ON the Beat | Dynamic Sibling-Powered Duo, Live Oak Festival Calling

Sheku Kanneh-Mason | Photo: Jake Turney

It was back in 2022 in the post-COVID times when our live music senses were recharging, that UCSB Arts & Lectures proffered an auspicious local introduction to a fast-rising brother and sister from the U.K., pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. The dynamic duo duly impressed with their recital at Campbell Hall, and both musicians have returned, singly, to various venues and under different organizational umbrellas in the interim. For one, Isata gave a powerful reading of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 last year through CAMA, at the Granada.

As a fitting endpiece to a notable A&L season, the siblings had a “homecoming” recital at Campbell Hall late in May, four years richer and deeper in musical wisdom. Their welcome return came as the closing event of a season — the last officially under the aegis of retiring A&L head Celesta Billeci’s prized 25-year run — which rose to special classical music heights. On that list were Yo-Yo Ma, the Danish String Quartet, Julia Bullock in both Messiaen’s Harawi and with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, a piano pairing of greats Yuja Wang and Vikingur Ólafsson, the London Philharmonic, the adventurous new quartet Owls, and trusty old crowd favorite Itzhak Perlman.

If we didn’t know better, such a line-up would seem big city-suitable.

Isata Kanneh-Mason | Photo: Robin Clewley

To cap it off, the Kanneh-Masons served up a pleasing and intelligent enough program, beautifully played and with a detectable empathetic kinship presumably based on the “kin” factor. The concert’s first half opened assuredly, with the pre-romantic stuff of Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-flat and Fauré’s Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, marked by a certain French sweep and arm’s length sentimentality at work.

The temperature and intrigue spiked upward after intermission, with the ultra-personal score of British composer Natalie Klouda’s “Tor Mordôn,” a two-movement work written expressly for this duo and referential to their twin points of heritage — Welsh and Antiguan. The siblings went on a deep dive in the tonal and smartly devised piece, understandably, with expressive finesse on passages alternately impressionistic and vigorous, with spidery unison lines and a friendly fury to close.

Poulenc’s Sonata for Cello and Piano presented a very different challenge for the duo, and one easily met and conquered. Poulenc’s wit, stylistic restlessness — where exactly does he fit in the 20th century musical style timeline? — and fluid charms. The sweetly lyrical “Cavatine” gives way to perky sultriness in the “Ballibile” movement, while a tuneful melodic theme keeps slithering between angular twists in the finale. Poulenc’s questioning spirit was intact and fully engaging at Campbell Hall, in the finale of another fine season in the A&L lineage.

Billeci’s final season, as a curator/booker, will be unveiled at the annual “reveal” party on June 17. All eyes, ears and curiosities are duly piqued.

Live Oak Lives On

The California Honeydrops are on the bill for the Live Oak Music Festival | Photo: Christ Davis

For most of its now 36-year history, the mighty and earthy Live Oak Music Festival asserted a powerful and reliable dual county legacy. The festival, a Father’s Day weekend–timed, poly-genre gathering organized as a fundraiser for the San Luis Obispo–based public radio beacon KCBX, took place at the riverside Live Oak Camp, on the 154 close to Lake Cachuma. That location drew Santa Barbara folks (a strong demographic of KCBX’s fanbase) to pop over the 154 for a visit or three.

Logistical problems with the camp led the fest northward, to stake a claim at the El Chorro Regional Park in S.L.O., which makes it, for Santa Barbarans, a road trip and a good excuse for a weekend in the fair city north of us.

The family vibe is strong at Live Oak Festival Kids Talent Show | Photo: Dann Graham

Getting an easy fix on the diverse musical menu of the Live Oak Festival’s programming is almost as hard as explaining the KCBX program schedule in 50 words or less. Therein lies the rub: Much of what one hears at the festival reflects the musical roster heard on air at the station, including — but not limited to — Americana, blues, R&B, so-called “world music,” morsels of jazz, bluegrass, new country, old country, jamband-adjacent sounds, groove-machined music from various ports … and more.

In the 2025 model, the musical ingredient list in the Live Oak gumbo includes California Honeydrops, Grateful Shred, The Motet, Chuck Prophet and His Cumbia Shoes, Jerry & Dawg Revisited, Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley, Cimafunk, Margo Cilker, and the list goes on. Once again, the festival promises to be a good time, with multiple flavors attached. And it’s a good cause, particularly in our present age of bad news from the barbaric cesspool that is the present-day White House, including strongly culture-phobic and media-suppressive agendas.

But never mind that brand of angst for a weekend. Go live Live Oak.

A lively crowd at the 2024 Live Oak Festival | Photo: Dann Graham

To-Doings:

The healthy country music contingent of the current Santa Barbara Bowl season saddles up this Saturday with the gruff-toned but lovable Ryan Bingham, with his band, The Texas Gentlemen. The gifted singer-songwriter from Hobbs, New Mexico, arrived with a local connection, once removed. It was Bingham’s wistful beauty of a song, “The Weary Kind,” that served as the theme song for the 2009 film Crazy Heart, a much loved and Oscar-kissed starring vehicle for Santa Barbara’s own Jeff Bridges.

Bingham, a former (reformed?) rodeo star, has since gained critical and commercial success for his rootsy, acoustic-y twang style and sensitive songwriting aplomb. He recently enjoying the wider public buzz and glow of singing and acting on TV’s Yellowstone. Hey, another local connection to Yellowstone star, Padaro Lane–resident Kevin Costner.

This weekend, the Lobero Theatre is abuzz and atwitter with shows worth checking out. Tonight and Friday night, June 12 and 13, the art of the mash-up hits the room with the arrival of the Crosby Collective. A wide-ranging, jam-friendly, mosaic-making cover band, led by maestro Jason Crosby, has been described as a “Grateful Dead meets Nirvana” venture. One medley segues from “A Day in the Life” to “Mr. Blue Sky” to “Blue Sky.” Another weaves together “No Quarter” into “Another Brick in the Wall” and the Dead’s floppity soul tune “Shakedown Street.” Why not? Joining the troops here will be local Jackson Browne, known to sing his classic “These Days” and other taste treats with the Collective.

Sunday night at the Lobero, the spotlight shifts to a much more current and cult favorite artist, Valerie June. She’s a fetching hybridizer, whose musical mixology includes psych folk, indie rock, country and soul spices, and other flavors she and we take a fancy to. Although she has been at the musical game since 2000, it was her 2017 album The Order of Time which woke many up to what makes her special, earning raves and even a nod of approval from Bob Dylan.