Nubya Garcia isn’t an artist you can easily classify. Is it jazz? Sure, the London-born saxophonist,
composer and bandleader grew up studying the genre under the noted pianist Nikki Yeoh at Camden
Music. But it isn’t until you listen to albums like 2020’s Source and 2024’s Odyssey that you hear
broader creativity shining through: It’s jazz, classical, dub, R&B and whatever else Garcia wants to
convey. It all comes from a place of exploration and self-study, of wanting to do all the things across all
disciplines while ignoring arbitrary boxes that don’t fit.
Garcia’s sophomore album Odyssey, out in September 2024 via Concord Jazz, is a majestic feat on
which she blends orchestral arrangements with R&B, jazz, broken beat and dub, resulting in a grand,
nuanced record that feels airy and celestial without sacrificing the groove. It’s a deeply personal
offering about her trek to falling back in love with musical composition over the past four years.
Chicago/Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, curator, activist, motivational speaker, and educator Isaiah Collier is a musical virtuoso in the truest sense of the phrase. Most known for his work as a saxophonist, Collier’s sound and approach is drawn from the influences of other master saxophonists such as John Coltrane, Roscoe Mitchell, Wayner Shorter, Ari Brown, and Gene Ammons.
GRAMMY–nominated Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodríguez returns to San Diego with the sound of Miami from his latest album: Coral Way. This album represents a significant chapter in his artistic journey, reflecting his current worldview as an artist. As Rodríguez himself states, “I play what I live, and Coral Way is my new life. It is the name of the street on which, for the past 3 years, I have been composing this album, and now I’m excited that people from all over the world will finally get to hear it in an expansive way, with a full live band.”
Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, globally acclaimed artist Alfredo, has not only captivated audiences worldwide with his exceptional mastery of diverse genres and disciplines, but his personal story adds an equally captivating dimension to his music. Since 2015, Alfredo has captivated audiences with sold-out performances at ArtPower. Now making his fourth appearance, he continues to be a highly anticipated and celebrated artist on our stage.
The Sara Schoenbeck and Wayne Horvitz duo navigate through original tunes and improvisatory soundscapes. With feet firmly planted in a genre-less zone, electronics and an ever-expanding textural palate serve to deepen the feel of a shared melodic language.
Sara Schoenbeck and Wayne Horvitz first met as improvising musicians at the 4 day, “company” style “Time Flies” festival (Vancouver B.C.) in 2000. In 2004 Horvitz formed the Gravitas Quartet with Schoenbeck, Ron Miles (Trumpet) and Peggy Lee (Cello). This quartet recorded two CDs and performed throughout Europe and North America. In 2015 Horvitz fused his ensemble Sweeter Than the Day with the Gravitas Quartet to create a septet performing compositions based on the poems of Richard Hugo. “Some Places Are Forever Afternoon” resulted in a CD, touring throughout the US, and an episode of NPR’s “Jazz Night in America”, hosted by Christian McBride. In addition, Schoenbeck and Horvitz had performed in numerous improvised collectives, special projects, and the occasional duo concert.
In 2018, the duo Schoenbeck/Horvitz was created, with subsequent concerts in NY, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Ann Arbor, Sacramento, Northampton, Bellingham, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, and Detroit. Their first CD, entitled Cell Walk, was released on the Songlines label in May 2020. Since the pandemic the duo has presented concerts in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Kassa Overall is a Grammy-nominated musician, emcee, singer, producer and drummer who melds avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to tilt the nexus of jazz and rap in unmapped directions. He previously released four critically acclaimed projects: I THINK I’M GOOD, Go Get Ice Cream,Listen to Jazz, Shades of Flu and Shades of Flu 2. On ANIMALS, his Warp Records debut, Kassa pushes his kaleidoscopic, subversive vision further. He layers Roland 808s against avant-garde drumming in the vein of his mentors Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, the latter of whom he studied with at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Virtuoso musos appear alongside rap poets, including Danny Brown, Wiki, Lil B, and Shabazz Palaces. Top-flight jazz improvisation weaves in and out of orchestral string arrangements by Jherek Bischoff. The album’s diverse, all-star roster of collaborators includes several of his close friends, like vocalists Nick Hakim, Laura Mvula, Francis and the Lights, and jazz stars like Theo Croker and Vijay Iyer.
ANIMALS pushes Kassa’s message further too, the title a loaded metaphor for the paradoxes of his life as an entertainer and as a black man in America. ANIMALS is the sound of an artist aware of the cost of embodying one’s natural self in the public eye, a deep reckoning with the two-sided truth that to perform one’s freedom for an audience can mean succumbing to life inside a cage.
RIVA is a saxophonist and composer, known to juxtapose the jazz idiom with modern beat culture, techno, house, disco, through a fully improvisational danceable electronic jazz show.
From his beginnings as one of Chicago’s most thrilling young trumpeters, to his current status as an internationally renowned musician, composer and bandleader, Marquis Hill has worked tirelessly to break down the barriers that divide musical genres. Contemporary and classic jazz, hip-hop, R&B, Chicago house, neo-soul—to Hill, they’re all essential elements of the profound African-American creative heritage he’s a part of. “It all comes from the same tree,” he says. “They simply blossomed from different branches.”
