The three San Diego concerts you absolutely should not miss this week
Gilbert Castellanos presents Miles Davis’ “Porgy and Bess,” featuring the KSDS Jazz Orchestra, with the Young Lions Jazz Conservatory All-Stars
Last summer saw leading trumpeter, music educator and San Diego Symphony jazz curator Gilbert Castellanos draw a full house to The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park for his concert saluting Miles Davis’ groundbreaking 1959 album, “Kind of Blue.”
Miles Davis’ ‘Kind of Blue’ is, at 65, a shape-shifting album that transcends time and genre
Castellanos returns to the panoramic bayside venue this weekend to salute another landmark 1959 album, “Porgy and Bess,” Davis’ and arranger Gil Evans’ sumptuous, all-instrumental reinvention of George Gershwin’s classic 1939 jazz opera.
Evans ingeniously had Davis perform “Porgy and Bess” in a saxophone-free setting that used flutes, French horns, trumpets and trombones to perform Evans’ wonderfully crafted, richly textured orchestrations. The album showcases Davis’ exquisitely phrased trumpet work and his ensemble’s impeccably nuanced musicianship, which eschewed flashy virtuosity in favor of deep feeling and replaced conventional chord structures with the modal playing that soon helped transform modern jazz.
Castellanos will perform “Porgy and Bess” with the talent-packed, 20-piece KSDS Jazz Orchestra. Led by ace pianist and conductor Josh Nelson, the lineup incudes trumpeters Castellanos, Derek Cannon, James Ford and Doug Meeuwsen, woodwind players Keith Fiddmont, Jean-Paul “JP” Balmat, Tripp Sprague and John Rekevics, trombonists Matt Hall, Jeannie Geiger, Kevin Esposito and Ryan Kupsh, and more.
The KSDS Jazz Orchestra is named after San Diego’s national award-winning radio station, KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM, which has aired jazz fulltime for the past 52 years. On July 17, the station took a heavy hit when Congress cut $9 billion in funding it had previously approved for the next two years for for public broadcasting and foreign aid.
That myopic move sadly eliminated $243,000, or more than 20 percent, of KSDS’s annual budget. The station hopes to make up at least some of its lost funding through donations from listeners and pledges from new and existing KSDS members. Presumably, a station representative will make an appeal form the stage prior to Sunday’s concert.
Be sure to arrive early to hear the 6:30 p.m. opening get by the Young Lions Jazz Conservatory All-Stars, a gifted group of students from the music school Castellanos founded here in 2013.
7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3. The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, 222 Marina Park Way, downtown. $48-$101. (619) 235-0804; theshell.org.
Primus, with MonoNeon
This has been a year of unexpected upheaval for the drummers in The Who and Foo Fighters, both of whom were abruptly fired this spring despite — or, perhaps, because of — their formidable talents.
On Wednesday, it was announced that San Diego’s Ilan Rubin is the new drummer in Foo Fighters and that Josh Freeze, who Rubin is replacing in Foo Fighters, is returning to Nine Inch Nails, the band in which Rubin had previously had replaced Freese.
Veteran Primus drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander is also no stranger to musical chairs, although he has never been fired by Primus.
Last fall, he cited fatigue, mental health and a diminishing passion for music as the reasons he quit this proudly oddball alt-metal and funk band. It was the third time Alexander bailed from Primus, having previously left in 1996 for seven years and again in 2010 for three years.
His replacement, announced early this year, is former Dirtfoot stick man John “Hoffer” Hoffman.
He was one of 6,000-plus drummers to audition via video, and one of only nine to make the cut to audition in person. The auditions were filmed and streamed as the “Primus Interstellar Drum Derby.” Hoffman debuted with Primus on March 8 in the Dominican Republic. He will do his first San Diego performance with the band on Saturday.
8 p.m. Saturday, Aug 2. Cal Coast Credit Union Amphitheater at SDSU, 5500 Campanile Drive, SDSU. $55.10-$125. ticketmaster.com
Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, with Madame Gandhi
The oldest son of the late Nigerian music legend Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti is — like his storied father before him — a gifted saxophonist and band leader with an electrifying stage presence.
He also shares his father’s penchant for crafting brassy, groove-happy songs whose lyrics take aim at the social, economic and political challenges that face Africa in general and his Nigerian homeland in particular.
Released in May, Femi Kuti’s newest album, the absorbing “Journey Through Life,” addresses similar issues while paying homage to the vibrant Afrobeat music his dad pioneered in the 1960s and ’70s.
Expect the dance floor to be packed when he and his three-woman, 11-man band, Positive Force, perform here next week.
8 p.m. Next Thursday, Aug. 7. Belly Up, 143 South Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. $41.30-$65.55 (must be 21 or older to attend). bellyup.com
Categories
Recent Posts
