Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

Jose M. Molina was promoted to the rank of General in the Mexican Army due to his musical contributions throughout the state of Sonora. In addition, he taught all of his children, starting with his first born Alfonso, how to become musicians. Alfonso Molina, a professional musician performing mostly in the 1930s, ?Äô40s and ?Äô50s [...]

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[tag]Darrel ?Sugar Bear? Francis[/tag]. Not Wynton Marsalis. Not Branford Marsalis. Not the Marsalis patriarch Ellis. Darrel ?Sugar Bear? Francis. Jazz bass player. Native of New Orleans. ?First call? sideman (from Fats Domino to Hank Crawford). Leader (contractor for countless numbers of New Orleans musicians for over a quarter of a century). A face to put [...]

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So easy to remember and so hard to forget. Lyrics that might conjure up memories of Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan or maybe Billie Holiday. Memories perhaps of them in particular or more precisely of them singing the introductory lyrics to this piece. No, in particular, this is a memory of the bass player that [...]

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The playing of [tag]jazz [/tag]found its orgins in relatively small venues indoors, where there was always a [tag]piano (acoustic)[/tag] at hand. The fact that I need to refer to a piano in parenthesis as being acoustic implies that a whole lot of trading-off is going on in lieu of the ?real deal.? The first ?plug [...]

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What is E Music you ask? It could have emanated from Pete Escovedo’s Mexican born father. Or perhaps from listneing to latin dance bands such as Machito and Tito Puente. Or even again when in high school (McClymonds in Oakland) he put down his saxophone to learn latin percussion at the request of a friend [...]

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During the Spring and Summer seasons, the city of Benicia closes off First Street from the 300 block to the end of the block fronting the Carquinez Straits. A somewhat symmetrical line of vendors presenting their fresh wares for a reasonable price, add color and a vibrancy to Benicia?s Farmers Market. Part of this social [...]

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The introspective evening of new or arranged compositions by Howard Wiley (April 4, 2006 at The Intersection For The Arts in San Francisco), started with an introduction from Daniel Atkinson, a graduate student in Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington. Daniel went to the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana in August 2005 to begin [...]

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Jose M. Molina was promoted to the rank of General in the Mexican Army due to his musical contributions throughout the state of Sonora. In addition, he taught all of his children, starting with his first born Alfonso, how to become musicians. Alfonso Molina, a professional musician performing mostly in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s [...]

[Read more →]