ANNOUNCEMENT:
Center For World Music FREE Concerts Summer 2023
Delores Fisher Board Member: Center For World Music
Summer 2023 is here and San Diego's Center For world Music is offering a free music series that you don't want to miss if you are in town.
https://centerforworldmusic.org/event/music-on-the-move-musical-journey/
See you there!
Delores Fisher
2020 KENDRICK DIAL: TEACHING HISTORY OF HIP HOP COURSE FOR AFRICANA STUDIES AT SDSU
Kendrick Dial continues to amaze. He will be teaching for San Diego States Department of Africana Studies https://africana.sdsu.edu/ this fall, 2020.
His expertise in Hip Hop culture and his performance experience will be a fantastic opportunity for students. Since it is ONLINE, a global educational experience awaits those interested in the genre.
At 2016 All People's Breakfast
2018 Choice - Maturing Sound For the International Community:
Kendrick Dial and Lyrical Groove
Kendrick Dial at "That 24 Hour Thing"
San Diego Fringe Festival 2017
I first met Kendrick Dial in the poet world about fifteen years ago. He was a gifted, young, socially conscious poet, part of an eclectic group of dynamic young people who provided (and still provide) a safe poetry space 21st century complex expressions of being.
The space Elevated! and the group Collective Purpose Ant Black, Rudy Francisco, and Kendrick Dial, to their credit, not only united poets of all ages, but inspired a fresh generation of San Diego and national poets. Members of the group continue to rock the Poetry Slam competitions in 2018. Here's a flashback from their youth.
The young creative, artistic men and women nurtured by Collective Purpose are contributing to the written poetic and spoken word consciousness.
And Collective Purpose? They all still have a heart for uplifting and providing hope for those who have little or no reason to hope. They work tirelessly getting youth to read, think, interact, problem solve for betterment of community, humanity. Most are now college graduates, counselors, and educators.
Kendrick Dial's artistic expression, after earning his bachelor and Masters degrees, blossomed through his work with musical ensemble Lyrical Groove. They appear in many San Diego venues across the nation. Not only a wordsmith, Kendrick is a true entertainer.
Hopefully in the near future, I will write more about Kendrick Dial and Lyrical Groove than small blog entries. His latest video closes the circle. It is a remake of the critical culture anthem that started it all, enjoy: Wake Up!
Delores Fisher's 2017 New Artist Choice:
Cedrice
Cedrice
This vibrant pop and jazz vocal stylist is a must hear. She enjoys singing in clubs, formal events, and also at street fairs and farmer's markets. That's where I first heard her. Cedrice was singing with just guitar accompaniment. Her gentle yet fierce no gimmick voice is enchanting!
Look for her to emerge onto the national AND international scene within the next year 2018.
Delores Fisher at the festival
North Park, a neighborhood in San Diego CA., is continuing its street fair tradition. Although the name of its festivities has changed over the years,--I helped Jude Thomas years ago by developing a Poets and World Music Stage when it was called the North Park Street Fair--those who run the event have maintained primarily the same intent. It's a celebration of arts--visual, performance, portraiture, face painting, crafts, folk, dance, and music.
Two side stage acts specifically caught my ear: The Jamacha Project(eclectic) and The Red Hot Drifters (rock-a-billy meets Ritchie Valens/early Mexican rock.)
Jamacha Project
Jamacha Project didn't play a full set. Their sound is comfortable, like sitting in a favorite chair that lets you grove and chill all at once. The band's sound ranges from Prairie Home Companion Garrison Keiller quirkiness to light funk. Each musician has musicality and obvious instrumental skills. Their voices on harmonized vocals blend well like a cool smooth pina colada on a hot California summer day http://www.jamachaproject.com/
The Hot Shot Drifters
Monica of the Hot Shot drifters set their stage quietly before their sound check as circa 1950s rockabilliy dressed audience members and fans drifted towards the stage. The Hot Shot Drifter's presence is making buzz on the San Diego music scene. http://dosd.com/artists/the-hotshot-drifters
Here's Monica:
I also met the lead singer, Chris
Folks danced, clapped along as the band kept on rockin'.
Hope you get a chance to hear these guys rock out live. They really swing. Ritchie's soaring vocals backed by ensemble players who can solo with the best is a rare delight.
