Coming Up

The Cambridge Drive Concert Series is excited to present Claire Holley with special guest, Bill Lanphar, Friday February 3^rd at 7:30 p.m. Claire Holley is an award winning musician.  An evocotive songwriter, she also has written scores for a number of films, a play, and has had her music featured on television shows and on the NPR’s Weekend Edition. A very productive writer, she has released six full length CD’s and two EP’s.  She now lives in Los Angeles, staking out new musical ground while remaining true to her southern roots.

Opening will be singer/songwriter, Bill Lanphar.  After fifteen years of fear and loathing on upper De La Vina, Bill is now living dangerously in La Conchita.  Writing songs since the ‘70s, Bill says that in one way or another, all of his songs are love songs.  His performances are honest, direct, heatfelt, moving, and jolly. cambridgedrivechurch.org

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Soul Salvation, featuring the Santa Barbara debut of acclaimed singer-songwriters Ruthie Foster and Paul Thorn performing a combustible blend of soul, blues, rock, R&B, folk and country on Friday, February 10th at 8 PM at UCSB Campbell Hall. One black, one white. One from Texas, one from Mississippi. One woman, one man. Both raised in the church, steeped in the traditions of American music and putting their own contemporary twist on it. Most importantly, both have a whole lotta soul! Their appearance follows the highly anticipated release of Foster’s intimate new album, Let It Burn. artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu

The First Presbyterian Church and the American Guild of Organists present organist and composer Chelsea Chen in a dynamic performance on February 10^th. Ms. Chen is internationally renowned for her concerts of “rare musicality” and “lovely lyrical grandeur,” and a compositional style that is “charming” and “irresistible” (Los Angeles Times).

One of the most promising organists of her generation, Chelsea Chen has electrified audiences throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. As a composer she is broadening the classical organ repertoire with her own works based on Asian folksongs.  fpcsb.org

The Santa Barbara Symphony will present a journey through the greatest of American 20th Century classical music on February 11^th and 12^th. Maestro Kabaretti has chosen Dave & Chris Brubeck’s Ansel Adams: America, a symphonic tribute to this cherished photographer. The work is a multi-media masterpiece that fully integrates sweeping melodies with 102 striking images of or by Ansel Adams. Dynamite guest pianist Terrence Wilson will then perform George Gershwin’s famous Rhapsody in Blue – an embodiment of the Jazz Age’s upbeat lyricism and dance-driven energy written in 1924. Charles Ives’ Second Symphony marks an exciting highlight in American symphonic literature.  Ramon Araiza will give a special talk, “Music Behind the Music” one hour before each performance. thesymphony.org

The Santa Barbara Jazz Society welcomes Gina Eckstine to their special Valentine’s Day concert on February 12th at SOhO.  Gina is the youngest child of model/actress Carolle Drake, and legendary jazz singer Billy Eckstine. With family friends like the Four Tops, Quincy Jones, Sammy Davis Jr., and Sarah Vaughan, Gina’s household was a constant source of inspiration and guidance.

After many years of touring with her father in the Billy Eckstine Show and performing her own solo show in all the major hotels and casions in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, Gina currently resides in Los Angeles and performs her own show. She recently released a CD “Everything I Have Is Yours,” a loving tribute to her late father. Gina will be joined by an outstanding trio of local favorite musicians Kim Collins on bass and vocals, pianist Debbie Denke, and James Antunez on drums and vocals.  sbjazz.org

Change in Program!! ­ CAMA presents Los Angeles Philharmonic ­ Sunday, October 16, 4 pm, The Granda Theatre

Pianist Yefim Bronfman, who was scheduled to play with the Los Angeles Philharmonic this Sunday, has fractured a finger and been forced to withdraw from the performance. Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 will be replaced by Maurice Ravel’s Suite No. 2 from Daphnis and Chloe. The remainder of the program remains unchanged.

