Suns of Mothers: Debut Performance
Improvisations at Little Hill Lounge. (Video: Haldun Morgan)
Suns of Mothers is a new improvisational music trio me 🎷🪈Tommy Guerrero 🛹🔥🎸and Nino Moschella 🥁🎙️ put together.
We played our first show 11-20-2024 at the Little Hill Lounge in El Cerrito, California. It was a jam. We were joined by vocalist Destani Wolf who took us and the music to a whole other dimension.
I regret we didn’t record the whole set as it turned out to exceed my wildest expectations, but some friends fortunately shot a few clips. We are hoping to do this once a month at Little Hill- next one late December or early January. Stay tuned IG: @sunsofmothers
This happened....rocking with Togetherness Ensemble at Gray Area Mission SF
My plan was to have had this post up before this happened, but it was a crazy week. So it’s in past tense. On 10-26 I performed with the Togetherness Ensemble as part of an emergent composition in four movements. the first three movements featured eight different musicians and we all got together for the fourth. You had to be there. I met a lot of really wonderful people, most of whom for the very first time. It feels good to be part of a musical community again.
The Togetherness Ensemble is convened on occasion by Zekarias Musele Thompson to hold space for communal resonance through collective improvisation. Prompted by the historical and contemporary creative sensibilities of African and African diasporic peoples, and the possibilities of emergent composition as the scaffolding for recognizing ourselves as free.
The Togetherness Ensemble made its debut interpreting James Weldon Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing, during closing performance of Possible Dialogues: Vol 1 in July 2023 at the BAMPFA.
For this fifth iteration we will explore Togetherness in three parts with a new composition titled RE-EDUCATION. Inspired by the current moment, the ecstatic motions of Alice Coltrane’s 1972 epic Lord of Lords, as well as Floating Points' and Pharoah Sanders' 2021 collaboration, Promises.
RE-EDUCATION
Movement 1: A Curiosity
Movement 2: A Recognition
Movement 3: A Promise
with: Salimatu Amabebe, Matt Brownell, Gabriele Christian, Roco Córdova, B Dukes, Christopher Robin Duncan, Mary Graham, Cat Lauigan, Phillip Laurent, Amina Malika, Micah Morris, Maya Nixon, Jasmine Nyende, Martin Perna, Justin (Hongry) Robinson, Benjamin Rodgers, Joel St. Julien, Zekarias Musele Thompson, David Wilson, Josh Wismans, and Gaia WXYZ.
Song collaboration: DJ Platurn : "Give a Damn"
I was honored to get loose with the flutes on this song by DJ Platurn from his latest album “Through Storm and Grief.” also available on Bandcamp.
Strangers Guide: Complicating Colonialism Playlist
It was an honor to contribute research and curate the playlist for the latest issue of Strangers Guide: Complicating Colonialism issue in partnership with Coda Story. This selection could be centuries long, but I condensed it to just under three hours.
NYC Performances 11/15-16 with Antibalas at Brooklyn Bowl
Back to Brooklyn this week for two shows at the Brooklyn Bowl with Antibalas. It is always strange going back to this neighborhood. I started the band there 26 years ago, over a generation ago, and the landscape has changed so much such that certain blocks are completely unrecognizable and looking at a street sign on the corner is only more disorienting.
We will be performing music from a forthcoming new album on Daptone Records, and some songs from way back in our catalog.
TICKETS HERE>> https://www.brooklynbowl.com/brooklyn/events/detail/antibalas-k7vgfb3eni7iy
Night Words: Oakland Arts Collective Event 8/27/24 at Bar Shiru
A night of words and poetry: the jump off of a new arts and literature collective in Oakland at Bar Shiru, the SF Bay area’s best and only hi-fi listening bar. Readers will read. The host Dr Mama Feelgood will dazzle and delight. I will be bringing gems from my vinyl archive to spin.
Los Angeles: The Golden Thread
Playing multiple woodwinds in this really fun concert with a few of my oldest musical friends and some brand new ones, at one of my favorite venues in Los Angeles.
Collab:: Sulah Jordan "The Sweetest Gift"
The second installation of some collaborations with my friend Sulah Jordan and company. This song is a rendition of Sade’s “The Sweetest Gift" I was invited to perform tenor saxophone solos. If you haven’t checked her first EP “Lady Bug”, you can find it on Spotify or at Bandcamp. Enjoy.
New album: Martez “Goodbyes”
“Goodbyes” is the sixth album in my series of grieving rituals called LAMENTOS. This year I lost my father, an aunt and an uncle, all while bearing witness to the intensifying barbarity around the world. Take time to grieve.