Combining elements of rock, pop, jazz, folk, and classical, pianist/composer Marta Sanchez creates music that is rhythmically complex and spontaneously melodic. Her most recent release, Partenika, has been hailed as one of the best albums of 2015 by The New York Times, Downbeat, AllMusic and Jazz Journalist Association. Sanchez, a Madrid native who is currently active in New York City’s contemporary music scene, continues to tour around the globe as both a bandleader and sideman.Featuring:
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With simple song structures and catchy melodies, Willow Steps features folky tunes of love and heartbreak by singer/songwriter Jesse Strickman and vocalist Leiya Mahoney. The duo’s introspective harmonies are accompanied by upright bassist Schuyler Karr for the celebration of their new community-funded EP, A Truth Too Big to See. Opening the evening is an acoustic set by eclectic Nevada City songwriters Cactus Cult.Featuring:
Jesse Strickman - vocals, acoustic guitar
Leiya Mahoney - vocals...
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Internationally recognized singer-songwriter Joanna Wallfisch comes to San Francisco as part of her West Coast album release tour, which she is doing by bicycle. Beginning in Portland, OR and concluding in Los Angeles, Joanna will celebrate the halfway point at the Red Poppy. She will perform solo, accompanying herself on ukulele, piano, and loop pedal, layering vocals and melodies into textured soundscapes.London-born Joanna Wallfisch emerges as an important voice in the international music...
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Jacqui Sutton returns to the Red Poppy with her Frontier Jazz String Quartet. Imagine if Billie Holiday, Dolly Parton and Aaron Copland came together to create music for a night; this would be the sound of Jacqui Sutton. Described by music/arts critic C. Michael Bailey as the place “where jazz meets the American frontier,” Jacqui draws from over 20 years of musical and stage experience, interweaving jazz and bluegrass with orchestral, pop and Americana influences. In her ears, the banjo, mandoli...
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Improvisations, originals, and an exploration of standards unite the four independent viewpoints of tenor saxophonists Jessica Jones, Tony Jones, Peter Apfelbaum, and Howard Wiley. With a deep respect for jazz history and rhythm, and a dedication to finding their own voices, these musicians meet with collective improvisation in its wildest, mercurial incarnation.Featuring:
Jessica Jones, Tony Jones, Peter Apfelbaum, Howard Wiley - tenor saxophones
Spearheaded by Jessica Jones, this...
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Rumba music originated in the Afro-Cuban neighborhoods of Havana and Matanzas as the soundtrack to community, partnered dancing and get-togethers as a means of cultural expression. Its global diaspora means rumba rhythms have found their way into other genres of music such as country, rock, and blues, and continue to impact the genres of today. Rumberos de Radio Habana are bringing their own contribution to the Red Poppy for a free afternoon of beat-making, hip-shaking and good company.A...
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As a followup to our SF Carnaval weekend of Brazilian music, the Red Poppy Art House presents the first of a monthly Rio-style pagode de mesa featuring a revolving cast of the finest players in the Bay Area. Pagode, meaning “party,” is the small group subgenre of samba that is played in samba schools, bars, cafes and backyards of Rio de Janeiro. From cavaquinho and guitar, to vocals and percussion, the musical style includes a lively mixture of songs with active audience participation.Ad...
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The Red Poppy Art House is pleased to present the fourth series of Beyond the Blues: Ending the Prison Industrial Complex on March 16, April 20, May 18, June 8, and July 7. Marcus Shelby and Jackie Ramos return to delve into our justice system, its flaws, and show how music and the arts can be used as agencies for reform and change—both in front and behind bars. These interactive discussions explore the blues, the prison industrial complex, mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, rest...
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Tito y Su Son de Cuba takes you back to old Havana, interpreting and redefining classic Cuban son at its best. With his mastery of the tres guitar, Tito Gonzalez combines the traditional music of Cuba including chachacha, son montuno, guaracha, bolero and danzon.Featuring:
Tito Gonzalez - guitar, tres, lead vocals
David Frazier - congo
Sandy Poindexter - violin
Rubin Hurtado - piano
Antonio Garcia - bassSinger/composer Tito Gonzalez is a master showman with a voice that has been com...
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An integration of abstract jazz with breakbeats and improvised grooves, Jaz Sawyer explores an instrumental experiment including both originals and arrangements of jazz and pop standards.Featuring:
Jaz Sawyer - drums, percussion
Sarah Voynow - harp
Cava Menzies - piano, keyboards
Imalu Menzies - percussion, keyboardsJaz Sawyer began playing drums at the age of two in the Haight Ashbury District of San Francisco. His musical studies have taken him through the various programs at the ...
