Saturday, October 20
Sat 10/20 4:00 PM Taube Atrium Theater [401 Van Ness Ave
SF]For our season-opening concert, we offer a special celebration of the music of Elliott Carter. Our "on STAGE Series" features large-ensemble contemporary classical works of the most influential and innovative composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Carter was the grandest of the grand American composers from the 20th century, who lived beyond his 100th birthday and yet wrote music that was fresh, inventive, and forward-looking to the very end of life. We welcome our newly arrived artistic director, Eric Dudley, with a program featuring three of Carter’s works, including the rhythmically energetic and emotionally powerful "Penthode" for twenty players. Complementing Carter’s enduring voice will be a wry work by the young American composer, Tobin CHODOS, written for an instrumentation uniquely drawn from Carter’s "Penthode," plus Canadian composer Sabrina SCHROEDER’s "Bone Games/Shy Garden," an essay in the sensuality of noises. The series will begin with our popular How Music is Made Composer Talk and Open Rehearsal with composer Tobin Chodos.
More... Sat 10/20 5:00 PM Studio Valencia [455A Valencia Street
San Francisco]foreignfire: absolute one
the second in an unfolding series of hella real jewish rituals, absolute one maps the biblical story of heelgrabber's encounter at the double camp over the liturgy that twice a day awakens the ears to oneness
More... Sat 10/20 7:30 PM Taube Atrium Theater [Veterans Building 4th floor 401 Van Ness Ave
San Francisco]San Francisco Contemporary Music Players - Carter and Beyond: Invention and Inspiration
More... Sat 10/20 7:30 PM Gray Area Art And Technology [2665 Mission St.
SF]Future Sonic Cities, organized by Zurich Meets San Francisco: a festival of two cities presents a mix of abstract hip hop, heavy electronic, and jazz inspired afro-futurist femme ballads by Bay Area sensations Lexagon (Alexa Burrell) and Aja Archuleta, along with international Swiss artists, Tim and Puma Mimi, and None of Them. These sound artists also pair with visual artists Alexa, Burrell, Ian Colon and Kim Nucci to layer projected visual art atop these experimental musical performances. This selection of time-traveling sonic artists explore and deconstruct stylistic boundaries to heal ancestral trauma, present speculative soundscapes, and provide immersive audio/visual experiences. This event is presented in partnership between Zurich Meets SF, Soundwave (8) Infrastructure, and the Center for New Music.
More... Sat 10/20 8:00 PM Studio 210 [3435 Cesar Chavez (between Mission and Valencia, SF)]“Skatchdance!” with
Tom Nunn (skatch), Christina Braun (dance) and Ilan Reuben (conceptual clothing artist) expands the world of skatch through movement, drama, facial expressions, lighting and experimental clothing. $20 (NOTA).
More... Sat 10/20 8:00 PM Piedmont Piano Company [1728 San Pablo Ave., at 18th St.
Oakland, CA]Vocalist/composer
Molly Holm, with Her Unmistakable Band, explores the multicultural crossroads of improvised music through original compositions, straight-ahead and modal jazz tunes and traditional folk songs. Molly's music, often intertwined with the elements of North Indian raga, experimental vocals, or playful free-form improvisation, also reveals the rhythmic and note-bending influences inherited from the music of the African diaspora.
More... Sunday, October 21
Sun 10/21 7:30 PM SIMM Series @ The Musicians Union Hall [116 9th St @ Mission
SF]An eclectic night of Freewheeling sonic mayhem, art-funk, and social commentary
7:30 pm Ode to Fall
Rent Romus - saxophones/flutes/percussion,
gabby fluke-mogul - violin,
Lisa Mezzacappa - double bass, Golnaz Shariatzadeh - violin, Angela Roberts - cello, Tony Gennaro - percussion
8:30
RightstarterPC Muñoz - drums, vocals, electronics / MC DEM ONE - vocals, electronics / Danny Z - electronics
More... Sun 10/21 7:30 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street
Oakland]Doors That Only Open in Silence (open participation, non-hierarchical workshop in free improvisation)
The monthly series of improvisation research at Temescal Arts Center continues. Bring your instrument or come to listen. No advance notice needed — just show up. Small groups will be randomly assembled from submitted names immediately before each group plays. We try to keep transition time between groups at a minimum. Over by 10pm. It's free. If you want to contribute, bring snacks and drinks.
