The Mocambo Jazz Ensemble
Young jazz lions don’t come much younger than 13-year-old San Diegan Kahlil Childs, a member of the newly formed Mocambo Jazz Ensemble.
His fleet, dexterous playing on alto and soprano saxophones belies the fact Kahlil only began playing those instruments when he was 10.
I first heard him last year at Panama 66 in Balboa Park, where he sat in with top trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos’ quartet. Kahlil, a student at Castellanos’ Young Lions Jazz Conservatory, immediately impressed with his technical prowess and thoughtfully constructed solos.
Three of Mocambo’s four other are also students at the conservatory — drummer Rhydian Marshall, 13, pianist Joey Kim-Weigandt, 15, (piano) and bass wizard John Murray, 18, who this fall begins his studies at Juilliard in New York.
The fifth member, alto and baritone saxophonist Alvin Paige, 19, is a Young Lions Conservatory alum who is now a jazz sax major at Michigan State University.
Mocambo’s repertoire includes classics by John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard and McCoy Tyner, as well as recent works by Bahamian trumpeter Giveton Gelin and other contemporary artists. It should be a debut worth celebrating.
8 p.m. Saturday. Dizzy’s at Arias Hall, 1717 Morena Blvd., Bay Park; $20 (all audience must wear masks regardless of vaccination status). (858) 270-7467; dizzysjazz.com
Dispatch, O.A.R., G. Love
What is the biggest band to come out of Vermont, past or present, not named Phish or Grace Potter & The Nocturnals?
Take a bow, Dispatch, which was formed in 1996 at Middlebury College by Brad Corrigan, Chad Urmston and Pete Heimbold (who is no longer a member).
An early Napster favorite, the folk-rocking trio found success on the jam-band circuit despite not seeming to jam very much. Its 2011 reunion included three sold-out concerts at New York’s 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden.
Self-described as “the biggest band nobody’s heard of,” Dispatch today kicks off its summer tour with O.A.R. and G. Love in Arizona. The tour includes a Sunday show here at SDSU.
It remains to be seen if Dispatch will perform its best-known song, 1998’s “The General,” in its new phonetic Russian version, which Stokes recorded in April to raise money for fighters and emergency medical responders in Ukraine.
7 p.m. Sunday. Cal Coast Open Air Theatre, SDSU, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego $25-$75. ticketmaster.com
Johnny Mathis, with Gary Mule Deer
Retirement?
That word is apparently not in the vocabulary of either singing legend Johnny Mathis, 86, or comedian/vocalist Gary Mule Deer, 82.
The two have toured together for the past 24 years. Chances are they won’t stop any time soon. Long may they run.
8 p.m. Saturday. Pechanga Theater, Pechanga Resort Casino, 45000 Pechanga Parkway, Temecula. $126-$191. pechanga.com
