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Hot Club of Tucson

Hot Club of Tucson

($5-$10 | 7pm & 8:30pm Sets) Nick Coventry, Matt Mitchell, Evan Dain & Marco Rosano form the swinging Hot Club of Tucson Trio! The group plays jazz manouche in the style of… Read more

($5-$10 | 7pm & 8:30pm Sets) Nick Coventry, Matt Mitchell, Evan Dain & Marco Rosano form the swinging Hot Club of Tucson Trio! The group plays jazz manouche in the style of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappeli. The band starts at 7pm. Every other Wednesday!

Pete Swan Presents: Mood Indigo – A Tribute to Duke Ellington, featuring Beth Lederman

Pete Swan Presents: Mood Indigo – A Tribute to Duke Ellington, featuring Beth Lederman

($15-$25 | 7pm Show) Mood Indigo- A Tribute to Jazz great Duke Ellington. With Mary Petrich on sax, Beth Lederman on piano and Louise Baranger on trumpet, these sophisticated ladies explore the… Read more

($15-$25 | 7pm Show) Mood Indigo- A Tribute to Jazz great Duke Ellington.

With Mary Petrich on sax, Beth Lederman on piano and Louise Baranger on trumpet, these sophisticated ladies explore the music of one of the finest jazz composers the world has ever known.

**Louise Baranger** was born in Hollywood, California and has been playing music all her life. She toured with the Harry James orchestra among many others and has played trumpet for festivals, television, music videos, and recordings throughout the world as well as being a guest artist for several symphonies. Louise has two CDs out under her own name for Summit Records. Her website is www.trumpetdiva.com

Keyboardist **Beth Lederman** is a Arizona native who is a mainstay of the Phoenix music scene. She was a band leader for Brazilian jazz group Novo Mundo and her own group Jazz Con Alma. Beth has traveled throughout the SW playing music and excels at a variety of musicals styles from latin music to pop to swing. She has produced three CDs with her bands and under her own name. Her website is WWW.BethLederman.com

**Mary Petrich** is well known for her beautiful tone and her creativity. She has a Masters degree in Saxophone performance and plays with a variety of bands in the Phoenix area and in the Midwest. Mary is also an educator and heads the Women’s Initiative Project at the Nash Jazz Club. She has two CDs under her own name. Her website is www.Marypetrich.com

Mattstagraham Tour Kickoff!

Mattstagraham Tour Kickoff!

Thursday May 23rd The Sonic Adventour Kickoff w/ Annie Jump Cannon 7pm $15 Read more

Thursday May 23rd

The Sonic Adventour Kickoff w/ Annie Jump Cannon

7pm

$15

Party Lab $4 Wells every Thursday!

Party Lab $4 Wells every Thursday!

Join us for Party Lab every Thursdays with a $4 well special! -Halsero & Roch -KPMADMAN -Bex Halsero & Roch with a heavy rotation of open format remixes of hip hop and… Read more

Join us for Party Lab every Thursdays with a $4 well special!

-Halsero & Roch
-KPMADMAN
-Bex

Halsero & Roch with a heavy rotation of open format remixes of hip hop and throwbacks, KPmadman playing underground dance music and Bex with the house, disco and grooves.

10pm-2am

Sugaray Rayford

Sugaray Rayford

Friday May 24th 7pm doors , 7:30 PM show Black Cat Bones open Adv $25 | Dos $30 All Welcome **Co-sponsored by AZblues.org and KXCI** —SUGARAY RAYFORD—Sugaray Rayford is a man with… Read more

Friday May 24th

7pm doors , 7:30 PM show Black Cat Bones open

Adv $25 | Dos $30

All Welcome
**Co-sponsored by AZblues.org and KXCI**

—SUGARAY RAYFORD—Sugaray Rayford is a man with a message and a larger than life personality and voice to deliver it. Working with producer, songwriter Eric Corne for the past 3 albums, the soul-blues powerhouse has crafted an incendiary sound and narrative, combining classic soul melodies and funky R & B grooves with raw blues power.