NO LARGE GROUP SESSION IN OCTOBER!
More... Tuesday, October 23
Tue 10/23 9:00 PM Uptown Nightclub [1928 Telegraph Ave
Oakland]Moe! Staiano presents his latest large-space composition, "Away Towards the Light," an exploration of tonal interplay and contrasting rhythms for nine electric guitars, bass and drums composed in three movements.
The venerable Vacuum Tree Head will be opening the evening, celebrating the release of two CD EPs, released in a lavish package.
A truly dynamic night of music and sight awaits!
More... Thursday, October 25
Thu 10/25 6:00 PM The Laundry SF [3359 26th St
SF]Presented in partnership with the Center for New Music, San Francisco born, and Switzerland raised Erika Stucky creates an unparalleled mix of entertainment, avant-garde jazz and pop music, infused with American, Swiss and Dadaist spoken word performances. Out of this emerges a happily subversive work of art. Stucky creates and shares personal performances that synthesize yodeling, scat singing, spoken monologues and jazz into compelling yet uncategorizable music. Performing live at The Laundry, an intimate art house and tech coworking environment, Stucky will be present with accordion, percussion, vocals and live image projection. This is followed by experimental new music composer
Chris Brown utilizing compositions for piano, and percussion instruments with interactive electronics and custom built electro-acoustic sonic instruments.
More... Saturday, October 27
Sat 10/27 11:00 AM Bird & Beckett Books and Records [653 Chenery St.
SF]Andre Custodio is hosting a series of performances of textured sound utilizing electronics and other instruments for a bookstore environment. Performing solo for most of these Saturdays, but will occasionally invite others to fill-in.
More... Sat 10/27 8:00 PM The Back Room [1984 Bonita Ave
Berkeley]Sheldon Brown Group is celebrating the upcoming release of their new CD, Blood of the Air, with this special pre-Halloween concert.
The music of Blood of the Air is by turns passionate and grooving, dark and moody, and playfully reflective.
Sheldon Brown Group consists of some of the Bay Area’s most distinctive and accomplished jazz and new music performers.
This show features:
Sheldon Brown - Soprano, Alto, and Tenor Saxophones, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
Darren Johnston - Trumpet
Lorin Benedict - Voice
Andrew Joron - Theremin
John Finkbeiner - Guitar
Jonathan Alford - Piano
Dan Zemelman - Piano
Michael Wilcox - Bass
Alan Hall - Drums
Tickets Here More... Sat 10/27 8:00 PM CNMAT [1750 Arch Street
Berkeley]Sideband’s 2018 Bay Area tour will feature favorite laptop ensemble repertoire pieces alongside world premieres of new works, using voice-on-voice vocoders, video controllers, wireless networking, graphic and text scores, and more. Pieces composed, coded, and performed by Lainie Fefferman, Anne Hege, Daniel Iglesia, Jascha Narveson, and Jeff Snyder.
More... Sunday, October 28
Sun 10/28 7:00 PM Institute Of advanced Uncertainty [296 Ivy Street
San Francisco]Pink Sea Thrift - LP release listening party
vinyl release of “Pink Sea Thrift” on fo’c’sle records, an album by Ellen Fullman, David Gamper and special guest Stuart Dempster
More... Thursday, November 1
Thu 11/01 7:30 PM CCRMA [660 Lomita Dr,
Stanford, CA 94305]Sideband presents a concert of electracoustic works for laptop ensemble. Sideband performers: Lainie Feffermen, Anne Hege, Daniel Iglesia, Jascha Narveson, Jeff Snyder, Curtis Ullerich (guest).
This event is part of the Artful Design Manifestival.
