Extraordinary singer, songwriter and arranger Lisa Engelken is a Kansas-born, straight-shooter, known for a fearless stage presence that has garnered her comparisons to Evel Kneivel, Janis Joplin and a roaring Harley Davidson motorbike.Classically and theatrically trained, Engelken has shared the stage with greats such as Yo La Tengo, John Cameron Mitchell, Stephen Trask, Greg Brown, T-Bone Burnett and Tom Waits.  Equal parts freight train, junkyard trombone and tumbleweed, Engelken alternat...

En esta vida de divisiones y limitaciones espirituales, fisicas y mentales, la musica, el canto y el movimiento ofrecen un espacio vital para dejar por un instante las preocupaciones y disfrutar de las vibraciones infinitas.YeYe los invita a explorar un Sin Fin de sentimientos, intercambiando el miedo por el amor y el dolor por sonidos y cantos de sanacion, a traves de nutritivos tambores con el exquisito sabor Latinoamericano.In this world of mental, spiritual and physical divisions and lim...

Roberta Donnay is a Jazz recording artist and award-winning singer/songwriter. She is listed in The Jazz Singer as one of the top 521 jazz singers. As a touring artist, Ms. Donnay has performed with or opened for many great artists including George Benson, Bob Dorough, Dave Ellis, David Grisman, Dr. John, John Hammond, Dan Hicks, Jonny Lange, Huey Lewis, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Sample and David Sanborn.As a session singer, she's appeared on countless recordings. Six independent CD’s have been rele...

Sarah Wilson has emerged as “one of the most intriguing and promising composers and trumpeters on the contemporary music scene," (Derk Richardson, San Francisco Chronicle).  Her original work has premiered internationally and earned numerous commissions including a 2010 Artistic Innovation Grant from The Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI), and a prestigious 2011 Composer Collaboration Award from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Her Red Popp...

Q weaves an intricate web of original music. You can hear strands of Brazil, India, Latin America, and modern jazz seamlessly wound together in a soulful, organic way. With roots in many places, Q delivers modern improvisational music from it's intellectual quagmire back to it's soulful origins. His "All Around Dude" Quartet will be featuring music from his newly released CD "All Around Dude" available in hardcopy at the show, or on the itunes store.Q Morrow: guitar Kasey Knudsen: alto Sax...

Led by Israeli-born Lior Ben-Hur, Sol Tevel is a San Francisco-based band that focuses on connecting Hebrew roots while engaging world cultures. Sol Tevel integrates sounds, rhythms, and multi-lingual lyrics from around the globe to advocate building a strong, conscious and united community worldwide.  Sol Tevel are currently recording their debut album, Orolam (World Light), which aims to shed a new light and contemporary interpretation on old, Jewish texts, ideals and mysticism.Lior Ben-Hu...

Wil Blades and Scott Amendola conjure various sonic deities though only a duo. Their live shows have been generating a buzz around the Bay Area.  The two got their start as a group when Scott had the vision of performing Duke Ellington’s “Far East Suite” in duo with Wil.  While quite a daunting task translating a suite (originally written for a big band) into duo, the Hammond organ had previously been used in the 1940s and 1950s to emulate the sound of big bands. With Wil’s knowledge of this tr...

Santos Perdidos is an acoustic Latin band based in the heart of San Francisco, playing an eclectic mix of Son Cubano, Rumba Española, Bolero, and Afro-Peruvian Lando.The band met in the summer of 2009 and proceeded to bond as friends and musicians in John Calloway’s Afro-Cuban Ensemble of San Francisco State University.  Their first gig at the Mission Arts & Performance Project (MAPP) in the Secret Garden set the tone for their involvement in community events.  From there, Santos Perdido...

CHELLE! and Friends, commemorates the music of Mardi Gras, New Orleans, and celebrates its Creole people and their remarkable music. Michelle Jacques was born in New Orleans. She began this journey to find out what it means to be Creole, to understand her culture, her language and her history and after the devastation of Katrina in 2005, her mission has evolved into her determination to keep the history and the music of New Orleans alive. Michelle has been awarded the 2008 City of Oakland Indivi...

La Gente is a Bay Area-based group led by Colombian/Nicaraguan, San Francisco-born, singer-songwriter and Red Poppy resident artist Rafael Bustamante Sarria. The group is a cultural and musical combination that created its own unique Cali-fusion of Reggae, Salsa, Hip-Hop, Cumbia, Rock, and Reggaeton. Expect a high-energy dance party with politically and socially charged lyrics and freestyles in Spanish and English. The Group has toured all over the United States as well as Central and South Amer...

For over 15 years, Tango No. 9 has been exploring the breadth and depth of Tango, from the classic sounds of the early dance standards through Astor Piazzolla's revolutionary Tango Nuevo all the way up to Tango-inspired Chamber works that were composed especially for the group. Tonight they will be presenting a mix of new additions to their repertoire as they prepare for their fifth album, as well as old favorites.Catharine Clune - violin Greg Stephens - trombone Zoltan di Bartolo - v...

