NEW MUSIC THURSDAYS
$6-10 sliding scale, no one refused for lack of funds
A night with the Tokyo Nammy & special guests
Lucio Menegon, guitar
Peter Valsamis, drums Nami Sagara is also known as Tokyo Nammy for her underground works. She is a member of Japan’s Betsuni Nanmo Klezmer,led by Kazutoki Umezu, producing three CDs. Referring to her work with this band,Music Works of Canada he said,”….an exercise in vocal madness that has Tokyo Nammy cackle,quack,and honk as if convinced that such was humankind’s ultimate aim.” Nammy’s other performances include collaborations with Jon Rose,Yoshihide Otomo,John Zorn, David Moss,etc.. Nammy’s voice never ceases to surprise you! Tokyo Nammy Band is her latest exploration.
Nami Sagara started her singing in her mother’s womb.
She graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Art department of Vocal music, Japan’s premier arts and music school.Although classically trained as a Soprano, Nami’s singing portfolio ranges from very soft angelic to opera, jazz, rock and pure nuts.
She singsin a dozen languages including Farsi,Hindu, and Hebrew. Daniel Charles wrote about Nami’s voice “…contains precisely the exaggerated declamation, the quaver, the feminine shrill…all this more…Nami’s genius to be able to measure with such extreme precision and refinement every vocal effect used.” In 1992,Nami started her own band “OPERA” with Nahoko Kakiage.
Nice-Matin of France referred to one of OPERA’s performances as “…two leather-wearing Japanese in a performance that would have blown the entire Zenith.” In Denmark, her band OPERA followed the Queen’s speech during The Arhus Festival 1995. Later on the band took a twist in their music under the name”The Eccentric Opera”, producing four CDs with Epic Sony, Japan. Mainichi Shinbun, a major Japanese newspapers wrote “… a pleasant sensation … broke all preconceived notions…border-less..their costume, acting is like wind-up dolls out of Fellini’s world.”
The Eccentric Opera music has been listened to and used widely in Japan in radio programs, TV shows, and commercials.
Lucio Menegon is a guitarist, composer, collaborator and sonic artist. His work encompases rock ‘n’ roll, blues, country, punk and ‘experimental’ music.
Lucio has collaborated and performed with Gunnar Madsen, Glenn Branca, Moe! Staiano, Mark De gli Antoni, Anton Barbeau, Val Esway, Laurie Amat, Luca Miti and has appeared on over 25 released recordings. Lucio is based in San Francisco, CA and performs with the experimental groups Lumper/Splitter and SPLIT LIP, ‘Ameri-kinda/country’ stars Val Esway and El Mirage and was a founding member of Ramona the Pest, Zebu and the HO.
Film projects include a live score to La Ent’ract by Rene Clair at the 2005 Music on Film Festival in Prague, CZ, award winning score for the short La Vie d’un Chien (2005) as well as live and composed scores for the Overdub Club, Thad Povey, Alphonso Alvarez and the Cinepimps. His work has appeared at the SF International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and the SF Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Lucio’s latest CD, Soundtrack Instrumentals – Music for Driving and Film (2006) explores his compositional side and features multi-instrumental, cinematic textures. Soundtracks keeps a measured distance from his rock sensibilities, but includes just enough of his signature six-string sonic mayhem to keep fans of his previous work satisfied.
As a music producer and engineer, Lucio has worked with many talented independent artists as well as major blues artists such as Steve Lucky, Rusty Zinn, Dave Meyers, Craig Horton and Kim Wilson.
Lucio has a BA in Economics, is interested in understanding the limitations of existing on a planet with finite resources and maintains a fairly sensitive bullshit detector.
Born in Montreal, Peter Valsamis began playing the piano at the age of six, but soon moved to the drums and percussion. Concurrently, he developed a sensitivity to sound that drew him to record and manipulate sound using tape and computers. Now based in Oakland, California, Valsamis continues to nurture a wide range of interests. As a drummer, he has presented his music to concert audiences in Europe, Asia and North America, performing with Steve Lacy, Cecil Taylor, Malcolm Goldstein, Don Preston. and the trio Sound on Survival featuring Marco Eneidi and Lisle Ellis. Peter is also an accomplished dumbek player, performing frequently with various Middle Eastern ensembles in the bay area. Valsamis’ electroacoustic endeavors include soundtracks for films, music production and engineering. Valsamis received his M.F.A. in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College. While at Mills Peter studied with Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, William Winant, and Leo Smith and received the prestigious Hellman Scholarship in Performance.