Here's a video from the event's video: Song "Mona Lisa"
A rhythmic, interjecting car horn honked (live performances....) in beat from time to time, and the Hotshot Drifters kept right on swingin'
Delores Fisher, rockin' out
FLASH BACK: Sidewalk Mobile Devices Jam Comic Con 2016
Comic Con crowds are so intense at times that one sometimes quietly listens in, just to hear candid opinions as to how the latest Star Trek film cast represented the film or if a spoiler alert "accidentally" leaked out about multiple endings for the next big zombie feast.
Walking around outside offers quite an entertaining atmosphere that combines hardcore fans with annual lookyloos and local " let's see what the Con is offering for free this year" crowd.
I'm sort of located somewhere in-between the above groups. And at dusk, I'll take to the side streets surrounding the convention center with camera rolling! The B-Boy cos player in Star Wars' Emperor's Royal Guard Storm Trooper armor put down his boom box and started break dancing to old school rap!
Comic Con 2016 Photo by Delores Fisher
Perhaps one of the most memorable unexpected sightings was a musical duo on I pads. They let me listen a while and take video as they jammed under clear skies and gentle breezes that greeted late evening warm summer sun setting on crowd's enjoying walking downtown in Comic Con 's festive ambiance.Party on guys!
Delores Fisher
Irish Singer Jack Lukeman at Fringe Festival International San Diego: 2016
I was standing in line to see another show. Fringe Festival International San Diego 2016 had so many really fantastic performers that at times it was difficult to choose.
As the excited audience lined up almost an entire block to see Tymisha Harris in "Josephine" ( Show review from last month http://carpenoctum2.blogspot.com/2016/06/fringe-festival-international-in-san.html ), various artists were promoting their shows with colorful mini-flyers. Some gave mini-performances while we waited. An celebratory aura of festival engulfed us.
A dark haired young man stood in front of me and handed me a flyer. He invited me to his new show "Phantasmagoria." I felt an energy surge. "Have to have his photo," I thought. "Don't know who he is, but wow."
He has a definitive creative chi.
Often overlooked at events like this unless people recognize me, which is another kind of awkward in itself, I stood dazed by this gracious young man's presence. As he walked out of sight working our audience, his flyer began to tug at my mind. I did a bit of internet research and knew my intuition about him was on spot. Many articles and interviews showcase Jack Lukeman. This established Irish singer is one of the best artistic surprises I've had in years. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2540051
http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/3829
Next to his last show of that weekend at the Spreckels Theater, my tired work week wearied soul pushed my feet out the house, to downtown to see live, on stage, Jack Lukeman the King of Soho.
International Fringe Festival 2015
I arrived tired and irritable a few minutes after the show had started. It seems to be my theme attitude this year as I heal from sickness and pain related to my disability. But limping through that curtain onto darkened stage, a beckoning voice warmly enveloped my angst: a refreshing energy wave crackled through quiet evening air. It tingled. I moved more quickly to find a seat. He was surrounded by a circle of Christmas lights, playing a guitar, audience singing in enthusiastic call and response:
Lukeman: I'm the King of SoHo!
Audience: Soho
Lukeman: So-o-o-ho-o
Audience: So-o-o-ho-o
Here's a video of the song from a different venue and event. Although he's not singing solo here---he has a full band, and it's a less intimate on-stage setting than we enjoyed at the Spreckels--- the audience is also singing along!"
Jack Lukeman singing "King of Soho" live
We responded like this on several songs because Lukeman has an ability to put an audience at ease, as if we were in his living room singing along on a cold eve, sipping hot tea beside a hearth and fire.
Jack Lukeman's vocal depth is amazing. He soars from flowing falsetto to growling rich bass/baritone. He tells stories in song with lyric phrasing at times subtle a butterfly playing around your eye lashes, at times a lion on the roar across a plain in moonlight.
He uses his vibrato like a paintbrush. His vocal dynamic command is articulate even at pianissimo.
As a child in New York, my neighbors were diverse. Kids played at our house and we played at theirs. We sometimes ate dinner together, or sat on front porches reading comic books. Sounds corny in our cynical 21st century isolationism, but our families were communities who cared for and about each other. A lot of spontaneous family generated music sung to the accompaniment of instruments like guitar, ukulele, accordion, piano, and hand claps, knitted people together. It was also a generation that embraced blues and other folk songs. Jack Lukeman's vocal repertoire explores both traditions.
His voice mesmerizes more so with little or no instrument accompaniment. One of my favorite songs was "Lullabies Falling From the Sky." Lukeman was singing and playing a soft accordion accompaniment as he walked around stage, exploring the Spreckels Theater's rich acoustic sweet spots. He enfolded "Lullabies" to a soft fade from a ladder offstage. By show's end, I was energized.
