Brava! For Women in the Arts, Round Whirled Records & Yerba Buena Gardens Festival present the
4th Annual San Francisco Son Jarocho Festival
August 11-22, 2015
Tue - Thur, Aug 11 - 13 - Master Workshops
Fri, Aug 14, 8pm - Free Community Fandango
Sat, Aug 15, 6:30 Pre-Show reception w/ Dia Pa' Son
Sat, Aug 15, 7:30pm - Concert, Los Sonex
(See Full Schedule below)
Featuring the award-winning band, Los Sonex, from Xalapa, Veracruz, workshops with Son Jarocho masters, a free, open community Fandango (music and dance party), Pre-show Reception w/ festival favorites, Dia Pa’Son and additional performances by Cambalache from Los Angeles and local Son Jarocho band, Tarimba. Click here for more details on workshops and to enroll!
A Special Commissioned New Work!
Saturday's concert features the unveiling of an important and exciting new work, Madre Natura, a performance that explores the Son Jarocho tradition from the earliest Indigenous, Spanish and African roots to contemporary musical innovations A Son Jaroco Festival commission, this music and dance suite is a collaboration between Los Sonex and Brava resident company, Cuicacalli Dance Company, joined by the master of indigenous Mexican music Miguel Martinez and video artist Marco Villalobos doing live video projections of his work in Southern Veracruz as part of the suite.
This project was made possible in part by a grant from the Allianace for California Traditional Arts, in partnership with Walter and Elise Haas Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation.
About Son Jarocho
Son Jarocho is a folkloric music style from the Southern Mexican state of Veracruz. This Afro- Mestizo hybrid\form blends Spanish, Indigenous Meso-American and African elements into a joyous celebration of Mexican identity. In the last decade this style has seen resurgence as many young people have adopted it and expanded the sonic and rhythmic possibilities it offers. This annual festival has become a cornerstone of the emerging Son Jarocho music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area, attracting the top performers in this genre and providing workshops for local musicians to interact with the masters of this music.
Los Sonex
Sonex was formed in 2005, combining the Son Jarocho tradition pioneered by masters Doña Elena Ramírez, Don Arcadio Hidalgo and Don Andrés Vega with rhythms and sounds influenced by different musical genres like the traditional African Music, Afro-Peruvian and Venezuelan music, Flamenco, Salsa music, and the urban genres, blues, jazz, funk, hip-hop, rock and reggae. Their first record was produced by Zafra Music in 2007, with the participation of Son Jarocho musical contemporaries Rubén Albarrán from Café Tacvba and the band Ojos de Brujo. Sonex has performed in many different music festivals: Festival México: Puerta de las Américas (Mexico City, 2006), Vive Latino (Mexico City, 2010), Cumbre Tajín (Papantla Veracruz 2011), Washington D.C.’s Duke Ellington Jazz Festival (J.F. Kennedy Center, Washington D.C., 2007), Japanese American National Museum (Los Ángeles, 2007) and as Mexican ambassadors in the Ibero-American Summit (La Moneda Palace, Santiago de Chile, 2007). Sonex in the winner of the National Geographic Channel and Myspace contest: “Tu música también cuenta" with their new world tune "Sobre tus Aguas", as a commemoration for the Earth Day.
Cuicaccalli Dance Company
Cuicacalli meaning ‘House of Culture’ in Nahuatl language, is a dance company based in San Francisco, California, founded and directed by Mexican native, Jesus Jacoh Cortes. Inspired by cultural traditions and their development to the modern days, Cuicacalli develops choreographies to revive traditions, social and environmental situations, or simply give a look to the daily life with an abstract motion. Cuicacalli is a multi disciplinary dance company that fuse various styles into a unique story of their own. By including dance styles such as Indigenious, Folkloric, Contemporary, Cuicacalli hopes to expose, sustain, and expand traditional and modern dancing with a new lens. In order to reach new levels of artistic innovation and exposure to importance of these cultural traditions, Cuicacalli believes in collaboration and opening its doors to musicians, singers, graphic designers, aerialist, and more in and outside of the bay area. Cuicacalli holds its own annual performance “Tradicion, Movimiento y Pasion,” at their home theater, BRAVA, located in San Francisco’s Mission District. Cuicacalli has also developed relationships and performed with San Francisco’s Exploratorium, San Francisco’s Earth Day celebrations at Civic Center as well as been invited as guests with the Ballet Folkorico of Stanford University. Cuicacalli Dance Company
Miguel Martinez
Born in Chiapas, Mexico, Miguelito Martinez studied Music Education and Transversal Flute from the University of Science and Art in Chiapas and La Universidad Veracruzana and trained in Kodaly and Orff. Martinez is the founding director of Corazon Sur, a Mexican-Caribbean fusion ensemble, and co-director of Balamcoatl, a collaborative project focused on diffusing the rich music and dance traditions of the indigenous people of Mexico. A top-notch musician, Martinez stays busy in the San Francisco Bay Area Latin music scene, playing salsa with percussionists Karl Perazzo and Michael Spiro in Conjunto Karabali, El Sonero del Uruguay "Edgardo Cambon", and Tito y su Son de Cuba, Latin Jazz and much more. He has performed and recorded with Alfredo de la Fe, Orestes Vilato, Karl Perazzo, Juan Carlos Formel, Michael Spiro, Orlando Maraca Valle, Felix Valoy, Ralph Irizarry, Little Johnny Rivero, Ramon Gutierrez from Son de Madera and many more. In 2009 he was selected by the Milagro Foundation to be on the Voces del Cambio show on the Discovery Channel in which he shared his insight on how to utilize music as an instrument for newcomer children from Latin America to help them integrate into their new community. In the same year he was granted the best Latin Jazz Flautist Of The Year for the Latin Jazz Corner.
2015 San Francisco Son Jarocho Festival Schedule:
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, Aug 11, 12, 13
7pm Workshops with members of Los Sonex, Location: La Peña Cultural Center, Oakland
Thursday, Aug 13
12:30-1:30pm FREE at Yerba Buena Gardens
Yerba Buena Gardens Festival presents Los Sonex from Xalapa, Veracruz
7pm Workshops with members of Los Sonex, La Peña Cultural Center, Oakland
Friday, Aug 14
8 pm, FREE Community Fandango, Brava Lobby
Saturday, August 15
8pm, Pre-show Reception 6:30 Los Sonex, Cuicacalli Dance Company
From Xalapa, Mexico, Los Sonex present a special performance along with Brava! Theater Center artists in residence Cuicacalli Dance Company highlighting a journey from the very traditional roots of Son Jarocho, through the classic sones and on to the contemporary and future sounds of a living tradition. Also joined by Mexican indigenous music master Miguelito Martinez and Marco Villalobos showing live video projections.
Saturday, August 22
1pm-3pm, FREE at Yerba Buena Gardens, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival presents Cambalache and Tarimba
7:30pm - Concert, Los Sonex