My nephew arrived at my North Park shack around 6:15 on a clear Monday evening for our trip to The Loft at UC San Diego. I’ve been feeling like hammered shit due to an ailment …

The upright bass is in some ways the most essential instrument in a jazz ensemble. The trouble is that there just aren’t enough bass players to go around, and the really good ones end up …

I’ll start out with a confession: I hate crowds. I get pretty stressed out at a sold-out concert, which is why I’ll do just about anything to arrive early enough at a general admission show …

There are plenty of stories about drummers who got their start while still in their teens or even earlier. But not many involve someone with the talent and potential of Young Lions Jazz Conservatory phenom …

“I’ve been playing sax for seven and half years,” says Nick Caldwell, a 17-year-old high school senior who attends the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts in Paradise Hills, and who is also …

On May 11, the Federal Department of Health and Human Services will end the Covid public health emergency. But the bureaucratic behemoth is a slow-footed beast; John Q. Public knows the pandemic ended some time …

There are so many musical venues on the gargantuan campus of UC San Diego, it’s hard to pick a favorite for catching a memorable show. My first concert at UCSD was an astonishing performance by …

As much as I was looking forward to the 2023 debut of the Fourth Friday Jazz Series at the La Jolla Community Center, I have to admit that, due to the relentless deluge of doomsday …

San Diego drummer Justin Joyce released his debut album as a bandleader, Story Tales, last year, although he actually cut it back in 2019 — in one day (May 6) up at LMP Studios in …

Drummer Matthew Smith has been a fixture in San Diego for quite a few years, playing with the Matt Smith Neu Jazz Trio, Juice Box, and Fresh Veggies Micro Brass. He gigs often enough around …

Everything was going my way, including a cancer-free pathology report that finally came just hours before this event: the inaugural concert at the newly constructed Park & Market. It felt like I’d been waiting forever …

When vocalist Leonard Patton decided to launch a jazz venue in the midst of the pandemic — and in La Mesa, of all places — many wondered if he had lost his mind. But when …

I step into the frigid November air, bundled up in sweaters, gloves, and a knit cap, rushing to meet the Uber that is to escort me to down the hill to East Village. It’s my …

I’m officially a concert junkie. Since attending my first one (Led Zeppelin in August 1970 at the Sports Arena), I’ve witnessed more than 1000 shows. Once I started writing about music 13 years ago, this …

Bassist Sean Hicke didn’t always play the upright. In fact, the San Diego native got his musical start on its electric cousin. “I was playing in punk bands and whatnot in middle school,” says the …

A one-time resident of Huntington, West Virginia, Iranian guitarist Farhad Bahrami arrived in San Diego in the early 1980s, bringing Persian music to the experimental Trummerflora Collective and serving as musical director for ensembles like …

The perks of playing for the Padres: Major League Baseball’s season is nearing its end, but musician Bobby Cressey is still living the dream. Not only is he one of the lucky few to make …

Eighteen-year-old bassist John Murray has won multiple awards over the last few years, including “Outstanding Soloist” at both the Monterey Next Generation and Essentially Ellington competitions in 2018 and 2019. He had his pick of …

Tamara Hartfield Paige, who is the orchestra director and department co-chair at San Diego’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, has been called a multi-instrumentalist, but that seems like a serious understatement. Asked for a …

Harpist Tasha Smith Godinez took advantage of her pandemic downtime to begin writing original music. “Before, I never really felt I had enough time,” she explains. “So I started writing these ideas down, and I …

At first glance, you might not peg guitarist Nate Jarrell as a high school teacher — maybe it’s the modified mohawk. The heavily tattooed Jarrell still looks every bit the punk rocker he was nearly …

The latest jazz concerts produced by the ever-resourceful local promoter and musician Daniel Atkinson took place over two days during the first week of June. The Women in Jazz Mini-Fest highlighted the historic and ongoing …

It’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of the Westgate Hotel, which takes up the bulk of a downtown city block at the corner of Broadway and Second Avenue. Opened in 1970, …

Point of clarification: we’re not talking about the slow moving, brain-eating monsters that populated George Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead movie, nor the post-apocalyptic goons of The Walking Dead. The Zombies became a …

Back in 1974, jazz guitarist Pat Metheny — who has won 20 Grammy awards in ten different categories — gave a few lessons to local player Peter Sprague. “I had just gotten out of high …

When Howard Mandel, President of the Jazz Journalists Association, emailed Louis Valenzuela to congratulate him on being selected a Jazz Hero by the organization, the guitarist almost missed it. “I didn’t recognize the name,” says …