More... Friday, November 2
Fri 11/02 7:00 PM SFJAZZ Center [201 Franklin Street (at Fell)
SF
CA]Myra Melford'S SNOWY EGRET, Shows at 7:00pm & 8:30pm
A pianist, composer, educator and bandleader who has built and documented a succession of celebrated ensembles,
Myra Melford has set her most ambitious projects on the all-star quintet known as Snowy Egret. Featuring some of jazz’s most distinctive and melodically inventive improvisers, the group premiered her enthralling 2013 multimedia production inspired by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano alternative history of the Americas Language of Dreams at YBCA, and followed up with an eponymous debut album on Enja named by many jazz critics as one of 2015’s best releases.
More... Fri 11/02 7:00 PM Pro Arts [150 Frank H Ogawa Plz
Oakland]We are excited to present
Wendy Reid's TREE PIECES, visual scores/ambient collage
Solo Exhibition at Pro Arts’ Project Space
Exhibition Dates: Nov 2 – 30, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, Nov. 2, 2018
6PM – 9PM
Pro Arts Gallery & Project Space
More... Fri 11/02 8:00 PM California Jazz Conservatory [2087 Addison Street
Berkeley]Bassist, composer and bandleader
Lisa Mezzacappa premieres a new suite of music for jazz sextet, inspired by Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics stories on the origins of the universe, and the invisible forces at work in the cosmos.
Mezzacappa is joined by her ensemble, the
Lisa Mezzacappa Six, which features:
tenor saxophonist
Aaron Bennett,
guitarist
John Finkbeiner,
vibraphonist
Mark Clifford,
electronic musician,
Tim Perkis, and
drummer
Jordan Glenn.
More... Saturday, November 3
Sat 11/03 7:00 PM SFJAZZ Center [201 Franklin Street (at Fell)
SF
CA]Myra Melford's Snowy Egret, Shows at 7:00pm & 8:30pm
A pianist, composer, educator and bandleader who has built and documented a succession of celebrated ensembles,
Myra Melford has set her most ambitious projects on the all-star quintet known as Snowy Egret. Featuring some of jazz’s most distinctive and melodically inventive improvisers, the group premiered her enthralling 2013 multimedia production inspired by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano alternative history of the Americas Language of Dreams at YBCA, and followed up with an eponymous debut album on Enja named by many jazz critics as one of 2015’s best releases.
More... Sat 11/03 7:30 PM Center for New Music [55 Taylor St
SF]TO….OBLIVION
TO....OBLIVION presents two California guitarists, San Francisco's Giacomo Fiore and Los Angeles' Alexander Elliott Miller in a program of music for electric guitar.
More... Sat 11/03 9:00 PM The Chapel [777 Valencia Street
San Francisco]Old Time Relijun
After a mysterious decade-long hiatus, Olympia, Washington’s OLD TIME RELIJUN return to the highway for a series of very special “23rd anniversary concerts” along the West Coast of the United States, with more dates in the works for 2019. They are reuniting in the classic “Catharsis in Crisis” lineup featuring bandleader Arrington de Dionyso with Aaron Hartman (upright bass), Germaine Baca (drums) and Benjamin Hartman (saxophone and percussion).
More... Sunday, November 4
Sun 11/04 7:00 PM Center for New Music [55 Taylor St
SF]I Will Learn To
In this inspired new music program, artists Jordan Curcuruto (percussion), Chelsea Villanueva (clarinet), Phoebe Wu (piano), and Jocelyn Zelasko (voice) explore empowerment within relationships. Each musical work completes the phrase: "I will learn to…" (e.g., laugh, love, grieve, empower, forgive).
More... Monday, November 5
Mon 11/05 9:30 PM Studio Grand [3234 Grand Ave,
Oakland]Oakland Freedom Jazz Society presents:
A SLOW & STEADY RECORDS TAKEOVER!
Slow & Steady Records is a community-focused label and tastemaker based in San Francisco. “S&S” advances long-term artist development and audience growth, to foster an open community of like-minded artists and listeners. The S&S mission is to write a new and positive narrative in a rapidly changing music industry, by building a centralized home for creators and lovers of West Coast music.
