up with fellow ...

White, Price & Smith: burning at Dizzy's

Pianist Joshua White brought drum icon Marvin "Smitty" Smith, bassist Hamilton Price and tenor saxophonist Ben Schachter into the Pacific Beach venue.

April 18 represented a special day in the evolution of piano master Joshua White. Drum legend Marvin "Smitty" Smith made ...

Tonga Ross-Ma'u Sextet live at Dizzy's

Ross-Ma'u led a tight ensemble of veteran and younger players through an ambitious program of original material and lesser known standards.

One of Chuck Perrin of Dizzy's greatest attributes is his fondness for showcasing emergent or lesser known talent to the ...

Song X tribute at Villa Musica

Nate Jarrell led an all-star quintet through the difficult music of Ornette Coleman and Pat Metheny.

It takes some balls to commit to a concert celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the iconic Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman recording ...

Keezer: solo at the Saville

Pianist Geoffrey Keezer pretty much knocked it out of the park with a wide-ranging, very dynamic performance.

Piano virtuoso Geoffrey Keezer dropped in to Jazz Live ( the excellent series produced by Jazz 88.3) on April 9, ...

Future Jazz: telematics at UCSD

Mark Dresser, Michael Dessen, Nicole Mitchell and Myra Melford performed with musicians from across the country and the Atlantic Ocean while staying put in La Jolla.

The recent three-day consecutive telematic virtual tour performed at UCSD with a quartet comprised of Mark Dresser's bass, Nicole Mitchell's ...

For The Roses

Robin Adler & Mutts of the Planet delivered two knockout sets of Joni Mitchell music to a packed house at Dizzy's.

Mutts of the Planet is kind of a misleading name for a band that produces such consistently gorgeous music, and ...

Gerald Clayton Quartet live in La Jolla

Clayton's group delivered an excellent example of modern, small group improvising.

Athenaeum Jazz led off their new concert series with a performance by the Gerald Clayton Quartet on April 3, at ...

Rez Abbasi, Mark Dresser, Satoshi Takeishi : Live

Free wheeling solos and rhythmic adventure characterized this excellent trio of sonic explorers.

These Bonnie Wright concerts just keep getting better. On the last day of March, NYC guitarist Rez Abbasi assembled a ...

Joshua White, Tripp Sprague & Gunnar Biggs @ Westgate Hotel

Three masters explore, deconstruct, and reinvent standards in the moment.

Piano virtuoso Joshua White cemented another step in his quest for self-fulfillment on March 29, with a smoking performance at ...

Dependent Origination live at the Taoist Sanctuary

Multi-reed man Peter Kuhn led a stellar ensemble of improvisers for a scintillating set on March 16.

The Taoist Sanctuary on Park Blvd. played host to an all-star free jazz concert by some of the music's heaviest ...

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