ON the Beat | List-omania Time, A Year’s Harvest

In Which the Columnist Looks Back on a Good Year That Was, Musically Speaking

By Josef Woodard Fri Dec 20, 2024 | 12:31pm

This edition of ON the Beat was originally emailed to subscribers on December 19, 2024. To receive Josef Woodard’s music newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

Santa Barbara’s Christmas music calendar has grown into a dense thicket of savory goods, tempting our partaking each year. Last weekend, for instance, the glorious sound of choral music in the form of the Santa Barbara Choral Society’s 10th annual “Hallelujah Project” at the Lobero and the magical a cappella Quire of Voyces “Mysteries of Christmas” at St. Anthony’s chapel for the 30-ish time (see review here).

Meanwhile, I had to miss the Nutcracker at the Arlington and the Westmont Christmas Festival at the Granada, for its 20th anniversary. In short, the town was jumping with things Yule-ish, in seasonal traditions running deep. This weekend, Christmas Revels busts out its own more secular Winter Solstice regalia at the Lobero, in its 17th edition.

The city’s seasonal musical institution list might seem on the verge of overload or oversaturation, but there’s always room for more worthy traditions at the Inn. In those terms, I vote for the shimmying sensation of the Miriam Dance Presents Gospel Bunch, a soul-stirring, holy-ghost-dancing-in-the-house afternoon of musical spirits. Now in its fourth annual affair, this event needs to be officially entered into the significant seasonal traditions, representing the timeless gospel cause.

Dance does wonders putting the two-set show together, assembling a powerful front line of singers from in and out of town, as well as the dynamic Santa Barbaran Lois Mahalia. The lead singers — Dance, Lisa Daniels, Chris Blakk, the vivacious Vivian Storm, and Dakari Brown — were gloriously fleshed out by the sonorous back line of the long-running local Inner Light Gospel Choir — which filled the makeshift “choir loft” of the packed SOhO stage. Meanwhile, a versatile and plugged-in rhythm including bassist Santino Taferella, drummer Austin Beede, and guitarist Rob Moreno showed how firm a foundation can be laid down.

A setlist ranged from Donny Hathaway’s R&B jewel “This Christmas” (with its cool 7/4 rhythm section riff) through variations on carol themes, “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” audience adrenaline-pumpers “Joy in My Soul,” “Clap Your Hands,” and “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” The ever-inspiring Mahalia was especially moving with her performance of an inventive take on “Joy to the World,” opening in low, slow fashion, but kicking up heels a notch or four, in energy and upward, heavenward modulation.

See you there next year: The fifth anniversary makes a show an annual tradition, after all.

Baby, He’s a Richman. In Carp.

Jonathan Richman decidedly opted out of dipping into the Christmas music jukebox when he showed up for a rugged-cool and very sold-out show at Carpinteria’s Alcazar Theatre last week. Richman — formerly of Modern Lovers and long a rambling indie-folk-pop artist of his own devising — is a hard one to describe or pigeonhole, bless his quirky heart, but he knows how to grab hold of a room. Locally, those rooms have included the great Mercury Lounge in Old Town Goleta, SOhO, and elsewhere, but the copiously charming and retro-renovated Alcazar seemed an ideal space for that Richman magic.

He shuffled onstage with his well-traveled classical guitar — sans strap — his wandering way with his songs and post-beatnik songspiel — with drummer Tommy Larkin in sympathetic tow. The song list seems to flow and morph freely, materializing from whims and winds, from “When We Refuse to Suffer” to the autobiographical “They Showed Me the Door to Bohemia” to Modern Lovers’ classics “That Summer Feeling” to a Cubist take on “Pablo Picasso” (no, he did not directly utter the naughty hook “Pablo Picasso is an asshole, but not in New York”).

At the show’s end, Richman closed on a tender note, in a song about “starving for affection.” After a long ovation, he re-emerged with a fourth wall spiel about his intention to have the house lights come up to indicate the show’s end, without his succumbing to the “obligatory encore.” In that moment, the freewheeling, fumble-tongued Richman persona shifted to the sober artist-in-control. That, too, was part of the zeitgeist of Richman’s Alcazar moment. Let there be more.

Best Concerts/Musical Happenings in Santa Barbara

Eclectic music fans, present company included, are allowed more than the standard “Top Ten” list at year’s end. Although my tastes range widely and wildly, much of my concert-going tends to the classical/jazz corners of the Santa Barbara calendar, along with venturing into rock and pop cultural fodder. What follows is a loose but seriously-considered list of concerts which made a lingering impact–in reverse chronological order.

Among the trends noted this year, three of the finest concerts were from famed string quartets pushing out from standard repertoire. The Danish String Quartet, ending their Schubert-ian “Doppelgänger” series with the U.S. premiere of a new Thomas Adès piece, Kronos Quartet celebrated its 50th year (!), and a stunning microtonalism-pitched program by the JACK Quartet this month at Hahn Hall. Call me an oddball, but JACK’s performance may be the evening most indelibly imprinted on my memory, circa 2024. We all have our little things.

