JUNE 2009

The PICKPOCKET ENSEMBLE: Cafe Music for Dreamers

Friday, June 5

The pickPocket Ensemble makes music at the crossroads. Inspired by global folk and instrumental traditions—from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, from klezmer music to French musette, swing, and even contemporary classical—the pickPocket Ensemble creates haunting, refreshing tunes.

The music of the pickPocket ensemble has been called “soul-wrenching” for its evocative and passionate expressiveness. For its ability to communicate across cultures, they have been called “una banda del pueblo para el pueblo” (Javier Moreno-Pollarolo, San Francisco Tribune).

Alisa Rose: violin

Rick Corrigan: accordion and composition

Tim Fox: guitar

Greg Kehret: double bass

Michaelle Goerlitz: percussion

Myra Joy: cello

“A sublime and nuanced hip acoustic band”

—West Coast Live Radio

“Their combined talents generate vivid imagery and infectious tunes that will instantly transport you to Europe’s sidewalk cafés. This group specializes in playful, timeless arrangements that blend the grace and sophistication of the chamber with the colors of the street.”

—World Pulse

www.pickpocketensemble.com

www.sonicbids/thepickpocketensemble

$12 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

MAPP: Mission Arts & Performance Project
Saturday, June 6

Red Poppy Art House Presents:
Paul Flores - You're Gonna Cry: A Solo Theater Work in Progress
Grupo Obara - Rumba performance and dance party

The MAPP is a street-level improvised arts happening taking place every two months in the Mission District. The MAPP engages an interdisciplinary field of more than 100 artists who transform garages, cafés, studios, gardens, street corners and local businesses into makeshift arts and performance spaces. Endeavoring to bridge the cultural divides of our communities, the MAPP gives space and voice to the multiplicity of perspectives and experiences that exist within urban settings.

www.sfmapp.com

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm: The FAMILY MAPP: A full afternoon of activities for youths, including mural and sidewalk art! FREE

7:00 pm – midnight: The MAPP: Art exhibits, music, poetry, dance and film in multiple locations! FREE

MAPP Performance at the Red Poppy:

PAUL FLORES: You're Gonna Cry: A Solo Theater Work in Progress &

Groupo Obara: Rumba Performance and Dance Party
Performance begins at 7:30 pm.

Tonight, as part of MAPP, the Red Poppy presents You're Gonna Cry, written and performed by Paul Flores, and directed by Brian Freeman. How could gentrification be violent if artists started it? Like many young artists, Paul Flores came to San Francisco looking to find a community and to establish himself. You're Gonna Cry is about the hard realities of life in San Francisco's Mission District, and the offbeat and humorous characters who also make it a place to love.

You're Gonna Cry is an original multimedia solo theater piece and work in progress reflecting Paul Flores’s relationship to the Mission District’s Latino community. It was here that Flores spent ten years developing as a community artist while witnessing the forces of gentrification displace Latino residents and fellow artists (even as the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed the neighborhood the “New Bohemia”). Flores’s story addresses his search for identity as an artist while pursuing an ideal/romantic vision of the Mission District as the Latino cultural oasis that it was famed to be in the 1960s and ’70s.

You're Gonna Cry includes spoken word, personal narrative, character monologues, puppets and a multimedia component designed by Haldun Morgan. Each element explores Flores’s personal journey as he developed into a Mission-based poet, youth mentor, and Latino community activist against the backdrop of San Francisco's “Dot-Com Boom.” Flores follows changes in the dynamics of the Mission's Latino community—including mass evictions, gang injunctions and immigration enforcement raids—largely brought on by the effects of gentrification. His journey leads him to a wiser, more realistic understanding of artists and their communities.

Paul Flores (writer and performer) is a San Francisco based poet, playwright, novelist and nationally prominent spoken-word artist who specializes in bilingual and hip-hop performance. Flores is a founding member of both Los Delicados and Chicano Messengers of Spoken Word. His most recent plays—Fear of a Brown Planet (2005) and REPRESENTA! (2007)—were National Performance Network Creation Fund Commissions. Flores was featured on Russell Simmons: Presents Def Poetry on HBO, and was among the first artists awarded a Center for Cultural Innovation grant to tour Latin America. He is the co-founder of Youth Speaks and currently teaches Hip-Hop Theater and Spoken Word at the University of San Francisco.

www.myspace.com/paulfloresrepresenta

http://vimeo.com/2587678

Brian Freeman (director) is an award-winning playwright, director, and performance artist. His play Civil Sex, about the black gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, has been produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Joseph Papp Public Theater (NY), and Woolly Mammoth Theater (Washington, D.C.). He has written or co-authored more than two dozen plays, solo shows and performance works, including Fierce Love and Dark Fruit for Pomo Afro Homos, and co-founded a groundbreaking black queer performance trio which played from 1990-’95 to standing-room-only crowds from Lincoln Center to London. Brian has directed and developed solo shows by Regie Cabico, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Wayne Corbett, Diane Ferlatte, Wayne Harris, Marijo, and Canyon Sam; experimental works with Bill T. Jones, Rhodessa Jones and Marc Bamuthi Joseph; and plays with the Mark Taper Forum, Public Theater, the Theater Offensive, Teatro Vision, and San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he was a company member for eight years. From 2002-’05 he was a staff dramaturg and Resident Artist/Director at the Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles), where he developed new work with Roger Guenvere Smith, Kia Corthran and hip-hop artist Jerry Quickley. Brian currently lectures in Theater/Critical Studies at UCLA. Awards include a California Arts Council Playwriting Fellowship, the CalArts Alpert Award in Theater, three Rockefeller MAP grants, a Creative Capital Fellowship, and the New York Dance & Performance Bessie Award.

