David James (Afrofunk Experience, Beth Custer Ensemble) brings his rhythm-horns-and-strings sextet back to the Poppy for an evening of stylistic border-crossing. This performance will feature songs from the acclaimed album Billionaire Blues, as well as new compositions and arrangements.Featuring:
David James - guitar, voice
Beth Custer - clarinets
Alan Williams - trombone
Ela Polak - viola
Lisa Mezzacappa - bass
John Hanes - drumsGPS (Good People, Son) is a jazz-meets-chamber rock ...
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Bandleader Adam Theis and this five-piece ensemble will present a night of new original compositions and arrangements, as well as tributes to artists who have influenced them. Expect a wide dynamic range, rock and EDM rhythms, plus melodies, harmony, and phrasing more common to chamber, jazz, and music from around the world – and a hint of New Orleans second line that occasionally surfaces for a wild horn romp.Featuring:
Max Miller-Loran - trumpet/piano
Charlie Gurke - baritone sax
Adam...
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Kenyan singer-songwriter/guitarist Naomi Wachira comes to the Red Poppy from her home in Seattle for an evening of folk music influenced by gospel, the music of Tracy Chapman and Miriam Makeba, and a desire to create music that is poignant, hopeful, and life-giving. Expect brand-new songs from her latest release, Song of Lament.Featuring:
Naomi Wachira - vocals, acoustic guitarSince her arrival on the Northwest music scene, Naomi Wachira has received numerous accolades, including being ...
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Multistyle violinist and champion fiddler Mari Black comes to the Poppy with a spirited musical adventure featuring dance music from around the globe: Celtic, American, and Canadian fiddling, jazz, tango, klezmer, folk, original works, and more.Featuring:
TBAMari Black’s energetic playing, engaging stage presence, and commitment to bringing people together through music have made her a favorite with audiences across the country and around the world. Equally at home in a wide variety of ...
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Bay Area performance troupe Opera on the Spot celebrates intense and passionate love, the sublime, the morbid, the beautiful, and the strange with a show dedicated to art songs and arias from the late 18th-century/early 19th-century Romantic era of Western classical music.Featuring:
TBAOpera on the Spot is a group of young, classically trained singers embarking on professional careers in opera. With no set venue, they choose less-conventional places for performances, including bars, res...
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Singer/songwriter Alicyn Yaffee makes her Red Poppy debut with an evening of indie-pop sensibilities, punk, jazz guitar, and soulful vocals. Her trio includes Santana bassist/musical director Benny Rietveld, who produced her debut album, Someone Else, which features Cindy Blackman, Ronnie Foster, and Rietveld.Featuring:
Alicyn Yaffee - guitar, vocals
Hamir Atwal - drums
Jeff Cressman - tromboneLearn more: Website | Facebook | SoundCloud | YouTube
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&n...
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Oakland-based Redwood Tango Ensemble presents a concert of new works written by bandoneonist Charles Gorczynski. The sextet focuses on writing that is both fundamentally based in tango and reaching towards a personal and imaginative sound. The new works are influenced by contemporary tango groups in Argentina, modern chamber music, film music, and improvised music.Featuring:
Charles Gorczynski - bandoneón
Kendra Vernon - violin
Mia Bella D'Augelli - violin
Anton Estaniel - cello
Elyse ...
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Bay Area-based Brazilian guitarist Ricardo Peixoto welcomes São Paulo pianist/arranger/composer Felipe Senna for an evening of original compositions, as well as selections of Brazilian classics, including choro, samba, baião, and bossa nova.Featuring:
Ricardo Peixoto - guitar
Felipe Senna - pianoOriginally from Rio de Janeiro, guitarist/composer Ricardo Peixoto is among the top representatives of Brazilian guitar in the U.S. today. His fluid, melodic style, original harmonic approach, ...
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Ready for an easygoing evening of friendly, familiar jazz tunes? Local quintet Zona Blu, whose Italian name is a nod to Milanese jazz club “blue zones” and Miles Davis’ iconic Kind of Blue, presents a laid-back night of Latin, funk, and swing grooves that’s sure to ease you into the weekend.Featuring:
David Kaufer - guitar
Jim Wasco - piano
Steve Teich - alto saxophone/flute
Greg Galli - drums
Tom Donald - bassLearn more: Website
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Time: Doors 7:00PM ...
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Written, directed, acted, and produced by San Francisco Youth Theatre students, Homegrown is a brilliant collection of original, one-act plays that tells stories of having an incarcerated parent, Black Lives Matter, the beauty standard, LGBT relationships, being an artist, and yes, our changing San Francisco. This project is supported by The Youth Empowerment Fund.Playwrights:
Abraham Frankfurter Davis
Yasmina Eldredge
Kenyah Evans
Mateo Friedenbach
Lauren Hernandez
Xitlally Lupian
Ca...
