#event garcia party june 21st

[gloriouswhispers]

asher & abel garcia house party

the mixture of voices and music isn't a harmonizing melody to abel. he thinks the two noises meet in a harsh clash with grating laughter rising above both of them. he keeps himself propped against a wall, drinking just as much as everybody else but barely moving any other muscle. it's obvious that judgement befalls his features even if he's laughing slightly. his eyes strain on a rowdy few strays, dancing through the house with loud and abrupt laughter. nothing is ever that funny. then he sees asher, nodding to his eldest brother in greeting but then averting his gaze to the twins so his brother can join in the fun observation. 'you're missing it.' he commentates because he's been watching it all unfold. 'i'm giving aar about ten minutes before...well, you know.' @dxrkenedheights

[manybcdthings]

garcia house

luca cross hernandez and allie cross @wilddwcrds

Luca always preferred to arrive a little later into the evening, enjoying getting immersed into a party when the music was already turned up and people were already laughing at everything. As he made his way through the house, enjoying the tipsy wave he was on himself, the first face he spotted was Allie. His sister was swaying by herself to music, lost in the sauce. "Weirdo." he laughed at her as he passed but then decided to take another look at her. She seemed drunker than everybody else but he was in no sober state to be rational or concerned. "Jesus, you do a bunch of shots by yourself or something? Come on, let me catch up." he shoved her kindly towards the kitchen. "I miss anything?"

[sfjazz]

Old soul Martin Luther to channel Otis Redding’s spirit

http://www.sfchronicle.com/music/article/Old-soul-Martin-Luther-to-channel-Otis-11185679.php

By Andrew Gilbert

May 31, 2017

Otis Redding knew that the Monterey International Pop Music Festival wasn’t just another gig.

He’d spent the spring touring in Europe backed by the Stax house band, Booker T & the MG’s, recalibrating his act to draw in audiences unfamiliar with the call-and-response cadences of the R&B revues where he’d honed his passionately imploring sound. When he hit that stage in 1967 around 1 a.m., a set immortalized by D.A. Pennebaker in the documentary “Monterey Pop,” Redding transformed the uninitiated white audience into a fervid congregation with his embracing vision of soul.

Fifty years later, no Bay Area artist is better equipped to step into Redding’s pulpit than San Francisco-reared guitarist, songwriter and vocalist Martin Luther McCoy, an artist who shares similar roots in the African American church. Paying tribute to Redding, who died in a plane crash at the age of 26 just months after his Monterey Pop triumph, Martin Luther and the Black Sugar Ensemble is slated to play two shows Saturday, June 10 at the SFJazz Center’s Joe Henderson Lab as part of the 35th annual San Francisco Jazz Festival.

For McCoy, the point isn’t evoking Redding’s sound as much as his spirit.

“I get off on the story of the life lived as much as the music, though Otis’ music has been a gateway, where he really goes there at the end of every song,” McCoy says. “I can’t re-create that, but I can pay homage to it.”

If the musical bridge McCoy has built is grounded in the same sacred soil as Redding’s, he’s traversed a decidedly 21st century river of grooves via his seminal collaborations with the Roots and neo-soul star Cody Chesnutt. He intersected with the legacy of another artist who broke through at Monterey Pop when director Julie Taymor cast him as a Jimi Hendrix-inspired character delivering a searing version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in her 2007 Beatles-guided film “Across the Universe.”

Part of what sets McCoy apart is his long view of African American music, encompassing blues and gospel, R&B and soul, jazz, funk and hip-hop. It’s no accident that the Black Sugar Ensemble features versatile players like powerhouse jazz saxophonist Howard Wiley and R&B keyboardist Sundra Manning, a key member of singer Ledisi’s band Anibade during her formative Bay Area years. He describes Black Sugar as “a workshop of soul music. We’re here to deconstruct the tradition. You can play these songs over and over again, and it’s all about what can we do to them.”