Closing the evening, Groupo Obara, will close the evening with a Rumba Performance and Dance Party!

FREE as part of MAPP! Performance begins at 7:30 pm.

CLASSICAL REVOLUTION: A Classical Study of Rock Tunes
String quartet arrangements of Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Blonde Redhead, Beach Boys, U2, and others.
Thursday, June 11

Red Poppy resident ensemble Classical Revolution engages the community by offering chamber music performances in highly accessible venues—such as bars, cafes, and art galleries—and collaborating with local musicians and artists from a variety of styles and backgrounds. With the goal of bringing classical music to an ever-widening audience, they seek out a fan base of their own peers: thinkers, artists, fellow musicians, construction workers, bartenders, cabinetmakers, and anyone else interested in broadening their musical tastes.

Classical Revolution’s musicians come from diverse backgrounds. Over the past two years, more than 200 musicians have performed as part of the ensemble. Musicians include international concert soloists and members of the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Other members are current students or recent graduates from some of the nation’s top conservatories, or are accomplished non-professional musicians who play with the group in order to sustain their musical lives.

Since Classical Revolution began hosting weekly chamber music readings at Revolution Café in 2006, they have performed at the de Young Museum, Legion of Honor, SOMArts, 111 Minna, Makeout Room, Amnesia, Stern Grove Festival, Cafe du Nord, and dozens of living rooms, backyards, and other public spaces.

Classical Revolution has active chapters in Portland, Reno, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Berlin, Toronto, Ann Arbor, and Cincinnati. Plans for chapters in additional US, Canadian, and European cities are currently in development.

www.classicalrevolution.org

FREE event. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Show at 8:00 pm.

DE ROMPE Y RAJA: Music and Dance from the Coast of Peru
Friday, June 12

De Rompe y Raja was founded in 1995 as a cultural organization dedicated to preserving and promoting traditions and culture from the coastal region of Peru, where the music and motifs of European, African and indigenous peoples intersect.

Many Icons of the Afro-Peruvian Arts have been part of our organization proyects and recordings such as Master dancer & percussionist Lalo Izquierdo & singer Marina Lavalle (founders of Peru Negro Cultural Association), Santiago Linares (The most influential arranger & musical director in Peru today), singer Pepe Vasquez & Manuel "Manguey" Vasquez (from the Vasquez family legacy), singer Jorge Luis Jasso, the late great singer Giomar Antonio, guitar legend Octavio Ticona (RIP), Singer/percussionist Braulio Barrera, composer & percussionist Freddy "Huevito" Lobaton, guitar player Pascual Obando, Musical Director Felipe Pumarada among others have helped with their extraordinary talents on the development of the group identity.

The troupe has also collaborated with Coro Hispano of San Francisco and the World Repertory Ensemble, and performed at numerous universities and festivals in many parts of the United States, including appearances at the Encuentro del Canto Popular, SF Ethnic Dance Festival and People Like me in many occassions in the last decade. Since year 2001 De Rompe y Raja has produced numerous Musicals and programs such as Recu-Tecu, Xto Moreno, Cajon "The Afro-Peruvian Pulse", Zamacueca!, Diaspora Negra, etc; where our organization demonstrated how important the African Legacy is in the development of our own traditions and culture all over the Americas.

www.derompeyraja.org

$12 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

PATRICK CRESS’s Telepathy: Alive and Teething
Saturday, June 13

Patrick Cress’s Telepathy creates unique compositions and highly energized, improvised music. Its unusual instrumentation (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, acoustic bass, and drums) and openness to unconventional time signatures transcend the traditional sounds of jazz. Established in 2002, Telepathy has recorded four albums, toured nationally and internationally, and continued to carry the torch for the Bay Area’s jazz scene.

Patrick Cress: alto and baritone saxophones
Aaron Novik: bass clarinet
David Arend: upright bass
Tim Bulkley: drums

“Telepathy plays jazz like it was meant to be played.”
—Sam Pretianni, SF Weekly

“A distinctive sound and engaging style.”
—Mark Corroto, AllAboutJazz.com

“Creating new landscapes in sound while keeping toes tapping.”
–Jeff Trainor, The Source Weekly

www.telepathicmusic.net

www.myspace.com/patrickcresstelepathy

$10 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

Nefasha Ayer, The Space of In Between
Friday, June 19 6-8:30 pm, de Young, Wilsey Court, FREE to the Public!