Experience a unique fusion between the raw energies of Southern African Township Jazz and Gypsy Jazz. South African born Gypsy Jazz guitarist and composer Louis Matthee created the group in 2010 with a debut album "Gypsy Jive" featuring this unique blend of music styles. His original compositions give personal accounts of life in South Africa and executed in the craft and skill of Gypsy Jazz guitar.Louis (Lou Lou) Matthee - guitar & vocals Tom Griesser- saxophone & clarinet Nick Ch...

Soul Union is a powerful band that weaves elements of African, Caribbean, and American music together to create a unique, new sound, coupled with truly inspirational lyrics. Soul Union plays music that makes people think, listen, feel and most of all dance! The band was formed in 2007 by John Dutro (lead singer) and Greg Fletcher (ngoni player) in Chico, California. The current configuration of the band also features a drum-set, bass, percussion, and Malian Kora virtuoso Karamo Susso. Karamo’s v...

This evening’s performance will be based on the traditional music of Persia by one of Iran's foremost Percussionist Pezhham Akhavass.  Based on the art of improvisation, the listener will be taken through an introspective and meditative journey through sound. Pezhham Akhavass is known as a virtuoso percussionist of the Tombak and Daf percussive instruments. He has a degree in music from the University in Tehran and has recorded and performed around the world with the leading masters of Persian m...

Melissa Czarnik (Zar-nik) is one of the most vital emcees to emerge in recent years. Mixing potent poetry, soulful hip hop and improvisatory Jazz, Czarnik’s music exemplifies artists such as Lauryn Hill, Ani Difranco and Nneka.Hailing from Milwaukee, Czarnik’s first two albums Strawberry Cadillac (HMP, 2008) and Raspberry Jesus (HMP, 2010) have earned her recognition by NPR, Bitch Magazine, Bust Magazine, Anattitude Magazine (Europe), and Democracy Now among others.   She has toured extensiv...

The brainchild of Rosa Rojas (formerly of the Bay Area’s Ballet Afsaneh) and Fabrice Martinez of Fishtank Ensemble, Califa is a Los Angeles based world music party onstage. Featuring musicians from LA bands Plotz and Rootsystem, the essence of Califa is an offering of highly concentrated musical virtuosity, fun, and party hopping all across the musical world. Featuring three dancing, singing and musician divas at the center of its universe, Califa is a dazzling concentration of love for music, c...

The Evan Francis Group is a boundary-pushing, six-piece ensemble that presents melodic and rich woodwinds over an organic patchwork of Afro-Latin, Avant-garde and Groove rhythms.  The rhythmically-active music is adventurous, dramatic and entirely heartfelt.  Inspiration for this music is especially drawn from modern Cuban Timba music as well as wildly expressive Americans like Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Charlie Mingus. Evan Francis is a San Francisco-based woodwind artist and composer who made his...

Inspired by many world musical traditions, the pickPocket ensemble inhabit a country all their own.  Original, fresh and engaging, the pickPocket ensemble create a contemporary chamber café music that moves both body and soul."Always rich in mood and atmosphere, they deftly meld inspirations and instrumentation from around the globe. Some are fleeting like single threads in their lustrous tapestry, while others (such as the Appalachian folk and Balkan gypsy influences) appear more solidly, f...

The Songstress Salon features original music of three powerful enigmatic Bay Area singer-songwriters. These three ladies recently performed at the de Young museum as part of the Artist Fellows program.Maria Morrell is an artist who writes her songs with an empathic flair for life's joys and pains. Her folk and soul influenced music gives way for an unpretentious, reminiscent experience. She is also one of the lead singers for the group Pop Fiction and performs all over the West coast.Sti...

Described as “sexy, soulful, genuine, and edgy” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and an “indie folk powerhouse” by Bend’s Source Weekly, Valerie Orth is a fearless and genre-bending songwriter. Her distinctive hybrid of rock, groove, soul, and folk reaches out and grabs your attention; her live performances captivate and charm at once.  Rich with melody and metaphor, Orth’s tunes move nimbly between darkness and light, hope and despair, taking deft turns of phrase along unforeseen rhythmic twis...

Heriberto “Tito” Gonzalez, “El Trecero mayor”, arrived in the San Francisco Bay area in the summer of 2000. His music is typical and primarily “El Son”. Now, with a new life in San Francisco and the songwriter’s freedom to experiment and story-telling, Tito, a consummate master of Cuban traditional music, brings a fresh sound to a lifetime of experience.Tito Gonzales spent his young life picking up guitar licks around the rim of the sea thanks to a Cuban-run company that sent fisherman like ...

An Evening Of Original And Improvised Music, And Reinterpretation Of American Rock MusicErick Deutsch, John Shifflett, and Scott Amendola have been playing as a trio on and off for a few years now. Erik lives in NY but comes out west just enough to make this trio feel like a band. From the first note things gelled. We share the appreciation for pop music and enjoy reinterpreting it with our own voices. We also enjoy playing our original music so there's a nice balance of both worlds that i...