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Boca do Rio, the immensely danceable result of a two-decade musical partnership between guitarist/singer Kevin Welch and percussionist Alex Calatayud, brings their multi-layered electro-funk party boat to the Poppy this Friday. Their musicá organicá, born of Brazil and the San Francisco Bay, showcases the rhythms of living and working between the Americas.Featuring:
Alex Calatayud - percussion
Kevin Welch - guitar
(Special guests TBA)Learn more: Website
EVENT DETA...
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Standout Bay Area producer/songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Pamela Parker brings her trio to the Poppy for a dynamic performance that will feature selections from her upcoming album, Fantastic Machine, a fresh rock & roll landscape that evokes Alabama Shakes, Thin Lizzy, and Funkadelic.Featuring:
Pamela Parker - vocals, piano, guitar
Spence Murray - bass
Chris McGrew - drumsPamela Parker studied opera and commercial music production before establishing herself as a solo performer in the...
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Songwriter and producer Nino Arobelidze, born in the formerly Russian republic of Georgia and raised in Chicago, boasts a sound influenced by jazz, soul, indie rock, her time in a funk duo, and her travels around the world. For her Red Poppy debut, Nino will be joined by frequent collaborator Pablo Gordy on guitar and vocals.Featuring:
Nino Arobelidze - vocals, guitar, keys
Pablo Gordy - electric guitar, vocals
(Special guests TBA)Learn more: Website | Facebook | YouTube
EV...
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Returning to the roots of improvisation, saxophonist Richard Howell reunites with fellow improvisers from the acclaimed group RHQ, which featured phenomenal pianist Frederick Harris and spirited bassist Gary Brown. Elé Howell, a disciple of the great E.W. Wainwright, brings an energetic flow and a powerhouse approach.Drawing upon the ancestry of jazz, the essence of soul, and the sensibility of pop, award-winning saxophonist Richard Howell and his group RHQuartet push the boundaries of the g...
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Saxophonist Tom Griesser and his longtime collaborators, bassist Ollie Dudek and drummer Dan Foltz, present selections performed during their three-year stint at the Burritt Room in San Francisco, as well as new compositions to honor visionaries and rebels in a variety of endeavors. The trio draws from a wide range of influences, including 1930s Benny Goodman, 1940s Ellingtonia, the Sonny Rollins Trio recordings of the 1950s, hard bop classics, and avant-garde figures such as Odean Pope and Rosw...
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Music, poetry, history, and future converge powerfully when three poets–Tongo Eisen-Martin, Bonnie Kwong, and Josiah Luis Alderete–explore themes of immigration, migration, language, cultural identity, social justice, revolution, and love through collaborations with guitarists Peck the Town Crier, Oliver Mok, and Eli Carlton-Pearson.Featuring:
LOAN (Tongo Eisen-Martin, poetry; Peck the Town Crier, guitar)
Contraband (Bonnie Kwong, poetry; Oliver Mok, guitar)
Fried Axolotl (Josiah Luis Al...
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The Poppy invites you to join the artist and curators behind its second exhibition of 2017, Spectrums & Prisms, Bodies & Realms, on view until June 24. For her first exhibition at the Red Poppy Art House, Lise Silva Gomes has created a fiber art installation that serves as a metaphysical exploration where woven knots of various shapes and colors invade the Red Poppy's performative space, creating an ambiance of other-worldliness that evokes wonder, deep mystery, possibility, fantasy, and curiosi...
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Often-rambunctious Balkan quartet Édessa, known for playing intricate time signatures and highly ornamented modal music with authority and joy, brings to the Poppy a night of wide-ranging, non-dance repertoire and new material.Featuring:
George Chittenden – clarinet, gaida, zurna, guitar
Ari Langer – violin
Lise Liepman – santouri, accordion
Sean Tergis – davul, darabuka, defiUsing both traditional and modern instruments, Édessa plays a variety of styles that interweave melodies and ...
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New York City-based musicians and visual artists Ali Dineen and Hannah Sassoon present an evening of music and shadow puppetry, telling personal and historical tales of healing and resistance. They will perform original music, including new songs from Ali's recent album Light Comes In, as well as selections from different folk music traditions with guitar, accordion, cello, fiddle, vocal harmony, and harmonium.Featuring:
Ali Dineen - vocals, guitar, accordion, harmonium
Hannah Sassoon - vo...