Nefasha Ayer, loosely translated from Amharic as "the wind that travels", is an eight-member music ensemble that tells of a transcontinental odyssey of multiple characters who find themselves caught between national identities, cultures, and politics - a living history found universally amongst people of movement, and indeed all human beings. Headed by Ethiopian-born vocalist/lyricist, Meklit Hadero, and composer/multi-instrumentalist Todd Brown, who are currently in residence at San Francisco's de Young Museum, Nefasha Ayer joins melodies, rhythms, and poetic texts from the continents of Africa, South Asia, and the Americas. Through this interweaving, the ensemble explores the intangible quality of living in a world where borders have given way, where identity is fluid and moving, no longer framed by nation or tradition, but born in the space between the many.

(image by nate keck)

NEFASHA AYER

Keenan Webster: balafon, kora, m'bira (bandleader of Pan-African ensemble Talking Wood)

Michael Warr: poetic text (author of the book, "We Are All the Black Boy.")

Mohini Rustagi: drums (from the all-women jazz-indian trio "Ambika")

Prasant Radhakrishnan: tenor saxophone (composer/saxphonist/band leader of South Indian carnatic jazz trio VidyA)

Meklit Hadero: voice, lyrics/composition (Nefasha bandleader)

Todd Brown: guitar, composition (Nefasha bandleader)

Eugene Warren: Upright bass

with guest appearance by poet and performance artist, Adrian Arias.

www.nefashaayer.com

EATON-BARICS QUINTET: Blues, Swing and Dueling Saxophones
Friday, June 19

Gabe Eaton (alto saxophone) and Rob Barics (tenor saxophone) play with the fire of committed jazz lifers, burning through original compositions and revered standards, all the while refining their work through a shared musical empathy. The Eaton-Barics Quintet also features three of the most exciting young players on the Bay Area scene: pianist Adam Schulman, bassist Marcus Shelby, and drummer Jeff Marrs. The group performs originals as well as arrangements from the books of greats such as Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin, Lockjaw Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Duke Ellington.

Originally from Laguna Beach, California, Gabe Eaton has been performing for twenty years. The alto saxophone has taken Eaton as far as Japan, where for three years, under the Sony Records label, he made numerous appearances at major jazz festivals. Eaton has shared the stage with a host of jazz greats, including Jimmy Smith, Tommy Flanagan, and reggae great Don Carlos. His recording credits include the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra’s The Lights, Gravy’s Live at Bruno’s, and DiG’s Cool Flow.

With a style rooted in traditional New Orleans jazz, Gabe Barics—a fixture on the San Francisco jazz scene for more than fifteen years—brings a unique approach to the Eaton-Barics Quintet. Fluent in jazz styles of all eras, Barics has performed with Wynton Marsalis, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

www.baytaper.com/2009/03/27/eaton-barics-quintet-live-at-club-deluxe

www.myspace.com/ebquintet

$10 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

VALERIE TROUTT & The Fear of the Fat Planet Crew: Jazz Soul Originals Featuring Poet Joyce Lee
Saturday, June 20

Red Poppy resident artist and vocalist Valerie Troutt and The Fear of the Fat Planet Crew will celebrate Juneteenth at the Red Poppy Art House. The Fat Planet Crew will play Valerie's original jazz soul compositions along with some spirited gospel and roots music. Juneteenth is a celebration in honor of the day the last slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, June 19, 1865. This show will feature poet, Joyce Lee and actor, Thandiwe De Shazor.

June 19th has since become a resounding celebration throughout the south, and all over America, in the African American Community. The Juneteenth celebrations happen in unison across the nation. Celebrations are taking place in Galveston, Texas; Bogalusa, Louisiana; Oakland, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Denver, Colorado; Kansas City, Kansas; and Lorain, Ohio, with the original birthplace being Galveston, Texas. Today, Juneteenth is a celebration of African American freedom and culture. A more detailed history of Juneteenth can be found at http://www.ritesofpassage.org/ds95-4.htm

Valerie is one of today’s most stylistically innovative modern jazz singers. For years, she has mentored under jazz vocalists Kevin Mahogany and Dianne Reeves.

The Fear of the Fat Planet Crew:

Maya Kronfeld - Piano
Valentino - Drums
Scott Thompson -Bass
Joyce Lee - Spokenword
Thandiwe - Actor/Comic

Born in Berkeley to Israeli parents, twenty-three-year-old Maya Kronfeld is a rhythm-driven piano player and keyboardist. Maya has performed at Lincoln Center (NY) and the Viper Room (LA). The Maya Kronfeld Trio, an original jazz project, was recently featured on KCSM. In addition to her work as a bandleader, Maya can be heard playing jazz and R&B with some of the Bay Area's finest artists, including Zoe and Dave Ellis, and Destani Wolf.

Valentino, an up-and-coming Bay Area artist, is one of the most versatile musicians to surface in a long time. In addition to playing drums, Valentino is a singer-songwriter and producer.

