Find what is happening tonight, tomorrow, and this week across D.C. jazz rooms and the wider DMV scene, with ticket status and neighborhood context first.
Kalia Vandever is a New York-based trombonist who performs a mixture of composed and improvised music. Their 2023 album, Another View, delivers a collage of meditative, jazz-rooted tracks that blend rich and lyrical horn melodies, with steady rhythms, enchanting soundscapes, distortion effects and twisting electro-acoustic improvisation. Emily Francisco is a D.C.-based artist and educator. They perform in a duo with artist and musician Alex Tyson, whose work incorporates generative visuals, robots, metals, plaster and lasers. niki asfar is an Iranian-American, nonbinary/femme writer and interdisciplinary artist whose work explored hybrid identity, mental health and fluidity in language. Their mediums include poetry, text, sound collaging, mirror work and live singing and recording using a vocal loop machine.
Mark your calendars now: CapitalBop is pleased to announce that we will be co-presenting the fifth annual Home Rule Music Festival , in partnership with our friends at Home Rule Records and the Home Rule Music & Film Preservation Foundation, returning to The Parks at Historic Walter Reed on June 20. HR Fest is a block party the size of a festival, open to everyone. Bring your family, reconnect with your neighbors and get your fill of D.C.’s special musical sauce. For four years running, HR Fest has brought together the very best of the DMV’s movers and groovers for a full-blown celebration. And along with the great music you expect from any CapitalBop festival, across the expansive grounds will be vendors selling delicious local food and drink, handmade art and apparel, and collectible LPs; community groups getting out the word about their latest projects; and much more. This year’s lineup includes master drummer Okyerema Asante , the Sun Ra Arkestra , hip-hop group Brand Nubian , jazz instrumentalist Melanie Charles , Soul of Seed , Joantz featuring Special Berriez , as well as go-groups Trouble Funk, the Chuck Brown Band and New Generation Crank Band As always, HR Fest at The Parks is a community event, free and open to the public. But you can get up close (and support the festival in the process) by grabbing a VIP pass, which grants access to a curated space designed for comfort, connection, and celebration, with premium views of the stage; three free drink tickets; a free meal ticket; an invitation to an artist meet-and-greet; and a limited edition of the Home Rule Zine.
Fred Frith is a multi-instrumentalist who has been performing for over 50 years. Best known for his work on electric guitar, Frith has roots in rock and folk music, and has also branched out in songwriting and composing for film, dance and theater. His sound blends noise, improvised music and notes of blues. Chiao Tian is a Chinese dulcimer instrumentalist who blends classical training with American folk traditions and improvisation.
This multi-bill show features a lineup of DMV-based artists across jazz, rock and experimental genres. Performers include: experimental rock trio Spark Isle; Spanish psychedelic rock group Sur Cósmico, led by Bolivian artist Jardiel Ruiz; My Mandy, the music project of artist Malynne Petoia; L☆LY and indie-pop rock musician Sir Cie.
Trumpeter Kenny Rittenhouse has led ensembles of various sizes around the DMV for two decades, and is a member of many others (including the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra). Rittenhouse specializes hard-bop a la Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers under Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan and his groups deliver swinging takes on the standards and the members’ originals. Here he leads a quintet alongside D.C.-based trumpeter Ally Haney Albrecht.
