Featuring Petra Haden, Thomas Morgan, and Rudy Royston
Hailed as “the most innovative and influential guitarist of the past 25 years” (Wall Street Journal), Bill Frisell has seen collaborations with the likes of Elvis Costello, Bono, Paul Simon, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic over the course of his 35-year career. His Grammy-nominated album When You Wish Upon a Star features his arrangements and interpretations of music for film and television. The album is more than an homage to a set of iconic scores; Frisell draws upon the sentimentality of music heard on screen and how it shapes and informs our emotional relationships to what we see. The guitarist will be joined by bassist Thomas Morgan, drummer Rudy Royston, and singer Petra Haden in reimagining time-honored gems like “When You Wish Upon a Star” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” as well as music from television favorites, including The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Honeymooners.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
ArtPower regrets to inform you that Bassekou Kouyate and his musicians have not received their visas to come to the U.S for their February 26 concert at ArtPower. We are pleased to have Habib Koité and his percussionist able to share their duo performance as originally scheduled. Habib is a fabulous solo performer that we’re certain you will enjoy. Thank you for your understanding and our apologies for the difficulties.
If you have decided not to attend the concert due to programming change, we would be happy to process a refund. Please contact the UC San Diego Box Office directly regarding your tickets at 858-534-TIXS (8497). They are open Monday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm.
One of Africa’s most recognized musicians, Mali’s pop icon Habib Koité has a deep and varied musical vocabulary, blending Afro-pop with jazz, rock, and even classical. His intimate vocal delivery blends beautifully with both the modern and ancient musical traditions from which he derives his inspiration. Koité is joined by Bassekou Kouyate, Malian musician and master of the ngoni, a traditional African lute. Time Out says, “Ngoni virtuoso Bassekou Kouyate can make notes bend like light rays in the desert heat.”
Together, Koité and Kouyate exemplify the shared experience associated with the historical, cultural, and unifying properties of Malian music. Kouyate’s comfort in a vast array of musical settings actively complements Koité’s presence, resulting in a spirited collaboration that brings innovation and a sense of unity.
“A band that deserves to be seen live.“—NPR
Mokoomba is one of Africa’s most exciting young bands, dazzling audiences worldwide with their knockout live shows and electrifying blend of Afro-fusion and tantalizing traditional Tonga rhythms. “Mokoomba” is a Tonga word that connotes the deep respect Tonga people have for the Zambezi River and for the vibrant life that it brings to their music and culture.
The Zimbabwe-based group’s latest album, Luyando—a stripped-down, mostly acoustic album— took critics by storm. Mokoomba have rocked legendary rooms and stages worldwide, from New York City’s Apollo Theater and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to London’s 100 Club and Amsterdam’s Melkweg, to WOMEX and SXSW, sealing their reputation as one of Africa’s best young live bands.
A young African American man is stopped by the police without clear cause. Again and again and again. The tenth stop leads to entanglements with the courts, jail, and attorneys, with potentially life-changing results. In Spiritrials, addiction, religion, and the law intersect in a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program.
Dahlak Brathwaite’s incisive humor transforms a chilling personal story into a vital performance that layers character-driven storytelling and poetic verse with original songs to create a hybrid hip-hop drama, accompanied by beats from DJ Dion Decibels. A virtuosic and timely exploration of the criminal justice system, Spiritrials chronicles the journey of Brathwaite’s own criminalization along with his struggle to be vindicated and decriminalized in the eyes of the law and society. The piece works through the personal shame of criminal stigmatization to examine the factors—both internal and external—that have misplaced him in what appears to be a cultural rite of passage.
After having played more than 300 live shows in the last four years, Yemen Blues finally arrives to make its San Diego debut. An astonishing musical concept that resides at the crossroads of traditional Yemenite melodies and the world of funk, blues, and jazz, Yemen Blues is led by the “ridiculously charismatic frontman” Ravid Kahalani, who burst onto the world and contemporary music scenes in 2010 to create a global buzz that has only gotten louder and more intense since then. Conjuring up a rich and diverse aural palette with the use of percussion, oud, horns, and strings, the collective coexists in both the past and present, at once timeless and modern.
Born in Sudan, raised in Yemen, and now based in Brooklyn, Alsarah is not only a gifted musician and singer but also a self-proclaimed practitioner of East African retro-pop. Alsarah & the Nubatones was born out of many dinner conversations between Alsarah and percussionist Rami El-Aasser about Nubian “songs of return,” modern migration patterns, and the cultural exchanges between Sudan and Egypt. Soon the project expanded to include Armenian American oud player Haig Manoukian and French-born, Togo-raised bass player Mawuena Kodjovi. Since their first show in 2011, the group has performed nationally and internationally at many prestigious festivals and venues to audiences varying in age and ethnicity, proving that soul crosses all cultural and linguistic barriers.
“The way I see it, the future of the New Orleans brass band tradition is in their hands.”—Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews
New Breed Brass Band live and breathe the culture of New Orleans, infusing funk, rock, jazz, and hip-hop into a custom-made enhancement of second-line brass-band tradition. With a founding core of five New Orleans natives, the band made their street debut as a nine-man unit in 2013. Since then, they have showcased their originality opening for such diverse bands as the Fray, Red Baraat, Dr. John, the Waterboys, and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. New Breed Brass Band are certain to sweep the audience away with the spirit of NOLA!
