{"id":477113,"date":"2026-09-27T04:26:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T04:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477113\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T04:26:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T04:26:29","slug":"this-weeks-san-diego-concerts-that-only-a-hermit-might-want-to-miss-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477113\/","title":{"rendered":"This week\u2019s San Diego concerts that only a hermit might want to miss! \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erykah Badu & The Alchemist, with Smino<\/p>\n

If patience is indeed a virtue, Erykah Badu is surely one of the most virtuous artists in any musical genre.<\/p>\n

Rather than rush her work \u2014 or her muse \u2014 this five-time Grammy Award-winner makes albums only when she feels truly ready. That is why Badu has released only three albums since 2008\u2019s \u201cNew Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh),\u201d and why her newest, this year\u2019s \u201cBefore the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment,\u201d is her first in 11 years.<\/p>\n

But her slow, carefully measured recorded output is only one of the notable qualities about this Dallas native, who has divided her time between music, raising and homeschooling her three daughters, and working as both a birth and death doula.<\/p>\n

Badu\u2019s proudly Afrocentric 1997 debut album, \u201cBaduizm,\u201d quickly led to her being hailed as the \u201cqueen of neo-soul.\u201d It was an accolade she quickly dismissed, the better to avoid being pigeonholed alongside fellow neo-soul stars D\u2019Angelo, Jill Scott, India.Arie and Musiq Soulchild. By coincidence, Scott this year released her first album in 11 years.<\/p>\n

At the time of her 1997 debut album, Badu (born: Erica Abi Wright) appeared poised to become that rare artist who achieved commercial success without sacrificing integrity. Credit for this was due to her mesmerizing blend of retro-soul, hip-hop, funk, jazz and a rare degree of social and political consciousness.<\/p>\n

Badu\u2019s San Diego debut concert that same year was a memorable one.\u00a0Her subsequent collaborations with The Roots, Common and OutKast helped elevate her reputation as a serious artistic force.<\/p>\n

Her sporadic recordings since then have been alternately inspired and wildly uneven, and her 2003 album, \u201cWorldwide Underground,\u201d was largely an exercise in noodling. Badu\u2019s 2008 song helped reintroduce the phrase \u201cwoke,\u201d which had first appeared in the lyrics to folk-blues pioneer Leadbelly\u2019s 1939 classic, \u201cScottsboro Boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

While her albums have lacked consistency, Badu has not faltered in wanting to achieve lofty creative standards. Or, as she told me in a 1999 San Diego Union-Tribune interview:\u00a0\u201cI would tell (young music fans) that if they enjoy and understand what I represent as an artist, whose music comes from the depths and soul of my heart, then they have to listen to my elder, Bob Marley, to see what kind of impact his spirituality and music can make on society. That\u2019s that same thing I want to achieve with my music.\u201d<\/p>\n

With her new album \u201cBefore the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment\u201d \u2014 a joint effort with veteran producer and beat-maker The Alchemist \u2014 Badu delivers a hazy aural excursion that is\u00a0 admirable for its refusal to pander to her listeners.<\/p>\n

The fact that she remains a consistently charismatic live performer is what, I hope, will make her concert here with The Alchemist a show to remember. Ditto the fact that, if her San Diego concert is like other stops on her current tour, attendees will be required to have their phones sealed in pouches for the duration of her performance. One would expect no less from an artist whose 2015 mixtape, \u201cBut You Caint Use My Phone,\u201d includes the no-nonsense song, \u201cPhone Down.\u201d<\/p>\n

8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26. Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU, 5500 Campanile Drive. $68.95-$302.25 ticketmaster.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"BassistBassist and composer Linda May Han Oh will perform with drummer Mark Whitfield Jr. and pianist Fabian Almazan at The JAI at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center. (La Jolla Music Society)
\nLinda May Han Oh Trio<\/p>\n

The model for the animated, bass-playing character Miho in the Oscar-winning Pixar film, \u201cSoul,\u201d Malaysian-born bassist Linda May Han Oh is one of most gifted and resourceful musicians in jazz.<\/p>\n

Linda May Han Oh has all the basses covered: \u2018She\u2019s a singular, deeply creative jazz master\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Whether performing alongside such heavyweights as Pat Metheny and Joe Lovano or leading her own bands, she plays with consistent skill, taste and sensitivity. Oh boasts similar attributes as a composer and band leader whose goal is always to serve the music at hand, not let the music serve her.<\/p>\n

She is now on tour with her propulsive trio, which teams her with pianist Fabio Almazan and drummer Mark Whitfield Jr. An associate professor at the Berklee College of Music and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Study, Oh this year received a Guggenheim Fellowship that she will use for the debut of \u201cDreams of Knowing,\u201d her interdisciplinary work that bridges the worlds of science and data with music.<\/p>\n

5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25. The JAI at The Conrad, 7600 Fay Avenue, La Jolla. $70-$82. 858-459-3728, theconrad.org<\/p>\n

\"BlackEngland\u2019s Geordie Greep will perform in San Diego next week. (Jennifer Cappuccio Maher)
\nGeordie Greep<\/p>\n

The former guitarist and front man for the freewheeling English art-rock collective Black Midi, Geordie Greep is \u2014 at 27 \u2014 something of an outlier.<\/p>\n

Equally steeped in indie-rock, prog, math-rock, cutting-edge experimentation and the music of Steely Dan, he is an instrumental virtuoso in an age when virtuosity seems increasingly out of vogue in popular music. It comes as no surprise that this genre-leaping songwriter and bandleader cites former San Diegan Frank Zappa as a prime influence.<\/p>\n

Greep\u2019s work is brainy, but has a welcome edge. He is happy to provoke listeners, but has also disowned Black Midi\u2019s music as overly complex and he strived to be more straightforward on his first solo album, 2024\u2019s \u201cThe New Sound.\u201d But not straightforward enough to keep Greep from considering making his next album a three-hour affair.<\/p>\n

Exactly what that bodes for his concert here next week with his band remains to be seen, but I expect it will be anything but boring \u2014 or, for that matter \u2014 straightforward. Greep is the only current artist I can think of whose concerts sometimes include cover versions of The Beatles\u2019 \u201cYesterday,\u201d\u00a0 Shakira\u2019s \u201cHips Don\u2019t Lie,\u201d George Thorogood\u2019s \u201cBad to the Bone\u201d and he Frank Sinatra-cum-John-Coltrane-and-Johnny Hartman chestnut, \u201cMy One and Only Love.\u201d<\/p>\n

8 p.m. next Thursday, Oct. 1. Observatory North Park, University Avenue, North Park. $36.10-$47.50. ticketmaster.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erykah Badu & The Alchemist, with Smino If patience is indeed a virtue, Erykah Badu is surely one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[967,181,6682,74,76,75,420,1696],"class_list":["post-477113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-entertainment","tag-latest-headlines","tag-music-and-concerts","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}