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Come join us for Grass Valley's

2010 Thursday Night Marketplace

Free Summer Concert Series






 

Historic Downtown Grass Valley's Thursday Night Marketplace is once again pleased to announce its FREE Summer Concert Series featuring nationally acclaimed local and regional mucisians performing on the Main Street Festival Stage. Between the street vendors, local shops, restaurants and entertainment, you're sure to find something for everyone. So bring the whole family and enjoy a truly spectacular event!

 
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Sabroso (Click link to go to website)
–Thursday, July 1st 2010, 7:00-9:30pm

Sabroso is an Afro-Cuban Jazz and Salsa dance band. The band is a group of foothill musicians who share a passion for the rhythms and music of Afro-Cuban dance and jazz traditions. They like their musical blend to be in clave. Sabroso has played a variety of venues but always with the same result; a lively party of dance and music. Sabroso can be heard at public venues and loves to play private events such as a wedding, birthday, or quinceañera. The Musicians: Dave Meyler - Timbales, Conga: Bob Scarlett - Conga, Percussion: Joey McCutchan - Percussion, Vocals: Scott Rogers - Bass, Vocals: Doug Thorley - Trombone, Vocals: Joe Fajen - Trombone, Vocals: Robin Phillips - Flute, Vocals: Jim Bratt - Guitar, Vocals: Pat Havard - Piano, Vibes

 



Tempest (Click link to go to website)
–Thursday, July 8th 2010, 7:00-9:30pm

When Tempest was formed sixteen years ago by Lief Sorbye, a transplanted electric mandolin player and singer from Oslo, Norway, it was with a specific purpose: taking Celtic and Scandinavian traditional music and fuse it with rock and roll."I wanted rock and roll musicians to sink their teeth into the traditional music forms," says Sorbye. "We’ve been evolving ever since and we're still exploring what we can do." With 11 albums to its credit, Tempest is America’s most prolific and road-tested Celtic rock band. Tempest's greatest strength is their high energy, musically marveling live performance. "We're a band that likes to have fun; that's the number one thing. Our music sometimes can get intricate and very arrangement intensive, but we never forget it's fun. We take our music very seriously but we don't take ourselves too seriously. We show that in our stage show and I think the audience enjoys that. They can expect a very loose sense of humor and kick-ass music." Tempest's members hail from five countries across three continents, Lead vocalist, electric mandolinist and founder Lief Sorbye from Oslo, Norway; drummer Adolfo Lazo from Havana, Cuba; guitarist Ronan Carroll form Dublin, Ireland; bassist Ariane Cap form Innsbruck, Austria, and the bands original fiddler Michael Mullen from Fresno, California.



Masanga Marimba (Click link to go to website)
–Thursday, July 15th 2010, 7:00-9:30pm

Masanga Marimba plays traditional and popular music from Latin America and Africa. The instruments used in this ensemble consist of 7 Zimbabwean marimbas of various sizes along with vocals, drums, percussion, saxophone and trumpet. The word “Masanga” comes from an African word that means the coming together of rivers or roads representing the meeting of African, Latin and American traditions in this group.

Masanga Marimba formed in the year 2000 and has performed at the Hollywood Bowl, Grand Performances, Skirball Cultural Center, Madrid Theater, and the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. The ensemble also played for the inauguration of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and was honored to be selected to perform for the World Festival of Sacred Music. The group is led by Dr. Ric Alviso, a Cal State Northridge ethnomusicologist, professor of World Music, and the director of the CSUN African Music Ensemble. Professor Alviso studied traditional African music in Senegal and Zimbabwe for two years.

Masanga is the only marimba ensemble in Southern California that combines Latin and African traditions. Our music is upbeat, danceable, and family-oriented. The sight and sound of Masanga's giant marimbas is unlike anything you've ever seen or heard before.




Bob Mora and the Third Degree Blues Band (Click link to go to website)
–Thursday, July 22nd 2010, 7:00-9:30pm

Bob Mora and the Third Degree have been together for the past 10 years playing Chicago blues standards along with original material.

Bob Mora provides the vocals and plays harmonica. His vocals have been compared to many blues greats and his harp sound definitely puts the listener onto a wooden front porch, deep in the country where the blues began. Mora was born in Chicago and played with many south-side blues bands before moving to Califorina. Robert Sidwell is a very accomplished guitarist from Sacramento, Ca. who has been a blues sideman for a number of years. He also plays with Rusty Zinn and the Sac. based band The Huckelbucks. Dale Lyberger has been playing Bass in the Sacramento area for over 30 years with many different bands. His fat, round bass sound gives the music the right touch that is so essential to the blues. Jim Monroe on the keyboards is a dedicated blues player originally from Vallejo, Ca. Jim has played with many of the areas musicians including Kenny Ray, Charlie Musselwhite, Craig Horton and local band the Crawdaddies. Recently Jim has also been playing with Joe Louis Walker and The Boss Talkers. Ty Smith is a rock solid drummer with a great feel and can be counted on to bring innovative ideas to a gig while still staying true to the Blues. Jerry Martini is a terrific Sax player and one of the original members of Sly and the Family Stone. Jerry has been around along time and played with many bands including Prince and many others. In 1993 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and in the last few years he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.