Updated program details are available here: http://camasb.org/internationalseries.shtml#laphil

CAMA, Santa Barbara’s oldest arts organization, brings the finest classical musicians from around the globe to Santa Barbara, CA. Now in its 93rd season, CAMA presents an exciting mix of internationally acclaimed orchestras and soloists in two concert series.

An Evening of Music from the Wassoulou Region of Mali, West Africa with Mamadou and Vanessa Sidibe

Winners of several prestigious music awards, Mamadou and Vanessa perform soulful, uplifting rhythms from the historic Wassoulou Region of Mali, believed to be the birthplace of the American Blues. Mamadou Sidibe, master of the traditional kamale ngoni (12 stringed hunters harp), and Vanessa are joined with virtuoso balafon player Balla Kouyate and master of the djembe, Karamba Diabate. Tickets $5 UCSB students/$15 general. Limited seating!

Take advantage of the UCSB MultiCultural Center pre-sale discounts for concerts! Get 20% off general admission with purchase of your tickets by Monday, October 10th or with purchase of the whole concert series by calling A.S. Ticket Office at 805-893-2064 from Monday to Thursday, 10 am – 5 pm or Friday 10 am – 4 pm. No extra charge for phone orders! Tickets already on sale!

An Evening of TurbanGrooves with Live Punjabi Hip Hop and Funk Music by BlackMahal featuring Ustad Lal Singh Bhatti

You’ve heard urban groove music, but chances are that “turban groove” is a new sound to you. That’s what the unique San Francisco-based band BlackMahal calls its blend of hip-hop, funk and Punjabi music. The nine-piece band is fronted by the grey-bearded singer and dhol drummer Ustad Lal Singh Bhatti, known as the godfather of Punjabi-American music, who has performed for nearly every US president since Gerald Ford. Tickets $5 UCSB students/$15 general. Limited seating!

Take advantage of the UCSB MultiCultural Center pre-sale discounts for concerts! Get 20% off of general admission with purchase of your tickets by Monday, October 10^th or with purchase of the whole concert series by calling the A.S Ticket Office at 805-893-2064 from Monday to Thursday, 10 am – 5 pm or Friday, 10 am – 4 pm. No extra charge for telephone orders. Tickets are already on sale!

Outreach program encourages children to embrace opera in an engaging and accessible way!

Santa Barbara, CA, September 27, 2011 – Opera Santa Barbara’s school assembly program, The Opera Lab, will tour local schools (3rd – 6th grades) from October 3 – 14, 2011. This innovative program, designed by OSB’s Artistic Director José Maria Condemi, uses improvisational theatre techniques to engage children in the creation of opera. Five professional musicians (four singers and a pianist) introduce students to the key elements of opera, then work with the students to build their very own opera. The students create the story and direct the action, and the assembly ends with the artists performing the students’ tailor-made opera on the spot.

The program will be touring 20 local schools (two each day), and it is estimated that over 1,400 children will participate. The Opera Lab is made possible by the generous donations of Opera Santa Barbara’s annual “Stand up for Youth” campaign.

For more information and a full schedule of schools/times, please contact Lynttte at 805.898.3890 or info@operasb.org.

The Song Tree Concert Series is proud to announce the appearance at the Song Tree Sunday Afternoon classical music series of violinist Nina Bodnar with pianist Robert Thies on Sunday, September 25th at 3:00 p.m. at the Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 820 N. Fairview in Goleta. Tickets are now available for this performance, at $15 apiece for adults and free admission for people under 16. Ms. Bodnar and Mr. Thies will a present an “afternoon of Romance classics.” Works will include the Brahms G Major Sonata, the Chausson Poeme, Gershwin-Heifetz Porgy and Bess selections, a Debussy sonata, and pieces by Kreisler.

