Brazilian Family Cresting
It should be beyond argument at this point that Brazil is one of the musical hotspots, if not epicenters, of music in the known world. Like New Orleans and other melting pot locations, especially in the “New World” order of the Americas, the confluence of European and indigenous influences resulted in music of a high and also accessible order.
A celebration of that fact along with deep family ties were nicely embedded in the recent concert by Sérgio and Clarice Assad at Campbell Hall, part of the UCSB Arts & Lectures series. Both father and daughter have had strong ties to the classical world — he as half of the renowned guitar duo with brother Odair, and she as a fine vocalist and pianist with a fast-expanding reputation as a classical composer. Just recently in our town, her piece for accordion and chamber group, Petite Suite, was given its world premiere by the Camerata Pacifica, and her music found a place at the Lobero last year as part of the Sphinx Ensemble program.
But at Campbell Hall, the Assad subject was a selective history of Brazilian culture through songs. Opening with Ismael Silva’s “Se Você Jurar,” the pair wended through a delectable playlists of musical Braziliana, including Luiz Bonfá’s “Menina Flor,” Hermeto Pascoal’s “Bebê,” Jobim’s “Chega de Saudade,” João Bosco’s “O bêbado e o equilibrista” and Sérgio’s own tender tribute to his wife/Clarice’s mother, “Angela.”
Clarice is a remarkable vocalist, not so much in terms of a charismatic boldness but a musicality running through it, with supple melodic treatments and detours, and gymnastic percussive and rhythmic effects in her unique mix.
Hints of family bonding threaded throughout the evening, in musical but also personal ways. Early in the show, Sérgio commented, “it is such a pleasure to be onstage with my daughter. I spent 60 years in life playing with my brother…” And Clarice interjected, “so the next 60 years will be with me.” When she sat down to the piano, mid-set, she instinctively played the standard open string notes of the guitar — EADGBE — and said “I’ve had this sound in my head since I was a child. It’s the sound of my life.”
She then embarked on an improvised venture leading into Milton Nascimento’s “Cravo e Canela,” then rejoined her father for songs of Astor Piazzolla — “Yo Soy Maria” — and Carlos Lyra’s seminal bossa nova influencer anthem “Influencia do Jazz.” As if to illustrate that cross-bred bridge of bossa nova and jazz, encore time brought a relevant two-fer — Jobim’s classic “Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)” and the night’s sole jazz standard, George Gershwin’s “The Man I Love.”
It was all of a piece, and all in the family.
When the Subject is Scottish Music, the FOSB Gets Busy
The ever-inviting Folk Orchestra Santa Barbara opened its current season last month on the turf of comforting boomer-approved pop music from the ’60s. Well, ‘60s faves as a rethought byproduct of FOSB’s leader, the slyly creative multi-instrumentalist leader Adam Phillips. There were twists, of course. Take, for instance, the version of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black,” played on bagpipes and the Hindustani slide guitar instrument, the Mohan veena (as played by Josh Jenkins). (For extra credit, check out the master Mohan veena player V.M. Bhatt on the album Saradamani, on the great Isla Vista-born and Kavi Alexander-tended Waterlily Acoustic label, here).
Further twists can be expected in phase two of this, the group’s milestone 10th season, in three evocative locations around the county this weekend, at the Trinity Episcopal Church, St. Marks-the-Valley in Los Olivos, and the Presidio Chapel. This time out, they land on the grounded turf of things musically Scottish. Cultural global peregrinations notwithstanding, Phillips resonates most strongly with the Celtic world, the better to compliment his love of bagpipes and other pipery.
Among the source materials we can expect, as treated by Phillips arrangements for his large entourage, are “Skye Boat Song,” “Scotland the Brave,” the popular “Loch Lomond,” and freshly cooked music by Galen Fraser, son of Alasdair Fraser, the celebrated Scottish fiddler who has become a visiting friend of the group in past seasons.
We assume that the Mohan veena will stay at home for this one. But assumptions can be dangerous when it comes to FOSB.