More... Wednesday, November 7
Wed 11/07 7:00 PM Berkeley Piano Club [2724 Haste St
Berkeley]Sculpting Air: Medieval & Modern Vocal Improv I
Vajra Voices director, Karen Clark and composer/cellist/vocalist
Theresa Wong present a workshop around the 12th century mystic Hildegard von Bingen; and, the Taoist Immortal, Sun Bu’er. Karen Clark will teach a chant by Hildegard von Bingen; and,
Theresa Wong will lead the workshop in a vocal improvisation, sculpting sound around a poem of Sun Bu’er.
Suggested Donation: $35 per workshop; $60 for both.
Vajra Voices is an affiliate of the San Francisco Early Music Society. Your donations are tax deductible.
More... Wed 11/07 7:00 PM Marilyn McArthur Holland '45 Performance Theater – Lisser Hall [Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland, CA 94613]MEREDITH MONK: ARCHAEOLOGY OF AN ARTIST – Archaeology of an Artist is a lively performance lecture with video clips that distills Meredith Monk’s 50-year journey as a composer, choreographer, filmmaker, performer, and tireless cartographer of the frontiers of the human voice. It will conclude with an audience Q&A with Meredith Monk. Archaeology of an Artist is an ideal way to go behind the scenes with a legendary architect of interdisciplinary art as we know it today and learn about the commissioned vocal work, Indra's Net, that Meredith Monk is composing for a premiere in Lisser Hall in 2020.
More... Wed 11/07 7:45 PM Peacock Lounge [552 Haight St
SF]Black Givre
https://blackgivre.bandcamp.com
Kee Avil
https://keeavil.bandcamp.com/
So-Ar (Shanna Sordahl & Robert Lopez)
https://soundcloud.com/so_ar
Zestie Bumwhig (Seymour Glass & Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase)
https://glisteningexamples.bandcamp.com/album/bidden
https://brentlewiisensemble.bandcamp.com/
More... Saturday, November 10
Sat 11/10 7:00 PM Pro Arts [150 Frank H Ogawa Plz
Oakland]Wendy Reid, Lulu & Friends: Ambient Bird 433
Nov 10 2018
7:00pm - 8:00pm
"The Forum" at Frank Ogawa Plaza
AMBIENT BIRD 433, an hour-long interspecies sonic landscape/ambient environment to be performed at the Forum, Frank Ogawa Plaza, featuring the birds and sounds of the plaza African Grey Parrot Lulu,
Wendy Reid, Brenda Hutchinson,
Aurora Josephson,
Ron Heglin, the MILLS CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE ENSEMBLE and musicians of FROGPOND 433.
More... Tuesday, November 13
Tue 11/13 1:00 PM CNMAT [1750 Arch Street
Berkeley]Imperfect Interactions: a lecture/workshop on improvisation-based intermedia collaboration between dancers, musicians, and technologists.
Led by Scott Rubin, with special guests TBA
More... Tue 11/13 8:00 PM The Laundry SF [3359 26th St
SF]Resident is a monthly Open Mic event started by Jeremy Black and friends in 2017. Set in a casual atmosphere in an awesome location, The Laundry, it is the perfect event if you are a beginner or even experimented musician/performer and want to reach out to the San Francisco Community.
More... Wednesday, November 14
Wed 11/14 7:00 PM Gray Area Art And Technology [2665 Mission St.
SF]dorkbotSF: Mark Pauline, Scott Kildall, Naut Humon
Come to Gray Area and spend an evening with people doing strange things with electricity.