It was a pleasure to talk with Jack briefly after his show. A gracious exchange that smiles in memory to this day. Remember his new show "Phantasmagoria." Remember his name, Jack Lukeman: King of Soho.
D. Fisher
Encounter In Reno Jim Moreno Poet featuring Delores Fisher: Keyboards/eclectic vocals
What does one say when a recording takes on a life of its own? When Jim Moreno , award winning poet and I first collaborated, it was a labor of love and commitment to a yearlong project. The more I worked through chord progressions, licks, runs, sonic explorations, the more Jim's voice and his words in "Encounter in Reno" became a part of me. And in the studio . . .poetic lyricism merged with sonic sound-scape unfolding, folding into one.
Encounter in Reno has continued to be one of my favorite free form quasi-improvisational music scores. It was released in 2007by CD Baby http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/morenojim
went to Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BVPHHI?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0
and several other sites including Artist Direct and Muzik baru http://www.muzikbaru.com/music/a-poem-of-mixteca-women-migrants-.html .
Recently released again. . . . the original studio version is now available on YOUTUBE com.
I posted a live version of Jim and myself on YOUTUBE two years ago because of popular requests at poetry readings around the San Diego region. It evolves as we perform. Ever a collaboration, "Encounter In Reno" continues to become . . .
"Encounter In Reno" is for those who dream.
Delores Fisher
ARCHIVED POST-------------
Joe Martin Waters: Electronica Composer and Mentor
Composer Joe Waters
December 2013 was an intense whorl of concerts, music performance, and thinking through future projects. As I was walking past Smith Recital Hall, the sign announcing our long awaited semester Electronic Music Marathon colorfully danced in late autumn breeze. Inspiration: Oh yea . . . oh yea!
For those of you who haven't attended a Joe Waters student concert, it is like opening a surprise package during a birthday party. Music, Theater Arts, dancing and of course, there's pizza!!!!!! The December 2011 Music Marathon (6:00PM-way past 9:00PM) presented cutting edge concepts unfolding into our consciousness. A few were seed works in process-of a half semester . Many were matured musical ideas a semester or more in formulation, composed with interactive media, electronic and acoustic intersections, and audience participation. All of the works were thought provoking.
Joe Martin Waters, a faculty member with San Diego State's School of Music and Dance, is also an internationally respected composer http://music.sdsu.edu/newsite/index.php/faculty_bios/waters
An innovator, he explores musical concepts and margins with twenty-first century illumination of
music in socio-cultural contexts as a constructed product of humanity. His students learn to appreciate and respect the freedom and responsibility of musical creativity in a technologically informed culture. He provides composition and recording studio guidance, mentoring for live performances, and an experienced compositional ear. He appears live with his group Swarmius and also continues to
compose.
Cloud Formation: Featuring Felix Olschofka on violin, Geoffrey Burleson on piano, Composition by Joseph Waters
A Few Memorable moments from December 3, 2011 Electronic
Music Marathon:
Dorothy Guthrie "Traveling"( I phone video with music), Joseph Martin "Tijuana" (video-cultural reflection with music), Courage Ogbedor electro-acoustic (A dance dubstep piece with jazz elements).
Andrew Scogginsa "End of December"(An Occupy song---yes they are being composed with more frequency and we should see this generations Bob Dillon emerge on today's music scene very soon!),and Darrel Wood "The Butterfly Song" with a live band: The Elephant Project. Wood's voice evoked images of Freddi Mercury, Erika Badu, and James Brown in a thrilling vocalization of the song's intense lyrics.
The group Elephant Project is going on summer tour and Darrel has promised an exclusive interview. Joe Waters continues to mentor, inspire, and lead his students into an ever changing world of electro-acoustic expression.
It's a groove thang: electro-acoustic intellectified-flow!
Delores Fisher
Dorothy Guthrie "Traveling"( I phone video with music), Joseph Martin "Tijuana" (video-cultural reflection with music), Courage Ogbedor electro-acoustic (A dance dubstep piece with jazz elements).
Andrew Scogginsa "End of December"(An Occupy song---yes they are being composed with more frequency and we should see this generations Bob Dillon emerge on today's music scene very soon!),and Darrel Wood "The Butterfly Song" with a live band: The Elephant Project. Wood's voice evoked images of Freddi Mercury, Erika Badu, and James Brown in a thrilling vocalization of the song's intense lyrics.
It's a groove thang: electro-acoustic intellectified-flow!
Delores Fisher