Andrew Gilbert writes a weekly music column for Berkeleyside. Andy, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, covers a wide range of musical cultures, from Brazil and Mali to India and Ireland. A Berkeley-based freelancer, he contributes features on jazz and international music to numerous publications, including the San Jose Mercury News, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times and Los Angeles Times. His column covering the Bay Area dance scene, Dance Card, runs monthly in the Contra Costa Times. And his CD reviews air regularly on KQED’s “California Report.”
The longtime Berkeley resident and key presence on the Bay Area airwaves since 1959 has been honored with a McPartland-Conover Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Jazz Journalists Association.
What does the future hold for live music? We checked in with cherished music venues like Ashkenaz, Cal Performances and the Freight to see how they’re feeling and what they’re planning.
Fullman, who plays her self-invented Long String Instrument in her West Berkeley studio, was recently awarded a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship for musical composition.
Musicians around the East Bay are turning the calamity of a global pandemic-induced lockdown into an opportunity for creative exploration.
Sarah Cline, director of Berkeley High’s storied jazz program, launched JazzGirls Day in 2012. The event, which takes place Saturday at BHS, has spread around the country. Plus: Other recommended gigs.
Catch the undisputed patriarch of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke, at UC Theatre, and Bulgarian-born, West Berkeley-based multi-instrumentalist Ruman “Sali” Shopov at Timbre Folk & Baroque on Wednesday.
A classically trained vocalist and former dancer who spent some time with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Moses is now exploring her Brazilian roots in a show at the Back Room on Feb. 20
Everyone needs a good lawyer. But Shylock, one of Shakespeare’s most historically fraught villains, is a special case. On Sunday, Berkeley Law takes over the Freight to give the old usurer another shot at justice.
From the stage to the classroom to the Cal Performances offices, the composer, bandleader and educator brings a bracing shot of improvisational energy to Berkeley.
With Black History Month upon us, some venues go all out to celebrate the country’s foundational music styles. Here are 10 acts we’re particularly eager to catch (a list that could have easily doubled).
Nora Stanley, Berkeley High class of 2014, is one of the most exciting young saxophonists on the Bay Area jazz scene. Catch her in action in the coming weeks, including Tuesday at the California Jazz Conservancy.
Open Minds founder Charles Amirkhanian’s 75th birthday is celebrated Sunday at the Brower Center. While next Friday the Freight will mark Django Reinhardt’s 110th birthday with a three-day festival.
After a number of his friends were assaulted, the drummer/composer’s new show, No Means No, is designed to raise consciousness about sexual assault, as well as funds for San Francisco Women Against Rape.
Guitarist and Cal grad Owen Chen plays Jupiter Friday. And get ready to dance at a Cuban new year’s eve party at the Freight, also in downtown Berkeley.
The basement of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church is a thriving community resource and a vital cultural hub that presents concerts series, art exhibitions and literary events, no small thanks to the Rev. Julie Wakelee-Lynch.
The Iranian vocalist carries thousands of years of culture in her throat and, whenever she sings, she reconstructs a world from which she’s been exiled. Catch her Saturday at the Freight.
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