National Book Award–winning biographer Deirdre Bair explores her 15 remarkable years in Paris with Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir, painting intimate new portraits of two literary giants and revealing secrets of the biographical art in her new book, Parisian Lives.
In 1971 Bair was a journalist and recently minted PhD who managed to secure access to Nobel Prize–winning author Samuel Beckett. The next seven years of intimate conversations, intercontinental research, and peculiar cat-and-mouse games resulted in Samuel Beckett: A Biography and propelled Bair to her next subject: Simone de Beauvoir. The catch? De Beauvoir and Beckett despised each other. Her seven-year relationship with the domineering and difficult de Beauvoir required a radical change in approach, yielding another groundbreaking literary profile.
At ArtPower, Bair will speak about Parisian Lives—including never-before-told anecdotes and details that were considered impossible to publish back in the 1990s and that give audiences a new window on the all-too-human side of these legendary thinkers.
We regret to inform you that tomorrow’s performance on Wednesday, February 12 with Msaki and the Golden Circle has been cancelled. Unfortunately Msaki has fallen ill and is not being allowed to board any flights out of her country. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Our Box Office will be calling to process refunds. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the UC San Diego Box Office at 858-534-8497 or email artpower@ucsd.edu.
Trailblazing vocalist and guitarist Msaki creates a sound that combines soulful folk, Xhosa lyrics, and African polyrhythms with moments of sincere improvisation. Her raw delivery disrupts your senses as she weaves subtle tales of love, loss, home, revolution, and hope. For this performance, Msaki plays with the Golden Circle, an ever-evolving and expanding band of incredible musicians from different backgrounds that was created to retain and promote Africa’s identity and culture through soulful music.
Once you have listened to acclaimed vocalist, composer, and arranger Alicia Olatuja, you won’t soon forget her. Praised in the New York Times as “a singer with a strong and luscious tone,” Olatuja combines the earthy with the sublime, bringing a grounded relatability to genres as lofty as classical, as venerated as jazz, and as gritty as R&B.
Olatuja returns to ArtPower with her new project: Intuition: Songs From The Minds Of Women, celebrating the musical contributions of women composers by reinterpreting their songs through her own lens of classic, jazzy soul. Intuition is a dazzling journey through time, tempo, genre, language, and culture from some of the most respected artists of our generation, featuring songs by Sade, Angela Bofill, Brenda Russell, Linda Creed, Imogen Heap, Tracy Chapman, Kate Bush, and others.
Grammy–nominated and Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz award-winning drummer, bandleader, and vocalist Jamison Ross delivers the messages of humanity through the medium of jazz. A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Jamison realized his passion for music while growing up in his grandfather’s church, where he felt the power of music. He began his study of jazz as a high school student and gained worldwide acclaim as a featured musician in the Tribeca Film Festival–winning documentary CHOPS.
His 2015 debut release, Jamison, introduced the world to his concept of rhythm and melody and also garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. His sophomore release, All For One, takes listeners a level deeper into Jamison’s ethos. The album is a result of a personal revelation that “we all have the capacity to love with empathy in a deeper way.”
“He has the tools, the intelligence, the ability, and the talents. The future looks bright for Croker.”— Wynton Marsalis
Trumpeter/composer Theo Croker, is hailed as one the great promises of Black American Music. Star People Nation (his upcoming LP on Sony Masterworks) isn’t a sonic departure from his critically acclaimed release Escape Velocity, but a continuation toward a much grander musical legacy that is pushing the realms of futuristic melody, rhythm, and vibratory enlightenment.
The grandson of legendary trumpeter Doc Cheatham, Crocker is a student of Donald Byrd, a protégé of Wynton Marsalis, and a veteran of performances with such jazz greats as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jimmy Heather, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and many more. Well-versed in the swing, bop, and modal styles of acoustic jazz, Croker’s own music reveals a love of organic funk, soul, and gooey, groove-oriented hip-hop. He is creating jazz that is both “timeless and of the moment” (Wall Street Journal).
“What I enjoy best is playing music. . . . I am a musician who happens to be blind. . . . I have been blessed with a God-given gift and my prayer is that I can continue to be a blessing and inspiration to others.”—Matthew Whitaker
Eighteen-year-old musical prodigy Matthew Whitaker grew up surrounded by music. A stunning talent on the piano and organ, he began playing music at the young age of three, after his grandfather gave him a small Yamaha keyboard. At age nine, Whitaker began teaching himself how to play the Hammond B3 organ, and four years later, he became the youngest artist ever endorsed by Hammond in its 80+ year history. At age ten, he performed at Stevie Wonder’s induction to the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame.