The pair’s first collaboration, Somebody Save Me, earned Rayford a 2020 Grammy nomination. Later that year he took home Blues Music Awards for ‘Soul Blues Male Artist’ and ‘B.B. King Entertainer of the Year.’ Rayford’s follow up In Too Deep won a plethora of awards including the Blues Music Award for ‘Soul Blues Album of the Year’.

Rayford’s new release is entitled ‘Human Decency’. The title track is a simple reminder that our similarities are stronger than our differences and in the end, there is no black or white or left or right, there are only hearts and minds.

About the leadoff single, “Run For Cover” a song that takes no prisoners, Q Magazine declares, “The bluesey soul of Rayford comes on full steam with this powerhouse single.”

“We’re calling people on their bullshit but we’re having fun with them. That’s my way. I’m gonna tell it to you straight but with love in my heart. I always bring some suga with the salt!” says Sugaray, bellowing with laughter.

An all-star cast lent their talents to the album, including guitarist Rick Holmstrom and singer Saundra Williams who are both from Mavis Staples’s band, along with bassist Taras Prodaniuk (Lucinda Williams, Merle Haggard).

Denali Hershey Kaufman plays Brad Mehldau
7PM & 9PM

Denali Hershey Kaufman plays Brad Mehldau

($15-$25 | 7pm & 9pm Shows) Denali Hershey Kaufman returns from LA to lead a show celebrating the arrangements and music of pianist Brad Mehldau! Mehldau emerged onto the jazz scene in… Read more

($15-$25 | 7pm & 9pm Shows) Denali Hershey Kaufman returns from LA to lead a show celebrating the arrangements and music of pianist Brad Mehldau!

Mehldau emerged onto the jazz scene in the 1990s, quickly garnering attention for his distinctive style that seamlessly melds elements of classical music, jazz standards, pop, and rock. His playing is marked by its harmonic sophistication and rhythmic intricacy and his extensive discography spans solo piano works, large ensemble and two of the most influential piano trios of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

Kaufman has prepared a program of some of Mehldau’s best known material to be performed by a band featuring Andrew Gioannetti (sax) Colin Mcilrath (guitar) Ryan Magness (bass) Kenji Ono Lancaster (drums)

FEA

FEA

Friday May 24th w/ Birds and Arrows & Tonight’s Sunshine 7pm Adv $12 | Dos $15 Read more

Friday May 24th

w/ Birds and Arrows & Tonight’s Sunshine

7pm

Adv $12 | Dos $15

RED EYE at Club Congress FRIDAY

RED EYE at Club Congress FRIDAY

RED EYE AT CLUB CONGRESS $3 PBR, $4 TRULY, $5 MEXICAN CANDY SHOTS 10PM – 2AM NO COVER Enter with ID at Club or 5th Ave entrances -Pico de Gallo on the… Read more

RED EYE AT CLUB CONGRESS

$3 PBR, $4 TRULY, $5 MEXICAN CANDY SHOTS

10PM – 2AM

NO COVER

Enter with ID at Club or 5th Ave entrances

-Pico de Gallo on the Plaza

-Bex & Halsero in the Club

Late Night with Andrew Gioanetti

Late Night with Andrew Gioanetti

(No Cover | 10:30pm Show) After Saturday Night’s Show, join saxophonist Andrew Gioanetti and his band for late night! With Colin McIlrath (bass) Kenji Ono Lancaster (drums) Denali Hershey Kaufman (piano) Read more

(No Cover | 10:30pm Show) After Saturday Night’s Show, join saxophonist Andrew Gioanetti and his band for late night!

With Colin McIlrath (bass) Kenji Ono Lancaster (drums) Denali Hershey Kaufman (piano)

Fox on the Run: A Glam Going Away Party for David Slutes!
6:30PM

Fox on the Run: A Glam Going Away Party for David Slutes!