JACK Quartet at Hahn Hall, December 2024 | Photo: Emma Matthews

JACK Quartet, “Modern Medieval,” Hahn Hall

Santa Barbara Symphony, “French Connections,” pianist-guest conductor David Greilsammer

Mahler, Song of the Wayfarer, bass-baritone Dashon Burton with LACO, Granada Theatre

Mariza, Lobero (legendary fado queen)

Patricia Kopatschinskaja, Shostakovich Violin Concerto, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Granada

Julia Bullock, Messiaen’s Harawi, Campbell Hall

Messthetics with James Brandon Lewis, Deer Lodge, Ojai

Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, Lobero (unique and Motor City–centric medicine show)

John Adams, Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz, Music Academy of the West orchestra concert, Granada

Jeremy Denk, lecture/performance of Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata, Music Academy of the West

Jörg Widmann, composer in the Ojai Music Festival (German composer worth seeking out)

Queens of the Stone Age, Santa Barbara Bowl

Tedeschi Trucks Band with special guest Little Feat at the Santa Barbara Bowl, June 5, 2024 | Photo: Carl Perry

Tedeschi and Trucks, Santa Barbara Bowl (slide guitar eloquence for days, in a night)

Kronos’ 50, Campbell Hall

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, world premiere of Vince Mendoza’s Flight of Moving Days, Granada

Danish String Quartet, U.S. premiere of Thomas Adès’ Wreath, Campbell Hall

Blue Note Records Road Show, featuring Joel Ross, Immanuel Wilkins, and Gerald Clayton, Campbell Hall

UCSB Arts & Lectures presented the world premiere of Thomas Adès’s “Wreath for Franz Schubert,” performed by the Danish String Quartet with guest cellist Johannes Rostamo on April 10, 2024. | Photo: David Bazemore

Top Ten Left-of-the-805-Dial Radio Shows

I like terrestrial radio, especially on the left end of the dial, where the music is weirder and commercials fear to tread. This is a selective list of favorite shows I try to tune into (or catch on the flip-flop, thanks to post-show streaming options).

Let us now praise our grand non-commercial radio beacon, and one of America’s finest college stations, KCSB (91.9 FM or kcsb.org), offering a vast range of musical fare and a shifting array of new voices and ideas. KCBX, down San Luis Obispo way, is another sturdy source of eclectica, and good goods can be accessed on KDB (a k a L.A.’s KUSC) and old school alt-radio landmark KPFK.

A good New Year’s resolution: listen up, in real time, to real radio.

“Country Kaleidoscope,” with Greg Drust, KCSB

This year, it has been great to once again hear former Santa Barbaran-turned-Wisconsin-ite DJ Drust’s friendly voice and mind in our town. Drust once delivered substantial blues and polka programming on KCSB, and now returns, remotely, with a fascinating old school classic country show on Saturday afternoon.

“Joyful Cosmos,” Steve S, KCSB

Probably the finest wide-berthed avant-garde show on the regional airwaves, cutting across genres and definitions to create cosmic joy.

“Candy Mountain MixTape,” with Hattie Bell and the Candy Mountain Rambler, KCSB

This true alternative radio classic makes for a late Friday afternoon segue into weekend consciousness, hosted by a pair of seemingly star-cross lovers and laconic charmers whose musical journeys go to rootsy, indie, and surprising places. And yet, it swings, and sings, and makes sense on its own time and terms.

“Radio Cool Mojo,” Bryan D. Brown, KCSB

One-time KCSB programmer Brown, long based in Long Island, brings us a Saturday afternoon feast of sonic adventurism, ranging from mostly avant-garde jazz, but including R&B obscurities and his favorite Toms — Waits and Lehrer. Cool mojo, indeed.

“Bright Moments,” Marta Ulvaeus, KCSB

Ulvaeus continues to deliver the most indispensable jazz show in our midst.

“Secondhand Sounds,” Ashbee, KCSB

Ashbee comes up with fascinating and well-researched shows celebrating old school soul and R&B tracks that get our mojo going, but explore and expose worlds of deep cut soul we are happy to know about.

“Freak Power Ticket,” Ted Coe, KCSB

Coe, alt-radio veteran and champion in town for years, funnels his inveterate curiosity and intellectual inquiry about selective subcultural byways — in music, film, and ramparts of various cultdom interests — into a rich Monday morning hour of power. Expect the unexpected, and learn a thing or three.

“Global Village,” KUSC

Hosts including John Schneider and others, living up to the show’s name and agenda, surfing stylistic and global musical enticements, with live interviews and informed contextual backdropping.

“The Morning Cup,” Neal Losey, KCBX

Longtime KCBX force and music director Losey cooks up a savory stew of music, fresh daily (with Janelle Younger filling in occasionally), and making affable bedfellows of indie music, ear-friendly jazz, Americana, and more for our morning commute (a term which can also translate to mental commuting, from grogginess to wakefulness and wokeness).

Other KCBX shows of note: the trad jazz go-to of Guy Rathbun’s “Club McKenzie,” Americana-and-more jamboree Marissa Wadell’s “The Road Home” and Fred Friedman’s “Jazz Liner Notes.”

“Modern Times,” Alan Chapman, KDB/KUSC

Veteran classical DJ Alan Chapman presides over a late Saturday night program dedicated to the too-often under-exposed world of contemporary music, on a classical station not always known as a safe haven for things modern. Chapman’s show manages to be provocative and evocative, by turns. (Then, he wakes up early on Sunday to do the Baroque “A Musical Offering” show. No rest for the early-to-late music DJ.)