Jeff Bradshaw, Catherine Russell and More Among Yoshi's San Francisco's 13 New Shows, March-June 2013

Related: Yoshi's San Francisco, Jeff Bradshaw, Catherine Russell

BOCA DO RIO
plus support TBA
Brazil meets the Bay
Tue, Mar 26, 8pm
$10 adv, $15 door

Boca do Rio is música orgânica. Live music inspired by the thousands of musicians and the music lovers that have gone before us and laid the rhythmic foundations of samba, baião, samba-reggae, the dances for the orishas, and all that gives homage to the beats. It is the African diaspora alive through rhythms and pulses - it is the commonality that binds humans to the air we breathe, the food from which we nourish, the water we imbibe, and the love through which we flourish. Boca do Rio exists to share and celebrate music and everything that it brings to our lives through the cross-pollination of the Americas. It's the water that flows from mountains to oceans, from inside to out. It's the earth beneath our feet, the soil beneath the concrete, the minerals from the stars that grace each of our cells. The San Francisco band Boca do Rio takes its name from the Portuguese "mouth of the river" - the place where myriad streams and sources converge into one powerful, flowing, physical energy. Read more here.

MARCUS JOHNSON
Renowned jazz keyboardist, composer and producer

Sun, Mar 31, 6 & 8pm
6pm $16, 8pm $24

Marcus Johnson is a renowned jazz pianist, who incorporates the rhythms of soul, rock, hip hop, and R&B. With the commercial and Billboard chart success of his NAACP Image Award nominated CD Poetically Justified (Three Keys Music/2009) (#4) in his rearview and having been included among the ranks of contemporary jazz greats such as Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride, and Vanessa Williams for that nomination, Marcus Johnson released his 12th CD titled, This Is How I Rock (Three Keys Music/2010). This album boldly signifies an evolution: Johnson's deliberate crossing into the pop/rock genre with a jazz spin, inspired by some of pop music's most celebrated songs, songs that remained a significant influence in the life of the award-winning keyboardist, composer and producer and motivated his desire to pay tribute to some of the greatest pop hits. Prior to the release of his current offering, Marcus Johnson released Poetically Justified making it his 11th solo jazz record and is considered to be his most unique and multifaceted album to date. In 2008, Johnson introduced the jazz world to the groundbreaking Billboard Top 15 Contemporary Jazz FLO series - FLO: Chill (#7), FLO: Romance (#7) and FLO: Standards (#2). Read more here.

PORTLAND CELLO PROJECT play Beck, Brubeck & Bach
Selections from the Beck Hansen Song Reader featuring Laura Gibson.
"This indie orchestra gives classical music a jolt of energy," ~Spin Magazine

Wed, Apr 3, 8pm
$21 adv, $25 door

Since the group's inception in late 2007, the Portland Cello Project (or, PCP, as their fans affectionately call them), has wowed audiences all over the country with extravagant performances, everywhere from Prairie Home Companion, to that punk rock club in the part of town your grandma warns you not to go to after dark. The group has built a reputation mixing genres and blurring musical lines and perceptions wherever they go. No two shows are alike, with a repertoire now numbering over 800 pieces of music you wouldn't normally hear coming out of a cello. The Cello Project's stage setup ranges from the very simple (4-6 cellos), to the all out epic (which has included 12 cellos playing with full choirs, winds, horns, and numerous percussion players). Read more here.

PHAROAH SANDERS
Legendary tenor jazz saxophonist & 1960s Coltrane collaborator
Thu-Sat, Apr 4-6, 8 & 10pm $21-$32
Thu 8pm $25, 10pm $21
Fri-Sat 8pm $32, 10pm $25

Pharoah Sanders possesses one of the most distinctive tenor saxophone sounds in jazz. Harmonically rich and heavy with overtones, Sanders' sound can be as raw and abrasive as it is possible for a saxophonist to produce, and although he made his name with expressionistic, nearly anarchic free jazz inJohn Coltrane's late ensembles of the mid-'60s, Sanders' later music is guided by more graceful concerns. Pharoah Sanders (his given name, Ferrell Sanders) formed his first group in 1963, with pianist John Hicks (with whom he would continue to play off-and-on into the '90s), bassist Wilbur Ware, and drummer Billy Higgins. His first record as a leader was in 1964 for the ESP label. The group played an engagement at New York's Village Gate, where John Coltrane heard him and by 1965, Sanders was playing regularly with the Coltrane group. Strength was a necessity in that band, and as Coltrane realized, Sanders had it in abundance. Read more here.

RENAUD GARCIA-FONS
Renowned double-bassist/composer, known for his customized five-string bass and virtually reinventing the way the instrument is played
Tue, Apr 30, 8pm
$24

"Double bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons was destined to create music that spans genres and borders: He was born in France to a family with roots in the Catalonia region of Spain, and he's fluent in French, Spanish and English. Classical, jazz and flamenco represent equal parts of his musical DNA, and his technique reflects the delicate arco stylings of concert halls, the deep groove of jazz and the raw vitality of flamenco." ~NPR Read more here.

DAN HICKS and The Hot Licks
"Dan Hicks is fly, sly, wily and dry!" ~Tom Waits
Sun, Jun 2, 6 & 8pm
6pm $18, 8pm $25

Beginning as a drummer in the seminal '60s San Francisco rock band The Charlatans and continuing with the unique and legendary Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, Dan Hicks is widely acknowledged as one of the central defining figures in American roots music. Hicks has earned a reputation as a true original with his signature eclecticism and humor. He continues to carve his own way through a number of genres from proto-psychedelia to western swing and jazz; from Tin Pan Alley to country blues, while always cultivating his own unique sound. The original Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks recorded five groundbreaking and Billboard-charting records for the Columbia, Blue Thumb and Warner Bros. labels. They toured worldwide and Dan appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine three times.

The newest incarnation of DH & HL released the wildly successful Beatin' the Heat in 2000, featuring collaborations with Bette Midler, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones and Brian Setzer. USA Today called it "one of the blessings of the new millennium." That release was followed by the live CD Alive & Lickin' in 2001, and the late-2003 CD/DVD Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks Featuring an All Star Cast of Friends. That project reunited Hicks with virtually every musician he has ever played and recorded with. Both Mojo and DownBeat Magazine rated it "Four Stars...one of the best CDs of 2004." Read more here.

Genuine, soulful jazz and blues singer
Sun, Jun 23, Doors 8pm; Show 8:30pm
$18 adv, $22 door

GRAMMY Award-winning vocalist Catherine Russell is a native New Yorker, and a graduate of American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Ms. Russell has toured the world, performing and recording with David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Jackson Browne, Michael Feinstein, and Rosanne Cash. Since the 2006 release of her debut album, Cat, on Harmonia Mundi's World Village label, Catherine has been making new fans and friends. Three acclaimed and chart topping albums have followed, including her latest release - Strictly Romancin', awarded Prix du Jazz Vocal 2012 (Vocal Album of The Year) by the Jazz Academy in France. Catherine has been a guest on The Tavis Smiley Show on PBS-TV and Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR. Will Friedwald writing in The Wall Street Journal, calls Catherine Russell "one of the outstanding singers of our time." Read more here.