Max Diez

Tune in on Saturday, March 2nd @ 3:30pm to hear Frontal Lobe in conversation with Brooklyn-based vocalist, flutist, producer, and Trill Jazz founder, Melanie Charles, ahead of her SF Jazz performance on Sunday, March 3rd.

Melanie has made a name for herself through dynamic engagements with jazz, soul, and R&B. Her bold genre-bending style has been embraced by a range of artists including Wynton Marsalis, SZA, Mach-Hommy, Gorillaz, and The Roots.

Her 2017 debut album, The Girl With The Green Shoes, established Charles as a progressive voice in jazz, with the Village Voice praising her “experimental… multi-instrumentalism.”

In 2021, she released the acclaimed album Y’all Don’t (Really) Care About Black Women, which is reflective of Charles’ tremendous versatility and imagination as an artist as well as of her deep care for community. That same year she appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk and stunned with her eclectic style. Through it all, she has remained committed to making music that pushes listeners to consider new possibilities—both sonically and politically.

“Make Jazz Trill  Again,” a musician-centric project that she launched in 2016 that continues to attract talent from across the country, demonstrates her allegiance to everyday people, and is focused on taking jazz from the museum to the streets. “I love jazz, I really fell in love with it deeply. But I was interested in young people interacting with it,” Charles says.

With a new album in the works and frequent tour dates, 2024 promises to bring even more of her visions to life.

Tune in on Wednesday, February 28th @ 12pm when vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, & physician, Eki Shola, visits with Excuse My French to select music, discuss her career, and share the inside scoop for her latest album, 還 (Kaeru).

Featured in PBS, NPR Tiny Desk Contest, and more, Eki Shola’s music transcends genre, as she seamlessly draws from jazz, electronica, and soul to create a sonic landscape all her own.

Shola’s musical journey has always been characterized by a deep connection to diverse cultures and the human experience. With 還 (Kaeru), she delves into the theme of returning home – not just a physical space, but a spiritual and emotional journey towards self-discovery and authenticity.

On Wednesday, February 28th @ 11am, The Berkestir will interview singer-songwriter extraordinaire, Danny Schmidt.  Together, they will be discussing the vinyl re-releases of Danny’s 2005 masterpiece, Parables & Primes.

Named to the Chicago Tribune’s list of the “50 Most Significant Songwriters in the Last 50 Years,” Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter Danny Schmidt has amassed a cult following for his poetic, poignant lyrics.

With a craftsmanship and emotional depth drawing comparisons to Leonard Cohen and Townes Van Zandt, and with fantastical narratives reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie, Schmidt is considered a preeminent writer.

Sing Out Magazine proclaimed that: “Schmidt is a force of nature: a blue moon, a hundred-year flood, an avalanche of a singer-songwriter. His songs are a flood of poetry, mythology, folk wisdom, and surprise. He is perhaps the best new songwriter we’ve heard in the last 15 years.”

Tune in on Saturday, February 24th @ 7pm to hear Nickel Hardaway in conversation with 3x Grammy nominated New York based saxophonist, arranger, composer, and educator, Lakecia Benjamin.

Her music offers a unique meld of R&B, several strains of jazz, and funk. Her warm, resonant tone — that has been compared to Johnny Griffin’s — lends itself to any form of music she chooses to play.  In addition to honing her chops early with Clark Terry and later Terri Lyne Carrington, she is also a noted accompanist for vocalists — among them Gregory Porter and Theo Crocker.

Retox, her 2012 leader debut, offered a beat-conscious set of soul and funk covers and originals produced by Ben Kane. Benjamin played on “Right on Brotha,” the closing track from Robert Glasper’s Everything’s Beautiful in 2018, a collection of reimagined Miles Davis tracks.

Her sophomore date, Rise Up for Ropeadope, contained a Prince-inspired series of original jazz-funk jams. In 2020, she released Pursuance: The Coltranes. The widely acclaimed set contained six tunes each by Alice and John Coltrane, with Benjamin leading a large cast that included former Coltrane sideman Reggie Workman.

In 2023 she returned with the star-studded Phoenix. Produced by Carrington, it wed jazz, funky soul, R&B, and hip-hop with an all-star cast. The album brought upon three Grammy nominations and universal praise.

Lakecia Benjamin plays SF Jazz on June 7th.

Join Donut Monoxide on Wednesday, February 28th @ 8am to hear her recent interview with singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Joey Quinones of Thee Sinseers.

Hailed as the premier band in Southern California’s Souldies scene, Thee Sinseers have been serving up their own flavor of R & B since 2018; one that resonates with a diverse, multigenerational fan base.  While one can hear the influence of such groups as Thee Midniters and other Chicano groups in their music, Thee Sinseers are no mere “tribute band”. Tune in to learn what the buzz is all about!

Thee Sinseers play the Bottom of the Hill on Sunday, March 3rd during this year’s Noise Pop Festival. Their first full-length album, Sinseerly Yours, will be released on Colemine Records March 22nd.

Join Sex 14s on Monday, February 26th @ 10am to hear his recent interview with Academy Award and BAFTA-winning composer Volker Bertelmann, aka Hauschka.

Hauschka plays The Chapel in SF on February 29th.

Bertelmann is back as Hauschka, and his new album, Philanthropy (City Slang), lives up to its name. An occasion for celebration and reflection, it’s a carefully considered but jubilantly improvised response to recent years, with its philosophically-inclined but approachable and compassionate creator at the peak of his compositional powers. If “music be the food of love,” then, here it’s also food for thought. That’s surely a gift worth giving and, even more, receiving.

Bertelmann — whose extraordinary score for All Quiet On The Western Front won an Oscar in 2023 — uses his work not only to move people, whether emotionally or physically, but also to provoke. No one sounds like the Düsseldorf-based Hauschka, which he quite reasonably celebrates on Philanthropy by revisiting past habits. “I really loved how I worked in the beginning,” he smiles. “I wanted to connect with the time I first started.” Most of the record was recorded alone on his piano in his studio, beginning in the summer of 2022, though Bertelmann never restricts his use of his instrument to its keys. In addition, he employs a Turkish davul drum, as well as, more prominently than ever, synthesizers, not least a bass synth. There are also contributions from cellist Laura Wiek and violinist Karina Buschinger, as well as Múm’s drummer Samuli Kosminen.