Nina Bodnar’s many achievements include several outstanding prizes and an international career including solo appearances with symphony orchestras throughout the world. As a chamber musician, Ms. Bodnar was a regular member of the Santa Fe and “Strings in the Mountains” (Steamboat Springs, Colorado) Chamber Music Festivals for several years, as well as being a guest artist at numerous other chamber music festivals throughout the country. A native of Santa Barbara, Ms. Bodnar served as concertmaster of the Santa Barbara Symphony and the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra for several years before being appointed concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin in 1989, a position she held until 1995. Ms. Bodnar currently resides in Santa Barbara and devotes herself to her students. Her beloved teachers were Sybil Maxwell, Zino Francescatti, and Henri Temianka.

A pianist of “unerring, warm-toned refinement, revealing judicious glimmers of power,” [Los Angeles Times] Robert Edward Thies (pronounced “Theece”) first captured worldwide attention in 1995 when he won the Gold Medal at the Second International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia – the only American pianist to win first prize in a Russian piano competition since Van Cliburn’s famed triumph in Moscow in 1958. Mr. Thies enjoys a diverse career as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He has already performed forty concerti with orchestras all over the world. His concerts have been broadcast throughout the United States, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Bolivia, Hungary, Mexico, and New Zealand. In Los Angeles, Thies has worked and recorded with many of the top studio musicians and film composers. Mr. Thies makes a home in Los Angeles. His teachers have included Robert Turner and Daniel Pollack, both protégés of the legendary Russian pedagogue Madame Rosina Lhevinne, and the great pianist Josef Lhevinne.

This concert will take place on Sunday, September 25th at 3:00 pm at the Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 820 N. Fairview in Goleta. Admission is $15 for adults, and people under 16 are free. Tickets are available in advance by mail (see the web site www.SongTree.org for information), and at Santa Barbara Sheet Music, Folk Mote Music, and Jensen Guitar and Music in Santa Barbara. Tickets will also be sold at the door if not sold out in advance.

Visit the Arts & Letters Cafe at 7 E. Anapamu for Opera Under the Stars on July 28th. The series, which runs every Thursday through September 1st, spolights tremendous vocalists performing everything from Andrew Lloyd Webber through Cole Porter accompanied by a delicious meal from the Arts & Letter Cafe. This Thursday, the final Thursday, features soprano Megan O’Toole  and Eric Carampatan, baritone, performing works by Andrew Lloyd Webber with Opera Under the Stars’ Director and pianist, Renee Hamaty. Two seatings! www.artsandletterscafe.com

Santa Barbara, CA, July 20, 2011 – The secret is out. Jazz at the Lobero is pleased to announce their 2011-2012 season lineup. First up is Gary Burton’s New Quartet, with guitar protégé Julian Lage, Scott Colley and Antonio Sanchez. In February, Regina Carter’s sultry violin takes center stage with her knockout quintet, changing the jazz landscape in the process. March brings an exciting collaboration with Tierney Sutton, DownBeat 2010 Flutist of the Year Hubert Laws, and Larry Koonse. Charles Lloyd will bring the series to a close with the Western premiere of a brand new project featuring Grecian folk-goddess Maria Farantouri, along his award-winning New Quartet.

Jazz at the Lobero has been delivering the finest jazz offerings since 2000, as well as inspiring and growing jazz audiences in Santa Barbara. Jazz at the Lobero’s 2011-2012 series continues to blaze new trails and features the newest and most inventive artists around. Designed to inspire, innovate and improvise, this year’s series will transport jazz fans around the world musically, without ever leaving the splendor of one of DownBeat’s Great Jazz Venues.

Jazz at the Lobero subscriptions are available now at Lobero.com or by calling 805-963-0761. Subscription benefits include priority seating, advance notice to buy tickets to added events, invitations to subscriber receptions and a 25% savings over single ticket prices.