The Black Sugar Ensemble will be joined by several special guests like multi-instrumentalist, producer and rapper Kev Choice. He and McCoy have worked on each other’s projects over the past decade, including the brilliant and undersung 2012 McCoy album “Love Is the Hero.” Like McCoy, Choice is versed in a vast continuum of black music, and he sees their shared experience in historically black colleges and universities (McCoy graduated from Morehouse College and Choice from Xavier University of Louisiana) as central to their musical identities.

“We both have that respect for the culture and history,” says Choice, who presents a set of new music at Yoshi’s in Oakland on June 30. “Being from the bay, we’re so deeply engulfed in so much tradition and culture. We study what Ray Charles, James Brown and Public Enemy were drawing on. We both want to be considered in that conversation, continuing that tradition of great music.”

While McCoy has been dealing with family responsibilities that have kept him away from his own music for the past year, the creative ambition that Choice discusses means that Los Angeles’ siren call is getting louder for the actor-musician.

Fortunately, the SFJazz gig is just the first of several high-profile events for McCoy in the coming months. He performs at the Nourse Theater on July 22 as part of Joan Baez’s concert celebrating the Summer of Love’s 50th anniversary. McCoy also presents his third annual free acoustic soul festival in McLaren Park’s Jerry Garcia Amphitheatre on Aug. 19.

“In the past we’ve had local and international artists,” McCoy says. “This year we’ll have a jam session for the Summer of Love. It’s a party in the park, with horns and soul music, and I’m the captain.”

Andrew Gilbert is a Bay Area freelance writer.

Martin Luther and the Black Sugar Ensemble’s Tribute to Otis Redding: 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Saturday June 10. $25. SFJazz Center’s Joe Henderson Lab, 201 Franklin St., S.F. (866) 920-5299.www.sfjazz.org

35th annual San Francisco Jazz Festival: Kickoff party 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 6. Free. The Proxy, Hayes and Octavia streets. Festival runs through June 18 at SFJazz Center, Joe Henderson Lab, Miner Auditorium, Herbst Theatre and Davies Symphony Hall.

[gloriouswhispers]

ari & abel garcia house party

abel reaches his social limit quickly. the party is loud and chaotic and he can tell he's about to combust by the way he's blinking tighter at each sudden outburst of noise. he makes a quick and quiet exit from the garcia house but he halters with the knowledge that by the time he gets home he will regret missing out, especially so early on in the night. abel opts for what he always does. the easy middle ground. he perches on the concrete steps and enjoys a cigarette while he stares at nothing. recuperating the low running battery, he sees his brother and gives a silent nod. 'it's basically over.' he nods back to the house and grins because that's far from the truth. abel's certain it's just getting started. 'did you not wanna come or something?' @secrettyrant

[manybcdthings]

garcia house party

luca and teddy @blackheartatl

Well, the argument was going well. Not that Luca cared much whenever him and Teddy argued. It could be over anything, tonight was because she was sick of him trying to freestyle over a beat and he was sick of her asking to play some fucking pop-punk shit. How could it be pop and punk at the same time? Xavier's room was already occupied, Teddy and Luca laughing as they walked (fell) in on what was probably Asher and Pri. He hadn't been able to look for long to be sure just shouting a laugh of "Animales." at them as he left again with Teddy. Diego's room was good enough. Honestly, if Teddy hadn't insisted they took it elsewhere Luca would've scarred his family for life. "I thought you said next time you see me you were gonna punch me." Luca laughed at her, falling with her to the bed in a kiss as he snaked his hands to her wrists. "You're always all talk."

[manybcdthings]

garcia house

xavier garcia and leo thomas @secrettyrant

"I told you Center Hill girls were crazy." Xavier laughed over the music as he passed over a drink to his friend, guessing Leo was in need of another. His comment came just moments before bundle of twenty somethings were drunkenly falling over one another. "See." he laughed again, grabbing his own drink for a sip. His eyes scanned around for a moment, hoping to see Teddy but he guessed it wasn't her scene. She liked music where the dudes sounded like they were barking. Just as he was thinking about Teddy, Marcella's face appeared trying to move around him to get a drink and he was too busy shoving her to notice the looks between Leo and her. "Jesus Christ! Why the fuck did Ines and Marce have to come. I haven't even seen Nez, she's probably found some mouse hole and made friends with the rats."