Hugs and High-Fives for Local Grammy Guy
David Sharpe’s shows this Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Children’s Discovery Museum of San José will be just a bit different. There’ll be the familiar positive, fun songs and the creatures (teenagers dressed up as smiley flora and fauna), wandering among Sharpe and the other members of the PapaHugs band. But expect the energy level to hit some new highs. “We’re pegging these as Grammy Celebration Shows,” announces Sharpe, who found out a few weeks ago that his latest album, Are We There Yet? (PapaHugs Productions), has been nominated in the new Grammy category of Best Children’s Album.
Sharpe is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), which will host the awards ceremony at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 12, so he has had the opportunity to compare his output with other nominees. “I always like to say that my music is very pure and original,” he says. And even though he targets listeners 5-years-old and younger, “I want to connect people of all ages, so that I can perform and have children and their parents and grandparents all come and really enjoy it together.”
Creating the PapaHugs songlist itself became a family affair. Sharpe, a podiatrist by training, didn’t start to record until he became a grandfather to Brayden, Ashton, and Rylee, who grew into helpful inspirations. It was Brayden, for example, who prompted Sharpe to write a rap song, his first, The Bubble Wrap, and samples of the snappy stuff are now distributed to kids at shows. Nephew Jeremy Hoenig is the band’s drummer and a coproducer of the album, along with guitarist Tim Volpicella, who also runs the studio. At least six family members will join the band at the Grammy ceremony.
See more about the concerts at the Discovery Museum.
Heart-Opening JAMband
Charity Kahn’s Love Day Show at the Noe Valley Branch of the San Francisco Public Library will celebrate Valentines Day with “a lot of songs that are very heart-opening,” says Kahn. “And I’ll be asking people to make valentines for the world. Little kids can make them for their mom or dad or their favorite tree or their pet.” When they’re not involved in heart-shaped artwork, participants will be encouraged, as they always are at performances by Charity and the JAMband, to dance. “Every song has dance moves that go with the entire song,” explains the band’s leader. “I integrate a lot of yoga into my work with kids. What I figured out, mostly just by being a mom, is that kids are gonna wanna move, and if you have any hope of channeling their energy and getting their attention, it’s gonna be through their bodies.”
It would be tough for anyone of any age to resist moving to the JAMband’s performances and recordings, infused with rock and world rhythms. Kahn’s lyrics are equally lively, even though “there’s a message in this music — underlying teaching about compassion and loving kindness and gratitude and diversity.” Despite the cloying cuteness found in other children’s music, Kahn has succeeded in creating something “you can listen to over and over again, like all truly good and inspired music, without getting sick and tired.”
Read more about the Love-Themed Valentines Day Jam with Charity and the JAMband.
Salsa Staying Power
Arturo Riera still gets choked up when he thinks back to the debut of the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble, of which he’s cofounder and managing director, four days after 9/11, “a very emotional and difficult time, and one of the most magical nights of my life.” The LJYE, at that time hastily assembled by Riera, his wife Sylvia Ramirez, and jazz flautist John Calloway, “elevated the Masonic Auditorium and went off into outer space.”
At its 10th Annual Reunion Concert earlier this month, the LJYE celebrated having been able to perform at class venues like Yoshi’s and Yerba Buena Gardens, recording of a pair of fine albums (with a third due next month), and its survival “without a board, without grants, and without fund-raising.”
The passion, shared by teenaged players male and female and parents from diverse Bay Area communities, revolves around a music irresistibly exciting but challenging in its intricate timing and sophisticated harmonic arrangements over African-Iberian modes. “Children are the most vulnerable between the ages of 10 and 16, that’s when they can get in the most trouble,” points out Riera. “But I see the LJYE as a way to give young people an identity that’s positive, fulfilling, and providing a sense of pride and purpose.”