Adrian Spinelli April 15, 2021Updated: April 15, 2021, 11:54 am
Sharon Van Etten performs at the Treasure Island Music Festival in Oakland in 2018. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle
The Chronicle’s guide to notable new music.
NEW ALBUMS
Paul McCartney, “III Imagined” (Capitol)
In December, McCartney released the stripped-down solo release “III,” which he produced and recorded during what he called the “rockdown” period in his Sussex farmhouse studio.
Now, in yet another display of his timeless creative spark, he has curated a cast of artists to cover and reimagine cuts from that album for the new “III Imagined.” He clearly has an ear for today’s best artists, as the 12 songs include versions by the multitalented rapper Anderson .Paak, world soul trio Khruangbin, Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn, indie rocker Phoebe Bridgers, art pop multi-instrumentalist Blood Orange and R&B rapper Dominic Fike. Others, like St. Vincent’s rework of “Women
Adrian Spinelli April 15, 2021Updated: April 15, 2021, 7:10 am
Zaytoven attends the PTSD Tour in Concert at the Tabernacle on March 11, 2020, in Atlanta. Photo: Prince Williams / Wireimage
Before Zaytoven was producing tracks for some of the biggest names in hip-hop, the Atlanta producer was a student at Galileo High School. Now the multiplatinum, Grammy-winning artist is one of the most well-respected figures in hip-hop and trap, and he credits his upbringing in San Francisco where he got his start making beats as the key to his career.
“Bay Area and S.F. music doesn’t sound like anything else,” he says. “In the Bay, we like what we like and don’t care about what anybody else thinks or what anybody else likes. That’s what makes S.F. so dope. … I carry that with me, and I think that’s what has helped me be so successful.”
Adrian Spinelli April 8, 2021
Vijay Iyer performs with Craig Taborn during Winter JazzFest on ECM Records stage at Le Poisson Rouge. Photo: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images, LightRocket via Getty Images
The Chronicle’s guide to notable new music.
NEW ALBUMS
Vijay Iyer Trio, “UnEasy” (ECM)
While the New York jazz pianist and composer’s projects have had many iterations, this is his first album leading a trio since 2015’s forcefully enacted “Break Stuff.” Joined by drummer Tyshawn Sorey and Linda May Han Oh on bass, “UnEasy” sees three players at the top of their game. Their connectivity is uncanny, finding harmony in avant-garde improvisations at every turn. Oh and Storey especially shine on a version of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day,” and Iyer is at his finest on the dazzling keys of “Configurations.”
Adrian Spinelli April 1, 2021
Flock of Dimes builds on Jenn Wasner’s 2016 solo debut with “Head of Roses.” Photo: Rick Kern , WireImage 2017
The Chronicle’s guide to notable new music.
NEW ALBUMS
Flock of Dimes, “Head of Roses” (Sub Pop)
The second release from Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak’s solo project beautifully builds on the foundation of her 2016 debut, “If You See Me, Say Yes.” Where her first album was an excellent singular effort, “Head of Roses” is co-produced with Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn and it’s the best material from the North Carolina artist’s prolific musical universe in years.
Adrian Spinelli March 14, 2021Updated: March 15, 2021, 10:50 pm
Fantastic Negrito talks with friends and family after learning of his Grammy win during a watch party for the 63rd Grammy Awards outside Store Front Records in Oakland. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
On the corner of 32nd Street and San Pablo Avenue in West Oakland, a small homeless encampment stretches along the edge of a parking lot of a building that used to be a seedy liquor store in the neighborhood where blues musician Xavier Dphrepaulezz, best known as Fantastic Negrito, grew up.
Today, that building now houses a recording studio and Dphrepaulezz’s new label, Storefront Records. And by noon Sunday, March 14, the parking lot was staged for a community-driven event with about 75 of the artist’s friends, family and industry colleagues plus Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf watching the 63rd Grammy Awards telecast with bated breath as the album, “Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?” earned D