Operatic and Forested Flowers
This week’s cultural calendar earns extra boldface emphasis for two major events. Opera Santa Barbara makes the city safe for grand opera (on the Lobero Theatre scale) by launching its new three-opera season with a trusty standard, Verdi’s Rigoletto (see season preview story here). Catch it on Friday night or Sunday afternoon or the following Tuesday night.
Another form of serious music lands at the Lobero on Thursday, when the noble “Jazz at the Lobero” series brings back veteran jazz saxist and Montecitan-to-the-world Charles Lloyd, abetted by a stellar band, with guitarist Bill Frisell (who always seems to sound even better that we know to expect already, and more ambiently at home in the Lobero), bassist Larry Grenadier and a fine new player in Lloyd’s stable, drummer Kweku Sumbry.
Lloyd, 88 and currently going strong and deep, has been traversing the globe and the finer festivals and concert situations this year, including a featured spot on the Monterey Jazz Festival roster in September. There, he was celebrating the 60th anniversary of his Forest Flower live album, recorded on that very stage and a launchpad for his uncommonly meteoric rise, for a jazz album and artist. Lloyd ended his set with the tune in question, as twilight befell Monterey, and seemed to linger on the coda section, not wanting it to end.
Of course, after Lloyd’s ‘60s ascendancy and celebrity heat wave, there came his long hiatus from the public eye and ear, in the idyllic hideouts of Big Sur and Montecito. But that’s another part of the story.
2026 also marks another distinctive anniversary in the Lloyd saga, and one with a strong local angle. It was 20 years ago that the significant Sangam album was recorded live at the Lobero, engineered by Soundesign studio boss Dom Camardella for ECM Records. The album ranks as one of the most notable jazz records captured at the Lobero. The special trio, consisting of Lloyd, tabla master Zakir Hussain, and Lloyd’s regular drummer Eric Harland, was a critically acclaimed and popular, repeatable treat. This year, Lloyd released Sangam & Friends, a tribute record to Hussain, who died in 2025, and which actually includes a live track from a 2014 concert at the Lobero (hear here).
The long-standing Lloyd/Lobero continuum carries forward. (See John Zant’s story here.)
TO-DOINGS:
We’re becoming accustomed to the concept of catching the summer-intensive Music Academy of the West program in its off-season mode, courtesy of its “Mariposa” concert series, featuring alums of the prestigious institution who have landed careers and respect in the professional classical realm. This time out, in the second of the series’ four concerts during the 2026-27 spread, we are promised — to quote the concert handle — “Humor and Harmony.” MAW alum Nicholas Canellakis (’01) joins pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown in a program “that seamlessly blends chamber music, comedy, and film, including Canellakis’ short film My New Cello.”
More good musical cuisine beckons up and over atthe prime showcase club SOhOthis week.Santa Barbara Acoustic continues with its 10th anniversary season of bringing prominent acoustic guitarists through our town, including Monday’s child,Alexandr Misko, appearing with Forest Bailey. Santa Barbara Jazz Society hosts its monthly Sunday afternoon soiree, this time featuring pianist Jeremy Siskind and vocalist Lia Booth.
From the world stage to the SOhO stage, the temperature turns Celtic on Tuesday, with the famed Scottish band the Tannahill Weavers. Originally coming out of Paisley, Scotland some 58 years ago, the band has changed personnel but heeds the core mission, which has been tagged by the New York Times as adding up to “an especially eloquent mixture of the old and the new.”
Looking for some serious musical lunch fare on Friday? Head over to the glorious ambience of the Trinity Episcopal Church on Friday from 12:15 to 12:45 (ish) for the Music at Noon series. This Friday’s menu includes in-house organist Thomas Joyce and singers Becky Hoffman, Jennifer Johnson and Holly Hoffman, in a program called “Vocal Motets from the Renaissance to the Present.”
The busy, dizzy music harvest season of Autumn continues, at least for another couple of weeks. Get it while it’s hot.
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