Who: Crown City Rockers with Luckyiam and Babahwird
When: 9 p.m. Sunday
Where: Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder
Cost: $10-$15
The Crown City Rockers are heading out on The Day After Forever tour, and the Oakland, Calif., band’s ready to bring all its new music to the Fox.
On Sunday, the Crown City Rockers will show off their unique hybrid of hip-hop, funk and jazz to Boulder. This group of musicians has definitely found new ways to bend genres in the world of hip-hop grooves.
“I met the band when they were all playing jams and hanging out at the Berklee school in Boston,” MC Raashan Ahmad said. “I convinced the group to move to the West Coast. We all came from different backgrounds, but we all wanted to explore funk, ska, hip-hop and varied sounds.
“We just wanted to experiment with the music and see what would happen. There’s a lot of hip-hop in our sounds, but we also have elements of beat, funk and soul. We try to make music that’s timeless.”
The Crown City Rockers are now touring behind their latest CD, The Day After Forever. Ahmad said the band came up with over 65 songs for the project.
“We whittled them down to the best songs to fit the album,” Ahmad explained. “The album flows really well. Some songs are completely live and some are instrumental, but they all show that our music is multi-dimensional, varied and cohesive.”
Justin Nozuka
The Fox Theatre has been bringing lots of new talent to Boulder.
On Tuesday, the club hosts up-and-coming performer Justin Nozuka. The musician’s fusion of acoustic and pop sounds has been earning him prime slots on national tours, and now he’s out headlining his own shows.
Nozuka’s been busy touring with Missy Higgins, O.A.R. and Guster. The young musician also got to play for John Mayer’s annual boat cruise, and he’s been named a VH1 “You Oughta Know” artist.
“I’ve been influenced by artists like The Beatles, Jeff Buckley, Bob Marley and Radiohead,” Nozuka said. “I can feel the connection with that music — and I feel that my music is the best of all these musical genres.
“I wanted to capture some real soul on my new record. I wanted it to sound natural and have that spiritual component come out in my music.”
Ozomatli
Ozomatli’s been attracting fans of all ages to its shows for over a decade.
The band creates a very cool mash-up of sounds that include hip-hop and salsa grooves. These days, Ozomatli’s been taking its music around the globe. The band’s been serving as musical goodwill ambassadors for the United States.
On Saturday, Ozomatli hits Denver’s Ogden Theatre with its “Off The Grid” tour. The concert will feature tunes from the band’s upcoming 2010 release.
“We had taken a break for awhile and toured a lot less in 2009,” vocalist Raul Pacheco said. “We wanted to make a new batch of recordings, but we still made time to visit places like Burma, Japan and Singapore.
“We’re still getting around, but we want to remind people that the new CD will be out next year.”
Ozomatli’s has been hired by the United States to be cultural ambassadors to the world. The post has taken the band to some very interesting locales.
“We’ve been playing around the world for lots of children,” Pacheco said. “The kids really appreciate it and we encourage them to play music. It’s been a very moving experience.”
Ozomatli will be hitting the road in 2010 with a brand-new sound experience.
“We’re definitely being more sonically adventurous,” Pacheco said. “We’ve been inspired by some of the places we visited around the world.
“We’re also incorporating sounds from our trips that came from our video footage. There are sounds from the street, hotel rooms and a mish-mash of the places we visited. They add a certain cinematic quality to the new songs.”
