#percussionmusic

#percussionmusic

Eshu's proverb tells both a story of reparation and of ancestrality by joyfully bending spacetime conventions and accessing subjects from the past with present actions.

Yuko Hattori described the findings as 'fascinating', noting how the chimpanzee used tools to produce various sounds while expressing a vocal display.

Pianist Dr. Gabriela Calderón and violinist Dr. Catalina Barraza celebrate the rich musical heritage of Latin America.

The Bandera Cimarrona, a flag conceived at the first edition of the International Summit of Afro-descendants in Puerto Rico in 2022, stands as a symbol of the resistance, the pursuit of freedom, and the strength of Afro-descendants on the island and throughout the Americas.

Oumy is a leading figure in contemporary Senegalese music. Her style, which blends hip-hop, African R&B and global pop, makes her one of the most exciting artists on the country's urban scene. Beyond her music career, she has also been involved in social projects within her community, participating in cultural festivals and campaigns related to the environment and equality.

It makes me feel proud, simply because of the specific time we're in right now. It definitely takes a lot of courage for kids my age to represent their culture. Anthony Benitez, an 18-year-old violin student born in the United States to Mexican immigrants, expressed how the academy provides a meaningful outlet for cultural expression amid punitive immigration enforcement affecting Latino and immigrant families across the country.

Over the years my main focus has been jazz so bringing that style and rhythm up to the stage, they found really interesting. Ellis thinks his jazz background made him stand out among his fellow contestants, attributing his success to the distinctive musical perspective he brought to the competition.

I woke up in hospital. I had fourth-degree burns down my right arm, all the way to the bone marrow. After four weeks in the burns unit, doctors gave me a choice: spend years attempting to save the arm, or amputate and leave hospital within a week. I chose amputation. It was the right decision but it was still devastating.

When Norman Sylvester was 12, long before he garnered the nickname "The Boogie Cat" or shared a stage with B.B. King, he boarded a train in Louisiana and headed west, toward the distant city of Portland, Oregon. He'd lived all his life in the rural South, eating wild muscadine grapes from his family's farm, fishing in the bayou and churning butter at the kitchen table to the tune of his grandmother's gospel singing.

Cuba has long been under the effects of a perfect storm that shows no signs of abating. In addition to constant power outages, the high cost of living, persistent unsanitary conditions in the streets, and a tangled economic crisis that Cuban authorities seem incapable of resolving, there are now direct threats from Donald Trump's administration, aimed at the Castro regime which has been in power for nearly 70 years.

Michelle Paulin dances while instructing youth at the Dulce Tricolor Venezolano dance group at the Ariel Dance Studio in Campbell on Jan. 25, 2026. Dulce Tricolor, a Bay Area Venezuelan dance group founded in 2019, teaches children traditional folk dances while preserving culture, building community and offering a sense of home amid Venezuela's ongoing political and economic crisis. (Josie Lepe for KQED)

One 10-year-old kid tells Smith he likes 'punk rock,' and goes on to name his favorite 'punk' bands as 'blink-182, Green Day [and] Red Hot Chili Peppers,' not even realizing he was standing right next to the Chili Peppers drummer. Smith laughs as he responds, 'Red Hot Chili Peppers, they're not really punk rock, but okay!'

48 Hills is teaming up with some of SF's best music venues-Regency Ballroom, The Warfield, Great American Music Hall, Brick & Mortar, Monarch, the Midway, Public Works, and more-to get you to some shows throughout the season. This week: some EDM revival and metalcore legends. Stay tuned for more! We have one pair of tickets to each of the shows below to give away, but act fast!

Regina Silveira has spent the better part of three decades considering the relationship between media and meaning, particularly as it relates to Latin America. First presented in 1997, "To Be Continued..." features 100 black-and-white reproductions of photos, newspaper clippings, propaganda, advertisements, and more. Silveira nests each image into an oversized puzzle piece, which cuts off faces and scenes to leave fragments of pop culture icons, flora and fauna, and even the occasional mugshot spliced next to one another.

In the just-named Grammy Album of the Year, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS-which Bad Bunny has declared his " most Puerto Rican album " to date-the supernova reggaetonero painted an evocative portrait of the Caribbean island, while declaring to a whopping 8.6 million listeners: "VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR" (I'm going to bring you to Puerto Rico). And he did. Last year, a record-breaking number of tourists-7,486,000 to be exact-visited Puerto Rico's tropical shores.

I noticed the swelling of the double bass first, quickly followed by the fluttering of brushed cymbals. A saxophone pushing against the edges of a melody swiftly married the notes together, chords drifting haphazardly before reaching a slow, pulsing groove. The jazz quartet performed in front of a liquor cabinet lined with whisky bottles; low-hanging lights teetered overhead, throwing shapes on the monochromatic marble-tiled floor. Outside, a leafy veranda was filled with diners, the music drifting through flung-open doors and windows.

A trumpeter and composer of rare intuition and inspiration, Blanchard will perform Feb. 20 in Miami as part of the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts' acclaimed Jazz Roots series, returning to his iconic Malcolm X Jazz Suite with his band, The E-Collective, and two-time Grammy-winning Turtle Island Quartet. Created after he wrote the score for the 1992 Spike Lee biopic "Malcolm X," Blanchard has over the years updated and expanded the suite, performed here as part of the ongoing centennial celebration of the slain civil rights icon. Visit ArshtCenter.org.

Sepultura have been making their way through a very long farewell since 2024 and now they've announced a 2026 trek that they say will be their final North American tour. They'll be joined by a pretty incredible batch of bands for this, including thrash legends Exodus, metallic hardcore veterans Biohazard (who are fresh off making a big comeback with last year's great Divided We Fall), and new-school death-metallers Tribal Gaze.

In early January, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, a concert benefit for Palestine and Sudan conjured all the fury of an acoustic night at the local coffee shop. Musicians played stripped-down songs on a stage decorated with rugs, floor lamps, and couches. Members of the audience, mostly 20-somethings and teens, leaned in and filmed intimate performances by their favorite cult artists.

Edward Simon was in his mid-teens when he left his home in Punta Cardon, Venezuela, for good and settled in the United States, driven by his desire to learn about jazz at the source. His quest has taken him to breathtaking creative heights with achievements visible both at home, where the Emeryville pianist and composer is the longest serving member of the SFJAZZ Collective, and abroad, via regular tours throughout Europe.