Joyce Lee was born in Oakland, CA. and brought up in a boisterous faith, so, a loud audience feels a lot like church to her. She laughs and loves ferociously. She began journaling at the age of eight and performing in Oakland’s Annual Oratorical competition at the age of ten, finishing second in the nation. Joyce has a B.A. in English with a concentration in writing and minored in Public Relations at Jamestown, College in Jamestown, North Dakota. Although she has been paid to write everything from eulogies to wedding vows since the age of fourteen, it wasn’t until January of 2008 she was aware such a thing as a poetry Slam competition existed. One year later, she not only earned a reputation as loudmouth lyrical brawler, but is the 2009 Grand Slam Champion of Oakland. Joyce’s performances are most remembered for her “as a matter of fact” delivery that holds no punches. Joyce is currently a resident of her hometown and can be seen performing at Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco slams.

Thandiwe Thomas DeShazor is an actor, writer and comedian. His stage credits include, "Oklahoma", "Lysistrata" and "Before the Dream: The Mysterious Life of Richard Wright". He has been working with young actors for nearly 10 years. He will begin touring his one-man show, "Children of the Last Days", later this year.

“Valerie Troutt approaches her lyrics with stirring conviction.” —John Murph, NPR.org

“Jazz vocalist Valerie Troutt is unquestionably one of the best … songwriters around. Armed not only with a pure-toned voice but a preternatural sense of rhythm … Troutt has the power to turn listeners into avid fans in the course of a few bars.” —Rachel Swan, East Bay Express

"This age of American Idol and Disney-approved singers has no room for a big, brassy woman who takes no shit and can really belt one out. From Big Mama Thornton to Etta James all the way to Patti Labelle, every generation has had one but ours. It's like when Chuck D asked all those years ago, "Who stole the soul?" Thank goddess for Valerie Troutt and the Fear Of a Fat Planet Crew. Mentored by jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves, Troutt approaches R&B standards, house grooves, and her original socially conscious jazz and soul compositions with the verve of the missing masters." -D. Scot Miller, SF Guardian

“Innovative and fresh with the ability to set a room in motion.” —Rodney Whitaker

“You're the shit.” —MC Kirby Dominate

www.myspace.com/valerietroutt

$12 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

IAN SCARFE: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58
Thursday, June 25

Ludwig van Beethoven's epic work for piano and orchestra makes its way from the formal grandeur of the concert hall to the more intimate Red Poppy. The Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58 is usually performed by an orchestra of 50 or more musicians, with the solo pianist seated at a nine-foot Steinway. Tonight’s performance, however, transforms the orchestra to a string quintet, with soloist Ian Scarfe seated at the Red Poppy’s own upright piano. Regarded as one of Beethoven's greatest works, the Piano Concerto No. 4 tempers Beethoven's characteristic fiery virtuosity with a lyricism that makes it particularly appropriate for this chamber setting.

Ian Scarfe is a recent graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a frequent performer with Red Poppy resident artists Classical Revolution.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJXUeeOewJA&

http://www.examiner.com/x-5030-SF-Concerts-Examiner%7Ey2009m6d8-Illustrious-predecessors

$15 admission. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Show at 8:00 pm.

Meklit Hadero and Todd Brown: Light, Shadow, and the Quiet Song Between
Closing Reception, Friday, June 26, 5-8:30 pm

de Young, Kimball Education Gallery, June 2009 Artist-in-Residence

Red Poppy Art House Founder and Artistic Director Todd Brown and Resident Artist Meklit Hadero will be wrapping up their month long interactive installation as Artists-in-Residence at the de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

The closing reception for this residency will be held from 5:00 PM - 8:30 PM. Todd and Meklit will give an artist talk at 5:00PM, and a music demonstration at 7:15 PM. The music performed will include all new compositions written during the residency. Todd and Meklit will be joined by Colm Oriain on violin, David Hoff on upright bass, and special guest Poet, Adrian Arias.

Please click on the above image to view the latest slide show of Meklit and Todd's progress at the de Young Museum.

About the residency

The de Young Museum hosts Red Poppy Art House resident artists Meklit Hadero and Todd Brown: Light, Shadow, and the Quiet Song Between through June 27 as part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Artist-in-Residence Program in the de Young's Kimball Gallery. Hadero and Brown incorporate visual art and musical composition into a sculptural installation that is also a working music studio. The two artists hope to spark the creative process in visitors by immersing them in a fully active creative environment, and inspiring them to think about how they structure their own personal surroundings.

The artistic centerpiece of the residency is an enormous 9.5 x 33 foot painting, incubated by Brown at the Red Poppy Art House, and set to be completed within the month-long inhabitation of the Kimball Gallery. Brown's additional paintings-in-progress, combined with painting tarps and working materials, cover nearly every available wall and floor space, transforming the gallery into dynamic environment undergoing continuous change, thereby allowing visitors a unique window into the artistic process.

The Kimball Gallery will simultaneously be transformed into a sonic journal, with both Hadero and Brown writing and recording new compositions throughout their tenure. Recordings are drawn from the natural soundscape of the de Young, the museum's artistic treasures, and from visitors who stop in. As songs develop from recordings, the gallery becomes a composer's workbook with lyric sheets, chord notations, and ideas collaged onto the walls.

