Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

Another Great Artist, Another Great Friend
I can hear Eyarb (Braye spelled backwards) now…pushing whoever is on the bandstand with him to new heights! Sometimes that person was me. I met Bob Braye in the late 70’s and we became quick friends, from the Loft Jazz days, to playing in the same band with [...]

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tia carroll was awarded blues singer of the year

Film is cheap when you shoot digital. In that four plus hours of the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame & Awards show I shot exactly 468 frames. Which is one of the reasons it has taken me so long to process all the images I took [...]

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photos by s.n. jacobson
The Winners of the 2007 West Coast Blues Hall of Fame & Awards Show
Saturday March 10, 2007
Kimballs Carnival Jack London Square
If you click above on the winners for 2007, you’ll find that Listen & Heard staff photographer S. N. Jacobson won for the Blues Photographer of the year. So…of course he [...]

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I went to see My Morning Jacket at The Fillmore in San Francisco on December 30 intending to write a review of the audience. The show, however, was too good to waste cyberwhimsy on it. How good was it? See for yourself at www.archive.org: click on either �bands with mp3s� or �new arrivals� [...]

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The award winning, Oakland-based, a cappella group SoVoS� (from the Soul to the Voice to the Song) served up a super-sized helping of holiday cheer on December 11, 2006. What started for me as a low-energy, icky-feeling, call-in-sick kind of Monday ended with an uplifting performance at Yoshi�s that left me inspired and lively, [...]

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I think Lindsey Buckingham has arrived at a comfortable spot in his life, as attested to in the latest batch of Fleetwood Mac-less songs entitled Under the Skin. As genuine as that feeling may be for the guitarist who made a fortune airing his dirty laundry back in 1977, the presentation of it felt [...]

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Ozcat Radio 104.9FM brought Reggae music, via the Massagana Tour, to Vallejo last night (Halloween 2006). The crowd was sparse in the beginning, but the band didn�t lack enthusiasm. The party-goers were apparently all on Rasta time because the Elks Lodge on Alabama Street really started rockin� around 11 o�clock. The [...]

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Have you heard of Ozcat Radio 104.9FM in Vallejo? If not, you really need to check this out. Oz is a very cool cat for a multitude of reasons. Vallejo finally has her own radio station, and there is something for everyone at Oz. No, really! Ozcat plays everything from [...]

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Last Saturday, September 23, marked the first performance of Vallejo Symphony�s seventy-fifth season. To put that in perspective, the orchestra dates back to February 1931 and the early years of the Great Depression. There are only six other California symphony orchestras that have been around longer. Their current success seems largely due [...]

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A great day in Vallejo began shortly after 11:00 a.m. at Listen & Be Heard Poetry Caf� on September 16. Instead of the caf�s usual Saturday morning serving of singer/songwriter or acoustic instrumental fare, morning ragas from North India were performed by Joan Allekotte on vocal, tamboura, and harmonium and Dennis Ocampo on tabla.
Ragas [...]

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Band leader, pianist, arranger, composer Larry Vuckovich brought a night of great arrangements from the golden era of big band orchestras (Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton/Bill Holman, Harry James and Dizzy Gillespie) with his 18-piece orchestra as part of COPIA�s summer concert series in the city of Napa.
Many [...]

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The weather for this year�s Jazz Festival on the waterfront couldn�t have been any better. The memory of baking in the sun last year blew away in the balmy weather that made it easy to listen and enjoy the music. Carol Larson, organizer along with the festival�s founder, Kristy Juliano, told me that [...]

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Imagine the Great Meadow at Fort Mason, nestled below a cypress-crowned hilltop, looking out at the Golden Gate Bridge and the foothills of Mount Tam drifting in and out of fog and low clouds across a bay flecked with an armada of sailboats. Now imagine it with live music. That is undoubtedly the [...]

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Festival of the Golden Gate will take place on Saturday and Sunday, August 19 & 20 at Fort Mason�s Great Meadow in San Francisco. This beautiful outdoor venue with a spectacular panorama sweeping from Golden Gate to Bay Bridge will include two stages of local and legendary rock, soul and pop artists.
Saturday�s [...]

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Worldfolk foundation chose Vallejo�s Chris Club to be a venue for the 8th annual Battle of the Bands. Although it will not be the only venue for the battle, it is the very first time Battle of the Bands has been brought to Vallejo.
Six bands came to compete for the winning title. The [...]

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