Whitaker has achieved international acclaim for his awe-inspiring talent. He has since toured the world and performed at hundreds of major events and jazz festivals, and appeared on The Today Show, Ellen, and CBS Sunday Morning, among other shows. A rising star, Whitaker will be making his San Diego debut at ArtPower.
“Jaw-dropping . . . one of the finest saxophonists going.”—Pitchfork
Few musicians share the ability of Rudresh Mahanthappa to embody the expansive possibilities of his music with his culture. He is an alto saxophonist and composer who materializes a sound that hybridizes progressive jazz and South Indian classical music in a fluid and forward-looking form that reflects Mahanthappa’s own experience growing up as a second-generation Indian-American.
The Indo-Pak Coalition, featuring Pakinstani-American guitarist Rez Abbasi and percussionist Dan Weiss, blends the sounds of jazz with Mahanthappa’s South Indian roots, creating a new and sublime complexity of sound. The result is a fiery jazz with Indian-Pakistani influences and a modern touch.
UC San Diego MFA student Sindhu Thirumalaisamy and UC San Diego economics professor Prashant Bharadwaj sits down with ArtPower artist Rudresh Mahanthappa to talk about how he fuses jazz and south Indian classical music, the name Indo-Pak Coalition, and what we can expect at his concert in San Diego.
This event has been cancelled. Our Box Office will be calling to process refunds. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the UC San Diego Box Office at 858-534-8497 or email artpower@ucsd.edu.
As a scion of an illustrious musical family, Cuban pianist Harold López-Nussa is one of the brightest lights on Havana’s thriving jazz scene. Son of drummer Ruy López-Nussa and nephew of pianist Ernan López-Nussa, López-Nussa was born into a musical household in Cuba and educated by his French grandparents. He took an early interest in classical piano before shifting his focus at age 20 to the fiery Cuban jazz of his homeland.
López-Nussa gained international attention when he won top honors at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Piano Competition in 2005 (a triumph that earned him a featured festival spot the following year). With his last album, New Day, the rising star refines his style and adds color to his artistic palette, asserting himself as a stylish composer whose technical abilities are matched only by his powerful playing.
“Fusing delta and hill country with elements of jam-band rock, he and his drummer packed an incredible punch, and never let the momentum die down.”—Nashville Scene
Born and raised in Mississippi Hill Country, Cedric Burnside—grandson of legendary R.L. Burnside and son of drummer Calbin Jackson—has been playing music all his life. This six-time winner of the prestigious Blues Music Award’s Drummer of the Year (2010–17) is widely regarded as one of the best drummers in the world and has begun to make a name for himself as a traditional blues guitarist as well.
Touring the world on his own, Burnside’s approach to the Blues has a rumbling style and is a hypnotic musical form of chugging rhythms, stinging guitar licks, snap neck drum licks, and singing that is filled with sharp changes and raw, cutting rhythms. His latest album, Grammy-nominated Benton County Relic, brings the blues alive for a new generation of fans weaned on the likes of White Stripes and the Black Keys.
This event has been cancelled. Our Box Office will be calling to process refunds. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the UC San Diego Box Office at 858-534-8497 or email artpower@ucsd.edu.
“I think she’s endless. I don’t see any boundaries. Talent like hers is so rare, and I don’t think it stops.”—Allison Kraus
An exceptionally gifted mandolin player as well as a rapidly emerging singer-songwriter, Sierra Hull has taken the bluegrass and country world by storm. Her positively stellar career started early—from a Grand Ole Opry debut at the age of 10, to a Rounder Records signing and debut album Secrets at the age of 13, to performing at the White House at age 20.
Now a seasoned touring musician nearing her mid-20s, she has delivered her most inspired, accomplished, and mature recorded work to date—Weighted Mind. Produced by legendary bluegrass musician Bela Fleck, Weighted Mind is nothing like what you’ve heard before—it’s singular and emphatic, harmonious and dissonant. It is the realization of promise, and the affirmation of individuality. It is born of difficulty and indecision, yet it rings with ease, decisiveness, and beauty.