The de Young Artist Studio is presented by Cultural Encounters. The Kimball Education Gallery is free to the public and open during museum hours. Visitors are invited to spend time in the Kimball Gallery from Wednesday through Sunday, 1-5 pm and Friday 6-8:45 pm. For more information, e-mail cinaba@famsf.org or call 415.750.3528. The Artist Studio program is supported by the Fleishhacker Foundation.

For More Information About Todd and Meklit at the de Young

KAYLAH MARIN: Soul Basics with Tenets of Love
Friday, June 26

Poet and neo-soul songstress Kaylah Marin has a tremendous vocal range, delivering commanding gospel intonations in one breath, subtle whispers in the next. She recently released her debut CD, Loving Life (produced by five-time Grammy Award-winner Narada Michael Walden), which is a collection of tunes whose retro grooves give way to funky R&B, classic soul, and hip hop rhymes.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Kaylah first began writing and performing as a child with her father, jazz saxophonist Philip Marin, who instilled in her a love of music deeply rooted in her Garifuna heritage. Philip took Kaylah to the many Bay Area jazz clubs, where she acquired her early performance skills. As a young girl at her father's side and with guitar in hand, she would join whatever house band was playing at the time. Kaylah also developed what is known as “pipes”—a huge voice likened to Jennifer Hudson and Brenda Russell.

Kaylah Marin: vocals, guitar

Kaylah’s accomplishments include scoring music for the award-winning documentary Texas Gold, and performing the voiceover and writing the score for Just Children (produced by Seed Communications for the Homeless Prenatal Program), which won four international film festivals. Kaylah also wrote an original song for Eye of The Storm, a fundraiser CD for Hurricane Katrina victims.

www.kaylahmarin.com

www.myspace.com/kaylahmarin

$10 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

The CALVIN EDWARDS TRIO: The Coming Alive Tour
Saturday, June 27

Calvin Edwards is an international artist, accomplished musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer has created his own sound that in itself is a task to overcome. He was born in Kings Mountain N.C. At the age of six, he began to play the guitar. His father, a well-known songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist was on the gospel scene and his mother helped to shape his career. At 17, he joined the famous Gospel group The Five Blind Boys of Alabama for many years, and then moved to L.A. to play in his brother’s band, The Jett Edwards Band; recording two albums together, Mr. George Benson recorded one song. Currently, Mr. Edwards travels and performs with his band, The Calvin Edwards Trio.

He is a producer for many jazz shows in Okinawa and on various military installations around Tokyo. Mr. Edwards was the producer for the performance prior to the arrival of President Clinton's speech to military personnel during his visit to Okinawa for the G-8 Summit. The 2005 NAMM SHOW in Anaheim, CA. was a blast with Calvin and John B. Williams’s two-day performance where many friends and movie stars stopping by to lend an ear. Mr. Edwards has released four CD's as a leader.

The Calvin Edwards Trio :

Calvin Edwards - Guitar and Vocals

Akira Tana - Drums

Eddie Mendenhall - Organ

The Calvin Edwards Trio is now touring USA, Tokyo.

www.myspace.com/officialcalvinedwards

$15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

JULY 2009

CLASSICAL REVOLUTION: Classical Music for Everyone

Thursday, July 2

Red Poppy resident ensemble Classical Revolution engages the community by offering chamber music performances in highly accessible venues—such as bars, cafes, and art galleries—and collaborating with local musicians and artists from a variety of styles and backgrounds. With the goal of bringing classical music to an ever-widening audience, they seek out a fan base of their own peers: thinkers, artists, fellow musicians, construction workers, bartenders, cabinetmakers, and anyone else interested in broadening their musical tastes.

Classical Revolution’s musicians come from diverse backgrounds. Over the past two years, more than 200 musicians have performed as part of the ensemble. Musicians include international concert soloists and members of the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Other members are current students or recent graduates from some of the nation’s top conservatories, or are accomplished non-professional musicians who play with the group in order to sustain their musical lives.

Since Classical Revolution began hosting weekly chamber music readings at Revolution Café in 2006, they have performed at the de Young Museum, Legion of Honor, SOMArts, CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technology, at UC Berkeley), Stern Grove Festival, and dozens of living rooms, backyards, and other public spaces.

Classical Revolution has active chapters in Portland, Reno, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Plans for chapters in additional US, Canadian, and European cities are currently in development.

www.classicalrevolution.org

FREE event. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Show at 8:00 pm.

JOSH BERMAN: An Evening with the Chicago Cornetist & Friends

Friday, July 3

Chicago cornetist, composer and presenter Josh Berman has toured the U.S., Canada, Japan and Europe, and has collaborated with many of today’s most acclaimed improvisers—including Fred Lonberg-Holm, Ab Baars, Guillermo Gregorio, Jeff Parker, Tobias Delius and Robert Berry. Berman has also performed as a member of Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, Ken Vandermark’s Crisis Ensemble, and Jeb Bishop’s Lucky 7s. He co-leads Chicago Luzern Exchange, whose debut on Delmark Records, Several Lights, the Chicago Reader was named one of the top ten local releases of 2005. Berman has performed outside the jazz world with artists such as Tortoise, Toumani Diabate, HiM and Manishevitz.