All Ages
Cash bar for 21+
$5-$20 sliding scale entry
Schedule:
7:00pm social hour
8:00pm presentations
More... Wed 11/14 8:00 PM Ivy Room [860 San Pablo Ave
Albany]Invisible Bird
A guitar, trumpet, and drum trio collectively led by three engaging and unique artists from the Bay Area and Colorado;
Scott Amendola, Shane Endsley, and Dave Devine. Invisible Bird was formed in 2017 and is releasing it's debut album, Flutter to Fuzz, in the Spring of 2018. The group broadly employs the use of electronics to branch out from the raw acoustic trio sound. Trumpet and guitar take turns covering bass lines and all three players create swirling digital textures with a hefty collection of boutique stomp boxes. The three distinct compositional voices in the group craft original music that transport the listener from rootsy back beats to anthemic indie rock to acoustic modern jazz trio to ambient electronica. Invisible Bird also reinvents classic repertoire from artists like Nick Drake an Joni Mitchell and toys with new hits from artists like Bruno Mars and Rihanna. The debut album features cameos from special guests Sam Amidon and Orenda Fink (Azure Ray). Look for the group to be on the road starting in June of 2018!
More... Wed 11/14 9:00 PM Studio Grand [3234 Grand Ave,
Oakland]Voicehandler CD release, Andrew Bernstein (Baltimore), IMA
Voicehandler's new self-released CD light from another light is a collection of improvised pieces representative of their live sets from the past couple years. The instrumentation differs from their previous album with Rivero making extensive use of modular electronics, and Heule expanding to a full drum kit.
The performance is loose and exploratory, at various times energetic and meditative. Rivero’s voice embraces noise, with the lines blurred between electronic processing and extended vocal techniques. Heule’s drumming maintains its typical ear for timbre within the context of driving percussive intensity.
More... Thursday, November 15
Thu 11/15 6:00 PM sfSoundRadio [http://sfsound.org/radio.html]The best kind of gig = the one you don't need to drag yourself out of the house for. Tune in to sfSound Radio to hear the live tablecore improvisation of the duo Usufruct (Polly Moller Springhorn,
Tim Walters) and the Noodles (Michael Zelner,
Suki O'Kane).
More... Thu 11/15 7:30 PM Center for New Music [55 Taylor St
SF]On the next edition of Latitudes—an album release show on the occasion of Bill Orcutt and Chris Corsano’s new record “Brace Up.” Join Other Minds’ Blaine Todd at the C4NM as he presents two singular voices in the world of experimental guitar music. Bill Orcutt performs his convulsive blues on four-string electric, while composer and former Black Spirituals guitarist,
Zachary James Watkins sketches an aural map of the C4NM through walls of feedback. 7:00pm doors, 7:30pm concert
More... Thu 11/15 8:00 PM Luggage Store Creative Music Series [1007 Market Street
SF]Thursday Nov 15
8:15 pm
Booker Stardum - solo drums
9:00 pm Sontag Shogun’s Braided Sound
Ian Temple (Sontag Shogun) - piano
Jesse Perlstein (Sontag Shogun) - processed field recordings, voice
Jeremy Young - sine & square waves, amplified surfaces & objects
Danishta Rivero - voice
Amma Ateria - electronics
Andrej Hronco - lapsteel
Briana Marela - synth, voice
Andrew Bernstein (Horse Lords) - saxophone
Booker Stardrum - drums
More... Sunday, November 18
Sun 11/18 7:30 PM SIMM Series @ The Musicians Union Hall [116 9th St @ Mission
SF]A night with ruth weissBorn in Germany in 1928 and escaping fascist occupation from Austria in 1939, founder of jazz beat poetry, ruth weiss began experimenting with jazz and poetry in Chicago in 1948. Later she lead the series at The Cellar in San Francisco in 1956 that would propel her contemporaries Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and others to world wide recognition. In 1996 writer Barbara Knight helped to propel ruth onto the world stage with her book "Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution"
Now at 90 years her unique invention is going strong throughout the world today. weiss spells her name in lowercase as such as a symbolic protest against "law and order," since in her birthplace of Germany all nouns are spelled capitalized.
She will perform a quartet set with Hal Davis - log, Doug O'Connor - double bass,
Rent Romus - saxophones/flutes and a duo set with
Doug Lynner - Mystery Serge Synth
More... Sun 11/18 7:30 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street
Oakland]Doors That Only Open in Silence (open participation, non-hierarchical workshop in free improvisation)
The monthly series of improvisation research at Temescal Arts Center continues. Bring your instrument or come to listen. No advance notice needed — just show up. Small groups will be randomly assembled from submitted names immediately before each group plays. We try to keep transition time between groups at a minimum. Over by 10pm. It's free. If you want to contribute, bring snacks and drinks.
