Absolute ZERO
The SubZERO Festival in downtown San Jose in June wasn’t just an event, it was a statement. It played to all of the city’s strengths—innovative and multicultural, with a mix of artistic traditions and new technologies, it was equal parts style and substance. SubZERO couldn’t have come at a better time; from its mind-bending headlining performance by hip-hop producers the Bangerz (with an assist from San Jose Taiko) on down, it symbolized a re-emergence of cutting-edge art and music in the South Bay. The question immediately became: what’s next? It would have been a shame if SubZERO had been an anomaly, an isolated incident that failed to build any momentum for the downtown scene. But soon after came Left Coast Live, and then a sleeker, hipper version of the San Jose Jazz Festival.
And now comes an event even more closer in spirit to SubZERO, the 01SJ Festival’s AbsoluteZERO. The festival’s organizers had actually collaborated with Anno Domini’s Cherri Lakey and Brian Eder on the first SubZERO festival, but this year, 01SJ organizers focused on their namesake event while the SubZERO crew went their own way. However, on Friday, Sept. 17, 2010 01SJ will unveil SubZERO’s soulmate street fair. It has many of the same features, with, according to organizers, a bit more of a technological bent. Along with some 100 arts projects along South First, there will be two stages of music in the SoFA district, on the Reed Street end and the San Carlos end. DJ Tristes Tropiques will open the music entertainment at 5pm and spin in between sets. Other acts include Jozes Than Wissem, who makes his own instruments and will perform an acoustic set; Inca Ore, an experimental electro-vocalist who uses her microphone/synth setup to modulate her sound; Global Warning, a group featuring Greg Zifcak from the electro-dance duo Eats Tapes, that will take the festival’s theme “Build Your Own World” literally by constructing a “paper environment” and enlisting the audience to tear it down at the end; 0th, an all-girl performance-art type band who Skype in their vocals; and punk-droners Clipd Beaks. Also performing is alt-rock quartet Jonas Reinhardt, who headline the stage at San Carlos; San Jose Taiko, who seem to up for some edgy stuff lately and will do a “roving performance,” and the cumbia group TurboMex. 01SJ’s partners in the street fair include MACLA, the Museum of Quilts and Textiles and the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art.
ABSOLUTEZERO will be held as part of the 01SJ Festival on Friday, Sept. 17, on South First Street, beginning at 5pm; free.
San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival
Under artistic director Linda Ronstadt, the San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival seems to get more ambitious every year, but this time she’s really outdone herself. Not content just to host the stand-alone festival for two weeks in September, festival organizers have partnered with high-powered nonprofit organizations around the state to produce a series of concerts emphasizing the importance of Latino culture in the United States. Politically, it’s a response to the draconian immigration legislation passed in Arizona, and the wave of anti-immigrant ignorance spawned in its wake. Politics aside, though, it’s a triumph of sheer entertainment value. First, the “Weaving Moments Together” concert in Hollywood features Carlos Santana, our own Pete Escovedo, Lila Downs and Zack de la Rocha.
Then the series comes up here for the Mariachi Festival, which is hosting the world premiere of Adelita! The Women of the Mexican Revolution. Written and directed by Dan Guerrero (who was selected by Ronstadt to take on this project), it’s being called the most ambitious piece of Latino theater since Zoot Suit. A multimedia mix of music and dance, it features Mexican vocalist Eugenia Leon, as well as Mariachi Cobre and Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano. The last day of the festival, Sept. 26, features a performance at HP Pavilion with Latin superstars Los Tigres del Norte and guests Intocable. There will also be a free outdoor concert at Plaza de Cesar Chavez that day with Ozomatli and Los Tex Maniacs. The festival features a host of other events, including a performance of Guerrero’s previous, autobiographical play Gaytino on Sept. 16. There are also mariachi workshops and performances, documentaries, lectures and art throughout the festival.
SAN JOSE MARIACHI AND MEXICAN HERITAGE FESTIVAL Sept. 15–26 in downtown San Jose; most tickets are available at 800.745.3000. See sanjosemariachifestival.com for times.
Roger Waters
Perhaps the grumpiest man in the history of rock, Roger Waters is best known as the driving creative force behind the best years of Pink Floyd. Sure, we all have a soft spot for original Floyd leader Syd Barrett, but thanks to his overly romanticized and totally tragic descent into madness, we’ll never know if he had more than one genius album in him. And I wouldn’t call David Gilmour untalented, but he was always better as Waters’ creative foil. Once they split, with Gilmour carrying on the band, Pink Floyd actually became the bloated, bland rock dinosaur it was always on the verge of turning into. What kept it from becoming that for all those years was Waters’ uncompromising and brutal creative nature. Through The Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, Wish You Were Here, The Wall and even the much-maligned The Final Cut, Waters oversaw the construction of epic rock manifestos that definitively defined the album format. His music could be pompous, depressing and excessive, but it also spoke to almost anyone willing to slip on a pair of headphones and give a listen to Waters’ bitter assaults on the darkest impulses and weaknesses of the human condition.
For better or worse, The Wall has become his personal rock legacy, partially because there has never been an album like it before or since, and partially because it was so freaking gigantic in its scope and execution that it continues to bowl over generation after generation seeking an escape from songs about girls, cars and ice-cold beer. The original 1980 tour for the album is legendary, with its huge inflatables, intricate plot and an actual 40-foot wall built between the band and the audience, it was like nothing anyone had ever seen. It was also too ambitious for its own good, somehow losing more than half a million dollars despite the fact that the album was at the top of the Billboard charts for 15 weeks and ended up selling 11 million copies. Waters swore never to perform The Wall again until the Berlin Wall came down, and when it did, he embarked on an equally oversized and far more profitable tour that was unfortunately watered down by its cast of guest singers (Bryan Adams doing “Young Lust”? Really?). Waters’ solo work has never gotten its due, and despite having been an ex-Floyd for 25 years, he can’t seem to leave The Wall behind. With the album having have been covered at this point in styles from rock to bluegrass to electro, he seems to have accepted—perhaps even embraced—that it’s not going away, and is bringing it back to life with a tour that promises to be every bit as outrageous as the original carnation.
ROGER WATERS performs THE WALL on Monday, Dec. 6, and Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 8pm at HP Pavilion; $58.50–$253.50.
Monterey Jazz Festival
The state of the economy means this is a challenging time for jazz festivals, and it’s interesting to see how different organizations are rising to it. The San Jose Jazz Festival successfully branched out into funk, turning convention on its head with a genre-defying lineup. The Monterey Jazz Festival has taken the opposite tack this year, going for a jazz-fan comfort-food approach to programming. Among the artists returning to the MJF this year are Roy Hargrove, Dianne Reeves, Chick Corea, Christian McBride, Kenny Garrett, Billy Childs and Chris Potter. And the new additions are sure to click with the jazz-blues faithful: Harry Connick Jr., Ahmad Jamal, Delbert McClinton, Trombone Shorty, Angelique Kidjo, Les Nubians and more. But there are still some fascinating flourishes: Childs will premiere his Music for Two Quartets, a piece commissioned by the festival, with the Kronos Quartet; Friday features a “New Grooves Party” with Nellie McKay, Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition and more; Les McCann will revisit his groundbreaking 1969 album of jazz-soul, Swiss Movement, with the help of saxophonist Javon Jackson, who will try to fill the gigantic shoes of the late Eddie Harris.
THE MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL Sept. 17–19 at the Monterey Fairgrounds, Monterey; 925.275.9255.
