Mahalo Monday’s at Hula’s Island Grill
During the month of October, our friends at Hula’s Island Grill and Tiki Room will donate 10% of all sales every Monday night between 4:30 – 10 pm to support Kuumbwa’s concert and education programs. Plan your easy island getaway with family and friends where you will experience the Aloha spirit. Located down the street from Kuumbwa at 221 Cathcart St (between Cedar and Pacific Ave). Stop by before or after a Monday night concert! Thank you to Hula’s! The Aloha spirit is alive in Santa Cruz.
ON SALE NOW! Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile
Friday, November 30, 8:00 PM
Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile
Plus support act: The Milk Carton Kids
At the Rio Theatre
$25/General Admission
Doors: 7:00 PM
Punch Brothers are the New York City-based quintet of mandolinist Chris Thile, guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, banjoist Noam Pikelny and violinist Gabe Witcher. Their new album Who’s Feeling Young Now?, produced and engineered by Jacquire King, contains some of the most exhilaratingly direct, sonically daring performances the group has ever recorded. Already, Vanity Fair has hailed the album as “their most expressive work yet as an ensemble — sophisticated, pop-y, kinetic and profound, all at once.” The New Yorker calls it ”a mystical alchemy of old-time music and contemporary sensibilities” As the five members, ranging in age from their mid-20′s to mid-30′s, have matured together on the road and in the studio, their approach to writing and performing has, conversely, become looser, simpler, and, in a sense, more unaffectedly youthful. In fact, the title song on the new disc—featuring rumbling bass, skittering violin, and wailing multi-tracked vocals—sounds like hard-charging string-band punk rock.
The group, as virtuosic as it is freewheeling, evolved out of a 2007 collaboration on Thile’s string-band suite, The Blind Leading the Blind, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in a series curated by composer John Adams. Its debut disc for Nonesuch Records, Punch, was released in 2008, followed by the Jon Brion-produced Antifogmatic (2010). The five members each have impressive resumes within the progressive string-band scene and are regularly sought-after as guest stars and session players. Punch Brothers are currently featured on the soundtrack to The Hunger Games and the Chieftains’ 50th Anniversary disc, Voice Of Ages. As guitarist Eldridge notes, “Every little side project we’ve done has helped us come back to Punch Brothers with new ideas and new energy and a new sense of confidence, a righteous need to create stuff.” -Michael Hill
The Milk Carton Kids are described by The New York Times as, “A sweetly dazzling variation on close-harmony vocals, part Simon and Garfunkel and part Everly Brothers, with occasional acoustic prestidigitation.”
Angelique Kidjo – November 18
Sunday, November 18, 7:30 PM
Angelique Kidjo
At the Rio Theatre
$45/Gold Circle, $30/General Admission
No Jazztix or Comps
Sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank
“Africa’s premier diva.” – Time Magazine
“Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World” – The Guardian (2011)
Angelique Kidjo has blazed a trail from her native Benin in West Africa to the global stage, where she has become renowned for her performances and her special mélange of music. The Grammy-winning singer combines her African musical heritage with Caribbean, European and American influences along with high-energy vocals in a variety of languages, such as Fon, French, Yoruba and English. A longtime UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Kidjo is also at the forefront for positive change across the globe, especially on the African continent.
Joshua Redman returns to Kuumbwa with James Farm! - Thursday, May 24 9:00 PM
Thursday, May 24, 9:00 PM
Joshua Redman returns to Kuumbwa with James Farm
Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, Eric Harland
$28/Adv $31/Door
No Jazztix or Comps
Doors and dinner beginning at 6:00 PM
9:00 PM: ½ Price Night for Students. Tickets available at the door with valid I.D.
Sponsored by Kyle Goldman
“…a model of dazzling proficiency as applied to the articulation of a mood.” – The New York Times
James Farm has been a long time coming. It’s the product of years of crossed paths, collaborations and tours in various other configurations, along with a lot of tantalizing “What if?” moments. Formed in 2009, James Farm is an acoustic jazz quartet comprised of saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland. Their 2011 self-titled debut is sure to become a modern jazz classic, as this is the type of super-group that only comes around once in a blue moon.