The New Gary Burton Quartet – Tuesday, October 11, 2011 with Julian Lage, Scott Colley & Antonio Sanchez

Gary Burton’s Quartets of the early sixties and seventies defied the genres trying to be hung on them. With a swirl of incredible improvisation in a group setting and compositions that drew from all over the map, these Quartets smashed conventions and blew audiences away. Burton has created bands featuring incredible musicianship while discovering more than a few youngsters along the way who later became legends, such as guitarist Pat Metheny. His newest quartet is not just new in name only, with bassist Scott Colley, drummer Antonio Sanchez, and guitarist Julian Lage, this is Burton’s reimagined and revitalized group, a new Quartet for a new era.

“Burton and guitarist Julian Lage are outstanding, interweaving lush textures and angular lines. Scott Colley and Antonio Sanchez underpin with counterpoint bass and supple drums.” ― Financial Times

Regina Carter Quintet – Friday, February 24, 2012

From the varied schools of classical music conservatories and R&B, this inventive violinist explores new territories as she blends world influences into the vocabulary of straight ahead jazz. Her sophisticated technique and lush tone took the jazz world by surprise; and through her albums, incessant touring and various guest appearances and collaborations, Regina has developed into a distinctly diverse musical personality. She has toured throughout the world, was the first jazz artist and African-American to play Niccolo Paganini’s famed Guarneri “Cannon” violin, has been featured with several symphony orchestras and performed with artists as diverse as Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, Billy Joel, Kenny Barron and Mary J. Blige.

“A talented, charismatic player who is almost single-handedly reviving interest in the violin as a jazz instrument.” ― Los Angeles Times

Tierney Sutton, Hubert Laws and Larry Koonse – Friday, March 23, 2012

This charming and unexpected trio features Sutton’s lush vocals with DownBeat’s “flutist of the year,” Hubert Laws, and stellar guitar by Larry Koonse. The combined talent of Sutton, Laws and Koonse represents one of the most creative forces in jazz today, as they explore the interplay between of jazz and chamber music. The inherent intimacy of their blend should make for an unforgettable evening of sonic exploration. Tierney Sutton normally travels with her own stellar band, but this collaboration is one of the most touted trios in jazz today.

“Music for voice, flute and guitar is rare in any idiom. In jazz, it is singular.” ― Arts Journal

Charles Lloyd and Maria Farantouri present Amarando – Wednesday, April 18, 2012 featuring Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers, Eric Harland and Socratis Sinopoulos. American jazz icon, Charles Lloyd, and the doyenne of Greek song, Maria Farantouri, join forces and spirits to create a bridge of sound spanning third-century Byzantine prayers to Lloyd’s own 21^st century compositions in the Western premiere of Amarando. Lloyd’s New Quartet features Jason Moran on piano, Reuben Rogers on bass, Eric Harland on drums, and Socrates Sinopoulos on traditional Greek lyra, in an all new arrangement which beautifully underscores Farantouri’s haunting voice. This highly-anticipated collaboration is a highlight of the international 2011/2012 concert season.

Jazz at the Lobero subscriptions are available at www.lobero.com, at the Lobero Theatre Box Office, (805) 963-0761, 33 East Canon Perdido Street, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101. Series tickets available for $144 and $112; limited number of Patron tickets available at $412 and $103. All prices include facility fee. All Patron tickets include priority seating, pre-performance private reception, recognition in the event program, and a tax-deductible gift to the Lobero Theatre.

It’’s one of Santa Barbara’’s best summer traditions! Come find out first-hand what brings up to 5,000 people down to Chase Palm Park on Thursday nights during the months of July and August! Make sure that you dust off your dancing shoes, pack up a picnic dinner and your friends and family, and come celebrate summer and some great free music concerts in Santa Barbara’’s beautiful Chase Palm Park!

