Two Adventurous Summaries for July, 2019

The “season” as such may wind down at the end of this month. However, two schedules for next month have already come to my attention. Since they both get under way on the same day, it seemed appropriate to deal with them collectively.

At the SFJAZZ Center, the Joe Henderson Lab will have a full schedule in July. Ticket prices tend to vary, so that information will be provided on an event-by-event basis. Tickets may be purchased online through the Web pages for the specific events. However, seating is always open in Henderson; and the acoustics always seem to be excellent no matter where one is sitting. The SFJAZZ Center is located at 201 Franklin Street, on the northwest corner of Fell Street. Performance dates and times are as follows, including hyperlinks to their respective event pages:

• Thursday, July 11, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber calls itself an “Avant Funk Superband.” It is a twelve-piece group based in New York that casts a wide net of eclecticism that includes euphoric funk, space jazz (hopefully, some readers will recognize “arkestra” as a noun coined by Sun Ra), power-packed rock, sweet soul, and avant-garde experimentation. They will take over Henderson for four nights with a different program on each night. They will use their first program to present their take on drummer Max Roach’s 1960 album We Insist! (subtitled Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite). The album featured Roach’s then-wife Abbey Lincoln singing lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr. This will be a Limited Seating Dance Floor show with much of the area closest to the stage set aside for dancing. Tickets for seats at the rear will be $40, and admission to the dance area will be $35.
• Friday, July 12, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: The second Burnt Sugar program will be devoted to the songs of Prince. The band will re-imagine his tunes to reflect its expansive instrumentation and deep improvisational approach. This will again be a Limited Seating Dance Floor show with much of the area closest to the stage set aside for dancing. Tickets for seats at the rear will be $45, and admission to the dance area will be $40.
• Saturday, July 13, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: The third Burnt Sugar program will also turn to the pop genre. This time the tunes will come from the songs performed by Donald Fagan and Walter Becker as Steely Dan. This will again be a Limited Seating Dance Floor show with much of the area closest to the stage set aside for dancing. Tickets for seats at the rear will be $45, and admission to the dance area will be $40.
• Sunday, July 14, 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.: Burnt Sugar will wrap up their visit with one last venture into pop. This time their source will be David Bowie and his constantly changing persona. This will again be a Limited Seating Dance Floor show with much of the area closest to the stage set aside for dancing. Tickets for seats at the rear will be $40, and admission to the dance area will be $35.
• Thursday, July 18, and Friday, July 19, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: This week’s visitor will be guitarist Mary Halvorson. For the first two nights of her visit, she will perform with her Thumbscrew trio, whose other members are Michael Formanek on bass and Tomas Fujiwara in drums. Tickets are being sold for $40.
• Saturday, July 20, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., and Sunday, July 21, 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.: The remaining concerts of Halvorson’s visit will be taken by her Code Girl quintet. This consists of adding vocalist Amirtha Kidambi and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill to the Thumbscrew trio. Tickets for the Saturday performances will be sold for $45, and those for Sunday will cost $40.
• Thursday, July 25, and Friday, July 26, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: The remainder of the month will be devoted to Great American Songbook programming in both venues within the SFJAZZ Center. The first two nights in Henderson will feature Bria Skonberg, who is a trumpeter as well as a vocalist. Any information about those performing with her has not yet been provided. Tickets are being sold for $35.
• Saturday, July 27, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., and Sunday, July 28, 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.: The month will conclude with two evenings presenting vocalist Alicia Olatuja. Her program will be based on her new project celebrating women composers, Intuition: Songs From the Minds of Women. She is using this platform to present her own original compositions, the work of her contemporaries, and timeless songs by legends such as Joni Mitchell and Violeta Parra. Again, any information about other performers has not yet been provided. Tickets for the Saturday performances will be sold for $35, and those for Sunday will cost $30.

The other venue where things will be getting under way on July 11 will be the Center for New Music (C4NM). To be fair, however, the July calendar is currently relatively sparse; so there is a chance that the first concert of the month will be on an earlier date. If there are any updates, then they will appear on this Web page; and, as usual, I shall my Facebook shadow site to put out the word when any such update appears.

