Trombonist Mike Benge has been a director of music at Helix High school for ten years, and the 40-year-old musician was also hyper busy leading the San Diego Latin Jazz Collective and touring with the ...

Eighteen-year-old drummer Carmen Murray recently auditioned for six college music programs back east. A student at San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts in Paradise Hills, she’s been playing the drums for eight years, ...

“We were strongly encouraged to come up with a band name,” says singer Leonard Patton, discussing the new cooperative group he formed with Danny Green, Justin Grinnell and Julien Cantelm, who dropped their debut album ...

Local music fans might have done a double-take while watching Sir Elton John’s performance at the 92nd annual Academy Awards ceremony of his song (which won an Oscar) “I’m Going To Love Me Again,” when ...

La Mesa harpist Tasha Smith Godinez came to her instrument as a child growing up in the East County. “I actually started with the violin when I was three years old. My older brother was ...

Not worried about being perfect “We did 10 songs, and we booked the studio (Tritone in Glendale) for two whole days, which gave us enough time to incorporate a few arrangements from [pianist] Josh Nelson, ...

“It’s a little scary to be doing this,” confessed musician Fernando Gomez, speaking of his journey from jazz drummer to electronic-dance-music solo artist with a new single titled “Let It Happen.” “Because all of my ...

“The album dropped on September 12,” says Sure Fire Soul Ensemble bandleader Tim Felten. “And it hit #1 on the Contemporary Jazz charts.... It’s awesome to be recognized at that level, and I’m super confident ...

“It’s something I’ve been putting off for years,” confessed pianist Ed Kornhauser, referring to the completion of sessions for his first album as a leader. It features all original music. “I’ve been writing music as ...

“I guess I am the force behind the Oceanside Art Piano Project,” admits musician Robert Parker, about the intricately hand-painted piano that now calls the Oceanside Museum of Art its home. “But it’s a collaboration ...

One of San Diego’s most promising musicians is pianist Brenda Greggio, a high school sophomore at the School of Creative and Performing Arts in Paradise Hills. She makes the daily trek down from her home ...

“It was one of those rare sessions where everything just ‘clicked’ and went very smoothly,” says musician Kamau Kenyatta, discussing his new album The Elegant Sadness, featuring trumpeter Curtis Taylor, saxophonist Brian Clancy, bassist Mackenzie ...

I had intended to arrive at Rosie O’ Grady’s well before the music started. Like most of life’s good intentions, that plan was thwarted by a personal inertia more powerful than wishful thinking. As I ...

“I love exposing people to all types of music,” explains Steve Kader, the talent buyer for the Adams Avenue Street Fair, a gig he’s held for the past 15 years after logging seven with 4th ...

“I’ve got a nice crew with me and I’m excited we we’re able to put this album together,” says trumpeter Curtis Taylor about Snapshot, his latest record that dropped last month. Snapshot was recorded live ...

Local bassist Omar Lopez (Áfrojazziacs, Juice Box) came to San Diego in 2006, to study at San Diego State. He’s originally from Calipatria, down in the Imperial Valley. Lopez just turned 31, and he’s been ...

“I came out here six years ago from Columbus, Ohio because of an ex-girlfriend,” says saxophonist Robert Dove. “But San Diego is one of the world’s best kept secrets, musically, and I fell in love ...

San Diego blues belter Whitney Shay had a definite vision in mind when she cut her last album, A Woman Rules the World. That vision turned out to be prescient. “I was very specific about ...

Two years ago, Victor Baker arrived from the East Coast and set his one-man arch-top jazz guitar shop — initially, in Lemon Grove. Since then, he’s moved everything into his large home in Poway. What ...

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do, and face it, I just turned 41, so it was time to get something out there under my own name,” relates funk drum ace Jake Najor regarding ...

Vocalist Rebecca Jade has had a busy year. Between local gigs all over the county and out-of-town touring as a backup singer for pop-star Sheila E., she still managed to record a follow-up album, Running ...

