Laura Inserra performs Saturday and Aug. 2. Learn more below. Photo: Marco Sanchez In the midst of a thriving practice as a musician, composer and arts presenter in Rome, Laura Inserra decided that a year or so in the Bay Area could offer a welcome change of scenery. That was 2007, and instead of returning […]
Subterranean Art House
Getting around with Cylinder and Lisa Mezzacappa
Cylinder, a “rambunctious collective quartet,” plays Saturday in Berkeley Cylinder, a “rambunctious collective quartet,” plays Saturday in Berkeley There’s simply no point playing Six Degrees of Lisa Mezzacappa. A prolific performer who collaborates with a vast array of filmmakers, poets and fellow musicians, the San Francisco jazz bassist is probably no more than three steps […]
Sameer Gupta: North meets South
Percussionist Sameer Gupta brings classical Indian music into unlikely collaborations Sameer Gupta is on a mission to bring classical Indian music into places where it rarely ventures. A percussionist who plays tabla and trap drums, Gupta was a mainstay in Bay Area creative music circles until his 2008 move to Brooklyn, where he’s helped kindle […]
Musical Art Quintet: Blowing up the chamber music scene
Musical Art Quintet: playing tonight in Berkeley at the Subterranean Art House Sascha Jacobsen wasn’t trying to foment a string insurrection. The conservatory-trained bassist just wanted to play some music. As a regular participant in Classical Revolution, the organization that launched a national movement of chamber music jam sessions from San Francisco’s Café Revolution in […]
Out in Berkeley: Jazz quintet, Irish music and more
Canada Day, a “capaciously inventive jazz quintet” led by Toronto-born drummer Harris Eisenstadt (rear). Photo: Jim Newberry Canada Day, a “capaciously inventive jazz quintet” led by Toronto-born drummer Harris Eisenstadt (rear). Photo: Jim Newberry One of the pleasures of living in Berkeley is that the world beats a path to our doorstep. Over the next […]
Ex Berkeley teacher Marie Schumacher plays hometown
Marie Schumacher, a former teacher at King Middle School in Berkeley, plays the Subterranean Art House on Saturday Back in the mid-1990s when Marie Schumacher was teaching at Berkeley’s King Middle School, her students didn’t know she was living a double life. By day she elucidated math and science for sixth graders, and by night […]
Tonight at the Subterranean: A saxophone sisterhood
The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet in action. Photo: Markus Lackinger/www.jazzfoto.at On the bandstand at least, sisterhood still packs a punch. For more than two decades, the all-female Tiptons Saxophone Quartet has delivered fiercely grooving music and vocals complete with synchronized stage moves and kinetic arrangements drawing on a daunting array of rhythmic traditions, from post-bop jazz […]