Pink Trio pianist Brenda Greggio first caught my ear back in 2017, when she joined trumpeter and educator Gilbert Castellanos’ Young Lions Jazz Conservatory. She was coming from the world of classical music, but she …

Under normal circumstances, flute virtuoso Holly Hofmann and her pianist husband Mike Wofford would be touring the world. (Hofmann, who is also a concert impresario, most recently curated a Sunday series at the Handlery Hotel …

Over the past two years, bassist Mark Dresser got hit hard by the Covid experience. That’s not to say that he actually contracted the virus, or that he went broke from lack of paying gigs …

Composer Joe Garrison hit a milestone birthday last year, right in the midst of the pandemic, and decided, at long last, that he was sick of music. Or at least, with the piano tuning aspect …

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a music writer isn’t going to get rich plying his trade, but at least he’ll get free stuff: albums, concert tickets, swag, perhaps even the occasional backstage pass. …

Trombone virtuoso and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Matt Hall is poised, after a Covid-caused two-year delay, to release his first album on the noted independent label Summit Records, one that features an all-star lineup of …

Last summer, prolific drummer Jake Najor (Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, Big Daddy Kane, TV On The Radio) began feeling ill. Thankfully, he decided that a trip to the ER was in order. “I’d been sick …

After a two-year hiatus, Queen Bee’s owner Alma Rodriguez is set to resume the annual Beatle Fair on March 26, promising a full day of music, talks, screenings, and shopping for all things related to …

In the days before Covid, piano virtuoso Irving Flores was one of the busiest cats in town. “Yes, I was playing every day,” recalls Flores. “But, just like that, it all collapsed from all that …

Jazz concert impresario Daniel Atkinson has experimented with all types of presentation ideas in the 32 years he’s been bringing music to San Diego. It’s been a while, however, since he focused a show on …

Victor Baker knows guitars. For one thing, he’s been playing them professionally for years. For another, back in the late ‘90s, he decided to start building them as well. “I was teaching a ton of …

In the days before the pandemic, it would have been exceedingly difficult to find a San Diego musician with a busier schedule than blues and jazz vocalist Whitney Shay. “I was doing at least 20 …

Calling Yale Strom a polymath somehow seems inadequate. He’s a violinist, composer, educator, author (working on his 15th book), award-winning documentary director, playwright, and now, the latest inductee to the San Diego Music Hall of …

North County concert impresario Kenneth Rexrode had zero experience in the music business when he was approached nearly ten years ago by a local country-music singer. “His name was Tony Suraci, and he wanted me …

Farewell to Fresh Sound : New music champion and concert impresario Bonnie Wright bids adieu to her Fresh Sound series with a farewell show featuring award-winning percussionist Steven Schick on November 19 at Liberty Station. …

Bassist Mackenzie Leighton’s presence on the San Diego jazz scene has grown exponentially over the past few years, to the point where he’s been able to land some very high profile gigs with Peter Sprague, …

Multiple San Diego Music Award-winning percussionist and producer Nathan Hubbard has always kept a lot of irons in the fire. So when San Diego shut down in March 2020 because of the pandemic, he lost …

When studying for his doctorate at the University of Southern Mississippi. SDSU percussion lecturer (and Ropeadope Recording artist) David Whitman took one piece of his instructor’s advice to heart. “He said, ‘If you want to …

Jazz concert impresario Daniel Atkinson has been presenting music with Jazz at the Athenaeum for 32 years, showcasing national talent for eight annual events in the Athenaeum Library, and six more at the larger Scripps …

Jazz concert promoter and Dizzy’s operator Chuck Perrin began showcasing (mostly) jazz talent back in April 2000 — first at the Culy Trucking Warehouse, within spitting distance of Petco Park. Seven years later, a construction …

There’s an old joke that says the only way to make a million dollars in jazz is start out with two million. Given that, and given the reality of post-pandemic life, it seems like opening …

Three years ago, jazz-vocal chanteuse (and native San Diegan) Sacha Boutros pulled up stakes and moved to Paris, France, frustrated by the lack of opportunity for performance in her hometown. Now she’s back, at least …

Jazz guitar man Jaime Valle has been a force on the San Diego scene for many decades. That stayed true even after he moved to the picturesque Mexican town of San Miguel de Allende. I …

In the days before the pandemic, guitarist Louis Valenzuela was on his way to becoming a ubiquitous force on the San Diego jazz scene. He ran a popular jazz jam session on Monday nights at …