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 ...

Anyone who has attended local jazz concerts over the last 40 years is familiar with the stealthy visage of longtime professional photographer Michael Oletta, who got his start in concert photography back when he was ...

“It’s inspired by Homeric poetry, especially the Odyssey,” explains flute virtuoso and UCSD professor Wilfrido Terrazas, in regards to his latest solo flute album Itaca, which was released last December. “It is both a real ...

There are a ton of San Diego musicians who have found themselves involuntarily unemployed since mid-March of 2020, when live gigs virtually dried up all over the country. What to do during all the downtime ...

I have a vivid memory of the last live concert I attended in town. It was a show featuring pianist Anthony Davis, bassist Mark Dresser, and trombonist Michael Dessen held in the acoustically pristine Conrad ...

For years, San Diego’s favorite destination for jazz on a Wednesday night was the jam session curated by trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos at Panama 66. He would feature performances in the early evening by students from ...

Another victim of the Coronavirus was San Diego’s all-jazz radio station KSDS 88.3. The station, which operates on the campus of San Diego City College, had only 48 hours to totally retool into an automated ...

Of all the collateral damage suffered in the last 12 months, the music industry has been hit particularly hard. Everyone has lost gigs, and many venues have shuttered permanently. But for trumpeter John Reynolds, a ...

The San Diego Jewish Men’s Choir managed to release their third album in December of 2020. Quite an achievement, one would think, given the circumstances of Covid-19. But, says conductor Ruth Webber, “Had it not ...

Back in December, local singer Leonard Patton’s voice was heard on a national commercial for a Pizza Hut jingle (doing a take on “The 12 Days of Christmas.”) It was recorded at Singing Serpent studios ...

“I was at an Alex Cline concert when the air-conditioning suddenly came on and immediately the whole vibe changed. That got me to thinking about how the other senses might influence the way we perceive ...

“I’ve decided to revive the San Diego Underground,” says bassist Benjamin Wanicur, referring to his monthly jam session that used to operate out of 3rd Space on Park Avenue. Wanicur’s revival has an important new ...

Saxophone icon Charles McPherson unveiled his latest album Jazz Dance Suites on his own Chazz Mack Music label on September 24. It’s his 30th effort as a leader. The album is dedicated to his ballet-star ...

Singer Whitney Shay headlined a recent live show (complete with a real audience) on August 15 in the overflow parking lot of the Del Mar fairgrounds. It was one example of where live music might ...

Claudia Gomez keeps a lot of irons in the fire. She’s a musician and a tap dancer, and she taught at Tap Into Yoga & Reiki all over San Diego until just before the pandemic ...

“I should say first and foremost, that I always just wanted to play music in general and I really didn’t have any barriers between genres,” says musician Nathan Hubbard. “The first two CDs I bought ...

Jazz guitarist Peter SpraguePeter Sprague had just returned to San Diego from a Danish tour with vocalist Sinne Eeg when the pandemic struck, and the musician soon found himself on lockdown with the rest of ...