Bassist Ben Wanicur knows a thing or two about hosting a jazz jam session, having led one for five years in University Heights at the work-share studio 3rd Space. Part of Wanicur’s expertise came about ...

“It’s an opportunity for students from all over the county to study with some of the top jazz players in San Diego for a whole week to really refine their craft,” says program director Nate ...

Entrepreneur Jeff Motch is one of a four-person collective that owns and operates Blind Lady Ale House in Normal Heights; Tiger! Tiger! in North Park, and Panama 66 in Balboa Park. The last, an open-air ...

Drummer/ bandleader Nathan Hubbard has had his share of success at the San Diego Music Awards in recent years, winning “Best Jazz” in 2017 for his album Furiously Dreaming, and in 2014 for his sprawling ...

Guitar bands spotted in the wild Here’s a fun-fact: contrary to popular opinion, guitar-based bands aren’t on the endangered species list. They may not generate the national coverage they once did, but if you venture ...

The cover photo of drummer Antonio Sanchez’s new CD Lines In The Sand, which dropped in January, should be familiar to most San Diegans. It depicts the U.S. border wall at Imperial Beach as it ...

“I had premonitions that something was amiss,” says vocalist Allison Adams Tucker, whose latest recording project got caught up in the apparent collapse of the crowdfunding organization PledgeMusic, after she spent a considerable amount of ...

“There is a real organ renaissance happening throughout the country right now,” claims Hammond B-3 specialist Douglas Kvandal, who is gearing up to present the Jazz Organ Summit Concert on February 17 at Dizzy’s (1717 ...

Guitarist Louis Valenzuela was looking for a specific type of vibe when he was considering setting up a new jam session for local players. “I remember there was another Monday night session back in the ...

Nels Cline, who was listed by Rolling Stone at number 82 in the “Top 100 Guitarists of All Time,” is probably best known to the general public as the lead guitarist of the band Wilco. ...

“This March, we will have been presenting at the Handlery Hotel for four years,” says flutist Holly Hofmann. “During our first year, you could still get a seat. The venue holds about 75 people. For ...

“I’d heard about the Festival of New Trumpet Music [an annual multi-day New York City event co-curated by UCSD professor Stephanie Richards and founder Dave Douglas] around a dozen years ago, and I thought it ...

Bassist Bertram Turetzky retired with the title professor emeritus from U.C. San Diego 15 years ago, but he’s not planning on slowing down anytime soon. Even though he’ll celebrate his 86th birthday in February, Turetzky ...

“I’ve done lots of gigs in Mexico, and until now I’ve never had a problem,” says San Diego bassist Jacob Miranda, who was caught up in the border-closure fiasco on November 24. Miranda’s weekend began ...

“My attitude has changed over time,” explains flutist Wilfrido Terrazas, UCSD’s latest addition to its notable music faculty. “Years ago, I was trying to ‘un-flute the flute’ by exploring with an expanded sound pallet and ...

“I was having dinner and drinks with a friend when all of a sudden, I started to feel numb,” recalls bassist Marilyn Quinsaat (Sequin in the Sky, Sock Monkeys) of the night her life changed ...

“It’s all because of music, really,” explains trombonist Matt Hall, contemplating the journey that brought him from East Tennessee to San Diego. Hall has been playing the trombone since he was 10-years old and it ...

In jazz circles, a player who knows how to stay working on a consistent basis despite the relative lack of opportunities in a limited market stands out, and in San Diego, pianist Ed Kornhauser (who ...

After 53 years of laying down the bottom end for everyone from Art Pepper to Madonna, bassist Bob Magnusson is calling it quits and withdrawing from performing in public. Magnusson came from a musical family. ...

Drummer/composer Nathan Hubbard won the San Diego Music Award for “Best Jazz Album,” in 2014, for Encinitas and Everything, and again in 2017 for Furiously Dreaming, a project featuring his Skeleton Key Orchestra. Has the ...