Posts Tagged ‘music’
Non Stop Bhangra comes to the Oakland Museum of California
Every Friday night the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is home to a diverse array of people, music, and dance.
Read MoreFor Tiny Desk Concert winners Fantastic Negrito, the journey began in Oakland
The New Parish in Downtown Oakland is packed. About 300 attendees wave their hands and clap as five purple stage lights illuminate the silhouette of a guy wearing a plaid suit, a red vest, a tie and shiny black shoes. The band—drums, piano, bass and guitar—starts playing a blues tune with a catchy guitar riff.…
Read MoreWest African dance takes over Oakland
For one night, dancers at Oakland’s Skyline High School transported the auditorium’s occupants to the shores of West Africa with rhythmic drumming that reverberated through the room. Dancers stomped and moved rapidly across the stage, their energy captivating their audience. Then came the mystical sounds of the Kura, a West African 21-string instrument, which when…
Read MoreAfter 12 years, music fills McClymonds High School’s halls
The sounds of piano notes, falsettos, and string instruments echo through the empty hallways at McClymonds High School in West Oakland. The campus that once housed over 800 students has had a steady and rapid decline in enrollment in the past few years. Currently, one-fourth of the original population attends the school—putting the enrollment at…
Read MoreSold out show at the New Parish benefits unaccompanied migrant youth
President Barack Obama’s recent executive order defers the deportation of undocumented parents of American citizens or legal permanent residents who have been in the country for at least five years. This is expected to affect approximately 4 million undocumented immigrants, but excludes approximately 7 million others, according to a recent report on NPR. Among those excluded…
Read MoreFans flock to Hiero Day to celebrate Oakland
Hiero Day was developed in 2012 and celebrates underground music, grassroots organizations and local businesses.
Read MoreQ&A with Hip Hop Chess Federation founder on partnership with East Bay schools
Banjoko once lived in Oakland and was a part of the ‘90s Bay Area Hip Hop music scene. Currently, he is teaching chess and life strategies to students at Encinal High School in Alameda through a partnership with his friend John Fuentes, who oversees the after school high school program for Bay Area Community Resources (BACR). From now to the end of this school year, Fuentes’ goal is to have Banjoko teach chess at several Oakland high schools as well.
Read MoreOakland nonprofit combines music, life learning
Oakland-based nonprofit Today’s Future Sound teaches music production to students in K-12 schools around the bay and beyond.
Read MoreDirtwire’s “trans-global” music fills up The New Parish
Dirtwire, led by Bay Area musicians Evan Fraser and David Satori, fused their eclectic beats with the recorded voice of the late Siberian throat singer Kongar-ol Ondar in peformance at The New Parish.
Read MoreOn stage and in the studio, Oakland’s Twin Steps brew a stew of weirdness
Oakland’s own Twin Steps, a chameleon band, blends angst-ridden lyrics with incongruous sounds from soul to pop to punk, in an eclectic show.
Read MoreMobile art and music festival Station to Station reaches the end of the line
Oakland’s long abandoned 16th Street Station hosts the coast-to-coast project.
Read MoreUntil organs go silent
Bob Schleicher has been repairing Hammond organs and Leslie speakers in Oakland for nearly five decades–and he’s one of the best at what he does. Something magical happens when you plug in a Leslie speaker to a Hammond organ, he says.
Read MoreOakland’s Ukulele Love-In
Maybe it’s their charming, upbeat sound. Maybe it’s because they’re tiny, portable and cheaper than guitars. Whatever the reason, ukuleles are all the rage these days — from Eddie Vedder albums to Oakland cafes. Every month, local musician Madeline Tasquin, also known as Mana Maddy, hosts the “Ukulele Love-In” at Actual Cafe. Dozens of die-hard…
Read MoreToday’s Future Sound teaches kids coping skills … with a beat
Dr. Elliot Gann is standing in front of his beat-up and stickered black Mazda Protégé in the parking lot of West Oakland Middle School. In his left ear is a Bluetooth earpiece, which, as he eats a Trader Joes sandwich wrap, enables him to lament to a friend the parking ticket he just received. To…
Read MoreThe Young Ethio Jazz Band, ages 10 to 15, bring back traditional Ethiopian jazz
Sirak Tegbaru leads young members of Oakland’s Medhani Alem Ethiopian Orthodox Church in an unusual extracurricular activity: a traditional Ethiopian jazz band. The young musicians, ranging in age from 10 to 15, had their first performance on Sunday, at Rasela’s Jazz Club in San Francisco’s Filmore district.
Read MoreOakland company rolls out Rockbot, a social jukebox app for deejaying in-store music
A few years ago, developers Garrett Dodge and Ketu Patel were working on a mobile app called Fido Factor, which helps dog lovers find canine-friendly parks and stores. But then one night at a bar Patel realized there was a bigger problem that needed solving. “One of the things that Ketu had noticed was that…
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