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A tribute to saxophone giants, San Francisco’s Michael Zilber performs music from his upcoming album of all originals. The recording features New York jazz greats Dave Kikoski on piano, James Genus on bass, and Clarence Penn on drums. Accompanying Zilber at the Red Poppy is a group made up exclusively of New York expatriates, including pianist Matt Clark, bassist Peter Barshay, and drummer Akira Tana.Saxophonist and composer Michael Zilber is described by NEA Jazz Master David Liebman as "on...
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Drawing on their strong musical friendship and shared love of Romani music, Eva Salina & Peter Stan create an inviting, intimate space where mournful contemplation nestles amongst songs of riotous joy.Featuring:
Eva Salina - vocals
Peter Stan - accordionSanta Cruz native Eva Salina is an internationally recognized interpreter of Balkan song traditions. A remarkable performer and devoted educator, she has spent the last three years immersed in the Šaban Bajramović songbook. Based in...
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Drawing influences from manouche, Romani and Balkan music, Ultrafaux joins together with accordionist Rob Reich and chanteuse Alexis Tantau for an evening of traditional musette, Piaf tunes, and originals.Featuring:
Michael Joseph Harris - guitar
Sami Arefin - guitar
Eddie Hrybyk - upright bass
Rob Reich - accordion (featured artist)
Alexis Tantau - vocals (featured artist)
Baltimore band Ultrafaux performs original music with musette, swing manouche, funk, blues, and Dixielan...
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The Scott Amendola Trio presents original music from Scott as well as a selection of cover songs. From structured forms to more outside-the-box sonic soundscapes, the trio's breadth of possibilities are endless.Featuring:
Karl Evangelista - guitar
Jason Hoopes - electric bass
Scott Amendola - drums/electronicsFor Scott Amendola, the drum kit isn’t so much an instrument as a musical portal. As an ambitious composer and savvy bandleader for some of the world’s most inventive musicians,...
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The Village Road Trio reimagines classical music with their folkloric instrumentation for a program of spirited and expressive sounds. From American bluegrass and swing, to Romanian tunes and favorite classical melodies, the trio takes on an extensive range of styles.Featuring:
Alisa Rose - violin
Rob Reich - accordion
Daniel Fabricant - bass
Bassist Daniel Fabricant grew up in Ashland, Oregon, where he began playing guitar and trumpet in grade school. Since moving to the Bay Are...
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In this concert, Ganesh Vasudeva and Snigdha Venkatramani showcase a selection of poems from South India through Bharatanatyam, a form of Indian classical dance that originated in the temples of Tamil Nadu. These male-oriented and heroine-based poems are taken up to portray myriad shades of love.Featuring:
Ganesh Vasudeva - abhinaya (miming)
Snigdha Venkatramani - abhinaya, vocals
Srinivas Pisharath - vocals
Akshay Venkatesan - percussion
Nyantara Narasimhan - violinGanesh Vasudeva...
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Miami-based trio Sound Underground traverses the lengths of acoustic jazz and beyond. Intimate and conversational, their music ranges from from artful compositions and introspective ballads, to unusual instrumentation and clever sonic explorations.Featuring:
Jonah Udall - guitar
David Leon - alto saxophone
Alec Aldred - trumpetSound Underground was formed as a natural extension of the shared musical explorations and mutual admiration of three roommates with disparate backgrounds. In 2...
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Electronic producers/singers Ben Zaidi and RZN8R join together for a night of future-soul and sonic grooves.Featuring:
Ben Zaidi - vocals, keyboards, electronics
Tree Palmedo - trumpet
RZN8R - vocals, controllers
Austan Found - electric guitar
Seattle-based electronic artist Ben Zaidi (Photo: Riley Corr) creates intimate, plaintive songs in his bedroom studio. He spent several years studying poetry and creative writing at Harvard University before returning to his hometown of Se...
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Avram Fefer’s explosive trio work has been well documented over the years with critically acclaimed albums and international tours. He draws from the musical worlds of Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Ethiopiques, and Charles Mingus. With tunes that create fertile ground for development and improvisation, Avram’s music encompasses soulful intelligence, lyricism, and groove.Featuring:
Avram Fefer - saxophones, bass clarinet, composition
Vijay Anderson - drums
Dan Seamans - bass...