For tonight’s first set, Josh will inprovise with drummer Weasel Walter and alto saxaphonist Aram Shelton. The second set will consist of new compositions by Berman written for a quartet, and will feature clarinetist Ben Goldberg and bassist Devin Hoff.

www.joshberman.net

www.myspace.com/joshbermanchicago

$10 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

LULACRUZA: Luminous Songs Rooted in South American Landscapes

Friday, July 10

Alejandra Ortiz and Luis Maurette, aka Lulacruza, are an experimental folk duo from Columbia and Argentina. Just back from a tour of South America, they return to the Red Poppy tonight to present material from their second and third albums.

At the junction of the hypermodern and the ancient, Lulacruza weaves together female vocals, South American instruments, found sound objects, field recordings, and electronic manipulation. The result is electronic-folk music unfolding with nymph-like vocals, aquatic textures, and up-tempo, handcrafted South American rhythms.

Alejandra Ortiz: voice, cuatro, shruti box, tar and kalimba

Luis Maurette: percussion, charango, Amazonian flutes, electronic processing and sequencing

Alejandra and Luis were Artists in Residence at the Red Poppy Art House last year. They have received grants from the Zellerbach Family Foundation and from the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Since meeting at the Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 2003, Lulacruza has played in more than 25 cities in five countries. Their music has been included in documentaries in Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, and on compilations in Italy, the U.S. and Venezuela.

For their live sets, Lulacruza uses Max/MSP and Ableton Live to process, loop and sample acoustic instruments and to trigger pre-recorded sounds. Treating sound as a malleable material, Lulacruza employs texture, timbre, rhythm and tempo to imitate the synchronicity of nature’s cycles while creating their own organic soundspaces. Their contemplative music explores the relationships among human beings, and between humans and nature.

“For Luis Maurette and Alejandra Ortiz, music is a test of the human spirit, of nature, and of ephemeral concepts of reality. Through live drumming and digitally altered hooks, the group manages to create a sound that challenges what we expect from contemporary music.”

—San Francisco Bay Guardian

“What is the result of musically crossbreeding a Colombian songstress with a pristine voice and an Argentine gifted for instrumentation: Lulacruza, a pleasant rarity. This hard to classify duo recovers Latin American musicality with a modern sense for sumptuous pop. A delicate blend of untamed nature dialoguing with new technologies. It is a cornerstone in the musical DNA of Latin America.”

—Revista Veintitres (Argentina)

“Lulacruza segues from intimate songcraft to experimental settings with preternatural ease. The group’s instrumental palette is kaleidoscopic with found sounds, field recordings, and electronics enriched by bombo, tar, maracón, tiple, and cajón. Still, as much as the group impresses on other fronts, the strongest weapon in Lulacruza's arsenal is Ortiz's voice, an instrument of marvelous versatility and tonal colour.”

—Textura.org (Canada)

Free download of Lulacruza’s Canta EP:

www.lulacruza.bandcamp.com

www.lulacruza.com

$12 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

The STEVEN LUGERNER Sextet

Saturday, July 11

Steven Lugerner's compositions blend the boundaries between jazz, minimalism, free improvisation, and 20th-century classical music. Tonight his Sextet will perform a number of original compositions which will be featured on a record due out in 2010.

Steven Lugerner: alto/soprano saxophone

Darren Johnston: trumpet

Dayna Stephens: tenor saxophone

Adam Shulman: piano

Matthew Wohl: acoustic bass

Michael W. Davis: drums

Twenty-one-year-old Steven Lugerner was born and raised in Burlingame, California, but has since moved to New York to attend The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Primarily an alto/soprano saxophone player, Steven doubles on oboe, English horn, flute and clarinet. He actively performs in both the Bay Area and New York City as a sideman and a leader of his own trio and sextet. He has performed at The San Jose Jazz Festival, The Herbst Theatre, The Jazz School, Sweet Rhythm, Smalls Jazz Club, Dizzy's Coca-Cola Club, and Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Since moving to New York, Steven has studied and performed with trumpeter/composer Ralph Alessi, flutist/composer Jamie Baum, woodwind doubler Charles Pillow, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, pianist Myra Melford, and SFJAZZ Collective member Miguel Zenon. In March of 2008, Steven was the youngest of twelve musicians to audition into Fred Hersch’s Carnegie Hall Workshop, “Solo, Duo, Trio,” in which he had the opportunity to work and play with Ralph Alessi, Jane Ira Bloom, Jason Moran, Kenny Barron and Fred Hersch.

www.stevenlugerner.com

www.myspace.com/lugerner

$15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

¡Feliz cumpleaños PABLO NERUDA!: A Night of Bilingual Poetry and Performance to Celebrate Neruda’s 105th Birthday!

Sunday, July 12

The Red Poppy Art House and The WORD Party invite you to a fiesta de la poesia—a special night of poetry and performance to celebrate the 105th birthday of Chilean poet and activist Pablo Neruda! The evening will feature readings of Neruda’s poetry in English and Spanish as well as the verse of poets inspired by the humanitarian Nobel Laureate. Festivities will also include a large interactive wall poem on which the poets and audience members can write a line of verse which will be constructed into a poem by night’s end.