Saturday May 25th Doors 6:30pm | Show 7pm Help us bid a fond farewell to the the living legend, the musical myth, the soul of the southwest, Entertainment Director extraordinaire: David Slutes…. Read more

Saturday May 25th

Doors 6:30pm | Show 7pm

Help us bid a fond farewell to the the living legend, the musical myth, the soul of the southwest, Entertainment Director extraordinaire: David Slutes. Celebrate his 27 years at Hotel Congress with a send off for the ages, featuring performances by Brian Lopez, Birds and Arrows, Clifton Taylor, DJ PC Patty, Greyhound Soul, Najima Rainey, Salvador Duran Duran, Silver Fox, Tom Walbank, The Congress Players, and many more!

Show some love by showing up in style: ‘Glam Going Away Bash’ means sequins, big hair, jumpsuits, skinny scarves, and platforms are welcome. Catch that Fox on the Run before he’s off to his next adventure!

This event is FREE and open to all. Spread the word! Let’s come together and give David an unforgettable night!

Alex Oliverio’s Sun Songs & Toy Tunes
7PM & 9PM

Alex Oliverio’s Sun Songs & Toy Tunes

($15-$25 | 7pm & 9pm Shows) Alex Oliverio aims to present a singular vision of Jazz, Folk, and Americana through the lens of the Southwest. Mixing and matching timbres and tones from… Read more

($15-$25 | 7pm & 9pm Shows) Alex Oliverio aims to present a singular vision of Jazz, Folk, and Americana through the lens of the Southwest. Mixing and matching timbres and tones from genres across the American spectrum to create a unique aural experience. Sun Song & Toy Tunes is an attempt to realize the “imaginational anthems” that early American Guitar & Banjo stylings evoke. Each song was written for solo guitar or banjo, then orchestrated with a modern ensemble in mind. That ensemble includes acoustic/electric guitars, banjos, pedal steel, synthesizers, keyboards, horns, and drums.

***”Of special interest is the way [Oliverio] is able to maintain a contemplative quality with music that often keeps to a gallop and expresses itself boldly.”***

**- Dave Sumner Bandcamp Daily**

One More Time: A Tribute to Daft Punk

One More Time: A Tribute to Daft Punk

Saturday May 25th One More Time: A Tribute to Daft Punk!! Doors: 8pm Show: 9pm Adv $20 | Dos $25 Read more

Saturday May 25th

One More Time: A Tribute to Daft Punk!!

Doors: 8pm
Show: 9pm

Adv $20 | Dos $25

RED EYE at Club Congress SATURDAY

RED EYE at Club Congress SATURDAY

RED EYE AT CLUB CONGRESS $3 PBR, $4 TRULY, $5 MEXICAN CANDY SHOTS 10PM – 2AM NO COVER Enter with ID at Club or 5th Ave entrances -Humphouse on the Plaza Read more

RED EYE AT CLUB CONGRESS

$3 PBR, $4 TRULY, $5 MEXICAN CANDY SHOTS

10PM – 2AM

NO COVER

Enter with ID at Club or 5th Ave entrances

-Humphouse on the Plaza

Late Night with Kenji Ono Lancaster & Denali Hershey Kaufman

Late Night with Kenji Ono Lancaster & Denali Hershey Kaufman

(No Cover | 10:30pm Show) After Saturday Night’s Show, join drummer Kenji Ono Lancaster, pianist Denali Hershey Kaufman and their band for late night! Read more

(No Cover | 10:30pm Show) After Saturday Night’s Show, join drummer Kenji Ono Lancaster, pianist Denali Hershey Kaufman and their band for late night!

Kelli Baker

Kelli Baker

Sunday May 26th 6pm $10

Sunday May 26th

6pm

$10

Jazz Jam with Max Goldschmid Quartet

Jazz Jam with Max Goldschmid Quartet

(No Cover | 7pm-10pm) Come jam with Max Goldschmid and the Century Room House band! Read more

(No Cover | 7pm-10pm) Come jam with Max Goldschmid and the Century Room House band!

Harmony House @ Club Congress

Harmony House @ Club Congress

Sunday May 26 from 9PM – 2AM House, Nu-Disco, & Pop Edits all night long with DJ Nada. You won’t want to miss it No Cover Must be 21+ Read more

Sunday May 26 from 9PM – 2AM

House, Nu-Disco, & Pop Edits all night long with DJ Nada.

