Santa Fe Arts Journal

Creative Coverage of Santa Fe's Arts Communities

There’s Music in the Air Santa Fe Bandstand kicks off a dynamic new season of free outdoor summer concerts

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It’s time for another exciting season of Santa Fe Bandstand, an annual summer-long music festival that’s produced by the non-profit organization Outside In Productions.

Beginning on June 21 and running through August 10, Santa Fe Bandstand presents solo, regional and national solo acts and bands playing everything from Latin, salsa, country and bluegrass sounds to blues, funk, rock and jazz tunes.

While most of the performances take place on the Santa Fe Plaza, four evenings of music are presented at Swan Park in the southside of town.

One of June’s special musical artists is Delphia, a singer/songwriter who started her career as a country/folk/rock musician touring throughout the New York/Philadelphia metropolitan area and playing with musicians including Leon Russel, Wishbone Ash and Melody Gardot. [Read More…]

Sultry Summer Sounds Tracey Whitney shares soulful music at Music on the Hill

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Enjoy some smooth rhythm and blues when singer Tracey Whitney takes the Music on the Hill stage on June 20.

Joining her for the show are musicians Jim Ahrend, Rodney Bowe, Stephen Dewave Peace, Wayne Johnson and Farid Huisman.

Singing in front of an audience is like breathing for the sultry jazz, r&b and pop singer and songwriter who calls Albuquerque home. “I have nervous energy before I get on stage,” says Whitney. “I feel like a race horse in the gate, ready to go.”

A vocalist who has been performing for audiences since elementary school, Whitney sang with her parents and siblings as a member of her family’s singing ensemble The Whitney Family. The family toured the world and recorded albums for 15 years. [Read More…]

Emerging Media Artists Unite The Santa Fe Film and Digital Media Commission launches the Emerging Media Alliance

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The Santa Fe Film and Digital Media Commission launched a new project, the Emerging Media Alliance, several months ago after commissioners decided that Santa Fe’s digital media community could use a boost of support.

“Everybody who attended a series of summer and fall meetings feels a sense of possibility of the flourishing of media arts in Santa Fe,” explains Chris Jonas, a commissioner with the Santa Fe Film and Digital Media Commission and the executive director of Littleglobe, an organization that is committed to interdisciplinary, collaborative art projects that foster life-affirming connections across the boundaries that divide us. “We have enough talent and energy in town to form our own community.”

The Emerging Media Alliance’s mission is to galvanize and amplify the rich and diverse community already dedicated to media arts, which is an artistic expression that utilizes a variety of tools including virtual reality, social media video, interactive storytelling, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and 3D printers. [Read More…]

Messages in the Music Calexico vents and shares optimism in their latest songs

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The Arizona-based indie rock/alternative country/Tejano band Calexico plays eight or nine tunes off their ninth and latest studio album, “The Thread That Keeps Us,” as well as a bunch of older songs during its gig at The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing Company on June 13.

Calexico’s modus operandi is to tell stories through their music. “Storytelling is a great way to communicate,” explains vocalist/guitarist Joey Burns, who founded Calexico with drummer John Convertino. “There’s a message in our music, and it comes out through storytelling.”

The band’s latest tunes have messages about the desperate state of our planet and the political arena. There’s also a hint of optimism behind the frustration. [Read More…]

All That Jazz Award-winning jazz pianist Fred Hersch plays a variety of tunes with friends

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Jazz pianist Fred Hersch comes to town to play a concert on May 31 and brings two musician friends with him-clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen and vocalist Kate McGarry. The Performance Santa Fe gig features collaborations between Hersch and Cohen, Hersch and McGarry and all three musicians together. Hersch plans to do a little bit of solo playing as well.

“We’ll be programming the concert kind of loosely,” explains Hersch, who is a 12-time Grammy Award nominee and the recipient of multiple awards for his work in jazz and a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition.

“Anat, Kate and I will be hanging out together the day before the concert to talk about what we want to do,” Hersch adds. [Read More…]