Hosted by Ingrid Keir and Adrian Arias

List of Performers:

Ingrid Keir

Adrian Arias

Jennifer Barone

Mama Coatl

Jorge Molina

Jonathan Siegel

www.thewordparty.com

$5 - $10 admission. Doors open at 7:00 pm. Show begins at 7:30 pm.

VALERIE TROUTT & The Fear of the Fat Planet Crew: Jazz Soul Originals

Friday, July 17

Red Poppy resident artist and vocalist Valerie Troutt and The Fear of the Fat Planet Crew explore R&B standards, house grooves, and original jazz soul compositions. Valerie is one of today’s most stylistically innovative modern jazz singers. For years, she has mentored under jazz vocalists Kevin Mahogany and Dianne Reeves.

Valerie Troutt: vocals

Scott Thompson: bass

Valentino: drums

Maya Kronfeld: piano

“Valerie Troutt approaches her lyrics with stirring conviction.” —John Murph, NPR.org

“Jazz vocalist Valerie Troutt is unquestionably one of the best … songwriters around. Armed not only with a pure-toned voice but a preternatural sense of rhythm … Troutt has the power to turn listeners into avid fans in the course of a few bars.” —Rachel Swan, East Bay Express

"This age of American Idol and Disney-approved singers has no room for a big, brassy woman who takes no shit and can really belt one out. From Big Mama Thornton to Etta James all the way to Patti Labelle, every generation has had one but ours. It's like when Chuck D asked all those years ago, "Who stole the soul?" Thank goddess for Valerie Troutt and the Fear Of a Fat Planet Crew. Mentored by jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves, Troutt approaches R&B standards, house grooves, and her original socially conscious jazz and soul compositions with the verve of the missing masters." -D. Scot Miller, SF Guardian

“Innovative and fresh with the ability to set a room in motion.” —Rodney Whitaker

“You're the shit.” —MC Kirby Dominate

www.myspace.com/valerietroutt

$12 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

The Supplicants: Spontaneous Explorations of Space, Time, and Music

Saturday, July 18

Saxophonist David Boyce (Broun Fellinis), bassist David Ewell, and drummer Sameer Gupta start from scratch for each performance, channeling their inspiration into freely improvised musical moments. The members of The Supplicants have played with greats such as Etta James, Cecil Taylor and Omar Sosa, and cite influences such as Charles Mingus, Ravi Shankar, Sun Ra, and Jean Michel Basquiat.

David Boyce: sax

David Ewell: bass

Sameer Gupta: drums

“The music of The Supplicants is so much more than an intricately woven framework of sounds, beats, and melodies. It is an experience. The level of emotion with which they play is so deep, so personal, and the energy so pure that it is almost as if existence, or being itself, creeps most surprisingly yet receptively into our souls.”

—Drew Foxman, All About Jazz

“A rare breed of spontaneous creators that defy musical categorization even within the jazz idiom, The Supplicants dazzled with virtuosity in this rare intimate setting.”

—Intersection for the Arts

www.sameergupta.com

www.myspace.com/thesupplicants

www.srinivasreddy.org

$12 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

SRINIVAS REDDY & SAMEER GUPTA: Hemant and Jog CD Release Party

Sunday, July 19

Srinivas Reddy (sitar) is an Indian-American sitarist, guitarist and composer. In 1998, he came under the tutelage of Sri Partha Chatterjee, a direct disciple of the late sitar maestro Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. Since then, Srinivas has rigorously trained with his teacher in the traditional guru-shishya style. Srinivas is a professional concert sitarist and has given numerous recitals in the U.S. and India. He is also an experienced teacher and educator, and holds a BA from Brown University, an MA from UC Berkeley, and is currently teaching at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

Founder of the critically acclaimed San Francisco-based improvisational ensemble The Supplicants (see above), Sameer Gupta (tabla) is an original musical voice in jazz, world and fusion music. He has studied percussion for most of his life, beginning in Tokyo in 1985. Since then, Sameer has performed on jazz drumset at Lincoln Center, tabla at Asagiri Jam in Japan, and various jazz and world music festivals across the nation and abroad. Sameer began his study of North Indian classical tabla in 2002, and is currently studying with tabla master Pandit Anindo Chatterjee.

“Indian classical music involves a tradition not only of artistic knowledge and virtuosic skill, but also of a very pure sort of dedication to music as a spiritual practice. It is this that sets apart the sitar and tabla performances of Srinivas Reddy and Sameer Gupta, who besides having a traditional, yet fresh and inspired approach, as well as a remarkable rapport, also bring a contemplative tinge to their art. Expect all the stunning musicality of instrumental Indian classical music as you've seen it before, as well as a depth that is a little more rare. They are a well-loved duo in the Bay Area, and have recently been well-received in performances at both the Red Poppy Art House and the Sangati Center, community arts spaces focused on the kind of intimate performances for which the sitar and tabla were designed.”

—Gautam Tejas Ganeshan, Founder and Artistic Director, Sangati Center

www.sameergupta.com

www.myspace.com/thesupplicants

www.srinivasreddy.org

$12 - $15 admission. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Show at 8:00 pm.