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Best known for being co-frontman of The Head and The Heart, Josiah Johnson heads an evening of songwriting based in a folk tradition that emphasizes connection to the internal source while recognizing the importance of communion and the connection to the light of others.Featuring:
(Full lineup TBA)Southern California native, current Bay Area resident, former Seattleite, one-time Torontonian, and longtime tour-bus resident Josiah Johnson’s solo performances highlight a stripped-down, em...
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Dina Maccabee performs lush, ethereal music using viola, vocals, and electronic processing. Taking an experimental approach to folk sensibilities, she crafts a singular, intimate sound world around each of her original and often personal songs. Ron Shalom presents songs from the peripheries of consciousness utilizing electronics, video, and storytelling.Featuring:
Dina Maccabee - viola, vocals, laptop
Ron Shalom - guitar, vocalsDina Maccabee is a multifaceted string player, songwriter,...
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Performance artist Naina Shastri and visual artist Salma Arastu collaborate on a show that uses Indian classical dance, poetry, video projection, and live music to connect 13th-century Persian mystic Mevlana Rumi and 16th-century Indian saint Meera Bai, who both spoke of finding salvation in love.Featuring:
Naina Shastri - dance
Salma Arastu - Rumi poetry recitation
Ghalib Grooves Carnatic Band - musicWith over 20 years of experience as a performer, choreographer, and teacher of the ...
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Led by bansuri flutist John Wubbenhorst, a composer influenced by decades of studying classical Indian music, Facing East combines Hindustani and Carnatic sounds with modal jazz in the vein of icons such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Weather Report, John McLaughlin, and Oregon.Featuring:
John Wubbenhorst - flutes, keyboards, vocals
Eric “Doc” Smith - Zendrum
Steve McQuarry - keyboards
Jason Everett - 7-string bassThe compositions of John Wubbenhorst, a disciple of the great Indi...
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Join artists Jason Wyman, Donna Marchesano, Andrea Fuenzalida, Ginger Snap, Keegan Roberson, Steve Piasecki, and senseofplace LAB for a special one day only pop-up shop. It's the perfect spot to check out fine art works and handcrafted merchandise. Pick up something for yourself or a loved one. Items for sale include metal prints, Voodoo Kitties, photographic magnets, paintings, coloring zines, Psychogeographic Art 'Kerchiefs, and more! You can even order a custom neon pop art portrait and parti...
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With songs emphasizing lyrics and storytelling, as well as world-class musicianship that prizes spontaneity and dialogue, this highly adaptable ensemble led by trumpeter/composer Darren Johnston brings poetry, interplay, vocal harmonies, and a cross-section of musical interests into a curious new blend of roots/art/dance music.Featuring:
Darren Johnston - trumpet, vocals
David Phillips - pedals, steel guitar, vocals
Jordan Samuels - guitar, vocals
Miles Wick - upright bass, vocals
Jorda...
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The Poppy warmly welcomes Ryan McKasson and Eric McDonald, masters of tradition who purposefully explore the dark corners floating on its edges. Pulling from parallel strands of influence, the duo creates a swirling level of intensity that traverses darkness, light, and everywhere in between. Their new album focuses on the relatability of music hundreds of years old, weaving new ideas and tunes with the old to create a timeless sound.Featuring:
Ryan McKasson - fiddle, vocals
Eric McDonald ...
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Ready for authentic storytelling, original compositions, and selections from the Great American Songbook? Globetrotting Arizona native and Los Angeles resident Kathleen Grace brings a pure sound and her honest and soaring voice to the Poppy for an evening of jazz, folk, and Americana.Featuring:
Kathleen Grace - vocals
Storm Nilsson - guitar
Jeff Denson - bassKathleen Grace’s latest album, No Place To Fall, is a sun-drenched landscape of music rooted in her desert upbringing and elegan...
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This Canadian quartet explores instrumental music that draws inspiration largely from film scores, jazz, rock, surf, and elements of Eastern European, African, and South American music. At the Poppy, the only San Francisco stop on their first U.S. tour, Atlas Revolt promises music from their acclaimed debut alongside selections from their upcoming album, due this year.Featuring:
Bret Higgins - upright bass
Aleksandar Gajic - violin
Tom Juhas - electric guitar
Robbie Grunwald - electric p...
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A trio of acclaimed Bay Area musicians makes its Red Poppy debut with an evening of looped and plugged-in improvisations. Expect daring solo, duo, and trio hijinks, as well as originals and reimagined covers.Featuring:
Alex Kelly - cello
Matthew Szemela - violin
PC Muñoz - drums, percussionDr. Alex Kelly is a San Francisco-based cellist, composer, and educator. He composes and performs with major symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, new music ensembles, string quartets, cello qua...
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