You won’t want to miss it

No Cover

Must be 21+

Karaoke con Congress

Karaoke con Congress

Congratulations, you’re booked! You’re the star at Karaoke con Congress this Sunday night on the plaza – FREE from 10PM – 2AM Read more

Congratulations, you’re booked! You’re the star at Karaoke con Congress this Sunday night on the plaza – FREE from 10PM – 2AM

Big Band Bash! TJI Ellington Band & the CRJO

Big Band Bash! TJI Ellington Band & the CRJO

($15-$25 tickets | 7pm & 8:30pm sets) Inspired by the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the 17-piece CRJO performs classic big band repertoire every Monday night at the Century Room starting at 7pm…. Read more

($15-$25 tickets | 7pm & 8:30pm sets) Inspired by the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the 17-piece CRJO performs classic big band repertoire every Monday night at the Century Room starting at 7pm. Expect music from the Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Thad Jones/Mel Louis Jazz Orchestra and much more!

This week features the award-winning Tucson Jazz Institute Ellington Big Band during the first set!

AR Flamenco Presents: Tablao Flamenco with Special Guest Fabian Sisneros

AR Flamenco Presents: Tablao Flamenco with Special Guest Fabian Sisneros

($25-$35 | 7pm show) In one of Tucson’s most intimate venues, experience the rawness and authenticity flamenco has to offer. This month features special guest **Fabian Sisneros** **Angelina Ramirez (Baile)** Angelina Ramirez… Read more

($25-$35 | 7pm show) In one of Tucson’s most intimate venues, experience the rawness and authenticity flamenco has to offer. This month features special guest **Fabian Sisneros**

**Angelina Ramirez (Baile)**

Angelina Ramirez is a flamenco movement artist and teaching artist living in Tucson, Arizona. Ramirez’s artistic work explores what it means to be a queer, latinx flamenca, practicing in a traditional Roma/gitano form of dance. As a teaching artist, she is interested in the intersections of arts and healing, focusing on work with elders of all abilities and integrated flamenco with autistic individuals. She is devoted to promoting accessibility and eradicating ableism, racism and bigotry by practicing and promoting dialogue, acceptance and community participation. In 2021 Ramirez received the Master-Apprentice Artist Award through Southwest Folklife Alliance for her dedication and commitment to Flamenco arts. She is a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures fellow. In 2018 she received the Arizona Commission on the Arts’ Artist Research and Development Grant to support the development of her evening-length work /SER/. Ramirez is an original member of Yjastros, the American Flamenco Repertory Company and has toured with world-renowned, New York-based company Noche Flamenca. Along with teaching and performing Ramirez produces events and festivals and is currently the curator for the Traditional and Ethnic Dance Festival with the Southwest Folklife Alliance.

**Misael Barraza Diaz (Guitarrista)**

Born in Hermosillo, Sonora, Misael is one of the most outstanding Mexican guitarists of his generation. In 2014, Misael graduated with honors “Summa Cum Lude” from the Master in Guitar Alicante (Spain), a special program where Misael studied with world-class artists such as David Russell, Manuel Barrueco, Ignacio Rodes, Paul O’dette, Hopkinson Smith, Fabio Zanon, Roberto Aussell and Shin Ichi Fukuda. Later that year, the artist obtained a second Master’s degree from the University of Arizona (USA), where he now pursues the title of Doctor of Musical Arts under the tutelage of teacher Thomas Patterson, director of the Bolton Guitar Studies program. As part of this program, Mr. Barraza also studies regularly with artists-in-residence and Grammy winners David Russell, Sergio Assad and Odair Assad.

**With**

**Jason Martinez (cajon)**

**Mele Martinez (canta & palma)**

Dead Poet Society

Dead Poet Society

Tuesday May 28th w/ support from Andres **Spotify Presale: Tuesday January 9th @ 12pm ET** **General On-Sale: Friday January 12th @ 10am local** Doors 7pm ADV $20 | DOS $25 16+ —DEAD… Read more

Tuesday May 28th

w/ support from Andres

**Spotify Presale: Tuesday January 9th @ 12pm ET**

**General On-Sale: Friday January 12th @ 10am local**

Doors 7pm

ADV $20 | DOS $25

16+

—DEAD POET SOCIETY—Asked what it is he wants audiences to take away from “FISSION,” the forthcoming second album from Dead Poet Society, Jack Underkofler offers eight small but powerful words: “We want to leave them with the truth.”