STELLAMARA: Original Music from the Balkans, Near East and Beyond

Friday, July 24

Vocalist Sonja Drakulich created Stellamara as a vehicle for the development of devotional music based on Near Eastern and medieval modal traditions. In this group, extraordinary musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds come together to create music celebrating love, beauty and unity. Stellamara is rooted in Turkish, Arabic, Balkan, medieval European and Persian musical traditions.

Sonja Drakulich: vocals, hammered dulcimer, frame drums

Gari Hegedus: oud, saz, tarhu, mandocello, setar

Peter Jaques: clarinet, ney, trumpet

Faisal Zedan: darbuka, riqq, frame drum

Evan Frasier: tapan, frame drums, Jew’s harp

Stellamara is currently celebrating the release of their third critically acclaimed CD, The Golden Thread, which was recorded with their mentors and collaborators, Ross Day and Kelly Thoma, on the island of Crete.

“Stellamara is a global symphony spun through minarets and grounded in the earth.”

—John Dilberto, Pulse

“Stellamara manages to maintain a balance of reverence for the music of other people’s cultures with a haunting elegance of expression.”

—Electronic Musician

“Drakulich has as singular a vocal style as Lisa Gerrard does, but with the added allure of a siren.”

—Mark Burbey, Alternative Press

“Having enjoyed Stellamara’s ethereal world beat exotica on CD for some years now, I have no explanation for my stunned reaction when vocalist Sonja Drakulich sang her first note at the Vault, other than that this was the first definitive proof I’ve seen that such a perfect voice does, in fact, come from a human being. Drakulich stepped on the Vault stage looking a little like Cate Blanchett in The Lord of the Rings, quickly winning the audience over with her world-class singing and unpretentious stage presence. One of the most impressive tricks she pulled out was a highly disciplined vocal waver: imagine an impressionist voice painting of a flickering candle flame. She and the other half of Stellamara’s core, multi-instrumental string lord Gari Hegedus, were joined by two lively percussionists and a new member, cellist Rufus Cappadocia, who exorcised notes from his instrument with a near obsessive passion.”

—Good Times

www.stellamara.com

www.myspace.com/officialstellamara

http://cdbaby.com/cd/stellamara2

$12 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

MARK GROWDEN QUARTET: Fiery, Earthy, Sensual

Saturday, July 25

Mark Growden is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, visual artist, and educator based in San Francisco. He has toured the U.S. for many years performing at venues such as The Fillmore and The Great American Music Hall, and New York City’s Tonic and The Knitting Factory. Growden has released several critically acclaimed albums; his newest, Saint Juda, recorded with his sextet, will be released later this fall.

Growden has composed original musical scores for a number of dance and theater companies, including the Joe Goode Performance Group‚ Fire Odyssey, The Crucible, and Alonzo King’s Lines Contemporary Ballet, with whom he won the Isadora Duncan Award for “Best Original Score for a New Dance Piece.” Growden has scored several films, including Blood Tea and Red String, which won the award for Best Animation at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and the Fantasia Film Festival (Montreal). He is also co-founder, with John Law, of the site-specific performance series COVERT.

Mark Growden: voice, accordion, banjo, baritone saxophone, handlebars

Seth Ford-Young: upright bass

Chris Grady: trumpet

Alex Kelly: cello

“Torrid lyricism and fierce accordion rascality. His live shows are becoming the stuff of legend.”

—East Bay Express

“A sight and sound you don’t want to miss.”

—San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Part singer-songwriter, part bluesman, part avant-gardist, he’s an avatar of bohemian weirdness on a par with Tom Waits or Joe Henry.”

—Fort Worth Weekly

“Mark Growden has to be one of California’s most colorful and intriguing musicians. Growden is a genius.”

—Albuquerque Alibi

“[Mark Growden] writes songs that pulse with drama, songs that slide with grace.”

—Tucson Weekly

http://markgrowden.org

Advance tickets are available at   www.brownpapertickets.com

$12 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.

TITO GONZALEZ Y Su Quinteto Sonero

Friday, July 31

Heriberto “Tito” Gonzalez has been performing authentic high-energy Cuban el son—the music you know from the Buena Vista Social Club—in the Bay Area since his arrival in 2000. Tito plays the tres, a Cuban instrument similar to the guitar. He has studied with tres master Papi Oviedo, of the Buena Vista Social Club, as well as with Octavio Sanchez Cotán—perhaps the greatest guitarist in Cuba. Tito has also played with a variety of renowned Cuban groups, including Conjunto Estrellas de Chocolate, Aribu Quartet, and Chapotin y sus Estrellas.

Before leaving Havana, Tito was also specially chosen as a founding member of Nuevo Conjunto de Arsenio Rodriguez, a group carefully structured to represent the music of the famous Cuban tresero Arsenio Rodriguez.

Since his arrival in the U.S., Tito has played with such greats as Oscar De Leon, Larry Harlow and Orestes Vilato, and at venues such as Yoshi’s (in both San Francisco and Oakland). Tito also plays internationally; he recently received a request to play for the King’s coronation on the island of Tonga!

$12 - $15 admission. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Show at 9:00 pm.