Tag archives: musicians

It was certainly a family affair when Los Romeros, a guitar quartet featuring family members – Celin, Pepe, Angel, and Lito Romero – performed at the Lobero, part of the CAMA Masterseries. The family was celebrating its 60th anniversary and the historic theater its 150th birthday. The dynasty settled in Santa Barbara after legendary Spanish […]

Charles Lloyd reported that he wasn’t in good shape when we connected by phone last week. But it wasn’t a physical issue ailing the octogenarian saxophonist-composer who back in the late 1960s enjoyed one of the first million-selling jazz albums. It was a spiritual sadness after hearing that Wayne Shorter had died overnight.  “We were […]

The culmination of jazz saxophonist/composer/educator Ted Nash’s expansive winter residency in town and over Zoom this year comes next weekend (Feb. 18-19) when the Santa Barbara Symphony premieres his Transformation – a rethinking and newly arranged for orchestra take on a segment of his 2021 collaboration with Glenn Close, Transformation: Personal Stories of Change, Acceptance, […]

Less than six years after the four-decades-old Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra played its final concert in town, a new ensemble that’s even more community-based and oriented is stepping in to fill the void with an even more ambitious approach.  The Santa Barbara Chamber Players (SBCP), created by local musicians who first practiced during the pandemic […]

The first time Sean and Sara Watkins brought the Watkins Family Hour (WFH) to Santa Barbara was back in March of 2014 in a Sings Like Hell show at the Lobero. The monthly gig at L.A.’s famed Largo anchored by the brother and sister (guitar and fiddle, respectively), who represented two-thirds of the Grammy-winning bluegrass […]

Breezing into town after a three-year hiatus, Johnny Irion and his band U.S. Elevator, with members Erich Riedl, Brett Long, Nate Modisette, and Anders Bergstrom, took the stage to a standing-room only show at SOhO on Sunday, October 9. Irion started with a solo acoustic set on guitar and piano. Invited guest Khasy Modisette sang […]

More than 40 musicians and singers – including session and touring artists who have played on more than a thousand different albums and thousands more concerts – will be gathering on the stage at the Lobero Theatre to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Rhythmic Arts Project, aka TRAP, this weekend.  TRAP is the Santa […]

For Tom Cipullo, MAW’s 2022 composer-in-residence, collaborating with two other faculty members in putting together an evening of his vocal works sung by the Academy’s fellows has been both a challenge and a joy. “There are 14 singers in all vocal ranges, and we have to give everybody an experience that fits them and also […]

Tribute bands are all the rage in music clubs and even theaters these days, and it’s not hard to understand why. Not only is it easier to imitate than innovate, but it’s also relatively simple to put a band together to perform the best-known songs from a classic rock band or famous singer, because so […]

Michael Shasberger, Westmont’s Adams professor for music and worship, shares stories of musical exploration and perseverance during a pandemic at a free, public lecture, “Making Music in the Age of COVID: Challenges, Opportunities, Risks, and Meaning,” on Wednesday, April 20, at 5:30 pm in the outdoor patio of Westmont’s newest downtown Santa Barbara building, 29 […]

Most of the time we see piano four hands – which finds two pianists sharing the same keyboard – it comes off as something of a lark, a lighthearted diversion during a more serious recital from a piano studio. But there’s lots of beautiful and important music written specifically for the format, said Gil Garburg. […]

Duos continue to be de rigueur this week, as Britain’s brother-sister breakout stars Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Isata Kanneh-Mason follow Jennifer Koh and Davóne Tines’ April 12 world-premiere presentation of Everything Rises at Campbell Hall, with a concert of their own at Campbell on Tuesday, April 19. Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason first gained renown as winner of […]

The official launch of the Music Academy of the West’s special 75th anniversary summer festival is still more than two months away, but in the span of less than three weeks, Santa Barbara will have been witness to the wildly divergent extremes offered by the revered institute. Hot on the heels of three landmark performances […]

Even more accomplished alumni of the Music Academy’s summer festival are returning to Hahn Hall this week, if only via streaming via satellite in a re-broadcast of the Met Opera’s Live in HD presentation of Strauss’ Ariadne Auf Naxos on April 3. Former fellows Brenda Rae and Isabel Leonard appear as Zerbinetta and the Composer, […]

Home Within, the audio-visual collaborative performance piece from Syrian composer-clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad, was originally conceived of as an emotions-into-art response to the loss and longing of the Syrian conflict that has claimed more than 100,000 lives and sent about one-third of the Syrian people into exile. It grew out […]

Fusing hard rock with their own edge, the LOC DAWGS band is tearing up venues from Santa Barbara-Goleta south through Anaheim, due to play at the vintage club, The Mint,in Los Angeles in March.  The group was birthed by multi-instrumentalist songwriter Christian Pelonis (Stolen Thunder and the Shaun Cassidy Band), who wrote, played, and recorded […]

With apologies to all of the other rock groups, solo travelers, and dedicated duos who might lay claim to being “The Hardest Working Band in Rock,” Tony Rock and the Cadillac Angels take a backseat to nobody. Rock – who recently changed his last name from Balbinot for personal reasons – no biggie, since the […]

Maison Mineards Montecito has been particularly busy of late with a German TV crew interviewing me in the garden, phone calls from the London Evening Standard and Daily Mail, and last week hosting a TV crew from France’s TF1 for its 16-year-old show, 50 Minutes Inside. After being interviewed outside Pierre Lafond by producer Sarah […]

SOhO’s schedule this week showcases a bunch of Santa Barbara-based acts covering a huge swath of genres. Soul Majestic, which seamlessly segues from roots reggae to R&B and folk-rock, headlines on Friday, February 19, followed the next night by M.O.B. Quintet, an all-star ensemble that performs an eclectic blend of Euro-Brazil progressive jazz and fusion […]