Located right on Cabrillo Blvd. along the gorgeous Santa Barbara waterfront. Don’’t miss it! This summer’’s line up: the Surf City All-Stars, the Doo Wah Riders, Tizer, Soul City Survivors, Captain Cardiac & the Coronaries & more! Call 805.897.1946 or visit: www.santabarbaraca.gov/Resident/Things/Arts/Concerts_in_the_Parks.htm

The El Capitan Concert Series holds concerts on Saturday nights all summer long from June through September. The summer schedule has great Santa Barbara bands: Soulamente, The Fog, Los Blues, The Cadillac Angels, Alastair Green Band and more! Tickets are$10 per person upon entrance. Music is complimentary for overnight guests.Famous Canyon BBQ available for $18 per adult and $12 per child (ages 10 and under). Canyon BBQ is available from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Music begins at 7:00pm and runs until 9:00pm (or maybe a bit longer!) Please note that all dates and bands are subject to change without notice. Reservations are recommended. www.elcapitancanyon.com

The hills are alive, with the sound of music coming from the Yellow House.

Jazz promoter (and founder of SOhO and the Jazz Club) Ridah Omri, graphic designer Anita Chambers, and composer Patricio da Silva invite you to their blossoming Artists Residence this summer for some spectacular music set in the lush foothills of Winchester Canyon.  On Friday, May 20^th, pianist Bryan Pezzone will play a wide variety of works and styles, including some from Patricio da Silva’s album, Now & Then: Music from the Great Depression.

Why are you starting the Yellow House Concerts?

Ridah: Well a few years back, I started the Jazz Hall Club and it was an identity, an urgent and necessary thing for me. But this time it’s not about me, it’s about the music! I remember the JHC was an intimate venue, but now I have two different ideas – one is to bring the big name artists to the larger halls in town and for the more intimate settings where you can get to know the musician, we have the Yellow House Concerts. Our first concert on May 20th will be with Bryan Pezzone, the great pianist from Los Angeles, who will play a combination of jazz and classical. I’m very pleased to be back. It took me thirteen years to get the passion again, and here I am!

How is the Yellow House Concerts experience different from the other venues in town?

Anita: This is a thriving Artists Residence: we have a jazz promoter and trumpet player in Ridah, in Patricio, a classical composer and in myself a designer and graphic artist. We believe the difference in doing the concerts here as opposed to say Victoria Hall, or Center Stage or something like that, here at the house, it’s very private. It’s more of a relaxed setting where you will literally be in someone’s living room. It’s quite a unique property, especially in the summers when we’ll have performances outdoor. It’s something you can’t get at any other venue in town. You couldn’t get this feeling at the Jazz Hall.

What does Bryan Pezzone have in store for us on the 20^th??

Anita: Bryan is going to do a 90 minute concert without intermission.

Wow! That’s huge!

Anita: I asked him if he would take an intermission and he said he just wanted to play the program straight through!  We can have intermission afterwards! He calls it a “movie length concert.” He’s going to do a lot of improv work, and he is trained as a classical and a jazz pianist. He tours with the band Free Flight, but he also is the pianist at the Hollywood Bowl, and at Disney Hall.  He does most of the piano solo work for Disney – he is on the Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Lion King soundtracks, and others.

He’ll do the piece “Swinging by Depression”, which is on Patricio’s new album. It’s an improv based on “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, “Honeysuckle Rose’” and “If I Could Be With You”. He’ll also do what he calls his “Mozart Club Sandwich”, in which he starts a work of Mozart and then weaves some jazz into it, literally mixing them in the same piece, always returning to the Mozart! It’s really very entertaining. He’ll also play some Chopin Nocturnes, and also a Nocturne written by Patricio as well.

Who will take the Yellow House Stage in the future?

Ridah: After Bryan Pezzone, we have the Sally Cats, Luis Munoz, Wallace Rooney Quintet, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and maybe before that we’ll have Nina Simone’s daughter, Simone!

Sounds wonderful!

Bryan Pezzone performs on May 20^th 7 pm, Tickets are $25 and include the concert, an intimate Meet-the-Artists reception with some wonderful chocolate gateau, and valet parking. For tickets and information, please visit www.yellowhouseconcerts.com