Day 12
With yesterday’s radio post out of the way, I’d like to dig into Fresno’s music scene. There is music for every flavor in this town. I quite like jazz the most; you never could have guessed it, but Fresno is hopping with jazz. That’s not to say other genres aren’t, they are. There is a complete community of jazz listeners in this town, it’s like its own town where you’ll see everybody at every venue you go. With jazzfresno.org, you can always find somewhere to go and watch a show. I have a crush on most of our local artists especially Eva Scow and a man-crush on an awesome drummer Brian Hamada. If you’re looking to expand your local jazz horizons, check out those two as well as Vince DiCiccio, Lisa Kao (& her big night out), Craig Vonberg trio. If you want to see some really good, younger performers, my friends over at Fresno State always have two real good Jazz Bands.
Not to say that jazz is the only thing Fresno has would be an understatement, there are a lot of really good indie rock bands such as my friends at The Aircrash (I think they’ve been asking me to join their band and lay down some horn lines). Rademacher is also in my top 5 favorites; I’ve only seen them three times and somehow their music gets stuck in my head from time to time. Super Lucky Catz is a CD I put on from time to time at Teazer and always enjoy.
My favorite is HR7. Originally known as Headrush, these are seven of my real good college friends that I met through the Fresno State marching band. All of us were in the marching band and all music majors (except one) at Fresno State together. These guys sound like a fusion of so many styles: ska, rock, funk, and the list goes on and on. It’s sort of like Dave Matthews Band, but without all the drugs.
The hip hop scene is pretty booming too. A few years ago, I decided to get back into hip hop and found a show by a local artist releasing his mixtape “One Shot, One Kill” named Fashawn. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Fresno at the Starline, but the place was happening! I was blown away by this little community of hip hoppers. Several months ago, he released a full-length album and had a concert along with Talib Kweli.
There are just so many things to talk about: the punk scene is still quite alive, there are a number of metalheads out there with their niche, classical music aficionados have numerous concert halls to check out, and then there’s also Brian Kenney-Fresno
If the local music scene just ain’t your bag, you could always check out the Save Mart Center website for their events. I hear Taylor Swift is coming to town.
This is why I love Fresno.
=ryne=