C4NM is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. All tickets may be purchased in advance through a Vendini event page. Hyperlinks to the appropriate Web pages will be attached to each of the dates in the following summary: [added 6/12, 7:55 a.m.:

• Monday, July 1, 7:30 p.m.: Apollo Soul is an experimental electric quartet playing original and improvised music. Their primary inspiration comes from fusion jazz practices from the late twentieth century. One of their primary sources is Miles Davis through his Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way albums, as well as recordings by groups related in spirit, such as Weather Report. The performers are guitarist Matt Saunders, keyboardist Jack Bastian, bassist Cole Brossus and drummer Ellington Peet. The opening set will be taken by Someday, led by bassist Chris Bastian. [added 6/27, 8:50 a.m.: Admission will be $10 for general admission and $5 for C4NM members and students.]]  [added 6/4, 8:45 a.m.:
• Saturday, July 6, 7 p.m.: Kurt Rohde will curate a program entitled Panoramic Dissonances. The performers will be Laetitia Sonami, John Davis, and Heejin Jang, each of whom will give a solo performance. Each of those performances has been conceived in an effort to envision and shape the time, texture, and existence as a total nature where the dissonances became a new discipline of life. Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members.] [added 6/27, 5:10 p.m.:
• Wednesday, July 10, 7:45 p.m.: The Latitudes series curated by Blaine Todd will present a two-set program. Andrew Weathers will present a set of guitar-driven ambient folk works that drift seamlessly between rigor and flexibility to deliver a message that’s at turns weary and optimistic. He will be followed by electroacoustic composer AMMA ATERIA (the performing name of Jeanie Aprille Tang). Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.]
  
• Thursday, July 11, 8 p.m.: This will be a two-set evening with each set featuring a member of the Rova Saxophone Quartet. Jon Raskin will perform the solo saxophone pieces that Steve Lacy documented in his Practitioners Book W, the last of three pedagogical volumes he wrote between 1983 and 1985. (The other two were given the letters “H” and “P,” respectively.) Raskin will be followed by a set of improvised electronic duets performed by Rova colleague Steve Adams and John Hanes. Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students. [added 6/8, 9:35 a.m.:
• Friday, July 12, 7:30 p.m.: The next Founders Series event will be a release party for C4NM Co-Founder Brent Miller. HIs latest album is Nomad Vigil, which he describes as “a collection of tracks that explore pitch, noise, and drone metal with assists by Arvo Pärt and Charles Bukowski.” The party will include a concert featuring tracks from the album. Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.]
• Saturday, July 13, 7:30 p.m.: Snail meets West is the free jazz duo of musicians involved with a diversity of instruments and genres. On this occasion Azalia Snail will play drums, and Dan West will be at the piano. Their program will be a tribute to Ornette Coleman and his pioneering contributions to free jazz. His composition “Free Jazz” actually involved two jazz quartets (each coming out of a different channel on the original stereophonic recording); and this program promises to feature special guests yet to be announced. Admission will be $12 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members.
• Friday, July 19, 7 p.m.: Glenda Bates will curate the return of Sameer Gupta, who will present the latest installment in a series of concerts he calls A Circle Has No Beginning. The last installment took place at C4NM in August of last year. He takes an eclectic approach to performance, combining the traditional influences of his Indian background with Native American melodies, modern jazz, and even a recognizable bit of soul. He is also a member of the similarly-disposed Brooklyn Raga Massive, who applied their eclectic interests to a performance of Terry Riley’s “In C” when they appeared at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival in September of 2017. For next month’s concert Gupta will alternate between a drum kit and tabla. He will perform with Pawan Benjamin (alternating between saxophone and Indian instruments), Arun Ramamurthy (violin with Carnatic tuning), and Michael Gam (bass). Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members. [added 7/3, 1:40 p.m.:
• Saturday, July 20, 7:30 p.m.: July will see a second Latitudes program curated by Blaine Todd. This one will consist of three sets, curated jointly with Other Minds and the SF Art Book Fair. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe will present of solo set in which he sings to the accompaniment of modular synthesizer patches of his own invention. The other solo set will be taken by Chris Duncan, whose performances are based on experiments in visual and sound-based media. The remaining set will be taken by the IMA duo of Nava Dunkelman and Amma Ateria, who explore the domain on interactions between percussion and electronic sounds. Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.]