Bourgeois Gypsies (Click link to go to website)
–Thursday, July 29th 2010, 7:00-9:30pm

Featuring freewheeling musical wanderings through countrified blues, slinky swamp ballads and homespun hillbilly heartbreaks, the Bourgeois Gypsies mix slow-burning, porchsetting music with poignant punk lullabies that make you tap your feet, clutch your heart and shake your head all at the same time. With incessant gigging in jukejoints, festivals and smoky roadhouses across the country, the Gypsies are quietly building their following the old fashioned way, one night at a time.

"The Bourgeois Gypsies play folk and twangy music in the same way that the Grateful Dead or Donna the Buffalo play bluegrass. Yeah, you can hear the elements of the genre in there, but that's just a base for a sound that's all their own. Think back porch music full of sing-along choruses and edgy riffs."
Taproot Radio


 



Foggy Mountain Music Presents

Our 36th Anniversary Showcase
–Thursday, August 5th 2010, 7:00-9:00pm

Details to follow.




The Shreds
–Thursday, August 12th 2010, 7:00-9:00pm

The Shreds are an indie rock band based in Nevada City, California. Their debut CD, Stranger, was released in June 2009, produced by five-time Academy Award nominated motion picture sound editor, Michael Herbick. The band members are Dylan Rodrigue (vocals & guitar), Blake Severn (vocals & bass) and Griffin Meyer (drums). As winners of the 2008 Sacramento News & Reviews' Jammies competition, The Shreds were selected by Sacramento producer & musician David Houston for a 25 hour recording project. In March 2009 they won the John Lennon Educational Bus Battle for the Bus in Sacramento, winning a full-day recording project using their state-of-the-art mobile audio/video recording studio recording the A Very Dark Green music video. They were also nominated in 2009 for a Sacramento News & Reviews Sammies Award (Outstanding Teen Band category).



Power of Twelve (Click link to go to website)
–Thursday, August 19th 2010, 7:00-9:00pm

Power Of 12 features a hot five piece horn section, rocking five man rhythm section, and two women belting it up front. Several members sing leads and harmonies, delivering big, horn-driven soul sound that smaller bands can't do.

This is NOT a sit-down concert band!! Power Of 12 serves a full dose of soulful sound that forces people to their feet for dancing all night long. Their varied music tastes and personalities lead to dynamic, soulful versions of great original and popular music - a high-octane mix of Funk, R&B, and World Music driven by two outstanding percussionists.
Their contagious "gotta dance" sound is perfect for songs by Prince, Santana, James Brown, Tower of Power, Chicago, Sly and The Family Stone, and many, many more. And that fat, sassy P12 sound rings out in their own original tunes as well!


 



BLVD PARK (Click link to go to website)
–Thursday, August 26th 2010, 7:00-9:00pm

We are what we call a "Spaghetti Western Desert Folk" band, with roots in traditional bluegrass and country. But, there are a lot of us, with a whole lot of different ideas, resulting in an eclectic sound that is at times gypsy, gospel, swing, R&B, folk, blues and rock.

“The bluesy sound of the Sacramento-based swingsters Blvd. Park is aged well beyond the years of any of its eight members. These guys take handfuls of gypsy, Delta blues, Americana and bluegrass, and create a new genre they call, “Spaghetti Western Desert Folk.” On “Who I am,” a cello, violin and an acoustic guitar caress the sweet antique vocals of Elise Suttie and Tekla Waterfield-Austin. In the lighthearted “Swerve On,” the octet’s take on “99 Bottles of Beer,” makes getting drunk sound funner than ever."
[AJ] - Monterey County Weekly Feb 4, 2010



Ivan Najera & Friends (Click link to go to website)
–Thursday, September 2nd 2010, 7:00-9:00pm

Iván Nájera studied guitar and piano at the National Conservatory in Quito, Ecuador and went on to join a Colombian Latin jazz/salsa group as lead singer and guitarist, performing at hotel-casinos throughout South America. In 1975, Ivan moved to California to further his career and began performing and recording his compositions, and simultaneously earned a degree in digital electronics. Ivan's music has been described as exhilarating, contagious exciting, explosive emotional, and sensual. His influences are rich in cultural diversity, inspired by Spanish and Flamenco, Brazilian, Tropicalia, Andean, jazz, and contemporary styles—enriched with an underlying hint of classical seasoning. In addition to his solo performances, he has shared the stage with greats that include Jose Feliciano, Julio Iglesias, and Enrique Coria. His CDs include: Jungle An emotionally charged musical explosion Devotion A combination of classical, Flamenco, and jazz recorded with Tony Unger Malaguena The purity of the Najera and Unger guitars.




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