The affable and engaging 30-year-old delivers these words with the forthrightness that marks his discussions about the band he fronts, completed by Jack Collins (guitar), Will Goodroad (drums), and Dylan Brenner (bass), and the art this collective of college friends have exhaustively dedicated themselves moulding, too often to their own detriment.

It’s an answer that epitomizes the dedication with which the quartet approaches their craft, and the search for its purest, most meaningful form. “It’s not as simple as saying we want our music to leave people with a positive outlook,” Underkofler explains. “You want music to speak to wherever you find yourself. We want to leave people feeling that whatever they are experiencing is valid, no matter what place they are at in their lives.”

After a decade defining, redefining, and perfecting their art, where Dead Poet Society finds themselves on the eve of their sophomore release is much clearer. Make no mistake: Dead Poet Society is a uniquely captivating group, rock’s next great breakout act, with “FISSION” set to capture the hearts and challenge the minds of fans old and new on the journey ahead.

Following on the heels of their acclaimed debut full-length “–!–“ (2021), “FISSION” seeks to unpack the personal journey its creators have been on during that ride to date. “FISSION,” as its title hints, is a 13-track study of personal change and the turbulence of growth that, as Underkofler attests, takes “a microscopic and broad look at the events that changed who we are.” To that end, there are deep rakings over the coals of relationship breakdowns, examinations of addiction in all its guises, ruminations on the responsibilities and challenges of adulthood, and struggles with the evolution, loss, and continual search for self. “In a lot of ways, this album is about unpacking those emotional pains that come with being an adult,” Underkofler says.

“The past few years have left me in a constant state of growth through the life events of which I’ve had little control, or which didn’t pan out the way I wanted them to,” the frontman admits. “There’s a ‘before’ you, and an ‘after’ you, and there’s no going back. Life tends to force your hand, and it’s futile to fight it. You have to accept that things that happen to you will change you, and let them build you into the next phase of who you are.

“There is a constant battle to not mourn who I was because the things you go through define you as a person and turn you into a person worth being,” he adds. “But that can be difficult to wrestle with. There is a positive to it, but it is birthed through a lot of pain.”

“It’s both exciting – ‘Fuck you. I’m gonna take this head-on’ – and at the same time, you’re terrified how you’re going to get through the next month,” adds Goodroad. “One day you’re super confident about where life is going, the next you’re second-guessing everything. It’s like the myth of Sisyphus: it’s a boulder you have to push up the hill every day.”

Twinned lead singles “Running In Circles” and “Hurt” weave through fears of following the wrong path while hiding behind false fronts. “How Could I Love You” and “I Hope You Hate Me” tackle the sometimes bittersweet, more often simply bitter fallout from a tumultuous relationship. “81 Tonnes,” meanwhile, sees Underkofler revisit a time of particular helplessness and instability. ’I need peace now slow my body down can you pull me out?’ he pleads. ‘Too afraid of fission and faith to save me from myself.’

It’s that track which gave guitarist Collins his clearest understanding of the emotions he and his bandmates share, which were coming to the fore in the song. “Jack described “81 Tonnes” to us as about being left with ‘a permanently altered state of mind,’ which felt like the perfect summary of so many of those songs on the album to me,” he says. ”They all lead you to the finish line of, ‘I’m a different person now because of all this…’”

To some extent, through “FISSION”’s creation, Dead Poet Society has become a different band, too. A more attuned one; more accomplished, certainly. “We were really trying to define our sound more on this record,” Collins nods. “We worked a lot more on guitar tones, bass tones, and drum sounds, and paid close attention to melody. The aim was to make our sound bigger – we wanted a more dynamic record, where you could hear the best representation of us live. I feel like the evolution is us maturing a little bit, and wanting to create a sound that was less an obvious reflection of our influences – Muse, Queens Of The Stone Age, Nothing But Thieves, Royal Blood – and more definitively our own. We don’t control where the inspiration comes from. We just had to obey the songs and what they were telling us to do next.”