That mission to bring styles together, complemented by Hill’s absolute mastery of his instrument, is a through line connecting his many achievements. It can be heard on his latest album, Modern Flows Vol. II, with its seamless blend of jazz interplay, hip-hop-infused rhythms and socially conscious spoken-word. It’s integral to The Way We Play, his Concord Jazz debut from 2016, where Hill and his musicians reinvent jazz standards using their generation’s wide- ranging influences. It marks the four records Hill self-released before November of 2014, when he won the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz competition and became a presence on the global scene virtually overnight. And it defines the revelatory live dates by Hill’s longtime working group, the Blacktet, which the Chicago Tribune called “a remarkably polished, immensely attractive ensemble.”
Today, Hill maintains a nonstop touring schedule with the Blacktet, and the intensely interactive, utterly unique band has become a kind of graduate school for next-level talent—Hill included.“One of the most beautiful things about leading a group is the flow of knowledge and energy that we bounce off of one another,” he says. “Each member contributing their distinctive voice is what truly makes the music and magic happen.”
ArtPower is excited to present one of the most exciting artists in the international jazz community: pianist, composer, bandleader, and Blue Note recording artist Nduduzo Makhathini. With a range of musical and cultural influences—including Zulu rituals and the church—“Makhathini’s visionary character becomes more fascinating with each new endeavor”—DownBeat
Since making his international debut for Blue Note in 2020 with Modes of Communication: Letters From the Underworlds, the South African pianist and composer Nduduzo Makhathini has earned widespread acclaim for the genuinely spiritual transcendence of his music. For Makhathini, a Zulu healer and educator who has delved deeply into the histories and traditions of his ancestors, improvised music has never been merely about aesthetics or idioms. As the New York Times put it when naming Modes of Communication one of the Best Jazz Albums of 2020: “In a moment when spiritual jazz has become a dangerously buzzy concept, trust a musician who has truly devoted his life to divination practices.”
“Mark Guiliana, a technical master with a rare sense of musicality, has over the last decade become one of the most influential drummers of his generation.”— JazzTimes
Hailed by the New York Times as “a drummer around whom a cult of admiration has formed,” Mark Guiliana brings the same adventurous spirit, eclectic palette and gift for spontaneous invention to a staggering range of styles. Equally virtuosic playing acoustic jazz, boundary-stretching electronic music, or next-level rock, he’s become a key collaborator with such original sonic thinkers as Brad Mehldau, Meshell Ndegeocello, Donny McCaslin, Matisyahu, and the late, great David Bowie.
The Academy Award winning Best Picture, Birdman, screened to a live soundtrack
“In his live scoring of Birdman, Sánchez injects a vitality that maps out the emotions of the film’s characters with precision.”—The Guardian (U.K.)
“One of the standout jazz drummers on the contemporary scene, a polyrhythmic ace attuned to the subtlest dynamic fluctuations.”—New York Times
After the success of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, which won four Academy Awards including Best Picture, drummer/composer Antonío Sánchez performed his dramatic Grammy Award-winning score live around the world. Sánchez’ original music was largely improvised, making each presentation unique. Celebrating the film’s 10th anniversary, he brings Birdman Live to the Epstein Family Amphitheater. One of the most sought-after drummers on the international jazz scene, Sánchez has recorded and performed with the likes of Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Michael Brecker and Charlie Haden. His 2022 album SHIFT features Trent Reznor, Dave Matthews, Meshell Ndegeocello and more. (Birdman: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2014, R, 119 min.)
Born in Mexico City, 4-time Grammy Award winner Antonío Sánchez began to play the drums at age five and performed professionally as a teen in Mexico’s Latin, jazz and rock scenes—when he wasn’t participating as a member on Mexico’s Junior National Gymnastics Team. He later pursued a degree in classical piano at the National Conservatory in Mexico and in 1993 enrolled in Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory, where he graduated magna cum laude in Jazz Studies.
Following nine albums and 18 years as one of the most cherished of Pat Metheny’s collaborators, Sánchez has also recorded and performed with Gary Burton, Michael Brecker, Charlie Haden and Chick Corea. In 2014 Sánchez’s popularity soared when he scored Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman which ended up garnering four Academy Awards (including Best Picture).
Today, Sánchez is among the most sought-after jazz drummers in the world and has been Modern Drummer’s “Jazz Drummer of the Year” on multiple occasions. His new album SHIFT – Bad Hombre Vol. II, featuring Dave Mathews, Trent Reznor and a host of other guest artists, will be released on Warner Bros this August.
“What makes [Birdman] snap, crackle and pop — literally and figuratively — is Sánchez’s remarkably creative drumming.”—San Diego Union Tribune Read the full interview >
Alfredo Rodríguez is a GRAMMY-nominated pianist, composer, arranger, and producer. After meeting Quincy Jones at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2006 and receiving an offer to work together, Alfredo emigrated to the US to pursue his dream of being an internationally acclaimed musician. Over the past decade, Alfredo has gone from a local Cuban artist to a globally recognized GRAMMY nominee with five critically acclaimed releases on tastemaker imprint Mack Avenue Records: Sounds of Space (2011), The Invasion Parade (2014), Tocororo (2016), The Little Dream (2018), and Duologue (2019) with percussionist Pedrito Martinez.
Beyond his accomplishments, Rodriguez’s ability to “play stories” on the keys allows him to connect with his listeners on a deeply personal level. His albums, including The Invasion Parade, Tocororo, and Duologue, reflect his memories of Cuba, his experiences as an immigrant, and his journey of self-discovery through music. He’s been featured by All Things Considered, Downbeat, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal among many others, and performed for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert.
Rodriguez continues to share his music along with his impactful message of perseverance and cross culturalization on an international tour, while sharing a variety of viral social media videos in which he plays well-known compositions in a Cuban timba style.