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From dual vocals to ambient soundscapes, Planes on Paper join Ghost Town Jenny for an evening of cinematic folk with a dark side of country and soul.Through the vocal synergy of Navid Eliot and Jen Borst, the two core members of Planes on Paper, a special kind of musical beauty emerges. The Washington-based folk group combines Navid and Jen’s intricate vocal harmonies with instrumental landscapes of acoustic and pedal steel guitars, percussion, bass, drums, and horns. Their latest EP, The Ru...
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Performing a repertoire of standards and originals, Jure Pukl Trio invites you for a night of swinging music with a hint of contemporary jazz.Recipient of the Slovenian highest national award for arts (Nagrada Presernovega sklada 2015), Jure Pukl is one of the most prolific and creative saxophonists of the younger Slovene jazz generation. He obtained university education abroad studying both classical and jazz saxophone. Throughout his studies, Pukl performed and recorded extensively with hi...
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Formed in 1996, 3 Leg Torso began as a violin, cello and accordion trio with the mission of creating original, contemporary chamber music for their distinctive instrumentation. Over the following years, the ensemble has expanded its musical mission and size to become a quartet that performs an eclectic synthesis of chamber music, tango, klezmer, Latin, and Roma music. The cinematic nature of their compositions has led to work with many filmmakers, including Oscar-nominated documentary artist Mor...
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Mostly Kosher, a Los Angeles-based indie-global collective band, radically reconstructs Judaic and American cultural musical roots. Through ravenous post-klezmer beats and arresting Yiddish refrains, Mostly Kosher highlights the architecture of heritage music with influences of jazz, Latin, rock, hip hop and folk.Mostly Kosher has accumulated an international legion of fans and is on a trajectory to bring their rhythmic hullabaloo to all of the streaming sound waves across the planet. The ba...
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The Sonando Sur Collective derived from the shared interest in continuing the work of traditional jarocho music through a contemporary perspective. Formed by Claudio Vega, Esther Cruz and Tacho Utrera, the collective interlinks son jarocho and its cultural context with other traditional Latin American rhythms. Son Jarocho, a musical genre from Veracruz, Mexico, is a melodic combination of Spanish, African and indigenous cultures. A beautiful integration of la jarana, requinto, tarima and versada...
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From Spain to San Francisco and Macedonia to New York City, Alex Conde and Ismail Lumanovski join together for an impassioned evening of original compositions. This duo of improvisers will explore the intersection of piano and clarinet, navigating their sonic homelands of jazz, balkan, classical and flamenco influences.Described by The New York Times as “a brilliant, fearless young clarinetist,” Macedonia-born Ismail Lumanovski brings classical training to his Balkan roots. Lumanovski studie...
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The Americano Social Club is led by Michael Zisman on mandolin and features guitarist Jason Vanderford and bassist Joe Kyle Jr. In addition to performing their own dramatic original pieces, they play music for "la dolce vita," a mix of romantic and eclectic melodies from all over the world. From Brazil to European cafés, the trio’s sound draws from various influences including pop, jazz, folk, classical, rock, and opera – all of it re-imagined so you will hear the melodies you love, or didn’t kn...
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Born and raised in California, Rebecca Mimiaga has been performing her own music since age 16, fronting various rock, folk and blues projects. She completed her BFA in Vocal Performance Studies at the New School For Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. Her music and debut EP, Words in the Dark, feature strong, intimate vocals set to piano and orchestral arrangements. When she's not Rebecca Mimiaga, she is the voice and writer for LOUIZA, her loud indie-rock project. (Photo: Matt Mimiaga...
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The Red Poppy Art House is pleased to present the fourth series of Beyond the Blues: Ending the Prison Industrial Complex on March 16, April 20, May 18, June 8, and July 6. Marcus Shelby and Jackie Ramos return to delve into our justice system, its flaws, and show how music and the arts can be used as agencies for reform and change—both in front and behind bars. These interactive discussions explore the blues, the prison industrial complex, mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, rest...
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Curated by classical guitarist David Tanenbaum, Jon Mendle is set to perform a repertoire of both forgotten gems and well-known concert works from the 19th century on original and reproduction 19th century guitars. The program will include works by Antoine de L'Hoyer, Napoléon Coste, Felix Horetzky, Giulio Regondi, and Johann Kaspar Mertz and will be performed in period-appropriate dress.Jon Mendle made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 19. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees...
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For an evening of immersive chamber music with elements of theater and visual art, Cellista & the Juxtapositions Chamber Ensemble bring to the Red Poppy a presentation of Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time.The Juxtapositions Chamber Ensemble is an innovative rotating cast of musicians headed and organized by Cellista (Freya Seeburger). The ensemble was formed with the idea of creating a musical entity that reflected the vast diversity of the San Francisco Bay Area. With their...
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