More... Monday, November 26
Mon 11/26 7:30 PM CCRMA [660 Lomita Dr, Stanford, CA 94305]SOLD OUT | The World According to Sound, LIVE!
You will hear bridges and ants and the gurgle of mud pots. The sounds will transport you inside another person’s head and back in time a hundred years to the streets of Berlin. There will be a musical performance by a washing machine, a sonorous tennis match, and a disturbing howl Marco Polo heard centuries ago while crossing the Gobi Desert. There's absolutely nothing to see. It will be a spectacle entirely for the ears.
More... Mon 11/26 9:00 PM Make-Out Room [3225 22nd St
SF]The Monday Make-Out Special presents cutting-edge bands in the worlds of jazz, improvised music, and creative song. Our maiden show features an explosive new set from Oakland art rock/experimental duo Grex, paired with new music from Santa Cruz transplants JUDO NO.
Grex (art rock/experimental):
Karl Evangelista-gtr, voice, percussion, Rei Scampavia-keys, voice, percussion
JUDO NO (polyrhythmic rock)
More... Tuesday, November 27
Tue 11/27 6:00 PM The Lab [2948 16th St
SF]Semiconductor: Earthworks presented by The Lab and Recombinant Media Labs as part of the Recombinant Festival 2018
Opening: Tuesday, November 27; 6-8pm
Panel Discussion: Wednesday, November 28, 7-8pm
Gallery Hours: November 27–December 1, 6-8pm
Free
More... Thursday, November 29
Thu 11/29 7:30 PM SFJAZZ Center [201 Franklin Street (at Fell)
SF
CA]Laurie Anderson’s Songs For Women with Tammy Hall
The first part of the Laurie Anderson series was inspired by the composer Tammy Hall’s beautiful piece “For Miss Jones”. Anderson thought it would be interesting to do a collection of pieces written for women and make it into a celebration that crosses back and forth from jazz to stories to electronics.
More... Thu 11/29 8:00 PM Luggage Store Creative Music Series [1007 Market Street
SF]8:00 pm Antonic/Fischer
Thomas Antonic - text, recitation
Michael Fischer - ad-hoc soundscaping
A morphological text- and soundscape, richly allusive, drawn, sculpture-like, filmic, cross-linking, floating. Whirring visions form a coup of poetic escalation.
9:00 pm Nishi-Smith/Robertson
Kanoko Nishi-Smith - koto
Owen Stewart Robertson -guitar
More... Saturday, December 1
Sat 12/01 7:00 PM Center for New Music [55 Taylor St
SF]Maggi Payne / Quark Matters (Farhadian, Vinkeloe, Robinson, Reed, and Perkis)
Quarks combine to form composite particles, and describe well the five musicians' adventurous melodic - rhythmical sound landscapes with influences from classical, jazz, songwriting, electronic and improv music. The eminent composer, flautist and video artist
Maggi Payne opens the evening.
More... Sat 12/01 7:30 PM SFJAZZ Center [201 Franklin Street (at Fell)
SF
CA]Laurie Anderson’s Songs For Men with
Scott Amendola “I realized I’ve also written a lot of things for and about men and I asked the amazing
Scott Amendola to join me in an evening of improv. Some of the greatest experts on women are men and of course vice versa so I’m hoping for some lively mash ups.”
More... Sat 12/01 8:00 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street
Oakland]DO-OVER Music Series: duo B. Experimental Band +
Tim DeCillis solo
Featuring:
Kyle Bruckmann, Polly Moller Springhorn,
Matt Ingalls, Josh Marshall, Theo Padouvas, Brendan Lai-Tong,
gabby fluke-mogul, Julie Michael,
Crystal Pascucci,
Nava Dunkelman,
John Finkbeiner,
Lisa Mezzacappa, Jason Levis.
More...