Jonathan Karrant’s holiday, Psychosally’s death, Casmalia’s collab, Ken Lehnig’s wish, Javier Escovedo’s paradise

Crooner Jonathan Karrant’s last full-length was Shadows Fall, a 2021 collaboration with local jazz pianist Joshua White. “I’m releasing a new holiday album this year called Christmas Wish and will be touring with it,” says Karrant, who’ll play Martini’s in Hillcrest on December 11. Album guests include jazz icon Diane Schuur, sax player Houston Person, trumpeter Kenny Rampton, and the entire Joe Alterman Trio.

With the unexpected death of Psychosally frontman Trevor Sesma, his son Dustin Sesma, who occasionally played bass for the band, has recruited Psychosally’s drummer to form Nefarious Creatures and release a full concept EP. “It is one consecutive story about various fairy tale and classic horror characters,” says Sesma. “It starts with the evil queen and Snow White, moves into the story of Frankenstein, and ends with a zombie apocalypse. From there, it moves into Pinocchio’s origin story and finishes with Rumpelstiltskin.”

DJ-songwriter Casmalia is a classically trained musician with a degree with audio engineering; she’s influenced by disco, Detroit style techno, and ‘90s hip-hop, and known for playing mostly original songs in her sets. She made her festival debut in 2018 at Same Same But Different Festival, and has since performed at The Northern Nights Festival, Lucidity Festival, and Santa Cruz Music Festival. Casmalia has a new collaborative single with Sean Lafayette streaming online called “Escape From You.”

“I am an artist, poet, author, speaker, and a lover of the parade and pageant of life,” says Ken Lehnig. He just released a new single, “Wish She Had a Heart,” off his upcoming sixth solo album Between Us, due November 23 via Encinitas-based American Windsong Music. Local guest players on the album include keyboardist Ed Kornhauser and saxophonist Ross Rizzo.

Singer-guitarist Javier Escovedo lived in Huntington Beach before moving to Chula Vista in his teens. He may be best known from one of San Diego’s original punk bands, The Zeros, but he’s also the guy to thank for influential ensembles such as City Lights and Austin Texas-based True Believers. His new solo single “In Paradise” drops November 14.