Ventura Rocks in the Ventura Breeze 2/26 – 3/10

Ventura MusVentura Breeze logoic Scene
by Pam Baumgardner
VenturaRocks.com
Pam@VenturaRocks.com

Breeze artworkThe Ventura Music Festival announced their 2020 lineup recently. Most of the events will be held at the Ventura College Performing Arts Center (VCPAC); but the ever-popular Tea & Trumpets will once again be held at the Pierpont Inn on July 23, and their annual free event will be held at Mission park on July 30 featuring Adaawe, seven women of the voice and drum featuring music from West African roots with Gospel harmonies and American funk. The other performances at VCPAC including Aubrey Logan, an American pop and jazz singer and trombone soloist; Time for Three; Andrea Roberto, Django Festival Allstars, Tom Scott & LA Express and Sean Chen. Tickets go on sale April 13 at www.VenturaMusicFestival.org.

Meanwhile, the Ventura Music Festival has a special event on March 22 featuring seven gifted musicians from Austria called Mnozil Brass, noted as “the Monty Python of the musical world.” This concert will be held at Rancho Campana Performing Arts Center in Camarillo.

Formerly known as Champagne on Main, the Spring Wine Walk & Street Fair will be here before you know it. The street fair is always open and free to the public, but to be a part of the wine walk you will need to buy tickets. The event falls on Saturday, March 28. Get your tickets at www.SpringWineWalk.com.

Quick Notes: enjoy some pub rock with Sock Monkey at Red Cove, on Thursday, February 27; Grady’s Records has an in store performance on Friday, February 28, with Eugene Chadbourne and Daniel Masiel; the Vonettes with the Swizzlers play an early show (6 pm) at Bombay’s on Friday, February 28; Solvang’s La Grimas plays a punk show with Up Your Gut and Defeating the Purpose at the Garage on Friday, February 28; Concrete Jungle Brewing is hosting an “Into the Wild” art show on Saturday, February 29, with Omega Nova playing; you can catch Cinnamon Whiskey at Duke’s at the beach on Saturday, February 29; the Midtones play Peirano’s on Saturday, February 29; Caffrodite Community Collective has a songwriter’s showcase on Sunday, March 1 with Liz Nash, Kathy Kamath, Don Horn and others; check out Sunday Funday, March 1, at Four Brix Winery featuring Mark Masson; Rachel Flowers returns to Ventura for a jazz show at the Winery Ventura on Sunday afternoon, March 1; Los Cool Arrows plays the Ventura Theater on Saturday, March 7; and finally, Second Sunday Supper on March 8 has Shaky Feelin’ at Plan B Winery.

The Jazz community lost a good one this past month when Ken Winters passed away. A former jazz writer and a World War II veteran, he was a gem and a gentleman and I always enjoyed hearing his tales of the many jazz shows he had seen over the years.

Do you have any music-related news or upcoming shows you want help publicizing? Please send all information short or long to Pam@VenturaRocks.com. For updated music listings daily, go to www.VenturaRocks.com.

Ventura Rocks in the Ventura Breeze 2/12 – 2/25

Ventura MusVentura Breeze logoic Scene
by Pam Baumgardner
VenturaRocks.com
Pam@VenturaRocks.com

Ventura Rocks in Breeze artworkLet’s acknowledge the elephant in the room, and then move on. Yes, another venue has closed its doors. What’s worse, it’s a Main Street venue, this time Oak and Main. Was it due to mismanagement? Bad service? Poor advertising? It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, but instead, let’s all just vow to support your favorite venues making up Ventura’s music scene. Rent is incredibly high, and the bands deserve to be paid well, so understand that us music lovers are the ones who truly give it the blood to keep it going.

Here now, your Valentine’s musical choices for February 14: there will be a Punk Rock Prom party (all ages) at Bike Ventura on the Avenue with Rafa Rose, Martini Drive and Without Words; Colette Lovejoy plays Café Fiore; serious dancing will be going on at Copa Cubana with House Arrest; there’s a 20’s theme party at Four Brix Winery with Ginger & the Hoosier Daddies; Benjamin Buttner plays jazz & blues at La Cosecha Modern Concina in the Crown Plaza Hotel; Limon y Sal offers up Mariachi Aguilas de Oxnard dinner shows; there’s a “Rock into my Heart” party at the Sewer with Spacedragon and the Mystos; in Ojai, a special evening of live music with Jade Hendrix at Topa Mountain Winery; in Oxnard, jazz with Toni Jannotta at 1901 Speakeasy in Oxnard; and finally, not only can you celebrate Valentine’s Day with Shawn Jones at Grapes and Hops, but it’s a Marti Gras birthday celebration for owner Tammy White as well.

Get your cowboy boots out because Saturday, February 15 will be the 4th annual Country Music Crawl in downtown Ventura featuring six bands and six venues where at the start you pick the color cup to represent whether your single (blue) or in a committed relationship (red). I’m thinking we should always have that option in all bars don’t you think? In any case, here’s the line up starting at Blue Agave at 4 pm with Lacie Mae; Ted Z & the Wranglers at Star Lounge at 5; then over to Grapes and Hops for Blind Innocense at 6; up to Limon y Sal for Paige Peel at 7; Mike Scully plays Winchesters at 8 pm; then wrapping up the crawl at the Sewer for Rob Leines at 9 pm by which time I’m sure it will be an actual crawl. Get your tickets at CountryBarCrawl.com.

Pulse Drumming will hold a special drum clinic at the Winery Ventura Sunday afternoon, February 23, with Fausto Cuevas (toured with Stevie Wonder, Queen Latifah, Santana, and now with Jennifer Lopez). Following the clinic will be a live performance starting at 2:30.

Quick Notes: now that football season is over, the Boatyard Pub is back to live music every night of the week; there’s a free Chamber Music Concert at the Ventura College Performing Arts Center on Saturday, February 15; Namba has Licity’s Love Fest at Namba Saturday, February 15 and then Dan Rosenboom’s Jazz Fusion on Sunday, February 16; Dark Star Orchestra plays the Ventura Theater Thursday, February 20; and the 6th annual Johnny Cash birthday bash at Bombay’s will be Saturday, February 22 with the Mighty Cash Cats and Silver Threads.

And finally, there will be a fundraiser on Saturday, February 22, for an all-inclusive playground in Arroyo Verde Park at the Garage with over ten bands supporting this effort including the Robot Uprising, Fuse, Day Drunk, One Minute Run, Malice Thoughts and Plot.

Do you have any music-related news or upcoming shows you want help publicizing? Please send all information short or long to Pam@VenturaRocks.com. For updated music listings daily, go to www.VenturaRocks.com.