“We hone in on a feeling, rather than a sound,” adds Underkofler. “This album is the defining moment of when we truly became Dead Poet Society. It’s the closest we’ve come to realizing the essence of the ideas we’ve always had for this band.”

The result is a compelling record of depth and substance, which weaves through the spectrum of anthemic alternative, dark hard rock, and progressive indie. “FISSION“ is at once comfortingly familiar and disconcertingly alien; raw and analogue – “Profoundly human,” as Goodroad says – while possessing a colder, digital inflection. Unexpected turns and deviations reveal themselves often; repeat listens reveal greater secrets yet. It’s a multifaceted record of contrast and cohesion, on which the bright glow of the ballad “Tipping Point” and album-highlight “My Condition” – the sort of infuriatingly hooky earworm anthem with which alternative radio airwaves are dominated – can coalesce with the industrial-leaning mechanics of the piston-driven “Hard To Be God” and “KOET.”

“I think the best way to make other people feel something is to make yourself feel something. The best songwriters are people who can take a particular emotion and feeling and create the most narrow translation when someone hears that song,” Underkofler says. “If someone hearing a song can be taken to the exact headspace that the person who wrote it was in at the time, for me, that is the mark of a great songwriter. And I feel with these songs, we’ve achieved that better than we ever have before.”

It’s a headspace you’re left to ruminate in long after Underkofler is finished protesting ‘But what if I’m always alone? / And I don’t like who I am anymore’ on the closing “Black And Gold”. Because when all is said and done, the truth is that the impact of “FISSION” and Dead Poet Society willreverberate now and in years to come.

Ambient Lounge | Steve Roach & Michael Stearns Night 1

Ambient Lounge | Steve Roach & Michael Stearns Night 1

Wednesday May 29th Night 1 6pm doors | 7pm show **Reserved Seating: $35** **General Admission:** ADV $25 | DOS $30 21+ —STEVE ROACH—AMBIENT LOUNGE – THE NEXT LEVEL STEVE ROACH & MICHAEL… Read more

Wednesday May 29th Night 1

6pm doors | 7pm show

**Reserved Seating: $35**

**General Admission:** ADV $25 | DOS $30

21+

—STEVE ROACH—AMBIENT LOUNGE – THE NEXT LEVEL
STEVE ROACH & MICHAEL STEARNS
W/ SPECIAL GUEST ROBERT RICH
MAY 29 & 30, CLUB CONGRESS
TUCSON, AZ

Yes you’re reading this correctly! Steve and Michael will be performing solo and collaborative sets for the first time ever together on 2 nights in May 2024. Add to this, the return of Robert Rich as guest and we have 3 unforgettable nights in the Soundcurrent.

These concerts will be presented in 4 channel sound within the intimate and great sounding Club Congress in Downtown Tucson. The artist’s intention is to place the audience directly within the core of the creative vortex. Pure sonic immersion unfolding before your ears and eyes. In this setting we are leaving the visuals out of the picture and keeping the focus on the artists at work, presenting and sharing with the audience a rare intimate encounter at the crucible of the creative experience.

As did the recent Ambient Lounge concert with Robert Rich and Steve, these shows will sell out. Tickets will be on sale soon. We will announce as soon as the ticket sales open up. We hope to see you at this rarefied event on the horizon – May 29, 30 2024.

Mysterious Babies Traditional Jazz

Mysterious Babies Traditional Jazz

($10 Reserved/$5 Advanced GA | 7pm-9:30pm) Guy Senese leads the Mysterious Babies in the tradition of Armstrong, Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, and other Early Jazz innovators out of New Orleans & Chicago…. Read more

($10 Reserved/$5 Advanced GA | 7pm-9:30pm) Guy Senese leads the Mysterious Babies in the tradition of Armstrong, Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, and other Early Jazz innovators out of New Orleans & Chicago. The band starts at 7pm, followed by a trad jazz jam session. Every Wednesday!

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