The Joshua White Trio, with Sherry Williams
To call Joshua White the finest homegrown jazz pianist to emerge in San Diego over the past 20 years is high praise, but also well-deserved.
His skill, imagination and stylistic versatility have earned White praise here and abroad. His admirers include keyboard legend Herbie Hancock, who was one of the judges when White won second-place hoors at the 2011 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
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“Joshua has immense talent,” Hancock subsequently told the Union-Tribune. “I was impressed by his daring and courageous approach to improvisation on the cutting edge of innovation. He is his own man. I believe Thelonious Monk would have been proud of the performance of this great young artist.”
White has since done concert tours in China with New York saxophonist David Binney and in Europe (with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa and Steph Richards). Closer to home, the El Cajon-raised pianist has been featured on albums by such stylistically disparate artists as bassists Mark Dresser and Rob Thorsen, trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos, singer-pianist Jonathan Karrant, saxophonist Christopher Hollyday and more.
Now based in Long Beach, White stands out in any setting, thanks to his winning combination of technical command, improvisational depth and an ability to suffuse each note he plays with equal purpose and passion.
He and his trio are teaming this weekend with Temecula singer Sherry Williams to launch a new outdoor jazz dinner series at the Westgate Hotel. The series will continue Aug. 22 with drum great Jeff Hamilton and the Steve Kovalcheck Trio and Sept. 12 with the Peter Sprague Quintet.
6 p.m. Saturday, July 11. Westgate Hotel, 1055 Second Avenue, downtown. $75 (includes a chef-crafted dinner buffet, a welcome glass of wine or champagne, and concert) Reservations: 619-238-1818, westgatehotel.com/event/jazz-on-the-terrace/
The Barcelona band Maruja Limon will make its San Diego debut Friday at UC San Diego. (Courtesy ArtPower)
Maruja Limón
For some American pop-music fans, Rosalia’s 2017 debut album may have been their introduction to flamenco, although the Spanish vocal sensation did not break through in the U.S. until after the release of her second album, the genre-stretching “El Mal Querer,” which earned her a Grammy Award and six Latin Grammy wins.
For others, their first exposure to flamenco may have been in the scene in the 2010 film “Toy Story 3” in which the character Buzz Lightyear is accidentally reset in “Spanish mode” and is transformed into a fervent flamenco dancer.
Whether you know a lot or almost nothing about flamenco, the San Diego debut by Maruja Limón should be memorable and then some. Formed in 2014, the six-woman band injects fresh new spirit and musical twists into the flamenco traditions its members embrace. Their lineup features singers Sheila Quero and Esther González, guitarist Vicky Blum, drummer Eli Fabregas, bassist Carla González and her trumpet-playing sister Mila González.
Maruja Limón hails from Barcelona, as do the like-minded, all-woman quartets Las Migas and Ketekalles. While none is likely to achieve the crossover pop success of Rosalia — whose sold-out Pechanga Arena San Diego concert last week was an eye-popping spectacle worthy of a hit Broadway musical production — each band has built loyal followings in the homeland.
This weekend will see the area debut of Maruja Limón, whose music incorporates rumbas, bulerias, fandangos, alegrias and other flamenco styles, along with the African-tinged mestizo,Dominican Republican dembow, hip-hop and electronica. What results on Maruja Limón’s records is a tantalizing treat that should be an even bigger treat here, live and in real time, on a concert stage.
7 p.m. Friday, July 10. Epstein Family Amphitheater, 9480 Innovation Lane, UC San Diego, La Jolla. $20-$40. ucsd.evenue.net/event/AP27/AP0710
Wynonna Judd will perform at The Shell on a double bill this weekend with Melissa Etheridge. (Mark Humphrey / AP)
Wynonna Judd, Melissa Etheridge
Many established artists are reluctant to perform songs from their upcoming albums before they are released.
Not so, five-time Grammy Award-winner and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Wynonna Judd. Her June 12 concert in Wyoming found her previewing no fewer than five songs from her first new album in a decade, “The Hard Truth,” which won’t be released until Oct. 2. It features collaborations with Iron & Wine, Patterson Hood and The War and Treaty, and is being released four years after the death of her mother and former musical partner, Naomi Judd.
The Judds say final farewell. Or do they?
Judd is sharing the bill with Melissa Etheridge, whose absorbing new album, “Rise,” came out in March and she’s been playing five or six songs from it nightly. She and Judd both still have something to prove.
7 p.m. Saturday. The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, 222 Marina Park Way, San Diego. $78-$672. theshell,org.
Members of the Beat Farmers will star at the 15th annual Beat Farmers’ Hootenanny. The lineup will feature the Farmers and an array of musical guests. (File photo)
15th annual Beat Farmers Hootenanny
San Diego’s finest roots-rock band, the Beat Farmers formed in 1983 at the Spring Valley Inn.
The group went on to earn national and international acclaim before its swaggering leader, Country Dick Montana, died on stage midway through a 1995 show in Canada. Montana was irreplaceable and the band wisely called it a day.
Now led by co-founder Jerry Raney, the Beat Farmers reunite periodically and their annual Hootenanny shows at the Belly Up are reliably rollicking affairs.
This year’s lineup of guest artists includes Farmers’ member Joey Harris and his band, The Mentals, Sue Palmer, Thomas Yearsley of The Paladins, Whitney Shay, Robin Henkel and Evans Kontopuls.
8 p.m. Saturday. Belly Up Tavern, 143 South Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach. $25 (general admission) and $44 (reserved); must be 21 or older to attend. bellyup.com
Leading San Diego drummer Richard Sellers will lead his quintet in concert tonight, Wednesday, at the all-ages Dizzy’s in Bay Park.(Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Richard Sellers Quintet, featuring Kamau Kenyatta, Curtis Taylor, Kahlil Childs & Justin Grinell
Richard Sellers has been a first-call drummer in San Diego for years, as evidenced by his performances with such greats as saxophonist Charles McPherson, flutist Holly Hofmann, saxophonist/keyboardist Kamau Kenyatta, pianist Mikan Zlatkovich and others.
No matter the setting, Sellers brings exactly the right percussive touch to the music at hand as he simultaneously anchors and propels his bandmates.
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For his concert tonight, Wednesday at the all-ages Dizzy’s, Sellers has assembled a talent-rich band that includes Kenyatta, trumpeter Curtis Taylor, bassist Justin Grinnell and fast-rising young saxophonist Kahlil Childs.
At just 16, Childs is starting to make waves nationally. In May, he won top honors during the 2026 edition of the national annual Essentially Ellington competition at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center. He did so performing with the San Diego Young Lions Jazz Conservatory Big Band, whose lineup boasted four other 2026 Essentially Ellington members — Miles Dixon, Thiam Khosravan, Jordan Yeager and Luca Posillico.
Yes, Childs is several decades younger than the other members of Sellers’ quintet. But there is good reason to believe this young sax dynamo will hold his own among these veteran players at Dizzy’s, a venue where Childs has led his one bands on several occasions. (Dizzy’s will also be the site of Saturday afternoon’s “Remembering Michael Oletta,” a celebration of life for the recently deceased jazz photographer whose impressive work has long hung on the walls of the Bay Park music venue.)
8 p.m. today, Wednesday, July 8. Dizzy’s at Arias Hall (behind the Musician’s Association building), 1717 Morena Blvd., Bay Park. $25 at the door. dizzysjazz.com